ashmanra

This afternoon we sliced a fresh pound cake and put Christmas music on. This week is going to be a bit busy.

Foster puppy has a vet appointment, daughter has an orthodontist appointment, writers’ group is meeting here Thursday night and I want to try to have goodies, my brother is coming to town for a funeral, and I have tea time tomorrow and a couple of students coming Thursday. Friday is our annual soup night with our best friends and I am cooking tons for that, and my son is coming home for ten days. Whew!

So special tea time with my kids? Yes, please! I had this one, and it was wonderful with my cake. This has plenty of bergamot without heading into bathroom cleaner territory like some strong Earls do, and the orange blossom aspect makes it even more delicate and dignified. Delicious.

At one time, all I could get hubby to drink with me was black tea, and only a few of those. He added lots of sugar and milk. Less than a year ago he started drinking – and enjoying – lots of greens and oolongs and even some white and puerh. These teas he takes plain and has no desire to add anything. But even now, if I make a black tea he looks at it with distrust and wants to know what it is. Once he knows it is a kind he likes, in goes the sugar and milk.

Tonight I made a recipe from Pinterest because we are having Christmas soup night Friday and I wanted something “manly” to fill up those guy appetites. The test run for the sandwiches was today, and they were really good. Hubby devoured a number of them, and he was so pleased that I made this tea to go with them.

He loves a good Ceylon and said he seems to prefer the ones from A Southern Season. Fortunately, I have a healthy stock of three different Ceylons that they sell.

The best way I know to describe this tea and is that you take one sniff and say, “Ah! TEA!” This is not one of the super lemony or lightly astringent Ceylons. It is rich and full bodied and SMOOTH. I love it plain – it didn’t need a thing for me – but hubby drank cup after cup with milk and sugar, so if that is your bent, it can certainly handle it!

This was a gift from K S – a Christmas surprise in the mail! I waited to try this one until I was drinking tea alone because A. I wanted to pay attention to it, and B. everyone is picky about their black tea, though hubby likes oolongs and such.

The trouble was that I was having brain freezes all morning. I was too lazy to look up the instructions and somehow had it in my head that Purple tea is black tea. But something was telling me not to treat it like black tea. I still set the kettle for 194F which is way higher than they recommend.

The liquor is pale for a black tea, because remember I wasn’t registering yet that it isn’t black tea. I poured it up and set it by my breakfast plate. Thanks to Ysaurella telling me about Bonne Maman preserves, I grabbed some when I saw them in the grocery last night and had the most delicious raspberry preserves on toast this morning, with a glass of milk. The tea is for afters. :)

When my meal was gone I picked up the cup. I didn’t what to expect with the liquor being an odd color and me having made it “flying blind” as to proper instructions. But I can say this…IT WAS DELICIOUS! The high temp didn’t hurt it somehow, the lackadaisical steep time (hmm, looks like it stopped getting darker I think I will pour this up) didn’t make it bitter, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable cup.

My headache is clearing, I am waking up, and it is going to be a good day!

Last week I had my best friend over for tea. She told me she had never tried my matcha so I made Butterscotch matcha lattes for us. She loved it so much she asked me to place an order for her from Red Leaf, which I was happy to do since I am getting my daughter some matcha for Christmas, and I had a flavor or two that I wanted to try as well. I have almond and cheesecake matcha coming soon!

Today she came again to try some new flavors so she can start picking her next matcha order. This time we tried French Vanilla. I ordered it in Robust flavor level, the large size, of course! You can find it here:

http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/french-vanilla-matcha.html

I mixed a little bit of Turbinado sugar in mix and used my immersion blender to froth the warm milk and matcha mixture. It was delicious! She really loved it, and was especially fond of the aroma of this one.

Later I had a nice surprise. I had made three servings in case hubby wanted some as well, but he didn’t come home until late. The remaining serving was sitting on the counter and by now was cold. I poured it in my mug anyway and drank it. Wow! I liked it just as well cold! That was unexpected, because I really thought a dessert type flavor would be best hot.

I got up this morning and tended to the little foster dog we are keeping for a few weeks. Then I discovered that we are out of English muffins and we don’t have any bagels. I decided to make a little breakfast for my husband and myself since the kids will probably sleep until noon or after since it is the first day of Christmas break.

I made grits, scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast and with the meal we actually drank milk, but I could hardly wait for some tea to follow the meal! It was hard choosing this morning, especially since I wanted hubby to drink with me and he is tea picky. He has generally liked oolongs though, so I gave this one a try with him.

