Popular Tasting Notes
Whew, we are finally starting to dig ourselves out of all the backorders that have been piling up over the last month. We are down just to problem orders and should have everything out by Monday. I really just hate when we are behind, it adds this level of gnawing stress. I’m so relieved that it is almost over. Next week we are focusing on taxes and inventory but the following week I can’t wait for because that is when we start preparing and adding new teas to the website. We have about 20 new teas to be added over the next few months. The first one up will be Hello Sweetie since that has been getting a lot of requests to be put online. We have so many new flavor ideas. There are a number of new teas that are far along in the testing stage as well as some remakes of teas. Here is a sneak peak of a few flavors: Pecan Toffee, Mangoes & White Chocolate, Plum Brandy Cheesecake (to replace Plum Pudding), Exotic Chai, and Lemon French Macaron (custom blend contest winner). We have many other flavors too but those are top secret at the moment. We will be removing some other teas from the website as well. Recently, I’ve been thinking about removing Pumpkin Milkshake since that doesn’t seem to be receiving the best reviews.
It’s no secret that I am a big fan of Assams. We taste as many Assams as possible before deciding on a number of different Assams that have different flavor profiles. This is a second flush Assam and the reason that I fell in love with this one is the strong raw cacao notes. Mmmmmm. If you like dark, almost bitter chocolate, then this Assam is for you! It also has some oaky notes and the standard malty Assam notes. This tea is so chocolaty, that we must come up with a chocolate tea for it.
Flavors: Chocolate
Who needs chocolate cake when you can have some of this?
I’m not a dessert person, but I do love my chocolate!
To die for!!! This is all chocolate and crispy toasty rice.
I’ve been having cravings all day today. Now I am sated and satisfied…munching on dark chocolate and drinking this tea feels like I have everything I need tonight.
Sorry, I’ve got nothing else to describe here, that’s all I have!
I finally got to try this because TeaTiff sent me some. I asked Verdant if they were planning to make more when the Laoshan Black comes in and yes they are! So I’m happy.
Yummmm :)
MzPriss, too bad they keep,running out of Laoshan…it’s just too good!
Whatshesaid, Oh yah, yum factor very high here :-)
Whatshesaid, BTW weren’t you the one who told me about Lindt Madagascar dark chocolate? Well, guess what I’m eating now girl?
I can’t wait for it to come back, it is soooo yum!
MzPrizz I’m so glad you just mentioned that! I’ve been wondering if Verdant going to have any. I want to try it SO BAD
*was going to have any…forgot my verb, apparently
They’ve been out since I started looking for it. TeaFairy – I love LB! I’m waiting for some new.
Hmmmm – me thinks lots of us are waiting for this to get back in stock. LOL will need to be quick on the buy button and get some before it sells out. :))
I wish you could preorder the blends too…
Wait, wait, wait… a black tea with roasted rice?? I have only had it in green! This sounds so intriguing!
Sounds good!
I’m totally waiting for this…. It’s the only Verdant blend I’m really itching for right now… :P
vanilla.citrus.spice.
Bless my heart, I have Vanilla Citrus Spice on the way too
mzpriss – if you’ve never had it before…let it steep at least 5 mins. lol i usually do about 10mins haha
I agree with sil, the longer VCS steeps, the better!
@Sil – thanks! I haven’t ever had it before, and I generally like a longer steep anyway, so this is helpful :)
Oh Soba Cha!
So enticing I want to eat chunks of my mug, that how good it smells while I drink it.
Buckwheat pancakes, roasted grains, toasty cereals, it’s such a treat!
Ok, I pretty much NEVER add anything to my tea, not that there’s anything wrong with that, just not my preference.
But, this, THIS, with almond milk is like having a liquid bowl of your favourite cereals. Why don’t I make a giant pot of this instead of a cup?
My 4oz tin won’t last very long, I can tell you that!
I can’t ever thank my friend Dexter enough for introducing me to this wonderful tea from H&S :-)
This tea sounds fantastic! It’ll probably be a while until I order from Harney (I have a tea buying queue…) but I’ll definitely be grabbing some of this. :D
You are very welcome my friend. I totally agree with you – liquid bowl of cereal!!! A touch of sweet and a splash of milk and this just makes me HAPPY!!!
I need to try this one.
I feel the same way, MzPriss. Every time I see this reviewed I really want some.
OH MAN this sounds so magical.
That’s exactly what this is: a happy tea :-)
OK, any tea that inspires mug-biting has my attention!
It is totally mug-bite worthy gmahis!
Pro-tip: Keep an eye out for roasted buckwheat or “Kasha” at your healthfood store. It’s the same thing as this. I got 11 ounces from the bulk foods section for $2.50. :) They let you buy as little or much as you want :)
Thanks for the tip madametj, will look it up for sure :-)
its not the same. Groats of kasha are much larger. i have on hand both – kasha and tea. And buckwheat has a tendency to get spoiled without fridge.
http://www.recipetips.com/kitchen-tips/t—1009/grain-storage-guide.asp
Tastes the same
Soba cha is roasted buckwheat as a tea. Kasha is roasted buckwheat as a cereal.
Interesting idea, I could just pick some up at bulk food store and stick it in the fridge, good suggestion! Probably tastes the same anyhow, maybe just a bit less flavorful if the bits are bigger
I’m not sure where you guys are buying this, but I’ve looked and asked at several health food stores and bulk stores – haven’t been able to find anything roasted. I did buy some straight buckwheat, gave it a quick roast in the oven – that didn’t work very well. Will keep looking for it…..
I am so sad that I forgot to add a sample of this to my H&S order…
Yesterday, I’ve started a “purge”. Meaning, I am throwing tea in the trash. There, I’ve said it.
I know, I know, why trhow it, why not send it to someone who might want to have it?
Well see, there are rules to qualify for the purge…
1) must be a tea that’s been in the cupboard for over two years
2) the tea was given a fair chance. Meaning, it has been steeped at different temperatures, iced, cold brewed, even mixed with some other tea to tone it down. All have failed.
3) the fear of ever drinking it again must still be very present. I gag when I think of it.
4) I’ve asked someone to try it, and was later accused of homicidal intent.
5)I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
6) if I’d send it in a swap, I’d be reported to Steepster for tea malpractice and therefore, would be forced to close my account. Goodbye Fairy :-(
I tried really hard to give Sour Sap some love. Before I gave it a final farewell, I cold steeped it to comply with the list of rules. It failed…miserably.
Sour sap…there are no possible description for it. Sour bile maybe? That’s the closest to a “note” I can get.
Sorry, it just wasn’t meant to be…
R.I.P. Sour Sap. 06/19/2014
hahaha i’m the same way. There are rules to throwing out a tea..but it DOES have to happen sometimes.
Thanks sil for not judging :-)
It was good for something, it got me to look at Tea Sante’s website for the first time. :)
Haha! I enable even when I don’t want to…
FYI, They are located here in Quebec, Montreal. Good service, super fast shipping, but I was not super impressed with their teas. I haven’t tried many though, maybe you’ll be luckier than I was if you decide to give them a chance. :-)
If you ever want to try Montreal’s finest, here’s a link. Camellia Sinensis is the real deal, and one of the most beautiful and informative website I know (free shipping even in the USA!)
I’m familiar with Camellia Sinensis. One of my first tea education purchases was their book. I still refer to it on a regular basis. I do intend to try their teas someday.
That,s great. Yes, the book is really nice. I used to have tea in their shop often when I lived in Montreal. Wish I could take their tea classes, must be so interesting…
Does this mean that the icky apple one can’t be purged re not being 2 years old?
Lol, an addendum has been written for “icky apple” : must qualify for at least 5 of the 6 rules…I don’t think it will better itself with age…(IT’S NOT STAYING!!!)
I need to purge too! I’ve got a whole box of bagged teas I picked up at the grocery store and ended up not liking very much. I would feel bad sending them to people…they’re not good!
That’s exactly how I feel..I mean, I don’t want to swap my bad stuff to people, it wouldn’t be very nice. Sometimes, you just know it’s not a question of taste, it’s just BAD, that’s all!
(Nice new pic BTW mj :-))
Thanks, Tea Fairy :-). That’s me drinking butterbeer at Harry Potter World!
I’m pitching some old tea this weekend. I don’t feel bad – I wouldn’t want anyone else to have to drink it.
Haha, very cute!
mj1851 wasn’t it delicious?! I’m going back this fall, can’t wait to have some more Butterbeer :)
So dellicious, whatshesaid! I’m so jealous you’re going in the fall and you get to see the expansion and ride on the Hogwarts express!!!
Also, I have a recipe for butterbeer. It’s pretty much spot on, if you’re interested
I’d love to have that recipe!
And yes I’m super excited for the Hogwart’s Express and Diagon Alley :)
Here you go whatshesaid! It’s a total pain but fun to have every now and then
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByLDTxpzm4N2ZVRza1VJWFRpQ2c/edit?usp=sharing
I think your guidelines for trashing old and/or crappy teas are spot on! It doesn’t happen often, but I have occasionally sent a tea to the compost pile, where I feel it will be more useful than it has been in my cupboard.
So I wonder if sour sap tea is suppose to be soursop flavored?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soursop
Ooh thanks MJ!
I laughed…
really hard.
@Terri: Soursop…never heard of it but never heard of sour sap either so yeah, could be, good job on that one!
Arshness, glad it gave you a good laugh…but it only gave me a sour face!
Here I am again. I’m sorry I haven’t updated, but I also haven’t been drinking much in the way of tea, although that’s a lie because I have been drinking iced tea. No excuses.
Actually, I’m just hear to say that this tea is terrible iced. It tastes like strawberry yogurt milky water, and I never want to be made to feel I’m drinking watery yogurt. It’s ok though, because this used up my entire sample, so onwards and upwards, I guess. I’m going to be tossing what’s left in the pticher (which is pretty much all of it actually), but ’aint nobody got time for bad tea, I say.
carry on, folks. Let this week end.
