MegWesley

Today was a pretty eventful day. I drank the first and third steep of this while my fiance had the second steep. He thought it was a light and delicate tea. I still taste fruit in the early steepings of this. I like it when I want something light.

I had my brother put the last of my tea bags in the pitcher and to make some cold brewed tea this morning. Six hours later (and lightly sugared)it is nice and delicate and peachy. There is half a pitcher left. I don’t think it will last any more than one more day.

My fiance and I went shopping with his mom at Giant today. We found this tea bottled and decided to try it. It wasn’t that bad. It was minty and earthy blended together.

The only thing I’m not sure of is this being an iced tea. I think I would like it better if we got it in the tea bags and had it warm. They also had some other bottled iced tea pu-erh flavor at Giant and I might try some of the other flavors.

It is intriguing and for some reason I keep coming back to pu-erh even though it isn’t my favorite yet. I must like it though.

I brewed this just a little differently this time. I think I used a little bit more leaf and steeped for a lower time. The first steep was 3 minutes long while the second steep was 4 minutes long. This produced a more flavorful second steep and really brought out the chocolate notes in the first steep.

This is really yummy and good for any time of day. I might have to break it into two cups the next time I drink it and try one cup with a spoonful of sugar to see if that brings out the chocolate notes even more. If it does, I will have to give it to mom to try since that is how she makes her tea.

Finished up the last of the tea in the pitcher. The second day for this tea is definetley the best. The third day isn’t as flavorful. I’ll have to make some more of this for the weekend.

I’m finally drinking the last tea bag of this. It is soft and smooth and sweet. Reminds me of honey without being overly so. Little strange to be having in the morning, but I’m trying to make it a good day today.

I am really trying to keep from snacking today and it has just been so cold that I want comfort. This is comfort in a cup. Just enough of a cocoa hint in the black tea to satisfy my chocolate craving.

I wanted something warm and comforting that I could sip on since the day has turned cold and rainy. I knew I still had one more good steep in these leaves, so I made myself a cup of this. My brother likes the smell of jasmine and I am tempted to see if the jasmine plant can grow well where I live. I love the smell.

It is so nice to just be able to walk to the fridge and pour myself a cup of tea that isn’t over-the-top-sweet sweet tea. Lightly peachy and the hint of sugar I added helps bring out the peachiness. I know what I will be doing with the last of my tea bags when this pitcher runs out.

I am convinced that Jasmine is a tea that you grow to love. It is just what I need right now. Delicate and floral. Smells so delicious. I want to bury my nose in the tea and just inhale. I think I grew to be a jasmine tea lover. This is delicious.

A cup of this and then a shower before I make my second steep so I can wind down with it as well. It will me a lovely and relaxing night.

It is time for a cold brewing experiment! I threw three bags of this in a big pitcher this morning, filled it with water, and stuffed it in the fridge. It has been brewing for about five hours and I think it is strong enough now. I lightly sweetened it with about a half cup of sugar.

Wow, this is really good! Light and peachy with a hint of zing to it. That must be the ginger I’m tasting. I didn’t over-sweeten it, but it is sweetened enough to make it appealing to my family. I have about three to four bags of this left and I think it will be going in for a second pitcher when we run out of this one. Yummy!

I have spent the last hour cleaning the house. It was a bit of an adventure because my brother decided to act up and resulted in me locking him out of the house with no shoes until he decided to cooperate. He decided that he likes helping me with housework after having to take the trash out anyway. I think we have reached an agreement with doing housework.

I still have to do dishes, but I decided to have a cup of tea first. Last bag of the box.

Backlogging from Vacation #5:

This was the last vacation tea I had. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel and they had this for breakfast. I had to put a creamer of half-and-half in mine to cut the bitterness it had. I must be getting used to having some sort of dairy for my breakfast tea.

The trip was so fun, but I am glad to be home where I can control what my water tastes like (PA water is fantastic!) and how hot my water is easily.

Backlogging from Vacation #4:

I did manage to bring my french press with me and brew a cup of this up for breakfast one day. I had to use bottled water and even boiled, it didn’t make the tea taste as fantastic as I remember it being. It was still good and I felt indulging making it on a camping trip. My aunt and uncle even thought that it was really cool that I was indulging in loose leaf tea. They have discovered a fondness for chamomile tea.

Backlogging from Vacation #3:

I like this tea for the aromatic property. It smells like fresh peaches. It just doesn’t taste like peaches. I’m going to cold brew a big pitcher of this and see if it tastes better as an iced tea. My family is aware that I am going to be experimenting and they said that worse come to worse, I’ll have to drink the entire thing by myself. We will see.

