Ze_Teamaker

Story: Well today has been a bust. I woke up to my dog being sick. We think he might have ingested something, but don’t know what. He was breathing hard and wouldn’t eat, and would barely drink. Someone told my mom to give him a pinch of Pepto and to give him lean boiled hamburger meat. Of course when I get back from the store he comes out and eats food out of his bowl………. at least he is better now. sigh this is so not how I planned my day to go. What a waste.

Tea: Backlogging from a few days ago with this one. I am slowly getting through my samples……. slowly. I brewed this with the gonfu directions on Verdant’s website; though sadly I forgot to do a second rinse. Here are my random thoughts from each steep.

Steep 1: Must and spice, sorta of malty. Still need to understand linen flavor but I think it taste it. I am getting some Caramel now.

Steep 2: More sweeter. slight menthol on the tongue. sweetness yes. omn nom.

Steep 3: More cakey now. A slight spice coming through. tasty. minty menthol after taste

Steep 4: Sorta of cinnamon and heavy linen and semolina

Steep 5: Stronger cinnamon. Not so much a flavor as more of that dry spice tingle I associate with cinnamon.

Steep 6: More savory taste and some minty after taste.

Steep 7: Caramel like savory and sweet with a smidge of mint and cinnamoness

Steep 8: Crisper less savory and more cinnamon taste. very sweet is back. Semolina again maybe. Also still cinnamon. Pine dew maybe.

Steep 9: CINNAMON LEVEL AT 8000!!!!! lots of salty caramel and a hint of pine dew…..yum!

Steep 10: lots of pine dew. some cinnamon after taste. Also savory, but lots of pine dew in the beginning sip.
Cooled: more savory caramel and cinnamon

I then did a couple of western brews, but I didn’t like them as much. They were very strong of burnt caramel, but that was it. I liked how through the steeps it got less caky/malty and turned into salted caramel cinnamon, but with a bit of woodiness and menthol to keep it from getting to bold. I never could get the nuggets to break apart.

Overall it was very good. I wouldn’t call it uber complex, but it was what a would call upper middle shelf. Very good flavors from beginning to the end of the sip. It would be good for someone who doesn’t like earthy Puerh’s.

I made a full review on how to make this tea along with another tune sharing as well. I also made a facebook page as well check them all out!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tunes.N.Tea

Tea: http://tunesntea.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/tea-triple-c-tea/

Tune: http://tunesntea.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/tune-ten-long-years/

100th note!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (You can never have enough exclamation points)

This is the tea that I made for my mom custom for mothers day. She loves raspberries so I started off with that as the base (it’s decaf so she can drink it after work. Then I added chamomile to help her relax and then honeybush vanilla to add a smoothness to it. When I got it in the pack it smelled really good. It had a nice light fruity smell with vanilla and chamomile. The brew smells good as well.

The taste is pretty good. The only problem I have with it is that it doesn’t have a lot of raspberry flavor. It is kinda there, but it isn’t the fresh tart flavor I was looking for, but the more sweet candy kind. The chamomile and vanilla seem to dominate, and has a floral undertone.

While I like it I want it to have a little bit more of a tart edge. I think next time I am going to brew it longer, since it seems adagio’s decaf teas don’t turn as bitter as there normal teas. That might bring out more raspberry flavor. If that doesn’t work I might take out one of the raspberry leaves and put in hibiscus instead to add tartness.

Do any of you guys have any suggestions?

P.S. My mom did like it a lot though so, YAY!

Specifics

Pot: Porcelain
Water: 8oz per steep
Leaf: 2 tsp (5 grams)
Steep Time: 2:45 minuets; 3:00 minuets
Sweetener: a good small spoon full per 8 oz

Combined two steepings in one cup.

FIRST NOTE WOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Ok when I saw this tea I had to grab it. I love Franks banana flavor and it has coconut? YESTH!!!

Ok the dry leaf smells exactly like banana pudding. It’s a really strong sent too. Very sweet and creamy, with a lot a banana and a hint of coconut. The brew smells just as good as well.

Ok one thing I have noticed is that Franks banana flavor doesn’t come out when it is hot. I mostly tasted sweet black tea. But hey, you eat banana pudding cold right? So after I put a nice bit of lite agave nectar in my cup and left it in the freezer to get cold……. it was perfect. Supper sweet and pudding like. I loved the hints of coconut as well. The black tea base is good as well with a nice light malty flavor and little astringency. I bet this would do great as a late’.

