MegWesley Send Message

I was really tired this morning so I decided to brew some of this up. It did the job it was supposed to do. It woke me up, but the added milk brought the coffee flavors out more than when I drank it plain. I like tea and when I drink tea I don’t want it to taste like coffee. So no milk in this tea for me.

I had an earl grey craving, so I borrowed one of my mom’s teabags. Hot with almond milk for a relaxing evening at home.

Holy smokes Batman! Strong tea is strong. Now that I got that out of my system, I have to say that I did only steep this for two minutes as per short steep suggestion via Indigobloom. I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect because I never heard of Ice Wine before I got on steepster.

When it was hot, it smelled so grapey, like the big, fat red seedless grapes. It tasted really tangy and a little overpowering. So I put a big tablespoon of sugar in my mug and then dumped the rest into a glass of ice. Voila! An iced ice wine tea.

It actually tastes pretty good iced. It is still tangy, but the sugar cut out the slight bitterness I was tasting. From what I can tell the black tea base is smooth. And instead of the overwhelming concord grape jelly taste, I am getting a light fruitiness out of it.

Yep, this would probably be a tea that the wine drinkers I know would adore.

Now it is time for the Toffee Chocolate Deliight. Thank you again Indigobloom.

This is an interesting tea. Plain it tastes almost flavorless with a slight toffee taste. There seems to be some dust around the edge of my mug and a slight oil floating on top of my tea. Wasn’t sure what to think of that.

Since I was impatient, I dumped out a little bit of tea from my mug and added some milk. The tea is creamier now and tastes more like toffee. It doesn’t quite taste like chocolate, but there is something that reminds me of chocolate in there. I think I must have dumped out the oil on top of the liquid because the black tea base is there now.

All of the dessert teas seem to need either milk or sugar to really bring them out. I still have some of the sample left so I can see if not adding milk and just adding some sugar would make any difference.

I think I am starting to taste some hazlenut now. Hmmm. This is tasty. I will have to try a bit of sugar in it next time and see how that is.

I’m not quite sure what to think about this tea. On one hand, it looks like just a jumble of nuts and something that looks like grass. On the other hand, it smells wonderful and I can pick out the smell of the yerba mate.

I brewed it for five minutes. I can taste the earthy mate and it was nice. I think that there were some coffee beans in there and maybe some chocolate. It was a comforting drink

I have one more serving so am going to try it again with some milk
Maybe I’ll get a stronger flavor out of it next time.

Thank you Indigobloom for sending me a sample of this tea along with all the other tea goodies!

My fiancee was over when I opened the sample of this tea. He had been hearing me rave about how good this was supposed to be, so he went through the steeping process with me. He only got to stay for one steep though.

This tea is called Golden Fleece for a reason. I feel so decadent drinking this. The leaves are golden and the liquor has a golden tint to it throughout all four steeps.

The first steep took me back to thoughts of what Victorian summer garden parties would be. It was vanilla-sugar sweet, but it didn’t taste like you dumped a spoonful of sugar in. The mouthfeel is so silky and the smell is just divine. I have a hard time just describing the smell because it is something you really have to experience first hand.

The second steep was sweeter and darker at the same time. The taste started to morph to a more raw sugar sweet instead of vanilla. There is a slight spice also starting to come out. It is hard to determine which spice I am tasting because it just blends in so well with the rest of the flavors.

The third steep I had this morning. It tastes similar to the second steep, but it has a little bit more richness. The sweetness is more like brown sugar. The spice is a bit more pronounced. The closest spice I can think of is more like allspice or maybe a bit of clove.

I am currently working on the fourth steep and I never want it to end. Smooth and silky honey with just a shaving of dark chocolate. It is mingled with clove. This feels like something the ancient gods would drink or maybe even old kings and queens. It is like nothing I have ever tasted and it is just wonderful.

Thank you again Indigobloom for sending me a sample. It is a gorgeous tea and I am going to have to keep an eye out to see if I can get myself a tin if this comes back in stock (and if my funds will allow it).

I brewed this at a lower temperature this time. Smooth, light, and sweet potato like. Just what I needed this morning.

I was about ready to give up on this one until I ran across momo’s post about trying to cook with it. That inspired me to put a little kick into the turkey gravy that I was making for tonight’s dinner.

I put about half a shotglass worth of leaf in a shotglass and filled it up with water to brew. Then when it came time to add water to my pan to make my gravy, I strained the cup through a strainer and used the tea. I also used a little bit of cayanne pepper and some black pepper on the sausage because dad didn’t spice the sausage enough for my taste.

It came out pretty good! There is a different note underneath the light smokiness. I think that is the actual black tea base. It was different enough to be pleasant and went very well with the turkey sausage.

I want to make a version of this again for the whole family only instead of using a meat for the base, I want to try it with onions and mushrooms. That way I can mold the turkey sausage to look like little t-bone steaks for the family. That will surprise them.

Cooking with this tea might have saved it for now. I will have to figure out how to use it in a satisfying way.

I decided it was tea time and I was getting my tea ready when I noticed that my little sampler bag of tea was harder to open. It was the long skinny type and usually there is one serving in there. When I dumped it into my press it really started to look like two servings in there. Maybe it just looked like that because the leaves are so fluffy. I brewed it anyway for one minute and then poured it into my TARDIS mug to take downstairs with me.

The liquor was really yellow. I was expecting it to be pale since my other white tea was water-like in color. It smells like a flower. I’m not sure what a peony smells like but I imagine this is spot on. I could wear the scent as a perfume.

It tastes exactly like it smells. It is not chemically or perfume-like, but it tastes like a flower. I ate a dandelion one time and the way this tastes reminds me of that texture.

I’m not sure if I actually like this or not. I get the mouth feel of chewing a flower and it smells like a flower but it is tea. I can see why people like using it as a base for flavored teas. I bet this would add a lovely texture to other flavors. I can imagine making a really good vanilla cake tea out of this.

I am finally off of the chai train. I decided to brew up the last of this tea before breaking into my new samples. It is yummy and I have missed pu-erh. I will probably be nursing these steeps throughout the entire day today.