You can’t know until you try it…or someone else tries it first!
I agree about bad tea. My friend drinks everything and says she just can’t throw away bad stuff. Thank goodness we do not have that problem. Life is too short!
Oh god I know. I keep reading about people who choke down awful sip down after awful sip down and I’m like waaaaahhh why are you doing this to yourself?!?!?!
just thinking about what that had to taste like makes me a bit queasy!
I agree about bad tea. Why force yourself to drink something you don’t like? If it was a pizza with something on it that you discovered you didn’t like, you’d pick that off too instead of forcing yourself to eat it, wouldn’t you? I don’t understand what the difference is. Out with it, either to the bin or to someone else.
Yes I totally agree. And people may think it’s wasteful, but I also think needlessly assaulting my tastebuds is wasting tastebud wattage on bad choices. Bad idea!
The wasteful argument doesn’t really fly with me. It’s also wasteful to force something down you don’t enjoy rather than give it to someone else who might enjoy it. And whether you toss it or struggle through it, the leaf is equally gone.
(deleted for editing and reposted)
Euck… watery yogurt drink. I’m glad you tossed that pitcher out.
(and yes… let this week end!)
“tastebud wattage” Hahahahah!!! I love it!
hahaha! yes, let this week be gone gone gone! also, ang, great argument about the leaves being equally gone.
I was considering trying to cold brew the rest of my sample. Thanks to you, I’ll pass! Yogurt water…blech
mj1851, I honestly don’t know how anyone could enjoy this one, but I suppose you just never know. It absolutely tastes like strawberry yogurt water, though. Maybe it’s better hot? or maybe you’ll cold brew it and fall in love LOL.
I’m down with all of the above, especially the ‘no time for bad tea’ comment! That made me smile! With as much tea as most of us have in our cupboards, why let something undesirable take up residency? I think that’s really one of my favorite things about samples & tea trades, that we get to try something & ask, “Do I really need to buy this?”
Usually for me the answer is no, although occasionally I find something hoardworthy, LOL.
I feel the same way, Terri HarpLady. I have found a couple that I’ve gone out to buy, but mostly I just enjoy trying the things in the boxes and whatnot and just go from there. (Then again, I’m about to place a huge Butiki order as soon as I hear back from Stacy, and there have been a couple of others lately that I am enjoying and I want more of.)
It works better made hot and iced, IMO. But I’ve only had it in-store.
I agree OMG – I just make it hot and let it cool – put it in the fridge. I think you need the hot water to “melt” the yogurt bits.
I did make it hot and then added ice…ah well, can’t please ’em all, I guess.
Now I want to try it again to see if I get the yogurt-water taste! :)
Not enough sleep last night. Must be the cat’s fault.
Running a little late this morning, about to leave, when that inner voice asks…
Do you have tea in your purse for work? Shrug, Dunno
Reach out and grab a random tin of black tea off the shelf and walk out the door.
An hour and a half later, letting a client vent about something that has nothing to do with us, I’m reaching into my purse for that tin of tea.
Some tea gets dumped into my infuser basket. Hang up with client.
Take basket to kitchen, add hot water, return to my desk. Answer 3 questions.
Crap forgot about my tea. Remove leaves. Take a sip….
AND THE WORLD STOPS
It’s like the stars aligned, the atmospheric pressure is perfect, the clouds part, and the sun shines through. I have the perfect cup of tea. Exactly what I’m in the mood for at the exact time that I need it the most.
I actually said out loud – What the hell am I drinking?
Co-workers look at you weird when you say things like that…. don’t care, I spent a few minutes basking in the moment, then went back to work.
This is easily in my top 5 favorite black teas. Amazing.
Haha darn cats! Mine ruined my sleep last night too lol..but this sounds like an amazing cup of tea. Love those star-aligning moments with tea haha, especially at work, because no one understands how tea can make you soo happy.
Priceless!
Blame it on a cat! I know why you couldn’t sleep. Spreadsheet! That’s why I refuse to make one.
I LOVE my new spread sheet!!! I’ll never look up a tea in my Steepster cupboard again. Looking for a fruit tisane to cold steep – it’ll show you just them. Looking for something to sip down – not problem. I can find anything in seconds. Really wish I had done this a year ago, then I would have that much more history (favorites, things to rebuy, what I thought of…) of all the teas I’ve tried. This was the best investment of my time.
The cat gets blamed for everything that goes wrong in my house…. ;))
I see. You are like my hubby. Whatever happens I’m responsible one. Kids got sick, bad grades, bad groceries, etc.
poor kitty
Lol. Love this review : -) you deserve your best teas all the time. And yay for awesome spreadsheet!
LOVE this note. Now I need to get some
What a great way to express how you felt while drinking this tea. I see that you are in Canada also. Where do you order your teas? Do you pay high shipping fees. Waiting to hear from you, I’m in Ottawa and used to work in Portage-la-Prairie for 4 yrs.
Hi Helene – I order tea from all over the world. Online shopping makes it possible to get almost anything from almost anywhere. There are tons of amazing tea vendors out there. Shipping can be very expensive or it can be free, depends on where you order from and how much you order.
What types of teas are you interested in? China blacks? Japanese green? Taiwan oolongs? Fun flavors? If you let me know what you are interested in, I might be able to recommend a vendor for you or point you to a forum thread on the subject. :))
I finally updates my cupboard. At the moment I have teas from TeaVivre. I received one box of tea samples from Tea Sparrow. Was expensive and I did not order another one. Then I order a box of tea samples from Amoda and did not renew. I find these monthly boxes get expensive. I like white, green, my family likes flavour teas. I am starting to drink black. Not a big fan because I love coffee. Do you know of any monthly box companies in Canada that are worth buying? Maybe you like the price of Amoda or Tea Sparrow. I think it’s expensive but I might be wrong. I will receive samples from TeaVivre soon. I like the quality of their teas. I want to explore more companies that does not charge us to much for shipping in Canada. Waiting to hear from you. Thanks in advance.
I think all subscription boxes are expensive, and then you end up with tea that isn’t your style. I would much prefer to order samples and try tea on my own – but that’s just me.
Teavivre is awesome, glad you found them. I would also check out Tealux:
http://www.tealux.ca/
Really nice straight teas – nice quality, reasonably priced, flat shipping $7.50 under 60.00 or free over 60.00. I find their flavored tea hit or miss, but the straight ones are really good.
Capital Tea Ltd.
http://www.capitaltea.com/shop/home.php?cat=6
Free shipping over 49.00 and they sell all their teas in 20g sample sizes. Great way to try a bunch for a little cost.
Camellia Sinensis:
http://camellia-sinensis.com/en/tea-store
Their tea is more expensive – more high end, but amazing. Free shipping over 50.00
Those three are Canadian Companies, that I really like.
I also LOVE, LOVE, LOVE – favorite source of pu’erh – but nice oolong and teaware. Mandala:
https://shopmandalatea.com/
Shipping is 9.00 flat to Canada – they are out of Minnesota – my favorite tea store.
That should get you started – if you would like more info, please follow me and shoot me a PM.
Dexter: I will have a look at the different sites and will probably place an order soon. This whole tea experience is addictive. I prefer to pay a bit more for more high end tea. At the moment I have the budget because I saved. I am following you. If I have more questions I will send you a PM. Thanks for the help and great info. I think my saved money might dissolved soon in a cup of tea :)
The best advice I can give you is SMALL Samples – try lots of different teas, by swapping or buying samples. As you explores your tastes will change, you’ll find tea you like better, don’t buy large quantities until you know for sure what you LOVE and what you don’t. :))
I’ll echo Dexter here. Small samples! Or you’ll end up with 250+ teas way faster than you think possible, kinda like we have. :)
When you say buy small samples you mean the smaller pack of a tea. Per example a White Tea on Mandala is $8 for 1 ounce. Is that what you call a sample? If so that it not cheap if I want to try a lot of samples.
White tea is expensive and Mandala is high end. Tealux has 1oz/25g white teas from $4.50. The only straight white at Davids is 14.50/50g – smallest amount you can buy online….
Usually is anywhete from 10-25g as the smallest size. Sometimes you can get < 10. Some companies sell these as intro packets is Mandalas is listed under sale items and right now it is only for shou but it is $9 Canadian including shipping for Canadians https://shopmandalatea.com/sale-items/ripe-puerh-sampler-pack.html, Verdant has a 5 for 5 deal that is 11 for us. Sometimes you have to search for sizes ie at Capital tea Ltd. The default size is 100g but when you click on this a menu comes up with available sizes. Prices from under 2 and up for the sample depending on the company and the tea.
I guess I have expensive taste because I like White Tea. At least I know now how to order tea online. Now I’ll have to chose a company and start from there.
Helene Tao Tea leaf had 5g samples some under 2$ for white tea.
http://www.taotealeaf.com/white/
I might order some, great price on white teas. Hopefully they are good.
I’ve only had some of his blacks but they so far have been really good!
5g will not last long :)
First, I’d like to thank Eco-Cha for giving me the opportunity to be one of the 10 lucky people to get a free yixing clay pot on their recent giveaway. I got my order today with such a lovely little pot! Came in a nice box, all wrapped in a pretty asian style red towel.
I am already brewing one of their tea in it tonight.
I did not know what to expect from this award winning Dong Ding. If anything, award winning won’t necessarily make me like a tea.
I do a quick rinse. This is heavily roasted so I’m expecting some big char notes, and this is pretty much what I get on steep one. Nothing special, just very roasted.
Then…vavavoom! Whoa, fruit! I get a mango mouthful. Yes I know, it’s not really supposed to be there, but that’s what I get! And it’s not subtle, I get that even from the wet leaf.
But that’s not it, this tea is kind sweet and savoury. It’s paired with creamy butternut squash…and roasted root vegetables.
Wow, it is so fragrant, every time I open the pot, I get tropical mango wafts.
As expected, it produced many steeps, but of course, I never count when I get caught up in the moment.
