Cait

Interesting! I dropped some leaves in my mug and poured down-a-bit-from-boiling water in, then spent several minutes going “ooh” as the leaves gracefully unrolled and arrowed down through the water. The water started darkening almost right away and was a pinkish sort of gold by the time most of the leaves were off the top of the mug and I could start sipping.

The first steep of this was really strong. Not bitter, but certainly harsh. I wasn’t enamored, but I figured I might as well keep going (if nothing else, the excuse to get up and walk away from the project documentation I’m writing for long enough to heat the water was a draw!).

By the second steep, all of the leaves were down on the base of the mug, but many of them were just barely touching down, like they were dancing around down there. To my surprise, this steep was very different, smoother and with a lingering sweet aftertaste to each sip. For the third steep, it’s sweet almost all the way through, with a lingering astringency and juiciness.

No notes yet.

Okay, “sour” isn’t really the right word. There’s something going on here which I’m experiencing as neither bitter nor sweet, though, and I can’t seem to mesh it with my “caramel tea” expectations. Perhaps I’m just holding it up against Fortnum & Mason’s vanilla tea.

Okay, this gets a bit more of a bump up. It makes a really nice cold-brewed fizzy iced tea!

Cold-brewed fizzy iced tea:
1. In a lidded glass carafe, put:
-* 2 liters cold seltzer water
-* 3 heaping teaspoons of Sun’s Up
-* 2 heaping teaspoons of sugar
2. Cuss while running for the sink because you forgot that adding sugar to seltzer water makes it fizz up.
3. Clean the outside of the carafe.
4. Add another teaspoon of Sun’s Up to the carafe to replace what was lost in the fizzing up.
5. Put the lid on.
6. Put the carafe in the fridge.
7. Check on it periodically to watch it turn a gorgeous pink color.
8. For lunch the next day, put your tea basket over a tall glass and pour the iced tea through it to strain.
9. Sip contentedly, enjoying the coolness of the mint with the sharpness of the hibiscus and seltzer.
10. Eye the rest of the carafe greedily.

No notes yet.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, pear.

No notes yet.

Bizarrely sour. I’m going to give it the benefit of the doubt and hold off rating until I can try this again with a fresh steep.

This also makes a lovely mid-day palate cleanser!

Hmm. I tried this with the mini-steeps that Life in Teacup recommends for oolongs — they seemed like a good fit for my new mini-teapot! — but I think I might try this again with the long steeping suggested by Samovar next time.

This tea smells earthy; I can’t think of another way to describe it. With short steeps, though, it tastes lighter and feels heavier than that. I had four cups in four hours — not a whole lot, really, given how teeny-tiny omg adorable this little teapot is — and I felt full and weighed down! For the fifth steep, I went for three minutes, and the resulting tea changed quite a bit: it was more complex and it tasted a bit heavier. However, it also grew bitter very quickly as it cooled.

Ah, there we go. That’s what I remember from that first tasting. Note to self: there’s no point in making this tea if you make it too weak!

(Further note to self: when you order more, order a lot more so you’re not tempted to try stretching it out!)

Tried to make an iced tea out of this, but alas I made it too weak — there was hardly anything to taste. I need to get some nice carafes for overnight fridge steeping, I think.

Huh. Given that I have no idea how old this teabag is but guesses range from two to five years, this is a surprisingly nice peppermint tea.

Oh, the joys of cleaning the storage closet!

No notes yet.

I made a weaker pot of it this time, to share, and the pepper was definitely not as sharp. Still exciting, though!

Mmm, this is just a darn fine breakfast tea.

Hmm. I’m not sure what I’m doing differently this time, but I’m getting much less of a smoky flavor, which is a shame — I’d really been craving the smoky/sweet taste of this one. It’s still there, but weaker. Perhaps I used too little leaf?

Oh yeah, I’m drinking dessert tea for breakfast and you can’t stop me!

Bumping it up a few notches for making a nice iced tea. (Not, alas, fantastic enough to make me feel better about having shattered the top of my favorite glass teapot in steeping it.)

Iced, with a bit of honey during the brewing and a bit of sugar cooled, it gives a mint front with a rose hip kicker. And it’s very very pink. This would probably be a good party drink!

Eh. There’s nothing wrong with this tea, but nothing exciting, either. It smelled a bit smoky, but I couldn’t find any taste of it; mostly it was just spearmint, with an aftertaste of tea.

I think I approach mint tea the way some people approach coffee: I keep hoping it will taste as good as it smells, and I keep being disappointed.

No notes yet.

This tea smells amazingly like lemon candy when dry. Sadly, that probably bumped the tea down a few notches here, because it doesn’t taste like lemon candy — it’s very sweet (I did add honey as they recommended), and it definitely has both lemon and candy tones, but it’s not that bright lemon drop experience. On the other hand, once I got over that disappointment, it’s a lovely lemon green tea! It’s very smooth and earthy underneath the lemon — brewed it smells a bit grassy, in a really nice way — and it’s not at all puckery, nor is it medicinal once the honey is added. (It was faintly back-of-the-mouth-medicine in the first few sips before I put in a small squeeze of honey, but that might also have been that the water was still rather hot.)

Also, it’s very pretty dry: take a look at the picture!

No notes yet.

First of March’s sample set!

Hmm. This is tasty, but there are mouth-pucker throat-burn levels of tanginess here. Perhaps I’ll try shorter steeps, or more honey.

Edited to add: Weirdly, adding copious amounts of honey to the second steep brings the mint way, way out — it’s like an entirely different tea! A far too sweet tea, unfortunately. Now I shall have to hunt for a happy medium….