Sarah Ruthven

yummy! This tea was so good it made me get back on Steepster after a social networking vacation! I think the chocolate is rich but does not overpower the tea. I added a little vanilla sugar and a small splash of milk…oh my worth a few repeats! I tried this sans sweetner and milk and it is good but the creamy chocolate is helped by the milk.

I have no idea why I have not logged this tea earlier. It is a main go to for me. It is a clean refreshing taste and a delicious sip! I like this tea best when it is hot, hot, hot. I do not think it gets bitter but the flavors are balanced the best when the tea is hot. To keep it this way I drink it out of a cermic mug with a lid to keep the steam in.

This tea is so delicious. I had some tea noobs over for a visit and they just loved it. The pear flavor is subtle but it is the perfect pear, not too sweet and not too tart! In the midwest it is well past good pear season so this is a truly exceptional treat! I also really like the cinnamon taste with black tea, a never fail combination in my book! So yummy!

I upped my rating on this tea after trying it again today. I just recently got a tea thermometer to better gauge my water temp and it made all the difference in the world for me. It did not need honey after all, just needed to be steeped correctly! It still reminds me a lot of the holidays with such a good balance of sweet and tangy!

5 inches of snow or so today and it is time to decorate a bit…I reached for one of the newest additions to my tea cupboard, Winter Wonderland. The anise is strong in this one but the balance of orange and a super smooth black tea is just awesome! It smells like winter….in heaven! I do think it helps to measure the water temp on this one, not just by feel.

I am originally a southern California girl so when Chicago gets really cold and the holidays approach it is like a mini vacation. Only thing missing are the tropics so I brewed a little Pina Colada rooibos. I like this tea because the coconut does not overpower the tea and that can not be said for all coconut teas, it is a hard ingredient to work with! A little sweet but also a little creamy like a real Pina Colada minus the ice of course!

Cleaning today and needed something to make the process suck less. I do love this tea and it is perfect for a day like today where I need to sip, swiffer, sip, scrub and repeat. What I especially love about it is that if it chills from sitting it still tastes good. Also I have rebrewed once and it is still going strong. Well, this did not take long enough…now what to do to avoid the next chore?

I am starting a new book tonight “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett so I decided to sip a new tea tonight as well. Plum Crazy is super yummy. The plum taste is delicious, just like biting into a perfectly ripe version of the real deal. I like a good black tea at night anyway and the addition of plum is really unique. Re-brewed well too, thankfully because my book is a page turner!

Today I am grading research papers and need a little something to get me through what seems like a never ending pile or papers. I reached for Crannyberry after I realized it had been a few weeks since I have sipped this tea. I really like the black tea mixed with traditionally strong berry flavors. The caffeine is a necessary component to grading and the berries keep me calm.

This tea is the total pakage, appearance, color, smell (dry and wet) and taste of course. It is a blend of green and black tea which must be hard to balance but it is done well here. In addition there is a strong peach taste and scent but it does not overpower the tea. I do not usually gravitate towards peach teas but I couldn’t resist the green and black tea blend. The flavor is unique and the tea is beautiful. It is quite the pick me up tea!

Premium and Full Leaf? Hardly. The smell of the tea is good, which is why I bought some. The taste as others have said is overly minty which hides the green tea taste and does not feel very tropical. I bought the tea out of convience since it is pre-bagged loose leaf but was sad to see the actual condition of the leaves. They are small pieces not at all what good Dragon’s Well looks like and I saw notable amounts of tea dust, probably accounting for some of the bitterness. In the future I will just pre bag my own good loose leaf tea and skip the “convienience” factor.

My first loose leaf tea experience was with a green tea at Todd & Holland’s Tea Merchants shop in Forest Park, IL. This green tea is bright and aromatic and truly delicious. I really get into the flavorings but this tea simply does not need them. Grassy and robust, I salavate when brewing (too much info possibly?) I also love the education that comes with stopping in and sipping tea. That is where I learned that I like early picked green tea right after the rains (said in the most snobbish voice I could muster). It is pricey thus not making it a 100 but worth the money for such a quality tea.

I am a Pu-erh beginner so this review may seem a little basic to those of you with more refined taste. I love green tea so this seemed like a natural next step in my tea education, it took a few brews but I love it! In a green tea I love the bright almost grassy taste. This tea has orange and raspberry which bring in those bright flavors that I really love. The Pu-erh makes for a good morning tea and balances the bright fruit flavors really well. In fact that is what I love about the Pu-erh, how it can balance or contrast the fruit so well. I also love the name. Today in the Chicago area we are experiencing rain, falling temps and the threat of a wintery mix…if ever there was a time for Eternal Sunshine this is it!

This one challenged my tastebuds in a good way. I was unsure at first about green tea with chocolate but once I sipped it all made sense. It is a pretty tea as well with the little stars generously sprinkled throughout. Not sure I would drink this all year round like I normally would with a good green tea but I do think it makes for fun winter and holiday sipping. I like it with just a tiny bit of honey.

I first had this tea while at port on an Alaskan cruise. This was a really good tea and truly a unique blend. Not one I have seen repeated anywhere else. It is a strong tea and must be sipped slowly. I really like it with dessert type foods as it truly cuts through the sweetness. The tea is served at The Empress Hotel in Victoria, BC, Canada. We had a high tea where they served this anniversary blend. The food was delicious and the tea even better!

This is a great green tea (in terms of quality) and the fruit flavor has a good balance with the tea. The grape flavor is good but I think a little too sweet. It is good for sipping when it is pipping hot, as it cools the flavor gets out of balance. I like it brewed one hot cup at a time. I have not had this tea cold but I would imagine it would be yummy cold!

This is my go to tea. I have quite the tea collection started but I go to this tea multiple times a week. It is such a clean tasting green tea and the addition of toasted rice adds some complexity to the simple clean green tea. I think it is best warm and happens to be a great pairing with a good book. I can sip it slowly or gulp it and I never seem to tire of it!

I am not a huge herbal tea fan in general, I guess I just really miss the tea part :) I like Perfect World though. Recently while sick this was just the right gentle blend of tea to soothe my soar throat. I also really like seeing the whole flowers in my tea and the smell is relaxing.

This is the tea I am currently sipping! The lemon taste is fresh and not sweet but not sour. The tea is not overpowered by the lemon. I have this tea brewed cold in the fridge right now but I also love it hot.