This tea was expensive, but totally worth the bucks.
My first Eco-Cha experience, and I am quite impressed. Quality in every possible way, with an impeccable presentation.
Thank you!
Pics of the order and session:
Flavors: Butternut Squash, Mango, Roasted
That pot is precious
Isn’t it? I’m very pleased!
Sounds lovely. And where did you get that gorgeous little blue cup, dearest?
Ebay darling. Inexpensive, but it looks like a $50 cup!
I love it!
Yeah I love that cup way much
You want the link? It’s still available
There, there
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/301120126594?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
Thank you for the morn porn.
My pleasure marzi.
Teaware porn in the AM!
Yeah, that makes me a teaware porn star…
I am so jealous for the teapot ! :)
;-)
Wow I will look for mango in my next cup :-). I think the tea is soooo worth the money. Enjoy your baby teapot!
Lovely!
Mmmmmm mango
LOL TTF, you are totally a teaware porn star. Sarsonator too ;)
this makes me wish that I drank oolong…..
I used mine this morning. :)
Yay for a free yixing, & it’s adorable, as they always are! I also love the cup :)
Thank you Oh! Mighty creator of this blend.
My lullaby tea.
I was thinking today about choosing ONE favourite tea from WP… And the winner is…….at least 10 of them!!!
I just can’t make up my mind…but this sleeping beauty is certainly one of them.
It smells like a forest, tastes like the rain, feels like a cloud. It’s a hugger.
That’s why I like to drink it at night, so calming and soothing.
This tea is a light in the dark…
Here’s a pic:
The different tea every day, think of the problems of different, the tea will be with you a beautiful life
Thank you Shutao for your wise words :-)
Now I want to see your light fixture!
Haha me too Marzipan!
i want to try this one sometime heh
Wait for next month’s harvest, Sil…It’s going to be AMAZINNNG!
this is the one that sells out like day one right? I’m travelling so not sure how easy it’s going to be for me to stay on top of that..
Yep yep. I could reserve an ounce for you :)
With so many truly exceptional teas in your cupboard and so many wonderful Steepester friends, I hope the only darkness is when your sleeping.
Lol, marzi and mj: try a simple flashlight ;-)
WP, it’s ALWAYS amazing to me, but I don enjoy the difference between harvests every months :-)
looseTman, thank you, what a nice and thoughtful thing to say <3
WP, I meant “I DO enjoy the different harvests”
Brendan – I’d love that
Sil, I really think you will love this one…
I’ve marked you down for one ounce, Sil! :-)
awesome. Did you want me to PM or email you so you have my info etc? CLEARLY i’ll be adding more to my order than that haha
Nah, I have a list pinned to the fridge for tea to reserve, so when the 1st rolls around, you’ll be guaranteed to have one ounce. I’ll send you a PM at that time to let you know how to order it. Generally I update inventory based on the reservations when an item comes back into stock. For instance, if there’s 16oz available but 6oz reserved, I update the inventory so reflect 10oz, and when someone that has reserved buys their 1oz, I bump the inventory back up to 10oz. Basically unless it’s all sold out by the time you place your order, you’d just add it as usual. Otherwise I’d set up a 3-letter custom order code for you to use here: www.whisperingpinestea.com/custom.html
It’s a pretty flawless and awesome system that’s easy on everyone involved :-)
Day 10 of Steepster’s disaster…
I know not many will read this. But I still have to give some love to my favourite teas.
This is one of them.
Drinking this makes all the wrongs right.
Ok…it won’t fix Steepster. But that’s about the only thing it won’t fix!
Mmmm….salty caramel. I don’t really like you for real, you’re too sweet and sticky. But in my cup of tea? Yes please!
Can’t believe how a straight tea can render such decadent notes.
Aila and I… Foreverrr!
I’m reading… :)
Oh! Hi terri, I miss ya :-)
Steepster will be back…eventually…and in the mean time, we’ll get it in little spurts.
Me too;)
Hello friends :-)
Yay dashboard updated today
Has it already been 10 days…?
This tea sounds good.
Get better soon, Steepster!
Magic! It’s Hobbit Magic
It’s totally magi!!
(Magic)
Magi could have brought the Magic I suppose. I also missed you Terri <3
Like pretty much every Sunday mornings, I’m drinking GO in bed, “giant mug style”.
That’s right….Sunday mornings are not for tiny Vanilla Dreams pot. No. On Sunday, big is better.
Cause I just can’t get enough of this liquid chocolate tea. Yes, gooey fudgy vanilla tea of my dreams. GIMME MORE!!
Miaow cup for a miaow tea :
The way you spell “miaow” is adorable :)
I enjoyed sharing morning GO with you. I’m seasoning another VD pot RIGHT NOW and I’m also adding my big fat vanilla bean.
MJ, in Denmark the cows say “miav”
Cats!
The cows say “muh”
Cute mug!
“Miav” and “muh”, that’s hilarious Mazipan!
Mj, that’s the “fairy way” :-)
Haha! Marzi, that WAS funny!!
Tealizzy, thank you :-)
Brenden, I always wondered if french cats wore a beret… now I know!!!
Cute mug. I can’t wait to try this tea. It’ll happen one of these days.
MzPriss, I love that you’re adding a vanilla bean for seasoning your pot. Great idea!
Missy…I ALWAYS enjoy sharing with you…and ALWAYS will <3
Which other pot did you end up choosing for it?
French cats are apparently also existential: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q34z5dCmC4M
mj, that’s awesome. Thanks for sharing.
I’m going to use my slightly bigger one with an awesome pour. It’s in one of the pics on my flickr or tumbler or one of those things. It’s the same Eternal Beauty shape but it’s the darkest, biggest one.
@Cheri – that was Brenden’s idea (like a lot of the good ideas are). It’s gonna be amazing. Cheri, didn’t I offer to send you something? I’m packing boxes now so remind me what it was?
Love the French cat video. Thanks mj.
OH wait! It’s GO right??? I will PM
Aawww poor kitty – no one loves the poor French kitty… I think that’s how Max feels most of the time…
This is what it’s like to be married to someone with a different mother tongue than you. You spend lots of time lazing around going, “What do you call Tigger? What do cows say? What do you call Canada?” (Tigger is “Tiger Animal”)
Thanks MzPriss. It might have been GO. I can’t remember for sure anymore. Hahhaha! But you’re right about Brenden and his good ideas. I look forward to hearing how the pot turns out.
woow gd
This is my 100th tasting note! I’ve been drinking plenty of tea, but I haven’t made a formal note on them because I was saving #100 for something meaningful to me. The very first what I call “real” (not grocery store tea bags) teas that I fell passionately in love with were Mandala teas. Garret was my first tea-pusher. I realize “tea-pusher” sounds a bit questionable and unromantic for the ever so charming and graceful Garret. But I mean it in the most affectionate way possible. Good tea is like the very best kind of addictive drug and dealing with Garret is an addicting experience: beautiful tea made possible by a soulful, ethical company. I will be a lifelong Mandala customer.
I’ve mentioned drinking my Dark Beauty cocktail many times and have had a few requests to add it to the database, so violà! (that was for you TeaFairy).
You won’t find “Dark Beauty” when you go visit Garret at the Mandala site because it’s a concoction of two of my very favorite teas – two great tastes that taste great together if you will. Dark Beauty is a blend of Special Dark Loose Ripe Pu’er and the sweet, mildly chocolate Black Beauty.
Both of the teas are spectacular on their own. I have Special Dark either alone or in this mixture pretty much every morning of my life. Special Dark is very different from most ripe pu’er – there is no leather that I detect, just a deep smooth bass note of heavy chocolate goodness. Black Beauty isn’t a bug bitten tea, but it has those very sweet lychee-honey notes that good bug bitten tea has.
Here’s how I make it: I take a 16 ounce cup or teapot, I put a scant tablespoon of Special Dark in whichever infuser basket I’m using. At this point, once you’ve boiled your water, you can give the SD a quick rinse if you wish. I usually don’t bother because it doesn’t seem necessary to me for this tea – sorry tea careful tea-crafters, sorry about that. I steep the SD in 16 ounces of 212 water for 3 minutes. Then I add a big pinch of the Black Beauty, give it a stir and steep for another 3 minutes.
UPDATED to add the new, lazy, awesome method. I’ve been losing patience with what I call The Dark Beauty Two-Step, so it’s time to make it simple. Now, I’m putting both teas in at the same time (and skewing the ratio slightly more to the Black Beauty side), pouring in the water and steeping it all at the same time for 4 minutes. Works a treat and less fuss If you’re a DB fan, try it this way and let me know what you think.
Yes, that is a LONG time to steep. No, it never gets bitter or astringent. It yields the deepest, darkest cup of sweet comforting awesome you can imagine. Earthy and chocolate with an undertone of caramel lurking back there, especially noticeable as it cools a little and a lilt of the floral-lychee bit from the Black Beauty at the top.
When I’m feeling particularly indulgent, I go Terri-style with this and add a little maple syrup and on occasion, a little bit of milk or almond milk. I have insomnia and lots of stress. This is the tea equivalent to me of the heavy, snuggly quilt my great-grandmother made that I cocooned myself in as a child. This is my pure comfort tea. When I drink this, I hear pretty much everything these guys ever sang: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nedEEL37Lvw
I’ve never had anything from Mandala, but this tea sounds like it would be quite the experience. Congrats on your 100th note!
Happy 100 :)
:) thanks y’all. Christina – Mandala is all the awesome. I especially love their pu’ers
woohoo! grats on 100 notes!
That blend sounds amazing!
Making this tonight. I specifically bought Black Beauty so I could try this!!!!!
<3
You’re super! I just adore you AND your lovely tasting notes! Have a wonderful day, HoneyBelle!!!!
Stupid steepster… That said You’re super!!!
And it had a heart. Steepster hates hearts!!!
<3
Awwwww thanks for the <3 Sars. I adore you right back and I think you will love Dark Beauty.
