Serenity

Irish Breakfast blends have a reputation for being robust and flavorful, and Peet’s Irish Breakfast? Check and check! It has a sweetness and an astringency; a subtle malt and fresh floral flavor; a strength and delicacy. One reason I love tea so much is that there can be so much going on in a single cup, in a single cup.

While I have an appreciation for bitter flavors that are awesome (dark roast coffee, certain teas, wicked dark chocolate, etc), my introduction to Yerba Mate was, “Whoa…too bitter for me.” However, I have such fond memories of my visit to Guayaki in California, I just had to try it again. This time I picked up a box of this cocoa infused blend. I tried it with lots of positive attitude but inner bracing against possible bitterness. OH…my…yumminess! Delicate sweetness, light cocoa and spice flavor, warming and delicious. Frothed with a little milk/non dairy bev. and a touch of honey, this became a latte of cocoa laced with spices; the yerba mate’s earthy and vegetal flavor creating a lovely counterpoint.

I was earl grey-less and then this showed up. Nice! It has that bergamot zest going on, and it also has a sweet blend of black tea that is robust and delicious. I love it.

Happy Easter! I had a cup of this delicious tea today. Perfectly delicious straight up, the currant flavor is enhanced with a drop of honey. The sweet, almost floral flavors of black currant mingle with the nearly citrus flavor of the tea itself, which also has a faint flavor of malty toastiness. Sip by sip, I savored this tea as the steam enveloped my face, fogging my glasses.

I love how Earl Greys are open to interpretation: this one has a bright orange flavor along with a faint base note fragrance of saffron. The black tea blend is light, blending nicely with the citrus flavors. Taja Tea is marketing this as a health promoting tea due to the saffron. Is there enough saffron in each serving to truly have a health benefit? Well, let’s just brew another cup and see!

This was a gift…from me to my husband, but extreme fatigue had me reaching for it in desperation today. Delicious earthy flavor, mild, slightly sweet; the mint is fresh tasting. I added a squeeze of lemon, and a few drops of NuNaturals stevia (for some reason, I love when mint teas are just a little sweet and lemony.) Really tasty! And, I got no jittery, unpleasant feeling, the way I do from coffee. Hmmm, might be reaching into my husband’s guayusa again soon!

I got this for Valentine’s Day and I love it. I will admit that just by looking at the name of this tisane, I thought there’d be too much going on. I am happy to have been wrong: the flavors of citrus and pineapple and lavender and sage = pure deliciousness. Imagine if a fairy lived on a tropical island: this is what she’d drink in the evenings.

Tried this again: two tea bags in one mug, and upped the sweetener (stevia), and I am liking this tea more. The flavors are more pronounced (duh, Serenity, you are using twice as much tea). I will try the double tea bag bag approach stovetop style and see how it goes. Watch: next note will be all: I used 1/4 cup of milk and 3/4 cup water and four tea bags and bazinga!

The unique flavor of roasted rice makes this tea so terrific. Have you ever had it? Do you like popcorn? The rice, which puffs and sometimes pops as it is being roasted, has a toasty, savory-sweet flavor a bit like popcorn. Do you think dogs’ paws have a popcorn-y fragrance? I do. There is something wonderfully comforting about the jiffy-pop, dog paw aroma of this tea and as it may be obvious, it is a favorite of mine, and has been for so long.

The high quality of rooibos is apparent here in the first sip: the flavor is sweet, clean, and robust. Despite the rooibos being contained in tea bags, there is just about enough in each tea bag for a proper cup of tea.

Jasmine Fancy by Peet’s is a cup of amber, floral goodness. The Jasmine scent is natural and not overpowering. The green tea is that elusive blend of sweetness and astringency.

When I first visited Berkeley, California, I took a walk in the evening and was amazed by the incredibly lovely floral fragrance emanating from a shrub I was passing. Night blooming Jasmine, someone told me. I looked at the beautiful, star shaped, little, white flowers, marveling at the amazing scent: I wanted to bury myself in the flowers; I wanted to eat that scent. Sometimes you get what you want. When I open the bag of this tea, I am transported to that Jasmine filled evening. The tea tastes delicious: light, refreshing, smooth and naturally Jasmine-infused.

Cinnamony and plummy, this green tea from TRoT is delicious! Thanks Josie Jade for the samples! The flavors are nicely balanced: it does not taste overly fruity or like fake cinnamon in any way. Very smooth, perfect for after the holidays in my opinion!

Fresh air, sweet spring grass, clean earth, the ocean: this is a tea I love. It just tastes so, so good.

Bonjour! Paris, decaf, by Harney & Sons is now on my shopping list after I enjoyed a sample of this delicious tea. It is very flavorful: vanilla, caramel, and citrus are the flavors I taste. Also, there is a special flavor that I don’t often taste when having a cup of decaf tea. The flavor is…tea! I love it!

