BlueKittyMeow

Remember those chocolate oranges they had in the 90s? This smells just like them.
This tastes lightly sweet with a lingering floral or orange aftertaste. Not positive that I love this, but I was craving a nice black tea. I like this with milk – it brings out the orange floral notes.

This was really vegetal – almost like a green tea with zest. I definitely taste the mate but I wasn’t getting much, if any, of the citrus flavor.
Regardless, this was a great tea to wake up with. Our dog this morning (I own a grooming salon) was the sweetest golden… unless anyone touched her front feet! At which point she would try to bite. We took a short break halfway through and I made a matcha shake. The combo was great for staying energized and calm.

I used 2 tsps of this. I feel like I’m getting the flu – all chilled :( So I figured some chocolate tea therapy was in order!
This smells so delicious – like a cup of brownies. The liquid is kind of cloudy like cider.
The chocolate flavor was decent but not as present as I would have liked.

Hmm. This is weird, nutty, and something else. An almost overwhelming vegetal dryness. It’s interesting. I think this is only the second dragonwell I have had and I have to say that it’s not my favorite kind of tea so far.

Okay, so this is ridiculous.
My fiance is over and we are playing Wine Pong.
First round, he won.
Second round I insisted we take a break and play a round of “Tea Pong”. And what tea to play with than Merlot Tea?
Keep in mind for this tasting that I have some lousy Yellowtail Cabernet Merlot on my palate ;) (okay, it’s not that bad).
For the leaves I get the best whiff of chocolate. Yum.
(Oh yeah, buzzed side note: my fiance assisted me in explaining gongfu tea ceremony by calling the tea tray “kind of like a tea toilet” describing the water disposal. You can, of course, see why I love him.)
Back to the Merlot Black Tea. Oh wait! Damn the merlot. I forgot earlier – I took pictures so you can all see how ridiculous this is.
Evidence: http://www.flickr.com/photos/71654987@N06/8018298699/
The merlot tea now.
Taste wise, this reminds me of my comfort black tea (okay, red rose, but a really good red rose!). My fiance was reminded of Thai Red Tea. I’m not getting a ton of wine flavor until the finish which is nicely astringent in the same way that wine is.
Okay so we played tea pong and if I ever edit down the footage I’ll upload it to my flickr. Until then you can just picture a slightly drunk tea-afficionado making tea jokes while sipping this tea and playing pong. It was awesome.
The tea is great. My fiance and I both enjoyed this – not so much wine flavor but definitely wine astringency and tea flavor.
Thanks, Amanda for sending this along in the package :)

I love that this smells like puffed wheat cereal. I’m a weirdo – that is one of my favorite cereals :)
I didn’t really notice the matcha dusting visually in the leaves.
Wow, the flavor. This is not like any tea I have had so far. Bizarre… I don’t dislike it but I am puzzled. First I am hit with a nutty puffed wheat flavor. Then a little bit of green then… metal? I am tasting a kind of light tin flavor. Imagine chewing on tin foil and then having, not that initial burst, but an aftertaste of that. I feel it right at my gumline behind my teeth… so weird. Even weirder is, I don’t dislike it. Weird… weird weird weird.
More sips.
Now I can kind of taste that matcha. It’s faint. I get more of it if I kind of do the wine tasting thing and incorporate air with the sip (aka “slurping”).
Tin flavored tea. I honestly have no idea what I think of this. I’m still drinking it and it’s interesting.

Yay! Marshmallow roasting time!
Seriously the dry leaf has the lapsang souchong scent but with another sweeter note. Marshmallow!
I have a special fondness for marshmallow (good marshmallow, that is). I have the incredible privilege of living near the great salt marsh. My sister and I grew up playing on it, running across it, conquering its muddy rivers and creeks. We would leap into the salt water at high tide and at low tide we slip down the slick muddy banks and go like seals or penguins through the bottoms of the creeks. The sun would bake the mud onto us and as the tide rose again we would rinse off and let the winds and grasses dry our legs.
It really is that free and perfect.
Marshmallow is not just the sticky stuff in a tub, it’s also a plant. Sometimes around here you can find decent homemade marshmallow. I love the word though – we named our boat “Marsh-mallow” (or Marsh-mellow, we never could decide!).
In good weather we take the boat through the inlets and channels. We push the throttle up and skim across the water in the big channels and then laughing, let it putter down and muddle through the water sending only smooth ripples to run around us.
We beach ourselves at a little scrap of sand and marshgrass where snails are always in abundance. I like to leap off the edge of the boat, plunging down into the increasingly chill water until I just touch bottom and push off to the surface. Then someone throws me a tow-rope and we drag the boat closer to shore. You have to be careful not to step on all of the little snails that litter the beach there, hundreds of them. Horseshoe crabs lurk underwater as well, so boat-shoes are a must!
We eat sandwiches, leap around amongst the driftwood, and then after we are getting chilled we change into new clothes (if we were smart enough to pack them) behind towels and pack up onto the boat.
The ride back is a study in wonder as the sun sparks flintlike on the water and hits the back of our eyes, closed to the wind, in meandering patterns that map themselves like rivers in the mind. We drive fast now because we are all cold and tired. Speeding along, riding at the bow, leaning over the edge, drunk on sunlight and salt air is a moment of transcendence.

