JacquelineM

Very delicious oolong. I got 3 very flavorful steeps! The first one was a bit woody and one dimensional, and I was a little dissapointed! But the second and the third more than made up for the first – very sweet/honeyed, ever so slightly floral, very TEA ish. I dare say tea with a little lemon!

The package called for a much lower temperature than I’m used to using for oolongs, but it seemed to have worked well – not a hint of bitterness or astringency.

I also suspect this one would be great iced. I have to try a cold brew of this!

I have reached a real turning point in my tea drinking. I love a once in awhile special treat of a robust black tea with milk and sugar, or a flavored black dessert tea with milk and sugar, but my every day craving has turned toward any tea that can be taken plain. Ch-ch-ch-ch- changes!

Out at a funeral today. Despite all of my practice, I just don’t seem to get better at dealing with death. Each one wounds, then seems to pick off the scabs of all the ones that went before it. This is my version of coming home and having a good, stiff drink.

Mmmm. So good on this rainy chilly night. Taken with a scant teaspoon of honey. I always think of “herbal apple pie” when I drink this one.

This tea is MAKING my Monday morning. Thank you Doulton!

Taken with a scant half teaspoon of sugar.

I know this is supposed to be black tea and flowers, but what it tastes like to me is some lemon grapefruit St. Germain hybrid flower :) I would say there were elderflowers in here but they are not listed. I don’t taste hibiscus like it tastes in the various herbals I’ve had at all. I find it in the same vein of an Earl Grey (citrusy but without bergamot, if that makes any sense). It is absolutely delightful! Very elegant. Very special.

I made a second steep at 5 minutes, no sugar, and it’s very tasty, floral/citrus.

I NEED a tin of this :) I think it would make a great iced tea for a very special occasion too!

YUM! I had this with a little agave nectar and it was so good. I have a theory that honey overwhelms chocolate notes in teas, and was very curious to try this one a little sweetened but not with honey. Yep – it had more chocolate flavor with an alternative sweetener. Now I want to try all of my chocolatey tisanes with it!

I finally tried this as an iced tea (3 tablespoons of this, 3 tablespoons of River Shannon, 6 cups of water cold brewed for 12 hours, then an addition of some simple syrup and juice of half a lime).

It was really good, but not at all suitable as a refreshing drink with a meal or by itself. We had it with some noodles and we were underwhelmed…it practically screamed “I need some rum in me!!!” It shines as a base for an unusual tea based mixed drink! A sort of “Pirate’s Hard Iced Tea” if you will. I will definitely make some of this for a summer barbeque or similar casual summer party.

Another ridiculous in the best way possible tea from the Simple Leaf! Malty, bready, bold. So delicious with a little half and half and sugar. It has a classic Assam like profile, but there is a little twist in there that gives it character. I’m not sure what it is – I have to drink some more of it to try and put my finger on it – but there is an interesting flavor thing going on with each sip and it’s delightful! I love this tea.

Drove for hours, completely lost half the day, and came home so late and tired that all I could do is plop teabags in mugs. Funny how emotions play with your perceptions of taste; last night this tea that I enjoyed previously tasted watery and bland. A hint of orange, a hint of something bitter. I noticed my husband only finished half his mug! I’ll hold off on lowering the rating due to my pre existing exhaustion and frustration, but last night had me saying “NO TEABAGS. EVER!!” in my best Mommie Dearest voice.

I put this in with some River Shannon for cold brewed iced tea. It made it extra special and delicious. It added a very sweet, honeyed note. Excellent.

Sooooooo fantastic! I am drinking it with some agave nectar (yes, I finally found some in the store…right after our discussion about how it’s not so great for you…figures! A teaspoon once or twice a week should be fine, I think). I love the various berries that it is flavored with, and I swear – I don’t taste ANY rooibos even though it’s in there, clear as day. My absolute favorite caffeine free tisane.

A big thank you to the quiet life for this sample!!

First sniff of leaves – cloves!! Ahhh! Reminds me of being 14 years old and going to all ages punk shows full of clove cigarette smoke. To this day, all I have to do is smell cloves and I’m instantly full of Anger and Too Much Eyeliner!!! I can’t keep up, I can’t keep up, I can’t keep up! Out of step! With the wooooooorld!!!! (ooops, it’s not 1983! step AWAY from the Minor Threat record (yes I still have it. yes I still listen to it. Shut up!!)

I steeped it at two minutes because I planned to have it with no milk and just a touch of sugar. That was a good call – it’s definitely a “without milk” tea. I’m getting cloves and caramel in a smooth tea base. I’m not tasting any citrus or any of the other flavors that are said to be blended in, which is ok by me :) I’m enjoying Clove Nostalgia Land. But! I think it can take 3 minutes, and I will try that next time.

I decided to do a resteep for the heck of it, at 5 minutes. Not bad! Less tea. Clove-y! Just added another small pinch of sugar.

