Cofftea

My package from Jaime (who I just noticed never logged this… I even had to enter it into the database) came yesterday- thanks! Dove + Tea = HOLY CRAP! …enough said. I know everyone’s tastes in tea is different and “drink what you like, but like what you drink”… but every once in a while I come across a tea I personally love so much that I can’t fathom another person not loving. It’s not that I’m saying “you should like this!”, I just want to share my love for that tea w/ others. Just reading the name makes me think this will be one of those teas.

Pouch 1/2
In a cup of black coffee… that’s the closest you’ll get me to drinking anything powdered (hot chocolate, instant chai, etc) in plain water- the only exceptions to that are matcha and Tipu’s instant chai, but I think that’s because it doesn’t have any dairy in it. Mixing an instant chai containing milk in water to me is kinda like forcing it to be something it’s not. It tries to be milky, but it just fails and the result is flavored watery milk. (I’m also not a “splash of milk in my tea” kinda woman)… ok, whoa, ADHD rant over- but I did want to explain my motivation.

Yep. Coffee. Chocolate. Milk. Spice. In that order. It’s unfortunatley really sweet. No wonder, it has sugar and honey. If they must sweeten, I can see adding honey because it adds flavor as well, but the sugar is just excessiveness. Aside from that, it’s very good. Completely enjoyed it, but over sweetness as reason for not liking it would totally be justified. (Not that one needs justification.) I also can’t stand that there are “schtuff” in here that I can’t pronounce. It’s like, dude- I can find a recipe for this w/o any of that crap, it doesn’t need to be put in.

One more. Paired it w/ Twinings Organic Fair Trade Breakfast Tea. The tea was really good and was amazing w/ the shortbread. The spices are so light that the tea covered them completely, but they weren’t really there to begin w/ anyway. The pineapple in this one kept getting caught in my teeth. Not cool.

Twinings Order 5/27

I normally don’t like unflavored blacks, but this is a good solid, smooth, slightly sweet black tea. Strong, but not bitter in the slightest. I’m SO glad I only steeped this for 2 min! And goes great w/ Adagio’s vanilla chai cookies. This covers the spices completely, but it’s not like they were there to begin w/…

3/7

Made as directed… Hmmm… this definitely different than the mix w/ dried milk and creamer (which I always drink w/ milk)… I was expecting a thicker beverage… even my lose leaf steeped in half milk, half water seems creamer- strange.

Ripped these open as soon as they came today. It’s obvious that they’re shortbread when I bite into them. The texture is a bit crunchy on the verge of gritty because of the tea and spices… but I can’t really taste them… there is; however, a big piece of pineapple in the last bite. Good, but I think it’s weird to have pineapple in a vanilla chai cookie. I bet i can make much better cookies w/ Tipu’s instant chai.

Twinings order 4/27

W/ lunch. (Mac n cheese). I’ve been having problems w/ their greens being bitter, but this one isn’t only not bitter… it’s very light. Absolutely not what I’d expect ffrom a bagged green.

Twinings order 3/27

Not gross… but weird… I can’t even discribe it. Artificial? Yeah… that’s it… Fakey Fakerton from… ok yeah I’m gonna stop now. But it’s so weird. Almost like it was made from a weird extract or syrup (w/ no sweetness).

2/7

W/ water and 1TB dark chocolate coffee creamer. You can definitely taste the chocolate, but it isn’t as strong as when I have it in coffee, no doubt because of the spices. In spite of the additon of chocolate it’s still not overly sweet although it is richer. Would still call this a more savory dessert. Yum!

1/7

My neighbor is addicted to their slow brew, but doesn’t like this because something is it gives her a stomach ache. So I get the sample she got. I completely disregarded the instructions (except for the tea/liquid ratio). I’m going to be trying this 7 ways: just water, water and coffee creamer, just milk, half water half milk, just coffee, coffee and creamer, and cold brewed coffee and milk (2oz coffee, 6oz milk. …Oh, and I’m not going to take their advice w/ any of them and not sweeten at all.

