Alphakitty

My second sample from The Tea Merchant! The name of this tea is so lovely, I didn’t even need to know what flavors were in it before I immediately wanted it. Once you smell it, the name makes sense: the vanilla is silky smooth and I suppose the long, elegant oolong leaves are similar to a dragon. And man, is this vanilla-y smelling, almost like pudding! It smells soooo good, I could barely pull my nose out of the bag. In fact, once I let my dad sniff it he immediately wanted some too!

Thankfully, the vanilla is a bit toned down when you steep it. It’s lighter, airier, but still rich and creamy. Less dessert, more “afternoon treat” if that makes sense! The oolong flavors were pretty prominent for me, maybe because I started with the second steep (my dad got the first!), but there are floral and fruity elements popping up as well. The citrus is mild and really only in the very end of the sip, a finishing note. It’s a bit lemony, but very toned-down and not overpowering. For some reason, the vanilla + citrus are reading a bit cupcake-y to me, like a fluffy vanilla one without any frosting. Very nice!

Thanks to The Tea Merchant for this sample! I am woefully unfamiliar with the intricacies of Darjeelings, but I’d like to broaden my experience with them and I think this is an excellent place to start. They’re a really interesting type of tea—much lighter than a black, but with flavor profiles really different from a green/oolong/white/etc. Actually, maybe a bit similar to an oolong in complexity, and I think there are some Darjeelings that ARE oolongs so I suppose that makes sense! And they brew up so pale—this one is a soft, almost peachy amber.

It smells a little bit like an English Breakfast, but with much softer flavors. The dominant taste to me is woodsy and a bit fruity, apple or grape? It’s faint but crisp, and melds into a softly floral background. It’s very full-tasting, and it lingers in your mouth for quite a while. It’s also quite sweet with no additions, and I’ve gotten 3 good steeps out of it so far!

This is the only quality Darjeeling I’ve tried so I have nothing to compare it to, but I enjoyed it! A very different tea experience, and it left me feeling a bit contemplative. And for some reason, I think this would be really nice cold-brewed, so I’ll be trying it out that way soon!

Another gorgeous blend from Tea Guys, full of so many different pretty colors! This is also another one I only got a sample of, which of course I’m regretting already. I feel another order there coming on soon…

This tea is everything I wanted DT’s Strawberry Ginger to be. It’s light and sweet, with an almost honey-like taste from the white. The ginger is strong but not overpowering, giving the tea a bit of bite. It matches well with the tropical flavors from the papaya and pineapple, which keeps this from being a kind of generic pina colada-esque blend. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but the addition of ginger makes this quite unique!

Thanks to Kittenna for this interesting chai! At first I thought it was a tea-less blend, there are so many giant chunks of spice in there, but indeed a few gunpowder leaves unfurled in my infuser.

The weirdest thing about this blend is how it’s quite light in some aspects—the green tea is almost ethereal, barely there. The apricot is faint and adds a nice background fruitiness, though I don’t know if I would identify it as apricot if I didn’t know what it was. The spices, however, are quite strong. Mostly the pepper, and there’s quite a bit of clove as well.

I decided to add a splash of cream once I was down to about a third of my mug (hey, it’s a chai!) and man was THAT a mistake. It tastes like pizza. No joke, straight up cheese pizza in my cup. This should be good for a second infusion, so it’s not a total disaster!

This is such a gorgeous tea. The green and white leaves are full and fluffy, strewn with cornflower and marigold petals. The rosebuds are large and intact, and… yellow! Rose in tea is always pink/red (or at least the many rose blends I’ve tried), so I was surprised to see yellow ones here. It adds an extra pop of color to an already-colorful blend. I know the look of a tea doesn’t really affect the taste much, but starting out with something this pretty definitely sets the mood in a way.

When I had Lupicia’s Mango Oolong, it tasted very rose-y to me and I loved it. I think I like floral a lot more than most people, so of course I set out to find a mango rose tea. There are quite a few out there, but I don’t like placing orders for only one tea so I decided to wait around for the right blend. Thankfully Tea Guys had many kinds that seemed to call to me, so into the cart this went—and it showed up 3 days later, pretty fast shipping.

