LiberTEAS

My first tasting note today, and using up the last that I have of this tea. Sorry to see it go, but, glad to have more space in my tea cupboard. (actually, it’s more 4 shelves, plus TWO DRAWERS in my china cabinet/tea cabinet of tea, plus a rather large bowl and a box of samples).

I’m currently on my second infusion of this tea. The first was lovely… I made it a latte (but I didn’t froth the milk), and this makes it sort of more like a “breakfast blend” sort of tea rather than a maple-y tea. I like this one much better without the milk.

This is one of my favorites from Tea Guys (my favorite is their Papaya Ginger, which I have hidden from myself in my large stash of tea LOL). It has a nice, maple flavor, sweet, but not too sweet, the black tea has a very smooth taste to it. Maybe the next time I order from Tea Guys, I might just have to order this one again…

Know what? I like having enough of this on hand so that I can drink it whenever I want without worrying that I’ll run out and not have it on a day that I really crave it. Thank you for reblending it Frank. :)

Yum. Yum. Yum.

As I said in my Butter Pecan Post, I am not normally a big fan of bananas. I do like bananas with ice cream (cold stone), I like chocolate covered frozen bananas (but they aren’t really a favorite treat, they are more like a treat that I have when I’m someplace like Disneyland more because its a “tradition” than because it’s my favorite), I like bananas in smoothies and now, I like banana flavored tea… (I have a banana green tea that I haven’t yet tried from Tea Farm, going to have to actually crack that one open and try it soon). But, as for peeling a banana and eating it… well, I’d rather eat just about any other fruit. I like bananas ok… but they aren’t my favorite fruit, not by a long shot.

And, I’m not particularly crazy about rooibos. I don’t DISLIKE rooibos, but, I prefer honeybush (or even green rooibos) to red rooibos. And sometimes I do dislike rooibos if they happen to have been blended in such a way so that the saccharine-y taste comes out. Because that is just icky. I don’t have to drink saccharine sweetened drinks anymore because I don’t live with my stepmother anymore… (cue the little munchkins to sing that song when the house landed on the witch)

I actually probably wouldn’t have tried this tea if it weren’t for Frank’s explanation of how it came to exist in the first place. I felt sorry for Chelsea. So I ordered this tea.

And I LOVED IT. It is my favorite from 52Teas…. well, that I’ve tried thus far.

Chocolate. Bananas. YUM. YUM. YUM.

I received some of this in a swap with a friend of mine.

Nice and fruity. I prefer green rooibos to red rooibos, the green rooibos seems to have more of a fresh, light taste instead of the woodsy taste I get from the red. I also find that there is less of that artificial saccharine-y taste to the green rooibos.

Very pleasant tropical flavor. Sweet. Nice.

I ordered several samples from Upton a while ago, and the package arrived as I was sick so I had to put off trying them… and I’m just getting around to trying the first of them now…

Hmm… Breakfast Blend at 7:20 in the evening. OK!

I tried it first without any sweetener or milk… and it’s really good like that, but, I think I prefer it with a little milk and honey. Without the milk and honey: wine-like quality to it, hints of black currant. Also a woodsy note as well as a deep, yet subtle spicy tone.

With milk and honey: much nicer! the spicy notes come out to play a little more, the woodsy note seems to have been replaced with a molasses-y, honey-ish sort of characteristic. The wine note is less discernible but still present in the finish. It has a very tannic quality to it.

Nice! Now, I’m off to the TRB to submit a review of it!

This is a bit of a backlog because I was away from the computer this afternoon whilst I was enjoying this tea.

This is definitely one of my favorite Darjeeling teas (I love Darjeeling, so, I have several “favorites”) It has a very nice fruit quality to it. I could taste apples and grapes. It was a little less woodsy this time than I remember it from previous tastings, and a bit less musky. But, still extraordinarily delicious.

Since I didn’t rate it numerically last time I logged, I shall do so now, since I can taste again!

Yay! I got my order today!

