Amy oh

this is the tastiest fruit blend Teavana makes in my opinion. I think it must be the rosebuds and the cinnamon, as well as the lack of hibiscus. I must have decided I loved it at one point because I bought 3 bags! Nice for after lunch…

I like this pretty well but I wish it was gone already, don’t know what that says about the tea. Let me know if anyone wants a sample or a swap. :)

This is really hitting the spot today. A yummy sweet green broth like infusion…
upped the rating just a tad.

This is a sample I picked from the RtR website – I thought, due to the description it sounded more on the sweet side. This most definitely IS a darjeeling. I didn’t think I liked them but I got some samples to try anyway.. lol

I steeped this for 4 minutes at about 180 F. I could have gone hotter on the water, the package says to use 200.

I have to admit I was sorely tempted to put soymilk in this but I think it would have ruined the really delicate flavor here. It’s light and delicious! Very fruity tea but I do get the pine needle thing they are describing here. Quite a fragrant aroma which I believe is described as the “muscatel finish”. Well I am a complete newbie to darjeelings since the one I had before was Twinings I believe and that just gave me a stomach ache. This is definitely a different experience and I am enjoying it. I am a little nervous about the astringency but it doesn’t seem to have much.

Now I’m going to have to get familiar with what all these letters mean. SFTGFOP = Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe , you got that? ;-)

This is just one of those tisanes where you hope it must be good for you because you pretty much have to hold your nose when it goes down… I like tulsi and lemon myrtle but the spearmint and rosehips and linden blossoms? eeek. I particularly don’t think I like linden. At any rate, you could make this better by serving it over ice or just believe that it will detoxify something. I can’t say I’m really a fan of the flavor though.

This really is a delicious silver needle tea – light, creamy, soft & floral. It’s a very relaxing brew. I thought it was good but I was not blown away by it like the Shangri-La Himalayan white I had by the same company, which was also more energizing and had more caffeine IMO… interesting. This tea was a lot more expensive than the other one I liked but definitely seems like it would be better for a relaxing and elegant moment. I guess it isn’t fair to compare apples to oranges anyway. As always, I may be updating my tasting notes in the future. :)

This is so good it’s actually a little scary! eeeek!

So I guess this tea isn’t exactly a darjeeling because it came from Sikkim according to the website Sikkim is in India’s northeast corner between Nepal and Bhutan. My second Nepalese tea of the day and I think I’m in love… la la la

I steeped this for around 3 minutes @ 200F. This is my after lunch afternoon tea and it is quite a stunner. This black tea is intensely rich with plum and cherry flavors, caramel sweetness and cocoa. The only reason I’m not rating it higher is because it has some astringency in the finish which might make it a bit difficult on my sensitive tummy. But the flavors are wonderful in every way. I highly recommend you give this one a go. I may need to up my rating soon. It’s delicious! I think I’ve found a good seller here with these Rare Tea Republic people! :)

Hello! Shangri-La White Organic you are fabulous.

I’ve never ordered anything from Rare Tea Republic and I was very impressed with how they labeled each bag with the name, origin and steeping instructions right on the front. A nice touch, to be sure.

When I opened the bag and smelled this I knew I was in for a real tea drinking treat! The leaves are thin and curly with a nice array of gray, black and white shades (the photo does not do it justice).

I steeped this for 2-3 minutes at around 190F in the infuser mug at work. It really smells like rosebuds, I kid you not. It had some sweetness with an apricot/peachy flavor and roses. A teeny bit of astringency at the end. This may be my favorite new white tea although I still have some others from RTR to try as well. I need to try cold brewing this. Simply wonderful. You must try this if you like white tea. Yes, you must…. Intense serenity and joy!

I need to try this in the gaiwans at home but it’s hard to imagine it could get any better.

I’m drinking this again this morning. It is pleasant enough but I don’t know if I really get the appeal of dragonwell – am I missing something or is this just not a very good example?

I had some of this around I forgot about and decided to revisit it again today – I am using the loose leaf version and not the bags.