Backlogging from Vacation #2:

I only drank one bag of this last week and I have one more to go. I am going to be sad to see this one go, but I kinda want to see if I can find a loose leaf version of it. It might be even better.

Backlogging from Vacation:

I finished up the last two bags of this last week. It didn’t take me that long and my dad even got to tease me about me “going English” by “taking my tea with milk”. My parents don’t get my tea love affair but they are glad that I’m not doing any drugs. This just means that I don’t have to share my teas with them if I don’t want to.

This is still the same bunch of leaves, but I felt like it needed a new tasting note. My brother just graduated from high school! Yay. He is disabled and we are very proud of him. Even better, he is going to be able to go to college too! I am very proud of him.

We had a big celebration dinner at Moes and this steep of tea is just the thing to finish the meal. It is nice and light with a slight fruity taste now. The sip ends with a creamy sweetness. I think I might have found my new favorite type of tea to compete with Earl Grey.

I left the leaves in the french press. I’m going to check them in the morning and if they still look fresh then I might try to steep it one more time to see if I can get any last drops of flavor out. We are leaving tomorrow for our vacation in Ohio so I probably won’t be on for a week unless I break and bring my computer with me. We will see. If I don’t post for a week then you know what happened.

Happy Steeping!

Whenever I get out my loose leaf I get people hovering around my french press. Then they pretend not to want to try the tea even when I offer. This time it was my brother and after it was done steeping, I told him for the last time that if he wanted to try it then to get out a mug. He got out the mug. Lol.

I keep expecting this to be rich like a black tea but it isn’t. If anything it is more like a green tea. Very delicate with a slight mineral taste that is drying out my mouth. But it has a faint sweet creaminess that keeps me coming back for more. I still have more steeps left to this (I’m only on the second steep) and I have a feeling I will be sharing the other steeps with my brother. I don’t mind though.

3rd Steep: It has gotten smoother and an understated sweetness and creaminess that kept me sipping it until it was gone. Yum.

I’ve spent all morning packing the camper for our family vacation to Ohio. I forgot to have breakfast, so sitting down to eat is wonderful. And I get to have more tea.

Numi Aged Earl Grey is my last Earl Grey to round out my Earl Grey-a-Thon. Even after sampling every earl grey in my stash, this one is still my favorite. The assam gives it a maltier flavor and the bergamot is present but not overpowering. It is just really tasty and I love it.

I went and had dinner at my fiancee’s house and then hit the jacuzzi. By the time I got back home it was too late to heat water in the kettle and I didn’t really want to microwave water for the last two bags of my Earl Grey-a-thon. I’m just finishing it up today.

I really do like this plain. It isn’t as harsh as compared to Biglow or Numi’s old version of Earl Grey, but the bergamot citrus just pops with that splash of milk. It gets bright and just stands up and says “Hi!” in a perky voice. (Yes, my tea does talk to me sometimes. I think most tea drinkers have that problem at some point of time.) It just makes me happy, especially in the morning.

This is actually a fairly decent Earl Grey. Not the best I ever had, but I find it better than Tazo Earl Grey. The bergamot is a juicy flavor and not soapy at all. (which is what I was afraid of.) The tea itself isn’t that harsh. It is actually fairly pleasant. I am curious about a splash of milk in this one even though it doesn’t really need it.

With milk the bergamot is even juicier and it is a little bit brighter. I can actually see this being a very good starter Earl Grey. It would also make good Earl Grey Lattes. I think I might have to keep this around to make my Earl Grey lemonade with. It is pretty good.

This one tastes similar to Twinings, but it is much more astringent. While it cools it gets more bitter. I can see why they stopped making this one and started making their Aged Earl Grey. And I used my last tea bag for this one.

I am using an actual tea cup, so it is no wonder that one glass of the Earl just wasn’t enough for me. And I have six different Earl Greys to compare to each other. So why not make this an Earl Grey day?

I still haven’t gotten rid of these tea bags, so I thought I would try it again. The liquor is very dark and the tea smells soapy. I only brewed it for four minutes and the tea is harsh. It also tastes slightly soapy.

But this is also the tea that the Earl Grey lattes are made out of, so let’s try a splash of milk with it and see how that goes. gets milk Now it kinda looks like iced coffee. The milk made it drinkable, but it isn’t really mind-boggling. I taste the bergamot now, but it still has a very harsh flavor to it. It tastes rather flat.

I could see this being a good tea to make a milk tea with. Or even to put some sugar and boba in it and make an Earl Grey bubble tea. But I still wouldn’t reach for it on my own. I might keep it around and use it to experiment with some Earl Grey baking that I want to do. I’ll have to see how it compares to Biglow Earl Grey.