This attempt is the way I try all my chai’s 1st: clean w/ water. Dry, the blend makes me immediately think “pumpkin spice” both in appearance and aroma- it also packs into my teaspoon like very fine brown sugar. Mixed, the appearance and the mouthfeel is very thick and inspite of my fears (Frank has made me a chai ~itch I’m so spoiled w/ his), this is REALLY spicy… like almost as spicy as his! Of course there’s a different taste to it cuz the spice isn’t coming w/ cayenne. Of course there’s no chocolate in it, but if I keep saying “it’s not supposed to be here” as I drink it, I don’t really miss it. It’s weird, but the 1st thing I think of when I drink this is “savory dessert”… Does that make sense? I’d definitely reach for this after a heavy meal when I don’t want anything sweet, but I’m still craving dessert.

Ladies and gentlemen I give you… raspberry echinacea matcha lemonade! 1 bag steeped in a cup of boiling water for 3 min, add 1 packet of stevia, let sit til it’s room temp, refrigerate, then add 2TB lemon juice and a tsp of matcha and shake. Mostly berry, a bit of lemonade and a vegetal matcha finish. I think I’m gonna add RoT’s Mango Chilli Green Bush and ginger next time for the ULTIMATE cold kicker.

And my 1st yr. on steepster comes to a close. Celebrating w/ matcha OJ!

Ok… this is getting a major rating boost. Made it the way I normally have my chai 1 cup each water and Fat Free Smart Balance milk and added a min of steeping time. No sweetener. This is the best non chocolate chai I’ve EVER had… and I’m shocked it’s a decaf bag. The spices aren’t strong, they’re very smooth… I’m not sure why, but I swear this even has a different texture than my Mayan Chocolate Chai. This has a lot of similar qualities to the authentic Indian chai I had at a restaurant once only it’s actually drinkable lol. I’m thinking the milk in that chai just had scorched milk… I dunno. Anyway REALLY good. I suggest making it w/ chocolate milk.

TWININGS ORDER 2/27

Kinda surprised I had to enter this one. I admit I don’t have high expectations for this. I don’t prefer bags and I’ve only had one decaf chai… which was a loose leaf disaster. But why not?

I find it weird Twinnings doesn’t package their bagged teas consistantly. The last tea I had was in a box not wrapped in plastic and the bags were not wrapped individually and did not contain tags… all 3 are true of this box.

When I open the box I immediately think “instant chai mix” which is odd cuz I’ve never had a bagged or loose chai that smelled like that.

1 bag/8oz water, served clean.

Once steeped, the very dark brown liquor w/ red tones smells much like it did raw. Definitely spicy- not much of the tea.

Ok, this is MUCH better than my last decaf chai experience. It’s pretty much all spice and no tea, but that’s ok- I didn’t get either in my last decaf chai experience. The mouthfeel is smooth and heavy. Not bad at all if you want a black chai w/o caffeine.

Twinings Order 1/27

I couldn’t resist a Twinnings order, my 1st, when they were giving away free samples of their new organic teas. But my order is shocking. It contains 11 fruit or herbal blends (6 purchased, 5 free samples) and are ALL bagged teas. I did this simply for the sake of cost and the fact that I knew I could get thru a box of tea faster than I could a tin of loose leaf. Storage of the tins was also a factor.

Made 24oz and had it w/ a sun dried tomato and pepper chicken pesto flat bread lean cuisine.

It’s kinda hard to tell, but the leaf seems to be EXTREMELY fine and there’s an odd scent I can’t place. Steeped, the tea smells like an orange green tea (mandarin specifically).

Once steeped the flavor is definitely of orange. Almost those orange gummy candies only w/o the sugar. At first I thought there was also note of bitter pith or orange peel, but unfortunately it’s the green tea base. There also seems to be notes of flower, but I’ve never had lotus so I can only guess that’s what it is. It was a fairly goood tea, I just wish the bitterness wasn’t there.

