Gal In The Grey Hat

Ok being a huge Firefly fan I HAD to order this tea! Shiny! Besides the idea of adding chocolate to Genmaicha really got my curiosity going.

This is an interesting one…dry leaf smells like toast and chocolate. While the steeped tea smells more like traditional Genmaicha with a slight hint of chocolate. The taste? A weird blend of chocolate and toasted rice. Not my favorite two things together, but it isn’t my least favorite either. Different is the best way to put it and I do like it. Way to go Frank!

Thank you Alphakitty for this yummy blend! I can taste the lavender and rose in this blend as well as hints of the cream on the finish of this tea. The funny thing is for the longest time I thought this package would contain a Lapsang. At least that’s what the package smelled like (I didn’t open…just sniffed the wrapping paper). So this delicate EG was a super nice surprise! And I LOVE the added Toffee which goes REALLY well with the tea. I might need the recipe! Ok no might I do if you are willing to share!

Mmm maple! Thank you Liberteas for this 3rd tea for the third day of Christmas! I’m really craving pancakes after trying this tea…seriously I want to pour it on my pancakes it tastes so yummy. I’m just going to go have a moment with my tea over there for a moment…

This tea comes across as pretty mellow for me. I like it and the floral notes add a bit of awesome to the mix too. It’s so funny that it looks like a black tea, but smells more like a green/herbal mix. Def. different! Many thanks LiberTEAS for this 2 of 3 teas on the 3rd Day of Christmas. Yes I know I’m behind. But I was out of town and away from proper brewing tools!

Many thanks to LiberTEAS for including this as one of her Day 3 teas! This was so sweet and creamy and well sweet and creamy! I love a good vanilla flavored tea and this was just great. I’ll be adding it to the tea want list. Yum! Can’t wait until I get home to try the other two. :)

Many thanks to Azzrian for this! I’m not a huge flavored matcha fan. But this is something special! It smells and tastes just like Strawberries and Champagne! But with a rich creamy flavor to it. Yum! I wrote more on the blog (link below). I also want another cup, but seeing as it is now almost 10pm I think I’ll pass…

http://thepurrfectcup.com/2012/12/15/on-the-1st-and-2nd-days-of-christmas-a-steepster-swap-part-1-and-2/

I had fully intended to try this yesterday on the first day. But my tummy had other plans. BUT today is a new day and I get the added bonus of trying two days!! :) First off thanks to LiberTEAS for getting this swap together!

Now on to the tea! Autumn Hearth has done a beautiful job on this blend! WOW!! There is so much in this tea I just want to poke through it. But I know i need to make my cup and enjoy this as I have a feeling I wil!

As others have said this tea smells so unique! It really is like nothing I’ve ever tried before and I love that! I really am enjoying the elderberry as that, the jasmine and sheng are currently stealing the show as I sip. But as my cup goes on each of the other ingredients comes out to play and they play so well with one another! So well in fact that I might have just downed the whole cup!

I will be so sad to see this one go (yes only after one cup)! I would def. keep this stocked in my house for the winter!

I really wanted a glass of wine tonight. But then looked at the time…so wine tea it is! This one smelled amazing when I opened the container. There were also HUGE chunks of papaya and I may have eaten one (delish!). This one smelled and even tastes fruity to me and I don’t really recall ever getting that from a Chardonnay.

The papaya really brings a great flavor to this tea, but not too sweet as to mask the taste of the oolong. Which I think is equally good. The vanilla bean, cinnamon, and other flavors come in to play for me on the finishing. I think all together the flavors make for a nice smooth cup and I’m really enjoying every last sip of it!

First tea of the day. Now that the cold weather is here to stay I find I’m drinking way more tea each day. I’ve got a slight headache this morning so I wanted one with a good amount of caffeine. This one fits the bill nicely. I believe the US blend has five different types of tea, while the Australian version has seven!

There are teas from Sri Lanka, China and India in this monster cup! I smell at least two teas while drinking this one, I’m not sure if they are the right two teas…but I’m smelling Ceylon and something malty…Assam maybe? However the taste is def. that of a Darjeeling and perhaps Keemun? There’s just so much going on in this cup and whatever it is certainly works well with one another. I’m glad I noticed I had this in the cabinet. Perfect start to my Sunday.