YUMMMMMMMM! Nutty, smooth, buttery, creamy – DELICIOUS! I like this one A LOT. I am almost (almost) liking it as much as the chocolate banana.

Come to think of it, Frank… bananas would be very good in this blend too. As would a little (little = a lot in LiberTEAS language) chocolate. :)

I’m having another smoothie with this – but this time I’m using organic Kefir instead of organic yogurt – Whole Foods didn’t have a decent price on my favorite yogurt the last time I was there, darn it! – but to be honest with you, I think I like the Kefir better than the yogurt in the smoothie! It has a gentle, sour-cream-ish tangy quality to it that yogurt lacks.

This time around, I also tossed in a banana, mostly because we had one on the counter and I wanted it consumed. To compensate for the extra fruit (I added more peaches too), I used a tablespoon of ginger matcha instead of a couple of heaping scoops.

The result is a yummier smoothie! BETTER than anything I could get from jamba juice. Now, if only I could convince my kids of this. My daughters look at these matcha smoothies and say “eww… it’s green!” LOL

Yum! This morning, I decided I wanted some apple pie! I went a little overboard on the latte part – I don’t think I used too much milk, so maybe I warmed it up a bit too much because, it got FROTHY… fast!

Despite my misadventures with the frothed milk, this is one yummy cup of tea. Here is a link to my review of it on TRB:

http://www.teareviewblog.com/?p=11307

I think I like it best with the latte (just don’t overdo it like I did!) because it really brings out the sweet cinnamon notes.

Edited to add: For the second infusion, my milk frothed perfectly (I did have the first batch just a little too hot, I suppose!) and as is true with most teas, the second infusion is much tastier than the first. Loving it!

This is a sample that I purchased from Samovar a while back… and just now getting around to trying it.

This is one of the better tisanes I’ve ever had. Generally, I prefer tea to tisane, although, there is a place in my life for tisanes – especially later in the evening (and since it is 12:30 in the am, I think that qualifies!) when I’m starting to think about heading to bed.

The flavor is very fresh and vibrant, yet the tea is very soothing. It is a very nice tea to have at the end of a long day. I suspect that this would be very refreshing as an iced tea too. Now that I’ve had a chance to really try this, I wish I would have gone ahead and bought the 2 ounce tin, rather than just the sample package… this is one that I would like to enjoy again, and also share with friends.

Perhaps I will have to remember that when I get around to placing another order with Samovar!

The mail came today and with it came this very special tea that was created just for me – but not by me! And, I so prefer being a tea customer to being a tea purveyor.

So you fill out a questionnaire and a few weeks later, you receive a blend that was created just for you! This is what Madam Potts created for me!

I was going to save it to “christen” my breville with, but since I will most likely be waiting until July to receive said toy, I really don’t want to wait that long to try this tea… and I’m glad I didn’t!

The Darjeeling and Oolong work really well together. The floral notes sort of meld together into a unique kind of flower – it’s sweet, sharp and very pleasant. The Sarsparilla is a pronounced flavor here and together with the carob root it makes for a sort of cocoa flavored root beer-ish flavor. The black pepper adds just a subtle hint of spice that cuts through some of the sharper floral notes.

I REALLY like this. I love the floral notes here together with the carob… It’s just… so difficult to put into words how interesting and yummy and ME! this tea is. And since it is so me… I must give it the highest rating possible. :)

Yay! Earl Grey!

I really like this tea. I steeped it a bit longer than I did previously. Even though Andrews & Dunham suggest 5 minutes steeping time, I just can’t do 5 minutes for a black tea. I think my palate tends to be overly sensitive to bitter taste, and since most black teas do take on a slight bitter edge when brewed over 4 minutes (there is the occasional exception, but, for my palate, I have found this to be the standard), I don’t usually take a black tea beyond 4 minutes for the first infusion.

So I decided to push it to the 4 minutes this time (usually, with a black tea, I have a “standard” time of 3 minutes, regardless of what brewing parameters might suggest). Only a slight bitter note at the back of the palate… but not off-putting. But what I do notice is that brewing it longer brings out more of the floral qualities of the bergamot, whereas the 3 minutes, I’m left with a fruitier bergamot with only hints of floral.

