LefTea

I tried the blended sample in the store but I’m not a blueberry fan so I ordered a package of this on a whim when I placed my last order figuring with the free shipping and coupon code I had it was cheaper to order more tea, and, therefore try new teas than to just go get refills of my stand bys. It was like God wanted me to order more tea….right? Can’t say no to that!

When I got the package I opened this and felt like I was smacked in the face with the Hawaiian islands…in a good way, of course. Holy pineapple Batman! But I had reservations about making this iced as I cold brew and have always found that to be a bit weak (and difficult to add sugar to).

Earlier this week I got home from work where I had been freezing all day and decided I wanted some tea. Normally I’d go for something dessert-y but this spoke to me so I decided to give it a try. Since it’s an herbal I wasn’t too particular about steeping time. I added some brown sugar splenda since I figured pineapple upside down cake uses it and that tastes pretty darn yummy.

And ya know what? This was pretty darn yummy too! I’m not going to drink it and think I’m eating pineapple upside down cake (unless I am actually eating pineapple upside down cake while I drink it…now there’s an idea…) but this is good. Tart, but the brown sugar works well with it and brings out some of the other flavors (although I couldn’t pinpoint them – I’m drinking tea not taking the palatte challenge on Hell’s Kitchen). Great as it cools too but I prefer it warm right now. Will have to order more of this for when I don’t feel like my standard rooibos dessert tea at night. Very relaxing too.

I’ve since consumed two pots of this evenings after work. Yum!

I’ve been swapping a lot so I don’t remember who sent me this magnificent tea but THANK YOU, whoever you are!

Coconut? Love it!
Cheesecake? Yup, huge fan here!
Tea? Duh….

All together? Sheer perfection in a cup.

I never really understood when people talked about the mouth feel of a tea. I mean, let’s face it, it’s leaves soaked in water, what exactly are you expecting? But this? Creamy, decadent, rich? I don’t know how it does it, but I really don’t care.

Love it!

I swapped with Ashley for this, traded my loved, but not often craved marshmallow genmaicha figuring that I drink black teas much more frequently so it would make sense.

I got the tea and it smelled heavenly. So heavenly, in fact, that I was sad I had just started a new steeping sequence with another tea and would have to wait a day to have this in the morning.

My husband generously shared his cold germs with me and we both ended up staying home yesterday and I thought this chai would be just perfect. I had read Ashley’s note on how fine this tea was so I decided to use my perfect teapot instead of my beehouse as I figured that would help keep all the ground up tea in its place. Waited impatiently for it to steep and then cool down, took a sip and BLEH! ARGH! GROSS!

Frank, I normally love your work but when others say this is “earthy” I didn’t realize they meant it literally tasted like dirt. Maybe I’m just not an assam fan. Maybe mine had too much pepper and ginger mixed in with the assam of which I’m not a fan. Maybe mine actually was dirt covered in grossness. Maybe I shouldn’t have had the first sip right after finishing two chili cheese corn dogs (yes, they do exist!), but after waiting a while to let my palate readjust it didn’t get any better. Hubby hated it too and I’m pretty sure I lost a few points there.

Sorry Frank, this one is going up for swap ASAP. Not for me at all.

So in my previous review I mentioned how I wanted a stronger chocolate flavor with this one. Well this time I did go ahead and add some of The Tea Guys Chocolate Parfait and created heaven in a mug. Perfect balance, great resteeped. Add a splash of milk, a smidge of brown sugar splenda and hello happy LefTea!

In a word…OM NOM NOM.

As a child I used to cough into my pillow at night when I had a cold so that my dad wouldn’t hear and insist I take some of the probably long-expired prescription cold meds we had sitting in the medicine cabinet so I’m a bit leery of anything cherry. I do not take cough drops (unless they’re the Ludens ones that are basically just hard candy), I do not drink cough syrup unless I am feel-like-I’m-about-to-die desperate.

So I was super stoked to get this as part of Tea Forte’s generous sample offer. /sarcasm (re the flavor, not the generosity)

But one night last week, it spoke to me and I figured ‘what the hell’ and tried it.

Not bad.
It did smell like cough medicine so that freaked me out at first. But I didn’t hate it. Didn’t love it either, but it hit the spot that night although I had no problem not trying for a second steep like I normally would.

Got this from Dark Moon Tea when they closed but I believe it bore a different name from them (it does mention it’s The Tea Guys at the bottom).