Great Salt Marsh. Seriously. Read about it. Go there. Donate to save them. I hate to think about the damage being done to them by building, contamination from trash, as well as whatever was causing them to die off up and down the coast. We are always careful when we go not to damage them. We might play on them, but we avoid the nesting birds and are careful not to cause erosion on the banks.

You can see some pictures of the changing seasons here: http://www.townofstratford.com/content/1302/402/625/1100/5066/5085.aspx

Ahem
Back to the tea. It is good. It reminds me of camping (which is a completely different set of free associations, although still marsh related as we used to go camping at the beach when I was a kid). I like the smokiness of the lapsang with the sweet burned marshmallow.

Thanks Amanda – this was part of the package she put together :)
Brewed up this smells kind of like amaretto – it has a light alcoholic scent.
This is neat – it’s a really smooth nice rooibos. There is a caramel flavor here that really works. That and the cream flavor. The chocolate flavor is a bakers chocolate kind of flavor in the background.
Yum!

This was another of the samples that Angel from Teavivre sent along (thank you!).
I toyed with the directions a tiny bit. I did use boiling water for this oolong (I usually use just under boiling) and steeped it for 2 minutes. The leaves didn’t smell too distinctive – mostly just very vegetal and… chalky perhaps? In a good way :)
Brewed up though this smells mind blowing. Buttered greens. I freaking love the scent of oolongs.
This is very thick with a little bit of astringency. I can sense the creaminess here… it goes nicely with the buttery flavor.
A few seconds go by… ummm yum. It is doing the “oolong throat coating” that I love. Oh! And a surprise! There is a salty sweet aftertaste at the finish with… I don’t even know what the flavor is. Something great and “back of the throat sweet”, if you know what I mean. Artichokes maybe, if artichokes were actually sweet (and lightly salty).
This is great – it keeps unfolding. Not super complex, but super tasty :)

Wow – first time tasting matcha I was completely surprised by the flavors. Grassy, vegatal… my first impression was honestly “ick!”. After a few sips though some great nuttiness came out. This has an incredible zing to it. I seriously felt kind of drugged or loopy.
I made a second one with milk to see if I could emphasize the nuttiness and it really did. I kind of like the matcha plain but I love it with milk. I think if I give it time I can get accustomed to having it plain.

The tuocha smells nice – subtle, just a little dark in some way. Not smokey – more like a sweetness of something like caramel.
Tastewise, I’m not digging this. My first infusion I only tasted something like wet cardboard. The liquor smelled much fishier as well.
I figured the steep time might need to be increased so I did a second infusion for 4 minutes.
The second steep was much more flavorful. It had a funny astringency (the cardboard flavor) but it actually worked when the supporting flavors came out (there is a creamy richness under this, like I added heavy cream or something and a nice cocoa flavor).
I had a really hard time rating this tea because it kept changing. I wasn’t wowed by it, but then again, I’m not a pu erh afficionado. I am going to keep playing with this one.

I like this tea. I like it because it completely shocked me.
Green apple, huh? I was expecting something sour or bitter (I’m not a huge green apple fan). This is neither of those things.
What it is is a surprisingly smooth green tea. The apple peeks out, mingling its astringency with that of the green tea. I don’t taste the other dried berries so much as… perceive them, I guess. They are on the periphery offering a tiny bit of sweetness and a tiny zing. I smell them more than taste them. I really love the mix of apple, cranberry, and green tea. It’s nothing I would have put together myself but it really works.
This tea is just plain interesting. I keep thinking that it’s just a basic sipping tea and I keep finding myself enjoying the aftertaste (that’s where the berry flavors come through) and the interplay of the flavors.
ETA – Thanks, STEAp Shop for the sample! This is for the Virtual Tea Tasting 9/23/12

Confession: I don’t really like mint. I know… mint can be so awesome. It is good if you feel sick, it smells amazing, it’s great in candy canes and of course, in mint juleps (I do like making mint juleps with my own wild mint and homemade simple syrup), lots of great stuff!
But mint in tea isn’t my cuppa. That said, this tea was pretty nice. I feel like there is stevia in it, it had a pleasant sweetness to it. I ended up getting to my cup when it was a little cooler. I want to try this again, hotter and with a little more leaf to water.
But heck, I’m impressed. It was a mint tea that I didn’t dislike!

ETA – I just saw in the description that the tea has ginko in it – maybe that was the sweet element? I definitely have to try this again!

ETA Again – Thanks, STEAp Shop for the sample! This is for the Virtual Tea Tasting 9/23/12

I love the scent of this – it is umami and smokey and meaty in a great way.
This is so neat – it’s completely different from the other lapsang souchong I like. It is sweet! It has a nice astringency to it – I never really like astringency in my tea but this is nice because it balances out the sweetness.
This lapsang is a little lighter on the smokey flavor. I actually really like super dark smokey flavors in lapsang souchong, but I’m still enjoying this. I am going to try it with milk. The addition of milk brings out the sweetness – I love this as a breakfast tea.

