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I received this tea first in two separate swaps and liked it a lot. I liked it so much that I ordered a pound, but then I couldn’t recreate the magic of the first cups. It was a little astringent. I was disappointed and really wondering what the heck I was going to do with a whole pound of it.

Yesterday I got the bright idea to cold brew it. I made a bottle of simple syrup in preparation for drinking it today and left it in the fridge for over 24 hours. The results is absolutely delicious, summery, floral+fruity iced tea. It is as clear as can be. The strawberry flavor is wonderful, and the lemon flavor is a lemon candy flavor, not the sour lemon taste you often get in iced tea. That stuff curdles my tongue!

Hubby drank it and said it was good but he liked Razzleberry from 52Teas better. Well, it would be awfully hard to beat Razzleberry. I told him this was waaaaaay cheaper and he said, “Now you’re talking!” Fortunately for him, I have several packs of Razzleberry left, and hope to get some more for this summer.

In the meantime, I can enjoy my cheap stuff with abandon! I like it!

I believe this is the right tea. Mine came as a sample tea sachet with a Dammann Freres order. I have had it for quite a while so it is quite possible that the quality has suffered.

First, I confess that my initial experiences with Darjeeling as a tea newbie were not good and it was all my fault. I didn’t know better and made them just like any black tea. After I learned a bit and made them as they should be, I liked them a bit more, especially one or two special ones. I preferred Chinese black teas over Darjeelings and gave up on most Indian tea altogether, except for a few blends.

I feel that this makes me unqualified to judge this tea, but I can state my opinion of it. It is smooth enough to drink without additions. There is definitely some fruity astringency, but not enough to make me to see it. I even did a second steep, because I still have some cubes of Dubliner cheese left and wanted tea!

I expect that a Darjeeling lover would have to great things to say about this tea, but this is not something that appeals to me. It was fun to give it a try! One of my favorite Darjeelings is a very earthy one from Luis Tea that my daughter bought in Budapest. The real Darjeeling enthusiast probably wouldn’t even like it because it is so different!

This is a free sample from Teavivre. Thank you, Teavivre!

The last time I had this tea, it was at bedtime and shared with hubby. This time, I made it as our HUGE pot to accompany Asian buffet takeout. I steeped the leaves in a 22 ounce pot using two of the sample packs, then resteeped and poured all together in my biggest tetsubin.

I tasted a sip from each steeping. The first was much as I remembered it – light, clean, and fresh. It was so light I was afraid I had under leafed. The second steep was left a little longer and was definitely stronger, much stronger than the first steep.

The two steeps combined made an excellent accompaniment to our meal. I had some rather “heavy” and seasoned foods: dumplings with that sauce, lo mein, mushrooms, etc. So as mild as this tea can be, I was shocked when I first picked up my cup to sip. The tea that had seemed so mild had so much flavor and was so cleansing to the palate! It was quite a shocker, and I enjoyed using it between courses to get ready for the next dish. It was not astringent or sour, though. Very good tea!

I cheated a little bit with this one, but it was totally worth it. I wanted…..NEEDED….tea this morning. Lots and lots of stress – nuff said. I wanted a black or oolong tea and this sample caught my eye. I can not believe I have had it for three years! When I poured the leaves into the pot it looked a little shy of how much I needed so I added quite literally just a few hard little pellets of Zealong Aromatic.

The result was excellent. This may have suffered a bit for aging, I don’t know, but I do know that having a good cuppa shifted a few burdens and lightened the load.

The liquor was very light, but the flavor had lots of body and heft, and there was a floral sweetness running alongside the dark roasted oolong, possibly from the addition of that tiny amount of ZA.

This review is actually a review of a method of making matcha lattes rather than the matcha itself. Maybe I should move it to a heading of “cocktail shaker” under tea equipment and paraphernalia!

When Red Leaf matcha lattes became all the rage on here, I bought a TON of matcha. I experimented with all sorts of ways to make it and finally settled on using an Aerolatte to whisk it all together. It struggles a little with thick honey but if you add just a touch of warm water or milk to “melt” the honey, it is easy. The problem is that I like my matcha lattes to be cold cold COLD!

I had read about people making lattes in a cocktail shaker, so I tried a Williams Sonoma Working Glass with rubber lid. Yes, I ended up with matcha latte all over me. In my hair, even.

Today I saw a cocktail shaker at an estate sale for five bucks and it appeared to have never been used! It even had a bottle opener and matching cheese knife inside, still wrapped in plastic. I decided I could give it a go as a latte maker and wouldn’t mind too much if it failed at that price. Besides, I needed a new bottle opener for the outside fridge where we keep our glass bottled sodas!

I sifted my matcha into the shaker. For those who participated in the blind study, it was sample five from Red Leaf from waaaaay back when we tested green, white, and black matcha. I added a tablespoon of honey, some milk, and some ice cubes. I put the lid on and shook it over the sink…..just in case.

