Tea Sipper

Thank you Will Work For Tea for allowing me to try this one! This is the tea bag version of this, if it matters. I think this is one of those teas that will be really sensitive to water temp and steep time. You have to get it just right. My cup was SO bitter. But there was a definite coconut fragrance and flavor. I didn’t seem to find any pineapple. Just bitter bitter bitter. I’m not even sure what it’s from. I’ll really have to try this one differently next time. Sad, I really wanted to like this one as I LOVE Zhena’s Lavender Rooibos! This is getting the same rating as the bitter Harney Earl Grey Supreme I had yesterday. They can be bitter buddies!

Spicy deliciousness! I wanted to try this one because it’s an interesting
trio: pu-erh, yerba mate, and chai! It sounded good! This is actually the week I tried my first and third pu-erh! You’d think that because this is also a pu-erh and a mate, the chai spices would be diminished and lost, but they aren’t! It is just as spicy as though there were only the spices here, and the mate and pu-erh weren’t taking any room in the infuser. Cinnamon! Ginger! Sadly, I can’t really tell there is coconut here. Pu-erh in general I find doesn’t have much flavor, so I’d probably prefer black teas in the future, since I love as much flavor as possible. I had this with some more of that pumpkin pie I had the other day. It’s feeling like fall! As I’m sipping, I feel energized already! Maybe I’m just partial to chai, since it was the first tea I had… This blend is really really good. Overall, I’m impressed this had so much spicy flavor while still including the pu-erh and the mate. It seems like there are bonus ingredients in this blend! It goes beyond a pu-erh, yerba mate, OR a chai. Also, eveything here is organic! You’d have to be a billionaire to order all the amazing teas out there, but this is one going on the shopping list. I can’t wait to try more from Zen Tea. The site is hard to find in a search, so here you go: zentealife.com thank you Zen Tea for supplying the samples!

Thanks again, Amanda, for including this in your tea sample envelope sale! I wanted to try this as soon as I saw it existed! And tonight I really wanted a dessert, but I didn’t really have any desserts laying around. So I thought I’d try this tea! But now that I think about it, a raspberry creme cheese danish would be more of a breakfasty thing. I love raspberries. Pouring the water into my cup, there was a definite raspberry scent that drifted my way… but the raspberry may have drifted away all together. I definitely didn’t get much of a cream cheese or danish flavor, that wouldn’t have been from the buttery honeybush itself… But how would you get a cream cheese flavor in a tea anyway? The raspberry was the most present flavor. I wish there had been more flavor here, and the second steep had less flavor. Maybe I have some chocolate around somewhere…

Thank you Jason, for sending this along to try. First of all, this is a TEA BAG and not loose leaf. That might matter. I didn’t see any listing for a tea bag version of this on Steepster. I only steeped this for four minutes instead of the recommended five minutes and it definitely wasn’t boiling water. Sheesh is this bitter and astringent. The smell of the bergamot is good though. It just reminds me of that terrible Earl Grey teabag I had a while back that almost scared me away from all Earl Grey. I like cremey Earl Grey better anyway.

Additional notes: I decided to have a third cup yesterday, so I boiled the water and steeped it for about twenty minutes. I had a look of shock on my face at how sweet the last cup tasted, way sweeter than the other two cups. It is impossible to have this one get astringent and bitter not matter how long you steep or how high the temp, it just gets sweeter! Nice!

thank you Amanda for a sample of this included in your tea envelope sale! This one sounded like an interesting one to try tonight. I realized recently that rooibos and herbals are the only teas that do not have caffiene. I’m a bit worried I won’t be able to resist the caffiene teas at night! This is definitely lemon/lime! But a little short changed on the cheesecake element. It does have an odd scent to it that I guess should be the cheesecake? I can’t really taste it though, just smell it. It does become more present as it cools. It would probably be good iced! I really need to start making iced teas. I wonder what the difference is between honeybush and rooibos is.. they seem so similar. This is good — I just wish it had more of a cheesecake flavor to it. Maybe I didn’t put enough tea in the infuser… Seems very sunshiney!

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for sending this one in our trade! I’m slowly leaving tasting notes for all the different teas I have right now… I feel like I’ll never get caught up since there are always more tea samples coming my way. Good problems!

