Alphakitty

I cold-brewed my leftover leaves from last night on a whim, and oh man am I glad I did. This is one of the best cold brews I’ve ever had! And very different from the hot tea.

The maple is still there but in the background, and the pecan is what really pops. And it’s not just generically nutty, but very identifiably pecan! It’s like an ice cold liquid pecan pie… which, yeah, may not sound that appetizing but it is beyond delicious. Bumping up the rating a little!

The blueberry black I tried from the same company wasn’t so hot, but this one from the Traveling Tea Box smelled a lot better! Well, that makes it seem like the blueberry black was gross or something—it wasn’t, perfectly palatable, just not blueberry at all.

This one is a lot better! The blueberry still is not that strong, but subtlety is nice in a green blend. It’s a little floral as well, just like the blueberry black. For some reason there are no real floral blueberry blends, but I think it’s a flavor that would go well with rose! Perhaps I should try mixing some of my own, hmm.

Anyway, this is a nice blueberry tea. Not too strong but not weak either. It seems like one of the harder tastes to get _{just right} for some reason, often it’s just not quite as strong as I’d like!

This one smells like absolute heaven. Malty, chocolatey, I want to eat it! Funnily enough, the file name for the image is “Whopper” so the fact that it smells just like the candy is intentional.

However, I think the licorice in my last tea messed up my taste buds (there’s still that weird sweetness in the very top/back of my throat) because I am getting…. tomato broth. No joke, like a malty tomato. Uh… I don’t think that is normal! It’s malty and I can taste the chocolate but I think I am going to have to pop this one in the fridge for later when my taste buds aren’t completely flipping out.

UPDATE: Let this chill out in the fridge and added a splash of cream. No more tomato! Either it was because of the licorice or somehow my brain made it all up. But seriously, I’d swear there was tomato in there at first. Ah well!

Now that it doesn’t remind me of tomato soup this tea is delightful! Very strongly chocolate-y, probably one of the strongest chocolate flavors I’ve tried in a tea. And the malt is so good! But I really think this one would be best off hot so I am holding off a bit on a rating until I can brew it up right. Maybe even as a latte!

After the min-disaster with Laoshan Genmaicha I decided to go for something I knew I’d like. I’m on a mission to go through my Verdant samples, which I have been hoarding for some reason. I guess I was just worried about messing them up, or waiting for the right time to enjoy them. But I realized that’s a bit silly—no reason to squirrel away tea!

Ginger is hands-down my favorite herb, so of course any Verdant blend with it becomes a must-try. This is a rich, earthy brew backed up by the sweetness of elderberry and the heat of ginger and peppercorn. It’s not really a spicy blend in the sense that it’s not hot-spicy, but more mouth-tingly spicy. The description says they were going for mouth-numbing qualities and they are definitely here! My whole mouth feels tingly after a few sips in a pleasant way.

The ginger is definitely the strongest element, followed by the smooth pu-erh. There are some whiffs of cream and pastry here, a surprising contrast to the bright, spicy ginger. I think this blend would be a favorite if not for the licorice. There’s an unpleasant sweetness that is lingering in the back of my throat, and to me it just clashes with the ginger. Licorice is okay in small quantities, but I think there were a lot of chunks of it in my sample. Still a very delightful experience! Also, after about roughly a million steeps (okay, more like 8) the nuggets still have not unfurled all the way! Tenacious little fellows.

I feel like I am probably the only person on Steepster who has yet to try Laoshan Green, though that is by design. I hate green beans. Not a causal hate, I despise them, and that is often pointed out to be a dominant taste note in Laoshan Green. But I am a little bit obsessed with genmaicha so I got a sample of this against my better instinct.

Well… I suppose I am glad that I tried this. It’s very buttery as other notes have mentioned, but oh man is that some green bean taste up front and center. Very vegetal, but not in the soft spinachy way that I enjoy. This is like vegetables… in my mug. I have this issue with most Chinese greens really, it’s like a stewed veggie mash. Ugh.

The toasty, roasted rice notes are nice but I am so put of by the “here, have a cup of veggie liquid!” that I am having trouble really distinguishing them. Yeah, I am kind of hating this blend. My own fault, I suppose: not going to rate this one as it’s nothing wrong with the tea. I have a $5 voucher at Verdant so I think I’ll give the black genmaicha a go—no green beans there!

Another from the Traveling Tea Box! There’s a large amount of this one so I made up a small pitcher (and there’s still tons for everyone else!).