Congrats on 100!!!
Dark Beauty recipe is going to go on our site soon, if that’s alright with you, Mz Priss! Naturally, I’ll credit you as the contributor. We are changing up the site over the next few months and I think this will go on the blog that I just started there and also in a recipes section. Great stuff, the Dark Beauty!!
I’m making mine now!!!! Wooo hoo!!!! 30 secs left!
And the verdict, Ms Sarsonator?
Reminds me of my Nana. But probably not why someone might think. LOL. I just posted my review. Yay!
@Garret – of course it’s alright with me – I’m glad you like it. It’s my happy place, as Sars would say: Of Happiness.
Yep. That’s exactly what I would say! I think you really did a great job with this one, HoneyBelle!
Thanks hon. I’m enjoying my Jabber, thinking about what to put on a tortilla for dinner
Beans and hummus?
Veggies and hummus?
Veggies and SPICY hummus?
I have both of those things. Good idea, and maybe a cup of Black Beauty w/o SD since my Jabber is allll gone
I need to try the Black Beauty on it’s own. Maybe I will do that for tomorrow’s AM tea. I got excited and went right for your blend. :)
I love BB. It tastes bug bitten like an OB, but it’s not. It’s yummy
Oh, what a lovely review! You make everyone want to try this beauty cocktail…and guess what? I just got my black beauty in the mail, so tonight is the night!
Haha! And thanks for “violà” much appreciated :-)
Congrats on your 100th tasting note! Creating your own “Special” Mandala cocktail is an awesome way to celebrate #100! MzPriss, your truly an original!
Thanks looseTman – I hope you enjoy it if you try it :)
I love the new Lazy DB!!! Great idea ;-)
Lazy DB FTW!!! I am on my 2nd steep at 6 min. Still good!
MzPriss, You’ll have to add a just-brewed image to complete the database description of your original chocolaty cocktail!
Oh, oh, look! A new Mandala pu’erh!!
Ok, I’ve never had this one before. So I took my glass gongfu pot and decided that we were going to have our first date together.
Woah! This tea is not the shy type. It is bold an it’s taking charge.
Rich and creamy, with leather and barn notes.
I wish you could smell the wet leaves. They smell like a big pile of damp oak and maple leaves in the fall. It’s a scent of the forest and the outdoors, just can’t get enough of it.
It’s super flavourful, reminds me of Special Dark a lot but not as chocolaty and a little sweeter.
It gets richer and creamier as I steep it. I like the nuttiness in the background that develops, it’s a little hazel-nutty.
At the fourth steep, I forgot to poor…the water stayed in for almost 15 minutes. There’s a good 7g of tea in a tiny 5oz pot, but it didn’t get too strong or astringent.
I’m so happy I took advantage of the sale to hoard it!
There will be many other dates with this one, and I can’t wait :-)
It’s a yummy one allright, I live Special Dark and Noble Mark more but I love this one a lot.
Tea hoarder!
this is one of my favourites
It really is something special…I just haven’t come across a shou pu’erh from Mandala that I don’t like!
(I admit to tea hoarding, look at my cup-hoard!!!!)
LMAP @ cup-hoard. I just got the Old Nuggets for the firat time, I need to get those out and try them
Thanks for the Imperial Dark / Special Dark comparison.
“It gets richer and creamier as I steep it. I like the nuttiness in the background that develops, it’s a little hazel-nutty.” – Sounds intriguing!
I went to read my note – couldnt find. Oops, Steepster ate it. Again.
(Why did I not send you some of this? Bad Dex!!!)
I thought this was Special Dark’s little brother – but I still don’t understand the leather thing….
Did I get old nuggets? Can’t remember lol, we’ll see when “hoard-er” #3 comes in!!
LooseTman, there’s already a large sample in your box…lol, will have to send you that box one of these days…but I keep waiting for stuff to arrive. I should mail it early next week, will let you know :-)
Boychik, I know right? Where do they go, do they expire or something? Maybe there’s a steepster note cemetery somewhere that we are unaware of…
Dexter, Special Dark’s little brother is exactly that! And you did not HAVE to send me any, silly. (i will have 8oz of it, buzz me if YOU want any!!)
“… there’s already a large sample in your box…lol,”
TheTeaFairy, You’re too kind! :-D (No rush, whenever it’s convenient.)
“Oops, Steepster ate it. Again.”
boychik, It’s very time-inefficient when that happens and aggravating too! Life is too short! I now compose my notes in Word and then cut and paste them into Steepster.
looseTman, good idea. I remember I had that discussion with other Steepsterers what if ….I don’t want to mention, don’t want to jinx it. We need a back up. My hubby is database administrator. Programs crush all the time:(((
I got my free samples this week and why not start sampling tonight!
Using the full sample in a 6oz gaiwan.
Well…hello beautiful.
Talk about a full cup of yum.
This is everything I like about a high mountain oolong…and more.
The elements I’m really digging are usually the floral, spicy and minty aspects, and I get them all here. Nice florals that might be a little more perfumed then what I’m used to, but really, I can’t name the flowers cause it’s none of the ones I’m used to find in greener oolongs, which are orchids and lilacs.
The usual spiciness which translates into nutmeg for me is also there, and so is that fresh mouthfeel I get at the end of the sip.
What’s really different about this oolong is its fruitiness. It so full of fruits, it almost tastes tropical to me. The fact that it’s also creamy makes me think of Pina Colada. I also get grapes and apple notes.
There’s a certain bite to it also, a briskness. I wouldn’t say it’s bitter, but it’s a tad astringent. Nothing offensive though, makes the flavours pop even more.
I have many more steeps to come, and might finish it with a cold brew.
I am very impressed with this first sample.
Thank you so much Green Terrace Teas for this opportunity.
I know, at one point I really tasted pins colada. I normally get gardenia, in green Oolong’s. A scent I only know well, because we used to have a lovely mature bush at a house we had when I lived further south from here. The scent is spicy and intoxicating. I got lilac on this one ironically as it reminded me of this huge bush around the corner from me. I loved the fruit notes in this one.
It really is interesting, I like it a lot! I don’t even think I know what gardenias smell like, but I envy you for having had some near by :-)
I can’t find the thread, but I remember reading something about getting 20% off for reviewing their teas, do you know how it works, do I just send an email when my three reviews are done?
The instructions were on the card the sent. I think they want us to post our reviews on their site.
Ahhh! That’s it!!! Thanks, it must still be in the envelope, silly me :-)
I need to write about this one yet, but this was so nice! I couldn’t believe how smooth and strong the flavors were.
I just ordered my samples – I don’t know why I didn’t see it earlier.
Teatiff, I drink loads of green oolong and this one is truly different…can’t wait to read your review.
MzPriss, I will let you know when I see promo stuff from now on :-)
Have you guys requested your $6 gift card from Teavivre?
I did not know about Teavivre – I can always use some more Bailin GF. I will go check their site
Apparently I was not quick enough and the gift cards are all gone – oh well, they are doing other stuff later
Shout, so sorry you missed it :-(
HHHHMMMmmmmmmmm……
Did you miss it also DEX? If so, I haven’t been a good tea friend, so sorry :-(
No I got one – I got an email about it from them (I seem to be signed up to a gazillion newslwtters). I was just pondering a comment here.
Haha! Think I know which one…oops.
I got this one too! Can’t wait to try it. ^^
(I thought we weren’t ordering more tea….)
Warning, opinionated post, read at your own risk!
Today I am feeling frustrated and opinionated. Mostly because many of my clients seem like they have lost their minds. It’s the equivalent of asking, “What color is the sky” and them answering, “Giraffe.” It makes me wonder if I am speaking in tongues!
So anyway, I want you all to know that I read each and every review that comes up on my feed. I rarely “like” them, because the damn heart is so tiny and I most often read them on my iPad. I invariably hit something next to the heart and lose my place. Why can’t they make the heart huge?
So this morning I woke up and was lying in bed reading Roswell Strange’s many reviews, and it occurred to me that I enjoy reading them far more than many of the (official) bloggers (not all, don’t get your panties in a wad) whose posts I also see. Roswell’s posts are so funny/quirky/interesting, and I have two daughters about her age so I guess I relate to them in a way, but I really do enjoy reading every one of them, beginning to end. But many of the bloggers write huge long posts that really don’t say anything. /rant off, and good job Roswell Strange.
So I picked this tea (thank you Stephanie for the sample) because I had had it before and knew I would like it, and this morning I didn’t feel like gambling.
In other news, you know I run a company, and that makes us plenty of money and keeps me plenty busy, but because I’m a FREAK I always have to have things going on on the side. You probably don’t know that I own an online bookstore that has a few thousand books. And, I recently bought a bulk lot of 60 handbags to sell on ebay. Just because. They’re inexpensive Chinese made ones, but some of them are cute, and I’m sure someone will like them.
So there you go.
I’m not a blogger, but I think I may be guilty of the long posts that don’t say anything crime. Sorry Marzipan! QQ
I haven’t noticed it with you! But if I am being totally honest, every time I think “Cameron means crooked nose” because my nephew is named that, and we looked it up. (sorry!)
Just don’t read the ones that aren’t interesting to you. Problem solved. ;-)
That’s what ends up happening.
Sometimes I kind of balk when I see ye olde wall of text coming at me, but I usually try to read everything anyway. I need to learn to shorten my own notes as well. :P
Giraffe!
I skip a lot of stuff. Some people treat Steepster like their own personal diary and I just don’t have the time to read it all.
Like me on this post!
Lol… well I wasn’t talking about you necessarily. But I am following 400 people so I get a lot of posts.
I feel you on those hearts! I always have to pinch and zoom and pinch and zoom until the hearts big enough and even then I accidentally click something else sometimes. And I’m on my iPhone most of the times so it’s real tiny, lol.