Ever since I’ve had Joy’s Teaspoon’s Chocolate Pot du Tea sample I’ve been trying all kinds of chocolate teas trying to find one as good. The bad news is I haven’t found it yet, but the good news is I’ve got to have lots of chocolate tea.

To say that this doesn’t live up to Joy’s chocolate tea is not to say this is bad, just different. The description is right on, it is more aztec than hershey’s. Seems to have more of a dark chocolate taste than milk, which can make it a bit heavy at times. A splash of milk and my standby brown sugar splenda and I’m a happy camper.

But today? Today was very special. After trying Teavana’s cocoa mint and lamenting the shy cocoa flavor I had a brainchild and mixed these two teas together. NOW I get the ‘thin mint in a cup’ taste that so many on Teavana’s website mention. Perfect balance and I love the little mint tingle sensation I get after a sip.

It’s going to be a long afternoon when this runs out.

Thin mint in a tea? Yup, this is nearly it. Nearly, being the operative word. The mint came through very strong (my husband said it smelled like a thin mint covered in toothpaste, but he doesn’t like mint) but the chocolate was missing. I’m considering mixing this with some of my chocolate tea, but I’d hate to waste that if the mint will still overpower it.

Perhaps adding some chocolate chips to the tea during steeping would work. I do have most of a Costco-sized bag…that oughta do it…

Got this in a swap and the sprinkles made my Monday. Tried it over the weekend and, like many others, I was a bit disappointed. Not to say the tea was bad, or even not good, but if you promise me cake, I better taste cake. I liken this to those yogurts that promise to be full of desserty goodness and just taste like yogurt (for the last time yoplait, if you say the yogurt is cake or pie flavored, put a few pieces in there!). Sure they’re good and all, but it’s not like you’re going to fool yourself into thinking you’re having the real thing.

Got this in a swap and am so thankful I sent my unloved tea away in exchange for this. Brewed it three teaspoons strong in my perfect teapot at 200 degrees for just over 4 minutes (I was busy packaging up my lunch). Since it was a swap it was only a partial bag and I really should have just dumped the whole thing in since I love my tea STRONG! So my only complaint is that it’s a bit weak for my tastes, but I love the mellow quality to the chai that comes from adding the chocolate. Great balance.

Added a little of my stand-by: brown sugar splenda and I’m a happy camper this morning.

I got this in a swap with Rumpus Parable so thank you for letting me try it.

I figured today was a good day for margarita tea since it’s Friday and all but sadly, for me, this tea does not live up to it’s name. Then again, I don’t drink much and really prefer fruity margaritas (drinks that don’t generally taste like alcohol, actually). I do get a lime taste from it but it just all goes wrong after that for me.

It’s possible I did something to mess it up – I have a corneal abrasion and am stuck wearing glasses during the day for the first time since I got contacts 18 years ago and these glasses are about 5 years old, with a prescription to match so I am a bit out of sorts. But I’m pretty sure I put water in my kettle this morning (else my husband’s coffee will be off too) and set it to 200 (what he needs for his coffee and hot enough for me for my black teas) but I guess I can’t say for sure since I’ve been running into things left and right (damn edges on my vision).

Sorry to waste one of your favorites Rumpus.

I had a $10 coupon to World Market for my birthday and intended on buying more tea tins but then I panicked and couldn’t remember how many I still had room for so I decided to err on the side of caution and get some tea instead. Should have gotten the tins instead.

Not much flavor here, both before and after the addition of sweetener. Maybe I’ll try two bags next time (I did brew it in a mug rather than 6 oz tea cup).

I got this to keep at work in case I wanted something with caffiene or forgot my normal tea (or, like this morning, was running a bit late) so it’ll do for that but I’m not running out to buy more which is sad because it smelled pretty good!

My first try with matcha at home after falling in love with a matcha latte on vacation. Made it with 8 oz of cold milk, gave it a whirl with my ikea whirlygigamabob and voila! In a word, delish!

Cold brewed this overnight since we’re supposed to be under a heat advisory today. I got this from the Strawberry Festival at Bean and Leaves in Long Grove, IL because it smelled AMAZING! I’m not normally a huge green tea fan as I find they always smell amazing but are less flavorful than I would expect from the smell but I couldn’t pass this one up. I’m not sure that this is the exact tea since they don’t share who their suppliers are but it looks like it so I’ll just go ahead and rate this one.

