Uniquity

Brought this with us also for our weekend away. I just steeped myself up a mug of it…I love using the travel mug infused as a regular infused. Anyway, this tea is always delicious and I am so glad that we have a second pouch of it at home. Thank you Frank!!

Also, it’s really hard to type on an iPod!

Yum yum. The beau and I are visiting my father for the weekend, so we have limited tea quantities. Luckily, this is one we brought with us. We popped it in his teapot with the inside of our travel mugs (yay ingenuity!) and are now enjoying a couple mugs of Monk’s Blend. There is a bit of an odd milky taste to it, we think it’s residue from the Red Rose that my father drinks obsessively. Other than that little change, this is a lovely cup. I still get creamy caramel sort of flavours and a sweet floral hint. Not the best mug I’ve ever had, thanks to that milky taste, but it’s yummy!

Decided to give it a go with a second steep. I know, I break all the rules. Anyway, filled up my wee gaiwan once again. The liquor isn’t as dark this time, but I still get a strong cinnamon scent, as before. Looks promising. Surprisingly, the depth of flavour is still there. Excellent news! I could probably eke out a third one if I wanted, but I don’t like to tempt the tea gods too badly. Hmm, this is creeping up in my estimation. Please, tea gods, let me enjoy another cheaper lighter chai even more in the near future!

Heavy little tea, isn’t it? I tried this once before at David’s Tea as a sample and enjoyed it, but wasn’t totally sold. There was something off about it, but I decided to chalk that up to my preferred brewing parameters being very different than DT. So, I decided to give this a shot a week or two back when I realized that I haven’t bought (or even smelled!) any of their chais yet.

I steeped up a little cup of this tonight in my gaiwan, then enjoyed it in my koi cup. I love seeing green cardamom and red peppercorn in chais, and those were both present in this brew. It smelled lovely and I was looking forward to a nice spicy cup of chai. Thankfully, I was rewarded!

The cinnamon is very forward in this one, but the tea doesn’t taste thin or watery as I find some chais can be. It isn’t my ideal chai, but it is definitely good. I don’t have the skills to differentiate specific flavours, but it is a nice semi-mild chai. I am really enjoying this one. It would be lovely on a sunny day while sitting in my window with a slight breeze and a good book. Not that Mother Nature is giving me any of that today…but I can still enjoy a good chai, whatever the weather.

If this were a little lighter, I would strongly consider a large scale refill on my small bag, but I think I will continue perusing the chais available to me in the meantime and return to this if nothing better presents itself.

I’m enjoying the last of my teabags from Meghann M over lunch. Now all I have is my loose pound…but oh what a pound it is! : )

I haven’t had this since last year? What?? I guess I have a lot of mint teas and spearmint is the one that lives at work anyway. This is really yummy, not as in your face as my Sawadee peppermint, but really yummy with a true peppermint flavour. I love mint!

Delicious! I had a lovely black tea flavour with a hint of peach and a slightly stronger note of apricot. It was really quite yummy and not at all bitter.

It is an impressive chai that can taste watery after an (accidental!) 11 minute steep. This would be the one to do so though. gah, I want my gingerbread chai!

I am pretty certain this is a frist for me (wintergreen in tea, that is). I have pure spearmint, several pure peppermints and a couple teas with mint in them, but never before has wintergreen come up. It’s refreshing. It’s different. I like it! I am mostly getting a minty flavour (very wintergreen and spearmint, nothing pepperminty) without much of a tea base (it seems I never taste tea in tea!) but I am loving it. The black tea lends a depth of flavour and colour that pure mint don’t always have. This was an excellent oops week surprise!

EDIT: I know that this disagrees with other reviews, but I think that for the first time in my life I’ve found a mint tea that really does put me in mind of mouthwash/toothpaste. This isn’t a problem for me, but I definitely get more of a toothpaste taste than a proper mint leaf sort of taste. And I still don’t really get a lot of tea taste. Weird!

