Amy oh

Tea of the morning here… I see tasting notes are back to being functional.

In other news, it seems that Rare Tea Republic has shut down their website and I guess the teas will be going back to their parent company, Republic of Tea. I wonder if they will keep the line or get rid of it when the current supplies are gone. It’s too bad because I really liked a few of their offerings!

See previous notes for more info. on this.

Tea of the morning – don’t judge because I am having this for breakfast. :)

This does have quite a bit of chocolate flavor in it and I am also picking up on some caramel which is fairly subtle. This is enjoyable with some soymilk and I definitely oversteeped it (because I forgot about it) but it still tastes good to me. I don’t know that I would need to keep this on hand but it’s pretty nice.

Hoping this pu-erh will be a nice after Thanksgiving tea to detox from all of those goodies! I am taking a cue from Bonnie and made my infusions really strong and am drinking them like a latte with soymilk. yummy!

Tea of the morning here, I love this assam, too bad S & V is discontinuing it. I slept in late today, post-Thanksgiving and I feel like I don’t need to eat for a week! Happy Holidays! :)

Happy Thanksgiving, Steepster!

I am feeling quite tired this week, my neighbors seem to have gone away and their music is playing loudly every morning at 5 am, I think they forgot to turn off their alarm or something. so annoying. Someone was banging loudly on their door and rang the doorbell to complain but I really think they’re not there.

Anyway I made a nice, strong pot of this tea this morning. It’s so lovely with some soymilk. Yummm, I would definitely get this one again! Caramel and peppery! I only had a small size of it so it’s going on my Simpson & Vail Shopping list!

Tea o’ the morning here, this is nice with a bit of soymilk and some coconut sugar. I am looking forward to a short week! :)

I got this on the way to work this afternoon, I have been feeling a little bit down so I thought the jasmine might help. This jasmine tea does not seem to be near the quality of Mandala’s or Teavivre’s. Perhaps the way they prepared it had something to do with it. Certain jasmine teas seem to be very drying and bitter and this is one of them… not destined to be a favorite, oh well.

Another Celestial Seasonings buy from Whole Foods yesterday, at least they’re cheap. :)

Yeah, like a lot of people mentioned this IS pretty sweet. Also Stevia leaves a bit of a funky aftertaste in my opinion. This does remind me a bit of Bengal Spice and I would say I’m detecting more spice than pumpkin. I added some soymilk to this which made it better, I think. It does remind me a little bit of Bengal Spice but it’s sweeter. I think this would have been fine without the Stevia and I’m not sure why they felt the need to put it in there!

Tea of the morning here… this is nice if you steep it in the gaiwan for about a minute. I think keemun is perhaps an acquired taste and I have not really embraced it.

Well, I have never had this particular tea before but so many people seem to love it! I was at Whole Foods tonight at decided to pick some up to try it.

First off, it is VERY minty. I can taste way more peppermint than any of the other ingredients, with cinnamon off in the background somewhere. I don’t taste too much vanilla and I decided to add a bit of coconut sugar because I felt it needed that to be more like a Candy Cane.

Ummm… I was hoping this would be a little less minty and have slightly more green tea and the other flavors. Sometimes peppermint gives me heartburn but of course I had to try it anyway! Still, it is a fairly nice tisane and most likely I will finish the box off someday. :)

Just finishing off the rest of this sample that Nicole sent me, this is very nice for a second flush darjeeling. I admit I went a little darjeeling crazy last year and I still have a lot to drink, I need to get busy, or meet a new guy who really likes tea! Anyway this is nice. :)

Tea of the evening here, I am hoping this nice herbal will help me to relax and go to sleep. Good night, all!

Sipdown!
I am done with my tin of this, I have had it for about a year and it survived very well in the tin it came in. A delicious, buttery soft and floral oolong, one I would definitely purchase again. Naivetea has some great oolongs!