Peachy! I was expecting more of a flavor from the oolong, since it’s so pretty. Big, fluffy whole leaves. There is a small sample of the pure base in the TTB, so I’ll have to try it and compare!

But essentially this is just a peachy tea. I don’t know why it’s called ‘tropical’ because peach is the only flavoring I detect. I thought there might be pineapple or guava or something but this really tastes like a super basic black peach. Not like that’s a bad thing, especially sweetened and with some lemon slices, but I think they kind of squandered the base on this one.

I so wanted to like this one. I was pretty excited when I saw it in the Traveling Tea Box since most notes I saw on it mentioned that it smelled and tasted like cedar chips. Call me crazy but that sounds appealing!

I am praying that I either overleafed (over….barked?) this or steeped it for too long (ten minutes) because it was beyond bitter. Just… undrinkable. Literally. I took one sip and had to pour the cup down the drain. :( I’m definitely going to give this another shot because a cedar-flavored herb seems like it would be great for blending.

I have been dying to try this blend since it first came out. I probably should have ordered some but I have a really hard time placing small orders at Butiki. I start browsing and suddenly there’s $60 worth of stuff in my cart! Thankfully I get to try this one without draining my account thanks to Emily M!

Hot this one kind of tastes generically sweet, but I let it cool a bit as other reviews have recommended and the flavors start to pop! Sweet, thick maple, nutty pecan, and of course the wonderful base adds rich, woodsy notes. And am I detecting a hint of stone fruit? Something plum-y is going on at the end of the sip and I love it!

This is one of those blends that I would happily drink every day. It’s quite complex and yet on a level delightfully simple—pecan pie in a cup!

Another tea from the Traveling Tea Box! Of course I had to try this one, it’s an Earl Grey Cream and I am on a quest to catch ’em all. Or, well, try ’em all.

This one sounded interesting since there is coconut oil added, I think the idea of a tropical EGC is really interesting. Sadly, that’s not at all what this is: there’s no coconut at all! I wonder if there’s just not enough of it or if the flavor has waned since it was first bagged up. I agree with Tea Sipper’s note that the packaging seems less than ideal, just light paper to keep it from the elements!

I have tried so many EGCs, and many of them are quite spectacular. But I guess a lot of the middle of the road ones blend together, and this is one of them. The bergamot and vanilla aren’t as well balanced as I would like. It’s a bit creamy but nothing in it really screams “I’m an ear grey cream!” Don’t get me wrong it’s a nice blend, but I think at this point I am so spoiled by the better EGC blends I’ve tried. However, this does make me really want to mix a coconut tea and EGC together and see what happens!

One from the Traveling Tea Box! I love a good blueberry mix so this is the first one I picked out to cold brew. Considering that I’ll have the box probably until Thursday I’ll be able to get a lot of iced tea out of it! But first, this one. It doesn’t really smell like much but I think that often happens with small samples that have been hanging around among more assertive cousins—it’s hard to discern anything distinct.

Sadly, that kind of transfers over to the taste. I am getting zero blueberry! It really tastes like an unflavored black. There’s maybe a whiff of generic fruit and there’s some nice floral elements (from the big mallow blossom in my spoonful!) but really, it’s just kind of a regular iced tea. The green blueberry blend from the same company smells much more like, well, blueberries so I will give that one a shot next!

I have been hoarding my sample of this from Kasumi no Chajin for a night when I really needed it, but I recently discovered that my local grocery store stocks it! I had not seen them before because they’re not with the tea: there’s a mysterious section next to the spices featuring loose herbs for blending (lemongrass! eucalyptus!) and more exotic teas. $3 for a box of these, so I can definitely afford to keep them stocked!

I love ginger and I often get nauseous, so this is the absolute perfect tea for me. Plus no steeping involved, so when you are really ill you don’t have to stand around waiting for your tea to be done. The instructions say one whole packet per a small mug but there’s a whole lot in here and it smells strong so I used half of one for one of my smaller mugs.

This is quite possibly the strongest ginger tea I’ve ever had! And I love ginger so coming from me that is a big complement. Warming, spicy, with a nice hint of honey that adds flavor but not overpowering sweetness. And not only is it tasty, the ginger acts as an instant nausea killer. I bet it would be great iced too!

Thank you so much for introducing me to this tea (tisane, I suppose!) Kasumi, I am definitely going to always have it on hand!

