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Apparently it’s amazing when combined with the Strawberry Lemonade herbal. I haven’t had it, but a friend of mine sampled it in the store and loved the combo!

One day I shall purchase from you Teavana! Haha, I believe Strawberry Lemonade is on my list =]

Phew! Dude, you scared me. I was just getting used to enjoying your reviews!

I can’t wait to try this, I got it a few weeks ago, but have to finish other stuff first…did you order peanut butter chai?

Haha, sorry! I won’t be disappearing, don’t worry!

Nope, didn’t order peanut butter chai. I just made my huge samovar order a few weeks ago and moneys quickly depleting. I have to finish up more tea before I make another order.

I know the feeling, I was hoping to get the peanut butter chai, but alas funds are down, oh well, maybe they’ll still have some later on.

Hahahaha, buffalo grass? WEIRD. I have yet to try Kusmi.

Ricky, have you seen the Tea & Honey Store in Grand Central? They have Les Palais De Thes, Kusmi, Rishi, Tavalon, and quite a few others, I think. Plus gourmet honey! GO NOW.

You are evil….. last time you sent me off to Columbus Circle! And I would of left with something if the lines weren’t super duper long!

It’s not the soybeans in this I’m scared of, it’s the rice. I’d love a plain soybean green tea dusted w/ matcha:)

I think the toasty-ness is getting to me. I use to love it, but the smell is starting to be too much. Umm so apparently greens aren’t suppose to be drank before / during a meal or after. I guess it’s suppose to be when you have something in your stomach but an hour or two after? I’ll have to try that next time.

I’ve been drinking this all day and I’m super bored of it. Onto my eight infusion. It’s still kicking strong.

The good thing about pu erh is I typically make small cups (normally 3oz) since I don’t want a crap load of caffeine so I can get thru the infusions faster.

Ooh, this actually makes me want to try pu erh.

Cofftea, someone on the discussion board said that pu erhs are pretty much caffeine free, so happy sipping! :)

I’m sure they’re quite knowledgeable but it seems every resource has conflicting info about caffeine. It’s not just a caffeine issue. 12 infusions at 2oz each go faster than ones at 6 so I can move on to something else quicker and not get bored. I hate tossing leaves just because I’m bored or sick of them.

That seems like a smart way to avoid wasting the leaves :) are the little cups stronger than the larger cups? or could you possibly get even more infusions if you did small “normal strength” cups? I’m looking to trying pu erh, so I’m trying to learn more about how to steep it!

I’ve been making mine about 6oz, but yes, 2oz ones would definitely go quicker. Anyways, Bana’s little instructions go something like 10sec,20sec,30sec,40sec,1min,2min, yeah I’m going to stop typing now. As for the caffeine levels, I think it varies. Some contain as much as black, some contains as much as whites. Luckily I’m feeling sleepy, so I know the caffeine is wearing off. I was definitely a lot more alert earlier in the day. I would think a smaller cup is more concentrated. More water same steep time = you’re diluting it. I think $10 for 7 samples isn’t a bad deal. I mean each one lasts about 10 infusions if you really want to drink it for that long. I’ve been on this all day. It’s starting to finally fade. So you are getting about 7 cents a cup of tea.

Shanti, Carolyn gave me great advice for preparing pu erh. For both cooked and raw pu erh (not sure if this would apply to a nest, I’ve only had loose and cake):

1g of leaf per oz of water
Pour the appropriate amount of boiling water over the leaves (I use just below boiling as someone said boiling water kills the health benefits), let steep 15 sec and decant. This is your rinse, discard this infusion.
Pour more water over the leaves steeping 20 sec this time before decanting. This is your 1st drinkable infusion. Continue to steep for 20 sec til you find the flavor too weak for your taste then increase by 10 sec.

So to answer your question, no the litte cups are not stronger. It’s like making 1 cup of green tea vs a 24oz pot. The flavor doesn’t change, just the amount does. …All this talk of pu erh makes me want some!

Haha, ahh yes, it really does depend on the amount of leaves you use. I was thinking of a normal cup. I used the whole packet 7g of leaves for 6oz of water =]

Thank you cofftea! I’m going to bookmark this :)

Yeah when I get this I’ll probably split the samples into 2, 2, and 3oz cups. The only thing about small cups is you need to save that kinda tea for when you have a lot of time to make tea. Making a new infusion (even a 20 sec steep) every 2oz (it doesn’t take me long to drink 2oz of tea) is quite time consuming. Maybe not the best tea choice for work when you’re being paid to do something other than make and drink tea lol.

And here I was thinking of bringing this tea to work, hahahah. I think I just wanted to finish it off so I wouldn’t have to drink a whole day of pu-erh again. That might be why I’m always hesitant in starting one.

Nice recmomendations, Carolyn/Cofftea. My attempt with Maiden’s had me steeping for…gosh, I don’t know. A few minutes, anyway. Maybe I should back the steep time down and try again. I don’t know if that would change the flavor much, but maybe it’d back the intensity down. Thanks for the rundown!

sophistre, I’ve found treating a cooked pu erh like a black tea (~5min) is completely revolting to my personal taste but I don’t mijnd the shorter steep w/ more leaf… and I would enjoy even more if I enjoyed black teas. I wonder if the difference is as drastic to other people’s taste buds.