This sample was generously sent along by Angel from Teavivre – thank you!
This is the first dragon well I have tried. The liquour was so light I was afraid I hadn’t used enough leaf (I might not have – I don’t have my little gram scale right now).
The flavor is subtle and interesting. It has a buttery scent to it, with a nutty flavor with a funny vegetal aftertaste. I’m not sure that I like it, but I am going to experiment with it and try a shorter steep with more leaves.

Fruit loops! OMG this smells just like fruit loops brewed up. Tastes nothing like them, thank goodness! I like this. The citrus is seriously backgrounded which is more to my liking than overwhelming acidity.
There is some sweetness at the finish – otherwise I’m not tasting too much, but this is perfect for an evening drink to put me to sleep. I’m actually feeling sleepy already…

This smells much better than the mango rooibos I tried last night. Still more piney than I am used to, but not bad.
This tastes much better than the mango blend too! It’s still not quite my favorite rooibos (it has the hint of cough syrup to it) but very drinkable and enjoyable.

This smells like a pine tree… I usually love rooibos so I wasn’t not too worried, more just puzzled. The mango pieces are huge and the sunflower petals looked awesome.
Flavor – this is the first time I have ever tasted any of the “medicinal/cough syrup” notes in a tea. I’m not surprised that this is basically adagio’s lowest rated rooibos. Epic tea fail tonight :(
I asked my mother her opinion. She said “this tastes like something that isn’t food”. I suggested cough syrup and she said “that’s it!”. She kind of liked it actually though. I’ll finish my cup, just because it’s way too late to make anything else. At least my mom liked it!

Bottom line – if you like very syrupy or sweet teas (like my mother does) this might be right up your alley.

This was the second of the two tea samples I requested.
I’m debating something here – is this tea just intrinsically not so great? I don’t know. Should pear, pecans, and oolong not be put together in a tea? Very likely.
I thought the pecan might play well with the occasional butteriness of oolong and that the pear might be nice with floral notes.
I don’t know… this tastes burnt… like burnt coffee. I think the pecans overwhelm things. If I were to try again, I would probably brew the oolong at a lower temp. The package said boiling, but 195 might have been better.
I think the oolong might not have been that great. My sister hated it and I ended up pouring it out :(

This sample came today – peach and zabaglione. The packaging was really cute :)
The scent is a little artificial, but not bad. I ended up adding milk to this. I don’t really taste “zabaglione” but to be fair, I’ve never actually tried zabaglione! The peach flavor was nice.
My blend was just peach and zabaglione without the extras Azzrian’s had.

This smells amazing! It’s 3:14 and I need to stay up for a while longer before I can sleep. I’m looking for something to skirt the line between invigorating and relaxing. Impossible? Hah!
This is wonderfully citrusy and fruity smelling. Flavor-wise it’s pretty mediocre. Okay to sip on, but I’m not tasting any of the scents from it.

Wow, today was hectic… there’s nothing like having a broken finger, helping someone with a broken foot repot dozens of plants while trying to keep several dogs and many cats from eating/burying the plants or tipping over the half filled pots.
A pot of tea is definitely what I need now after so many plant pots.
Thanks, Fusion Teas for the sample!
The flavor is great – it smells exactly like pumpkin pie. I don’t taste a ton of pumpkin though – mostly I taste sweetness and vanilla. It’s a pretty smooth relaxing cup though. The rooibos gives it a nice smooth mouth feel.
To counter some of my other posts where I quoted modernist poets, I should note here that I am enjoying this tea while watching Tommy Boy with Chris Farley and David Spade.
Perfect almost-Fall combo <3

The scent is very strong! Okay, here’s the deal. I’m giving Earl Grey a second chance. The only times I had had it, years ago, were as bagged teas. I disliked it then, but I think I really ought to give it another shot. The leaves smell very strongly of citrus.
The tea black is really interesting. Moderately astringent and with a definite citrusy flavor but… I like it! Shocking.
I actually like it better without milk – the milk adds a nutty element that doesn’t blend so well.
I think I’m a fan though – hurray for (re)trying (old)new things!

This is another sample that Fusion Teas generously sent to me :)
My fiance came over last night and specifically requested a tea session. I first let hi, try the Jumpy Monkey tea I had that he was interested in. He liked it so much I sent it home with him.
Next I decided to brew up a pot of the Caramel Chai pu-erh. The scent of the leaves is wonderful – deep, earthy, salted caramel-y, umami awesomeness.
Brewed up, it was much smoother than the spicy scent would have you expect. I definitely tasted all the chai spices, but they weren’t overpowering. I didn’t end up tasting too much of the caramel in the final tea, and the pu-erh was also backgrounded as well, but I liked that – I wasn’t in the mood for an overwhelming pu-erh last night.
My fiance really liked it and we finished the pot together. It’s a nice tea to warm up with on a cool night at the beginning of fall.