Cofftea

Infusion 7. Oh my gosh… I honestly don’t see why some people don’t resteep their leaves. Not only does it save money, but they’re REALLY missing out flavor wise. Sure you have to wait a lil longer for the leaves to steep, but it’s SO worth it! Although, gotta love being at infusion 7 w/ this tea and only having to wait 2 mins after the water comes to temp. I’ve always steeped my leaves, but w/ every new tea I try I am more amazed at how each infusion can be so different!

The liquor is only a bit, if any, lighter than the 6th infusion. The sent is very faint, but is definitely of green tea. Most of the sweetness is gone, but that’s fine- if I had 7 cups that tasted exactly like the 1st infusion I’d be bored and would have wasted the leaves by dumping them a while ago. It’s a clean green tea.

Infusion 6. 1 min 40 sec. Dark, dull yellow liquor that reminds me of brown mustard. Aroma is very light but sweet. Pretty strong green tea flavor especially considering it’s a 6th infusion. Just a bit of sweetness.

Infusion 5. 1 min 20 seconds. Yellow liquor, sweet aroma, and lightly sweet but not fruity taste that doesn’t cover the taste of the sencha.

Infusion 4. Liquor is a touch lighter, a bit more yellow. Aroma is sweet and you can definitely smell the green tea. Maybe my tastebuds weren’t as damaged as I thought, while this is a very sweet and even fruity tea, there isn’t really any apple flavor. The fruitiness is more mango or strawberryish. Gonna keep steeping it.

3rd infusion, 50 seconds. The liquor is lime greenish! I love greens and have had a lot of them, but I can say this is the 1st liquor I can discribe as lime… pretty! I had this w/ tomato and roasted pepper soup that had quite a bite so that messed up my taste buds, but I’ll discribe what I taste anyway. :) I’m hoping it’s just the red pepper flake, but I don’t really taste apple anymore. Don’t get me wrong, this is a VERY good, still sweet, green tea that I will continue to steep. I just can’t find the apple. The 4th infusion will tell me more.

2nd infusion, 40 seconds. So I settled on increasing each infusion by 10 sec. The liquor is just barely darker. When I smell it the green tea hits me 1st, then the apple, and last a very subtle sour apple aroma. The flavors hit me in the same order as the aromas hit my nose, but they are a little bit stronger than the 1st infusion, almost like I’m drinking my tea backward- weakest to strongest. I like that.

Another tea from Lena! This one has the original packaging so I know I’m steeping it right lol. And I’m glad it does. But it’s here as a back up anyway:) While I know sencha is a green tea, the steeping instructions surprise me. This is my 1st experience w/ flash steeping and it calls for slightly hotter water than I normally use. I went w/ as directed for the time and temp, but decided to go w/ the industry standard of 2.25g of tea per 6oz (I’m always glad when a package calls a cup of tea 6oz) which is actually a little less than a teaspoon. I’m surprised at the density of this tea. One teaspoon is 2.5g.

When it’s done steeping, it doesn’t look like water like I feared. The aroma is definitely apple w/ a light green tea background. But it doesn’t smell like a fresh apple- more like a jolly rancher candy. That’s ok by me, jolly ranchers are sour apple.:) And YAY it tastes just how it smells. It tastes like green tea steeped in watered down apple juice w/ a jolly rancher dissolved in it. If you don’t mind the small amount of caffeine, this would be a WONDERFUL sugar free calorie free substitute for apple juice. For more apple flavor, steep in one apple’s worth of fresh apple juice. I don’t think this would hold up to blending w/ a caramel tea like I originally suspected, unless it was a green base, but I’m really looking forward to blending this w/ adagio’s bengal green chai. My only problem is figuring out how much to increase steeping time for additional infusions… I normally steep greens for 3 min and increase infusions by 1 min so should I keep the 1/3 ratio and increase it by 10 seconds?

2nd infusion. Pretty much like the 1st. Very light green tea taste, then sweetness, then a bit of mint.

