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Uh…ew?

Haha, I took off the lid and everything was fine and dandy again. I think it’s cause I had the lid covering the tea leaves when it was steeping so it absorbed the nasty smell cause I immediately sealed the thermos right afterward. I’m just going to drink tea without the sipping lid from now on.

Wow, I think this is the first time I’ve been named in a Tealog and inspired someone to drink a tea.

The husband’s been working a lot of morning shifts lately and I haven’t, so no automatic decision to make pot of coffee in the morning. I like a cup or two of black tea in the morning and lately I’ve been wanting plain blacks. The A&D are the two loose plain blacks that I have that aren’t bagged, which led to drinking more of the Dragonwell again. Thus began my current A&D cycle. The Dragonwell is definitely my favorite of the three.

Sorry to hear your Ceylon turned out stinky. I’ve been steeping mine about 3 min and around 200-205° F. It’s prolly the thermo though.

I meant to add: Series 5 is en route. Expect to see it added to the AM rotation shortly.

Well my Andrews & Dunham tea has been sitting around so I was like why not. Some days I just can’t decide what tea to drink. I guess I should just use Jon’s randomizer for those days.

Yeah, I usually set mine at 3 minutes, but I totally forgot about it yesterday. I agree, it’s the thermos. Stupid thermos, but what can I say, I need to bring a cup of tea to work or I wouldn’t feel complete.

Awaiting my series 5 as well! I’m excited. Hopefully it’ll be better than series #1.

Yeah, I haven’t used the tea randomizer in awhile but I like it. In fact, last night’s Lemon Green was what it suggested last and I didn’t get around drinking it at the time. So, in a long-term way, I’ve fulfilled the randomizer’s suggestion.

I am thinking (and hoping) that my Series 5 will be here today. Actually it probably already in the mailbox but it’s pouring and the husband will be home in less than two hours and I don’t work until later this evening so I will wait and let him bring it up and not get soaked.

No Series #5 for me =(. Unless my mailman stole it.

No Series 5 for me either today. I am wondering if I should be worried about it. It’s 5 days after shipping. I think it’s all the storms in the northeast delaying it. Where is A&D anyways?

Why is everyone talking about Series 5? Wasn’t the Chinese New Year tea Series 4?
*is confuzzeled *

Yeah, I think it’s series 4 and someone started saying five and we all got confused =P

Ah I see. When I read your post I rushed over to the A&D site in a panic, afraid that I would miss another series. :P

Tadaaaa, finally received it! Poor postal service people had to walk through my un-shoveled driveway to drop off my packages. It’s here! I’m 28 out of 50. I swear I placed an order when it was up to tin 11. I liked Series #1’s packaging a bit better (they had a bed of shredded paper for the tins to sit on). This time around it was just wrapped in brown packaging paper.

Yay! Mine did not come today. =( Sorry about the mistake calling it Series 5.

Note, I don’t actually think the green tea in it is gunpowder because I don’t think it looks like it to me. I think they look a lot more like the chun mee I’ve got. The ONLY reason I called it ‘gunpowder blend’ initially is because it’s a direct translation of the name of the blend in danish. I changed it to black powder as soon as I realised I had the alternative, because the gunpowder blend name was obviously wildly misleading. The description of it from the seller just says ‘a green tea’ and in another place it said that it was a supposedly secret blending recipe.

That said, I’m glad you liked it. Sweeter smokey is definitely a good way to describe it.

You’re right. I think we had this exact conversation before. It’s still labeled as gunpowder and I labeled it as gunpowder as well on my own tin. Looking at chun mee and I don’t thin it’s that either. Any other teas that are wrapped up tightly?

Excuse the yellow, lighting issues, well I was just too lazy to fix it >> http://bit.ly/cRfly6

here’s a picture of the chun mee that I’ve got. Not taken by me though. http://www.denlilletebutik.dk/Graphics/Products/281.jpg

Haha, that above picture is your tea! I just took a picture of it. The color is a bit off. It’s suppose to be a bit more green, but you can see it’s rolled up where as your link is more curled.