There’s something…off…here. I can’t put my finger on it but something just tastes a bit off. It could be a combination of things: my palate is currently sullied with some Apple Jacks (dry, my breakfast of choice at work), I could still have a bit of toothpaste mouth, I added some splenda and that sometimes interacts with tea in a weird way, or my perfect teamaker might need to have its filter cleaned since I primarily make blacks and mates in there.

Aside from the off-ness, I do like aspects of the tea. My last sip there was an almost textural change to the feeling of cherry juice (makes sense, right?). I think the flavor is there, but I may have messed it up a bit. This is only my second batch of iced tea too so there may have been some user error in there.

I think I’ll like this one better warm. Perhaps I’m just not an iced tea person.

Guava and pomegranite? Count me in!
This was another vacation tea (it’s possible I have a problem). After spending some considerable time trying to figure out which bag of tea to take home from Local Coffee and Tea, I picked this one because it sounded more exotic than what I’ve found in Chicago. I love guava and pomegranite so I thought it would be perfect. I was slightly sad that I couldn’t smell it (duh, I could have just opened the bag) but I figured I’d take a chance.

Here’s my beef with non-black teas: I like flavor. White and green teas always smell heavenly and strong but they always seem to disappoint when it comes to taste because the smell just doesn’t seem to translate. This tea is nice, but I wanted something that had some more flavor to it. Yes, I realize that this makes me a tea pedestrian, but I don’t care, it’s my tea and I’ll flavor if I want to.

Nice tea, but too subtle for my tastes so this will end up sitting in my cabinet much longer than it would have it if were a black tea.

This is another one of my vacation Groupon purchases. In the store I wasn’t completely sure I would like it as the smell was a bit off, but, since their selection was a bit small and I was having trouble finding ones I thought I’d like, I decided based on the ingredients to give it a whirl. Opening the bag last night, it smelled much tastier, almost making me wish I had gotten two bags.

Taste-wise it’s pretty yummy! A nice, nutty flavor with a hazelnut finish (nicer than Tealicious’ Hazelnut Black which tastes a bit coffee-y to me). Added some brown sugar splenda blend (my go-to sweetener as the agave experiment did not work out – seriously, what is that stuff?!?) and we’re good to go.

Two bags of this followed me home from Sarasota Florida thanks to a Groupon. It kinda irked me that I had a $15 Groupon and everything in that store was $4.79, but that just meant I had to buy more tea.

This smelled soooooo good that I just had to get 2 bags. I’ve been looking for a good coconut tea and was hoping this would be it. Sadly, it’s not, but that’s probably a good thing since I live in IL.

This is a good tea, just not enough coconut flavor for me. It’s there, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a little too subtle for my tastes. What I really want is a good coconut black tea as I tend to find that they’re a little bit bolder. I might try a little higher temp (my kettle has oolong at 190 instead of 195 with the next setting being 200) next time to see if I get more punch from the coconut.

Got this as a sample from Tea Licious (thanks again!) primarily for my husband (he’s a green tea guy, me, not as much), but was in the mood for something different than my usual flavored black teas yesterday. It smelled heavenly in the pouch so I decided to give it a try.

I like my tea strong (since I’m used to black tea) so I used the whole sample, a bit more than the typical 1 tsp per cup.

The taste is subtle, like most flavored greens, with a pineapple finish. It’s odd to me how tea can almost taste juicy on the back of your tongue, but it’s happened with this one and an apricot one I have as well so it must be commonish. There is also a slight taste of coconut. Since I’ve been looking for a good coconut tea, I’d love for that to stand out more.

My husband liked it too.

I’d still prefer it to have a stronger flavor, but that’s just my personal preference.

Ever since I had Chocolate Pot du Tea from Joy’s Teaspoon, I’ve been searching for other chocolate teas (mainly to tide me over until I can justify ordering some more from them).

I happened across a little tea shop in Long Grove, IL during Chocolate fest and, of course, had to stop. I picked up several teas from there, including this one.

My first time drinking it I found it to be good, but slightly bitter. Not overbrewed bitter, but more like they had used pure cocoa nibs instead of sweetened ones. It was good but a bit “stiff” for me that particular morning.

I decided to give it another go yesterday but this time I added a splash of milk and my usual brown sugar splenda blend. Tasted like tea hot chocolate! Yummo!

