SimplyJenW

My breakfast cup…..brewed strong (2 tsp in 1 1/2 cups water) with sweetener and milk. Honestly, it tasted better than my coffee this morning…..

One day, I will kick that coffee habit. I am down to one cup in the morning. I think I could probably do without it now, but the DH needs coffee in the am, so I drink some, too.

I received a sample of this in a swap with silvermage2000. Thank you so much for sending this one…..It is always so much fun to try one of 52 teas blends that I missed.

The blueberry is great. I found this one to be slightly less creamy and buttery than Blueberry Cream Cheese Danish, but now I must beg Frank for another blueberry tea! Please, Frank!

I went a little crazy in my last Harney order and just added a tin of this in (along with the Keemun Mao Feng, both without even sampling first!)….

Boy am I glad I did, this is toasty, malty, has dark cocoa notes with a hint of sweetness at the end, all rolled up in a snail-shaped golden leaf! The liquor is thick giving a full mouth feel and very satisfying. Definiely a favorite!

I got this as a free sample in my first order.

First, let me mention that I am not normally an oolong drinker, but more of a wannabe oolong drinker. I really liked this, and the second steep was just as good. The peach is subtle, and the flavor of the tea is light and more crisp than the blacks I usually drink. I see a serious relationship developing between oolongs and me for the summer tea season….. And shockingly, I drank this one straght up…no sweetener!

Back to palate training with Chinese blacks…..

This is cup #7 in my taste testing. This cup is nice and smooth with cocoa notes. It has a nice full taste, and is easy to drink. It really goes to prove that you don’t need to spend a ton of money to get good tea. It runs a little over $6 for 80 grams of tea (just under 3 oz.) That works out to a little over $2 per oz. and is in the low priced range for some of the teas I have been testing.

The leaves really are needle like, but not as long as the Imperial Black Golden Needles I sampled a few weeks ago. There is some golden, but it seems to be on the lower side at around 30%. Some of the others have been higher. Really this is a great tea for the money.

My evening cuppa…..after reading that so many people loved this on ladykittycat’s log, I had to brew me a cup straghtaway! It was very good with Trader Joe’s Cat Cookies for People!

Backlogging from yesterday…..

This was my afternoon pick-me-up. It had kind of a chocolate berry taste. It was quite good, and I will have to consider more when I pull together a David’s order. The second steep was not as strong, but I did get more of the berry taste along with a hint of something minty. Thank you to ladykittycat for swapping with me!

This is the first of my samples from a swap with ladykittycat. Thank you so much for sending me my first try of David’s Tea!

This is really a good one. Somehow, maple and rooibos are the perfect pairing. I am not a huge fan of rooibos, either, but this works very well for me! It is going on the list for sure.

10 minute resteep…not quite as good as the first, but still good.

Ahhhhh. Just what I needed for the knee-jerk back to reality. This tea is so good, and perfect with just a little sweetener.

I am finally getting back in the groove from my kids being on break last week. We took a short trip to Baltimore and DC. It was a good time. It did involve drinking tea, but I did not log a thing! (My travel tea consisted of English Breakfast, Harney’s Chocolate, a little Rose Congou, Vanilla Comoro, and Midsummer’s Peach….)

The last bit of evidence from my weekend coconut kick. As far as decafs go, this one is good, and still good on a resteep. I think it is possible that this one will go on the rebuy list, but it depends on how quickly I drink it and miss variety in my decafs…

More backlogging from the weekend.

Love this…I think I must have been on a coconut kick this weekend. The coconut bits are huge, and I amy just eat them next time. Definitely a winner in my book, and the resteep was just as good.

Stacy was so smart to send free samples to everyone….the reviews on this one got me, and made me order. Her service on a regular order is very quick, in case you are curious! I love places that make it easy to order small amounts of tea as I have a cupboard full of it…..until one of those teas makes it necessary to order a whole bunch!

I really enjoyed this one. Light on the vanilla and lemon notes wich makes the cookie, and the almond is light, but maybe slightly more intense than the cookie part. I am so glad I ordered.

I am getting low on this….and will be looking for a replacement. It is good, but I think there are things out there that I like better, and are a better value. Still, not bad with milk and sweetener.

My mini-rant on Adagio…..I get that the bags make more sense than the tins as far as the environment, and have even talked myself into the fact that the bags make room for more tea faster as they empty. I just think it is a bummer the general amounts went from 4 oz. down to 3 oz. in a bag. It feels like it did when half gallons of ice cream went down to 1.75 quarts, or even 1.5 quarts. Do companies really think we are that stupid? Or are they just trying to keep their prices the same, but giving us less….so it looks like they have not had a price increase in years. They are all tricksey!

The last of my goodies from Fairyfli! This was so fun!

Carribean Flair is really good….lightly chocolate and very coconutty! It definitely satisfies the need for dessert. It tastes very sweet and the cream comes out with a little sweetener. Luckily, I have at least one or two more trials of this!

My second pouch from Frank’s Oops Week. As far as spiced teas go, this one is not bad. I would have expected maybe a little more citrus with ‘ultimate’ in the name. It did have flavorings, citrus peels, and lemongrass to add to the citrus flair. Then there were the spices you would normally associate with a tea of this type….kind of a cinnamony, clovey? touch. I am not usually a person who likes spiced teas, but this one with its more overpowering citrus notes, and lighter spice notes works for me.