I am in a sugar coma right now. In the afternoon I indulged in a delicious sakura flan on my tea trip with Mercuryhime, and afterwards I met up with the boy to check out Doughnut Plant. How can I NOT go to a store that Saveur says has some of the best donuts in the world? Of course I didn’t really plan on eating any tonight, I was going to save them, but the creme brulee and tres leches were calling our names… they are rather small (or at least the creme brulee was), but oh man it’s like all the richness of a real dessert wrapped in a donut. So good, but I feel like I don’t need to eat again for a week at least. And there are still 4 donuts left…

While this does not seem like a tea to reach for when you want the opposite of sugar, I found it in the traveling tea box (along with 2 other holiday ones!) and considering that I missed all of the flavors this year I decided to go for it.

I have a love/hate relationship with Celestial Seasonings. They have a small handful of blends that I enjoy from time to time, namely Sleepytime and Bengal Spice, but most of the time it’s just not quite there. I mean, I do tend to be more lenient in my opinion since it’s a bagged tea, but even then they taste… off. I think this blend falls somewhere in between: not great, but not really bad either.

Nutmeg is one of my favorite spices so I was excited to see a blend featuring it, but I am only getting a little whiff of nutmeg and some vanilla. No cinnamon at all! There’s kind of a generic holiday taste, like if you liquified Christmas potpourri and put it in tea. Which sounds gross but it’s not that bad! Well, not good, but not bad either. A decidedly middle of the road tea. But I am happy to have tried it—I want to get all the holiday blend desire out of my system so I can try them and not end up getting a whole box I will never drink!

I picked this one up from the Ovation liquidation sale for its potential as a cold brew in the summertime. Most of my favorite iced teas (for example Cantaloupe & Cream or Green Chestnut) are way too pricey to make in bulk, and while I have a few that I like to make pitchers of I enjoy variety. And with 8 ounces of this one I think it will last quite a while!

This is nice iced, the pineapple is in the forefront and the blueberry a nice burst at the end of the sip. I think I’m going to leave off a rating until it’s hot and really iced tea season, I can see this being so refreshing during the warmer months… especially with a splash of coconut sake.

While waiting for tea to steep earlier this evening (er… last night more accurately, I suppose!) I noticed that these pearls were still sitting in my gaiwan, waiting to unfold all the way. I was in the mood for an iced floral tea so I thought why not brew up a cupful and stick it in the fridge!

I ended up using 5 steeps of this in a small glass, which I popped into the fridge and pulled out a few hours later. Delicious iced! And most surprisingly, that makes 9 steeps in total that I got out of these. Nine! And given how strong the iced tea was I’m pretty sure there were several more in there (though alas, I threw out my leaves already).

Perhaps most surprising is the fact that while the first 4 steeps were lighter on the jasmine it got more dominant as I went along. I can definitely see myself picking up a tin of these in the future, I mean you really can’t beat 9 steeps that are still strong on the jasmine! Upping the rating a bit~

I was watching Iron Chef the other night and the secret ingredient was… tamarind! I got so excited, I turned to the bf and said “I made a tamarind tea!” I’m pretty proud that he didn’t roll his eyes, since he lives with me and obviously knows all about Tamarind Pop because I talk about it constantly. What can I say, I’m addicted!

Since then I’ve made this three times: twice hot, once iced. I gave two ounces to my dad and he thinks this is best cold, and I do agree (he’s become a cold brewing snob, it’s pretty adorable) but honestly it’s perfection to me either way!

This is the cup I made for the bf! He adores cinnamon teas, as does my dad. It seems to be a trait in the men in my life—for example, I think Smaug is probably both of their favorite teas. I like cinnamon in moderation, but strong cinnamon teas aren’t usually my thing, but I grabbed some of this one from the Traveling Tea Box (B) for my boys!

This is…. holy cow, strong cinnamon! Tongue-numbing, mouth-tingling cinnamon. Hot and spicy cinnamon! The orange is a nice background for it, but oh man is this a strongly flavored tea. But if cinnamon is your thing, this is the tea for you!

I am having a tea-obsessed day. I just made 4 different cups at the same time: two hot (one for me, one for the boy), started a quick cold brew, and did a hot gaiwan steep that I stuck in the fridge to drink cold later. Just one of those tea days! But with gross almost-snow-not-quite-rain weather it’s the perfect time for tea.

I have been wanting a baklava tea from the moment I really got into loose leaf. Honey, rose, nuts, bakey goodness. Mmm! In fact, I’ve been saving up to get a custom blend of it. Now… well, let’s just say this tea has fulfilled my needs even though nowhere does it say it’s a baklava blend. I got a very generous sample (if it’s over an ounce can you even call it a sample?!) of this in my second Steep City order and it was love and first sniff, but I’ve been waiting for the right time to try it. Tonight’s the night!