I cold brewed this since I love cold rose teas, and hot mango has never really worked for me. It doesn’t really smell like rose or mango either in leaf form or after a 12-hour steep, and the color is so pale, like dew on the ends of grass. But it definitely tastes rosy and fruity! The white/green blend is what I taste at the beginning of the sip, a little grassy and fruity. Not mango fruity, but that kind of generic soft fruit taste you get from some whites. Then the mango comes in, juicy but not that strong, followed by soft rose. It’s really quite floral, not exactly a surprise with so many rosebuds in there, but the rose is at the end and it doesn’t overpower the other flavors. The mango is subtler than I thought it would be, but I had the same feeling when I tried the 52teas Mango Ice Cream so maybe my mango-related tastebuds are off? It’s delicious, just not as boldly mango as I expected.

At the suggestion of Scott B I made a maple blueberry tea! I added a generous pinch of Tea Guys’ Wild Blueberry to my once-brewed Maple Sugar leaves and something magic happened. I was worried the flavors wouldn’t be fully balanced since there’s a LOT more maple, but the lower water temp worked in my favor. The blueberry is quite strong, but the fruitiness is balanced by maple goodness. Oh my, this is heavenly. I’m almost tempted to buy extra ounce or two of each just to mix together!

EDIT: Made a second glass of this iced with a bit of brown sugar, I didn’t think it would be that good cold but decided to experiment anyway. And OH MY it is delectable, the maple is even sweeter and more pronounced chilled and the blueberry pops as well.

I was kind of hesitant to try a maple tea, so I only got a sample of this (which I now greatly regret!). I thought it might be like pancake syrup, that fake stuff that’s fine on, well, pancakes but I don’t really want my tea tasting like it. This, however, is the real deal. It smells like maple candies when you open the little baggie, the kind you get at rest stops all over NY. I’ve always wanted to melt one into tea, but now I don’t have to because I think that’s exactly what this blend tastes like!

It’s maple maple maple all the way through, from the smell when you’re drinking to the caramel, molasses-y ending. Surprisingly, it’s not overly sweet or cloying at all, and the black base really stands up to the maple (which is admittedly a very strong flavor!). They’re in perfect harmony, and I think this would be the most perfect breakfast tea ever. It’s brisk and bold enough to deliver a kick in the butt, but the maple makes it heavenly and comforting. In fact, this seems to be both a morning and nighttime tea! I am so in love, and I think I’ll be placing another order very soon so I can have more of this amazing goodness.

Today I have not been lucky with tea. First I spilled my cold brewed EGC all over the floor, then I had a mishap with this one! The top seems to be kind of loose, and it exploded EVERYWHERE when I tried to move it. Thankfully, it exploded over the floor I’d literally just cleaned because I spilled iced tea… so at least I was able to salvage all of the leaves. However, they didn’t all fit. Somehow they fit before the explosion, but not after? Anyway, I wasn’t planning on making any of this today but I had a heaping teaspoon of extra leaves with no place to go so I made it hot over ice.

It’s a way I haven’t used to make iced tea in a long time, and I’m so used to cold brewing that I found myself pretty sensitive to the bitterness here. Granted, it’s very very mild and is probably because I spazzed out and the water was too hot, so I won’t count that against the tea. It’s just funny how smooth cold brews are compared to the over-ice method! This is a mildly tart, fruity tea. The raspberry is definitely front and center, though I don’t know if I would really identify the other fruit as pomegranate if I didn’t know it was there. To me, pomegranate is rich and silky while this is bright and fruity. Not exactly a negative, but I did expect more, well, punch and tartness.

I realized last night that since joining Steepster a few months ago, I haven’t decupboarded a single tea. Kind of a horrifying thought, since I keep ordering more. I’m determined to cull at least a few of them, and this seems as good a place as any to start since I only had about an ounce to start with! I’ve been quite taken with cold brewed Earl Greys recently, but haven’t tried it with an EGC so into the fridge this went!

One sip and I was in love. It’s so good! I think I need to up the rating, I’ve really enjoyed this one a lot. It’s good hot, cold, and in ice cream! So sweet and creamy, the vanilla and bergamot combine to make something that tastes like a luxurious dessert. Sadly, tragedy struck and I knocked over the cup. ;~; So about half ended up on the floor, sob. My cat did seem to enjoy it, which is weird because he never tries “human drinks.” This tea is so great it even wins over kitties!

