Uniquity

Wanted a warm cup of comfort today…Found it in my Twinings Black Currant

Have I found the perfect way to make this tea?? Oh my heavens. I think it helps that when I startd into the abyss that is my tea drawer at work I really felt like a good proper tea. By my definition, Lady Grey counts. I steeped it about 1 minute, with the usual water from here and find it really citrusy (orange in particular) and perfect. I haven’t reached the bottom yet, but I see no need to add sugar or cream. Really nice!

Okay, I think I really like this. I’ve smelled it a couple times before but have been put off because I know it’s a heavy tea and wouldn’t make that many cups. I finally bought some a few days ago and had a chance to try it this morning. I accidentally poured too much water into the teapot for the size mugs the beau and I were drinking from, so I ended up with 2 cups, one steeped at 4 or 5 minutes, and one steeped at 15 minutes. The first cup was lovely and mild, reminiscent of an apple crumble or some other yummy dessert. Really good! The second had a much stronger flavour that I can only assume was the beetroot. I also enjoyed this cuppa, but found it a little more tart than the first, the obvious result of leaving the tea in the pot so long. In general, I quite enjoyed this. The beau says it’s not a re-buy, but I think it might be, especially since Night Out has been discontinued (a travesty, by the way).

My other chocolate tea. Purchased last night. I was swept away by the strawberry smells and the very mild chocolate aspect. This evening as I stared at the snow that seems to be 6 feet deep I thought I’d give it a go. The mild chocolate aroma became much stronger when steeped, and really became the front flavour. It reminds me strongly of chocolates with strawberry in them…You know, the strange creamy strawberry chocolates that always disappear from the box right away, along with the caramels. Anyway, it’s quite nice. Probably good to have on hand for the occasion when I want it, but not something I could imagine drinking every day. Maybe only in winter..

In a fit of economy, I brought my smaller teaball to work today. Fair disclosure, I never use my teaballs. I hate them. They’re hopelessly inefficient, and always seem to drop little bits of leaf in my tea because the little metal thing at the bottom that holds the two halves together is always misaligned, leaving a gap between the two halves which lets a LOT of leaf through.

Back to my economical decision – Why use a T-Sac when I’ve got a teaball? What could go wrong? Oh wait. I now have a mug of tea I love full of bits of leaf that I don’t. Economy be damned, I am using my $.07 per use T-Sac. They only let me down if I rip them, and then it’s my fault anyway. Of course, all that aside I bought a teaball last night for the upcoming bridal shower but when you’ve got nothing, you gotta start somewhere : )

Tea making woes aside, I love this tea. I wanted it for a very long time and finally bought a tin a few months ago. I always have to remember it’s a green and steep it accordingly, but it comes with a lovely vanilla/lime combo, It’s sort of a hint of the mojito I so love, without the mint. The lime doesn’t get too sharp, and just works nicely. I find it takes quite a while to really flavour up (maybe because of lower water temps) so I let it sit for 5 minutes, easily. Oftentimes, I’ll leave the tea in for the whole mug.

This poor guy was forgotten for the past week, but I thought a nice energy boost was needed this morning. We’re in the middle of a snowfall dump (no snow right now, but treacherous looking sidewalks) and I need to convince myself to go to work.

Back to the tea.

It has a strange smell – more lemon peel than lemon juice. There is another aspect to the smell that can’t identify, I presume that is the guayusa. The liquor steeps up an ugly deep green/brown. Very much like an olive green. For those who have had it, this tea reminds me (in colour) of David’s Tea’s Swamp Water. The steeped smell is a little more friendly, but I still get a sharp tangy sort of smell.

I don’t know anything about steeping guayusa, so I went with 1.5 solid teaspoons for 2 mugs of tea. I usually under-tea a little bit as I tend to go for longer steeping times. I used water that had cooled for a minute after boiling, and I let it steep about 5 minutes. Partially because I forgot.

I’ve managed to have a few sips so far. It’s very mild, surprisingly. I taste a hint of lemon something. Not nearly what I expected. As for the guayusa, I don’t know what it tastes like, but nothing is leaping out at me. Bigger sips have the same result. Interesting mouth feel at the end of the sip, but might be the brown bread I’m having with it.

This is an interesting tea. Not bad. Not knocking my socks off. Just an interesting option among the others, I think. It seems to remind me more of medicine than any other tea I have, a little reminiscent of neo-citron, only without the terrible medicine punch.

