Tea Sipper

Thanks, alphakitty, for including this in the teabox! This one is okay. It doesn’t have the flavor I’d like for kick-me, wake-up morning tea. (I like to think that is why they are called “breakfast” teas!) It has a sweet, malty, breadlike flavor, I just wish they were stronger flavors! I steeped it for a few minutes too.

Another one from the tea box! Thanks for including it, Alphakitty! Teas to write tasting notes for the traveling tea box will slow down soon, since I will be mailing it on Wednesday. I can’t wait to see all of the reviews for the teas I added to the box (and also for the teas in the traveling teabox that I’m starting — doesn’t matter if they be good or bad reviews)! I knew before I sipped this one that it wouldn’t be mindblowingly delicious, since I feel like what has became 52Teas rather than Zoomdweebies has improved over the years. There is a bit of a chocolate flavor here & not much strawberry, on a decent black tea. I actually expected less chocolate. But as time goes on, 52Teas will keep getting more and more amazing, as the blends are already amazing these days. I think I’ve called 52Teas wizards, magicians… or both in the past!

thanks for including this one in the traveling teabox, TeaEqualsBliss! I love the idea of a red chai. A spicy caffeine free tea that I can drink at night is nice, since it is rooibos. This one is very spicy! It kicked my throat a bit. I’m guessing that is the pepper. It didn’t look like there were a ton of spices in the blend, so I’m surprised it was this spicy, but there was something light and powdery.. I’m not sure what that was. There was also a tangy flavor, that I’m thinking was the lemongrass, which I don’t really see fitting in this blend. I like this. I’ll take a bit of this out of the teabox and save the rest for others to try!

Yet another from the traveling tea box! I seem to be on a tea tasting spree! Also, it seems like TeaEqualsBliss is the only one to have tried these Foojoy teas, or to have written tasting notes anyway. I’ve tried three thanks to her, and they are all delicious! Usually greens are too boring for me, but not when they are like this one! This is nice — light, buttery, sweet, almost like an oolong but sort of brothy, like it’s a light base for a soup. I needed a light tea after all the high in caffeine, indulgent teas I’ve had today. Everyone should definitely give Foojoy teas a try. They seem to be very basic, but their flavors are very complex and amazing quality.

Yet another from the traveling tea box. thanks, Alphakitty! I was thinking of Adagio’s Hazelnut tea this morning, so I thought I’d try this one from the box. It has chocolate and raspberries in it! Nice. It’s good, but I don’t love it as much as the other Adagio blends. The chocolate is like cocoa but it could be chocolatier. I did see some pretty good sized raspberry pieces fall into the infuser, but there wasn’t too much of a raspberry flavor. The tea also had a drying affect on my mouth. It’s good, but not great. This might be the first non-wow from Adagio though! I suppose I’ll have to steep up some more of the hazelnut when I get both of these tea boxes moving!

Thanks yssah for buying these teas for so many of us Steepsters! This blend sounded divine. Caramel, cocoa, hazelnuts! This blend really has a very unique flavor. Just the black tea alone I’m thinking has a very strong flavor. I’m not sure if it’s because it was just blended or if the hazelnut flavor is making the black tea itself seem stronger. It had a very deep, dark flavor! I saw a couple pieces of caramel hidden in my infuser, covered in black tea. They added a sweetness along with the cocoa nibs giving it another element to its deep flavor. I may have sipped this too late though. I don’t usually have black teas late anymore, but I couldn’t stop yawning. It kind of made me a bit dancey (and I am never dancey) or it could have been the No Doubt show I was watching on TV. Gwen can make anyone dancey! But it was probably a combination of both. I really like this blend and it’s another one I’m happy I was able to try! I’m looking forward to many more cups of this, and apparently the flavor will get better as it settles. I’m hoping I won’t miss Ovation too much after they went out of business and I try many more of their blends.

Another one from the teabox! Alphakitty included this one. thanks so much! The price was pretty steep on this one, which I saw on the site while I was searching for steeping instructions. Since it’s a white tea and I knew I wasn’t going to love it anyway, I just wanted to try a cup before sending the rest on in the traveling teabox. It’s a nice white tea base, but I wasn’t tasting much raspberry or champagne flavor. (I feel like I’m saying that a lot now… that I’m not finding the flavors.) It is light and sweet. I think that Caraway might just be using the “champagne” in the name to up the price though. I hope not but that’s my cynical mind (not like I expect actual champagne in a tea or anything). And now that I think about it, sometimes white tea might already have a champagne type of flavor to it normally… though I haven’t had much experience with champagne. I certainly appreciate being able to try this one though!