In other news I think I have mice, they were eating their way through some bags of dried barley and sprouting seeds I had. I wonder if mice like tea? I hope not!

Tea of the morning here…
I haven’t had this in quite a while but I still have about 1/2 of a 7 oz. tin so I decided to brew some up this morning in my Bee house teapot. It still seems good to me, I suspect black tea doesn’t really get stale like green tea can, but what about flavored tea? This is a nice breakfast treat but not one of my absolute faves from Harney.

I am enjoying this sample courtesy of ScottTeaMan who appears to have gone AWOL from Steepster… This is a very nice Dan Cong if you don’t like them too bitter and you keep the steeping times short. I don’t see this on the Upton Tea website now, so I don’t know if they will be getting it back. See previous notes for more info.

I decided to switch over to green tea and I’m enjoying this yuzu green tea by Mellow Monk… it is delightful. I have to say I have been very impressed with all of their teas but I am partial to this and the fnow garden, both so delicious. I can see I will need to try the others soon! See previous notes for more details.

Tea of the morning here, it’s a nice hefty blend with a bit of lapsang mixed in. It’s still raining here and looks like it will be all day. Too bad I have so many plans that will take me out of my Hobbit hole today. :)

2nd tisane of the evening… no I am not having a rocking Friday night but I have big plans for the rest of the weekend so I don’t feel too bad for being nerdy today. This tea should be called “almond apple” because it is quite fruity in addition to the almond. I wonder if this is the same exact tea that Joy’s teaspoon carries? Has anyone tried them both?

This is a very strange name for a tea, in my opinion. Anti Strain?

Anyway I purchased this from ESP a few months ago and I evidently did not get the chance to review it yet. Reading the list of ingredients it reminds me of a chai, but it’s all bits and pieces of herbs. Personally I feel the licorice is quite strong in this blend and I wouldn’t mind a little less of it, it’s quite sweet. I am also picking up a bit of fennel and ginger. This tisane is no doubt good for relaxation and also very healthy. Not sure I would get it again though.

This is a nice tea to experiment with. I thought I would try steeping it along with some dried goji berries to see what would happen. The goji lends a nice tart fruitiness while the silver needle is sweet and slightly vegetal. I finished a painting today and now I am off to do some yoga. :)

I haven’t been drinking much puerh lately, but I think that will be changing especially now that the rainy season appears to be upon us here in San Francisco. I don’t tend to drink much shu pu-erh at all when the weather is warm. This shu is delicious, especially after the first steep is gone. Nice flavors of chocolate and fruit are present with a very creamy mouthfeel here in this tea. Great for a mid-afternoon pickup here in the damp.

This is an ancient sample that came from Jenn and it’s probably over a year old now so I don’t know how this is influencing the tasting. I don’t know about this tea though… normally I am a fan of fruit flavored teas but this is just o.k. to me, I feel like the flavors are just clashing with each other and not coming together in a cohesive way. It’s kind of like a rummy cough syrup. Okay, I will stop whining now. It isn’t something I would buy from Harney and Sons but it’s drinkable…

Hurray! This one is really GOOD and that’s not something I say about rooibos blends too often. The dry leaf smells incredible and after steeping this smells like apple cider. Yep, definitely apple cider-y in the flavor too. I am picking up cinnamom and clove and there’s chunks of dried apple in the tisane. It seems almost juicy!

This doesn’t have that “sour wood” flavor that a lot of rooibos blends have and I’m impressed that the flavoring here tastes so natural. This will be great for those chilly winter days. Yum – love it and wish I had bought the bigger size. If you’re a fan of rooibos you might want to try it. I’m happy I am digging a lot of my Simpson and Vail purchases but I think they need to do some samplers. :)

Note: I used approximately 2 tsp. in a 10 oz. mug.

I am having a tough day today so I’m hoping this Happy Goji tea will cheer me up… I do like this one and I would get more if I ordered stuff from ESP Emporium.