Tea Sipper

Another tea I’m first to review? These poor teas! Tealux sent this one along with my order! Not something I probably would have ordered, since I was afraid the cherry might be like cough drops. Opening the bag, it does smell a bit like cough drops, but there is supposed to be three different types of cherries here… and pineapple! With the lemongrass and green tea, it is a nice combination. All the flavors meld together. I think everything is equally represented here. It kind of reminds me of a fruitcake or something (especially if you add some rum to it.. which I did not do). I’ve only had one fruitcake in my life but I LIKED it. There was a HUGE chunk of pineapple that would not even fit in the infuser by itself, so that will have to wait until I get that brew basket. I steeped for a minute and ten seconds… not sure if I overdid it or underdid it… I will be brewing this many more times to find out! A nice surprise. OH… and there was no hibiscus, so that is nice!

First to review this one?!? I’ve very grateful to NaturesTeaLeaf.com for the samples! I’m starting to find that Yunnans are a necessity in my tea collection! I love the flavor! The leaves here are more golden yellow than black. They kind of remind me of little caterpillars. the flavor that is more light than I would have expected, but maybe the water is cooler than the suggested 195 degrees. It has a lighter, fresher flavor than I expect from a yunnan (though I must admit I haven’t tried many of them yet.) The flavor is malty, a tiny hint of dark chocolate, honey, some sort of stone fruit. Come on… fruit drizzled in honey and chocolate? Yes please! The second steep, I used just boiled water for 10 minutes. This stuff doesn’t get astringent, even when I drank the last of the cup cold. As expected, this cup had the deeper flavor that I love. I’ll probably start collecting Yunnans like I collect Earl Grey Creams. This one is a great one to add to the collection! So so good!

Another one from Azzrian! Thank you! I’m always up for trying the amazing 52Teas blends. This one probably has my favorite picture on a tea package — the goofy cotton candy ghost! This one certainly smells equal parts cotton candy AND blueberry! I waited for the water to cool — no burning! I had no idea the best time to steep this one. I went for 30 seconds and tasted it. The flavor was equal parts blueberry and cotton candy as well! There was also barely a hint of the green tea base. But then I put the infuser in for another 15 seconds and green tea came out of hiding. So NOTE TO SELF: Go for 35 seconds next time. I really wish 52Teas would put steep times anywhere on their site or packaging. They should know… since they probably try a ton of cups to get the flavor just right. I have a bunch of 52Teas samples that I’ve tried one cup from each of them, and I think I may have oversteeped them even if it was for two minutes total. I think I’ll go for 30 seconds from now on and taste it before putting the infuser back in. But anyway, this is spookily like cotton candy and blueberry if you get the time right!

thanks so much Azzrian, for that amazing package of tea! I will always be appreciative of all the generous Steepsters and the tea they’ve sent me! I think of all the kinds of black teas, Darjeeling is not my favorite, even though I love the name. I thought it was just the one darjeeling I’ve had that I didn’t like… because it was from Teavana. I don’t detest Darjeeling… I’d just rather have a STRONG tasting black tea in the morning — kick,pow, wakes you up. Darjeeling is so light! Even the steep color is light after four minutes. It’s tough to describe the flavor of a darjeeling… but you know it when you taste it, even if you’ve only had a couple. I thought it was interesting that this blend had actual tiny leaves in it… maybe that is the taste I’m not liking (like blackberry leaves in tea.) This is certainly a fine example of darjeeling though, if it’s your cup of tea!

Thank you CharlotteZero for sending this one! (If you were worried this tea was old, I saw numbers stamped into the box that said 062013 so I’m guessing that means June of this year. Not old yet! :D) I always have luck with Choice teas. This one is great, though I have no idea why the box says to steep this boiling. Boiling water would ruin it! I let the water cool a while and steeped for two minutes… delicious! I had no idea it would be better than some of the other genmaicha I’ve tried, even some that have been in loose leaf form. This one is very toasty and roasty while also having a buttery sweet flavor to it. I love it!

I thought a dark oolong chai would be interesting. I don’t see those often! This one isn’t bad, but I think there should be more flavor. There was a big almond slice in my infuser (I didn’t know almonds got that big.) Well, there isn’t much of a nutty flavor. And it doesn’t taste much like chai either, but I’ve found that usually if a chai is mixed with a base rather than just a mix of spices, the spiciness isn’t very strong. (With one exception being zentealife.com’s Energizing Chai that is mixed with pu-erh and yerba mate.) Looking in the infuser, the oolong leaves are both green and brown, so its like they mixed two kinds of oolong. That may be why the flavor is a little odd to me. There is a tanginess to it that I don’t love…I kind of expected a roasty oolong with nice complex flavors.

