1118 Tasting Notes

91
drank Island Blend by Design a Tea
1118 tasting notes

Oh wow, this is good! A nice sencha with creamy vanilla and sweet mango. The sencha is fully present, not hidden by the flavoring. There’s a light grassy note and a vegetable flavor that is nice and clean. The vanilla doesn’t have that wacky artificial flavor. It’s smooth and creamy and blends very well with the green tea. The mango is the lightest note, but it lends a fruity sweetness that definitely takes this tea up a notch.

I only had a three or four sips of the first steeping before my daughter asked for my cup. Mango and vanilla are two of her favorite flavors, so she’s currently in tea heaven. Anyway, I can say that this tea resteeps well. All of the flavors are still there. The vanilla is slightly less, but it’s an equally yummy cup.

Design a Tea has thoroughly impressed me with the blends they keep in stock. It’s great quality, and their customer service is amazing. And yes, I want to spread the word about them! Good companies deserve high praise. :)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

81
drank Lady Grey by Twinings
1118 tasting notes

Gingerbread house are done, and fun was had by all. For the first time my son didn’t make a house. We ended up having way more snow than the weatherman was calling for, and my son was desperate to play in it. Much more fun to a ten year old than putting candy on a little house.

So, I’m tired and desperately wanting a cuppa without the work of making one. I started looking through some tea bags I have collected from trades and almost empty boxes, and this one leaped out at me. I’ve always enjoyed it. Lot of citrus and bergamot flavors. Yum. I added a little sugar and cream to my cup and enjoyed this wonderful treat.

This is something I would pick up again.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

100
drank Earl Grey Cream by Zen Tea
1118 tasting notes

Today is our annual gingerbread house building, so I’m sipping on this while cutting out templates and doing some other prep work. My kids have been decorating houses for eight years now, and it’s a lot of fun to see how their houses change from year to year.

There’s not much for me to say about this tea that I haven’t said before. It’s still my favorite Earl Grey Cream. It’s kinda like Marry Poppins, practically perfect in every way. :)

Sil

That sounds like a great tradition!

Veronica

Sil, it is! We get together with friends, and there are about 15 kids that all decorate houses. Every year it’s a blast. At least until the clean up starts. ;-)

TeaLady441

Ooooh! I really want to do that now!

Veronica

Cavocorax – Do! It’s so much fun. Every year I think it would be fun to have a gingerbread house decorating party for adults, but I never take the time to plan it.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

79
drank Eight Candles by Della Terra Teas
1118 tasting notes

We put up our Christmas trees tonight, and now I’m celebrating by drinking, um, Eight Candles. What can I say? It works for me.

This is pretty good. Lots of marshmallow and caramel. Actually, the caramel comes across more as a creaminess in the tea rather than a flavor, but it’s still nice. I did add one and a half perfect teaspoons to my brew basket to increase the flavor, and it worked nicely. Lots of flavor in my cup and no bitterness from the tea.

On a different note, any cat owners out there with tips or tricks for keeping kitties safe during the holidays? I’m a little worried that my cat is too obsessed with the tree lights. I’m scared she’s going to chew on them when we’re out of the room.

wheezybee

Sorry – our cats leave the bulbs alone and try to pull off needles instead.

Kirlika

Heh, cats and Christmas trees are always an interesting challenge… Aside from not putting lights on the bottom row, you could try spraying the wire with diluted Tabasco sauce, or bitter apple.

Before needing to have a cat free home (my in-laws are allergic to cats :( ) we had one cat that loved to eat tinsel, and another that would climb, yes you heard me climb, into the tree and sleep about two boughs up. White cat in a white tree; we couldn’t figure out where he had gotten to.. :S

Veronica

Ha! Cats crack me up. :)

My husband is sure she’s going to be too busy toppling the entire tree to bother with the lights or wires. I guess we shall see.

SimplyJenW

We stopped putting lights on the tree once we noticed some of the bulbs chewed off. Yes, we have a chewer. My cat actually believes our artificial tree is her personal seasonal jungle gym.

Veronica

Oh no! That’s not good. Maybe I’ll have my husband take them down. Better safe than sorry.

Thanks for the advice and cute stories, everyone!

Josie Jade

We have a little 4 foot tree that we actually put on a small table this year to try to keep the cats away. Didn’t quite work since now they’re launching themselves at it from a nearby chair and knocking the whole thing over. Between the cats and the lights going out, I figure I’ve redecorated the tree about 5 times now. No chewing though, thank goodness! I hope your cat loses its appetite for tree. Maybe try some of that bitter spray so she doesn’t like the taste of it?

Angrboda

Does your cat have a history of being interested in cables and such? If not, I don’t think you need to worry. Pull the plug out of the wall when you’re not using it and only have it turned on when you can keep an eye on it. That way at least she won’t electrocute herself. With our cats the lights were never a problem. They were only strung around the top 75% of the tree just to be safe, but other than that, it was left alone. It was the other decorations on it that were in danger. We are avoiding any that are made of glass, so everything on our tree is made of metal, paper or plastic and can stand being played with. Well, the paper things can only take so much playing, obviously, but those are homemade, so they are easy to replace. :)

K S

Turn off tree when you aren’t in the room. Hang bells down low so you know when the cat is messing with the tree. Give kitty a shiny non glass ornament to bat around the floor. Mostly be prepared to grab the cat and tell it NO when it acts up. Don’t stress and just enjoy the antics.

Veronica

After watching her for a while I figured out it was the blinking lights that were the problem. She loves chasing and eating bugs, so maybe the lights reminded her too much of insects. So I stopped the blinking and she quickly lost interest in the lights. Now she’s more into batting at the ornaments, but that I can handle. :) I will still unplug the lights when we aren’t in the room just to be safe.