And I am so guilty of using the tasting notes like a diary. I do a lot of thinking while drinking (who am I kidding? I do a lot of thinking all the time. Pretty much everyone I know thinks I talk to much but they should hear how much is going on in my head. If I didn’t talk too much I’m pretty sure my head would explode from all the thoughts), and sometimes my thoughts spill out into my tasting notes.
I’m guilty of bad tea log posts. Sometimes I have a lot of detail about the tea and nothing about life, and sometimes it’s all about life and “oh this tea was good.” I like knowing about my tea friends and what is going on in their life. I hope that the people that follow me feel the same way about me.
I understand completely about people just not listening and understanding what one is asking them and giving an answer that doesn’t have anything to do with the question. I’m dealing with that sort of thing right now at work. So I’m letting it sit and I’ll get back to it when I feel like asking again.
I actually really like the personal posts. I just hate the ones that use 1000 words to say “the tea was astringent”
My next note is going to be the word “astringent” 1000 times.
Haha!
Aww, thanks for the super kind words Marzipan! I am definitely one of those people who writes massive walls of text about non tea related things (sorry not sorry), but I do always try to include some tea related stuff as well as keep a balance between long and short notes. Hopefully my essay long posts don’t annoy everyone though. (I also typically only write the long ass notes for teas I’ve already reviewed several times).
Roswell, your long notes are usually more about personal story which is much easier to read than a wall of text about all tea. I like reading your notes too, they have a lot of personality. :)
You have a book store too? Dang! I sometimes skim notes, or if I’m really busy I might miss out on reading notes for a couple of days completely. I usually find time on my breaks at work to read most of the notes in my feed during the week though :)
Long story, but my brother used to buy big lots of books and sell them for fun. He got really sick (Crohns) so I took them over. You’re welcome to come look through! I would love to sell through them and be done with it.
I love the personal stories along with the tasting notes. :) People have such varied and interesting lives. I agree that some of the notes can be too long but I usually skim those. I only follow about 90 people and not everyone posts everyday. I find it pretty manageable at my level.
I like giving likes so I still like the notes I like even though I don’t like how small the like button is.
Uh??? Ok, what I’m saying is I think most people like getting likes on their notes, so I try to do it as long as i do like the note. But I so agree that it’s a pain, way too small with the ipad!!
I like both diary notes and tea notes, and I’m guilty for writing both! I do realize i must be boring as hell sometimes, but I don’t analyze what and how I’m gonna write a note, I just feel the moment :-)
I love how different everyone is, we all have our distinctive style, makes things interesting and fun :-)
I just love you guys!!!
Personally, I do like getting likes on my notes. But I’ve tried to like notes on my iPhone and it’s almost impossible, so I understand that. Has anyone asked for a bigger like button in that suggestion thread? It seems like that wouldn’t be crazy hard to accomplish, but what do I know. I agree that I like both personal and tea notes, but my favorites, I think, are a mix of both :-)
Also, I think TheTeaFairy wins nicest person on Steepster. She’s always so positive!
Agree, she is adorable.
A lot of times I skim the long ones but I do like everything I skim – because it’s nice to get likes and because it helps me keep track of where I am in the Steepster day. :) It seems like my likes don’t stick very often though – if I don’t click on it just right (and this is even with a laptop, not a phone), it dumps me back up at the top of the screen and none of the hearts are red. So if even if it doesn’t “take”, I do like posts. :)
And I generally like a mix of tea and personal. When I am buying a tea or can’t figure out if I’m nuts for tasting smoke in something, I go directly to the tea and scroll through reviews. So not sticking to just tea reviewing doesn’t bother me. :)
I’m not hating on the personal notes as sometimes I do those too, I just can’t keep up with all of it/them.
I almost wish there were two kinds of posts. Sometimes I want to post things to my tea friends that have nothing to do with tea.
I love the notes
Awww, that really made my day mj and Marzipan, I am humbled by your kind words :-) :-) :-)
Marzipan, I know what you mean…but did you know you can PM as many people as you want at once? You can have a group chat that way…but you probably know that already…
I could… But I don’t know for sure who is interested. :)
Oh! Book store! Can you link to it?
I think this will take you there, they are all on Amazon.
http://tinyurl.com/phddoz4
I just slipped this into our sample section for those of you that want to try before buying. To buy it by the ounce, though, you’ll have to wait until the 1st! :)
http://whisperingpinestea.com/samples.html
Having a cup now since I love it so much. Always hits the spot with that salted caramel note :D
Enjoy!
You guys would add that after I already ordered a sample pack xD Well whenever I put in a real order anyway I plan on ordering that…but still xD
Same here, Ost. I’m now considering a second sample pack… Hm…
Haha, Ost, well it just now arrived! :) Are you order #139?
You could just trust me that it’s awesome and wait… ;)
YOU DO SAMPLES? places order right now
Yay! This was the tea I was waiting for to make a full blown order. I just ordered a sample pack to try a few others before ordering as well.
Yay! This was the tea I was waiting for to make a full blown order. I just ordered a sample pack to try a few others before ordering as well.
I was surprised at the number of people who didn’t know that you offer samples when I posted about receiving them in the mail. You need to add them to your front page or something!
Aww booo one of the ones I want to try is sold out. I wait :)
That’s a good idea, Cameron! I’ll have to figure something out. Maybe make one of my banner images about samples. :)
Sorry this wasn’t in when you placed your sample order today, TeaTiff! Hope you enjoy your samples though! :D
Which tea are you looking at, Stephanie? I can get you an ETA for most of my out of stock teas :)
I want to try one with pine needles in it! :D
Heh, am I order #139? I don’t remember. xD Probably? I ordered two sample packs. The free shipping got me on that one…I love free shipping. xD
Stephanie, from what I could tell they don’t offer everything as a sample. There were some that I wanted to try that were in-stock but just weren’t on the sample list. I was assuming they were teas that they have limited stock or sell out of fast.
Ahhh don’t we all :) Well, let me tell you…I harvest the pine once a month and the stock is very limited. So on July 1st, the moment the newsletter goes out, probably around 10-12 ounces of The Sleeping Bear will be available. Once it’s gone, you’ll have to wait until August harvest to get another chance :)
Ost, yes, we all love free shipping I think! It’s free after $50 on regular orders in the states, after $75 in Canada.
And yes, Cameron is right, we only offer 10 samples and they are all based on availability. Many of our teas, we just don’t have enough inventory to offer samples.
I’ll remember to look for it the first of the month then…thanks!
I can definitely understand that. Luckily for me, most of the ones I’m interested in are fairly inexpensive. :D
No worries, Stephanie! :)
Cameron, I’m glad you like our prices! :)
Brendan is like the Rene Redzepi of the tea world :)
That is a HUGE compliment, Marzipan, and I plan to continue striving for excellence and createavity :D
Yay, let’s get some more Ailaoshan Love :-)
Ack it auto corrected your name wrong :(
Ahh no worries :) I must spend less time on here or I’ll end up spilling the beans on new secret blends. I’m terrible at keeping secrets as long as I plan to. Lol
AAAAHHHH I didn’t know about the samples! I just ordered some :-)
:) Yay! I’ll have that sent out tomorrow :)
This just decided me on the first tea of the morning. I love this one!
Mmmm I might have to have this one this morning too!
Just finished mine. Managed to not lick the inside of the cup when it was empty. I had a cup of coffee :O first but I NEEDED tea. This particular tea.
:) I just had a weird moment when I thought about this tea, I could smell it. Need to make this right now!
NEED more! :)
After the success of the cold brewed lemon chiffon yesterday, I decided to cold brew lime chiffon. The result is I prefer lime chiffon hot and lemon chiffon cold. I am not sure why but that is my finding. Though this is still very flavorful and delicious, I find the lime shines a bit more when it is hot versus the lemon of lemon chiffon which sticks out in the cold brew.
In other news, I have been spending copious amounts of time on amazon and other sites for a week now looking for a shiny new kettle to replace the ghetto one I am using currently (and I mean ghetto – it doesn’t even have an on/off switch let alone a temperature gauge). I figure for the amount of tea I drink, it is worth it for me to spend some money on a kettle that will help me enjoy it all. Plus, I spend so much money on tea anyways, I might as well brew it properly. So I am wondering what your experience/opinions/thoughts are on different kettles? Which ones are you guys happy to have and which should I avoid?
Preparation
I love my Breville variable temp kettle to bits, but I got my mom one by Kitchen Aid that seems to work quite nicely and was much more reasonable in cost. The one we have at work, a Cuisine Art programmable, had such an irritating beep that one fellow disconnected the wire to it lol, also the controls were not as easy to use and kind of annoying. Oh and it leaks water now haha. There’s my humble variable temp kettle assessment :)
I think I was looking at the breville but it did not have a feature where you could set your own temperatures. I might be mistaken but I thought it was all preset. I will definitely be avoiding the cuisine art one.
I just got the Adagio kettle utiliTEA. So far I like it.
I have an Oster that I bought half price at Canadian Tire. It doesn’t have good review, but I’ve had no problems at all. I like that it’s not preset black, green etc. I can choose any temp I want in 5 degree increments. LOL what I don’t like is that it DOESN’T beep – when it reaches temp it just turns off. I forget, don’t notice and have to reheat water quite often. I would like the annoying beep.
It was a good price on sale, and I figured even if it did break or leak in a few months, I would have decided if I want to invest in a really good one. So far so good, I’m happy with it.
@Teabrat – What do you like about it? Do you have anything you dislike? Also Adagio has the VarieTEA kettle which I had to use a lot of willpower to resist given the name. In other news, I realized I misspelled my name but we will just go with it.
@Dexter – I think I am hoping to get a kettle that has a keep warm setting which I am guessing the Oster doesn’t have? I will definitely look into it though.
My Breville One Touch (http://www.amazon.com/Breville-BTM800XL-One-Touch-Tea-Maker/dp/B003LNOPSG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1390978336&sr=8-2&keywords=breville+tea) lets me set any temperature I want, as well as pre-sets, which makes it easy when there’s zero indication as to how to brew a tea. The only thing I can complain about is that it’s a bit tricky to clean, and I have to make at least 500mL of tea at a time. It is pricey though. I did just just a standard $50 kettle from London Drugs for a while prior until it burned out.
