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I made my afternoon matcha latte with this flavored matcha today! I like this one both hot and cold, but for cold lattes I like Bavarian Cream, and plain matcha most of all! With honey to sweeten, and crushed ice, of course!

Thank you to Zen Tea for this sample!

I had a terrible night last night – obstinate, irritating, disappointing family stuff – so I am determined to drink tea until I feel better. I started the day with Queen Catherine, my usual bucker-upper. Poking through my samples to see what I could finish off, this one really appealed to me. I find vanilla to be a very comforting scent, full of “home” and peaceful. Paired with bergamot, which is bright and awakening, I hope this will help kick start me to a better attitude.

This one is so much about the aroma for me. It is so creamy and sweet smelling. Earl Grey lovers really should try this. The tea base is strong enough to be used for a wake up call, too.

Because it was the kind of day yesterday and I’ve had that kind of morning. Grrrrr.

Sadly, I finished my sample from Nuvola Tea today. Joyfully, I took a look at their website and saw that it is half the price of others that I have been looking at. I have been trying to get a couple of friends hooked on matcha lattes and have had pretty good success. Today I introduced them to unflavored matcha lattes.

My friend preferred this brand because she felt it was creamier and had a fresher taste than the first one she tried, though it could simply be that this one had more honey since I was drizzling it in and not really measuring.

Bottom line, this is a really tasty matcha for a price I can hardly believe. It is because this is made in Taiwan rather than Japan? Whatever the case, I want more, and I won’t be ordering just one pack!

Thank you, Nuvola Tea, for the sample. It was great to get to taste another matcha since I am fairly new to the type of tea. I have enjoyed every bit of this one!

I had no idea this ginseng oolong was going to be so different from Teavivre’s. There are a couple of obvious reasons why it is, though.

First, this is a Chinese oolong, while Teavivre’s is from Taiwan. Second, this uses Siberian ginseng root, while Teavivre uses American ginseng. I really thought there was licorice root powder on the Teavivre leaves but I asked them some time ago and was told there was not. I taste something similar here but no licorice root is mentioned and it is lighter.

This tastes like a Tie Guan Yin, and the ginseng is adding just a hint of flavor that comes as a sweetness after the swallow. It doesn’t even come close to the floral sweetness that follows with Teavivre’s, though. This is the level of ginseng flavor I would expect on their third steep.

Second steep is sweeter than the first, but still milder than Teavivre’s.

The Tin Roof leaves are still tightly balled up and coated with ginseng after the second steep. Now I have done the third steep and they still haven’t unfurled. I think something about their ginseng powder must have more sticking power and dissolves into the tea more slowly.

The leaves are still dark pellets, but the tea is getting a little sweeter with each steep – just a bit. I think this gives the tea a consistent level of flavor with lightly growing sweetness each steep.

Several people mentioned disliking ginseng. If you want ginseng for its benefits and like TGY, this would be the way to go. Personally I love the BANG POW of the first steep of Teavivre’s Taiwan ginseng followed by the gradually calming down of the following steeps.

I absolutely adore the Premium Jasmine Dragon Pearls and the Silver Needle Jasmine White tea from Teavivre. I can not afford to drink them all the time and still buy ridiculous amounts of new tea, too, so I bought this as an economical drinker to go with meals.

When served with food, this has that perfect level of jasmine flavor that I find I all of their offerings. I love that it only has to steep about one minute, because when I walk in the door with the takeout boxes I already to eat!

Because hubby is now enjoying tea with our takeout, I give this one steep, pour that into my huge tetsubin and put it on the warmer, and make a second steep right away and pour it in. That way there is enough for both of us to have all we want with the meal. No more being polite about who gets the last bit, or who will go resteep the leaves! LOL! And because it resteeps well, that makes it even more economical.

I got two bags of this so we should be good to go for a while!

For drinking without a meal, Pearls are still my number one, but with a meal these are quite delicious.

I want to thank Bonnie over and over again for saying she puts her puerh leaves in the fridge to cold steep after she has had some hot steeps of it. I did that two days ago and just let it sit in a big pitcher. I am finally drinking it today and I have to say it is one of the most refreshing things you could possibly imagine.

I posted a link to the recipe for Ent Draught last week, but to me, THIS is what Ent Draught would taste like. It is so perfectly light, refreshing, and clean, clean, clean, while at the same time tasting of purest earth. I think I could actually gulp down the whole pitcher in a very short time, and it is so cooling and uplifting. There is not even a tad of sugar in it. It doesn’t need it.

Ent Draught is supposed to be clear, thus the distilling process, but this is the taste it should have! The color of the cold brew puerh is gorgeous – so orange and clear. It looks like really good Southern sweet tea. I would much rather have this, though.

I am almost looking forward to our sticky summer weather just so I can drink gallons of this!

This sample from Nature’s Tea Leaf was the first tea I served at tea party yesterday. It is a black tea but is oh so so sweet and mellow. The primary taste is sweet potato, and the mouthfeel borders on thick. It pairs well with sweets. It is fantastic to drink by itself. For me, it needs no additions whatsoever and would even suffer in my opinion if sugar or sweetening were added since it is so sweet and delectable all by itself.

This is one of the teas that should be a cupboard staple. This isn’t peppery, spicy Yunnan, this is sweet and smooth and creamy to the taste! Thank you, NTL, for letting me try this one!

Sip down! Wow, this feels like a landmark for me, because this very tin is the first oolong I ever bought.

Grace Rare Tea Company does not disappoint. They don’t have a huge catalog because they chose to specialize and committed themselves to finding the best they could of a few types of tea. They have done that very well.

My weekly tea guest who started out as a lover of black tea is very fond of this one. I will most likely restock it one day, but for now I am removing it from my cupboard simply because I have so much tea. I really have reached a point where my own tea collection is a little overwhelming to me, partly because I feel like there are so many things I need to be drinking, but I am always wanting to try something new.

I have given away one box and one bag of teas just to try to gain control of the stash but more needs to be done. I think a weekend long sample sip down is in order, too!

Formosa Oolong – au revoir! Until we meet again!

Today was tea party day, postponed to Thursday this week! And this is why I really bought this tea in the first place. My friend who comes loves blueberries more than anything, and has them need breakfast oatmeal practically every day. I was hoping she would really like this, especially since she used to have a very strong preference for black tea.

She really loved it! The aroma captures you. The taste is much softer than the aroma, which is great because you don’t want to drink grape Kool-Aid with double sugar, do you? That is what this can smell like! But the taste is really smooth and sweet, and this is a great resteeper. My friend mentioned that she found it very floral, and I showed her the beautiful blue cornflowers in this blend.

That is just one more reason why Mike Harney needs to give this to us in loose leaf form! It is a BEAUTIFUL tea that I would display with pride in my leaf holders prior to serving!