This was one of the teas I sampled at a tea tasting last night. I have to say wow! The flavors in the tea really brought out the yummy flavors of my turkey, brie, and cranberry sandwich! This bergamot seemed more berry and less citrus…if that is even possible!

There is a lovely fruity taste on the finish. Really a winner in my book and everyone at the table. We each left with a bag! :)

Not typically a green tea fan so I figured I’d bite the bullet and try this one out next. The dry leaf smells a lot like grapefruit which is interesting and made me even a little more nervous to see how that flavor might translate into the taste of the tea. However, as the tea steeps it smells more and more like apple! I’m getting excited. I am a white wine fan…I prefer the sweeter whites. So far this smells pretty sweet…

The taste is crisp and tart with a hint of sweet. I’m really getting the grapefruit flavor again and it isn’t bad at all. I also get a little bit of grape too. It isn’t bad, but I don’t think this one is for me. I think I should stick to straight green teas.

It smells like yummy chocolate and caramel as it steeps…but does it taste like it?

Not really, nearly there, but no. I get hints of chocolate with each sip, but no caramel. I thought this sounded like a yummy mix that would knock my socks off. Sadly it seems to just be “meh”. I might try blending it with some of their cream or hazelnut tea and see what I come up with.

Enjoying this one on my day off…the day after a very awesome Whovian event at Enchanté Whole Leaf Teas! Yours truly wore a Capt. Jack outfit (ok it was a skirt w/suspenders, but it was awesome). More to come with that on the blog later this morning.

I picked this up last night as it was one of the teas on the limited menu for the day. Owner, Gladys had the awesome idea to offer vanilla coffee (yeah I know…) creamer with this tea which I have to admit made it even more amazing. I’m enjoying the warm spicy goodness as I get to work on my blog about the shop and the event. When in Troy I suggest stopping in. :)

Now I’ve never been a huge red wine fan. My tastes run to the sweeter side of things. So I wasn’t super sure how I would feel about this one. But I got up very late this morning (after being out super late last night). I figured this would be a bit of a hair of the dog after all the wines last night. I was correct.

My first reaction after opening the container this tea arrived in was holy grapes! Yet I saw no grapes. What I did see were beautiful blue malva petals and some lovely black tea. So I set the kettle and waited and enjoyed the grape smell as I waited. This scent amplified as I poured the water over the leaves. It really began to smell like Merlot! While I let it steep I tossed a chocolate muffin top in the toaster oven because a) I was hungry and b) hello red wine + chocolate tends to = awesome. I was not mistaken!

This tea was smooth, yet slightly tart and full of flavor. I must admit the currant and licorice (not a licorice fan usually) played very well together. Everything worked well together…so well that my muffin top is gone and I need a refill on my tea!

Many thanks to Brandon of Vintage TeaWorks for the sample. We had an amazing chili tonight (using a lot of the leftover turkey – thankfully) and I was well, stuffed. I didn’t realize it was pushing 8pm until my husband asked why I was making a black tea so late. He has been taught well. So I opted to try this one out instead.

The dry leaf smells a bit like wine and of course rooibos. But with a hint of something more. So I waited for the water to boil and the tea to steep and as it did boy did the Pinot Noir flavors come out to play! I’m not normally a fan of reds…but if all reds tasted like this…well I might be sold. There is a hint of sweet to this (which I think is the rooibos, but I also taste fruity notes too), with undertones of tart with a little bite! I like it.

I think this would make a great Sangria! A really nice sipping tea. Look for more on the blog by Tuesday…I’ve got more to try!

So I tried this last night while I was working on ideas for a Doctor Who party we’re throwing this weekend with friends. I thought this tea would be a perfect match to my planning. I have to say the thyme was STRONG in this one. WOW! It also took over the cup of tea as I was drinking it. Which kind of put me off. BUT I did like the keemun I could taste a hint of under all the thyme. I’d still try this one again…it was a sample so perhaps I needed to shake it up a little more?

I picked this up at the local co-op on the way home tonight with a few other things. I was only in there for the acidophilus (fancy live culture stuff to help with the Lyme). Then my husband came in and said “let’s look around”. Well that turned into a 40+ dollar trip. BUT we did find they have a large gluten free section and yummy teas (loose and boxed).