No leaks! Yay! I poured it into my glass and a lovely froth topped my latte. I peered in the shaker and I could see tons more froth that I could have scooped into my glass, keeping or discarding the ice, but my glass was full so I didn’t. The honey seems to have blended fairly well, but I think it would have even more so if I had warmed it. Shaking it with the ice would have chilled it again and I would have gotten the icy cold temp I like.

I am going to try this next with raw cane sugar instead of honey. I have already had two lattes though, so I may wait a while!

Overall, I am really pleased with this method and tickled that I found a cocktail shaker so cheap, since I had been loathe to pay full retail for one.

I have had something niggling at me for days – sinuses angry, scratchy throat, irritated eyes. Today I feel like I have been hit by a small bus. Just a small one, mind you. Or maybe a van.

My daughter had an 8:15 orthodontist appointment, then we had the “big” grocery shopping to do, ironing, school, and cooking some of those groceries. About midday I told middle daughter that I needed tea and cream puffs. Yes, this is doing very nicely, and will probably be followed by a quick nap before I start teaching.

Queen Catherine is my go-to “I don’t feel good” tea. I am down to enough leaf for about two more pots of this, and I started with a pound. Not the first pound of it I have ever bought, either. We are completely out of Vanilla Black and nearly out of Vanilla Comoro by H&S as well, so an order is….well, in order.

Allergies are still abusing me, but the tea is lifting my spirits and the cream puffs didn’t hurt one bit.

I love Golden Monkey, but I just have not been able to develop a love for this blend of GM and Assam. My youngest daughter likes it pretty well, but she mostly drinks lapsangs so this tin continues to sit around. I am really trying to reduce my cupboard before ordering any more tea, so I decided to try this iced. It got very cloudy because of the Assam so I will probably add baking soda to clear it. I greatly prefer this one iced and lightly sweetened, and happily that will also use up the tin much more quickly! I think the next batch will be the sipdown on this one. Hooray!

Overall, a decent glass of iced tea to go with baked spaghetti for supper.

This is a matcha flavor I bought to mix with another flavor and never imagined I would like it on its own. I don’t hate peanut butter. I like it well enough, particularly with certain things. For instance, vegetable soup MUST have a peanut butter sandwich with it. I grew up heating pancake syrup and mixing the hot syrup in a bowl with a spoonful of peanut butter to “sop” on Sunday nights when we didn’t have dessert with our Sunday dinner leftovers. I love Reese’s peanut butter cups so much that I think my son is pretty much constructed of them due to the number I consumed while nursing him.

Even with all that, I am not the big peanut butter lover in the house. My husband and daughter eat vast amounts of the stuff. So I didn’t expect to care very much about this flavor in its own. I am finding that I like it much more than I expected.

I got the robust flavor level and in this flavor that works for me. In some of the flavors it is too much and there is a perfume vibe, but not this one. I sifted one teaspoon of matcha into a 20 ounce glass, added a tablespoon of raw sugar, and whisked in milk with my Aerolatte. The result is a creamy and smooth tasting latte with a definite flavor of peanut butter, but somehow the creaminess is the main thing happening. You don’t feel like your tongue is going to stick to the roof of your mouth!

If you love peanut butter, this really is a must try. I don’t think they sell it anymore, though. I believe it was replaced with peanut butter pie flavor, which I have not tried.

This was a surprise tea included in a box from JacquelineM, who has introduced me to some of my favorite teas!

The aroma of this black tea has deep notes of toasted bread and unsweetened cocoa. The flavor reminds me of a lighter Emperor’s Red but is less chocolate-y, and it also brings to mind a light version of Fengqing Black Dragon Pearls from Teavivre.

This is a classic Chinese black tea and one that would be good to have on hand for mornings or afternoon tea. Though sharing some traits with a breakfast Keemun, I feel it is gentler than some.
It is easy to drink without milk or sugar, but I suspect it would take both very well if you were so inclined.

Thank you, JacquelineM! :)

We had a giant tetsubin full of two steeps of this with our Asian buffet takeout tonight. It was very nice and a great complement to the food. We made 22 ounces with three teaspoons and then resteeped, adding that to the pot as well. I think the directions call for one tablespoon per eight ounces but I have found it strong enough with less leaf. Combining the two steeps gave us a nice green tea with good, deep color (for a green) and enough flavor to hold up to the food, which makes it a great buy as well.

I am really glad this is organic. The news regarding pesticides on Celestial Seasonings teas and the newer report about lead in green tea leaves (but not in the tea itself) has me looking at my cupboard a little more closely. Almost all of my tea is from Harney and Sons or Teavivre, with four Hugo organics and a smattering of other teas. Almost all are loose leaf, and I try to buy high grown teas when I can as there is supposed to be less pollution there. I am thankful for Garret finding us high grown, pristine puerhs, too. It would really be a bummer to drink tea for our health and then find out it is making us sick!

Does anyone know how this new info on lead relates to matcha? Are the matcha leaves tested for lead since we consume the whole leaf?