I’ve checked the chun mee tin and I’m not even sure I think that looks like the picture either, so maybe it isn’t actually chun mee (although I read somewehre that supposedly that was a popular one to use in blends, which was part of what mislead me), but the stuff in the black powder definitely doesn’t look like gunpowder either. I’ll admit that it probably isn’t chun mee after all, but I’m not sold on it being gunpowder either. They don’t seem to be rolled up tightly enough and there’s the colour issue with the glisteny sheen too.

Yep, I agree. Oh well, it’s some green base that’s all we know =P

I was looking in my assorted literature, but unfortunately didn’t get any wiser as to any other guesses. The closest I could come was one that resembled gunpowder a lot, but was actually a much better general quality tea. I sincerely doubt that’s what they’ve used. I can’t even remember what it was called now, it wasn’t one I knew.

Wait, why do you doubt the use of gunpowder. I’m searching around and I actually think it might be. I saw some gunpowder (formosa gunpowder?) that resembles the this. The shiny coat is the only thing missing to make this a gunpowder, but it could mean this is a low quality gunpowder.

Because it looks too different from any gunpowder I’ve ever had. The shop’s site unfortunately doesn’t have a picture of the plain gunpowder so I can’t check if there might be a resemblance there, but it just doesn’t look gunpowdery to me.
It WOULD tie in nicely with the name though. I’ve just always thought that that must have come from the sort of explosiveness of the smokey lapsang.

You should also try Harney and Sons Cranberry Autumn if you like cranberries. I’m crazy for them too – and this tea! I’d send you some but I finished mine! It’s that good :)

How could I miss that tea! Added to my shopping list. I might have glanced over it because the orange pieces scared me off.

Second the Cranberry Autumn love.

Ooh, this is making me crave cranberry juice. :) The only cranberry tea I’ve tried is Portsmouth Cranberry fruit tea…it’s pretty good. More like Kool Aid than tea, though :)

And, now I’m going to go make some Cranberry tea, which isn’t in my “drink it up” pile but I’m craving it. :)

Harney, Golden Moon, Samovar…. oh boy I’m going to be broke. Shantea bug might take over. Poor wallet.

Haha, what’s this drink it up pile?!? Mine are all those Adagio tin. Good idea, I should try finishing those.

Heh, I took a page out of Bethany’s book and made a “drink it up” pile of Adagio tins that I NEED to finish.

Alas, I didn’t end up making cranberry fruit tea OR Adagio tea…instead, I opted for some yummy Simple Leaf oolong :)

Drank some Shanti? Wait, that’s not oolong, that’s green.

Nope, Tankha this time :) It’s goooood.

Simple Leaf’s another company I have to try. I’ll get to it eventually, haha. So much tea left to finish off!

Oh, their stuff is amazing…but yeah, no rush, finish off some of what you have first! (I’m telling myself that before I go and buy more stuff, too hehe)

By the way, I spoke too soon re:cranberry tea—I just got my package from 52teas w/ the mandarin matcha and I got a free package of Cran-Cherry Black Tea! Hooray!

I’m in a toss up if I want to take advantage of that Golden Moon free 1/2lb of Rose tea offer. Decisions, decisions…. my 52teas order hasn’t arrived yet =(

Glad you liked it!

I got cran-raspberry black as my 52teas extra. I bet it will be great iced in the summer, and now I have something else to offer my mom when she’s over – she likes fruity black teas. They’re not my fave but I’m going to try it hot soon…

Janefan – I dunno about 52tea’s cran-raspberry, but Teavanna’s cranberry black was AWFUL (IMO) iced (and that’s why I wanted it). It was passable hot, I thought, but I ended up passing it over for things I liked better.

thanks for the warning!

Haha, add me to the list of people who received cran-raspberry black 52teas.

Did you guys get cran-raspberry or cran-cherry? I got cran-cherry.

OH just took a closer look. cran-blackberry.

Cran-blackberry? That sounds good!

Hey it’s like the same thing as teavana =] I might like it we’ll see!

Oh wow! I checked the website, and they have LOTS of cranberry black blends: cran-blueberry, cran-strawberry, cran-blackberry, cran-cherry, cran-apple, cran-raspberry, cran-orange, cran-peach, cran-grape….

