Skulleigh

Decided to go for a second cup, and I’m glad I went with a plain tea instead of a blend.

Eh. I don’t know if I’m losing my taste for Earl Grey teas, or if this one is just kinda meh. Like the other DavidsTeas I picked up recently, with the exception of a milky Oolong and a pu’er, it’s too candy-like.

I may gift it to someone.

I have not had many oolongs that were not bagged teas. I have been wanting to try more, so when I made my first ever order to DavidsTea, I included this, and I am glad I did.

It’s so very creamy and light, and smells wonderful, both as dry leaf and brewed. It’s just the thing today when I’m not feeling my usual energetic self.

I am glad I got this tea, as I’ve been a little disappointed at the “candy-ish” nature of the other teas I ordered from Davids.

Backlogging from yesterday.

Hubs and I whipped up a psuedo-Indian dinner last night – I made calrose rice as sticky rice, we had lentil soup and chicken cooked with sweet curry powder over it, with sticky rice and mango for dessert. I decided that I wanted some chai to go along with it, and brought out this sample. I’d tried it once before, but for some reason I remembered incorrectly, and thought I hadn’t liked it before. I figured I would give it another try and if I “still” didn’t like it I’d bring it to work and foist it off on a coworker.

Brewed it up and before decanting it from my ingenuiTea into my cup I frothed some Almond and Coconut milk with some Splenda and it made an awesome cup. I had my hubby (who I have only been able to get to like Twinings loose leaf Earl Grey so far) to taste it. He liked it! He ASKED FOR A CUP! :D

The almond & coconut milk really complemented the spices. I’m looking forward to having the rest of the sample!

Blargh. Not enough sleep. We had storms roll through DFW early this morning, and it woke me up.

Been drinking this tea at work all week, it’s a really good blend for that. Makes a nice morning cup.

PS – give to the Red Cross if you can please – between storm season and the fertilizer plant explosion in West last night, they are going to need the resources!

Mmmmm. Good tea for my late breakfast. Tempted to take this to work.

This! This is the tea I wanted and didn’t know I wanted today. Got a set of Kusmi’s woo-ey well-being teas in mini-tins, and this is one of them.

It’s kind of like a very light chai, with a bit of licorice which is blended really well. I really like it, though I think it would be easy to over-do it. This is maybe a once-in-a-while tea, not an everyday tea.

Made it as a latte, with splenda & half&half.

Eeeeeh. Not so much.

First, I totally messed up in reading, and thought it was TWO cha bonbons. So I got more than I thought I was getting. Whoops.

Ok, next, brewed it up in my gaiwan, and oh, there’s the fishy smell. Ick.

Poured the first batch, and saw a hair in my teacup. Ok, I know these are made by human beings (almost typed OF, hehe – Soylent Cha is made of people!) and I’m sure there’s worse but in small pieces I can’t see. I just can’t handle seeing that. So I took a small sip and dumped it, because it just didn’t really impress me. I guess I am just not a Pu’erh person. Don’t know what I’m going to do with the rest of the bon-bons.

Bear with me Steepsterites, I’m logging a teaful day. Got lots of teas recently, so I’m going through and trying them all.

I love A&D’s design sense, and adore the Mt Gray magnet that came with the tea. Even though I had a hard time finding the tea on here since as far as I’m concerned, they spelled Grey wrong :D

I made a latte with Mt Gray this morning, and it was all right. I think I’m kind of tired of Earl Greys, there’s so much else to explore. It’s decent though. But I have so many other EGs and love my Kusmis, so I kind of wish I’d gotten the trio with Russian Caravan instead of this.

I’m sure I’ll drink it though, and probably make a few for my hubby.

Got a sample of this with my DAVIDsTEA order last week. Brought it to work with me to start off the morning. Unfortunately, it’s just too frou-frou for me. At least to start off this morning. I wish I had something more basic but malty, instead of this.

Maybe I’m “growing out” of flavoured teas? I’d rather have a really good plain black than something with all kind of stuff added to it.

Got a sample of this with my recent order.
Not bad, I enjoyed it with a little bit of sweetening.
I don’t know that I would order it for myself, but wouldn’t turn it down if offered it.

Hmmm, I was hoping I’d like this for an after yoga, non-caffeinated drink. But no, not really. I think I’d rather have a decaf green over this. I’ll keep searching though.

Minty, not tasting the apple or the licorice. I might try it with a sweetener next time, and it might be nice iced for an after run drink.

Backlog from the night before last.

Decent basic green tea. This was a sample bag I got with one of my previous orders from Kusmi. I am pretty low on good green teas in my stockpile, so this might be a candidate for a future order. Goes well with sushi. I think it would go well with some peppermint, so I’d like to try their Moroccan as well.

Hm.

I got a teabag of this as a sample with the Kusmi order I received in the mail yesterday. I thought at first “Yay, chocolate!” but after brewing and adding in a packet of splenda and some half & half, it seems pretty watered down. The black tea didn’t have enough umph to make a good cup. It’s almost like perhaps I got an old teabag, or someone swapped it out for leaves from a grocery store teabag.

I expect way more quality out of Kusmi, so I am surprised. Definitely won’t order more.