I blended 2.25g w/ 1.12g of dried organic home grown orange mint. Because of the mint I decided to only steep this for 2 min instead of my normal 3. I like my tea stronger so although this is a blend I’m thinking of steeping them separately so I can steep the orange mint for only 2 min then use that herbal tisane to steep the gensing green for 3. The gensing green is definitely lighter (it only steeps for 3 normally so what can you expect for 1/3 less time?), but so is the peppermint. I don’t taste the orange, but I do taste a sweetness (not sweetener sweetness) that hits me before the bite of the mint does which is nice. I find coming back to mint blends ironic because that’s the way I started w/ loose leaf… putting mint in EVERYTHING. Mint (unless it’s chocolate mint) isn’t my favorite anymore. Yay for maturing tastebuds!

Infusion 3 for mom again. She came home from her colonoscopy very cold.

Infusions 1 and 2. 16oz of water, 6g of tea leaf, and 3g of dried ginger root. Backlooging infusion 1 from last nite- made it for my mom who was very sick to her stomach due to having to take a whole bottle of miralax for her colonoscopy prep and I had the 2nd infusion (steeped for 4 min) this morning.

infusion 5, 9 min. Liquor and aroma not much, if at all, lighter than infusion 4. Now THIS is the white tea I wanted! No strawberry or cakey flavor, but it is still sweet. A good white tea flavor. I’ll keep resteeping it. I actually like that by infusion 5 the strawberry is gone because it tastes like a completely different tea w/o steeping something different.

infusion 4, 8 min. Liquor and aroma are lighter. Can’t speak for the flavor again though- this one was mom’s.

3rd infusion… The liquor is just more like the 1st steep. The aroma is slightly lighter, still sweet but no cakey aroma. Really no cake flavor either although the strawberry flavor is still very much there. Because of that I’ll steep at least one more time.

2nd steep. Aroma is strong like the 1st and the liquor is only slightly lighter. Can’t speak for the flavor though, making this infusion for my mom who’s just starting her prep for her colonoscopy tomorrow. I’m still convinced there are some black leaves in here. There are a lot of dark leaves that are unfortunately also finely minced.

I got this in a tea swap (thanks Lena!:D) and it was labeled w/ just the name and company name. I was not around a computer when I prepared this to look at the “as directed” preparation so I guessed. Inspite of what the dry leaf looked like (green or white) I just assumed it was a black tea because most dessert teas are black. If I would have known this was a white tea, I would have not only prepared it properly, I would have been MUCH more thrilled about it because I prefer white and green teas and I’m always looking for more dessert teas.

The fact that this is a white tea is why I thought the liquor was pretty light for a black tea… medium brown. The scent was definitely that of strawberries… strawberry jam to be exact. When I taste it I can definitely taste the strawberry jam flavor, but (thankfully) I can also taste the pound cake that short cake is made from. But most importantly, inspite of me screwing this one up, I can still taste the tea. YAY! A sign of a good tea is you can screw it up buy not steeping it the way you intended to and it still tastes good. This would be good to use in a simple syrup to sweeten strawberries instead of plain water.

Infusion 3. Really light. Should have stopped at 2:( I really wish the coffee beans were as big in the tea as they are in the pic.:( Since the 3rd infusion is pretty weak, it’s a good tea for a person who likes just a cup or two of coffee in the morning before moving on to something else because you don’t have to work about wasting endless infusions just to switch teas.

I think this is the Cafe Latte, Fava Tea Co. sells. If it is… YUMMY! Great to steep your coffee in instead of plain water. I make a blend of 1/2 (1.12g) Cafe Latte and 1/2 Adagio’s Rum plus .56g chai spice mix.

No notes yet.

Steeped in 3oz water then added 3oz milk. I’ve had this steeped in just water and it just tastes like a cinnamon spice black tea. Adding milk is the only way to get an egg nog like taste. Better yet, steep in 3oz water then add 3oz egg nog.

Infusion 3

2nd infusion

I have a HUGE headache today so I’m drinking this in a blend of 2 parts Ginseng Green (2.25g) to one part each (1.13g) dried lemon verbena and ginger root.

Infusion 3

Sweetness is gone. Just a basic black tea now. I could get another infusion of this, but I’m tired of it.