I have been so close to buying a one touch for months MissB. Alas, even with the amount I drink, I can’t bring myself to justify the price. My mother has offered a few times but it is just too pricey for me to feel comfortable with her buying it.
Plus I like to make multiple different teas at a time so that has also stopped my from going with a kettle that you brew the tea in.
My kettle does have keep warm….maintains set temp for up to 30 minutes. I don’t use it, but it has it.
Model Number BVSTKTVT01-033
Thanks Dexter!! I am definitely bookmarking this for later!
Mine is a T-Fal Thermovision, it has 160F, 175, 185, 195 and boil. 30 min keep warm for everything but boil (although you can set to 195, and boil, and it’ll boil then keep it at 195). I got it for $50 at Canadian Tire. It beeps. :) I don’t mind the beeping, it’s not as loud as my microwave.
I was looking at this one: http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-40996-Programmable-1-7-Liter/dp/B0083I7THI. It is the Hamilton Beach kettle if anyone has experience with that?
That has a lot of features for that price…I don’t have wake up hot water feature…. I don’t know anything about it, but for the price – it might be worth a try.
That’s what I thought. The only problem is when I go on Canadian sites the price goes up to about $70. I think I might give in though and just send it to my Dad in LA to send up here.
Regarding the utiliTEA, I like the fact that it’s stainless steel. It heats water up quickly but the one annoying thing is that there are no numbers on the temperature gauge, you have a setting for green tea and one for black but if you’re any good at math you can figure out what temps go in between that, lol. It has an auo shut off but doesn’t beep or anything when the water is done. Still for the price I think it’s decent.
I don’t have that particular HB kettle but I did get another for Christmas that has been working great for me (http://www.londondrugs.com/Hamilton-Beach-1.7L-Digital-Kettle—-Stainless-Steel—-41000/L7691330,default,pd.html?start=18&q=kettles%20%26%20tea%20makers) It doesn’t have the wakeup feature but other than that they sound pretty similar (and it’s available in Canada :))
The one thing I found when looking for “programmable” kettles is that you have to watch out for the ones that are programmed I had to return the original kettle I received because I could only use the 5 “programmed” temperatures :( The box even said programmable, but it lied…
Oh! I have the same kettle as Kirlika, and I love it! It heats up nicely, it doesn’t beep or buzz (which might be bad if you want to know w hen the water is ready, but good when you want steatlh tea in the middle of the night like I do), and it has a lot of variety for setting the temperature. I think it’s about 6 different settings for F and C each (it goes up by 10’s, and if you switch between F and C you should be able to find the temperature you want).
It keeps it warm for an hour too, unless you tell it not too.
I assume mine is the same (http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/hamilton-beach-hamilton-beach-pro-1-7l-kettle-41000-stainless-steel-41000/10261214.aspx?path=537c8ee81299072574239dbe620d6b35en02) this says it’s the pro, but it looks similar. I grabbed it for $45 when it was on sale in December.
The Breville is pricey, and I find I end up using it more to keep water hot (for an hour), to time my steepings (because I also do several cups at a time), and auto-set temperatures. When I do want to brew say two cups of tea though, it really is amazing, and hard for me to mess up a tea that way – a big plus for me! :$
I see some really great alternatives here though, I’d try those first if price is a concern. Just make sure wherever you do get it from, you can return it if need be.
Also, for the US shipping, there are companies just across the border that will accept packages on your behalf; all you’d need is an excursion with a friend one weekend to walk over the border and get them.
Luckily my dad lives in LA so I can ship to him and he ships it up to me. And though I can afford the Breville, I just keep thinking of how much tea I could buy if I get a cheaper kettle :P. I have seriously considered it many times though.
I have considered the Breville many times myself!
Good luck choosing! I think one thing I don’t like about the Breville is that you brew tea right in it – I don’t think I’d use that. What if I make Hot Cinnamon Spice? Will it corrupt the next few teas I make, no matter how hard I try to clean it out? Also, I don’t want to clean my kettle/teamaker. I guess I like things simple.
Oh my gosh. i read roswell strange’s tasting note on this yesterday and realized it had been ages since I’ve had this. For some crazy reason unbeknownst to me, I somehow thought I was getting over this tea, but this morning’s cup was a resounding reminder that this indeed was not the case. I nearly gasped out loud after I took my first sip, and quickly pushed the cup toward Mr. Keychange to have a sip.
“My gosh!” he exclaimed, “What flavour is this one?”
“Aha!” I exclaimed on Stacey’s behalf, “it isn’t flavoured! this is just the great Taiwanese wild mountain black! doesn’t it taste like waffles?”
“Wow, so the tea just tastes like that?”
Which is exactly my own awe at this tea. I don’t know if there’s any left to order, but I sure hope there is, as I’ll be topping up very soon. Mmm. Creamy, honeyed waffle deliciousness, with the signature taste of black tea aftertaste. I seriously don’t know what was stopping me from having this more often!
Preparation
My utmost sads on your account concerning the Violet tea. <3
Oh, I know. I’m legitimately grieving that one.
I hoped you stocked up. Plus it might come back!
Ha ha ha… I had to re read the first sentence because at first I thought there was a strange tasting note I haven’t read yet.
Waffles! That’s a great description.
LOL! and anna, I hope and hope it’ll come back, but who knows. :(. And I’m definitely stocking up.
Oh is it out of Rostock again?
It’s in stock silly….
We still have plenty of the TWMB in stock. The Rose Violent Calendula is the one that is out of stock.
errr, Violet not violent.
Now I want some ‘Violent’ oolong \m/ ;)
I want violent tea also!!
I am laughing so hard at this…
I don’t know that I would want a tea with the word “violent” in it as in violently ill but I am now picturing some tea bushes robbing people at knife point.
Everything about this note and its ensuing comments amuses me.
Hahaha! Tea bushes robbing people. These comments are awesome. It works so well with this post I found http://funsubstance.com/fun/49946/violently-inserts-title/
I would be totally down with grappling with a tea bush, as long as it wasn’t too rough and if I could steel some buds to then turn into more rvc! mmm teabush!
lmao!!! Revenge of the tea bush.
These comments!! (Dying of laughter!)
love you guys..
I keep forgetting this is a herbal and that’s half of why i picked up 4oz of this…because i love it and it’s missing the tea! :) I had a giant mug of this to make up for neglecting it while taking a wonderful bath tonight. While this IS similar in profile to vanilla citrus spice in some ways, it’s also got a bit of a kick to it that makes it different enough to make me happy and tasty enough to satisfy me..or something like that. Maybe the woozle ate my thought.
I’m determined to get my hands on this one one day.
Good luck :)
Verdant is determined to get your order, Yvonne. :D
Hey Yvonne – you can log into Verdant’s website and sign up to their loyalty program. If you keep at it long enough you can earn a $10 coupon. It’s well worth it, and for us Canadians, it makes a Verdant order much easier to justify. Also, at $40 they have free shipping to Canada.
Ahhhh thank you so much Cavo! ♥
And Verdant will eventually get my order, they can count on that!
They upped it to $49! I just placed an order last week.
They did up it, I also ordered. :$ I’m excited to get my first Verdant order.. I think my only complaint is that I see all you folks trying amazing teas from them that I’d love to try, however many are sold out or unavailable. Boo.
Yeah. I hear you MissB! I’m sitting on my coupon!
That sucks about the shipping, but I guess it makes sense. $50 is more the standard.
I’ll have to get some more of this on my next Verdant order
What?! That really sucks. I had $40 to do an order with them, $50 is pushing it. I’ll have to check what’s in stock Monday, and maybe get CrowKettle some stuff too.
I was a little thrown too OMGsrsly. It doesn’t seem like a lot but I also had $40 planned and I wasn’t keen to spend that extra bit.
Just popping into say that tea while taking a bath sounds like a vacation in your bathroom. Perfect!
missb – is there anything in my cupboard that they don’t carry anymore that you want to try? if so, let me know.
KEYCHANGE! where you been! :)
Taking a tea bath, obviously. A very LONG bath. With several cups of tea consumed
hahahaha
I’m not really sure what possessed me to buy an entire tin of a white tea. But i did. I think i was carried away with that whole FAUCHON! at winners! stupidly cheap prices! GO! so now i have a huge tin of this. And i don’t really like white teas…
but this tea? I like it! so ha! I couldn’t drink this everyday but it’s certainly a tasty tea. Creamy vanilla delicious tea with a splash of “wake up! it’s lemon!” :) Yep…i will enjoy this, though it may take me the whole year to drink it.
I had this tin in my hand when I was buying fauchon and then put it back for the same reason. I don’t drink much white tea. I regret not getting it to even try it, but oh well
If it’s white tea, what is the quality of the leaves? Whole or mostly broken?
more whole than broken? :)
I may have to swap you for some :) this sounds perfect for my 4am early morning shifts :)
i’m open to that. I like new teas…just won’t be organised to be doing a swap until January but poke me then for sure!
(tuscanteal – offer is open to you as well if you just want to be able to try it)
…and uh peter too if that’s what you were after when inquiring about the leaves lol
The leaves, the leaves, look at the leaves. (Little Britain :-) I was just curious. Not my cup at all.
haha :)
Awesome! Ha ha I’m in the same boat! January is perfect! Yay I can’t wait!
You can also toss a bit in my box :)
terri – this is one of the teas that will all be part of the christmas BBB Box from me haha
(i said whatever to that whole non flavoured because it’s spiffy christmas holiday time!)
(Hey, we can do whatever we want…it’s our box, right?)
This is SO GOOD as a cold brew. So. Good.
I need more.
i just ordered some! they’ve got a bonkers sale on!!!
w00t! Always good to find a reasonable priced herbal to cold brew it up.
