LiberTEAS

I received a sample of this tea with my last order from Butiki Teas, and based on what everyone else has been saying about this tea, I’m really excited to try it.

Oh my gawd … I wish I had tried this about two months ago, so that I could use this in my 12 Days of Christmas tea swap. It is so yummy. Maybe not french … but the creamy, custard-y, eggnog is kind of hen-ish… right? Yummy yummy yummy! I’m loving this.

I’ve tried a few eggnog flavored teas, but this one is the best that I’ve tried so far. It is SPOT ON eggnog flavor. All that it needs it a touch of nutmeg … which can be remedied with a little bit of freshly ground nutmeg added right to the teapot before brewing.

Totally and completely, utterly YUM!

Thank you to my SororiTea Sister, TeaEqualsBliss, for sending me a sampling of this chai.

I’m in agreement with TeaEqualsBliss … this is really one of the least flavorful chai blends I’ve ever tasted. I also do get the pumpkin-y taste that she mentioned … kind of weird for a chai that doesn’t call itself a pumpkin chai, but, whatever…

The black tea base is kind of blah. Not really strong, not really much of anything… it’s just kind of weird. I taste some fruit notes in the background. The spices are really kind of boring. I taste ginger and fennel, and other than that, it’s just really kind of a boring tea … which is in itself rather odd to me, because it is also quite unlike any tea I’ve had before, so it’s boring yet unusual, which seems an odd combination to me. Lackluster. Not bad … really, just very dull and flat and uninteresting.

I’ve been enjoying this over the course of the last couple of hours, it’s really nice. Nice and creamy with lovely notes of cinnamon. Very nice way to enjoy the evening.

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea.

I could have sworn that I had tried this tea before, but I suspect it was a Pink Sonoma from another company.

Anyway… this is really quite lovely. Beautifully floral … but not too much. A nice sweetness … fruity. I’m not a big fan of wine, as I’ve mentioned on other occasions, but, if I were to take a sip and the wine tasted like this, I could definitely – happily – finish the glass.

The white tea is not hidden beneath the flavors and I like that. A really lovely tea.

Wow! This is crazy good Puerh. If you’re someone who loves coffee but can’t drink it for whatever reason – this is the tea you need to try. It TASTES like coffee. That was my initial reaction … I took a nervous sip (like I do for all pu-erh because of residual bad puerh experiences in the past), and I expected some earthiness, maybe some brine-y taste, but none of that. Instead, I get coffee. Sweet, roasted flavor, nutty, like chestnuts. Deep, toasty flavor, somewhat like tobacco, and a distinct overture of coffee.

This is the weirdest puerh I’ve ever tried. But … weird is not bad. In this case, weird is REALLY really good.

Backlog: I started my day with this chai. Rich and smooth and even creamy – even without milk. Spicy too, but, not super spicy-hot. The spices have a good balance to them, peppery but, not so much that I felt as though my mouth was on fire as I sipped it.

The black tea base is robust enough to stand on its own with the strong flavor of the spices, the ginger and pepper are the strongest notes, followed by cinnamon, with cloves and cardamom filling in the background. The vanilla seems to even everything out and give the flavor a smooth, creamy taste that I really enjoyed.

A really enjoyable chai.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a bit of this tea.

This is a really pleasing Sencha … as I sit here, sipping on it, I am trying to recall the last time I consumed a pure Sencha, and I can’t do so. I’ve had so many other green teas, primarily flavored, in the past weeks, but, I haven’t had a pure Sencha like this in a while. It’s a nice change … very refreshing.

The aroma of the dry leaf initially reminded me of seaweed, but after the package had breathed for a moment, I noticed more of a freshly cut grass kind of smell.

The brewed tea smells a bit more like mild, steamed vegetables … reminding me a bit of the broccoli that I steamed last night, only this is a bit more on the “grassy” vegetable side, smelling a bit more like spinach, I think. The flavor is not spinach-y though, or even broccoli-ish. It is sweet, grassy, and crisp. There is a very fresh, vibrant sort of taste to it. Very smooth. Nice.

I love Alishan. Of the many types of Oolong teas available, Alishan is probably my favorite. I can’t think of another Oolong type that I enjoy more than Alishan. But, I didn’t know how the charcoal roasting would affect the delightfully floral, sweet, crisp flavor of the Alishan that I know and love.