I love how you list the weight of both the bag and tea, when I measure the weight of a sample I factor out the weight of the bag/tin 1st only mentioning the weight of the tea itself.

Well, I thought it would be silly to empty out the contents so the first thing I did was weight the whole sampler. Now I know that the plastic is 2.4g so I can just subtract it off the rest of my samplers. It was a fun tea, very delicious. Now if I paid $6, I could of purchased a small tin. There’s always next time.

I just ordered some Samovar samples as well. I am worried that I am seriously overextending myself on samples. At least they’re just samples. Lol. On another note, what’s your favorite Rooibos? I’m just getting to know them and looking for a suggestion that would be a sort of Rooibos defining experience.

Count me in on the Rooibos thing too. I’ve only had a few but they’re a great substitute for black tea when I can’t get milk.

Well I’ve only had Adagio and Lupicia’s Rooibos other than this one. Oh yeah and Tazo’s Vanilla Rooibos which was my first Rooibos ever. I hear that everyone love’s Art of Tea’s Caramelized Pear. Cheating a little I like 52teas’ Pina Colada, but it’s a honeybush.

sounds similar to teavana’s earl grey creme, which also has the cornflowers, and sometimes seems soo perfumy that it turns my stomach.

I second you on the ratings slider. I basically “guess” when I write my tasting note, then have to go to my ratings, sort high to low, and determine whether my shot-in-the-dark rating is accurate compared to the other teas I’ve rated. I almost always end up adjusting it by at least a few points!

That might of been it. It’s strange, I just couldn’t take this one today. I’ll have to try it some other time. Then again I didn’t really eat that much before having it. Hmmm, no I had lunch then I had this. Strange, strange. Yeah, I’ve been counting… the highest rating that shows up is 83. So I count each increment. It’s not fun =/

Mike do something =] I’ll treat ya to some tea ;) McNultys?

It’s four hours after your post and I hope your electrics are back in order! Though I have to admit, it’s kind of fun hearing about all you East Coasters get the snow while I sit here in Minnesota chilly but with clear skies! PS- I could have sworn I was following you already!?!?!?

Haha, I thought you were too. Shrugs. Yep, they restored it and now I’m cozy again (yay my heats back) and I can resume drinking tea =]

Aww, I’m jealous. Then again I think I would be disappointed if it didn’t snow often.

Never taunt elements or technology. I swear when I yell at my computer, it crashes the first chance it gets. I made the mistake of making a remark about the black clouds in the sky today and I was tortured by tsunami force waves on the freeway coming back from San Francisco today.

Teavana’s teas tend to be pretty complex! I like them, but they’re soooo pricey :(

I don’t have a Teavana near by, but I think it’s a good thing. I’m a sucker for blends, I think I would go broke in one of those stores. Then I think if I walked into any tea store I’d go broke. I can’t go in without coming out with something.

It’s always the photos of the tea blends on their website that gets to me … aren’t they gorgeous?

Haha, it is, and it looks just as amazing in real life. Almond pieces, red little flakes (not sure what those were), tea leaves. I’m impressed.

That figures that Narcisse, the monster that he is, caused all that trouble I think I am beginning to like that tea even more now. LOL So that is what lapsang smells like? Wow. Huh… I will have to test that tea in combat next underway. Might be funny to out stink some of the men with a cup of tea. :)

No tea tonight BTW its pina colada night!

Haha, yep. This is a weaker version of lapsang. The rose helps to soften it’s harshness. I can’t take the full blown lapsang. It’s like a stink bomb went off! The flavor grows on you though. Haha, stinking up the ship and blaming it on the tea? Will that work as an excuse? =P

Now 52tea sells a virgin Pina Colada ;) It’s tea and Pina Colada all in one!

Trust me… I work with little boys. The tea will smell better than any of them when the mood strikes them to be funny.

I am glad you have finally broke down and tied my MF. I had the sleepy tea today and loved it. Magic hat or something like that. It reminds me of my Aveda blend but I adore lavender…. adore it. So the tea is amazing in my book. That was a great find!

Yep, I even pinned the list to my desk. It looks like a giant post-it now =]

Magic hat o.O, haha. Whattt? I’m so confused. Mad pots of tea? It’s an interesting company and I think somewhere down the road I might try them. Well, what I mean is they offer a $25 fill out a form and they send you a 2oz tin of tea that’s personalized for you and just you. It’s an interesting idea.

That sounds absolutely awesome! It’s only very recently that I’ve discovered that MF is a european company INSIDE the EU even and therefore very much in my reach, but I haven’t had opportunity to try them out yet. I’ll try to remember to get this one if and when it happens.

He hee! I can’t imagine – Thomas Sampson, Jackee Muntz, a Tiger, Florence, Marco Polo, and Narcissus!?!! What hijinks would ensue!!!

Aww, I’m jealous. MF is so difficult to find here, I mean they offer it, but not the complete collection.

Narcissus would probably be admiring himself with the Tiger. Thomas and Jackee would beat them up.