Yeah, I’m buying 100g. Most of my cold brew standbys have strawberries and oranges, and I’m avoiding those for a few weeks. :)
free shipping at expedited too!!! yay!!!!!
i’m grabbing some japanese tea: some hojicha among others =0) SO EXCITING!!!
I’m getting 100g this and 50g almond marzipan rooibos. Haha. $11, and they ship for free. Yeah!
cough….. i might not have been as conservative. lol. but still, budget watching always. and i do need to cut my caffeine down, so i grabbed 3 herbals and this was one of them!
I have Too Many Teas, James. Too Many.
215 ish isn’t thy bad :)
Sil, I haven’t tracked how many I have. I think it’s closer to 250/260…
i don’t even have 100…. and i try very hard to sipdown or i have a hard time looking at my wife, lol. my tastes change a fair bit too… and if they change then i hand off to fellow students who are more poor than me, lol.
Damnit, James, now I’ve been surfing their site. Those are some killer deals!
=0)))
I have SO MANY SAMPLES. People are so generous, and it takes 3-4 cups to drink the whole thing down.
okay, maybe that’s cheating on my part? i do not count swap samples among my supply. mostly because i wouldn’t share them, lol. nope.
Yeah, I have about 100 samples. Still going through them, trying them, tossing some in a (new) box for my brother. Oh Sil, he LOVES the Wild Purple Buds Puerh from Butiki.
Samples don’t count? I don’t have to count samples?
What’s this sale I’ve been hearing about?
http://zentealife.com/ , Dexter… End of season sale.
MYSELF i do not count samples. i have a huge mug i use (16 oz) so a sample is often only 1 cup. i only list if i’m going to share, otherwise it makes me look like a jerk. OMGsrsly…. such a temptress, lmao, and to dexter who’s been drinking. not nice! =0D
I’m learning from the best cough James and MissB cough. I add them because I like the random tea generator. :) It helps me make up my mind!
I was kidding, I CANNOT buy more tea. I bought a bunch from Zen during the BF extravaganza. Those are still in the box amongst several other boxes in a pile that I haven’t really even looked at yet. (Still I’m wondering why I didn’t buy any of this blueberry in that order…..?)
rules are rules dexter, i have 200g coming. i can ship some off np.
Heh. Dexter, I just sent you a HUGE box of tea – you too JustJames! I also add all of my samples/swaps into my stash, for the same reason as OMGsrlsy. Love the random tea generator!
Also, fellow Vancouverites, did you see this? http://zentealife.com/tea-quiz
no fair!!!
oh…. and i do not use the tea generator. i am a stick in the mud. =0P
Huh. I hadn’t seen that. Oh well! I’ve tried almost everything now. :)
MissB – that box is the reason I’m not allowed to buy more tea. I really need to find cupboard space for it and all my other BF orders that are still just lying around. Hmmmm buy new house?
Texas has been in a drought for quite a while now. It has been dry and sad. A few years ago, Texas caught on fire. I wish really hard for rain all the time.
This afternoon on my way home from work, I stopped at my local herb shop for some additional dried elderberries because of Northern Sweet Tea (ask Brenden). The shop is in a small stone house in a neighborhood and is a magical little place. In addition to herbs, they have tea and teaware. I got my elderberries and a darling little tea mug with infuser in a delicious green.
Just as I walked out of the shop it began to rain slowly at first but with great fat drops that increased in speed and decreased in size. I stood on the sidewalk and let the rain pour down on me for about 10 minutes. I’ve missed it so much.
As soon as I got home, I washed my new mug and brewed 2 teaspoons of this dainty looking little tea in 12 ounces of 180 degree water for 1.5 minutes. Now, I’m not a huge fan of green tea. It has to be right. I was not surprised to find that this tea is very, very right.
TeaFairy called it a lullaby and I agree. It would send you off to sweet dream land. But I can also imagine this iced on a brutally hot August day in Texas when it’s 109 and I’m in need of sweet cool salvation. The combination of sweet clean green tea with wildcrafted pine needles and a delicate jasmine is perfectly balanced. None of the ingredients overpower the others. Too often jasmine tea takes up your whole mouth-space with JASMINE – not this, it’s sweet and tastes like pure floral rain after a long dry spell. ADORE!
Brenden sent this tea as a sample a while back. I’ve been ignoring it in favor of all the other delicious tea I have. The other night I read a note on it by TheTeaFairy. It reminded me I needed to try it. Another new WPTC addiction.
And here’s the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N1DdwrsdTo (heh :)
Flavors: Jasmine, Pine
Preparation
Love that you just stood in the rain…I do that to. I’m really glad you got some.
And this tea is fantastic…
I love the rain – and we got big thunder too – it was AWESOME!
I’m in PA and we had huge thunderstorm for more than 2 hrs. I’m sure it’s flooded in some areas. At some moments it felt like it was right above my house. And electricity went off several times.
Every time I want to order this blend its out of stock. I want to place a big order by Fall cause some blends just meant for it.
I love those kinds of storms boychik – the big bangs right on top of you :) I’ve missed those. I will be ordering some of this as well.
@boychik, there’s 4 ounces in right now from the July pine harvest :)
Very tempting…
@MzPriss, I miss those southern thunderstorms! They are few and far between here north of the wall (GoT reference). Also, this tea is perfectly balanced? Totally shocked (need sarcasm font!)
I try to reduce the balance on some teas just for the fun of it ;)
@Brenden – I woke up and had Northern Sweet Tea first thing. It’s a glass-licker.
Lol, totally glass-licker. Can’t wait for my elderberries :-)
I can’t wait until your WP box gets there either!
:) Don’t you love it?!
Yes I do! And I was going to link to your recipe on my blog – but, ahem, it isn’t up on your site yet.
Me too, can’t wait!!!! Have you tried the you know what???
No. I’m totally waiting for you.
Haha! You are so cute :-)
What I AM going to do today though is make 2 quarts of the Northern Sweet Tea. It was amazing o wake up to. I want some all weekend.
I’m out of maple syrup :’(
:O oh no!
Fedexing you a few litres now. No one should ever be without maple syrup, ever!!! :-(
You guys crack me up. :)
Speaking of crack – this Ailaoshan Black is pretty crack-y
I want to try it!
Sarsonator, join the party :-)
Yep, Ailaoshan made a junkie out of me….
@Sarsonator – check your PM missy
PM checked!
And now I’m looking around my house to figure out what I can sell in order to feed my tea habit…
i sold the kids and then the grand-kids for tea money and now….anybody need a cat?
that was dual-purpose mrmopar – now you have room for more cakes
Ok. It’s 2:30am.
Do I want more tea? Pfff, of course I do.
I want Bi Luo Chun Yunnan Black. I can have it if I want to. I still have a little bit left and I’m expecting more soon.
Cause ya know…I’m kind of addicted to a certain tea co. that makes delicious tea.
(That’s his fault, the Tea Whiz of the Woods).
So it all started the day I bought WP BLCYB. I like this type of tea, I have supplies from other brands.
So now, BLC from WP, why should I make YOU my BLC of choice, the one and only, the absolute best I’m now going to keep in stock and make me say farewell to the others?
I’m already addicted to several other little friends of yours. Ailaoshan Black, Golden Orchid, Port, and now Elderwood… You should know that technicaly , I don’t really need you…
…But, but… I WANT you!!! You taste so good, damn it!
I see myself writing the following, and I quote «This is like having candy».
Uh??? But, I don’t like candies all that much…so what does it mean?
It means that this tea is MUCH better than candy…that’s all.
There. That was my review.
If you really want to know how it tastes like, see previous notes ;-)
3:40 am here. I was hoarding my last little bit of this. But I have more coming, so I"m having this as middle of the night tea as well in solidarity. It’s sooo good
I haven’t yet placed an order with or tried many of Brendan’s teas….I really need to not order tea after the house things we need to replace… You are making it had to resist!
Are you sure you girls aren’t musicians?? Hahaha
Hard to believe, but I actually went to bed before midnight for once!
Sil, I was thinking of ordering samples, & sharing them with you :)
I gotta have something to put in your next box!
Not musciains (well I’M not anyway) we just don’t sleep much. @Sil – WP is pretty excellent and once you get started – it’s a slippery slippery slope…
Terri – I’m pretty sure you have about 300 teas that you could put in the box LOL We overspent by picking up the couch and chair this month so i’ve got to be good and try to save money until we get back. I was thinking of trying to not buy any tea in July…which in a way is the suck because it’s my birthday month lol
MzPriss, your 3:40 was already 4:40 here, I was getting my beauty rest, at last…otherwise, I would have been your tea-body of the night (or early morning?)
Sil…ORDER!!!!!! JUST DO IT, DO IT, DO IT!!! :-)
I’m a musician wannabe, I know it’s in my genes, but it’s been hiding for a loooong time…doest that count Terri?
I agree MzPriss….SLIPPERY!!! I keep falling :-)We’re falling together. It’s hard to mind it though when we get to drink such great tea
I swear, I don’t pay these two! :-P
MzPriss, you’re right, I was never this happy to spend my money :-) plus it’s making me decide on stuff in my stash I realize I just don’t want anymore…why have that if I can have this???
Haha! That last comment of mine does sound like an infomercial…sorry about that!
AND NO, WE DON’T GET PAID TO HAVE THIS AWESOME TEA EVERYDAY AND TRY TO TELL THE WORLD ABOUT IT !!!!
haha Brendon – the few that i’ve had from you via swaps have been nice. Now i just have to wait for a sale or something so that i can take money from my “clothes fund” to place an order lol
Brenden – maybe you should start paying them commission, hehehe
They’ve sold me on several teas so far!!!
Sil, if you can’t order in July I’ll just send you an extra awesome birthday present box. You’ll be drooling over it, looking around suspiciously, & whispering, “My precious…”
You should pay them! lol
Awesome good tea, i want some now :)
WHAT THETEAFAIRY SAID!