I am glad that I can taste those notes of the Alishan, as well as a foreground of toasty, charcoal-y, earthiness. Sweet, roasted nut flavor melds so beautifully with the floral notes, giving this Alishan a more rugged flavor, more masculine in a way, but still keeping in touch with its light and flowery side too.

Truly a delight … deliciously different.

As I mentioned in my previous note, I visited Steven Smith Teamaker in Portland today … my husband was surprisingly affable earlier this week when I asked him if he would take me to Portland to visit not one but TWO tea shops. He usually grumbles (loudly) when I make such a request, and these grumbles are usually followed by comments such as “you have enough tea” or “you don’t need more tea” or “you’re going to spend more money on tea?” … something like that. Basically stating that he isn’t going to take me shopping for more tea.

But, this week, I think he may have had some residual guilt over spending a lot of money on his Christmas gift (an early gift) – a new PS3 because his old one went kaput – so, he was, as I said, surprisingly agreeable to taking me where ever I wanted to go. And I wanted to go to Steven Smith because they had a new holiday blend – this blend – that I had to try!

First of all, this is a bagged (or should I say sacheted?) tea. It wasn’t made available in loose leaf, and if I had any complaint about the blend at all that would be it. But even as a sacheted tea, it’s amazing. I like that it’s a silky sachet and not a paper bag, because … well, I don’t taste the paper bag in the finished product.

This is incredibly yummy. The black tea blend is rich and smooth … even a tad creamy tasting. Nutty, malty, sweet, and comforting. Some astringency, yes. And then you have the touch of Douglas Fir needles … and this adds a hint of refreshing, exhilarating, pine and mint taste. It’s so crisp and wintery, and yes, very Christmas-y.

I love this and am so glad that my hubby took me to get it. He’s a keeper.

OMG! I am completely in love with this tea! Yes … yes … yes! (Imagine Meg Ryan in probably her most popular scene ever there)

As I am sitting here slurping on this tea, I tried to think of an Assam tea that I might have enjoyed as much as I’m enjoying this … and only one comes to mind. (And that would be No. 49 from Steven Smith … and I just left that store about two hours ago without some of my beloved Assam, what was I thinking? I was too excited over the other, new teas that I had not yet tried that I had forgotten to restock No. 49 and No. 55)

Anyway… this is amazing. It is a strong Assam… rich, malty and flavorful. It will assuredly kick your butt right out of “sleep” mode and into get-up-and-get-em mode. It starts out smooth and caramel-y, and there is a fair amount of astringency to this that slowly dries the palate after the sip. But, I don’t find the astringency to be out of bounds or too much. It is the perfect finishing touch to this really robust Assam.

Everything about this Tiger is amazing. What else should I have expected from Andrews & Dunham. They rock.

Oh goodness, this is good.

Rich and slightly smoky, malty, smooth, slightly astringent, and really just good. Yeah, this is just what I needed to kick start my day.

I was going to take a moment or two to write a full-length review, but I think I shall do that on another day. For now, I’m just going to sit back and enjoy this before I need to get busy with running errands and such.

Up until recently, peanut butter flavored teas scared me. I’m not sure exactly why they weirded me out so much, but they did. And I’m not sure I can adequately explain how I got over it, but I’ll try. Some time ago, in one of my Foodzie boxes, I received some Salty Peanut flavored Salt Water Taffy. It was amazing. Seriously, the best taffy I ever tasted. It tasted like peanut butter but a little saltier. And it was SO good.

So, I somehow deduced that if this taffy could taste THAT good, that maybe, just maybe peanut butter flavored teas would taste good too. I don’t know how I connected taffy and tea together in this way. My mind is a strange and mysterious thing, the way it works.

It’s not that I dislike peanut butter. I actually like peanut butter. But, somehow a peanut butter tea just didn’t seem right. I don’t know why. Again … my mind and the way it works is a strange and mysterious thing.

Anyway … on to this tisane. It’s actually quite yummy. I taste the peanut butter, the chocolate and the cheesecake. The cheesecake flavor really pops in this. As it cools, I notice a hint of buttery-pastry flavor … just a little bit though.

I also taste the honeybush, and basically what tasting the honeybush does for me is make me glad that Frank did not choose to use rooibos in this because I prefer the taste of honeybush over rooibos… and I like the sweet, nutty flavor of the honeybush in this cup. I don’t think I’d like this quite as much if it were a rooibos blend.

Really yummy. Not the best thing I ever tasted or anything, but, I’m really glad that I tasted it.

Finishing off the last of the sample package of this… it’s so good!