Another one that Alphakitty included in the traveling tea box! This is one of those chai blends that is more black tea than spices. Surprisingly, this was still spicy, even though there were hardly any spices visible at all. I didn’t find much vanilla flavor at all, which is odd since I just read Alphakitty’s tasting note and she noticed that the most and we even had the same steep time. The black tea was very brisk, since the site said to steep for six minutes and I went for seven or eight. I like brisk though. Not my favorite chai, but pretty good! (Honestly, I love chai, and it was the first tea I had, but I’m not sure I’ve found a favorite yet.)

Another from the traveling tea box! Thanks for including it, Alphakitty! This one is such a different mixture! Oolong, jasmine and almond! Honestly, I think these flavors combine to make its own flavor. I couldn’t really pick the elements out of this one. It’s very different from any other tea I’ve had! The nearest thing it reminds me of is probably darjeeling, even though they are two very different types of tea.

Another one from the traveling tea box. Thanks! Maybe something is off with my taste buds today, but I wasn’t getting anything at all here. It certainly tastes like rooibos to me. But it had a flavor that kind of reminds me of plastic grocery store bags… which sounds terrible but isn’t.. maybe edible grocery store bags? I’m sad I wasn’t finding any apricot or vanilla. I love red rooibos but green rooibos, not so much for some reason. Maybe that’s the culprit. This is funny but TeaEqualsBliss included this in the teabox and her Adagio custom blend that she sent me a while back that has rooibos apricot & vanilla is much much tastier! It’s funny that this one reminded me of that one!

Another from the traveling tea box! thanks for including this one, TeaEqualsBliss! I loved the other Foojoy oolong that I tried before, so I wanted to try this one! I steeped it for 90 seconds. (It’s hard to tell with these Foojoy… the other one is supposed to steep for 30 seconds but they don’t really say on their site). So I taste tested as I steeped, and it seemed to get BUTTERY at 90 seconds. This is definitely a buttery oolong, first and foremost! And a little bit vegetal. And I don’t mean a milk oolong, but butter. This isn’t really a floral or peachy oolong either. The second steep is even better after letting the water cool and steeping for two minutes or so. Still has that buttery flavor, just even butterier and sweeter. I think this is the most consistent buttery oolong I’ve had.

Another from the traveling teabox! TeaEqualsBliss included this one, thanks! The leaves here are so DARK. But somehow the flavor of the black tea isn’t. It doesn’t steal the spotlight from the cinnamon. It’s a lot like Harney’s Hot Cinnamon Sunset. The cinnamon is super sweet but the Harney’s has three types of cinnamon or something, so it’s a cinnamon triple threat. Like the Harney’s it’s almost tough to tell that it is a black tea. The cinnamon kind of overpowers it, but I love it that way. I was also smelling a hint of orange in the dry leaves, but there wasn’t much in the taste. I think I’ll take a bit of this out of the tea box to add to my stash and add Harney’s for comparison! I really like both of them!

This was from the traveling teabox! SO FUN to get this!! I’ll be taste testing a bunch of them while I have the box. This was one of Alphakitty’s favorites, so I had to try it. I think I’m getting the white tea heebies from this one. White tea is my least favorite. The bergamot flavor is okay but there isn’t too much cream flavor here for me. In my opinion, earl grey creams are best with black tea, but I’m willing to try earl grey anything!

I decided to combine these two teas! I think they both helped each other out. Basically 3/4 a teaspoon of the catuaba and filled the rest of my dipper infuser with the berries. Not terrible! The flavor of the woodchip like catuaba combined really well with the tangy berries to even out the flavor. I can’t really say how it will affect my energy levels, since I already had two cups of caffeine teas today.

I’m sipping this one now, thanks to Yssah buying some Ovation teas for a ton of people. I ended up buying four ounces of this, hoping it was delicious! It is! And it looks like I’m the first to write a tasting note. It’s exactly what I look for in a lovely black tea. Well, sometimes they are nice brisk. This one is sweet, smooth, a bit malty. I was hoping it would compare to Golden Moon’s Sinharaja that I adore, and it is the most similar tea I’ve had to that one, but I really love the flavor of the Golden Moon. That one has a great maltiness to it, and a fuller flavor. (Though I didn’t steep this one quite at boiling, so maybe that would help next time.) This one has a nice lingering flavor. I’m VERY happy with this one. It will be my go-to black tea! I can’t wait to try other Ovation teas that I have on the way. It’s very sad Ovation went out of business!

Additional notes: Sipdown of my sample. I just wanted to mention my original note might not have been fair… maybe I don’t know what to expect with a purple tea. The tea isn’t bitter, like I mentioned in my other review, but it is a bit tangy. I guess I just expect it to be smoother with the blueberry flavor. It’s good… but my palate might not be understanding it!

