JacquelineM

Just a note of continued appreciation for this one. I love Golden Monkey so much, and Harney’s is still the most consistently delicious one that I’ve found. Sweet honeyfruity which turns milky on subsequent steeps. Fantastic resteeper. Good at any temperature. Wonderful with a croissant!

I am very low, and I just checked — there is some available to purchase. It’s pricey, but very much worth it to me. Heaven.

Delicious. Everything I love in a black tea. Tangy, roasty, chocolatey. Am I tasting cinnamony too? While it tastes kind of similar to the Fujian blacks I adore, and kinda similar to The Simple Leaf’s Dawn (!) it definitely also has it’s own thing going on. I keep on tasting a variety of nuances each time I sip. Buttery? Fruity? Bready? This is one that you don’t want to rush through, and one that will reveal different facets of itself each time you drink it.

Also – the Verdant $5 try me pack? Talk about an offer you can’t refuse! I was so pleased with both the amount and variety they sent. So excited to try the others.

I was contacted by Whittard of Chelsea and was asked if they could send me some teas to try and review. I usually say no to these types of requests, but I was absolutely delighted to accept some teas from this venerable tea merchant! On Saturday I got a “Knock! Knock! Knock! Delivery from the UK!” at my door — it was the tea! Thrilling! I tore open the package to find three beautiful full-sized loose teas.

I’m one of the few Darjeeling fans here on Steepster. I adore the muscatel flavor — so I was happy to see this tea in the package, and chose it as the first tea to try. I decided to take it with a little sugar “like the Germans.”

It’s delightful. Divine muscatel and a delicate but rich tea flavor. It’s a lighter tea — so perfect for the steamy day — but very flavorful. I drank it at work and had to pause for a moment to let the flavor wash over me. The wineyspicy muscatel, distinctive and delicious, was just so good. The sugar made it round and sweet without any of the astringency I usually find in a Darjeeling, but I took my second steep sans additions and there it was — a little piquant pucker. Love.

I was able to enjoy three steeps, the last one drank cool, which makes me think this would be a great fancy iced tea for a party (the color is a gorgeous amber – I could just picture it in a clear glass pitcher).

What a perfect introduction to Whittard of Chelsea — I am so, so pleased to meet you!

This has been my best friend during these busy end (of semester) times. Delicious, staunch, invigorating, and eminently resteepable. The strong bergamot makes me smile. I can’t believe I’m half way through the tin already! This tea has allowed me to mostly skip the iced coffee IV that I usually self-administer around this time of the year — I’ve only had two!

<3

It’s deja vu all over again! Made http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2013/04/17/apple-cinnamon-pull-apart-rolls-from-store-bought-to-homemade/ again, and there is nothing in the world I wanted to have more with them than Vanilla Black. That natural, dark vanilla flavor and good tea go so well with these little sweet breads. They are forever forged together in my mind…perfect pairing.

Many Thanks to Tea Sipper’s Traveling Tea Box for this tea!

I was Home Alone and had a Grand Plan to throw caution to the wind and drink a caffeinated tea in the evening so I could stay up and read The Hound of the Baskervilles late into the night under a blanket with my cat. Wild times. I made this one because I love chai :) and I had a single bag from TSTTB.

It was not the most distinctive chai I’ve ever had, but it was very good! There was nothing to dislike about it. Nice spices, nice tea base, good with a little honey and milk.

You know what happened though, don’t you? Yes, I fell asleep reading around 9pm, woke up at 2 am and tossed and turned because of the caffeine! This happens Every Time, yet every couple of months I do this thinking I’m going to stay up during the right part of the night rather than the wrong part of the night. Sigh.

One of my new traditions is getting a First Flush Darjeeling each spring. This year, I didn’t even have to go searching for one, as my Golden Moon Insider’s Tea Club selection was this lovely!

The amber color on this brewed tea is gorgeous. It has a much less green and more muscatel (and sweet!) flavor than most of the other FF Darjeelings I’ve tasted, yet it definitely doesn’t taste like a 2nd flush. Interesting! I’ve been contentedly sipping it all day. A little pleasantly astringent which is especially welcome after my giant burrito :)

The Insider Tea Club does it again :) Wonderful, special selection!

Many thanks to Tea Sipper’s Traveling Tea Box for this tea!!!

I made a pot of this for our evening tea last night. It was delicious! I didn’t get ginger snap, but rather a delicious apple cinnamon richness. I would have told you I was drinking real tea (I love those rooibos teas that are so rich they fool me!). Now that I am here on Steepster and am reading the ingredients list, I see that there are no apples OR cinnamon in this tea! Ha! In any event, it is very satisfying and screams “Fall!” to me. I have a little left for another tiny pot, and would adore having this in my cupboard come turning leaf and chill in the air time :)

I haven’t been writing many tasting notes because I’ve been doing so much writing for school. A 23 page paper is sitting in my bag to give in tomorrow. Phew! So I’ll be brief.