Cup #6 in SimplyJenW’s Tour of China blacks:
This one is kind of a side trip. I have been primarily focusing on Fujian black tea because the cocoa notes of tea from that region have me always wanting more. But this is a Keemun. I have only had a few of these, but the cup is generally more astringent, bolder, and smokey. It is more of a ‘wake me up’ tea than a ‘relax me out’ tea. I am not super versed in English Breakfast teas of all makes, but there are many that have Keemun as some portion of the blend, or they are a straight Keemun. Me personally, I can’t drink Keemun without additions. After the first several sips of this one, I had to sweeten. This one is in the mid range as far as price for a Keemun at Upton at a little over $7 for 125 grams. Now I am wondering how this compares to a more expensive one, but since it is not my black tea of choice, I may never know.

My evening cuppa. My little taste of that rooibos blend from the store that starts with T reminded me that I had tasty rooibos in my own cupboard! I had completely forgotten how much I liked this blend. It is a great warm you up tea. Ther are hints of apple and cinnamon, and the caramel flavor just kind of intensifies the rooibos base. It resteeps well, too. Yum!

My first tea from Praise Tea courtesy of Fairyfli. Thank you so much for sending me a taste! This is really good. Strawberry and cream flavors all on a black tea base. Lovely and very relaxing. If I did not have two other strawberry varieties in my cupboard, I think this one would defintely be on the list to purchase. It kind of reminds me of Marco Polo!

Cups #4 and #5 in SimplyJenW’s China black palate training course, of sorts:
Today I decided to do a side by side. I wanted to see if I could taste the difference between a high cost black and a low-mid range one. Bai Yun Shan is my lo-mid range. It is about $7 for 100 grams. My high end choice was ZP99 Imperial Black Golden Needles. It runs over $20 for roughly the same amount (thank you for offering samples, Upton!) I can taste a difference, but it is oh so slight to my untrained palate. The Bai Yun Shan is a good solid black. It does taste slightly more smokey. Brews up about the same color, but maybe slightly darker. Bai Yun Shan’s leaves are stranded and golden tipped, with lots of golden tips…definitely about 50% golden. The leaves on the Golden Needles are probably about the longest I have seen, and are mostly golden colored, probably about 75% golden. The liquor on the Golden Needles is a little thicker, if that is possible, richer tasting. It is smoother and sweeter than the less expensive variety. So I can definitely taste a difference side by side, but I am not sure I would notice much of a difference if I prepared them at different times. Since the one is three times the price of the other, do I really enjoy the more expensive one three times as much? Not really. But this will be an incredibly cool exercise to repeat in a few years!

Mmmmm. I completely had to remind myself that I was drinking tea (well, mate) and not coffee! Wow, this one is really close to coffee. I am not an avid mate drinker, but I used to be a huge coffee addict, so this is a real treat. I definitely taste chocolate along with the coffeeish taste. Mine is sweetened and with milk added. Thank you to FairyFli for sharing! (Yeah, she sent me some real gems this week! There are at least two more!)

Another great sample from Fairyfli. Thank you!

Admission time…this was actually my first cup of Teavana. I did lightly sweeten the cup. I have to admit, it was pretty tasty. Sweet and dessert-like, and a rooibos done well. Maybe a little over the top with all the flavors going on, but when you are thinking dessert, it totally works. (I use teas like this as a subsitute for sweets….I know some blends have a little sugar in them, but it is minimal in comparison to real dessert!) I am happy that I have enough for one more mug. I may even make it into my local store one day.

Thank you to Fairyfli for sharing her Harney Son’s Chocolate Tea with me. This tea has been in and out of my cart at the Harney’s website so many times….and now she has put me out of my indecision! What a relief!

The base seems very similar to Florence, but I can taste more chocolate than from Florence (which is kind of obvious, right? As there is not any hazelnut in this blend…) It does taste like chocolate and tea together, but nothing like hot cocoa. I do like this, but will hold off on a rating for a few more cups since she sent me a healthy trial! The only addition was sweetener. I am finding milk just ruins smooth teas for me. I will have to reserve the milk for the bolder teas…..

My afternoon cuppa post workout. I tried the first steap with milk. That did not work at all. The tea base is a little too delicate to stand up to milk. Drank it down and resteaped….and the resteap actually tasted more of chocolate than the first because I did not ruin it with milk. Both cups were lightly sweetened.

This tea is chocolatey and delicate. The black base is a good quality black kind of along the lines of a mid range China black. The chocolate flavor really amplifies the cocoa notes in the tea. Think a China black with cocoa notes on steriods. I am trying to decide if it is going on the rebuy list along with my Vitality Herbal from the Tea Spot.

Day 3 of SimplyJenW’s China black palate training course, of sorts:
I have about 11 samples, and I am sure it will take longer than 11 days to get through them. I decided to try one of the value teas today.

This one is a steal at under $5 for 125g. I like it so much better than the last two I tried, which I consider to be in the mid to high range for price. Is it possible that there is one area of my life where I am easy to please? Smooth, sweet, cocoa notes, no bitterness, and inexpensive. This one tastes like Upton’s Rose Congou without the rose. It is a little sweeter than Harney’s Panyang Congou, and more in line with the taste of Fujian Baroque from Adagio. The leaves are longer and thinner than the Harney’s and they are longer, thinner, and drier looking than the Adagio. I could definitely see myself purchasing this one once the collection of blacks diminishes a little….Or maybe just the next time I order from Upton!