This tea is just… uhnf. Honey, soft floral notes from the rose, a deep nuttiness from the walnut and almond, a strong black base that adds delicious bakey noes. Of course I added honey just to make it extra pastry-like, but that signature flavor was there even before. I am in love with this tea! Another winner from Steep City, I am already planning my 3rd order…

EDIT: Second steep with rock sugar and a tiny splash of cream is divine! A lot more flavor than I was expecting.

I am one tea closer on my quest to try all the Earl Grey Creams. I got a sample of this from Marcel Duchamp, thanks a bunch!

This is STRONG for an EGC. The bergamot is really assertive, but I like a good in your face earl grey so I don’t mind it. Usually the cream tempers the citrus aspect, but this is one of the less creamy earl grey creams that I’ve tried. There’s a hint of vanilla, but this is kind f a reverse of the usual EGC: in most the vanilla/cream is in the forefront followed by bergamot. Here there’s bergamot first and then a whiff of cream!

It’s not bad by any means, it’s a nice change of pace from my usual EG cuppa. I’ll admit that I turn to EG blends far more often than straight EG: cream, smokey, mint, jasmine, rose, lavender, lady grey… but rarely just a straight Earl. This almost fits that profile, really I wouldn’t know it was a cream blend if the label didn’t say so! I got two ounces of their standard EG for Christmas that I have not tried yet, perhaps it’s time for a taste test to see how it compares to this one!

I committed a tea crime with these beautiful pearls! I was preparing a tea package for one of my friends who is just getting into the wide world of loose leaf—I split a good chunk of my Ovation order with her, and I wanted to include some samples of other brands as well. She loves jasmine so I thought I just had to put in some pearls—my little sample packet of this was lying on the table next to the box and I thought perfect! But I had not tried them yet and that won’t do, so I put a cupful in the nearest thing I could find—my gaiwan.

Later that night I really wanted jasmine and was dead tired and didn’t feel like switching to my Ingenuitea which still needed a rinsing out, so I just brewed them up in the gaiwan! But I was not feeling like sitting around trying all the different steeps so I brewed them up 4 times and dumped it all in the same mug. Without tasting the differences! I know, horrifying. But it worked out pretty well!

After 4 steeps these pearls had not fully unfurled so I am saving them for a few more steeps later. This is a really light and sweet jasmine tea, the floral elements aren’t at all soapy and in fact they are very soft, not in-your-face jasmine at all (though that might be because of the steeping method?). This reminds me of the tea you get after a meal of really good Chinese food—fancy restaurant kind, not takeout, where they serve wonderful jasmine blends at the end (that are properly brewed—I have had some very bitter restaurant teas). Sweet green to just perfectly cap off a meal!

I am on a quest to make the perfect bedtime tea. One thing almost all nighttime blends are missing is a creamy factor, which makes sense since they are herbals 90% of the time. And the rooibos ones I can’t drink, so that is not an option! So I’ve decided to just do it myself.

This time: 52te’s Lemon Dreams and Harney & Sons Vanilla Comoro (which is decaf). I did the ratios about half and half: the results were tasty, but the lemon/chamomile/honeybush overpowered the black/vanilla combo. I’m thinking maybe 3 parts vanilla to 2 parts lemon dreams next time.

Though my ideal blend would be mixed myself: chamomile, lemon peel, cinnamon bark and vanilla comoro (since, you know, it’s a bit in the pain in the butt to blend my own decaf vanilla!). Maybe with a little lavender… I really need to make a Mountain Rose Herbs order!

Now this one I know is from Kallieboo! I get so excited to find new matcha flavors in swaps, I’ve tried a large chunk of Red Leaf’s offerings but there are so many I just haven’t gotten around to ordering or sampling. This is one of them! Mostly because I am a dark chocolate girl: I like it so dark and deep it’s barely sweet, 85% cocoa and up please! So white chocolate, which is not even real chocolate, is not my thing. The exception is those Godiva white chocolate raspberry starfish. Yum!

