JustJames Send Message

this was a very nice tea… a unique woodsy oolong reminiscent of a puerh. maple is a favourite, as are pecans…. but i must admit that the tea fell by the wayside when i gave in to my snacking impulse and chewed on one of the nuts in my steeping basket.

i have had wasabi peanuts, praline pecans, candy coated almonds… apparently my new favourite snack is nigiri frost oolong steeped pecans, lol! stacy, you could expand from teas to naturally flavoured nuts!

thanks to ShortSorceress for the excellent sample!

hmmm… dry blend is very pretty. alternating woodsy fruity smell…. …. ….? what? SO COOL!!! when my timer went off and i went to pull my tea basket there were sparkles roiling with what i can only describe as tidal eddies… i can admit it: i firmly believe that sparkles fix a great many things, lol.

i taste light fruit, cinnamon… no puerh. a metallic echo—perhaps i oversteeped? i taste sandalwood, but smell mango. although as it cools i detect more fruit.

the dry blend is lovely to look at, as are the eddies of sparkles, visually the tea is striking… aaaaaaaaaand i was going to say that the taste is not as striking, but as it cools it changes completely and becomes a true fruit puerh!

i find myself bewildered… so i steep it at one temperature, watch it at the same temperature, but give five or six minutes before drinking it? how remarkable!

if you are an ingredients puritan where everything has to be vegan then this will not be a tea for you, but if you’re looking for a visually striking surprise then this may suit you!

i will forgo rating with a number until i order some of my own and experiment. thanks to ShortSorceress for this!

the first thing i thought when spied this blend was ’it’s sticky!’ with great zeal. the last blend i sampled with this degree stick was steap shoppe’s cinnamon swirl bread (which is awesome).

i have been known to cook, also to bake… if you like to eat good stuff then it’s a good plan in my mind to know how to make it! when i make pineapple upside down cake the healthy presence of a fruit is secondary… the pineapple’s primary function is an unexplainable reaction with butter and brown sugar to create a lightly other-than-orange citrusy caramel which happily gets stuck to everything. don’t get me wrong, i eat plain avocados in droves and would eat sushi everyday if my budget could support it… but sometimes i just wanna be bad. and seeing as my cholesterol is perfect and my blood pressure is ideal i really don’t see the harm.

the blend was gummy, and i had high hopes: could it be a tea version of my sticky cake recipe? could it, could it? i hoped so! ShortSorceress was so kind by sharing, i had such high expectations… i could smell the pineapply caramel.

i sipped. ‘come to papa!’

it wasn’t the way it smelled! that’s not only unfair, it’s false advertising!!! i was bitter.

that was several days ago. i closed the bag back up and have been stalking around it grumbling. should i try it again? what if i got my hopes dashed for a second time? i have determined i will try again… i have enough for one more go. thusly i will forestall rating….

pineapple upside down cake, round II, let’s go……

ROUND II: with half the water and twice the recommended leaf i got the tea i had been expecting the first time around: distict tangy caramel, billowing clouds of candied pineapple steam and the much coveted detectable cake base.

oh yes… this could be sold at a bake sale. very nice! and after the success of round two i will numerify! well worth the second effort.

first of all… thank you ShortSorceress for this sample!

it smells good… just the right tangy ping from the pineapple, a lovely warmth from the coconut… … and then i added water. as soon as it moved from a dry blend and started billowing steam i started to smell a dog trying to pull a little girl’s bathing suit off in the old coppertone commercials.

this one was just wrong for me, though i have no clue why. instead a sunset over the water and relaxation i got ancient commercials and the recalled crunch of sand in my tuna sandwich. the weighted blend of the ingredients was off for this tea fan =0(

no numerical rating.

signing off from bc ferries… we’ll reach the mainland and our hotel soon. yay! a kettle and a nice cup of tea after crazy traffic.

THIRD TIME HAS TO BE THE CHARM, SORRY FOLKS! TOO MANY PEACH TEAS TOO FEW BRAIN CELLS… SORRY FOR HOGGING THE TEA LIGHT IN YOUR FEEDS…. THIS IS ME WHEN IT GETS TOO HOT.

this tea was very well done! my experience with peach teas have not been abundantly successful— most of them have tasted like the peaches you accidentally drop kicked at the grocery store (fermented) or like tobacco (i don’t smoke and even if i did i don’t want it in tea). i was also dubious that peach and oolong would pair well… but ShortSorceress and i have similar tastes and this was a sample she included in our mammoth swap recently, so of course i was going to try it!

what i didn’t know was that ShortSorceress has friends in high places… see she called the people at della terra and told them about our awesome exchange. della terra were very sporting.. they explained that they had a store of peaches that they stashed in sawdust in boxes that they kept on the top shelf of their most protected vault (the one with the 200 alpha-numeric access code) for just such auspicious occasions.

this tea is the perfect peach. it is precisely ripened from inside the confines of the super secret della terra vault, it is beautifully balanced with the oolong (neither overpowering the other), and it is confident in its presence with strength in subtlety… like bruce lee and his one inch punch. i never would have bought it for myself… that ShortSorceress is one savvy lady!!!

everything i have said tea-wise is absolutely true, and all the rest? you’ll have to find the della terra vault and climb up to the top shelf to prove me a story teller.

