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I think I still like Lumberjack better. I like how clear and bold this tea is for the morning. Reminds me of a frigid, smoggy (I mean that fondly) city morning. I feel like it is lighter in body than the lumberjack, but it still makes for a lovely companion this early morning. Sipping down the sample so I can start on the 25g size lol

Sipping down the last of this sample only to have gotten another sample of it in the mail yesterday :P Pretty happy that I have a little bit more to play around with :D

Dry leaf: Lemon Yogurt

Liquor Color: yellow-ish?

Leaves: Dry – finely chopped green rooibos with large pieces of citrus rind. Wet – looks like freshly mowed grass. Smells like hot lemon yogurt.

Notes:

I liked how grassy the green Rooibos is compared to the honey vanilla sweetness of regular red Rooibos. I think the lemon was quite present. I got a creaminess to the blend as well, like thick lemon curd. The vanilla was present, adding to the cream factor. I wasn’t too hot for this tea though, it smelled like lemon yogurt, and tasted like lemon yogurt. Not a big fan of that as a tea.

This was one of the free sample size teas Zen Tea had (and may still have) on their website. It even says on the package that, ‘yes, this tea is not the pinnacle of refinement.’ I agree. This is not an amazing tea. But, I took that with a grain of salt.

I have an espresso machine at work and I wondered to myself, ‘what if I made tea espresso out of this?’ The leaves are certainly fine enough. Presto! That is how my Teapresso was born!

I prepared this tea by packing it tightly into the portafilter (espresso-shot-puller-thingie) and tamping it into a tightly compressed cake. Pulling the shot as I normally do for a doppio espresso, I got a similar color as the coffee, but without the thick, caramel colored crema you typically see on top. It smelled strong and very… tea-like. I suppose this is what ‘tea smell’ means for the rest of the non-tea-obsessed world.

With a pump of vanilla and steamed milk, I was able to transform this ‘unsavory’ leaf into three amazing tea lattés from the 20g pouch I received. Hooray for sipdowns!

P.S. I did not give this a rating because I know not many of you would not be able to recreate my same brewing parameters.

Dry leaf: Coconut Cream Pie with spices

Liquor Color: Cocoa Cola brown

Leaves: Dry – black broken leaves with stringy dried ginger, whole cardamom pods, cinnamon bark chips, and large strips of toasted coconut. Wet – all the spices have taken on the same color as the liquor. Still quite fragrant.

Notes: Ahhh, Coconut Chai. This has become one of my daily drinkers. It has one of my favorite two flavors ever, coconut and chai. The coconut is rich and toasty, and complements the spices well. As the for the chai parts in this blend, it’s a mellower chai and the cinnamon is the forefront. The ginger and the cardamom are there, just in the background. I love the shit out of cardamom, but some blends I have had lately use a heavy hand with that spice that adds a sickly rose-spice essence to the blend that I do not like. Fortunately for this tea, it was not the case. The combination of these flavors is a match made in heaven for me. The malty black base is also divine. It grounds the spices and the coconut and brings a fullness to the blend that makes it great for a cold morning, or even in a hot afternoon.

Today I brewed this tea in my western-style teapot and took it with me in my oldest thermos. No sugar, no milk. But I bet this would be great with some coconut milk :D

I have never thought of flavored matcha before I got this as a taste test sample from Red Leaf tea. I have had their loose leaf before and have been interested in their matcha since.

I love the combination of rich, sweet caramel flavor blending with the greeness and vegetal flavor of the matcha. I made two bowls of this the good olé fashioned way, with two chasen scoops blended with my bamboo whisk in my Chawan. MMM!

I have read the rave reviews of this tea iced, so I think I will make it that way next time!

This was a box sent out to me by Buddha Teas. I really appreciate your generosity! They have an impressive selection of healing herbal teas on hand. I especially want to try their chakra teas one of these days!

Before I begin, I must give a little bit of a disclaimer. I have been dealing with migraines for quite some time. I almost always have a headache and the stupidest things can trigger intense brain pain at any moment, causing me to be mentally and physically crippled for hours on end. Even scrolling on my phone too fast will set it off. My type of headache is typically tension related.

That being said, I have a few tips and tricks that I do to help me ride the wave. I have read recently that feverfew is really effective in easing migraines. I was super stoked to be able to try this tea out from Buddha Teas.
The packaging is pretty slick, the feel of the box is much nicer than the usual store bought cardboard. Although I didn’t think it was necessary for the little glue strip keeping the lid on, I thought the package was fine without it. (actually, I thought it was some kind of booger at first! Lol)

The teabags are wrapped in the same color black velvety-textured material. The teabag is your average paper teabag, although I liked that this was made from eco-friendly items. There is also a cute little quote on each of the teabag labels.
Now on to the steeping! I used boiling water and tested steeping at 4 minutes and at 8 minutes. I believe the 8 minute mark is best for this type of tea because it allowed the subtle flavors to become more prominent.

The flavor of this tea is very fresh and herbaceous. The lemony tang of the lemongrass shines through as the main flavor. If the lemongrass wasn’t there, I may be able to tell what feverfew tastes like. I’m glad it is not an unpleasant addition. Rather, it is the most crucial.

I took this at the first sign of an oncoming migraine. I forgot to take any kind of painkiller, like I usually do. I put a heat wrap on my neck and sipped on this tea instead. I noticed that the coupling of these two factors help keep my migraine at bay. It felt pretty effective and it worked pretty quickly. I think almost any trace of my headache was gone in about 20 minutes. Which is a life saver for me!

Thanks Buddha Teas for letting me review your selection!

This was one of the many of sample sizes I got with my Tea Guys order at the beginning of this year. This is the first one that I have tried and it’s really pleasantly scented! I brewed a cup hot for myself and then cold brewed the rest for my smoothies. The fruity cup of goodness is very strong on the papaya and pineapple. Maybe it was just my sample, but I hardly got any ginger notes to speak of.
This was a strong tea ices, and I could taste it very distinctly through my green smoothie. Not that it was a bad thing, I’m just used to my tea in my smoothies is be a very light addition to them.
I am glad to have tried this tea both ways, and while I cannot say that it would be my fist choice for a repurchase, it was lovely to test out!

Note: this is was a listing for a white blend, Tea Guys sells this as a green and white blend. I’ll make the update in a second.

Amoda Tea Monthly Box – January 2015

Dry leaf: colorful rose pink and gold flowers. IDK what they do for this blend, but ah, well. It’s smells sweet and tangy. The Chinese sencha-esque leaf lends a light vegetal flavor.

Liquor color: Happy and healthy looking green

Leaves: Dry – thin and flat green leaves. The colors are not quite as vibrant as the photo
Wet – dark green leaves with those little pink and yellow flowers. Had an unpleasant sour smell.

Notes: I love the combination of drinking tropical or summery things whenever it snows! Funny enough, Amoda tea had the same idea. They even mentioned it in my monthly box. The pineapple was fresh and juicy, the body was light and bright. It was quite refreshing. I am sure it would taste great iced! The green base was quite complimentary, the palm tree-like leafy greens quality gave the brew a spinach like freshness. Once I got away from the oddly sour-smelling leaves, I really enjoyed sipping on this while I watched snow fall outside.

I brewed this in my French press and decanted it into my favorite travel tumbler.