We had some of this for breakfast and the beau (surprisingly) wanted to give it a go. I gave it a boil, then 4 minutes steep. It came out quite dark, and very strongly smelling of vanilla. The beau claims his cup is a little bitter, but that’s because he got the second up and any dregs would have gone to him (I always pour him the second :D). Definitely a yummy tea. I was surprised he wanted to try it, since he’s not a huge fan of vanilla comoro, but I think the over-the-top vanilla smell had him intrigued.

So, I think I’ve found my perfect chai. And in typical me style, said chai is no longer available. I broke open my gingerbread chai to enjoy with my peanut butter and crackers (great pairing, actually!) It’s so good! It smells great, it tastes great…It is, obviously more of a gingerbread chai than a spice chai and that is what I like. I’ve had 4 or 5 smaller cups from this steep so far, and am so happy with it. I wonder if I can re-steep it? Hmm, will try this later. Frank, if I decide at the end of this pouch that this IS my chai, will you blend me a pound? What does that cost? I remember you doing a pound of peanut butter something for someone..

Anyway, this tea. I don’t know what to say. It’s like hot gingerbread. I prepared it like regular tea without any milk, since I’ve been failing at stovetop chai lately (I think a combo of too much milk and too short steep time are doing me in, since I hate milk). There are spices here, sure, but no one spice is domineering the rest. There is just a nice taste in my mouth much like eating gingerbread. The beau even seemed to enjoy a sip and he HATES chai. So great! God, a gingerbread man would go good right now..

Steeped a second (smaller) cup later on. Quite delicious – not as strong, but the vanilla flavour still very present. Could do a third (weak) cup, but won’t. For regular sized cups, I think I could get three solid steeps though. Huzzah!

Well, I finished lunch and wanted something to take up to switchboard with me. My new 52Teas were calling to me, so I broke the seal on this baby. As soon as I ripped the top of the packet off, I got a big cloud of vanilla caramel smell. It was very intense, almost sharp. Occasionally I got a whiff of something reminiscent of coconut, but I tend to think of strong vanilla smells as coconutty. It’s not hurting me at all. When I unzipped the seal the smell increased (holy vanilla!) but I also got to see the little cornflower heads hanging out. Cute!

As always, this tea was made under imperfect conditions at work, but I gave it about 5 minutes to steep, and the water was definitely not boiling. The smell in the cup is a slightly muted version of the pouch aroma, still very strong. Unfortunately my travel mug smells strongly of the Wellness I had this morning so that is clouding the aroma, but the strong caramelly vanilla scent is still there. There is some childhood smell this is reminding me of…I think it’s reminiscent of butterscotch ripple ice cream. The creamy vanilla aroma, Mmm…The liquor itself is a deep amber colour, exactly what you would expect of a vanilla black tea!

First sips are hot. But that’s the water. Grr at my impatience! I get a strong in your face vanilla flavour. Exactly what I would expect from the smell. The vanilla really lingers on my tongue for a while, I find it to be quite a rich, creamy flavour. I don’t know what assam tastes like because I’ve never drank plain black tea, but there’s no taste I would identify as strongly tea-like. No bitterness or astringency, nothing I would really associate with black tea. There might be something there underneath the vanilla, but the weird scent of Wellness (darn this travel mug for holding smells!) is clouding my taste buds. I can’t wait to try it again at home with a bit more control over the process.

The spent leaves still have a strong vanilla smell…I suspect they would be a strong candidate for a re-steep. I might give that a go later if I have time. For now, this is an ejoyable and in your face vanilla black. Not a bedtime snack, but a tea to wake you up in the morning or after lunch.

Edit: As I sip, I start to get a hint more of the tea flavour. It’s at the very front of the sip though, and soon overcome by the bold vanilla. Wowza!

Big mug of this to get to work today. I found that it had a very creamy sort of taste while hot, which thinned out a bit as it cooled. Almost like a dash of lime bang was thrown in my cup of Wellness. As much as I am enjoying this, I am so excited about other teas right now because…
My 52Teas order arrived!!! YAY!