First things first – I do not like the idea of chocolate in tea. That is what hot chocolate is for. That said, I’ve wanted to try this for a little while – I really like mint, and I realize that I have to try chocolate in tea sometime so I took the plunge. Well, really, I bought some of this for an upcoming bridal shower and tried a cup first. Don’t tell the bride!

Anyway, I brought this home, continuing to be unsure of my thoughts. I brewed a cup right away and am now sipping. I am getting a pretty strong mint taste – I like that. The chocolate comes in as well, but in a weird way on the sip. Almost like I had recently eaten some dark chocolate and am having a mug of minty tea afterward, but still have a bit of chocolate flavour. I think I like it. I’m not really sure. I don’t know that I would buy it for myself because I don’t see the point, but I think I will keep a little bit, in case I ever need it. It’s almost like a cocoa with mint in (something I often do) but much milder on the chocolate.

ps – I bought another tea with chocolate in it for myself. When I push my boundaries, I really push, apparently. We’ll see how that goes.

EDIT – The further I get in the cup, the more I think I like it.

Re-steep from yesterday. Despite having used half the appropriate leaf the first time around and adding none the second this cup is still really flavourful. It’s bordering on bubblegum sweet, but I am so impressed to get 2 solid cups out of half the required tea. I can’t wait for my order to arrive and drink proper strength though – get a little bit of everything in my cup. Mmm!

Quite lovely. I had taken a big 52Teas break after my disappointing Peach Cobbler and confusing Cantaloupe Bai Mu Dan, but this tea tipped the balances. I know that rooibos isn’t really tea, but I still love it. The berries sifted nicely into this drink, very sweet. I couldn’t distinguish one berry over another, but I think if I had to pick one it might be blueberry. I don’t even know if there are blueberries in it!

Yum yum yum!

My lovely beau tucked the rest of my sample in my purse…I know I shouldn’t, but I’ve split it into two. I finished Wellness the other day, and I need a bit of emergency Ruby Red to hold me over until my order arrives. I’m so in love with this that I saved my T-Sac for a resteep, despite only having put half as much tea as I ought to have (FYI – still really strong! This is a FLAVOURFUL tea). Hopefully I can get the second steep. : )

Had some of this for breakfast. The smell is amazingly peachy, and after shaking the tin I found I got a good even mix of the different components in my teapot. Steeping, it continued to smell good and peachy, with a yellow liquor. Reminded me of the sun that never comes around anymore.

The smell of the leaves after I poured off the tea was actually quite bitter, so I’m worried that I had the water too hot, but the taste is still delicious. Sort of fresh and peachy, with a mild tea background. I will do a second steep later on and see how that goes.

All that said, this is a nice tea. It doesn’t taste nearly as good as it should ot justify the $18 I paid for 100 g of it. My tin was barely 3/4 full, and it just really isn’t amazing enough to justify a re-buy. I think I would rather have the more full flavours of zing me, for much less cost. Still lovely though, especially if you don’t have to worry about cost.

A big mug got me through an extra sunday morning at work. Luckily, I finished the project in 2.5 hours. Now I plan on going nowhere today. Yay!

Hip to the hop to the hibi-top. Hibiscus! And kool-Aid. : )

Love love love. Since I had my giant travel mug with me, I figured I’d pop some spearmint in there and save myself a T-Sac. Now I’ve got a big mug of steamy love to wile away the afternoon with.

Mmm, no time for breakfast tea this morning, so the beau whipped me up some of this in my travel mug. It’s the sort that’s see through with a big infuser basket, so it’s best for herbals (so the tea doesn’t over-steep, obviously). This mug o’ Wellness has been steeping for nearly an hour now and it’s still delicious. Finally cool enough to drink, too. : ) I used far less leaf than I would have ordinarily because I wanted to save one more mugs worth out of my sample. I placed my order yesterday, but now I need to wait for it to get to Canada. It seems like my tea experience is constantly hurry up and wait lately, lol. Anyway, the decreased leaf quantity actually isn’t hurting the tea at all. I know it could be stronger, but with such a long infusion time it’s come out really flavourful and I find I am picking up different tastes than yesterday. There’s almost a hint of something spicy. Delicious!

How did this become an everyday tea? This is my third steep of a T-Sac that I threw together on Monday. I keep forgetting it’s hiding in my teapot. If I think about it too long, that’s really gross, but the tea still is coming through strong and clear.