I recalled at World Tea East speaking with two lovely ladies from Ajiri Teas and them mentioning our local co-op sold their teas. So I asked to cut some time and three employees/owners showed me the way. It is a VERY popular tea there. :) I’d had it a year ago and enjoyed it so I picked up a box of the bagged tea.

I love the hand painted designs on the box. When I got home I loved that there were hand tied beads holding the inner bag closed. Very cool! Now on to the taste. To me it tastes rather mild like a few straight up Ceylons I’ve had. I notice also a hint of malty goodness to the tea too. I like it. Might need to add this to the must have list.

I already had my little wake up call (literally) this morning. Long story short I have Lyme Disease…not to worry first dose of meds is already on board. Anyway it was early when I got the call this morning and I wasn’t fully awake. So I dug this out of the box from the order that arrived yesterday. The lemon smell started to give me a little bit of a wake-up. But let me tell you the tea was something else. Zesty, creamy, def an easy push into my day and has kept me going without all the nasty coffee jitters! :)

Wow! (This is saying a lot as I am still not sold on green teas). Many thanks to Stacy for sending me some of this one. It smells very toasty and vegital dry. Steeped this tea is…juicy, an odd word, but it happened to be the first to come to mind. I’m also getting more toasted notes and spinach too.

As I continue to sip (trying not to gulp it down) I get a little hint of butter and maybe, some sweet pea too! I’m really getting the feeling of drinking my veggies and enjoying it too. I see this as a Christmas gift request…if I can hold off that long!

I got a super nice surprise with my recent order this tea! Funny story I’ve tried this tea before with Stacy at World Tea East! So happy to see she liked it enough to carry it! I’m really getting the scent of brown rice with this tea (yum)! Even dry it did not smell as earthy as puerh’s tend to smell. It does have a hint of an earthy taste to it. But again I’m getting notes of brown rice and a little bit of a nutty flavor to this one.

I really enjoy that it reminds me of coffee without having to drink coffee! This one is super smooth and I’m noticing a little hint of sweet on the finish. I think this one is going in the must have collection! Thanks again Stacy!!

Once again so happy I placed an order with Stacy! I ordered my tea on maybe Saturday or Sunday and they arrived today. Which I consider pretty awesome considering NJ was pretty hard hit last week and this week from Sandy and a snow storm!

So the tea…dry leaf smells like rye bread? Yeah weird I know, but still so good! (I can’t eat regular bread stupid gluten) I’m also getting an oaky smell here too. The tea once ready to drink smells amazing with hints of citrus and clove. As I’m drinking it there is a bit of cinnamon that I get on the finish. This is so yummy after a very long and busy week at work!

This tea was included with a recent order. Recent meaning weeks ago. What can I say white teas make me nervous. We tend to have a love hate relationship. I love them, they hate me. So I put off trying this one until today. I was checking out the top teas on Steepster and saw that this was one of them. Then I recalled I had a sample of it. One thing lead to another and now I’m sitting down to enjoy a cup.

The dry leaf smelled pretty sweet. As the tea steeped the creamy sweet smell started coming out of my cup. Even my husband Mr. Tea Is Flavored Water came over to take a sniff! The taste is very light, almost a buttery cream flavor. There is a slight sweet taste of cantaloupe too! I love that when one of Butiki Teas promises a flavor they deliver every time! I may have to order some of this in the future!!

I keep coming back to this one since it arrived on Friday. The more I drink it the more I like it. I did notice I had to shake it up a bit in order to get a nice mix of rooibos and oolong. This cup seems spot on perfect to me. Bold yet calming, spicy and sweet. Yum, a nice cup to enjoy on a chilly fall afternoon.

Starting my Sunday off with a nice big pot of this. As much as I want to get out of the house after being sick all week I would really love to stay home all the time. It was nice. But I am going a little stir crazy. That and I think I may have watched everything Netflix had to offer on instant play!

Right the tea! My sense of smell is still a little shot…so the dry leaf smelled like nothing at all. But as the tea steeped? It certainly smelled like honey and very sweet. Which I didn’t notice the first time I had this tea. It smells SO good. I brewed this up in a glass tea pot so I really got to see the great copper/fall liquid of this tea. The taste is slightly sweet and very malty. Now back to the laundry and NaNoWriMo already in progress. :)