Final thoughts: Great tea for work where I sometimes want a black tea but don’t want to worry about having milk around. I want to look into some more Kusmi teas for exactly this purpose! Very very very enjoyable!

No matter how much I try to frequent the small markets and specialty shops in my area, a once a month big supermarket trip is inevitable. Tonight was my night :/

One nice thing is that the store had tins of this tea on clearance! I decided to take a chance on it, and I’m glad that I did! It’s lemony, with a bit of licorice, and some peppery and gingery notes. Some honey sweetened it up a little. It was great for a late night cup, and I imagine it’s wonderful if you have a cold.

Feeling adventurous again today – thought I’d try my DRAGON BALL that Doulton sent me. Thank you once again Doulton.

Confession: I am in the very small minority (perhaps the only person here on Steepster!) who does not like to see leaves unfurl, or display teas! I think they look like deep sea creatures/aliens being born and they scare me. I think it all stems from when my mother let me watch Invasion of the Body Snatchers on television (this was the 1970s) at a tender age and I didn’t sleep right for over a year.

SO – the dragon ball will be doing its thing in my very opaque tea pot :)

I do find the dry Dragon Ball very pretty, and I did parade it around my office showing everyone what I was about to drink!

Steep 1: I don’t know what it looks like, but I can say it TASTES utterly delicious! Smooth and so SWEET!!! Kind of buttery and kind of …tea and Pastry keeps coming to mind. No bitterness at all. I can’t get over how naturally sweet :) I didn’t put the ball into a tea filter bag because I thought it would be too constraining, and I don’t have a strainer at work, but the little bit of leaves that are in my cup are not bothersome at all and have not affected the taste.

Steep 2 (3min): A bit darker of a brew, but again not at all bitter. I don’t know – I think I taste tea with a buttery sweet pastry with a little cinnamon in it. A little floral on the tail end. It’s amazing!!!! I’m not sure what kind of oolong this is compared to Oriental Beauty, but it reminds me of a slightly spicy darker version of the Oriental Beauty I had at Radiance. That sweetness!!!

Steep 3 (4 min): Still phenomenal! Pretty much the same as the 2nd steep.

I’m going to keep on steepin’ on, (the whole office is ordering Chinese today and this will go great with my Wonton Soup and Black Bean Chicken!) and will edit this post in the afternoon :)

This tea is EXCEPTIONAL!!! I WANT MORE DRAGON BALLS!!!

(did I just say that!?!?!)

EDIT: SIX amazing, delicious infusions. This tea is wonderful to sip, and wonderful with food. I HAVE to order some soon. Doulton, how many dragon balls do you get when you get 1/4 lb? I can’t picture and want to make sure I order enough.

The fortune in my fortune cookie: An optimist is the human personification of spring.

Simple and delicious tisane. Who would think that rooibos and mint would go together so spectacularly!? A little honey makes it even better :)

This tea courtesy of Doulton!

The dry leaves smell great; the brewing leaves smell INCREDIBLE! I smell melon, something like strawberry, green tea, and something almost creamy.

Steep 1: The fragrance is divine. The taste is so good. A great green tea flavor balanced with what I can only describe as strawberrytropicalfruitmelon and cream.

Steep 2 (4 min): I am almost enjoying the fragrance as much as the tea!!! Such pleasant sipping. More melon-y this go ’round.

Steep3 (5min): More goodness. Is that banana?

I am giving this a rating just a touch lower than the cherry because I enjoy cherry flavors more, but this is yet another super enjoyable French Green Tea. I just love how balanced the flavors are, and how nicely the green tea comes through. I’m hopelessly addicted!!

Mmmmm! This is my favorite of all the Chocolate Rooibos tisanes I’ve tried! The different types of chocolate remove most of the woody flavors and just add depth – I tasted a nice subtle chocolate and white chocolate flavor (at first I thought it was vanilla, but then I realized it was the white chocolate!)! A very enjoyable cup to happily sip on as I worked on my latest batch of photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackiemania/sets/72157623899731832/

I was inspired to drink this today, even though The Amazing Takgoti sent me this sample months ago, because of the little Bon Appetit article about Pu-Erh in the May issue. I spent a very enjoyable SIX HOURS sipping multiple steeps of this tea!!!

When I did the rinse, I said “OH NO!!! This smells TERRIBLE!!! There is no way I am going to be able to drink this!!!!” It didn’t smell like fish tank, fish, or even earth. It smelled like something odd I never smelled before!!!

My first steep had that smell, but lighter. When I went to take my first sip…nothing like the smell!!!! So interesting! The blood orange and ginger made it familiar and delicious, but the pu-erh was earthy and complicated and like nothing I’ve ever had before! It wasn’t even like I was drinking tea!

My additional steeps cycled through a spicy Thai broth, then a mellow broth, and then there were some coffee like elements, and now the flavor is getting fainter and there is just a subtle lingering ginger note.