@Sil – I would send a birthday box to Canada…
And also, like TTF – I find myself getting rid of tea that I don’t LOVE as much as the things I LOVE
A sale? Hmm…well, Sil, you might find it useful to know that I offer the 15% off coupon code “sip-inspiration” to all first-time customers :)
This is mighty good.
I’m inaugurating a new bright yellow and blue Gaiwan, I love it!
I don’t drink Dancong as much as I should. I like them only Gongfu style. They are so full of nuances and surprises, I find it all gets lost in a large cup.
This one is super fruity. Roasted bittersweet citrus notes are the stars here, at least during the first 3 steeps.
Have you ever grilled Ruby Red grapefruits on the BBQ? You caramelize them slowly and brush them with honey. They get sweeter, but they remain bitter at the same time. This is what is tastes like.
The taste lingers and lingers…
Then it gets more roasty and woodsy, I get incense and sandalwood notes, that’s even more present in the scent than in the taste itself. It also becomes spicier and richer, but the finish is a nice floral. Told you it was full of surprises!
It also gets sweeter, my lips tastes like honey after each sips…(it’s not my lip gloss, not wearing any!)
I made up my mind, this is the dark oolong I’m choosing to season one of my yixing pots this week end…
It is totally worthy!
Nice! Have fun with seasoning!
This sounds lovely.
Mmmmm Dancong my fave
This sounds good…as does the grapefruit on the grill. Just honey? Direct or indirect heat?
Thanks boychik, I’m sure it’ll be fun :-)
The tea is really good, and it steeps forever!!
Cheri, I cut them in half, and brush them with just a little coconut oil, then I put them face down on the grill, indirect heat. When they are well caramelized, I glaze them with honey face up otherwise it would stick all over your grill. It’s a quick dessert when you have people over during summer and it makes you look really smart even though it’s so easy! I serve them now with Terri’s coconut whipped cream instead of vanilla ice cream. yum, I think I’m gonna make some now, lol!
TTF, that sounds amazing and pretty easy. Thanks!
Yummo
Oh, and the same with pineapples, also delish!!
I need some pics of this new gaiwan :)
Beautiful description, & so spot on! I need to have a session with this tea, it’s been awhile.
I almost made coconut whip cream today. I picked blackberries, & really wanted to use my almond flour pancake recipe to make little shortcakes, with the berries & whipped cream, but I didn’t really have time to do all that, so I ended up just eating them instead.
Thanks Terri..and that cream is so NOM!!! My CocoTerriWhip :-)
Haha! Here it is just for you Sarsonator…
https://www.flickr.com/photos/laafeevertee/14322089098/in/photostream
Lovely!!!! It’s so pretty!
I would like to add that I discovered grilled watermelon this year and it is fabulous as well. Especially if you use it in a caprese salad with mozzarella basil and a little balsamic omg!!
Grilled peaches sprinkled with brown sugar and apples the same way are nice too.
And figs! Grilled figs – also with the coconut whip or with vanilla ice cream.
New gaiwan??? Oh! Pretty! It’s other Mandala one besides the pink one right? I oogled it too :)
I have some of this tea too. Maybe tomorrow morning. I had kind if forgotten about it.
Lol, i love how these threads turn into food fest! Great suggestions everyone :-)
mzPriss, I came so close to buy the pink one!
Beautiful Gaiwan!
Grilled watermelon…never even considered that! I have several sugar babies in my garden, so I might have to give it a try, although I can’t have the mozzarella, but I have some kickass balsamic!
Stephanie, that sounds amazing.
I was just gonna sit with this tea , enjoy it and be happy.
But it has put a spell on me and I feel compelled to write another review.
Ever since I’ve been using my Vanilla Dream yixing pot, this tea keeps getting better and better. Having this gives me the same warming feeling a good quality sheng does. Yes, it’s as rewarding. Any sceptical tea purists in the house? Well let me tell you how much you are missing on if you’re a non believer. This tea is a “whoa” inducer, goes straight to your senses.
This blend is innovative and completely unique. It almost creates a new flavour that doesn’t exist, making it almost impossible to describe. Sweet, savoury, salty, spicy, but not quite umami. The vanilla bean renders a rich and heavy mouthfeel. To make things even more complex, a fresh eucalyptus finish emerges at the end of the sip…mix that with the minerals of the clay pot, and you get a taste that lingers in the mouth forever, just like any good oolong or sheng pu’erh would. Complexity at its best…
Although I don’t drink much heavy liquor, I would compare Port to a fine aged whisky…something you can’t put a price on cause every time you drink it, you feel lucky you got the chance to experience such a gem.
The vanilla yixing makes all those Vanilla Dreams teas so much better and they are already amazing to start with. I’m not having vanilla this morning (yet) I’m having an excellent post-Dark Beauty cup of Jabberwocky
Great review! It made me think of this song haha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwXai-sgM-s
The Jabber really “wocks” missy, as I like to say :-)
Lol, Mj, good call and thanks, and I always loooved that song!! Have you ever heard the Nina Simone’s version?
O. M. G.
Nina Simone is just amazing! I love her so!!!!!!!
That’s right sarsy, Nina simone is a queen and I worship her…
Just one more reason that you’re so awesome… The list keeps growing…
I will have port one of these days. Brenden recommended I not go for port just yet, and thought I’d like cocoa amore better (LOVE IT!) although I did decide to go with jabberwocky this morning when I was debating between the two.
Sars, I love that one.
There’s an amazing remix with Nina’s vocals and an upbeat track. It’s amazeballs. I couldn’t find it on the YouTube. :(
OMGeeee! Found it!!!
http://val.fm/feeling-good-joe-claussell-remix-nina-simone-mp3/
I’d never heard of Nina Simone before today. Thanks for introducing me, ladies :)
No picture today!
Cheri, I think I understand why Brenden told you to start with some other VD tea. It’s so different from any other tea I have ever tried, it kind of surprised me the first time I had it.
And yo, cocoa amore!!!
The remix is awesome Sarsy, thanks for sharing!
Mj, So happy this made you discover Nina!Sinnerman is the most popular remix I think…it played in movies and commercials, maybe you’ve heard it without even knowing it was her voice…
Lol, Christeana, I thought I’d give you a break of my pics. But I drank some amazing tea this morning and will review with pics later :-)
Yes please!
Oooo, Plum Brandy Cheesecake!
Great news! And I freaking need this Assam something fierce.
Ahhh, right up my alley this new assam… I would really like to see your take on a Cheery-Chocolate tea. I can never seem to find the right one, I’m always disapointed in them. If someone can do it, it’s you!
Lol, I meant “cherry” of course…that could be the name though, Cheery Chocolate Cherry ;-)
Sil-Indeed! :)
teaqueen-I love the flavoring for this tea, just trying to find it the perfect base tea. This will probably be a black tea.
Fjellrev-Glad to hear that this is great news! It’s soooo good and great for satisfying chocolate cravings.
TheTeaFairy-Glad to hear that. I’m not sure how I feel about tackling a cherry flavor. I’m scared it will end up tasting like cough syrup, which I have a strong aversion to, though I have been searching around for dried cherries. So maybe it is time.
A vegan white chocolate tea?!?! That’s so exciting!!!
Tea Pet-Indeed, it is a vegan white chocolate. We already tasted a bunch of white chocolate and have our favorite chips picked out.
The only problem with the Pumpkin Milkshake is that Doke Rolling Thunder does not make for a good base tea. I keep meaning to put this in a tasting note and never getting around to it, so I may as well make the case here. I’ve got both Pumpkin Milkshake and Pumpkin Milkshake 2.0 in my cabinet and they taste totally different. The 2.0 tastes a whole lot more like the Rolling Thunder version of Carrot Cake than the original version of Pumpkin Milkshake. Rolling Thunder is a great tea, but it just don’t hold flavor as well as other teas do. All of which is to say, pretty please don’t permanently pull Pumpkin Milkshake! It’s a great blend, especially for fall. It just needs a different base. Or, ideally, to go back to the original base.
Pecan Toffe … Sounds yummy!
I had been wondering which submission won the contest! There were some good suggestions for sure!
i’m super excited for the pecan toffee…
Oh yeah +1 for the pecan toffee!
LOL…just when I’ve made my 1st order with Butiki!
Woooohooo new teas soon!!!
I was checking the site today wondering where Butiki was! I can’t wait to see what blends you’ve come up with!
Mmmmmmm….yummy!
Kaylee-Have you tried our Pumpkin Creme Brulee? If so, do you think the Pumpkin Milkshake is different enough that warrants its own blend? The Castleton was a fantastic base for the Pumpkin Milkshake. Maybe we will just sell out of the Doke RT version and take off the Pumpkin Milkshake until the next Castleton harvest.
Suziqzer-Thanks! :)
Dustin-Absolutely, there were some fantastic submissions. We are considering on working on a few of the submissions.
Sil-Awesome! That was a tea we had made for Amoda and was my favorite of the blends we submitted, but the Nutmeg Cream ended up winning out.
Kaylee-Glad to see pecan toffee receiving a lot of love!
Lynxiebrat-Well, all of the teas will be taking time to come out slowly. :)
Stephanie-I’m so excited about the new teas!
Tea Sipper-Thanks! :)
Amariel-I think these new teas will be a great addition to our collection! :)
I have tried the Pumpkin Creme Brulee (thanks Stephanie!). It’s quite tasty, but I’m biased against it because it is a black tea and I can’t generally drink black tea without ending up in pain. I looked back at my tasting notes for Pumpkin Creme Brulee and apparently I thought that a Milkshake/Creme Brulee hybrid would be awesome. So I gather that I found them distinct but complementary. I’d be interested to know what others think! If I had to pick only one I’d go for the Milkshake, but again I’m biased. The answer might just lie in comparing sales of each tea within the time frame that the original Milkshake blend was available. I definitely support the idea of waiting to make more until the next Castleton harvest though. Much as I love it, the Milkshake is definitely more of a fall tea anyway.
So what type of base will the Pecan Toffee have?