It’s quite good both ways … but I think I prefer it with the 3 minute steep time…

Having a Ginger Peach Matcha Smoothie today: organic vanilla yogurt, frozen peaches and Ginger Matcha. YUM!

The smoothie looks a bit like split pea soup (or maybe baby food peas) but, gratefully it doesn’t taste like it (I hate peas). The matcha flavor is softened quite a bit with the other ingredients, but I can still taste it, along with the ginger. The peaches and ginger taste amazing together. The vanilla flavoring of the yogurt adds a nice creamy flavor to the whole thing… Very YUM.

I am contemplating even increasing the numeric rating on this based just on this delicious smoothie, but, I won’t. But… I will just say that this Matcha was MADE to be an ingredient for yummy-yums like this!

This tea smells yummy! I tried it first without any sweetener, and then added a little bit of raw sugar and found that this brought out the caramel-y goodness. This would also be very good as a latte with some steamed, frothed milk… but I don’t really feel like getting out my frother, so I think I’ll just drink it as is… it’s really good this way.

It’s hard for me to drink another caramel tea without comparing it to my Sweet Caramel o’Mine, because, well… I really like my Sweet Caramel O’Mine. :) But to be fair, I will try to leave that bias at the door.

This is a very good tea. The black tea base is smooth and rich. It is a non-assuming kind of black tea, that is, it doesn’t try to overwhelm the flavor of the caramel toffee. I love the buttery notes here. It reminds me a lot of a piece of… well, caramel toffee! Once upon a time, I used to make my own (when I didn’t have kids and a lot of other responsibilities that kept me from doing things like that) and this reminds me of that fresh, buttery toffee.

This is the first time trying this tea. It’s been in my cupboard for a little while, I bought it at the same time I purchased Dawn and Honeybee. But, as I said, I have a lot of teas …

Anyways… This tea is yummy! Fresh vegetal taste – less on the grassy side and more on the cooked veggie side. These beauitful, long, spiral-y leaves slowly unwind and unfurl to a full leaf that appears to be small and quite young… but whole… and absolutely lovely.

I am currently enjoying my third infusion of this tea. With each new infusion comes a smoother flavor that is savory and sweet all at once. The Simple Leaf is simply amazing!

Decided to start my day with a cup of maple-y goodness today. This really is a great change up from a breakfast breakfast blend. The black tea is pleasantly brisk, with a very smooth temperament. It also has just a hint of smokiness to it that compliments the maple flavor nicely.

The maple is sweet and lip-smacking YUMMY, but not too sweet (at least, not for me!) Overall it’s a very rich tasting cup with a good amount of “get-up-and-go” to it that I look for in a breakfast tea.

Around this time of night, I’m always looking for an interesting tea that is not a tea – that is – a tisane. This one kept calling to me tonight. The last time I tried this one, my taste buds were just starting to get out of whack, so I consider this my first “true taste” of this tea.

I love the look of this tea (as well as all the teas from 52Teas!) Big (huge!) coconut shavings, and chunks of pineapple… and it smells as good as it looks. I can smell the rum in this one.

Yum! it is so deliciously tropical. The pineapple, the coconut… the rum flavor is so nice too. The flavors are very well balanced.

As yummy as this is hot, I do think I’m going to reserve my remainder of this tea for iced tea brewing… it is just so much better when it’s cold!

I’m increasing my rating of this one a bit, because it deserves it! It really is good.

Decided to enjoy a bowl of this on this very cold, rainy evening… it’s very comforting to cup my hands around the warm bowl and sip the warm, ginger-y matcha. The ginger is not strongly spicy, but it has enough warmth to it to make it pleasant, especially on an evening like this.

The matcha is smooth and rich, although, I must admit after my very frothy matcha latte last night, and the beautifully frothy Den’s Tea Matcha a couple of days ago… I do miss the froth in this cup. It does froth – but not quite as nicely as the latte mixes or Den’s Miyabi Matcha.