Is this mellow, calm, pleasant feeling what they call the pu-erh high?!

Despite having my mind completely made up that I was going to hate this and spit it out, I totally enjoyed it! It’s so odd that I couldn’t see myself having it every day, or even every week, but I certainly want to have it again!!

We just had a very bizarre power outage – I came home to no electricity! – but thankfully everything is now fixed thanks to some long hours from the power company – at 8 pm we shouted “Let there be light!!! (and internet!)”. The first thing I did when the power came on was make tea! I chose this one because I wanted something sweet to ease all my worry.

I was a nervous wreck making it – in a mad rush to try and reset all the clocks in the house, make sure everything was now working, etc and I was too heavy handed with the leaves and probably steeped it a bit too much. I tasted a strong, delicious strawberry flavor and my first taste of honeybush! Yum! Sweeter than rooibos and less cigar humidor-ish! I fear that my heavy steep and the addition of honey masked the vanilla and chocolate flavors. Nevertheless, it was very delicious! I love the honeybush and the strawberry was so natural and good. It does not need honey at all, and I think a 5 minute steep would be more suitable.

It’s Monday! Need Happy Tea!

I decided, since this does have a little green tea in it, to set my kettle to 200 degrees to see if it makes any difference in the flavor.

sip sip hmmm. It is smoother, a nice hint of vanilla, but somehow less jasminey? I’m kind of torn between liking the smoothness and missing the more jasmine character. But on the other hand, I can taste more TEA ness. The flavor of the black and green teas is very delicious. I also did not use any sugar (which I did at 212). I also wonder if it will mean I can get an extra infusion! I will keep it at 200 throughout this experiment.

steep 2 (5 min): Excellent! Again, finding more delicious tea flavors and little back up harmonies of vanilla and jasmine. The tea is still quite dark and flavorful.

steep 3 (6 min): A bit watery, but drinkable, especially on a Monday!!!

Results of Experiment: will now steep at 200! I am really enjoying the smooth tea taste, and the fact that I don’t need sugar. I will know that if I am in the mood for something super jasmine, to set my eyes to Jasmine Green, Three Part Poetry, etc. etc.

What a delicious herbal tisane! I think it tastes like blood orange and cranberry. It’s quite tart but I find it very refreshing! Perfect when you are in the mood for something fruity and don’t want caffeine.

It’s so nice that I would serve this to guests that want an herbal. It’s an absolutely gorgeous color! I do like popping an herbal tea bag in a mug, but this loose herbal is very much worth the extra trouble :) I also think it would be delicious iced, and delicious added to a black tea iced as well.

I made cold brewed iced tea with this, a little simple syrup, and a half of a lime juiced. So. Good. So refreshing! Perfect with our picnic after a long, muddy hike. I originally used the lime because I was out of lemon, but we wound up preferring it to lemon! My husband thought it was the best iced tea so far this year (I still like the Darjeeling Assam better, but this is a close second!)! Next I will try this one with some of a juiced orange.

The flavoring is too subtle for a rooibos in my opinion. I felt it almost tasted like a plain rooibos…which I enjoy…but not what I was going after this evening. You know I love vanilla, but it was a barely detectable flavor. When it comes to rooibos, I do prefer the knock you over the head ones rather than the subtle ones. I feel that you could save your dollars and get a nice, plain organic rooibos and have it taste very similar. Still, a nice warm late night cup.

Thanks so much to Doulton for this sample!

Lovely afternoon tea. Cinnamon orange cream carmel tea? I’m finding it hard to pin anything down except mmmmmm delicious!! Thank you Doulton!!

I was craving this one last night. I still had my chocolate covered graham crackers (so easy to make! Take 4 graham crackers and put them on parchment paper. Melt 1/2 c chocolate, chocolate chips, chocolate squares – whatever you have on hand – and smear/drizzle onto your grahams. If you wish you could add chopped nuts whilst the chocolate is still wet (but I did not – but I’m thinkin’ pecans!) let them cool a bit, then put them in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to set.)

So, yes, the Chai! I made it stovetop (1c milk, 1c water, 4 tsp Kashmiri chai, simmer 9 min, let sit 1, strain into two cups with as much honey as you enjoy sitting in them) and got out my serving tray and put two cups of this delicious elixir on it with a chocolate covered graham cracker each on a pretty china plate. It was soooooo good together. A childhood treat made adult and delicious for mere pennies! The creamy gently spiced Chai went so well with the Chocolate graham – just one each! They are very rich. Heaven after a long busy workweek.

One of the things I adore about this chai is that it is so gently spiced that it doesn’t seem just Wintery – it is something I can enjoy all year around. Not only are the spices light (no pepper!) but the mix of green and black teas lighten it further. One of my Big Tea Loves, one of my Keepers, one of my Order the BIG Bag teas :)