Overall it is a very good tea and definitely taste like banana pudding. The only down side is that it isn’t as good warm, but that is fine with me.idea pops in head I SHOULD EAT VANILLA WAFERS WITH THIS!!!!

Specifics

Pot: Porcelain
Water: 8oz per steep
Leaf: 1.5 tsp (5 grams)
Steep Time: 2:45 minuets; 3:00 minuets
Sweetener: a good small spoon full per 8 oz

Combined two steepings in one cup.

When I was going through my stuff from when we put in new carpet and tile (which I still need to sort) I found the box that I put KallieBoo! samples that she sent me a while back. Which was awesome.

Sadly When i put the tea samples in the box, for whatever dumb reason I didn’t take into account that the box has a supper strong musty smell. I mean REALLY STRONG! ARgu, why I put them in there I don’t know.

Anyways when I went to brew the tea it tasted decent enough. Green tea with a nice touch of mint and a hint of cocoa. Then a super strong taste of old must. damn………….

Tea lament: I swear I am becoming a tea hoarder. I ordered some more 52 teas, even though I still have a lot of samples of other teas left to go threw. Sigh at least when I am out of school I will have more time to drink and log in tea.

I have had this tea for a while and been waiting to rate it, since I have been messing around with it. But I have figured out weather or not I like this tea….. I do.

Ok the first time I smelled the dry leaf it wasn’t the best thing. It smelled like chocolate liquor, but in a meh way. However, when I bought the tea Frank had just made it and he also mention to other people talking about the smell that he might not have let them air out as long as they should have, and that it would disparate over time. Needless to say he was right. When I went to smell my tea today it was great. It smelled so toasty, gooey sweet and chocolaty. YUM!

The taste is pretty good. You got the gooey sweet from the marshmallow, a lot of chocolate flavor, and a toasty butteryness coming from the genmaicha. However, there was one flavor I wasn’t getting that is part of a s’more…… gram cracker. Luckily I figured out that if I put a small (very small) piece of cinnamon stick in my tea pot it helped add that cinnamon gram cracker flavor that it was missing. I do kinda wish it had more lapsang souchoung so it could be a bit more smoky though. Then again I am the kind of person that either roast there marshmallow to perfection OR get it on fire and let it burn a nice crispy shell around it. Hmmm burnt sugar…..

Overall S’mores Genmaicha is a very tasty tea. If you are looking for a good sweetly flavored Genmaicha or something a bit different to try, pick this one up.

You can read more at my blog here:
http://tunesntea.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/tea-smores-genmaicha/

So I ordered this along with a few others the when they were re-blended; I also don’t know why I put my tea spending on hold, since I never listen to myself.

Ok, I don’t know if the new vegan flavors Frank is to blame, but lately it seems a lot of his new tea’s have this weird sanitized alcohol liquor smell. All though people have mentioned that when a blend is re-made quickly they get that smell due to not being aired out long enough or settling first. It does smell gooey sweet though, like cake flavored vodka.

The overall taste though was good! Very buttery. Maybe unami quality to it, but more sweet.

Feeling lazy so not going to go into much detail (I think there are enough tasting notes though.) I am going to compare this one to the smores one and see how that goes.

Specifics

Pot: Porcelain
Leaf: 1.5 tsp
Water 8oz
Steeps: 2 combined (16oz cup)
Sweetner: 2 spoonfuls of light agave.

I bought this tea on a whim one day during a sale……Glad I did.

The dry leaf smells really crisp bergamot with the fruity berry smell of currants. Wet leaf smells just the same but with the wet leaf of the tea coming threw as well. I had heard from other people on steepster that this blend was a bit strong, being white tea with bergamot and all. So I decided to brew three steeps together and combine them. It turned out perfect! The bergamot was at perfect level and gave a nice crisp menthol like citrus flavor which was backed up and broadened by the black current flavor. The tea was able to poke out through the flavors as well, adding to the crisp sweetness of the fruits. It doesn’t even need sweetener either. It taste pretty good iced too; flavors are a bit stronger and it leaves this cooling sensation in your mouth.