Of course with only one teaspoon of the leaves left and half of this brew on the floor, I instantly thought “I need to buy more!” But really, do I need THREE earl grey creams? Especially since I have 8oz of the Upton one and 4oz of the white, which is very voluminous. I went to their site anyway and ended up placing a teeny order… that didn’t include this tea. Somehow that counts as self-control to me, sigh.

As promised, I cold brewed this last night. I hate wasting leaves from limited/expensive teas, and doing a hot then cold brew also has the benefit of offering up slightly different flavor profiles. And let me tell you, the differences between this tea hot with milk & cream and cold unsweetened are pretty drastic! And while I am a rabid fan of cold brewing, I think I might actually like this one a little better hot.

What’s really lost in the cold brew is that lovely strong black base. It’s still there, but not as upfront and brisk as it is hot. It’s more mellow, like the base in a nice sweet tea. The mango is about as prominent—both ways this isn’t really a super mango-y tea though. The flavor is there for sure, but it’s quite subtle. In fact, mango ice cream is usually pretty softly flavored so I suppose it’s fitting! The cream aspect is what really stands out this way—it’s even creamier, milkier, richer. If I had my eyes closed I could swear there was cream in the glass. It’s almost silky, not just a taste but a mouthfeel. Kind of surprising, I expected the mango to pop and the cream to be subtler while the opposite is true!

I didn’t really know what to expect from this tea before I took the first sip. In the bag it smells like alcohol, no joke! It’s very strange. Brewed it smells like a particularly strong Irish Breakfast, no mango or cream to be found. Thankfully it’s quite different on the tongue, and kind of amazingly balanced. I always expect great things from 52teas and I suppose my expectations are sometimes a little too lofty, but boy did they deliver on this one!

There are 3 components, and each of them really stands out. The black base is fantastic, I think a bit stronger than some of their others (even though it’s the same blend, maybe this batch is a bit heavier on the assam?). It’s really brisk! The ice cream part is really, well, cream, and is totally divine. It adds a glorious, rich smoothness to the cup that really balances out the maltiness of the base. Then there’s the mango, which at first I thought was a little hidden but it really comes in bright and loud at the end of the sip. Fresh, sweet, almost juicy!

Everything fits together so well, working in perfect harmony. It’s great without additions but I am feeling naughty tonight so I put in a heap of sugar and actual cream. Oooooh lord, this is amazing. I bet it’d be even better iced, so I am going to cold brew the rest of these leaves!

I decided to try this two ways before rating it. Mostly because when I made it hot last night, it wasn’t exactly a winner. It was okay, but far more fruity than cheesecake-y. In fact, it didn’t really have much in the way of creaminess even since the apricot totally overwhelmed everything (including the shou mei). I was a bit disappointed, but decided to cold-brew the leaves I’d just steeped.

Cold, it’s a totally different animal! It’s crisp and refreshing, and the apricot is more subdued. It’s still quite fruity (perhaps more than I was expecting), but it’s more harmonious cold. The shou mei is bright, and adds another layer of fruitness and sweetness. The cheesecake is interesting here: unlike some people, I’ve found it quite prominent in their black/green teas. Here it’s… well, not nearly as cheesecake-y as I expected it to be. There’s a definite creaminess, along with a soft tanginess that really plays well with the apricot. It doesn’t really scream “cheesecake” though, while I found the flavor easily identifiable in their EG Cheesecake and the Cherry Cheesecake Genmaicha. It does come up more as the cup “warms” to room temperature—this is one that definitely doesn’t benefit from being ice-cold (unlike, say Cotton Candy).

I think this came off a bit more negative than intended. It’s a very nice tea, and I love the play of crisp white, sweet apricot and tangy cheesecake. I think the flavors were a bit different than I expected is all, stronger on the apricot and weaker on the cheesecake. However, the spoonful I used had a LOT of apricot bits, so next time I’ll try to weed some of ’em out and see if the cheesecake is a bit stronger.

I’ve decided that I have too much tea, and that baking and cooking are the best way to reduce my stash in a reasonable amount of time. I’ve been successful with tea-infused english toffee, and ice cream was next up! There are tons of recipes out there, but I went with my tried and true custard-base instead. Steeped the cream/milk mixture with about 2 tablespoons of EGC for ~20 minutes, strained, and then did the whole temper the eggs, stir for forever until it thickens jazz.