I think this is the tea I have – the label on my sample says "Mt. Banzhang Farmer’s Cooperative ’03 Sheng.

Brewed it in my gaiwan, in my typical clumsy fashion. It seems like I always try to do a gaiwan brewing when I have other stuff going on and I’m constantly interrupted.

This is nicely smokey – not overwhelming like the lapsang souchong I tried a couple weeks ago.

And man… it goes good with the marshmallow filled chocolate easter bunny that I just bit the head off of :D

Been drinking the same ol’ same ol’ for the last few weeks, so I haven’t logged. I will do an order soon since I have almost demolished my Prince Vlad and my decaf Earl Grey.

Time to scout for some new things to try :)

This morning I had a Prince Vlad to start my day off, which is never a bad way to start the day. I really need to get a milk frother for work. Also tempted to bring in some match for an afternoon boost. I always get sleepy after lunch, and maybe that would help combat that. Anyone do match at work? A frother would probably work for the whisk on that, as well as kill two birds with one stone.

This tea got such good reviews, I’m not sure why I’m kind of meh about it. Maybe it’s just that I was wanting something more green this morning.

I’m drinking it plain/straight, and I am not getting any of the waffle cone/vanilla/buttery notes that are talked about.

Had a cup of this on Friday at a Barnes & Noble cafe. It was pretty good, despite their using screamingly hot water to brew it. I at my entire lunch before it seemed cool enough to sip.

Once it cooled, it seemed pretty nice. I would definitely like to try it again, and they were selling tins of the the sachets, but while H&S tins are cute, I don’t have that much room left in my tea cupboard for a bulky tin! I’d also like to try some plain oolongs. So I might have to shop online for some samples.

Another sample size from my last Adagio order.

Once in awhile, I read “bodice ripper” romances – you know the ones – set in Victorian or earlier times, where the dashing hero is a pirate or a spy. Lapsang Souchong often gets mentioned as a very masculine tea. I can see why.

I opened the packet, and the smokey smell nearly leaped out and assaulted me. I gave hubby a sniff too: “It’s like a campfire, the morning after it burns out. And they used an entire pine tree.”

I brewed it up and made it as a latte with Splenda and half & half. Sippped away. The smoke smell is soooo strong! But it’s good! I would not want to drink this daily, but it’s really interesting drink!

I definitely want to try some other Lapsang Souchongs and compare them.

I received a sample of this with some gaiwans that I ordered last year. I decided to give it a whirl this afternoon.

I opened the packet and gave it a sniff. Initially, it honestly didn’t smell that good – it reminded me of a wet cat. I gave the leaves a quick rinse with hot water in a gaiwan, then moved them to my Adagio ingenuiTea to steep. The wet leaves didn’t smell great to me either, but I continued on.

I whipped some splenda and half & half in a cup and dispensed the tea into my cup.

I took a hesitant sip. Light, smokey… it smelled fine now, and didn’t taste bad either. I added more water to the leaves and will try a second steep plain.

My current cup is pretty good – I think it’s a decent tea, but it’s not something I feel compelled for find more of. I definitely would not refuse a cup of it, if offered one, though.

I ordered a new round of samples and refilled my Black Dragon pearls. They arrived today, and I chose this tea to sample first.

Yum! It’s like desert in a cup! It really does taste like sweet potato pie, without the crust. I generally don’t like the crust that much, so that’s ok!

A coworker gave me this yesterday, the tea she always drinks when she goes to PF Chang. It came in a tiny little cardboard box! Very cute package design.

The tea is quite good – the peach & apricot really come through. I’m not getting the smokey taste that the package and other people mention, but that’s all right. I’m not sure what effect the safflower & marigold have on it – I’m not sure that I’ve had a tea with them in it before.

I would definitely drink this again. I had it with 2 packets of splenda. The sweet definitely brings out the fruit.

My one gripe, but it’s not specific to this tea, happens with a lot of teabags… that moment when you add the water to the cup and the string and tag get pulled into the cup… grrr!

Oh wow. This isn’t bad. I was afraid of all the descriptions of Pu’er as being fishy, and indeed, the one from Whole Foods that I’d picked up was fishy. This isn’t fishy at all.

This is a sample from an order of samples I made from Verdant. I haven’t liked any of the other samples much so far, so I’d been putting off trying the two pu’er samples.

I’m not sure how to describe this, other than to say I do like it. I brewed it in a gaiwan, and poured into a small cup, added nothing, and sipped. After about 3 sips, I can say that I do like it, though it’s probably not something I’d drink on an everyday basis.

Oh, hi. Remember me? I have been seriously neglecting Steepster! D’oh!

I was at Barnes & Noble today, and found this one lonely tin of tea on their 75% off table, and having always meant to try Harney & Sons at home where I can control the water temperature (instead of the Barnes & Noble cafe who always seem to keep their water at nuclear levels) I snatched it up and brought it home. $2.74 for 30 teabags is a pretty good deal, I think, especially since, thankfully, it’s pretty darn good!

Not overwhelming, very tasty, no bitterness. I like it!

And it came in a cute metal tin. Yeah, I’m always a sucker for that!

I think I like it better than Kusmi’s holiday tea. I might have to keep an eye out for it next year.