Rosehips

Hooray for tree decorating!

gmathis

Tazo has been wrapping himself around the base of ours. Makes it a little challenging come evening eviction time.

Kirlika

I ran across a video earlier that had me immediately thinking about this thread. Enjoy the cat antics!

Cats vs. Christmas Decorations – http://www.dump.com/catschristmas/

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

85

Received my Verdant order and had to give this one a try. After reading so many tasting notes on it I was excited to finally have it in my cup!

Since I’ve been reading so many tasting notes I was able to skip the guess work and just follow Sil’s instructions. I used 1 tablespoon of leaves letting them steep for six minutes. The results were lovely. Lots of vanilla and citrus flavors. I’m not sure if the cake-y bread-y flavor is from the Yunnan or one of the other ingredients, but it works and it works well. This one’s a winner.

This has been in my cup for most of the day. It’s such a wonderful tea, and the fact that it resteeps so beautifully is just icing on the cake!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

96

Woke up way earlier than was my plan. I decided I wanted something warm to drink, but with the hope of going back to sleep I chose this over caffeinated tea. This is one of my favorite herbals. I sometimes think the fennel is going to be too much because the smell of it is so strong, but it’s always well balanced with the mint, ginger, and licorice root.

I couldn’t fall back asleep, but having a quiet house all to myself is a treat in and of itself.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

85

I was able to get an appointment to see my doctor, and this is the tea I had during the drive. I really enjoyed the toasty notes this morning. It went well with the rainy day we are having, and it tasted terrific. I was enjoying it so much that it had little chance to cool, so a lot of the other flavors were not present. Still a tasty cup.

Turns out I have a double ear infection and strep throat, so I will be spending this weekend at home with my blankets, books, and tea while the medicine does its thing. Can’t say this makes me overly sad.

Sil

oh goodness! that’s awful but some great weekend plans :)

Veronica

Yeah, I haven’t had an ear infection since I was a kid. I forgot how much it hurts!

yyz

Hope your feeling better soon!

caile

Hope you feel better soon! Enjoy staying warm and cozy at home!

Veronica

Thanks!

JustJames

hopefully all will be better for the holidays…… feel better!

Indigobloom

Get better soon! strep is rough, I had it over the summer :(

TeaBrat

feel better!

Bonnie

Get better! Glad you went to the doctor. I had a ear infection for a long time and it turned out that I was allergic to the medicine for the infection. So, if you don’t get better, don’t be dumb like I was! Go back!

Veronica

Thanks, everyone! I do feel a little better today.

@Bonnie – Yikes! I’ve never had an allergic reaction to medicine, but that can’t be fun. I’ll definitely keep an eye on my ears (so to speak).

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

76

The first of my Della Terra orders arrived yesterday. While most of the teas will be Christmas gifts I thought I’d open this one to share with my daughter since it’s one of her favorites.

Well, I have to say we were both disappointed. The tea has little to no flavor. The smell is there while it’s steeping, but there’s only a vague hint of spice and cookie in the infusion. If I had been drinking this by myself I would have chalked it up to being sick, but my daughter’s face fell after the second sip. She let the tea cool some, and it was no better. One of the main reasons she and I love Della Terra is that their flavored teas a full of flavor, so this was a bummer.

I’m hoping this was a fluke and that the rest of the bag will be the awesomeness we’ve come to love from Della Terra.

tea-sipper

I’ve recently thought maybe I should use more leaves for Della Terra’s teas.. their black teas can never get astringent anyway.

Veronica

Yeah, that’s what we’re going to try next. My daughter made herself another cup of this using a perfect teaspoon to measure the leaves and she said it still had very little flavor. Maybe with more leaves we’ll find that perfect cup.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

78
drank Berry Blues by Adagio Teas
1118 tasting notes

I received this as a free sample in my last Adagio order. To be honest, I didn’t think I would like it, but I have to say this was pretty good. It had a fair amount of blueberry flavor even though my brew basket was filled with apple pieces. There was a lot of sweetness from the apple and then a light trartness from the berries and hibiscus. The overriding flavor was definitely berry as the sweet note from the apple just registered as generic sweet. I didn’t add sugar, but if I had I’m guessing this would have morphed into a juice/kool-aid kind of herbal. Sans additions it was tasty and a nice before bed treat.

This was a happy find. A good blueberry herbal will always be welcome here!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

76

Never doubt the power of homemade chicken soup and a comforting cup of tea when you’re sick. It really does work wonders. The soup was delicious and warming, but this tea is like my security blanket when I’m sick. It just makes me feel better. The sweetness of the chamomile and the honey are well balanced by the vanilla. I’m glad it’s an herbal, and I’m even glad it’s in a tea bag. It’s relaxing and easy to sit and sip cup after cup.

Bumping my rating up on this one a bit.

VariaTEA

I hope you feel better soon!

Veronica

Thanks!

gmathis

Sometimes it’s less drinking the tea than it is clutching the cup and warming your nose on it :)

Veronica

gmathis, that is so. very. true.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Profile

Bio

Tea obsessed since 2010.

My Rating System:

100-95 = Teas I actively seek out and keep in my pantry. If you are a guest in my home chances are I will offer you one or all of these teas. Also, if/when these teas are discontinued I openly mourn their loss.

94-85 = Teas I truly like, often have in my pantry, and sometimes restock. These are my variety-is-the-spice-of-life teas.

84-75 = They’re good teas and I enjoy drinking them on occasion.

74-65 = These teas are ok, but not really my thing.

64-55 = meh.

54-45 = I will if I have no other option.

44 and below = Coffee, please.

Location

New Jersey, USA

Website

https://twitter.com/#!/abouta...

Following These People

Moderator Tools

Mark as Spammer