Berryfruity. Yum. Great with a little sugar. Lovely twist on an Earl for the warm weather. Would love to throw some into an iced tea!

I’m going to miss this one!

Enjoying my last pot of this creamy delight (courtesy of Tea Sipper’s Traveling Tea Box!). Great, strong enough for the morning tea base, a non-cloying yet perfectly creamy cream flavor, and an excellent bergamot. Plus, it’s real purty. Those blue cornflowers get me every time.

Nice with a little sugar.

(P.S. – Do you have a favorite Earl Grey Creme? I’m thinking of picking this one up but I’d love to hear your opinions.)

I made these: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2013/04/17/apple-cinnamon-pull-apart-rolls-from-store-bought-to-homemade/ and as soon as they were out of the oven, all I could think of was having one (two, three!) with Harney’s Vanilla Black. I did, and oh. The tarry, sophisticated vanilla was just the foil for these delicious little breads.

When I bought this, I saw coco in the description and said “Ooooh chocolate chai!” and threw it in my cart. When it arrived I said “Oooooh I’m in the mood for some chocolate!” and made a pot. I tasted it and said to my husband “I don’t taste any chocolate!” and he said “I taste coconut” and I said “But it’s supposed to be chocolate!” and this went on for quite awhile before I USED MY READING SKILLZ to read both the packet and website which clearly states coconut. I’m not sure if this is better or worse than when I pried all of the little tongs off of Harney’s tagalong tins for months before realizing that you simply have to press the top to open it. I continue my reign as Steepster’s biggest dodo bird.

ANYWAY – Half way into the packet, I am finally over the embarrassment and can drink the tea for what it is — a sweet, delicious coconut chai. There is some pepper which nicely balances the very sweet coconut. Great choice in this one, even though I’m not usually big on the pepper. The chai spices are balanced. I still love the cinnamon chai the best, but am very happy with this as a change of pace, especially when I’m craving something sweet.

Another from TSTTB! #7, maybe? I’ve already lost count!

I thought this tasted like very rich and delicious caramel. Complex (yes, this honeybush dessert tea has nuances! A creamy-ness. A cake-ness. A burnt sugar-ness). It could have been because this was the very last scoop in the bag and the chocolate was gone, or perhaps it’s just the way I taste these flavors, but chocolate never entered my mind when drinking this tisane. I’m intrigued enough to pop this into my order to find out if there may be more chocolate in a full pouch, I’ll tell you that! Even if there isn’t, this one is superior to the caramel rooibos I have in my cupboard, and I’ll be extremely happy with it if it tastes just as it did last night.

The last of my TSTTB portion of this tea, and I am so sad to see it go! Both my husband and I greedily slurped our cups, oooohed and ahhhhed (“Cake! It really tastes like carrot cake!”), and enjoyed every last bit. So nice with a little honey and milk. How did they do it? Fusion captured all the subtleties of the cake itself — walnut, spice, cake, even baked carrot!

SO getting bought the minute I get paid :) Off to research what you guys think of the other Fusion Teas so I can cobble together an interesting order.

This tea really is a tiny bit of heaven on earth, huh? I almost feel funny drinking it on a mere weekday morning. Perfect amount of jasmine – and a wonderful pastry jasmine — not perfume-y at all. The green tea is excellent. It’s beautiful to behold the pearls when you open the tin. It smells wonderful before, during, and after it is steeped. Again, I don’t do ratings, but this is so, so, so a 100.

Another steamy day. Time for my favorite green tea. Me, putting favorite and green tea in the same sentence? Yes! This is the one I’ve nicknamed Lady Grey Green. It’s perfectly orangey and the green tea is sweet and pleasant and just complex enough for a person dipping her toes into greens. I love it so! Another thing I like about green tea on a hot day is that since the water is heated to a lesser temperature, it’s much nicer to drink than boiling hot tea.

I really have to get a (gorgeous!) tin of this into my cupboard for the summer. I only have 3 sachets left in my tagalong.

This was one of my free samples from my latest DAVIDsTEA order!

It’s roasting in my office, so I wanted something fruity and light. This one delivers! I was going to put sugar in it, but thankfully I held off until I had a sip — none needed;it’s very sweet. Mango is the predominant flavor followed by a slightly tart? astringent? flavor. Not sure if that’s the pomegranate, the tea base, or a combination of both, but it’s nice — it tempers the sweetness.

I’m not sure if I’d order this one, but I’m sure glad I have another serving! I may bring it home and add it to an iced tea — I bet that would be stellar!