Breakfast tea! Luckily, I remembered that this has green tea in it today and didn’t allow the water to boil. The trouble with first thing in the morning tea is that I tend to make one of my favourites, and I forget to actually pay attention. As some of you may have noticed, I rarely drink green tea, or even tea with green in it, so boil away is my default setting! I have a number of really yummy green teas, honestly, but since I rarely have the time to sit and enjoy multiple infusions it seems a waste. I was looking forward to trying out a few good greens and oolongs this weekend, but I’m going to celebrate one of my younger brother’s birthdays and won’t be home all weekend. We’ll see how much tea I end up taking with… : ) Maybe I’ll convert him? My father is a dedicated Red Rose drinker…I intend to try to get at least one cup of loose in him. I’ve tried before though, and it never works.

Anyway, on to the Three Wishes! Nice and yummy, sweet lightly fruity and floral taste. Not much black tea going on in there. I could have heated the water quite a bit more, I think. I just make that up in general. I quite like this tea.

Oh, my precious. I am having a delicious raspberry/blackberry forward mug of this right now. I never want this pouch to end. THis rises to the top of my fruit teas AND my rooibos – A sure winner all around. I’m still hoping that this is one of my oops teas…hopefully that package arrives soon and I can find out! Wonderfully berry flavoured, very authentic and natural as opposed to sweetened fruit flavours. I love it! I really do!

Filled my travel mug with this to get to work this morning. I was a little uneasy at first, especially after my disaster with this a few weeks ago, so I had the beau make sure there weren’t too many fruit chunks in it (Maybe I can eat the extras??) and actually shook out the majority of the tea after about 10 minutes of steeping. Luckily there was a garbage can at my bus stop : )

I think the key to this for me is making sure that there aren’t too many pieces of fruit. I can’t be sure that was the culprit, but I’ve decided to err on the side of caution and am watching how many bits end up in my cup. Today, I was rewarded for this! A nice sweet fruity cup. Over time, I’ve come to find this a bit too sweet and generally enjoy Wellness more, but this is still a great treat in my cupboard, and one that I think will be delicious as an iced tea come warmer weather. In general I am not a fan of iced tea, but maybe this will be the year that changes. I think the sweetness of this tea will really pop.

Yummy cup of this for breakfast. I could have steeped it a little bit longer to really bring out the peachiness, as I mostly had a lovely cup of black tea with a hint of peach, but that was just the morning blahs. Will do an in depth review at a later time. If I ever have time! : )

Enjoying a cup of this while at switchboard. Caught it before it got tart, so it’s just sweet blueberries all around. Quite enjoyable, really. Especially when in the mood for blueberry flavour without caffeine.

Travel mug full of this today to get to work. Sweet, swampy, fruity. A bit much right now, actually, but not a fault of the tea.

Now this is an exceptionally pleasant cup of tea. I don’t know what calendula and sunflower petals taste like, but I get a relatively strong vanilla/caramel taste, with a bit of sweet floral afterward. I was very skeptical at first, but it smells great and tastes great, and stands up to steeping very well. Something important to me as well is that I get enough tea for the beau and I in the morning with 1 or 2 teaspoons – and this tea did so admirably. We realized over the weekend that our Hungry Caterpillar mugs hold almost 16 oz of tea, so we’ve been using way less leaf than recommended. And, honestly, I really enjoy it.

Backlog:

I had a cup of this yesterday on the weekly tea date with the beau and a good friend. I was smelling a weird variety, from Scottish Caramel Pu-Erh (Still can’t handle the Pu-Erh smell, let alone try the taste!) to Jasmine Orchard Oolong to Tropical Fire. I went with the safe bet, and was a little disappointed, honestly. My cup wasn’t rolling in any exceptional flavours and all the beautiful fruits named in the description didn’t come through to me. It was more like a watered down cup of something. Might have been a bad teaspoon, not really sure. On the plus side, the beau had Monk’s Blend and that was delicious, so we bought some!

Had a cup of this last evening and am re-steeping the leaves this morning for another. The Sawadee peppermint is so powerful that I believe it will do a second steep without any trouble. Delicious!

Had a big mug of this during the afternoon. Lovely and refreshing. Always delicious.