Looks like hibiscus. Smells like artificial apples. Not an auspicious start. Tastes blah. Very similar to the Apple Cinnamon Bigelow I tried yesterday. Both of them similar to Celestial Seasonings Apple Cinnamon. I can finish the cup, I think, but this is not good tea. I want my Joys Teaspoon back! : )

My second sample from Joy’s Teaspoon. I feel in love with the smell of this one as well, and the flavour didn’t let me down. It brewed up a bright red liquor, likely from the hibisucs, which I could only barely taste underneath the sip. If you’re not a hibiscus fan, no worries – it’s mostly colour. To be fair, I did steep at half strength again, to ration out my sample until my order arrives. Anyway, I really felt I could taste the carrot occasionally, and in general it was just a nice well rounded cuppa. I felt it got slightly tart toward the end, but that’s inevitable when you let tea sit for a while. : ) Delish!

My tea is here, my tea is here! Thank you Naomi for these samples. I asked for this one, and Wellness as well. As soon as we opened the packets, the beau and I lost our minds – the smell is absolutely amazing. AMAZING. I started looking up the price online before I even steeped a mug. That is selling power.

I’ve only used one teaspoon for two mugs of tea, because we’ve already decided that this needs to be rationed out until we can get more. Keep in mind that we haven’t even tasted it yet.

Okay, water is boiling. Now I have to wait. I gave the tea about five minutes to steep, because I already knew I didn’t use as much leaf as I ought to have. The smell continues to be amazing. I’m like a child in a candy store. The smell is really sweet and fruity, so if you don’t like rooibos, sweet or fruit, you’ll be displeased. I love all those things!

Tasting time! I’m in love. That’s it. In love. Naomi, please say you’ve established shipping to Canada, at least enough for me to have more of this trotting toward me ASAP! I am going to try Wellness tonight or tomorrow and then my order goes in…

Needed something I know is delicious after 24 hours of shady teas. Stand-by, ahoy! : )

One off found at work, figured it was worth a go. I’m still recovering from my confused reaction to Cantaloupe Bai Mu Dan, so figured apple cinnamon was worth a shot. As soon as it started steeping bright pink/red, I suspected there was hibiscus involved. I checked, of course there is! I don’t mind it, luckily, but i will need to be careful not to oversteep.

This has the artificial checmical apple taste I so loathe in bagged apple teas, and puts me in mind of Celestial Seasonings Apple Cinnamon (I hate it) mixed with one of their zingers (not that bad). This tea is a bit of a blah. I wonder what it might be like without hibiscus, as that is my dominant taste right now, but I get the apple in there too. This cup doesn’t seem to be undrinkable, but it’s definitely not good.

Okay, first impressions: The dry tea definitely smells like cantaloupe, but the smell is a bit off somehow. I presume that it’s the difference between fresh and dried cantaloupe. Steeping it in my usual imperfect office situation leaves me a little leery but I didn’t have time for a tea this morning and I need something – Figured I’d go for another of my new 52Teas. After my issue with the Peach Cobbler last night, I’m looking for another solid tea.

It’s steeping up a pale yellow liquor, as whites are wont to do. I always have an issue in believing that the tea is properly steeped when the liquor is so pale. Honestly, the little weirdness in the smell is making me nervous. Sort of like cantaloupe that needs to riped some more, when you eat it under-ripe and too close to the peel.

Luckily, the taste is actually quite nice. if I can get over my weird smell aversion, this will be a lovely refreshing cantaloupe cuppa to enjoy occasionally. Certainly not an every day tea, but good for occasions. Would probably be delicious iced. And maybe with some liquor and/or fresh cantaloupe in it.

Poor cup – after my first few sips I forgot to take the leaves out and over steeped it. Still nice enough, luckily.

I don’t know what I think of this tea. I definitely don’t think peaches. I definitely think green – I’m getting the grassiness that people so often speak of. I don’t know that I like it…Both in smell and in taste I haven’t got any peach hints. It smells sweet, but I get a serious vegetal taste, despite the sweetness. I think I might have to play with this one…

So far, all I can say is that it’s weird. Maybe I understeeped it? Maybe I should mix it with things. I’m a little sad. I’ll try again though!

Update – Bigger mouthfuls bring in something approximating peach, but then I’m left with the grassy after-taste. Which I don’t like. Maybe I should give up on green tea?

Mmm, exciting news is that a second cup has come out nicely – I saved the leaves for a third, but I think that will be pushing it a bit too far. I mostly get spice this time around, I can feel it on the back of my tongue. Still a lovely cuppa, but not the beautiful sense of vanilla and apple as in the first.