That picture for this tea is GORGEOUS. Wow, I love how that picture was done. Anyway, the hibiscus in this one ruined the tea for me, as usual. I think hibiscus really loves to steal the spotlight, so you can’t even notice the other flavors. As I was steeping, I stole a sip that was nice and sweet and less hibiscus. But then I kind of forgot about it and oversteeped and it was so tart! I couldn’t find the apple or coconut, but I know the pineapple added a sweetness to tame the hibiscus. The steep color was a rosey pink. This one could have been worse, I guess. I like the idea of the blend, I just wish hibiscus wasn’t in herbal teas as much. I’d prefer less flavors (like if the apple, pineapple and coconut were less flavorful together) rather than have hibiscus overpower everything else. The next time I try this one, I will be sure not to oversteep!

Thanks again Fusion for the inspired blends you create! I had to try this one based on the list of ingredients alone. I love pumpkin. I woke up wanting to try this one mainly because it was the last sample I had to try from Fusion, and I want to place an order from them. I figured that three ounces of each tea is a lot for me to commit to right now, since I have so many teas, BUT I realized I’m participating in two swap boxes, so I could always share with those boxes or other Steepsters! Also, by coincidence, I had pumpkin pie this morning to go along with the tea. I made sure to try the tea before taking any bites of the pie, so it wouldn’t taint my taste of the tea. (And yeah, why are pies only for the holidays? Pie is a perfectly acceptable breakfast food.)

To the tasting! I steeped for seven minutes and it’s a nice orange color! The taste is mostly a mild pumpkin with cinnamon. Cinnamon isn’t an actual listed ingredient, but there ARE cinnamon candied peanuts! The cinnamon flavor can’t just be from that? I can’t really taste any of the other ingredients in it (though I’m not sure what the mace should taste like.. or pumpkin seeds.) I wish the flavor was stronger, though it isn’t like there is fake pumpkin flavoring, so it tastes pretty good for just having a couple chunks of pumpkin in the infuser. Maybe more pumpkin chunks would help? Maybe I shouldn’t have waited for the water to cool as much. I tried a second steep with just boiled water but I think most of the flavor was in the first steep. I like that the roasted mate is blended with the rooibos. I really want to try more blended teas, especially black teas with rooibos. Another good tea from Fusion! Now to choose what to order from them….

thanks again Naturestealeaf.com for providing samples for me to try! I was a bit worried about this one — rosehips, hibiscus, and orange peel? Hmm.. but I haven’t had much sencha, even though I love it (usually the sencha I have is in Genmaicha.) This blend looks like a good mix of sencha and fruit. I’m not sure if I waited too long to steep after it cooled, since the steep color was a light pink, so I steeped for five minutes rather than the recommended one minute. As I predicted, the sencha disappeared behind the usually stronger other flavors of orange and hibiscus. But it IS interesting that the sencha had a flavor that I had assumed was only from the popcorn and rice in genmaicha! I don’t love this tea, but it isn’t terrible. (I really don’t like orange, rosehips or hibiscus in ANY tea, so it isn’t Nature’s Tea Leaf’s fault.) This MUST be the worst offering from Nature’s Tea Leaf, because all of their other teas look delicious!

thank you to Will Work For Tea on the stash reduction and including this one! This looked VERY similar to Teavana’s Almond Biscotti, and after tasting it, I’m convinced! It has the exact same ingredients. The almonds definitely look the same. And both have those same cinnamon chunks that you can’t actually taste at all, unless they are making the almonds tastier. This IS a delicious tea. And the petals are great. And the almonds are tastier than many other almond teas. I guess you can look up my review for the Teavana Almond Biscotti for other notes! I don’t mind have a little of both teas though, since they are both a few cups worth! It’s interesting, since this ended up being my favorite Teavana tea from the few I’ve tried, but I’m not sure if it was actually a Teavana blend, so it may not even count. It sure is a big mystery where teas are supplied from.

thank you Amanda for including this in the small envelope sale! The steep color is a deep red – much more red than I usually see. I LOVE that this is dark chocolate! I would choose dark chocolate over any other chocolate every time. Smelling the cup, there is a syrupy scent. I can’t tell if that is from the honeybush or the added flavors. The mint is definitely prominent. The chocolate, not so much. I did see at least two pieces of chocolate go into my infuser. Maybe it wasn’t hot enough to melt them. I’ll try a second steep tomorrow. This is much like mint chocolate chip ice cream or peppermint patties!