PLEASE NOTE: NO, YOU ARE NOT READING DOUBLE… I POSTED THIS UNDER DELLA TERRA ORIGINALLY BECAUSE I WAS EXHAUSTED. SORRY FOLKS!

this tea was very well done! my experience with peach teas have not been abundantly successful— most of them have tasted like the peaches you accidentally drop kicked at the grocery store (fermented) or like tobacco (i don’t smoke and even if i did i don’t want it in tea). i was also dubious that peach and oolong would pair well… but ShortSorceress and i have similar tastes and this was a sample she included in our mammoth swap recently, so of course i was going to try it!

what i didn’t know was that ShortSorceress has friends in high places… see she called the people at rishi and told them about our awesome exchange. rishi were very sporting.. they explained that they had a store of peaches that they stashed in sawdust in boxes that they kept on the top shelf of their most protected vault (the one with the 200 alpha-numeric access code) for just such auspicious occasions.

this tea is the perfect peach. it is precisely ripened from inside the confines of the super secret rishi vault, it is beautifully balanced with the oolong (neither overpowering the other), and it is confident in its presence with strength in subtlety… like bruce lee and his one inch punch. i never would have bought it for myself… that ShortSorceress is one savvy lady!!!

everything i have said tea-wise is absolutely true, and all the rest? you’ll have to find the rishi vault and climb up to the top shelf to prove me a story teller.

if you don’t like raisins, don’t drink this tea.

an odd compliment to pay? not at all. della terra nailed this one! i have warm, soft, cinamonny, raisiny oatmeal cookies in my tea cup. the cookie is SO tangible that if you cannot abide raisins, then don’t order the tea.

it’s fantastic.

and while i really doubt the tea would have the same cholesterol reduction qualities that i tell myself an oatmeal cookie has (we all need our justifications), it also has virtually none of the calories (another justification right there, lol).

i’ll buy this one for sure. thank you to ShortSorceress for the sample!!!

hmmm. bluberries i get, and a warm something….. is it cake though? no, not in this steep. i will try again, i do have enough in my lovely sample thanks to ShortSorceress.

this is definitely not the worst tea i’ve had. it’s not even bad…. i’m finding myself wishing for more commitment to the blend. i have the blueberries, but not strongly enough. and i’m not getting any of the spices incorporated for the crumb cake at all. blueberry-ish + a vague warmth does not a blueberry crumble make.

i will resteep. maybe a cold steep? however, i will at this point admit something uncomfortable: david’s teas ‘blueberry jam’ was infinitely better right out of the starting gate. i’m not a fan of david’s for the most part— i have food allergies and i don’t find them trustworthy. but ‘blueberry jam’ is a tea that i adore and that this one doesn’t even compare to.

i will review my number after another steep, but at the moment it reflects the fact that i had expected a great deal more than i got.

this was a sample stacy included in my order… and i find myself wondering (not for the first time) whether or not she keeps a spreadsheet on her customers, lol! i imagine her perched late at night, working on excel!!!

tamarind… what was a tamarind anyway? i envisioned something citrusey, something with a rind as in the name. NOPE! it was actually named for the monkey the tamarin. (seems kindof obvious now)… i don’t know what i was expecting. i mean the name was weird, i sniffed it— meh? so left it for last. i swear, this is how it goes every single time.

aside from a funky indian date pod from a leguminous tree originating in africa (so says dr. wikipedia) what would this blend be? incredible.

i try really hard not to read about what i’m drinking beforehand, but honestly i don’t think i would have believed it as i sipped. caramel (which i only ever seem to detect when it’s butiki) pears? with an echo of orange. very smooth… not pears. an asian pear? fried?a fried asian pear that had been lightly brushed with orange. no kumkuat. no mango. what the hell! stacy does this to me ALL THE TIME! lol.

never tasted anything like it. added a tiny amount of agave syrup, but i didn’t really need to. i will definitely buy more…. very decadent, very smooth, truly exotic. inspired by tamarins and an african date tree with pods…. excellent.