Gal In The Grey Hat

It’s been a while. But I’ve been busy with a new job and yet another minor surgery…“good” times. I’ve also been making a few changes here and there (see if you can spot them).

Anyway, I’m back and it’s raining once again here in Upstate NY. Perfect reason to grab a cup of this. I probably could have gone with a regular chai…goodness knows the pain meds will knock me out as it is. But I still enjoy this tea as a nice relaxing afternoon cup of tea!

The other night we were at a tea tasting and the 3 year old in the group ordered this (as she wasn’t going to enjoy the “grown-up” tea, so she said). Well, let me tell you all the “grown ups” wanted her tea when it arrived. They even added the steamed milk to it for her. It smelled so good I got 4oz. to go.

This decaf chai is great for evening sipping and awesome with milk (steamed or not). Today I’m drinking it straight and I must say there is no need to add extra sweetener to it. This is one of the more cinnamon flavored chai teas I’ve ever had, but it is mighty tasty! I’m glad the little miss ordered it Friday night!

I mixed close to a teaspoon each of The Whistling Kettle’s Salted Caramel and their Chocolate Cake Honeybush. Reason being I can’t recall if I mix the cake or their Nutcrunch honeybush with the Salted Caramel…because both of those look pretty similar. SO I tried it and it is def. not these two teas mixed together. This isn’t bad but it isn’t the salty-sweet combo I was looking for this morning.

Yum! I’ve been looking for a caffeine free evening tea to replace my sweet snacking and this my friends is it (well, one of two)! Sweet and full of chocolate flavor with a hint of cake. This is one yummy cup of early evening tea (today). I’m really glad I saw it on the menu last night! Even happier that the Mister didn’t bat an eye at all the tea I purchased!

Second sample tea of the day…I think I over-steeped… :( But a little sugar and half and half seemed to fix the bitter issue. I will say this smells very nutty and tastes good too. Will have to steep for less than 3 minutes next time…

I have declared today Sampler Sunday. So I’m only drinking teas from my samples and swaps box! I have WAY too many in there and need to cut down. to make some room for the new Upton samples arriving next week. :)

This was first on the to try list. I got this one from the 12 Days of Christmas swap. DaisyChubb was sweet enough to send it as Day 5 – Five Golden Rings. I find this tea to be a nice wake me up tea. Brisk and bold…with a little shimmer thrown in for good measure! Seriously my cup is sparkling (in a good way)! This is super yummy and the clove is a nice touch and not at all overpowering. Yum!

So I gave this a go last night after a bad tea was had. This one more than made up for the other tea. Plus I LOVE elderberry mixed with puerh! I really miss the old alchemy blend Verdant used to make, but this one is very similar and might be a needed addition to my tea stock! It has just enough spice and kick, but not too much to make you not want to drink it.

Enjoying this one again this morning as the wind whips around outside. Perfect way to warm up and kick off the rest of my day. A nice blend of maple and taffy that now makes me wish I’d made waffles or pancakes this morning!

Of all the green teas I’ve tried there are a few I actually do enjoy. Gunpowder is one of them. I happened to take a quick inventory before we hit up the Whistling Kettle yesterday and noticed I didn’t have any (I sometimes make up my own Moroccan Mint tea). So I made a note to ask our server about their Gunpowder tea and they only had this one, but she assured me it was good.

Side note…the folks at WK won’t try to sell you something they won’t try themselves. I love that about them! So I picked up a bag of it. I steeped it for two maybe two and a half minutes and wow, very silky and very smooth! I’ve had a gunpowder or two that have been super bitter (even when times right), but this just might be green tea perfection (well next to my favorite green from Verdant – Jinshan). I suspect this will go fast and I will have to pick up more very soon. Oh darn!

Drank this at The Whistling Kettle this afternoon with lunch and fell in love. I tried it without cream and sugar to start. But this tea was WAY better with a little cream and rock sugar. The maple and taffy flavors just popped with the additions. I walked out of there with 4oz. :)

This was also my tea of the evening to enjoy while watching the season finale of Downton Abbey. I won’t say more about the episode. But I will say I enjoyed sipping this through the first hour.

I headed to The Whistling Kettle this afternoon for lunch with some friends and well I can never leave there without picking up a few new to me teas. This was one of them. I was looking for a nice light black tea for the afternoon and I think I found one. There are others, but this is really nice and light. In fact I may brew a pot for the Downton finale tonight!

This one was pretty yummy. Read all about it here: http://thepurrfectcup.com/2013/02/02/mothers-daughters-and-tea-a-best-international-tea-tea-review/

My sweet friend’s picked this one up for me on their way home from celebrating their first anniversary. I like it, light and crisp for a black tea. The decaf is nice after a long stressful day or in this case to ease into a nice day off from work. The peach flavor is really yummy and I’m not usually a peach fan. But it’s very fruity and juicy in a way almost like the black tea isn’t there at all. Def. a keeper!