The worst thing about ice cream is how darn long it takes. After making the base you have to chill it for 3 hours, then put it in the ice cream maker then freeze for 3+ hours so it firms up. I tasted the base during all the steps, but it’s really hard to tell how the final product is going to be. Well, it’s finally done, and it is AH-MA-ZING. Earl Grey ice cream is nice and all, but using an EGC boosted it to a whole other level of amazing. Combine it with a rich, creamy custard base and dear lord, I could eat it all tonight.

I’ve been pretty much drinking the same few teas in rotation the past few days. I haven’t been to my apartment in a week and a half, I just know there are at least 3 boxes of tea there and it’s torture not being able to open them ;~; To make myself feel better, I just ordered some tea to come to my parents’ house, which of course is not the best solution but hey, I want new tea! I maaaay have a problem.

I’ve had this a few times before, but always the same way—hot, with milk & sugar. I’ve found that I really like floral teas cold, so I iced this one with a pinch of sugar and it’s fabulous! Light, sweet, the bergamot seems to come through more this way as it’s bright and citrusy with a floral undercurrent. Iced Earl Greys are quite nice, more so than I expected. Sadly this tea isn’t mine, it’s my mom’s, and I think she’d get annoyed if I burned through her whole stash while I am here!

I decided to give this one another shot. It was so fruity iced, but I wanted more of that apple cobbler feel, so I hot brewed it with a pinch of cinnamon and added brown sugar to the cup. It’s not like an in-your-face baked good, but definitely better with a bit of sprucing up—I am thinking of mixing the rest of my sample 50/50 with Brioche for the real pastry feel.

Had this today cold brewed with a pinch of brown sugar. I think I actually like it best iced, since it brings out the soda-y vibe the most. It’s also slightly creamy this way, and the earthy flavors of the guranse pop. Sooo good!

I love rose earl greys, and I’ve tried quite a few but this just happened to be the one I brought with me while at my parents’ house. Honestly, I just kind of grabbed a bunch of samples and threw them in a bag together! Good thing, since it seems like I am going to be here for a while so I’m well stocked on tea. This is from my box from LiberTEAS I believe!

This is a nicely balanced rose EG, with a strong black base and soft cirtus notes from the bergamot. The rose is subtle and not overpowering, and a lot less strong than I thought it would be. I really like strong rose flavors, so this didn’t entirely deliver on that front but it was still a lovely cup!

I am pretty sure I got this in *Emilie*’s sale boxes, but I’m honestly not 100% sure. This is a clear sign that I have too many samples to go through! Yet I am jonesing for more swaps, sigh.

I cold brewed this, since I don’t really tend to like strawberry hot (unless it’s with some other flavors) and, well, it’s summer, the perfect time for iced tea! Though of course it was 75 and rainy all day. This tea has a nice, fresh strawberry flavor, and there’s something tropical going on too in the background. The ingredients list says pineapple but the description says papaya, curious! Either way, I think it adds a little something special to what might otherwise be a run-of-the-mill strawberry green. The sencha base is also very buttery, and has a very rich mouthfeel! I like this one a lot more than I thought I would, and for the ridiculous price of $5.99 for 4oz I think this might be making its way into my cupboard…

In the sample bag this smells like a cobbler—heaven! There’s fruit, spices, maybe even some bake-y notes. Surprisingly, it’s a totally different tea when steeped. I tried this hot and cold brewed, and both times it was very very fruity. The peach and apple are quite natural tasting, but strong, to the point where the black base is kind of hanging out in the background. There are some nice malty notes and I think they picked some pretty strong teas to go with these flavors, which is good otherwise they’d be lost entirely.

There are no cinnamon or bake-y flavors at all in the brew, so it’s definitely not the tea I was expecting. Iced, though, it’s really lovely, fruity and bright. Great with a slice of lemon while watching summer storms! Sometimes a tea doesn’t meet your expectations but surprises you in other ways, which this one definitely did.

