The Purrfect Cup

Backlogging from this morning: Had this today because it was the only option at the place I met a friend for breakfast. Thankfully the conversation was good so I didn’t notice how rotten the tea was. Still nothing to really write home about with this one.

It has been an oolong kind of day for me. I was glad I left this one at the shop last week. Considering I forgot the Milk Oolong I picked up from thepuriteas…ooopsie. Anyway, this one has a very buttery, creamy taste to it that I really love. It is so smooth and well smooth. I love it, but it will be interesting to see how it stacks up against thepuritea’s milk oolong.

After reading LiberTEAS review I knew this had to be on my next Teas, Etc order. I’m so glad I did. The dry leaves, figs, etc smelled super sweet when I opened the package, so I was a little worried it would be too sweet. I was so wrong! The mix was just right! I am enjoying a dark, rich flavored oolong. The fig is there loud and clear, the cornflower and poppy add a nice sweetness so no additional sweetener was needed which was nice too. i usually prefer my oolongs straight, but this is a nice change from the usual.

My tea arrived from thepuriTea yesterday, but I wasn’t able to try any until today! It smelled so good when I opened the packaging, very nutty! I used my new travel tumbler from thepuriTeas to make this tea too. I loved watching the leaves open up and the water turn to a really nice russet color. I was also happy to get the great toasty flavor when drinking this too. I only got the sample package size this time around, but it may have to go on my tea want list very soon!

My sample came today. So naturally I had to try it out. I wasn’t impressed with the packaging only because I had to find something to keep it in. I wish they had a zip locked sample bag. But that was a small problem. On to the tea. When I opened the package it smelled very sweet which I loved. I loved seeing huge fruit pieces and even a whole star anise in my sample! Seeing what you are about to steep is always awesome in my book – sometimes you just can’t tell.

The taste is an interesting mix of tart and sweet that works for this tea. I also get some vanilla undertones on the finish. This adds an interesting mix to the flavor, but not a bad one at all. My husband thought it smelled like a really sweet bubble gum flavor and I can taste a hint of that. But like I said, not bad. I think this would be neat to try iced with a splash of ginger ale. I could be horribly wrong, but I’m going to try it anyway!

Thanks to Jenn for sending this to me as a part of a super sweet get well tea package! I’m still trying to find an earl grey I like and this might be it…even if it isn’t really an earl grey. All the flavors play really nice with one another. The citrus isn’t overpowering at all. In fact I don’t notice it until the end. I might have to order some of this…this is not a good sign for my wallet Jenn. ;)

I really like this one. I made it hot and am not finding it very tart at all. The words ‘just right’ come to mind with this one. The other good news is I find that I don’t even taste the hibiscus, just the pomegranate! As we all know hibiscus can often overpower the tea, but this one isn’t doing that. This is a nice refreshing cup…relaxing me while I wait on the butter for the cookie dough to thaw a little more. sigh

I bought this one because it sounded good when I was looking through the mini tins up for grabs. (They are super cute) I apparently forgot it had pu’erh and black tea in it. I wasn’t really planning on sleep tonight at it is. Too much baking to do that we haven’t started yet. So no worries about the caffeine levels. On to the tea.All I can smell is the cinnamon. Reminds me of Hot Cinnamon from Harney and Sons. But the taste is far from it. I really like this one. It is very rich in flavor and the cinnamon is hardly there, I get a little of the orange flavor on the end but the taste is almost malty. Which I love. My nose is still a little stuffed so I do plan to try again when everything is clear (and up the rating too). So far so good.

Backlogging from this am – I’m finally getting my sense of taste back so I opted to go with this favorite. My husband said I should have just drank Lipton the last week. He’s currently asleep on the couch, I might wake him when I go to bed. ;)

I’ve always been able to taste this tea no matter how stuffed up my nose has been. So I knew I was good here. But I kept hearing people say they tasted a chocolate flavor to the tea…I never did until today! Thank you grossness for allowing me to taste this little slice of yum in a tea I’ve had for a while. It may be an oldie, but it is still a goodie. PLUS I got close to 5 steeps out of it. I might have it again tomorrow morning. :)

I’ve been down with some cold/flu hybrid all week. So I asked my husband to pick something (when he asked if he could make me tea). If I had known he was going to pick on of these from Teavivre I would have stopped him right away. As a result I won’t rate it just yet. But I will say this even with my nose stuffed up I can smell the caramel in this tea. I can almost taste it too. It’s very good and that with a stuffy nose. Which means it should be even better when I can smell again!

Backlogging: I received this a few weeks back when I ordered some heat sealed bags from The NecessiTeas. Sadly it ended up in my box of samples. This is the box I try to pick at least two samples from a day. Well, I finally grabbed this one last week. I have to say the dry leaves smelled awesome! Just like maple covered waffles. The hot tea was equally awesome. So much so that my non tea drinking neighbor next door tried to snag my cup when I stopped over to visit her at lunch! There was a nice mix of the blackberry, maple, and waffle flavors and they all worked really well with one another. No one flavor was stealing the show. I might have to order this one in the future.

Another huge thank you to Teavivre for this sample. I’ve already ordered more, that’s how good this was. When I opened the inside packaging (I love the way they package their tea) I really like how malty yet sweet this tea smelled. The color of the leaves was really pretty too. It smelled sweet as it was steeping too. Almost like it had been infused with honey.