Additional notes: I wanted to try this one again with Della Terra’s suggested brew time of four minutes… but I think it went to five. It still has an odd flavor while I am sipping it hot, but it does taste better as it cools. Maybe cold brewing would be better? Somehow it tastes sweeter when cold, but not as sweet as it should will the candy thingies and sugar crystals in it. I had at least one fruit chunk in my infuser – it was apricot and I ate it. :D I’ll up the rating, but it still isn’t my favorite from DT. (Original rating 71)

Thanks so much Kasumi no Chajin, for another sample… this one! The dry leaves smelled so powerful, I thought it was the packaging of the bag. All the pu-erh I have tried (not many) have had such a light flavor, definitely lighter than black teas. I always thought they were nice bases for other flavors. After steeping for three minutes, this one tastes just as it smells. It’s tough to describe. It seems chalky and dusty to me, but not something that isn’t tasty. I don’t seem to hate this as much as others do. I didn’t get much of a chocolate or coconut flavor (and I think caramel would have been a better fit, really.) I had three steeps (3,4,5 minutes) and they all had consistent flavor. But this one is interesting and different. I like it. I’m still wondering why this pu-erh has such a strong flavor… I guess I’ll just chalk it up (oh crap, I really didn’t mean the pun intended) to The Tea Merchant having such stellar flavors with their teas. Though I’ve only tried two others, they are delicious.

Additional notes: This IS better steeping RIGHT after the water has been boiled for ten or more minutes, and not bothering with a second steep. There was more flavor… but I still don’t like the fruit leaves in here.

Thanks Nicole for sending a sample of this! This is the type of oolong I love after having too many ick charcoaly flavored ones lately. This is sweet, floral, peachy, apricot, a little bit vegetal. It just has a very full flavor since there is so much going on. The second steep was very peachy and floral. It’s hard to say which cup was better. The first had more happening, but the second had a stronger floral and peachy flavor, and seemed more committed to being just PEACH and FLORAL. The third cup was okay, but not the best. All of the steeps were around three minutes. This is a nice one!

thanks so much Kasumi no Chajin for sending a sample of this! I have tried one of the blends from Adagio that had the hazelnut in it that Starfevre kindly traded with me for. It was a really delicious and unique element in that blend, so I’m happy to try the hazelnut on its own. 100% hazelnut means 100% hazelnut flavor. And this is very full flavored! You can hardly taste the black tea since there is so much flavor here. It’s amazing that it smells and tastes so great — very toasty. I didn’t see any actual hazelnuts in this blend like the picture shows, but maybe it was because it’s a smaller sample. The second cup was just as good, I just had to steep it for a couple more minutes. I love this one. I’m very impressed with Adagio. It tasted especially scrumptious with strawberry & maple syrup waffles this morning. I haven’t had waffles in a while, so I felt like Sally on last week’s ‘Being Human’ inhaling those waffles after her resurrection.

This one was from KittyLovesTea! thanks so much! I steeped this for three minutes. White teas aren’t usually my favorite. This one didn’t have enough going for it. Seemed a little boring to me… but maybe that’s just all the wacky teas I’ve had lately. I’ve definitely had worse teas, but this one is just okay. It’s nice to have a plain tea once in a while though. It is tasting better and more complex as it cools though. I did like that today was a black and white tea day though!

Thanks so much Kasumi no Chajin for the envelope of teas! This was one of them! The dry leaves smelled surprisingly sweet to me! After a three minute steep, this one was BRISK. Wow. Pretty astringent but I like them that way sometimes. I did love the flavor behind the astringency.. a bit malty. The steep color was very dark. The second steep had just as much flavor. Pretty good!

[By the way, if you see multiple tasting notes from me, posted right after the other, I just post them all at once. The first tea I post right before the other was usually the tea I drank in the morning. The second would be from later at night.]

Another one I wouldn’t mind ordering a full two ounces of. I noticed a coffee bean, a cube of caramel, and a few ROMAN chamomile flowers fall into my infuser. Basically the roman chamomile is why I wanted to try this sample. One of my favorite teas, SpecialTeas Vienna Winter Green has roman chamomile in it and not many other teas do. It’s supposed to be tiramisu but I haven’t had that before. I’m getting a bit of a caramel taste and a bit of a coffee taste…. not much roman chamomile flavor though. The rooibos flavor isn’t there at all, but I hear some are more sensitive to it than others. But the other flavors kind of mask the rooibos. Apparently there should have been chocolate here, but maybe none fell into my infuser. It also tastes a bit like sweet almond, so I’d say the mascarpone description is accurate! Almondy chocolate caramel coffee? Yum. A ton of nice ingredients here… just like the Vienna Winter Green… but like that one, this one could have also used some toasty nuts or something. So this makes for a good late night dessert tea because of the rooibos… except for that coffee bean. :D