Thanks again to Nature’s Tea Leaf for choosing me to sample their teas! Very excited to try this one! It sounded so unique! It’s like a holy trinity of delicious flowers: lavender, jasmine, and tiny rosebuds.. just gorgeous. All on the base of a pu-erh. It’s kind of like beauty and the beast, since pu-erh is the tea that seems most unfitting with flowers! This is actually the second pu-erh I’ve tried… the first one was a couple days ago. I find that they don’t have too much flavor… a typical black tea has way more flavor. But this is perfect here, as I would much rather be able to appreciate the flowers instead of them being drowned in a black tea. My infuser was FULL of flowers, even though I tried to get as much pu-erh in there as possible. The steep color is a medium brown. The first sip, I get a ton of lavender flavor, which is interesting because I didn’t notice too much lavender in the infuser, but the lavender is delicious. I don’t taste a ton of jasmine and rose, and the second infusion doesn’t have much of them either.. maybe it’s just my palate! Looking at the infused tea, the roses have lost most of their pink color! I’m very happy that hibiscus wasn’t included in this one — it would have ruined it. Another great tea! Naturestealeaf.com

A huge thank you to Nature’s Tea Leaf for sending me some VERY generous samples! I’m honored you chose me! naturestealeaf.com

I was a bit curious how a cinnamon oolong would taste! I LOVE a good oolong. Opening the bag, there are some huge pieces of cinnamon bark in the bag… so big that I had to snap them in half to fit in my infuser! The oolong itself is gorgeous bright green leafy bundles.

First steep: 3 1/2 minutes
This definitely smells like cinnamon! It almost smells more like cinnamon than it tastes, but as it cools it tastes more like cinnamon too. The oolong for the first cup is delicious and DOES pair well with the cinnamon. It is one of my favorite oolong flavors: light, smooth and floral. The flavor is slightly vegetal yet very sweet AND there is even a slight hint of a fruit flavor, maybe peach? I haven’t tasted peach in an oolong before.

Second steep: 5 minutes
Still a lovely cinnamony scent and taste. The steep color is yellow. Now the oolong is a bit more peachy! Still not floral, but peachy! Yum! A flavor that really lingers! Cinnamon & peaches… seems like it should be a dessert of some kind!

Third steep: 7 1/2 minutes
I’ve found with flavored oolongs, the first steep has the most flavor that isn’t from the oolong itself, but with subsequent steeps, the oolong flavor itself keeps getting better. This had more cinnamon since I steeped it at a higher temp. The oolong is a bit buttery this time, less peachy! On my oolong flavor strength rating scale, in which one is light and floral and five is the strongest, I’d give this one a three. I really could keep re-steeping these leaves, but since I always steep a full mug, I can only drink so much tea! I think I need to get in the habit of steeping tiny cups so I can try a bunch more steeps. Nature’s Leaf sent me a huge sample, so maybe one day! This is very impressive!

No notes yet.

Had some more of this today — still very good!

This is my frist ever pu-erh (and I have no idea how to pronounce that). Thanks to Fusion, for sending me some samples. Go and ask them for some samples right now at fusionteas.com!

I asked the people over at Fusion if I needed to steep this a certain way, because I think I’ve heard you have to rinse it, but they said this particular pu-erh could just steep this like a normal black tea. The leaves are kind of musty which DID worry me a bit, but I know this is a fresh sample from Fusion. There were two big bits of caramel that fell in my infuser, that a lot of the other tea was sticking to. (Sounds yum to me!) Peaking in my infuser after steeping, it was definitely caramel, because there are still little remnants of the caramel in the infuser, which I couldn’t see beforehand because everything was sticking to the caramel. The steep color is a medium brown. Sadly, there isn’t too much caramel flavor in the tea. The pu-erh tea tastes pretty good. There is kind of a fuzzy buzzy aspect to it. No, I don’t know what I’m talking about either. It doesn’t taste musty anyway! It’s like a black tea just not as strong flavored. It doesn’t get bitter at all. And the chai spices really give it an extra kick. I usually do not love ginger, but not in a chai! I certainly need to try more of the Fusion chai. I really want to try everything from Fusion! All of their blends sound so good! I just looked at the Fusion site and they have a mate chai, a rooibos chai and a TULSI chai. Uh oh.

Thanks to Nicole for including this in your tea share! This one definitely looks pretty and complicated as a dry leaf. BUT that is probably the best thing about it. When the steep color barely looked anything other than water, I figured it wouldn’t have too much flavor. I even put the infuser back in for a bit longer. The flavor kind of doesn’t exist, but it mostly tasted like cucumber or something like that. Not much else to say — but the leaves sure were unique!

A HUGE thank you to Amanda… she had an envelope of tea sale and now I get to try a ton of little samplings of teas I otherwise wouldn’t get to try — especially the 52 teas I’ve wanted to try for a while! Awesome!