I was a bit wary of this but made up a latte because hey, it’s matcha! I love matcha! The flavor is very interesting: it doesn’t really scream white chocolate to me, which is good because it tastes very fake to my tastebuds (white chocolate, not the tea!). It’s really creamy though, with a thick mouthfeel: thicker than a usual latte, even with all the milk. I think this one would be great for mixing, just to give a creamy sweet boost to other flavors. I am thinking of trying it out with fruity blends, maybe with mango or coconut? OR BOTH and make a pina colada-type tea… with pineapple! Is it a tea sin to mix 4 matchas together? Guess I’ll find out…

I got a bag of this one in a swap and I feel terrible because I don’t remember who it was from! Usually I can tell from the handwriting but obviously there’s none on a teabag. I’m thinking… Kallieboo? Anyway, I don’t have that much experience with mate so I am always happy to try more!

no-tea related rambling below!

The name of this tea brought back so many memories. I majored in cultural anthropology in college, and a book about the Guayaki Indians was the first ethnography I read in my very first anthro class. My college required two courses in the social sciences as part of the core: I took sociology and hated it (but anthro and socio people notoriously don’t get along haha), and decided to give an intro anthropology class a shot for my second.

Looking back, that was the book that got me hooked. It dealt with incredibly complex and decisive topics that often wouldn’t even be touched upon even in a college class: homosexuality in native groups, coming-of-age rituals that involve mutilation, and endocannibalism. I knew anthropology was the major for me when it could get me to see something as foreign and “scary” as cannibalism as a beautiful process. In case you think I’m crazy endocannibalism is not eating random people, but usually includes death rituals in the tribe where a passed member is eaten so they live on forever. In their society, no person is truly dead: they live on forever in the bodies of their friends and family. Kind of beautiful, and very strange.

Anyway, I ended up digging up a lot of my old books because of this tea and flipping through them. I miss my old classes so much! I honestly have half a mind to contact some of my old professors and ask them for reading lists for their classes haha.

end rambling

And now, the tea! Though really, there’s not much to say about this one. It is nice, though unfortunately the top fell off of my honey while I was squeezing a little in so there is WAY too much and it kind of just tastes like honey. The cherry and orange are present but in the background, a very mildly flavored blend.

And the mate… well, I’m still not sure how I feel about mate. It tends to taste like hay to me (unless it is of the roasted variety). Which is funny, because I love guayusa because it tastes like the forest. But hay… not really sure how I feel about this. I need to expand my mate education!

Today is one of those days with a very long to do list but no energy to get anything done. Sigh. I have come down with some sort of bug that I am going to blame NJ transit for, I always get sick whenever I am on those trains. My #1 task for the day is prepping swap packages which are long overdue but I’m feeling like perhaps that is not the best idea when I’m ill. Can tea carry germs? I’m thinking of getting the bf to measure out samples for me if worse comes to worse!

Anyway, the tea! This is one of the blends I got with the $70 voucher, which cost a mere $35 and included free shipping. I have only tried one of their blends before (which of course I forgot to log!) and though they have middling reviews how was I supposed to pass up an opportunity to save that much money?! Compulsive tea spending much?

I’ll admit that I bought this because of the name, plus it’s a variation of my beloved Earl Grey that I have never tried. I really was not prepared for it to be so good! The number one thing they should mention that is nowhere on the ingredients list is that this is clearly and Earl Grey Creme. Yes, a green EGC! I’ve tried black and white EGSc but this marks my first green. There is a very strong cream/vanilla note that is so deliciously cozy, but unlike its black cousin (err black tea cousin) it’s light rather than heavy.

The rhubarb is subtle, adding a bit of tang that blends well with the bergamot. Then there’s a soft, barely-there floral aspect from the rose. Like a little rose kiss at the end of the sip! This is a pretty fantastic EG and it might even make it into my EG staples.

I remember not loving this tea the first time I had it. I didn’t necessarily dislike it but the citrus was too strong and a bit bitter—either I got a weird batch, there was some cross-contamination in the sample, or I over-leafed my cold brew. But this has such rave reviews I wanted to give it another shot, so I threw a sample of it into my last Persimmon Tree order.

So much better this time! The vanilla is sweet and creamy, they could totally call this “vanilla pudding tea” it would be quite accurate. Delish! And the cirtusy vibe is softer now, in the background and cuts the vanilla a bit making it a light and refreshing brew despite the dessert-y quality of the vanilla.

I think DavidsTea’s Vanilla Orchid is my current favorite vanilla oolong (and boy are there a lot of them!) but this is close behind. It reminds me so strongly of the Tea Merchant’s Silk Dragon, but if you look closely between them, Persimmon Tree and Art of Tea many of the blends are near-identical! Persimmon will always be my favorite though because of their great customer service, sample sizes and loyalty program. It’s funny how much difference things like that can make when you’re shopping for tea!