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I haven’t had this in ages but for some reason I was just in the mood for it this morning. Does a tea this oxidized go stale? Like a Da Hong Pao, I imagine it will be good for a long time.

I was doing shorter steeps of this in my gaiwan this morning. It gives off a very roasted aroma and flavor, which is good for coffee drinkers. Other flavors I am picking up are mushroom, cinnamon and a bit of stone fruit. This tea is not for everyone, it does have a rather strong flavor and some people don’t seem to like roasted teas. I want to try drinking more of mine while the weather is colder, seems appropriate somehow.

I am still not a fan of this but discovered if you mix about 1/3 of this mixture with 2/3 plain rooibos it becomes drinkable. Not sure if I will try to drink it this way in the future since there are a lot better rooibos blends out there (even a few that are in my stash). I have no idea how they got snickerdoodle out of this, to me it tastes more like cinnamon and apples.

I’ve decided that osmanthus is my favorite floral tea, both jasmine and rose can be too strong and overwhelming but osmanthus is gentle and subtle.

This flower tea came as a free sample from Teavivre and I’m getting around to finally trying it today. Here’s a pic of the flower as it’s opening up:

http://instagram.com/p/vZoz3rILdL

At first I thought this was a white tea due to the sweetness, but it is in fact a silver needle green tea. The flavor of this is very sweet and light with notes of honey, apricot and peach, a wonderful afternoon tea. Something about it seems slightly hydrating as well. It’s interesting to note that osmanthus has some health benefits also; but I will drink this for the pure pleasure! I might have to get some plain osmanthus someday just to try it.

Thank you Angel, for sharing this beautiful flower tea.

Afternoon tea. I am back from the gym and I am sooo sore already, I wonder how I will be feeling tomorrow?

I stopped by Starbucks on my way home for a rare treat — Peppermint Mocha. I was still in the mood for mint when I came home so I decided to brew some of this up. It’s definitely relaxing to have a cup of minty tea when my stomach can deal with it. Good with about 2 drops of stevia. I think my favorite minty tea might still be Candy Cane Lane, perhaps I’ll have some of that later for my wild & crazy Friday night!

Thanks to The Cookie Lady for sending me this tea to try. Overall, this is not my favorite kind of sencha, I much prefer the really green, steamed vegetal leaves but it’s still rather nice. A very mild green tea with definite berry essence. I am not getting so much fig, there is a little bit of soft fig taste in the background but it’s not that obvious over the tartness of the berries.

I like fruity senchas and I enjoyed trying this, but with my large Lupicia stash I am pretty well set on flavored senchas for a while. ;)

Oh, I was happy yesterday to have found a grocery store that sells some MF teas for a lot less money than what I was paying at the snooty french bakery in Hayes Valley! yes!

So this tea… I was not a fan of it the first time I tried it but I had a “to go” cup and I don’t think there was enough leaf in the tea. Now that I am trying it at home, the dry leaf smells very fruity and chocolate-y and the tea itself is really nice. I’m definitely getting the vanilla-caramel sort of notes which are enhanced when I add soymilk to the tea. This is definitely on the hefty side (when you make it properly) but not bitter or overly tannic. I am definitely enjoying it and glad I bought a tin!

Someone is jack hammering outside of my window so it looks like I won’t be lingering around too long to enjoy this… :-/

Steepster is acting slow again, so I’m not sure if this tea will make it to the dashboard.I tried “liking” a few people’s notes and they didn’t stick either.

Anyway, it’s been freezing cold in my apartment today and I’ve been trying to drink a lot of warm tea but I don’t need any more caffeine after my 1 pm coffee which still has me kind of wired at almost 9 pm.

I’ve had this tea forever and it’s been lurking in my cupboard where I forgot about it. This is the kind of bergamot tea I actually enjoy since the tea is lightly flavored with bergamot, very subtle and compliments the black tea well. This is good with soymilk and a touch of stevia this evening. I wouldn’t turn down a cup if offered, but it can’t really compare to the decaf Paris by Harney and Sons. This is also in a paper teabag which doesn’t help the flavor. It is a decent cuppa, however.

I am still trying to figure out a way to make this more palatable but it hasn’t been easy. yesterday I was at the herb store and got some plain lemongrass. I tried mixing the two this morning, but it was still too bitter and I ended up needing sweetener. I suppose that might negate the healthy effects of the herb… so I guess my best solution for now is to mix it with licorice root. I have a goal to drink one cup of this a day in addition to Kyolic garlic caps to boost my immune system. It’s vile but I am drinking it anyway!

Thanks to The Cookie Lady for this sample tea. I liked the pineapple sencha from Den’s Tea and figured this might be good also.

I followed the instructions on the packet: 30 seconds of steeping, 1 tsp. of tea in 4 oz. of water, luckily I do have a little Japanese teapot that is around 4 oz.

I found that this yielded a very light cup of tea, vegetal and creamy with just a bit of green apple flavor. I was hoping for more apple flavor in this one. My second steep was around 30 seconds and now I am getting lots more green tea flavor but almost no apple flavor. I think this is a fairly subtle brew but I think it would be amazing as a cold brew in the summer time! I’d like to try brewing the remainder of my sample at some slightly different parameters before giving this a number rating.

… thanks again, Cookie Lady!

Tea of the morning here. I don’t drink this that often due to the smoky element, which I really have to be in the mood for. This morning the weather is cold and foggy and this tea is going well with my breakfast (Irish oats + chia + strawberries).

Since the time change I notice I have been sleeping longer hours. I feel like I am hibernating! This is also the time of year when we tend to have lots of fog. It’s a good thing I have a lot of tea :)