2nd infusion w/ dinner. Left over Chinese- Lemon Chicken w/ white rice… my FAVE! My family are not Chinese food eaters so I only get it on my birthday.

Made 24oz of this today. I bought this when it was featured for the roots campaign and am just now opening it. Not sure I’m getting honey notes in this or not… there’s a lot of sweetness, but it’s hard to tell if it’s honey-eque. I do find it funny that they don’t mention peach. This is a wonderfully sweet, peachy, and floral tea. I think this time I’ve gotten more floral notes than usual and less peach… A wonderful light, but not green, pseudo flavored oolong

2nd infusion w/ lunch… some sort of REALLY spicy, REALLY good chicken fajitas (started out as a combo plater, but mom had the shrimp ones) that mom brought home left over from her business lunch at Applebees, but I can’t find them on the menu for some reason. Just a touch stronger than the 1st infusion.

Ugh… Madison has been getting up @ 7:30 when mom leaves for work the past 3 days. And because I took melatonin last nite I’m pretty out of it. My throat isn’t up to par, but at least I’m not hacking today. I remembered I had this and thought it would be good on my throat since I don’t have mint. Whites aren’t my 1st choice to make since I don’t have my scale replaced yet, but I’m drinking it more for functionality this morning so I figure I’ll be fine.

4TB leaf/16oz hot water (see below) then 8oz cold water (note to self: Get bigger IngenuiTEA)

The light orange liquor smells light and sweet. The base is still pretty substantial, definitely not wimpy. The honey gives it body and a slight thickness, but does not coat my throat (yay!). This is actually probably the best cuppa of a tea I’ve made w/o my scale that I use my scale for. That makes me happy.

How did I ever manage for 3 months as a telemarketer? Sure, I was REALLY horse by the end of my work week which included working 36 hrs in 4 days, 2 of which were 12 hr days… but I’ve only been calling 4 days now, about 6 hrs a day and I’m coughing so hard I’m almost making myself sick. I NEED mint green tea… unfortunately this is the only bag I have and I have no loose either.

I’m definitely drinking this for functionality tonite- I didn’t even check their suggested prep. Steeped a bit hotter and longer than usual to bring out more peppermint.

Inspite of my abuse, it still does have light and smooth qualities in addition to the slight bitterness from the battered green tea. The mint isn’t as strong as I need it to be, but it’s still very nice.

Added a tsp to the Raspberry V8 V-Fusion +Tea. Luckily the color wasn’t as nasty as I expected, but I really couldn’t taste the matcha either. I need a stronger tasting matcha.

Made a 6oz cuppa and put 1TB of Dark Chocolate Creme Breve creamer in it. HOLY CRAP THIS IS CHOCOLATEY! Probably the most chocolatey drink I’ve ever had other than drinking chocolate. The creamer is very heavy on the chocolate and very heavy on the creme… not so much on the dark, which disappoints me. The freakish amount of chocolate cuts the spice down much more than I expected, but it’s still very much there.

Haha too funny… mom comes home from grocery shopping at Walmart, shows me a bottle (regular, not sample) of this and says “here, this sounded like you’d like this.” Just goes to show how she pays attention to me since I drank the sample right infront of her. Oh well, lol

This definitely doesn’t have enough nutritional value in it as is, so I added a tsp of matcha to it. Let’s see how it goes since there aren’t many ways I like cold matcha…

OK, I’m REALLY glad it doesn’t look as nasty as I expected it to. I think that’s cuz the juice is already very dark purple straight out of the bottle.

The flavor of the juice is so strong I really can’t taste the matcha, but then again I used LeafSpa matcha, I think if I used a stronger flavored matcha like DoMatcha I would… I’ll try that tomorrow.

Tastes really good, but not enough fruit and veggie nutrition in it for me to spend my own money on. I’ll enjoy it since it’s free though:)

Made 24oz of this to have w/ lunch (fresh salsa, chips, and watermelon). The ginseng will keep me energized and productive…. I hope lol.

Busy day of wedding planning (my best friend’s, not mine)- had this before my day started.