Sweet, vegetative, just a little bit of bitter, and warm ginger-y spice = a lovely bowl of Matcha!

Another one of my favorite teas from 52Teas. If Chocolate Banana Rooibos is my favorite, I would have to say that this one comes in a close second. I love it.

And… an interesting side note, every time I brew this tea (or even happen across it as I sort through my stash to find a tea to brew) I hear that song “Knights in White Satin” from the Moody Blues playing in my head. I realize that the song is WHITE SATIN and not Black Satin, but tell my head that. LOL I love that song – so mysterious and beautiful…

And this tea is so good. The licorice flavor is the BEST of any other licorice flavored tea I’ve tasted (a close second would be Golden Moon’s White Licorice, which is also quite special to me because my favorite ice cream flavor is Tillamook’s White Licorice…but I digress) The cinnamon is not a sweet cinnamon, rather than a spicy-hot type cinnamon flavor, and the sweetness of the cinnamon cuts through some of the sharper notes of the licorice perfectly.

An AWESOME tea!

Finishing off the last of this from my stash… I am a bit sad to see it go, yet happy to clear the way for more tea. I have so many teas that I haven’t yet tried. LOL

Anyways… as I have reviewed before with this tea, Golden really is the right word to describe the flavor of it. It seems to glisten in the mouth. It tastes so smooth and rich and delicious… pleasant amount of spice (not strong, just little hints of natural spice notes in the tea leaf). Just a very good tea.

As my last steeped cuppa for the evening, I chose one of my favorites! I ordered a sufficient supply of these recently so I don’t feel the need to hoard them anymore – plus Lori was kind enough to send me some as well – THANKS Lori!

Delicious chocolate and banana – not much more to say than that! This rooibos blend reminds me of Disneyland, when I lived in California, I used to visit Disneyland pretty regularly, and each time I’d visit, I’d indulge in a frozen chocolate covered banana on Main Street!

YUMMY!

Enjoying a cup of this tonight. Rather than mix it up in my Chawan, I decided to put it in a regular mug and use my hand-held frother to blend it instead of my chasen… This produces a better latte drink because it is much frothier… much more like a latte.

The biggest problem with these latte mixes from Domo is that they are so yummy that they disappear before I even finish writing my tasting note.

Enjoying a second infusion of this tea now. The flavor is a bit less sweet this time around with just a tad bit more bitter to the cup – but this is not an unpleasant bitterness, but more of a savory kind of bitterness to offer a nice balance of flavors to the palate.

I can also taste a bit more of the roasted nutty flavor to this cup, of which there were only vague hints of in the first infusion.

Still a very enchanting cup of Sencha tea.

This is another sample from the novice sampler that I bought some time ago…

The leaves resemble the Gyokuro leaves from SpecialTeas… they are very slender, deep forest green, and smaller than most Sencha leaves I’ve seen. At just 1 minute’s worth of steep time, the liquor is a beautiful celedon in color. And the flavor is just as lovely!

The flavor is very vegetative, sweet and absolutely delicious. It has a very pleasant mouthfeel that is a bit thicker than most green teas that I’ve encountered.

I will say this about Den’s – they KNOW Sencha!

Oh… my 200th tasting note! A cupcake to celebrate!

I am almost out of my sample of this tea, I will say that even though Old Wilmington’s sample prices are a bit… pricey, they are generous and speedy with their shipping, and extremely courteous in their communication as well.

Today, I did not brew it as long as I did yesterday, and this has helped immensely with the flavor – no more bitter, but it is a very robust black tea! – I also decided to make mine a latte today, and it brings out the creamy flavor of the tea very well.

This tea possesses a caramel-y vanilla flavor to it, I don’t know if I really taste “cupcake” as much as I taste a sweet vanilla caramel with a nice malty backdrop. It is rich and tasty though, and I quite enjoy it, even if it isn’t quite as cupcake-y as I was hoping for. And as I continue to sip, I notice that the flavors really come into focus.

A very nice cup of black tea!