I love the hint of malty flavor (almost like an Assam, yet different) I’m getting while I sip this. Again there is also a little sweetness to this tea too (I didn’t add anything – it doesn’t need it). This is my second cup with fresh leaves (someone threw out my first batch :cough: husband :cough:. So I hope this one re-steeps as well as some have noted. I can’t wait to get my order. This is one I have to have in my tea cabinet!

I received this after being contact by a lovely woman from Teavivre. Sadly it had been sitting at the post office for over a week before anyone got around to deliver it. (Thankfully my postman rocks and signed for it himself and left it at our place)

Anyway, when I opened the package I smelled the jasmine instantly. I’m not usually a huge jasmine fan, but I was willing to give this a try. I’m very glad I did. This was very yummy. It has a very sweet and crisp taste to it. I can’t wait to try the others as this was a good start to the samples that were sent.

Made this up for my mom and I yesterday and we both enjoyed it. She really enjoys black tea and I thought this would be a nice way to mix up the gasp bagged black tea she usually drinks and to share a cup. Something she and I have never done! There’s a nice touch of spice to this chai. But it isn’t overpowering which I haven’t enjoyed with some other chai I’ve tried. We added a little milk and sugar to the chai and that seemed to bring out the spice a little more and added to the overall yummy flavor of the tea. I’m glad I picked this up on a whim the other day.

I thought this would be one of my favorites. Not so much. :( I’m not sure what it is I’m tasting, but is certainly isn’t anything close to honey (it smells like honey at least). I had hoped it would be sweet but instead it is turning out pretty bitter. Oh well – sip and learn.

This was ok. Granted I had a headache to beat the band yesterday afternoon. So nothing was tasting right. I will say it did help my headache a little, but not enough for me to keep drinking it. I probably should have tried this one iced instead of hot. I might be willing to order this one to give it a better go.

I received my sample from Tea Forte Saturday. I finally got around to trying it at work yesterday. When I opened the package my mouth began to water. The bagged tea smelled really good! Even my boss wanted to try it and she is NOT a tea drinker….coffee only (note this is the Flower Shop where I work, not the tea shop). I sadly got more apple and cinnamon in this than I did chocolate. Which bummed me out a little. But it was still a yummy tea. I was also hoping these would be the loose leaf teas like the last sample, rather than just bagged. Still good and easy on the go.

I received this with my most recent order from Adagio (last week). I kept forgetting it at work. This worked in my favor this morning as I wanted something different and not something we had in the shop. First off i wish there was some kind of a string on the pyramid bag (didn’t have anything to fish the bag out with at work…fingers were not a good idea).

Dry the tea smells of apples and caramel. The scent of both gets stronger as the tea steeped too. So I was excited…this was going to be good! Well, until it wasn’t. Instead I’m getting a strange mix of the apple, cinnamon (didn’t get that until I tasted the tea) and caramel. It isn’t bad, but it isn’t good either. I think what it needs is a tad more apple and caramel flavoring and less cinnamon. Bummer.

One of my friends stopped over at lunch time as I was making up a pot of this. She swore this smelled like another HT Paris (I had bought her a tin of Paris when I visited the factory/shop). It does smell a bit like Paris, I think she was smelling the bergamot – which is in both teas. There is a very different taste to it. To me this is much lighter flavor than Paris. I love the hint of bergamot, the honey is def. the dominant flavor in this flavored black – yum!! (Glad I grabbed this one by mistake when I left the house!)

My friend did agree that this was not Paris, but she prefers it to Tower of London…More for me! :)

This is a nice mix of tart and sweet perfect for this first real Fall day in Upstate, NY. The cranberry and orange flavors as I said mix well with the Ceylon black tea base. It also goes down super smooth. So much so I need to make a fresh cup! I hate when I drink tea that fast…need to slow down as I only have a little left. I’m also really wishing I had a cranberry or orange scone to go with this.

This is pretty yummy. The smell of the steeped leaves reminds me more of a milk oolong. I’m also getting a pretty veggie vibe as I inhale the aroma from my cup. It tastes almost buttery if that’s even possible. It goes down very smooth too and I must say I like that. I’ll be sad when this sample is gone. Which at this rate will be in less than an hour. :)

So I had this again tonight with one of my close friends after dinner while the men folk (her fiance and my husband) were still enjoying the wine. She loved the aroma of the tea and said it reminded her a little of the mate’s she’s purchased at Teavana, but she likes this because it’s caffeine free (no jitters).

We finished a large pot between us. This time I also noticed the coffee tones this tea leaves on the tongue. The caramel flavoring was a little more prominent in the cup too. Perfect compliment to our dinner and conversation!

This is one of a few teas I recently ordered from Teas, Etc. I really wanted something in the house that served as a great dessert tea. In fact I’m bringing it to a friends to enjoy after dinner this evening so I thought I should try it before I brought it by. :)

The dry leaf smells of caramel and something else that I can’t put my finger on. After pouring the water over the leaves to begin the steeping process it smells like I’m in a coffee house waiting for a real deal highly caffeinated caramel macchiato. I love it! I’m also getting a lot and I do mean A LOT more caramel as the tea steeps too. The taste is mighty awesome too. A nice blend of the rooibos/honeybush and caramel. This would probably be amazing with some vanilla ice cream.

Enjoyed a sample of this one in the Harney and Sons tasting room this afternoon. It smelled very strong of the black current – which I loved! It tasted amazing a nice mix of the black currant flavoring and whatever black tea was used (I wish they would say) and very smooth. I really enjoyed it and wish I had more of a tasting, so I bought a tin to take home!