MegWesley

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.

I have finished this entire box in record time. Brewing it for only two minutes and then adding a splash of milk made this tea a whole lot better. Now I won’t be obsessing over it.

I really think that I like this more at a shorter steeping time. The vanilla tastes less artificial and you don’t get the overbrewed slightly bitter taste of the tea. Yes, it is still sugary sweet, but I count that as a perk considering that the sweetness is why I picked up a vanilla chai to begin with.

Still haven’t killed the box yet. I’m actually thinking about trying this with my yerba mate and seeing if they go well together. I’ll keep you updated if I try.

Since the Stash Double Spice Chai and the Twinings French Vanilla Chai were not completely satisfying on their own, I decided to mix them together and see what happened. I brewed the two teabags for five minutes and then added milk.

The combination of the two is pretty delicious. The spice is enhanced by the vanilla in the Twinings tea. The vanilla is actually more flavorful and less artificial with the strong spices from the Stash tea. I have been drinking these two in combination for about a week and I am sad to say that I have run out of my Stash Double Spice Chai.

This combination was delicious while it lasted and was a good replacement for hot cocoa. I’m going to drink my last cup of this slowly while enjoying the first snowfall of the year.

Ever since I saw this in the store I have been curious about a vanilla chai. I like the spiciness of chai and I love vanilla. What could go wrong?

Apparently the other reviews were right. The black tea isn’t bold enough and the vanilla tastes more artificial than artificial vanilla extract. And there was no flavor before you added the milk. There was a delicious vanilla smell, but no flavor. So this is a chai you have to drink with milk. The one thing that is going for it is that it is sweet. Very sweet.

I won’t be buying this chai again but I will be drinking the box.

I have basically been drinking nothing but chai tea for the past few weeks. I do like this one because of the strong spice. Something is off though. I don’t think the black tea part of it was actually strong enough to stand up to all of the spices. Not my favorite chai, but it is good enough to take over my entire tea drinking experience for a few weeks.

I disappeared a little because of the holidays. I finally shared the last of this tea with my fiancee. He thought it was a little strange and was glad that I didn’t have a full tin. I have to agree with him a little since it is a very distinctive flavor.

It was nice while it lasted. Sweet and cakey and lemony as long as you added sugar. The only lemon tea that I have run across that I actually liked.

This has been my go-to tea for the past couple of days. It is bold enough that it is very comforting and very addictive. Exactly what I needed to replace my hot chocolate addiction. The sad part is that it is what I have been craving for so long that it is the only thing I’m drinking and I have new tea samples to go through.

I basically got my Christmas gift early this year. I am now a proud owner of my very first car! It is a really nice little car and I am excited about it. I feel like this is my first big step into becoming a real adult now.

I ran out of all of my earl grey so I have been out of the Earl for about a month now. I finally broke down and took one of my mom’s bags out of her stash and I’m having it with a splash of milk. There is nothing more amazing right now. I am so glad that this is one of the better bagged earl greys.

I keep reaching for this tea in the morning. I think I am just wanting something to keep me away from the hot chocolate and this spicy tea is just what I have been wanting. I guess I am going to have to go on a chai tea hunt this winter.

I got a new round of tea samples from the wonderful Angel at Teavivre. This is the first one from the new set and I decided to actually write down the steeps in my journal before logging them into Steepster. It was fun actually writing down a tea tasting in my neon pink ink.

Steep 1: Brewed for two minutes. The tea smells dark and the liquor is a deep warm brown. The first taste is more earth and then a slightly sweet taste creeps in along the sides of your tongue. I looked at the tea packet and saw that it suggested a lower water temperature than I used so I am going to try a lower water temperature with the next steep and see if that changes things.

Steep 2: Brewed for 2.5 minutes. The liquor is slightly paler, but not by that much. It looks more like a dark topaz. It smells slightly like a sweet potato that has been taken out of the dirt and then quickly sprayed off so that it is clean but bits of earth are still clinging to the skin.

The taste is amazing. A very faint cocoa note that mixes with the previous taste to make an amazing slightly sweet rye bread. The kind that is just out of the oven. The crust is crisp and the crumb (the soft part of the bread) is so soft that it deflates in your mouth and releases a burst of flavor. So delicious.

Steep 3: Brewed for 3.5 minutes. The liquor is a light bronze. The flavor of rye bread is still there but it has a slight sweet potato taste to it now. This steep is a little watery, but I think if I had brewed it for another minute it would have been better. This is the last steep for the night.