Today is a resteep of it with the same additives and it’s not nearly as strong (so it doesn’t hold up as well to resteeping as Joy’s Teaspoon’s one does) but it’s still really good.

Considering that my additives still keep this under 50 calories, I think this may be a great chocolate treat for me, especially when the weather turns cold and I want hot chocolate but not all the calories.

Note: the tea flavor does still come through, so it’s really divine.

I got this from Dark Moon Tea during their closeout sale (30% off!) and figured I’d be SOL if I liked it since they’re now out of business. Upon closer examination I realized that while the tea had the Dark Moon Tea logo on it, it mentioned that it was from the Tea Guys! Huzzah! I can get more! I think that makes it even more delish!

So, on to the tea itself. Words fail me this tea is so yummy. I’ve had the Red Velvet from Republic of Tea and while it’s yummy, I will never finish drinking it and have to look down at my shirt to see if there are any red velvet crumbs on my shirt. This one? I just might have to.

Perfect with a touch of brown sugar splenda blend.

I even got a second steep out of it and might have been able to go for a third had I not reached my self-imposed 2 day limit for used tea leaves.

Picked this up at a little tea shop in Long Grove, IL (Beans and Leaves) during Chocolate Festival (it’s exactly like it sounds). It smelled heavenly in the jar and I was sad they only had an ounce left.

I don’t know if there was something about the bag that smelled but when I got it home it started smelling a bit chemically and I’ve put off trying it because of it. Today when I tried it I got a little of that flavor, not enough for me to write it off completely, but it might be a while before I try it again. Some days I’m just sensitive to chemical flavoring as my Earl Grey Creme tasted off to me as well. Hoping it gets better.

First cold brew attempt and may I just say, holy cup of yummy tartness! This tea is nearly perfect, although not terribly tea-y. Great alternative to sugary lemonades. Added a touch of splenda (well, generic splenda) just to cut the tartness a bit.

Very refreshing and the mate caffiene is a nice addition, especially during long, boring meetings.

Could use a bit more tea in there, but other than that it’s nearly perfect. Easy to cold brew too.

I was nervous when I got this because it had the exact same ingredients as the Amaretti Cookie I got from Todd and Holland. The Amaretti cookie has been sitting in my cabinet because there’s something off about it – some flavor that just doesn’t sit well with me. It’s ok if I blend it with some Matevana, but I just didn’t like it on it’s own. So when I got this I thought I had a larger bag of iffy tea. Goody, love spending my money on tea I don’t like.

But upon closer inspection (and some side by side sniff tests) I noticed that the Teavana blend smelled a little different. That off smell wasn’t there. It still made me nervous which is why I put off trying it for a while. I didn’t want to make it for work and then have to endure icky tea all day while enduring icky work. But my spidey sniffer was right on. Whatever was wrong with Amaretti Cookie is right here and oh, so yummy. Glad I bought this!

This is my first from Frank and I was not disappointed. Got this on Friday when I came home from work and had to try it. Normally I stick to rooibos after work but I figured it was a Friday and a green so why not? Awesome tea! The marshmallow is subtle but there. I added some splenda to it and it was really good.

My only beef with the tea is that it didn’t come with brewing instructions. I rarely drink greens because I generally prefer bolder flavors so I had to look at the back of a Teavana blend for brewing instructions for green tea. As such, I’m not sure if I brewed it right, my marshmallows didn’t melt completely so I may have lost some flavor there.

Held up well for a second steep, probably could have done a third but I wanted to try my other new teas so I tossed it after the second.

Got this from Tealicious as a sample via their discussion thread (Thanks again!). Smelled yummy when I opened the pouch so I decided to give it a whirl on this cold, snowy (yes, it’s April!) Monday. I’m pretty sure I really like it. I think all these teas that have coffee influence (this and Teavana’s JavaVana) are a bit confusing to my tongue. It thinks it’s getting tea and then there are hints of coffee flavor, and real coffee flavor, not the girly coffee drinks I normally get. The only downside to tea-coffee beverages is that while I expect there to be loads of sugar in the coffee versions, when I add too much brown sugar splenda mix to the tea ones all I taste is the brown sugar and it’s too sweet (by God, what’s happened to me?!?). Maybe I just need to explore alternative sweeteners. Maybe I’ll try a second steeping tomorrow with a little sweetened condensed milk.

It’s also possible that it got a tad overbrewed as my puppy didn’t think 3 minutes of cudde time was enough.