Azzrian sent me an awesome tea package and this was in it. (thank you thank you!) I somehow missed this one on my Della Terra sample spree, where I bought 20+ samples. Even the ones I missed are good, because this one is delicious. Why is vanilla considered so boring anyway? I love vanilla anything… This one seems like it has a bit more than vanilla though. It tastes like a sweet and buttery pastry. The black tea base is perfect. Della Terra likes to use this tasty yet mild flavored base that lets their unique blends shine. Della Terra never fails!

Nicole, thank you for this one! This must be my favorite coconut tea! It’s a very sweet and creamy coconut. I was already wishing I was on a vacation today and the coconut here reminds me of suntan lotion. (Aw man, do I need some sun!) The first cup steeped for three minutes. The coconut is PERFECT with this oolong. Both are creamy, buttery, smooth. SO delicious. The second steep seemed like a peachier flavored oolong with less coconut. But then the third cup seemed to taste like the first cup again. The best steep is the first one, since it has the most coconut. I love this one.

KittyLovesTea kindly sent some of this my way from the UK! thank you! I saw the tiny leaves and knew from another tea I’ve had that was similar that they shouldn’t be steeped very long, but I got distracted this morning and ended up steeping for four minutes. But wow, this didn’t get astringent or bitter at all. This dark cup has that lovely strong black tea flavor.. a bit grassy and a bit like rye bread, but even as it was cold, it seemed to get sweeter rather than astringent. Very tasty! This is the type of tea I need more of around here!

James R sent me some tea bags to sample when I bought the delicious Harney’s Hot Cinnamon Spice. This was one of them! thanks! Surprisingly, I hadn’t previously tried any of the teabags included in that package! Nice! This one is a spicy chai with a rooibos base, so I can drink something with flavor at night without the caffeine. I’ve been trying to only drink rooibos or herbals at night, since I don’t sleep very well as it is. Of course, I can’t really taste the rooibos with all those spices… but it’s nice and peppery! A decent cup. I think I’ll resteep this with some black tea tomorrow morning. (Yes, my morning teas are much more fun. I was almost going to say because I have so many more choices, but I think I have enough choices just in the herbals & rooibos departments!)

Another from Tealux! The ingredients sounded like such a great combination: pu-erh, chili, chocolate, cinnamon (and orange flowers which make the blend look great)! Tasting it, none of the flavors are very strong or noticeable (which might be a bit disappointing) but the flavors DO blend really well together to make a new interesting flavor, if that makes any sense (but don’t all teas do that?) It’s earthy, and there is a bit of a kick with the chili, and there is a flavor like those cinnamon candy hearts or Hot Tamales candies! Not much of a chocolate flavor, but like I said, the flavors combined make for something interesting. I really like it! I wonder if there is something chocolatey I can add… This sounds like it would be a nice Valentine’s Day tea!

I also want to say… I’m not sure why there aren’t many reviews for Tealux teas. It’s kind of the reason I ordered so many samples from them. They seem to be a decent tea company with very unique blends. They are in Canada but I think the shipping to the US was the same as most other US companies would charge. I wish more Steepsters would give Tealux a chance!

That drawing of Watson just breaks my heart. Poor Watson.

/////START BBC’S SHERLOCK SPOILERS///////
If Watson only knew that somehow Sherlock was around to stop the beheading of Irene Adler, if he only knew about that debacle at all, he might have an idea that Sherlock can somehow fake his own death. And does anyone else think that if Sherlock can fake his own death by jumping off a building then somehow Moriarty faked his own death with that super creepy grin on his face, supposedly after death?
////////END SHERLOCK SPOILERS////////

thank you Starfevre for sending me a sample of this one! I love tea and I love fandom so I love Adagio’s fandom blends. I haven’t yet had an Adagio tea that wasn’t delicious. I haven’t had many, but I’ve had a few. Somehow I thought they’d put more emphasis on letting people create their own blends and less emphasis on the tea quality itself. But the flavor is always there! This one definitely seems like it should be comforting with earl grey, hazelnut and caramel. Those seem like the most comforting options they might have at Adagio. I’d say the most prominent flavor is the hazelnut. It’s definitely hazelnut! It seems like that wouldn’t work with earl grey, but somehow it does. I didn’t really taste much caramel though. This was definitely delicious. This would be a good one for Watson… or one to have while I’m thinking of how long it will be for season three of Sherlock to finally be on TV!

Another sample from Tealux. This seems like it would be a good one: lime, coconut, apple.. but I didn’t find much flavor after steeping for four minutes so I went for six minutes. Maybe I should have had more than a teaspoon of tea? This will probably only be steeped once, and I almost always go for multiple steeps. I don’t think I like green rooibos as much as red rooibos. It seems more sour somehow… and the red rooibos seems more woodsier. The coconut here seems to be the kind I don’t like. Not my favorite from Tealux. It reminds me of one of my favorites — Mojito from Element Tea (sadly out of business… if I knew how great that blend was, I would have bought more!) but the Tealux blend doesn’t even compare to the delicious Element blend.