Overall it is a very good tea. I actually went a head and bought another pouch. I recommend this tea to anyone who likes strong bergamot tea, but wants something other then a black tea base.

Brewing Specifics

leaf: 2tsp
Pot: Glass
Water: 8oz
Temp: 185F
Steep: 1 minuets; 2 minuets; 2:20 minuets.

This is the 2nd time I have tried my free sample from DT. The first time I was dumb and fallowed the instructions on the pack…… never again.

Ok the dry leaf of this smells EXACTLY like Jelly Belly beans green apple with a hint of carmal. The wet brew smells similar as well. I have to say though, I am not digging this tea. The little bit of the tea base that pops through is ok, but I get this astringency from it; though I didn’t brew it in a glass tea pot and stuff. The flavor unsweeten is ok. It has a weird sour note, and just taste fakey though due to the artificial flavoring. Usually I am not too sensitive to artificial stuff but it seems in my tea I notice it more; seems black tea’s pull them off better. The flavor just isn’t working. When I added a spot of sweetener it helped pull the flavor together better, but it was still meh.

I kinda wonder why they used artificial flavoring for apple. I mean white and green teas can already taste crisp and sweet. If they just kept the dehydrated apple pieces and used natural flavoring it would taste more like a real apple.

Overall I don’t like this tea. It just taste fakey and ick. I am not rating due to the lack of water temp measuring and playing around with it, but if I was going to rate it I would give it a 50 or lower

No notes yet.

Ok so after a lot of messing around with this tea I think I can rate it. When I first saw this I was pretty much like, “PINAPPLE AND BACON!!!! YESTH!!!!”Plus I have been wanting a non-caffeinated tea.

Overall it is a pretty interesting concoction. The pineapple mixes well with the citric woodsy flavor, and with a dash of salt (thanks for the tip Frank) it brings out the savory and slightly smokey bacon flavor. The only thing is that the smell of the tea is a bit weird. It reminds me of bubble gum flavored couch syrup, but other wise it is a good tea.

Read full review here: http://tunesntea.wordpress.com/2013/03/31/tea-pineapple-bacon-rooibos/

Just made some of this today. It’s the last of the cold days and I wanted something really robust, and this tea is just perfect. Smokey, smooth, peppery, and savory! If Verdant ever gets this flavor back in I would buy half a pound of it and drink it all the time, but for now I am going to savor the little bit I have left.

Also thanks to Dinosara for the tea!

I have been craving star anise seed for some reason….. also tartness. I decided to make Yu Lu Lan Cha western with a single star anise and two medium pieces of hibiscus. Made 4 steeps and combined them and put in 3 spoon fulls of light agave nectar. Warm the a anise see was strong, a little too much. I will use a smaller one next time. When it cooled a bit the hibiscus showed through more with a nice tartness. Iced this is even better….. or slushi that is. I left it to long in the freezer. The added herbs are more balance and the roasty chocolaty tea shines through.

Overall very good. I like how the tart hibiscus helps cut the spicy licorice flavor of the anise. Might try it again.

OMG! IT’S BACK, IT’S BACK, IT’S BACK!!! I just finished off my last bit from last summer that I had been hording. But now that it is back I can get more…….. when my budget is back.

The smell of the dry leaf is like smelling a bunch of hand picked sweet flowers and nectar; sweet and airy. The wet leaf becomes deeper with damp cedar notes backed with warm vanilla. The taste of the tea is’t self is simply divine. It is like drinking the nectar of sweet flowers drizzled with vanilla and a tinge of tingly spice left on the tongue When it is iced the vanilla becomes more of a creamy texture with the jasmine and Yabao more present making it tasted like flowers that have been plucked from a cedar forest that still have morning dew on them.

Overall this is a great crisp, light, and floral tea that is sweet enough on it’s own and in my opinion embodies spring time.

NOTE: While this tea has green jasmine tea it isn’t over the top or dominating in flavor. It is more of a sweet jasmine then a dry floral one. So jasmine wienies (like me) don’t need to worry.

You can read my full review here: http://tunesntea.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/tea-eight-treasures-yabao/

Specifics
leaf: 2tsp
Pot: Glass
Water: 8oz

No notes yet.

Backlogging this from a couple days ago. Slowly, but surly working through my tea. Now if I can stop being lazy and log them in!