I’ve so much to get done today … got to get these journals finished. My Japanese screw punch is malfunctioning, which makes my work even more difficult with these. sigh And I thought that of the few different ideas I had for my 12 Days of Christmas art exchange that this would be the quickest, most economical gift that I could put together… it’s turned out to be a huge project… much more than I thought it would be. Will be glad when I’m finished … don’t get me wrong, I’m having fun with it, but, like every year, I ended up biting off more than I’m able to efficiently chew.

Anyways… at least I’ve tea to keep me company while I toll away!

~Anne

Thank you to Azzrian for sending me a bit of this Matcha! Yummy!

I prepared this as a latte, using mostly water to prepare it and then adding just a splash of half & half (since that’s all I had in the fridge) to make it a latte. It turned out fantastic.

I believe that Azzrian chose the Robust flavoring level with the classic grade of Matcha for this, and it really is good. The English Toffee flavor is very abundant, and I think that had I ordered it I probably would have gone for the distinctive rather than the robust, because I think I would like a little more of the Matcha to come through, but I’m really loving it just the way it is too.

Sweet, delicious toffee! Like a liquified heath bar in my Matcha bowl. Buttery, nutty with hints of chocolate, and a bit of Matcha in there too. Totally yum!

It’s chilly today so while rummaging through some of my tea I found this and decided it was just what I needed today. I need help shaking the sleepy feeling and I need something that’s going to warm me up. This will do both.

This smells so festive … very much like eggnog! It’s making me want to start trimming the Christmas Tree (I’ve not had time for that yet, I’ve been busily working on some things I needed to get done first, but, I think that I’ll finally be able to work on the tree and decorations this coming week!)

Seriously, this is my kind of eggnog. I like eggnog, but, I don’t drink it much. My husband often indulges in a few glasses every year, but, I find that I can’t even finish one glass because it’s just too sweet and creamy for me. And I thought I was the one with the sweet tooth in the house. But, eggnog is just TOO MUCH for me.

But, the green tea and white tea give this cup a lightness and a freshness that I wouldn’t experience in a glass of real eggnog, but I still taste some creaminess and sweetness from vanilla and a custard-y like taste … and a lovely hint of nutmeg. So, this has the elements of eggnog that I like, but without being too creamy and cloying.

I’m loving this tea!

I re-infused the leaves and it is still AMAZING. Still chocolate-y (maybe slightly less so than the first), still caramel-y, I note hints of honey now, and even some floral tones in the way-off distance. This cup is slightly more earthy, notes of leather and wood.

This cup isn’t quite as “thick and creamy” as the first, but, it is still so very yummy. Definitely worthwhile to re-infuse this tea.

Oh… this is so nice! Rich and sweet and wonderful!

The sweet notes here are profound, deeply chocolate-y, with notes of caramel. It’s one of those types of teas that are incredibly cozy … the kind you want to curl up with and just drink with joyful abandon.

Yum yum yum!

This tea is delicious hot, but also very good cold, something that I learned because I had to step away from the computer for a while and came back to a cold cup (I haven’t yet turned the heat on in the house, I don’t know why I haven’t. And I really don’t know why I’m sitting here, complaining about not doing it instead of getting up and doing it right now) and it is still really delicious! Sweet, earthy, and just plain good. REALLY good.

I am currently enjoying my third and fourth infusion of this tea. It’s really quite lovely. It started out with a distinct mineral-y/charcoal-y kind of taste, with notes of flower in the background, and a warm, toasty kind of overtone. Now, I notice some of the mineral/charcoal notes have begun to wane, and a woodsy note seems to have taken their place, and this melds wonderfully with the warmth of the roasty-toasty taste. The floral notes have begun to reveal a honey-esque tone that is quite lovely.

I like that this tea is not overly floral, offers hints of fruit (I notice a slight peach-y undertone), and that it has such a warmth to it, especially since I’m kind of dealing with COLD bones because I’ve been working off and on in my studio, and dang it’s cold in there! I come in here to warm up with a cup of tea, and this tea does the trick.

Lovely!

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a bit of this tea. I went to the RTR website and it seems it has been assimilated into the “Parent” company of The Republic of Tea, and this tea does not appear to be available.

This is a pleasant tea, quite good actually. I find that I enjoy it more as it cools, when it is hot, it has a stronger, slightly bitter vegetative tone and as it cools these flavors tend to subside and I notice sweeter, fruitier notes, as well as the sweeter notes of the vegetal notes.