I made this very strong today, used a high water to leaf ratio and steeped for around 3 minutes. It’s very strong! I’m not sure about the ceylon here, it’s never been one of my favorite teas but still. This is a good solid choice for any morning – I may have made it too strong but I kinda need that since it’s Monday morning. Very malty and smooth and ceylon provides a bit of fruity astringency. I’m enjoying it this morning and hoping it will wake me up. :-) As far as Twinings is concerned I think I still prefer the Prince of Wales blend but this one is pretty good too!

I had to go in today to replace a gaiwan I just broke… how sad. I hope I can make the new one last a bit longer, I had accidentally dropped my lid on the floor and it broke.

Anyway far be it from me to resist trying something new. I wanted to try a white tea that I had never heard of before. I was told you could steep this in 190 F hot water for a minute or two but it wasn’t that sensitive to oversteeping. This new craft tea is supposed to be a hybrid of sorts between white and green. I also used a pretty high leaf to water ratio. I might try it again with a little less leaf.

This tea is a golden color when it’s brewed up. It doesn’t seem really flowery like a lot of other white teas. It reminds me a bit of an oolong – probably due to the higher oxidation here. It’s a little sweet like honey and has a nice soft finish that’s a bit apricot-y. This I can see being a really nice every day tea, especially for the afternoons since it’s gentle and kinda low in caffeine. I am saving some of the leaves for when I wake up from my afternoon nap.

I felt that I just needed this today… :)

I am notoriously fussy when it comes to honeybush and roobois teas, don’t really like most of them but hope springs eternal, I guess… :)

This is a really nice offering from 52 Teas. I find that it needs to steep for at least 5 minutes or the flavor is a bit “thin”. The honeybush provides it with some natural sweetness but the pineapple and rum are the things that really stand out for me. I happen to be a coconut freak so ended up adding in some of my own organic coconut extract. Pretty tasty!

Sample provided courtesy of Teavivre…

I think I’m going to hold off on rating this for now because I really don’t love jasmine tea for the most part, however I did like the jasmine pearls from Teavivre a lot. This pretty much tastes like the jasmine green tea I got from Adagio and I really feel like I don’t know what I’m talking about. It’s pretty much like any other decent loose leaf jasmine tea I’ve ever tried. It is pleasant enough but very floral and a bit drying.

This came as a free sample in an ancient Teavana order I placed months ago but I decided today was the day I needed to try it. I kinda knew I was in for trouble when I opened it up and it looks like a bag of dried fruit, yeah I think i saw one or two leaves of white tea in there… lol

This is really not my thing.
1) I do not EVER use sugar in my tea so this sample is instantly way too sweet.
2) It tastes like warm fruit punch.
3) No tea flavor whatsoever
4) If I want to drink a fruity tea I would prefer less hibiscus/rosehips/tart-ish crap

I decided to pour it over ice and it is better as a cold drink. I Teavana should really market this as a cocktail, mix it with rum and stick an umbrella in it.

I cold brewed this is the refrigerator overnight and it is absolutely divine! Buttery lilac nirvana! Upping the rating a tad. :-)

More oolong for me today. I’m trying to see if I can get used to drinking any of my tea with lemon. This was kind of a nice one to play around with. I still prefer it plain tho’.

Another thing I found at the Bulk bin in Whole Foods…

I wasn’t sure how the magnolia gets in here, if it’s natural or what. hmmm. Does anyone have a guess?

These are long and slender dark leaves. I was really expecting something like a wuyi tea when I brewed this up but instead I got a light yellow infusion that is full of wonderful flavors. The magnolia is very nice here, it provides an exquisite aroma without knocking you over in flowers. The tea itself is very light and creamy with a slight apricot flavor. When I first smelled it I thought “pastries baking”. This is pretty intoxicating stuff, it feels like an elegant luxury… yummm. I am definitely a fan!

Infused 3x at 180 F for about 3 minutes.

