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This is the third matcha I drank with my daughter today. For this one I simply swirled the powder in a water bottle with less than an ounce of water. Once it was thoroughly dissolved, I added cold water to about the 12 ounce mark. Delicious and flavorful, this is refreshing and tasty with no sugar at all.

More lattes, this time with daughter! This is sweet and candy-ish even with only a teaspoon of sugar added to the eight ounces milk and 1/2 teaspoon of matcha powder. With the robust flavor level, I get excellent caramel taste even with so little matcha. Delicious! Definitely a keeper.

Oh my, these notes might be short because I am all tea’ed out. My oldest daughter came to visit today and she was eager to try this matcha. She liked her latte made with it so much she asked for a second one after she finished the first. Then we made it whisked in hot water and tried it with and without sugar. We liked it best without.

I was glad she loved it so much, because I was afraid she was going to love the caramel and then she and her dad would have to duke it out over who gets to keep it. LOL! Thank goodness, they each have a SEPARATE favorite!

I ate way too much from the snackie plate at writers’ group tonight and my tummy was not pleased. I had one guest and her daughter still here and asked if she would like to try some puerh. She likes a lot of different foods – more than I do – and experiments a lot when cooking, so she was game!

We only made two steeps of this, but that was enough to make my overstuffed belly start going again. My guest liked it a lot, said it tasted like leather (good for her!) and noticed the oil in this one. I love that about this puerh – the “cedar beams polished for a hundred years” coating that forms on your lips and in your mouth.

In spite of all this caffeine in all this tea, I am being lulled to sleep by all the L-theanine.

This was the iced tea I served this evening. It was light and refreshing, but I felt like Mr. Hibiscus was showing himself a little more than usual. This was made hot, the leaves were resteeped and added to the pitcher and 1/4 cup German rock sugar was added to it and stirred in well while it was hot. It chilled in the refrigerator and like most flavored iced teas, tastes better after the second day to me. Nice.

Tonight was writers’ group night at my house, but we had a smaller crowd than usual. Do you know what that means? More freedom and time to make more tea and drink oneself into a sloshy stupor.

This was the first thing I made since I knew hubby would be wanting his when he got home from the gym. This time there was at least as much froth as there was liquid! One person who drank it said it tasted like pistachio pudding or ice cream. She couldn’t believe how sweet it tasted when she had seen me sprinkle in such a small amount of sugar.

Hubby downed his mug quickly, as usual, and came in the living room sadly pointing into his empty mug. He really loves this!

This is a free sample that I won in a Facebook giveaway by Teaves Tea Company. I have held off trying it until my tastebuds were more cooperative because I wanted to give it a fair and thorough tasting.

The aroma of the dry leaves is not simple peach. The very generously sized package says this is oolong tea, osmanthus flowers, jasmine flowers, and natural flavors. I pulled a white chunk out of the dry mix and popped it in my mouth. Mmmmm, pretty sure that was a dried peach bit and it was delicious. But there is something else here, something extra that I can’t put my finger on because I am not as brilliant with flavors as so many of you are. At first I thought it was a hint of vanilla, then I thought chocolate, then BRANDY! I don’t know if I have ever had brandy – I don’t drink because I tried it when I was young and it REALLY wasn’t a good idea for me, LOL! But this is what I imagine a rich brandy would smell like, and I can imagine pulling someone from dangerous frigid waters and pouring this very thing down their throat for immediate comfort and warmth.

Because the sample is so large, I want to try it hot even though they say it is typically enjoyed iced. The first steep is dark for a oolong. I am drinking it from my double walled tiny glass cups and the color is just beautiful. It is a peachy orange amber, so clear and shining. The peach flavor is the dominant one, of course, and I would say this tastes like a hot, bubbling peach cobbler, freshly baked, rather than like a peach just picked off the tree. The jasmine is light and comes across as a sweetness, but it isn’t strong enough to be off-putting to people who don’t like jasmine.

The second steep is fabulous! The color is a little lighter, I would call it a golden peach amber now. And the taste is a little lighter on peach now and the osmanthus is stepping forward and making this taste lemony – a fresh lemon taste, not a tart, puckery lemon taste. It reminds me of the hard candies that come in a little round tin at our local German grocery. A hint of dryness makes me think this would be fantastic for pairing with food.

This was really great! Thank you, Teaves, for the opportunity to try your tea! I plan to try it iced as well, because there is more than enough here to try lots of different ways!

This was the final tea served at tea party today, and I think it was a big surprise for my guest. She used to be a coffee person, then started liking black tea, and seems to enjoy adventuring into other teas now as well.

As soon as she lifted the cup she said, “This smells like butter! Buttered popcorn!” And that hits the nail on the head.

It is still hotly debated whether this is really a green tea as the company has it classified, or whether it is a green oolong, which is what it looks like, tastes like, and acts like. When I called the company, the person who answered the phone said it wasn’t a oolong because they taste roasted. When I told her there are both green and roasted or dark oolongs she said she didn’t know that and would have to look into it.

Whatever it is, it sure is amazing. My guest loved it, as have most of the people who have tried it.

ETA: It looks like Jason Walker reviewed this on his tea blog and called it a wulong.

The second tea of tea party, and always good! Black currant, I believe, caramel, vanilla, and a hint of bergamot. Smooth base and worthy to be named after The City of Lights.

I just took this out of my online cupboard because we just finished off the tin at tea party time! Today, this was paired with one of the most quintessential tea treats – cucumber sandwiches, with crusts off. Of course, we still had our cookie plate as well. We have to have the cookie plate.

This was a nice, solid black tea that isn’t astringent but is very smooth and has enough presence to pair well with food. I shall miss it! I need the check their website and see if they still sell this one.