I liked the idea of a stronger flavored oolong, so I wanted to try this one. The leaves smell very grassy.

Steep one// 2 min// I decided to follow Zen’s instructions and steeped for two minutes. (And they also suggest almost boiling… odd for an oolong!) The steep color isn’t the usual oolong yellow, but a very light brown. The flavor reminds me a bit of a lighter houjicha (probably because they are both roasted!) There is also a bit of that grassy flavor and a bit of a sweet flavor. It’s a bit spicy and a bit milky when it cools. I’d say it’s a bit of everything BUT it doesn’t taste peachy or floral, which is what I’m accustomed to oolongs tasting like. (I guess I’ve been drinking many unusual oolongs lately!) This is good, but I guess I was expecting a stronger flavor. I took a peek in the infuser and the dry brown leaves turned black! Interesting.

Steep two// 2.5 min// This cup is even better! The flavor is deeper and more complex, probably because the leaves have unfurled more. It has a very silky flavor that lingers! Still has that roasted flavor like a houjicha.

Steep three// 3-4 min at boiling// Flavor is still pretty consistent! The second steep was the best. I could probably get more steeps out of this, but I won’t. It’s very good! Another unique oolong.

Thank you Nicole for sending this one to sample! The only other Simpson & Vail I’ve tried is their Chocolate Brownie, but it’s a good one! This one is tough to describe but so so so good. I steeped for 3-4 minutes. It’s malty but it doesn’t have that deeper flavor. It’s a medium bodied tea. Maybe a tiny hint of tobacco. And I swear I keep smelling cherry cough drops, and there is nothing in here like that, so it might be this tea. And maybe a bit like rose petals. So recap: malty, tobacco, cherry, rose petals. Such an odd combination but good! This tea is almost haunting… because the list of flavors is almost like lingers of things a ghost might leave behind. But my cat has not wanted to come in this room at ALL for a few days, so maybe it’s just the ghost. ;D

Anything cream, I’m game! The leaves are odd, since they range from really long and twisty to tiny little pieces. I don’t smell any cream in the leaves, but I do smell a really robust tea coming my way! I steeped for four minutes, which I probably shouldn’t have… because WHOA, this one kicks. It’s very full bodied! Very strong! Kind of bakey. On the verge of bitter, but I like it like that sometimes. I like how the caffeine meter on the packages of Tealux teas never make it to the top, this one shows barely half way so I don’t want to know what the most caffeine would do! The package also says this tea is from India and is USDA Organic. The steep color is reddish brown. I really don’t get much of a cream flavor (and it really could have used more with a tea this strong) but there is a flavor here that seems like it is banana to me. So basically this tastes like a rye bread with banana in it. Weird, but good! This might be too strong for those who don’t like tough teas, but this is exactly the type of tea I need more of! I think I’ll have a second cup with some of that Bailey’s Cheesecake cream!

This is so unique! The oolong has black and twisty long leaves, then the mix is blended with… pineapples! There is a big ole pineapple chunk in my infuser! Though the leaves are so dark, the cup color is still a mellow yellow. I’m surprised. I wonder if darker leaves mean more caffeine? I couldn’t even tell this is an oolong, the flavor is even lighter than a typical oolong. It’s more buttery than floral or peachy. If I were blindfolded, I could certainly guess the taste is pineapple. And there is a lovely creaminess to it, as well. I had three cups of this and the flavor stays pretty consistent with each cup.

A big thanks to Nicole for sending me some more tea yesterday! Always love trying more teas out! It’s amazing that there really are so many kinds of tea out there. I think tea has coffee beat, anyway!

This one is lovely! I’ve never heard of Lady Londonderry before. A nice black tea base with a strawberry and lemon flavor! I think both lemon and strawberry are equally represented here. The strawberry reminds me of the flavor that Butiki uses in their strawberry oolong I had a chance to sample a while ago. It’s very sweet and candylike. Yum! The black tea is perfect with these flavors. I’m surprised the black tea doesn’t hide the lemon and strawberry more than it does. Very good!

I’m wondering if anyone knows which kinds of black tea usually have a maltier flavor. (Assams? Ceylons? Others??)

These jade green with hints of yellow buds smell sugary and vegetal. Normally I hate sugary vegetables (ie: coleslaw. Ick, but I’d love coleslaw without sugar). But if a tea smells like that, I love it.