First up is this one. I figured if this one was good, they must all be. Sometimes coconut tea is hit or miss for me. Sometimes the coconut tastes very chemically to me and really ruins the tea. This one is GOOD. The coconut actually tastes like a perfect coconut… definitely what coconut teas should taste like! The scent reminds me of suntan lotion! There were a couple big coconut chips. The flavor was a bit bakey, like a pie would be, but I really wish there was more flavor overall. The black tea base is perfect and sweet on its own. It highlights the flavor while not being too strong. It never got astringent at all, but that might be because I sipped it down before it got anywhere near cool!

No one has reviewed this yet? Hm. This was my splurge from my ESP purchase (even though I had a good deal anyway… it was still a bit steep in price for me.) I love Genmaicha, so I really wanted a full size. I’m not sure the ESP are “full size” anyway. The pouches are only 1.76 ounces and they look pretty small to me. It’s interesting that the dry leaves smell so fresh but the tea itself while tasting is toasty and roasty. The flavor of the fresh and bright green tea isn’t there anymore. But I love the mix of a fresh green tea and roasty and toasty popcorn! Is this the best genmaicha out there? Probably not, but I’ll settle. I feel like it should have more flavor, even though this blend has a TON of both kinds of popcorn in it.. very accurate to the above picture! I did get three good steeps out of this though. The second steep was more buttery. I do love ESP Emporium’s occasional coupons though. I think this was $25 worth of tea for $15 if I remember correctly.

Additional notes: There were TWO actual pieces of tea leaves in my infuser. Why bother? This cup tasted MOSTLY like the German Rock Sugar. Way too much of that… I kept seeing pieces of those fall into my infuser. No wonder this was marketed as a kids tea!

Thank you again to TeaEqualsBliss for sharing a couple cups of this one. This is the second Lupicia tea I’ve tried. I loved the ‘strawberry & vanilla’ tea.. which alone could have convinced me I should try many more teas from Lupicia. This one is surprising! It looks like a plain black tea, but once it’s steeped, it has a ton of flavor! The black tea isn’t too strong, so you can taste more of the flavor. Rather than a champagne rose (though I’m no expert on champagne), it tastes a lot more like the strawberry tea I had before from Lupicia. The flavor is very sweet strawberry, but there is a bit of that dry flavor you get from champagne, especially as it cools. I wonder if it is mostly the same flavoring for both teas. But it’s really good! I’ll be ordering from Lupicia once my tea stash gets a bit smaller.. especially if they have a good sale. But I’m already impressed with the idea that they have magazines every month that come with free samples if you order from them.

Thanks again to Will Work For Tea for the awesome package of tea you sent me to try. ALL of them have been delicious so far. Vanilla teas are my favooorriittee. This one is so silky smooth good! The vanilla flavor is consistent throughout the entire cup. The black tea base isn’t too strong so it really lets the vanilla shine. It’s a pretty tough vanilla: I could hardly taste the black tea at all. And really, it’s all this blend needs: vanilla vanilla vanilla. Unlike a couple other Harney teas I’ve tried lately, this one doesn’t get more astringent as it cools. That vanilla flavor just keeps going. I might have to buy more of this whenever my tea stash decreases a bit. I just noticed my tea this morning was chocolate – it’s fitting the tea I had tonight was vanilla!

The smell of this tea upon opening my sample was chocolatey
scumptiousness! So so good. Fusion has my favorite blends. An amazing
list of ingredients for this one, as usual. Fusion is so inventive! I
think this is my first roasted mate, though I’ve had Fusion’s Pistachio
Lime Mate and it is my FAVORITE (the mix of ingredients is perfect!) I
will definitely be buying some of that at some point. I actually requested
some more samples from Fusion to get an idea of what I should buy along
with that one. (Seriously, go request some samples from Fusion — you won’t
be able to resist!) The flavor of this one reminds me slightly of barbeque
sauce. I have no idea why – don’t be scared, it doesn’t actually taste like
barbeque sauce…just reminded me of it somehow. It tastes like a mild
coffee with a LITTLE bit of a chocolate flavor. Very roasty and earthy.
The temp said 180, so I waited a while for the water to cool, but for my
second steep, I’m going to go full boil to try to get more flavor. The
second steep is much like the first. I just wish there was more flavor, but
it is still very very good. Try Fusion!

Thank you Nicole for sending this along! I want to try any Harney I can! This one is wonderful while it is HOT but I really don’t like the flavor while it cools. It turns very bitter and astringent. But while it’s hot, it’s fine! It has a great silky black tea flavor. And MUCH different from the green darjeeling I had yesterday, which was more like oolong. This was probably my least favorite Harney tea, but I haven’t had many and probably tried the best (Hot Cinnamon Sunset & Paris).