It’s a good tea, but I can’t say that I’ve enjoyed it enough to want more of it, and I guess that it’s a good thing that I don’t since it’s not available on the website anyway!

This is an interesting tea.

I can taste each of the flavors that are promised in the description. The chocolate is prominent, which I like. The strawberry taste is bright and sweet with tartness, like a fresh berry would taste, and I taste the hint of bitterness from the saffron. What I like best is how the saffron and chocolate interact, there’s a distinct semi-sweetness to the overall cup. The cup is creamy and rich, I taste notes of vanilla, and I also taste the currants in this, they seem to interact with the strawberry, giving it more tartness than a strawberry flavor would normally have. Tingly!

I think my one disappointment with this cup is with the black tea base, as I find it lacking. While I wouldn’t want it a lot stronger because it might overpower the flavors and I really am enjoying the flavors … I want a little more bite from the black tea. I think that maybe just a touch of Assam or Nilgiri might enhance the overall flavor, making this taste more like a tea and a little less like a thin, jacked-up hot chocolate.

I like it though, I just think that with a more solid black tea base, I’d really LOVE this.

This is AWESOME!

I had a cup of this yesterday, and I was just so in love with it that I didn’t even take the time away from it to type out a tasting note. It’s hard for me to stop between sips to write out thoughts now. It’s really good.

I love this not only because it tastes good, but because it’s a local product as well. By looking at their website, I see that nobody in Vancouver sells this (That’s Vancouver, Washington), but it’s in Portland. I may just have to start bugging my local Whole Foods to start carrying it since the Whole Foods in Portland does. And I can’t really convince my hubby to take me to a Whole Foods in Portland if there is one in Vancouver, and ESPECIALLY for a particular tea. LOL He seems to think I have enough tea, and there is no need for me to be buying more. He just doesn’t seem to understand that sometimes I find a tea so amazing that I NEED more of it. Any time I put the words “I need more” in front of the word tea, he starts laughing and stops listening to reason.

Anyway… this stuff is really good. There have been a couple of chai blends that I have really proclaimed as good (like mine, for example, and then there are the concentrates/premixed type of Chai like Third Street and Bhakti Chai, and there are others too – both powdered and loose leaf – that I’ve really enjoyed) this one is on the level of the very best … maybe even better than Bhakti! This is just so good.

One thing that I love about this is that it’s powdered, but unsweetened. So, I can totally control how sweet (or not) it is, and how strong I want by adding a little more powder. I followed the instructions yesterday, and took a little sip, then decided I wanted it just a little stronger so I added about half a scoop (the pouches come with the most adorable little bamboo scoop inside), and I could easily do this. To make it, you just boil water in the kettle, measure out 1/2 cup of boiling water, heat 1/2 cup of milk, combine and stir in 1 scoop (or in my case 1 1/2 scoops) of the chai powder, and then if you want it sweetened you can do that. I like my chai to have a little bit of sweetener because I think it accents the spices in a nice way, so I added about a 1/4 of a teaspoon of Turbinado Sugar and this made it absolutely amazingly delicious.

Spicy, creamy, decadent, rich, and perfect. I am going to be BUGGING my local Whole Foods to carry this.

I ordered this along with my most recent order … mostly because I was curious, because I seem to focus primarily on the flavored and more unusual teas from Butiki, but, overlook something that seems a little more commonplace even though I acknowledge that certainly not all breakfast blends are created equal and as Stacy at Butiki is brilliant at what she does, I should have known that her breakfast blend would not be something so ordinary.

I LOVE this. It is certainly one of the more robust, thick, hefty English Breakfast blends I’ve come across. I taste the rich malty tones of Assam, the evenness of the Ceylon, the delicious, toasty flavor of the Java tea and the lightness from the Darjeeling helps to keep this tea from being too thick or heavy. It’s got just enough tooth to it to be a really good, solid breakfast blend – better than most out there, to be sure! – but, light enough so that I don’t feel weighed down after I’ve had a cup.

I’ve enjoyed this so much I’m actually on my second cup today.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea.

I find myself a wee bit disappointed by this tea. Not that it is a bad tea – it isn’t. I guess I’ve been a bit spoiled by some of the Darjeeling teas that I’ve been drinking lately and so I expected more of a Darjeeling flavor from this, that is to say, I wanted Muscatel.

This is more reminiscent of a fine Dragon Well. Nothing wrong with that, I just expected more Darjeeling. It’s kind of a Chinese tasting green tea from India, I guess. Not bad though.