TeaParT

I was dragging tonight so I needed a pick me up and reached for the English Breakfast but it seemed too weak to do the trick. I didn’t remember it being so bland. I think I’ll use the rest for sweet tea – iced.

Found a great deal on a large green tea variety pack so once again I found another excuse to get pick up more tea.

I’ve always enjoyed Earl Grey teas so I was anxious to try it with green tea. I was concerned both flavors might be compromised when combined but the familiar bergamot bite popped on the very first sip. Yummy!

The clerk had mentioned this was a very pretty tea so I fixed it in my Teavana Teamaker. What a delight! It uncurls to look like gold ribbons streaming through a rich amber sea. The caramel bits melt and mellow the drink without clouding it like milk would have done.

I had this at a friend’s house. I had difficulty finding a description for this tea at the Lipton website. I think that it is part of their Specialty Tea Bags for their Food Service line. It did not taste like an English Breakfast but was a nice cup of black tea to sip while two friends chat.

The company uses the word gentle to describe this but I think most would use a word like weak. My mom use to fix weak Lipton tea when we were sick. All this time I thought that she specifically made it weak but now I wonder.

Always come back to this one as my comfort tea. I’ve been trying to use up some of my other stash but find that this remains my favorite. Even with chocolate teas, I want them to taste like tea. This ones lives up to the name. You can taste the chocolate and the mint while still be reminded it is tea.

I had hoped the tarragon would make this more than just another mint tea. It didn’t. Instead I have a lingering taste of the spearmint.

This is one of my favorite of the bag tea. It can also often be found on sale so I like to keep it on hand. It brews a rich color in a very short time. Often Earl Grey blends will be lopsided. With this you get a strong but pleasant black tea with the citrus bite of the bergamot at the end.

You can always count on this tea to be dependable for a traditional brew…Although sometimes I wish it had some originality.

I’ve been rationing this tea since Celestial Seasonings has replaced this with Mandarin Orange Spice. Both might be orange spice but I prefer the Tuscany because I like the black tea blend. Often spice teas can over shadow the other flavors but I always enjoyed this combination of the orange flavor while retaining the black tea taste. Too bad this hit the “discontinued” list. But then what do I know - I still miss their “vintage” artistic boxes.

This is very pretty brew as the leaves uncurl. I felt like I was walking into a florist shop as I brought the cup up for the first sip. My son on the other hand started singing the Ricola cough drops commercial. He summed it up as medicinal. I enjoyed this tea a great deal but I think they might have included too many unique flavors in this blend. Some might be put off with all the layers.

After posting on the discussion board about my son eating this tea, I raced into the kitchen to fix a pot of this. We usually drink this in the summer as ice tea but it is fun to switch around sometimes. With so much cold weather, we’ve been drinking a great deal of hot cider so this was a nice change.

On a side note – I love it when a tea becomes more than simply a beverage. Fixing this always floods me with fond memories of my grandfather. The strong aroma when you open the tin reminds me of his pipe tobacco which must have been fruit flavored.

With all the after-holiday coughs and sniffles, I reached for this one hoping for strong antioxidant qualities. I often have a problem with the color of white tea since I like to sample the tea with my eyes first then taste. While the color is light, both color and taste are very rich in this blend so but I enjoyed it. This was a sample but I think that I am going to add this to my shopping list.

The bitter cold this evening called for a strong tea. One of my sister-in-laws suggested this one. It was a great choice. Looking down into the teacup, I found the beautiful cinnamon color in the cup to be a sweet preview of the spice flavor to come.

This came in a gift pack so I wasn’t expecting the best but was pleased with my morning cup. It seemed to have enough kick to start the day.

After all of the holiday rush rush, I started to drag so I grabbed this hoping it would provide a quick pick me up. It did the trick. I can’t wait to try this as an ice tea since it had a beautiful dark golden amber color.

Following the other comments, I went for a very short steep and it paid off. Fortunately all of the flavors complement each other. Reminds me of a chocolate chip macadamia nut cookie minus a just few calories!!!!

Reach for this every time my husband starts complaining of an itchy throat. It is one of those comfort teas and reminds him of the “tea with lemon” remedy – just make sure that you use good local honey to get full benefits.

Thinking this would be a very forgiving tea, I selected Vanilla Apricot White. Since I was at a New Year’s party, I didn’t have much control over water temperature and brewing time. This turned out to be a delight. Neither the vanilla nor the apricot flavors were overbearing – just a light refreshing delicate white tea that went well with the abundance of food being served.

Thank goodness this is very forgiving with the steep time. This was smelling so good that the boys were begging for hot chocolate. Anyway, I got busy fixing their drinks and forgot my tea steeping. Outside of the fact that it was not as warm as I prefer, it still tasted great.

Playing catchup with this posting. Pulled it out for Christmas Eve and remembered why it had been sitting around for so long. Totally agree with the others that mentioned the strong mint taste. While I like spearmint gum, this is just too much mint and not enough tea flavor.

Like others have mentioned, I have had trouble with the bloom opening into a weird shape with some of the Primula Flowering teas. This bloom opened nicely and looks beautiful in my glass teapot. It creates a nice light tea.

Both of my boys love to eat pumpkin pie so I figured this would be a family hit. It was a nice holiday treat. I like how the chunks of fruit give a strong pumpkin taste without overpowering the tea flavor like so many pumpkin spice teas tend to do.

Nice cup of tea. The emphasis here is on the cinnamon rather than the apple.