Ohhhh, cran-strawberry! I realized no one ever rated a zoom dweebie bar tea before. How strange!

mine’s def cran-raspberry. #094. I keep forgetting that zoomdweebie’s has so many more flavors than what’s on 52teas (or manteas). Not sure how they keep it all straight!

Haha, right? It seems they have about 200 teas! That’s crazy, what a large selection. Now Frank, I’m curious. Why do you only advertise 52teas for the most part?

I still haven’t finished off my first sample box, but I’ve been thinking of ordering a second one myself. It’s been such fun trying all the different teas.

I’ve heard that this sampler doesn’t give you enough tea in each sampler… true? I was really hoping to pick this sampler up in the coming months.

Quite the contrary actually. They are very generous with the tea leaves. Usually you get enough for one to two cups. A cup is technically 6oz, but I like stretching it to 8oz or 12oz depending on the amount of leaves. I should have made this one with 8oz of water. That was totally my fault. Now what I should have really done is weigh the leaves.

If you get another sampler, fcmonroe, let me know =P I might be tempted to a well. I think the only tea I disliked was really lapsang and I want to give it to my friends to see if they like it. =P Well either that or torture them with it.

I was just looking at the sampler myself due to your post. Bravo.

Haha, you should really try it. Don’t forget to use promo code steepster to get free shipping. Now I feel like teaplz advertising it =P

Seems they have a promo going on for a free half lb of tea! Uhoh, added the info to the post.

AWWWW. Ricky. You silly boy, you! I’m so happy that I was able to get you to buy this puppy, because I thought it was totally worth it. <333 for Golden Moon as my tea tutor!

I made one ‘cup’ of tea with each sample, as my glass infuser cup is actually two normal cups of water. The amount was usually just right, but sometimes able to be split in half if the flavors were particularly strong.

And that promo kills me. I just bought the bag! Why must they torture me so?

Haha, you made me get a lot of things! Harney $2 samplers and purchases over $25 =P. But they were delicious so thanks! =]

Takgoti has been using her persuasive powers and trying to make me make a purchase from samovar. I think by the end of the month I might cave. Argh, too much tea to buy.

I’m trying to see when that promo code ends =P. I think it might be a valentines day promotion or something. I’ll let you guys know when I / if I ever find out.

Okay, I have to say that there is something going on here which just leaves me utterly perplexed. I’m not picking on you, Ricky, but I think you are about the 15th review of our teas that I’ve read that started something like, “I really don’t like X, but I decided to try 52teas X flavored tea.”

I guess I should be happy that our powers of salesmanship are so great that people still buy our teas whether they think they will like them or not. “I HATE liver and onions, but LOOK, 52teas has a liver and onion flavored tea! I have to have it!” :)

Sorry. I bit my tongue on a lot of other reviews like this and I just finally had to say something. I feel better now, thanks.

Woaps! I’ll edit my post and state that I received this from the traveling tea box. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t have bought this if I didn’t like it in the first place =P

It’s okay, really. I probably still shouldn’t have said anything except I just keep running across the same types of reviews and every time it just makes me scratch my head.

Anyway, it totally makes more sense knowing you got it from the traveling tea box. Hope there was something in there from us that you DO like. Have a great day!

I don’t think it’s a bad thing to get something that your’re not sure you’ll like. I generally think that everybody ought now and then to try something that they previously didn’t like, because sometimes your tastes have changed or something is an acquired flavour that will grow on you. This has been my experience with this particular one.
Furthermore, it might also be that someone will find that the stuff they don’t like on its own works in tea. I mean we’ve all seen examples of the opposite thing. Something we like a lot otherwise, but can’t stand as flavour in tea. For me that’s peaches for example. There is no reason why the phenomenon shouldn’t work the other way around.

But I agree that it’s weird that people will buy something that they’re honestly doubtful that they’ll like. I think it has to do with being adventurous in the areas of one’s interest.

You know, from what I’ve been reading recently, it seems pumpkin pie/spice flavored teas are usually hit or miss, with a lot of misses. Personally, I hate it when my tea tastes “squash”-like or sweet-potato-y, so I probably wouldn’t like pumpkin pie tea. But yeah, sometimes you can be surprised by what you like in a tea and don’t like in real life. For example, I don’t like coconut things usually, but I don’t mind it in tea.