I have kind of a hit or miss relationship with floral teas. If they’re too sweet or too perfumey I don’t like them as much. This one strikes a nice balance.

hmm. I was trying to figure out what to do with this in order to make it more palatable… ended up steeping it with a cinnamon stick and a couple of cardamom pods. And now, with some soymilk it’s definitely a lot better and more like a chai. Still, kinda lame when you have to doctor up a tea so much with extra ingredients in order to make it bearable.

mmm. I’m a sucker for such nifty packaging! I had to get this to try it out! It’s all even enviro friendly because there is no plastic anywhere… luckily pu-erh likes to breathe so you don’t have to mummify it in a plastic bag!

These Pu-erh “coins” are stored on top of each other in a beautiful cardboard tube that provides DETAILED information about when and where it was produced, how to store it and steeping instructions. I love the beautiful box, for one thing… these coins are bigger than I thought they would be, 1/2 a coin is plenty for a small pot of tea and 1/4 of a coin is perfect for gaiwan.

I brewed this in the gaiwan, they recommend very short steeps so I’ve been going with these 20-30 seconds jobs. This brews up to a lovely dark orange color.

It’s no surprise that I would like this since the leaves come from wild trees up to 500 years old. This has the depth and beauty of an old forest with a bit of stone fruit, charcoal and smoke. VERY smooth and nice, slightly creamy… with a lingering aftertaste of cocoa. yum yum. I like it! These coins are great for convenience and they are also better than most tuo chas I have had. I’m glad I have a lot of them so I can do a bit of experiments with flavoring them. Oh Mini Cha-an Lucky Coins, you are adorable and tasty!

so I’m pretty new to white tea but I’m warming up to it quickly. As others have commented this is a beautiful long sage green leaf with lots of white fuzz.

I steeped this in approx 170 – 180 F water for about 2 minutes.

I’m just sitting here trying to figure out what to say about it. I was thinking vaguely spearmint but somehow that isn’t quite right. It seems lightly floral with a touch of lilac, with a lingering bit of fruit like lychee in the finish. I don’t think I’m enough of a white tea expert to know if this is better or worse than other white needles but I am enjoying it a lot. It has a very smooth feel in your mouth.

Oh Teavana, why did you need to blend these two things together, I just don’t get it…

I’ve seen other people make matcha out of gyokuro but this gyokuro has powdered matcha mixed in with it so a nice green dust emerges when you open the bag. To be fair I’ve also seen this done with some more inferior/cheap blends like genmaicha but you shouldn’t need to add anything to gyokuro to make it better…

Anyway I digress. Perhaps it is done because of color as this steeps up to a brilliant neon green. I did this for around 90 seconds in approximately 160 F water. It is pretty nice, there is the familiar sweetness/lovely mouthfeel of the gyo. I just wish there was no matcha in here because it is making the tea chalky with a lot of sediment at the bottom. Don’t you normally whisk matcha for this reason?

I will most certainly finish this and it is no doubt a very healthy drink… the second steep is better because most of the matcha dust got washed away in the first steep. I might rinse this off before steeping next time.

oh, this is nice! Like others I have noticed the sweet smell of the leaves when you open up the bag, it is quite lovely!

I did steep this in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, it is delicious this way but I should have paid attention to the instructions that said 185… A nice lingering flavor of sweet potatoes and raisins. It’s malty and delicious. I could not not resist adding some soymilk to mine. I am still not used to drinking a lot of black teas plain aside form pu-erh. So I will try this gong fu style again some other time, I think that will be an endeavor well worth my time. Definitely a cuppa worth having around!

Sample provided courtesy of Teavivre…

I’ve never had a Chysanthemum pu-erh before and I was looking forward to trying this one. It was very nice the way the flower opened up after this steeped. 195 F water for 2-3 minutes. I should have used boiling but that’s what our water boiler is set to currently.

First steep: This is pretty earthy and woodsy! It’s also a bit seaweedy with a hint of smoke. I wonder if I should have tossed the first steep?

Second steep: Floral scent is emerging! I am getting a bit of the sweetness here and it’s a lot less murky than the first steep. I need to get into the habit of rinsing these a bit in boiling water before steeping them.

When it comes to pu-erhs I am biased and picky. I do have definite preferences and flavor profiles but I don’t think this is one of them. I may have to spend some more time with this tea before I can really assess it. I was glad I had the chance to try it but I’m a little confused by it.