Trying some of this sample this morning as I’m feeling poorly. Went to bed feeling so/so. Woke up with a fever and feeling like an elephant is sitting on my chest. So I wanted something strong. This is quite good. malty with a hint of spice. I like it. I’m sure I’ll like it more when I’m feeling better. Today is all about tea, couch, and past seasons of Downton Abbey.

I forgot I had this sample until I went digging into my sample box this afternoon. I can really taste the mango and spice, but very little cream. But I’m really ok with that. This makes for a really yummy afternoon caffeine free cup of tea. It might even bring on an afternoon nap if I’m lucky.

Celebrating the birth of Sherlock Holmes with this tea at the moment. It has turned into one of my go to teas and I will not go without it in the house. :)

I love the smoke flavor and smell. But I still love that the Darjeeling and Keemun balance out the smoke of the Lapsang into a really enjoyable cup. You can read a little of my “sort of” birthday tale here: http://thepurrfectcup.com/2013/01/06/taking-tea-with-11-sort-of/

Tried this with my meal at The Whistling Kettle this afternoon. Yummy! It was sweet, but not too sweet and the graham cracker added a nice flavor to the tea. I found that a little rock suger and cream went a long way to making this tea even more tasty! Might have taken some home with me.

Not a fan of green teas usually. But I had a sip of this while at The Whistling Kettle today and ended up going home with a to go cup and 4oz of this tea. It has a really nice flowery/sweet taste to it. Hot it was interesting…but iced it jumps to amazing. All the flavors of this tea come out to play, green and white teas, rose petals, mallow…everything just works and works well with this tea!

This is actually take two. I let the first cup steep oh…20 minutes over! Never sit down to mess with your websites look/feel when you have tea steeping!

Anyway this is a new one for me from Upton. As I’m really trying to find my “must haves” to keep in my cupboard year round and only add seasonal teas to the mix here and there. Based on dry leaf smell alone this could be a keeper! Very strong and almost stout-like. Which has to be the Assam talking. I was a little concerned this would be too strong. (I’m trying to ease into the morning)

The steeped tea still smells stout-like, with a hint of malt and honey. The taste is rich and robust. I’m really enjoying this one.

I have to thank ashmanra for getting me hooked on this tea! This is my go to afternoon tea. It also happens to be my go to tea to sip wile I’m writing. I took today off to write my little heart out. Which worked to a point. But then the dread pirate writers block hit and hasn’t really let go. Sure it let up to allow me to write this…but that’s about it!

As for the tea…I LOVE the smoke! So yummy. Also so glad I ordered more (and it arrived today). Really nice to refill my tin! If your looking for a tea with smokey tones, but not a full on Lapsang this is the stuff!

This isn’t the best cup of tea I’ve had, but it certainly isn’t the worst. I like it, don’t get me wrong and it was one of the cheaper blends Upton offers. So I thought I’d give it a go. There just isn’t anything that stands out for me. Heck I can’t even get a distinct scent from the cup. But as I said I like it. So there’s that. I might try it iced a little later see if that helps.

I have to tell you sometimes I am more excited about the samples I’m getting from Verdant than the tea I actually ordered. I say this because ever time I’ve ordered the samples have been spot on to my taste in tea even if they were way off base from what I ordered!

This time around this tea was included with my order of Golden Fleece. Is it as good as Golden Fleece? Not in my opinion, but it’s up there on my list of top favorites from Verdant.The dry leaf hints at malt and chocolate for me. I have to tell ya, I am a sucker for a malty tea. Always have, always will be. As it steeps there’s still that malty smell with a slight hint of honey. Mmmm honey.

The taste? Again the malty flavor is right there in my face but I do get some passing tastes of chocolate and honey. This gets an a in my book. A sample size of it MAY have also fallen into my cart too. I like it, but it isn’t a tea I have to have in the house all the time. At least not in large quantities.

Many thanks tattooed_tea for this 6th Day of many Christmas teas. I’m waiting on my husband to wrap up the last of his gifts and then head off to celebrations two of many between now and tomorrow. :) All I have to say about this tea is IT’S BACON! Yummy bacon! Like KeenTeaThyme mentioned it has it all minus the crunch. But for me it doesn’t take away from the awesome flavor or experience of this tea. Thank you again for including it in the batch of teas!

On the 11th day of Christmas I give many thanks to Sil for sending us this particular tea. Well, here we are Christmas Eve and I’m still waiting on packages to arrive (before the hubbins gets home) to wrap. But Amazon assures me they will arrive today…fingers crossed! So I got up when I normally would for work knowing I had wrapping and cooking in my future.

We’re going to my hubbins “Aunt’s” house for dinner and she never has anything gluten free for me to eat. So I made up a cup of this tea (in a new hot pink mug from our friend’s daughter) and then I got down to making some gluten free turkey meatballs and sauce. (Which smell/taste awesome.) This tea had a nice smokey kick to it…this must have been the tea I was smelling when I thought it was Day 9! Oddly enough I also enjoy a good single malt whisky and this is just wow. I see where the comparison comes in!

Sorry this review is all over the map…I think I’ve had too much of this tea this morning! :)