Got a sample of this (thanks Josie Jade) and it is so scrumptious my feelings about this tea can best be expressed in a song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJX7o—G_VM

Candy Cane Lane by Celestial Seasonings is crazy delicious! I imagine some earnest hippie woman at Celestial Seasonings HQ in Colorado, losing sleep, trying again and again to get the blend just right and finally collapsing, beaming, sipping this tea from a handmade pottery mug. First of all, it has a subtle green tea taste, which gives this tea a little body so it’s not all herbal. Second of all, the blend of mint, vanilla and cinnamon is just perfection. A candy cane in a cup! After getting a sample of this (thank you Josie Jade!) I admit I’ve been to three stores, hoping that there will be a bin of holiday teas on sale, but no luck. Fortunately, one can order Candy Cane Lane online, so I won’t have to wait for Christmas to come around again.

The combination of green tea, lemon, and ginseng makes this tea a new chilly weather favorite. The flavors are a nice balance of earthy, tart, and sweet. With my second cup, I added some fresh lemon. Delicious! Celestial Seasonings has a special place in my heart: I loved the boxes when I was a little kid; the illustrations are so magical. I remember drinking Red Zinger and adding lots of honey to it. It’s always nice to discover a new blend of CS tea, and toss it into my grocery cart, and try it out. I’m glad I tried Honey Lemon Ginseng.

Inspired by Grace Makutsi, from Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, this is a, as the name suggests, a citrusy and gingery, rooibos blend. Rooibos and Red Bush: same thing, a shrub in South Africa, the needles of which make this tasty tisane. This has green rooibos, and it is delicious. The citrus and ginger blended with the green rooibos creates a special kind of lemony ginger flavor.

If you are a fan of Alexander McCall Smith’s Number One Ladies Detective Agency series, featuring the wonderful Precious Ramotswe, then you’ll be tempted, as I was, to try this tisane. I’ve tried vanilla rooibos blends before and have found them tasty, but this, this my friends, has the right amount of vanilla. Delicious and indeed comforting, this became an instant favorite of mine at first sip. Green smiley face for sure. Steeped in 6 oz of boiling water, milk added after about 5 minutes of steeping.

I enjoyed this over the top tisane brewed in 6 oz of boiling water, steeped for 5 minutes, with milk and sweetener (drop of pure maple syrup). This combination resulted in what tasted like a strawberry milk chocolate candy.

This loose chai masala highlights a special ingredient: tulsi, which is holy basil. Dried tulsi has a sharp, vegetal flavor; a bit spicy, a tad bitter. It has an elusive, floral, spicy bouquet. This chai masala has assam, it is not caffeine free as I’d originally thought, and includes the usual masala suspects. I purchased it from a tea shop that sells loose tea in large canisters, without the ingredients listed, just the name of the tea, which is then scooped into little brown paper bags. Here is a link to the ingredients so that you’ll know just what is going on in this tea:
http://organicindiausa.com/tulsi-chai-masala-tea-loose-leaf-100g-canister/
When you open the bag, you smell the mixed spices, the sweet assam and the tulsi, which has the appearance of dark green bits. The masala is beautifully balanced: no flavor jumps out and demands all the attention, and that’s so important to me in a chai masala. I used one teaspoon to one cup of water, boiling, in a teapot, and steeped for 3 minutes. The brewing tea had such a lovely fragrance: the tea, spices and tulsi created a unique scent. The result was a light, spicy and sweet cup of tea. I added a drop of pure maple syrup; unorthodox, I know, but it complemented the sweetness of the tea and mellowed the aromatic tulsi. This is definitely a unique chai masala for me, and I’m so glad I added it to my cupboard. Will I ever go to India? I close my eyes and sip this tea and imagine it! Next time I will make this on the stovetop, properly!

Spicy and sweet, this chai is a dessert in a cup. Coconut, cinnamon, ginger and more blend together in perfect harmony. I pick up a kind of butterscotchy flavor. I’m going to go off on a tangent. Are you with me? I have one suggestion: if you feel that rooibos based chais are a little lacking in a sturdy base, go ahead and add some loose rooibos, and add some more time to your steeping. I have found that in general, there is not enough rooibos and that steeping time tends to be under-estimated. If your approach to rooibos is, “where’s the flavor?” just try it: double or triple the amount of rooibos used, whether you are brewing straight up rooibos or a blend such as chai, and add several more minutes to your steeping time. The result is an infusion with more oomph, and a richer mouth feel. This approach is extra important with blends, where the exuberant spices and chunks of deliciousness can crowd out the rooibos, literally. This message has been brought you by The Rooibos Awareness and Appreciation and Tolerance Society (RAATS). Who died and made me queen of all things Rooibos? Well, I could tell you, but…

There are plenty of notes on this tisane, but I did want to add just one comment: I found that if I steeped this closer to 10 + minutes, the flavors mingled and mellowed and it tasted rich and sweet. The first time I brewed this, I stopped at around 4 minutes. For me, there was a marked increase in yumminess with a lengthy, leisurely steep. So, steep on, steepsters, steep on!