My insider tea club selection came yesterday! Woohoo! I was so, so, so, so, so pleased to see that it was an Oriental Beauty Oolong! I had a very fine one at Radiance Tea House in NYC and it has loomed so large in my imagination that I have never purchased another, in fear of it not living up to The Oriental Beauty In My Mind. I’ve been craving one, though, as I read some of your tasting notes.

This one is glorious. Sweet, sweet, sweet but not light. Or roasty. Or dark. Peaches and honey and tea, I’d say. Like many oolongs in my experience, I’m loving the second steep better than the first. The little card that came with it says 6 steeps are possible, and I’d like to see if I can take GM up on that!

I also remembered that the Oriental Beauty I had at Radiance had the two leaves and a bud attached in many of the leaves. I went digging around in my leaves and WOW – SO many attached leaves and buds!

I even took a photo when I experienced it in 2010: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackiemania/4410474721/in/set-72157623565672780

My brew basket is full of these!

I’ve included some in my selections for Tea Sipper’s Traveling Tea Box, so some of you lucky ducks will get to try it, too!

TSTTB Tea #5!!

I chose this one because there have not been any Earl Grey Cremes I’ve met that I haven’t liked. This one is delicious. Lightly creamy and not artificial tasting. I put a scant teaspoon of sugar to compliment the creme and bergamot and it worked beautifully. The flavors are sweet and round. The tea base is bold (I only steeped for 3 minutes and it was plenty flavorful) yet balanced with the flavorings. Neither overwhelm.

Lovely tea!!! Thank you Traveling Tea Box!

TSTTB Tea #4!

This was included in the box of bagged selections. I took one for old times sake — I used to drink lots and lots of bagged Twinings in the 1990s!

I came home from school this afternoon craving a cup of tea but quick. I said, why not make that little bag of Lady Grey you have sitting in your cupboard?" I planned to use sugar and a splash of milk because I wasn’t expecting the highest of leaf qualities.

Guess what? It’s completely satisfying and delicious. I wouldn’t call it complex. You taste ORANGE and TEA. But the orange and tea are delightful. The tea is a little astringent, but it’s pleasant. The milk and sugar give it a creamcicle quality that I love.

You know how much I liked it? I liked it so much that I went digging in the traveling tea box to take the OTHER bag that was in there :) (Don’t worry — I’m going to put in some A & D Mt. Gray so people will have some more Earl for tasting).

This tea was such a nice reminder that there are really enjoyable bagged teas out there which are widely available. I am so going to pick up a box of this on my next shopping expedition. Yay traveling teabox!

TSTTB Tea #3!

I made this last night for our little 2 cup pot of evening tea. There was just two perfect teaspoons left, and my memory of Teavana herbals told me you need extra leaf BUT I went ahead and made it anyway. Sadly it was weak even though I tried brewing it longer than usual to compensate. Not much chocolate or spice. Ah, I knew I should have put a spoon of my own rooibos chai in! I’m kicking myself.

Tea Sipper’s Traveling Tea Box, Tea #2!

I’ve been enjoying oolongs greatly recently, so I chose this one from TSTTB (that Tea Sipper’s Traveling Tea Box) for my tea at work today. I’m also a chocoholic, no explanation needed ;)

I am finding this to be a really interesting experience! The chocolate is lightly present and then the oolong sneaks up behind the sip and spreaaaaaaads through your mouth. It has a stronger flavor than the chocolate I feel, and it is a darker one. Quite yummy.

I find I’m enjoying the second steep with less chocolate and more oolong even better. They have reversed positions, and I taste roasty oolong, then a hint of chocolate on the end of the sip. Nice! I also had a croissant with it which was just about perfect pairing-wise.

There is one more serving in the bag, and I am going to put it back into TSTTB so that another person can enjoy this. Make sure you stick around for the second steep — it’s swoonworthy! It is also making me excited to try the dark and handsome wuyi ensemble from Adagio that I grabbed from the box. Soon, soon.

My first selection from Tea Sipper’s Here’s Hoping Traveling Tea Box!

It truly has carrot cake qualities. The spice, the gentle sweetness, even some cake-ness! I drank my cup in a flash. My husband found this one to be excellent, too. Not only have I never had a carrot cake tea, but I’ve never sampled a tea from Fusion Teas yet, so this was a double treat I most likely would not have had if it wasn’t for the traveling tea box. So glad to be a part of it!

Here is a picture I took of everything in the box as it was sent to me. There are so many teas I couldn’t even fit them in the photo!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackiemania/8599265002/

!!!

I’m ruined for life! This tea is so glorious. Candy. Melon. Candy. I am a hummingbird and this is my nectar! ;) Rumor has it that Tea Sipper’s Traveling Tea Box is coming my way next. I’m going to put a little of this magic in so someone can experience turning into a little hummingbird, too.

I am looking forward to steep after steep after steep today!