No need to apologize, Ricky. You reviewed the tea according to your taste, and that’s all that matters! This is your personal tea log, not anyone else’s, and you clearly stated in your review that you’re unfamiliar with pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie lovers will understand that. That doesn’t mean, however, that your review is invalid just because you dislike pumpkin pie.

No one’s reviews are invalid on Steepster!

Unfortunately there were only two teas from 52teas in there upon my arrival. On the bright side, your pina colada is so delicious that I’m almost out of it! Having plain honeybush right now and I miss your pina colada already.

Ohh Angrboda… I took a sampler of the Gunpowder Blend, well now Black Powder Explosion Blend, and I’m scared! Lapsang round two? Haha. I don’t know if I’m ready to kill myself yet. Will it be similar to your peach experience? =P

Yeah, I feel that tea can taste different from it’s food equivalent when blended with the right things. I guess that’s why I try strange teas. I didn’t like Earl Grey or chai at first, but I’m slowly getting accustomed to it. It’s like if your stranded on an island with nothing to eat except umm the one food you hate the most… rhetorically speaking of course… you’ll grow to love it =]

But poor pumpkin pie was doomed from the beginning. It didn’t stand a chance!

Well I love it (obviously) and I love LS too. :p I find the black powder blend is smoothed out a bit more on the smokyness due to the EBB base and the green tea in it, so it might be tolerable for you.

Or it might not be.

But if you like it enough to get through the first cup, I’ve found that there are generally two good steeps in it. Sometimes three if I’m really really careful with it and don’t mess it up by oversteeping.

I’m glad you found a way to enjoy it!

Ditto

I guess the only way to tell would be to try the exact same tea both ways. I think that the container the tea is in makes a difference as well. I’ve noticed that teas taste different when they are in a lidded travel mug that they do in an open cup.

YAY! I don’t believe it… Ricky tried a chai latte! Haha ok, just teasing. Now that they have the full leaf bags, is the standared to use them instead of the concentrate or do they still use that? I like 2 bags in a tall. I don’t bother w/ other sizes because the flavor ratio is off for my tastes then. Did you have it sweetened?

Ummm…. I didn’t realize tea tasted different with a closed / open cup. Oh teas too complicated.

Haha, right? It was either an Earl Grey or a Chai latte. Green upsets my stomach sometimes. I’m actually not sure what they used. I didn’t really pay attention as it was way too crowded in the store in the morning. I’ll keep an eye on it next time. Yeah, I use to do one bag in grande and now I realized how silly I was. Then again one teabag in 16oz use to be super strong! Ummm, they always sweeten lattes unless you tell them not to I guess.

Ricky, if you didn’t see the tea bag(s) when they handed you the cup, then they weren’t used. It’s my opinion that the flavors are more pure and authentic tasting when bags are used. I can’t figure that out, if you order “a latte” (espresso) they don’t sweeten it, but they presweeten the tea lattes.

Ricky, other than the material of the cup, that’s because sent it so closely linked w/ taste (i.e. why stuff doesn’t taste nearly as good when you’re sick). Did you know that the only difference between orange and grape soda is the smell and the color?

No teabags, so it was probably made from the concentrated. I’m sure you can ask them not to sweeten the latte. I mean they put in a few pumps of syrup so just ask them not to.

Haha, if I think about it, you’re right. Grape soda and orange soda is both fuzzy and fruity.

I love Tazo chai lattes…lots of sugar, milk and spices, and not a lot of tea, but hey, that’s the point, right? :D

Exactly! Well, not my homemade lattes. They are the complete opposite. I do more tea than milk.

I’m glad to hear the sweetened is good! As a person who doesn’t like sweet iced tea, I’ll never find out for myself. The unsweetened is very good though.

I don’t add ice to it cuz that’d dilute it. It’s good at the served temp.

……………I give up.

I agree!! I haven’t tried the sweetened, but the unsweetened tea at Subway is definitely better than the average fast food tea now that they have changed to FUZE.

My favorite fast food iced is at Moe’s. In my town, they have the iced green tea.