First steep: Waited a while for the water to cool, steeped for 50 seconds, didn’t think that was long enough, then steeped for 35 more seconds. The taste is mainly sweet, much less vegetal than the leaves smell. It’s more of a mildly floral flavor. Very complex but very good.

Second steep: may have been too hot for two minutes. This one really does have a complex & sweet flavor. It is different from all other oolongs I’ve tried, but I can’t begin to describe how. Not quite peachy, floral or milky… but very sweet.

Third steep: …I kind of forgot about, so I have no idea how long it had been steeping. The flavor seems to be lacking, but that may be due to the oversteeping. I’d say unlike most other oolongs, this one didn’t change flavor as much. I definitely didn’t get anything smokey out of this one, like the description says. It’s very hard to describe, so try it for yourself!

Additional notes: Recently, I saw a tasting note that said cream houjicha! Well, I don’t have a cream houjicha but it sounds delicious. I had to try this with some cream… some Bailey’s Cheesecake cream!! What?! I decided to forgo the higher caffiene tea today, just because I wanted to try this with cream. I have learned since the last time I had this one that all tea except rooibos and herbals have caffiene in them. Even though I only slept 4 hours last night, I wasn’t that sleepy. I think the steep time must be boiling and you can’t really hurt it with the steep time, especially if you love more of the roasted toasty flavor. The cream is delicious, of course. It tastes like a cheesecake, and the toasty houjicha is the delicious crust (otherwise, I think the cream flavor is just cheesecake filling without the crust.) It is reminding me of the milky coffee my parents gave me when I was three years old… which isn’t good because I only put a bit of cream in it. I assumed the coffee was mostly milk, but now I think there was only a little milk added! Yikes! I love this tea.

Thank you Dinosara for including a bit of this in our trade! Sadly, I heard yesterday that Ovation will no longer be in business. I really wanted to try many of their blends, and this was the only one in my stash, so I thought I’d try it this morning. The idea of this one just seemed dreamy. Earl Grey and raspberry?!? I steeped for four minutes in boiled water that I had let cool for a few minutes. I didn’t really smell any bergamot and I didn’t really taste any bergamot. There is a slight hint of raspberry. I really like the black tea base though! It’s a nice malty, medium flavored black tea. The steep color is a coppery brown. I’ve REALLY been on a malty tea kick lately. I wish I could drink malty teas every morning. I keep thinking of Golden Moon’s Sinharaja but I only have a little left of that one (that Momo kindly sent!) and that stuff ain’t cheap. I might have to splurge on some when I run out though. It will be one of my treasured teas. Anyway, I like this one but it isn’t the best representation of a bergamot tea. I wish I could try more of Ovation’s teas though!

Did I get the right tea? I don’t see the pistachios at all. The biscotti looks like almonds (but I don’t know much about biscotti.. I think it’s like a crispy cookie?) And what should be honey flakes look like coconut to me. The taste is delicious anyway. Very sweet! And it is cookie-like. The black tea is pretty mild, but that lets the flavors shine. I was really hoping this would be a nice pistachio blend. It’s good but the name isn’t accurate!

Uh I’m sick of winter. How many months of winter are left? Some mornings my throat is so dry that even tea doesn’t help (and I don’t snore! :D) I don’t know WHAT I did before I was drinking tea. I see the good in everything though, so I think winter just helps me appreciate the warmer months more. And it would be boring if it was always the same season… though I wouldn’t mind if it was permanently autumn!

With the first sip, I thought this one tasted as odd as the name. But it turns into delicious. I wanted to try this one because it has dates in it. I LOVE the 52Teas Date Walnut Muffin tea. This is very tropical…pineapple! I just wish they hadn’t put in all these fruit leaves… the idea is just weird. There is hibiscus here, but I think my steep only got one leaf in it, so it doesn’t taste like hibiscus. I think this one would be a nice answer to sugar cravings. The fruit is mixed with just enough sugar. I think I should have put more tea in my infuser to make it even better, but I’ll have to wait for one of the infuser baskets for that.

Tealux.ca has THREE maple teas… maybe because Tealux is in Canada? The dry leaves and tea certainly SMELL like maple… very sweet. It looks like there are little rocks/crystals of maple in the blend, with nice black tea. Also some peppercorns, though those aren’t listed in the ingredients. The flavor is a bit odd at first. I’m not sure how to describe it. It’s not a flavor I’ve had before and I can’t tell if it is the tea leaves or the maple. But it has a maltiness to it. And somehow the maple isn’t very present until the tea isn’t burning hot. The top of the tea had a sparkly residue on the top that seemed to be in two layers. When I moved the cup, one of the layers would move right, and the layer underneath it would move left. Interesting! Otherwise it’s a very muddy colored tea. I like this one! I can’t wait to try the other Tealux samples…