Overall, this tastes very different from the full leaf version, but I love that it is so different. It just tastes good and makes me think of a warm kitchen when I was little. My mom doesn’t like rye bread so she never made it, but she did make bread. I can let my imagination fill in that it tasted like this tea and I would be content wherever I was at the moment. Delicious.

I was getting ready to brew up some of my Jasmine Silver Needle only to find that I must have used it all up already! I must remember to keep track of my teas better and to check how much is in the bag before I get ready to pour water in my pot.

So my eyes turn to my Dragonwell and it was exactly what I wanted. Buttery and grassy with a hint of astringency. Just the thing before I start to move on to my new round of sample teas from Teavivre. Have I mentioned how much I love that they let me sample different types of tea from them?

I have been craving chai, so I picked up a box of this when my mom and I went shopping this evening. Hot and plain, the scent is wonderfully cinnamon! It smelled like liquid Red Hot candies. Brewed up it didn’t taste like much.

So I did what any person familiar with chai would do, I put a splash of milk in it. The milk brings out the other flavors. The prominent flavor is actually a blend between the allspice and the nutmeg. Cinnamon is still the most aromatic.

This would be lovely in the cool winter mornings which is what I was hoping for. I’m not sure I would pick it up again so I am still on my quest for the perfect chai. It will make me very happy to drink it though.

Double strong with milk and it’s gone! That woke me up.

It is time for the last of this sample. There was a little bit more in the bag than I would normally put in, but it wasn’t enough for two french presses, so I poured in the rest of my sample bag.

Starting at two minutes and going to keep re-steep it until I kill it. So probably six steeps worth of tea. A very good choice for an afternoon tea.

Dad wasn’t feeling very good tonight so I made him a cup of white tea spiked with a bit of brandy. Wanting to join him, I made myself a cup of white tea spiked with jasmine.

Mom thinks it is funny when I play my handheld Harvest Moon while Dad is playing Harvest Moon Animal Parade on the Wii.

Wow, for the first time my basement room is warmer than the rest of the house and I don’t have the heat on that high. I went upstairs to make a cup of tea and ended up shivering. So this tea came out and I decided to brew it a little differently.

Since I like this best with milk in it, I put an extra teaspoon of tea in my french press and brewed it for an extra minute. Then I added a splash of vanilla almond milk. The chocolate is a little more prominent while the spices are downplayed. I think this would be best brewed double strong with milk and I’m going to use the rest of the remaining leaf for my next cup when I have it.

Not a bad chocolate chai once you figure out how you like to drink it.

I thought it would be a good way to wind down the day with my favorite jasmine white tea. I like this better than the green jasmine pearls because it isn’t as astringent as the pearls which means it goes better on its own.

I had a fun day today. My mom, dad, and fiancee took me out to The Gentle Arts yarn shop. They have a pair of plastic sheep when you first enter the store. One looks like it is eating a basket of yarn and the other is wearing a stylish hand knit hat. My mom took a picture of them to show me when they first went there and I got to see them in person today!

I also got to spin on four different spinning wheels! I discovered that I do really like spinning on a wheel and the style I like best is the double treadle wheel castle wheel. Yes, I did get to spin on a baby version of the traditional wheel that looks like the one is Sleeping Beauty. I also got a ball of red sock yarn and 4 oz of light brown alpaca to spin.

It was a fantastic surprise and I love that yarn store. Hopefully, I will be able to visit it again. Maybe next time they will show me how to work a loom!

A big mug of chocolate chai with milk with a pancake breakfast and a leftover 100 Grand bar from halloween. Birthday is starting out wonderfully!

I took my driver’s test today and passed! To celebrate, I made some of this tea for me and my fiancee. He gets the first steep and I get the second steep, then we will share the third steep and maybe the fourth steep if I feel like going that far with one tea today.

I have my driver’s test tomorrow and I was starting to feel nervous even though I just did wonderfully driving in heavy traffic. This tea to the rescue! I swear I taste something like grape in here. The juicy green grape type of grape and not the big black ones. Just wonderful and the jasmine calms me down instantly.

My mom and I went shopping this morning since her work is still out of power. I got a new pair of sneakers that fit perfectly and make my feet happy. Now I don’t have to worry about wearing a hole right through my old sneakers.

The only thing I don’t like about this cup is that mom snuck splenda in the sugar bowl first thing this morning. It is still good, but not quite the right type of sweet it needs to be to really bring out the gooey butter cakey taste.

I am amazed that this has lemon in it. I normally hate lemon in my tea but I really like the taste of it in here.