I went to bed early last night, so I cold brewed my daily tea in kind of a rush. In fact, I had zero idea what the ingredients were in this (aside from that it was a green tea) when I made it. But when I tried it this afternoon (after an overly long 16 hour steep, I took a nap and forgot about it!) the flavors popped right away. I love when you can guess exactly what’s in a tea without having to know it—I can be pretty good with floral and fruity tastes, but honestly some citruses I find impossible to place.

The lemon is most prominent, bright and perhaps a bit more sour than in other blends I’ve had, like it was steeped with an actual lemon slice. The passion fruit is a soft, exotic taste that really tones down and also compliments the lemon, and the chrysanthemum adds a lovely floral edge that I don’t think is overpowering at all. Citrusy, fruity, floral is a common combo, but I think this is a really unique take on it and so tasty!

No notes yet.

I don’t have a whole lot of experience with tulsi, it’s one of the many things I’d like to try a whole bunch of but I don’t exactly have money to throw around on 20 different tulsi blends! Or the cupboard space. I think this actually might be my first tulsi, but I’m not sure, I feel like I’ve had it in another blend before. Probably just because the flavors are familiar! Honestly, part of me was expecting it to taste like Thai basil, which would actually be pretty cool. I wonder if there are any blends that use it as an ingredient?

The other herbs are what come through most for me, it’s very minty to the point where when I sniff it, I’d swear it was a pure peppermint blend. But when you drink it there’s a nice bright hint of lemon, warmth from the cinnamon, and a little kick from the pepper and ginger. I’m not sure if the spices are complimenting or masking the tusli, but lemon/citrus isn’t actually an ingredient so I suppose that’s where it is peeking through. This reminds me a bit of Sleepytime, very calming and soothing. I’d probably be amazing for sick, lazy days!

This is one of those blends that I wasn’t so sure about, mainly since caramel and green tea just don’t go together in my head. They seem like opposites, caramel is rich and desserty and green is light and refreshing. But this has some really rave reviews, and samples are so cheap. Impossible to resist!

In the little sample bag this smells deliciously good, like fresh candy corn and autumn. As good as it smells I was worried that the green would be lost, but steeped it’s quite the opposite. The green is bright, with grassy and fruity notes, and the caramel comes in at the end. It’s between a heavy and light flavor—it’s quite caramel-y and reminds me of GMT’s burnt sugar oolong, since while it’s rich it’s not heavy. In fact, I could see drinking this quite frequently as a morning or afternoon tea!

Whenever I get a new tea I make whoever is with me sniff it. “Go on, stick your nose in!” I guess I’m trying to convert them with peer pressure. Soon I’m going to be out dealing tea on the street corner! Anyway, when my mom sniffed this one (since she was the person nearest to me when I opened the tin) she made this horrible face. I knew it was a winner then—she HATES guava, and the smell of it is quite strong here and distinctly “guava!” I, on the other hand, love guava. Pretty much any weirdly shaped or colored fruit and I get along really well, even durian. Man, someone should make a durian tea. Or a dragonfruit tea… there’s a prickly pear blend that caught my eye recently, maybe that will be next up on the list of odd fruit teas to try.

I didn’t get a sample of this the first time I ordered from them, since I didn’t know if guava, strawberry and ginger was something I really wanted to try. But I got a coupon for a free ounce, so why not? I love that even the small amounts of tea there are in cute little tins, they’re such an adorable size! And man, does this smell good, like a tropical paradise in a tin. I cold brewed it (shocking, I know!) for the usual 12 hours and the smell after was so good, I went through the whole cup in about 15 minutes when I usually try to get them to last a few hours. Ah well!

The guava is what I taste first and it’s very, well, guava-y. It’s got that signature “thickness” that I expect in guava, along with a punch of sweetness. The strawberry plays well with it, the more common taste balancing the uniqueness of guava perfectly. The berry notes are gentle here, but brought to the forefront a bit by the ginger. Man, the ginger! It’s so perfect! A little tiny pinch of spice and bite at the end keeps this from being a run of the mill fruity blend, and it manages to make everything else pop. I don’t know if I’d go “oh, that’s ginger!” if I didn’t know it was in there, but it works some kind of magic. I love the white base as well, it balances everything else out and acts as a great canvas for this unique flavor combo. I’m quite glad I have a tin of this instead of just a sample, but I think I’ll be running through it quickly!