I made this ice tea style; it tasted fine warm, but this just seems more like an ice tea to me. The first time I made some I did my usual 2 steeping in one cup and added a bit of sweetener. It tasted pretty authentic…. AND STRONG! A little to strong. The second time I made this I did a combined 3 steeps and found it to be perfect. Minus the bubbles it tasted exactly like cola with rum in it! I am getting a slight lime tang, but if you want that to be more a flavor you will need to add that.

Brewing Specifics

Pot: Porcelain
Water: 8oz per steep
Leaf: 1.5 tsp (5 grams)
Sweetener: Don’t need it

Having some of this today. I think tonight I am going to try to log in some back notes hopefully.

I think from all the TIL teas that I have had so far this is my favorite. It has a great sweet yet creamy fruit taste. It still has a bit of that perfume bite as some of the other flavored teas, but it doesn’t take away from the tea. The black tea base is good as well; smooth with no astringency.

SIP DOWN!

Backlogging this one. It was one of those sample packs that I got with my order. To keep it short, it was a very enjoyable tea. Smooth, creamy, sweet, and with a touch of orchid. The only down side is that I wish it was a little more complex, but it was still very enjoyable.

Here is my full review here:
http://tunesntea.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/davidtea-q-milkoolong/

Specifics

Pot: Porcelain
Water: 8oz per steep
Leaf: 1.5 tsp (5 grams)
Steep Time: 2 minuets (then added 30 sec each steep)
Sweetener: Don’t need it

How does this tea note have any notes? (Unless I have missed it some how.) I made some this last night and found it to be lovely. It tastes strongly of clover honey and leaves a wonderful creamy soft, and dewy mouth feel. I wrote a full review on my blog, but short story is I am going to pick up another ounce of this on my next verdant order.

http://tunesntea.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/tea-flowering-green-jasmine-tea/

This is part of the Pu-Er sipdowns samples That I am slowly, but surly getting threw.

Ok, to be short and sweet I love almost everything about this tea. The smokey cedar notes combined with sweet and savory berry notes is good. However, the strong floral aspect of it is throwing me for a loop. It is that kinda of perfume floral, the kind that has a bite to it.

The later steepings and a long 1 minuet leaf drain steep I found to me be more pleasant. The floral bite isn’t as strong and it is more vaporous.

Overall I can tell this is a very nice and complex sheng, but I am having a hard time getting into it. It’s floralness is just so odd to me.

On one of my last orders with Verdant Tea I got some of their Laoshan Genmaicha. When I got the order in I went to go make some to eat with my dinner. When I opened the bag I noticed something strange. The leaves seemed darker then normal, but I figured it just might be my eyes. However, when I finished brewing it I knew it wasn’t right. Instead of the green tea base it was Laoshan black. When I told them of the mix up they apologized and sent out the right batch. I have to say though, This is one tasty mix up.

Interestingly enough, when David emailed me back about it, he said that he thought about making this blend available at one point.

When I sat down to brew this again with different steeping time, I found that it had an awesome flavor. The taste and smell of it remind me of malted bread that has been toasted and buttered, then dusted with cocoa powder. The early steepings are more savory and malty, while the later steepings tasted more sweet, nutty, and chocolaty. It’s like I made two pieces of toast and put butter on one, and then put Nuttella on the other one. It is very hearty and filling,it’s like breakfast in a cup.

Overall it is a very tasty tea. I can see it being a great early morning breakfast brew. I wonder what this would taste like with a spot of almond milk in it.

Specifications

Leaf: A little over 2 tsps
Water: 8oz
Steep Time: 1 minuet; adding another minuet after each steeping.
Sweetener: just a pinch of light agave.

No notes yet.

So I made some off this tonight. Man I am so glad that I am getting some cold nights now. It is just annoying for it to be 80F in February.

I added an extra clove and for interest, I added a dash of almond milk….. HOW HAVE I NOT DONE THIS BEFORE. It is more creamy and sweet now. I am definitely making another big mug of this.

Had some of this in the morning. But I wanted to let you steepsters know that Adagio is having a sample promotion on their new fruit and match trail mix. It is free….. sorta. I wrote more of the details on my blog, but basically for $5.75 I get that free sample and 2 samples of tea to taste.

Here are the details on my blog:
http://tunesntea.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/tea-related-freeish-fruit-and-match-mix-fruit/