First of all, I love dark or traditional oolongs. I love green ones, too, but the dark ones are heady and addicting to me. And this is a great TKY. I never thought about it this way before, but today as I sniffed the cup deeply I thought it smelled a bit like brown sugar or caramel. There is a lovely lingering aftertaste – that is what makes me crave dark oolongs for days after drinking it once.

This is a great tea, and I am torn as to whether I will purchase more when this is gone or whether I will purchase their Dong Ding, which I finished in record time last time I bought it!

This was a Christmas gift last year from my youngest daughter. I can’t believe I haven’t tried this one before, but I am not a big chai drinker. That being said, this is the sort of chai I prefer – no pepper, no turmeric, but just ginger, cinnamon, and clove as nearly as I can tell.

The tea base seems a bit weak to me. There isn’t much black tea flavor here. I am drinking it plain, but I think that people who add milk and sugar to their chai would enjoy this more than I do. It isn’t terrible, it just isn’t the best chai I have ever had.

The tins are so cool that as each one is emptied, I will probably refill it with a better version of what was inside. So Earl Grey Hot will get Harney and Sons Earl Grey Supreme, this tin will get Rabbit Hole Chai, Zombie Blood Orange will probably get Orange Grove Vanilla, and Timmy’s 1Up Jasmine will get a Teavivire loose jasmine.

Last year I bought some of this for myself and some for my daughter’s fiancé. Back then he really didn’t do loose leaf much. He loved it! So I sent another box. This year I wanted to send more and couldn’t find it anywhere! Finally, I put out an APB on it and a friend found it at the grocery she goes to. We got him two boxes.

I served this as the final tea of tea party today because it smells like mulled cider – a nice, Christmas-y aroma. For a bagged tea, it is pretty good. The shocking thing is that my daughter who does not like black tea AT ALL liked it and drank two cups! She also loves their White Christmas tea, a peppermint white tea blend that is indeed very soothing.

So today, wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, eldest daughter drank not one but TWO black teas and preferred them to the white and oolong teas we were serving. She said her beloved may only get one of the boxes of tea because she may keep the other for herself. I guess I had better head back to the grocery and get her some of both of these Stash offerings!

This is mild for a chai, and reminds me of the Russian Friendship Tea as it was called when I was very young – mostly black tea, orange, cinnamon, and clove, but nothing too strong.

Happy Christmas! Today is Christmas with my eldest daughter because she will be in Ireland for Christmas, so we let her open her presents and have her stocking and we are just spending some time together. In addition, we told her about a puppy that was saved from animal control by the no- kill shelter. She has a broken leg and has pins and wires and screws and a plate and they needed a home for her to recover in, and she really wanted to meet the puppy before she leaves so we picked her up tonight! She is resting in front of the fire with her new toy elephant and has eaten voraciously. Apparently someone forgot to tell the little pup that she is badly injured and must rest. If her leg doesn’t heal properly, it will have to be amputated, so we are praying the fix “takes.” Here she is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24998856@N06/8267840867/

I got to open my gift from my daughter’s fiancé and this was it! I know, I know! What a great guy! We decided to have some after supper tonight as a celebratory cup.

I made it in my new Krups which I positively love and we are using several times a day. The base is sooo smooth, the almond flavor is dominant without being overbearing, and it is sweet and light, even refreshing, on the palate. Good gracious, the French really know how to scent and flavor tea!
This is an elegant cup and I shall enjoy every bit of it!

Even my daughter who does not like black tea is drinking it. She likes it!

Fabulous, smooth, sweet black tea. Gave it to a tea newbie today and he loved it. I noticed that my stock is getting low, and that is a no-no. This will definitely be reordered! It is on the “if you could only have ten teas list.”

Thank you to Twinings for sending three teas of our choice to try! This is the sample I most wanted, based on reviews I have read here on Steepster. I was especially interested in whether this one would resteep.

I was a little surprised when I just read that this is a blend of Chinese teas because I could have sworn I tasted some Indian leaf in this. Then I read that it is Yunnan and southern province teas and it made sense, because there is a lot of assamica varietal in yunnan plus they tend to have a slight maltiness.

This is good. It is smooth. I took it without milk and sugar and it was not harsh. There was a hint of tingling or peppery flavor from the yunnan. It is not premium loose leaf tea but is very drinkable and easy to carry and make, so I think it qualifies as a Cheapster Steepster because….I like the resteep even better than the first steep! It is not strong, no, indeed. But it is now ever so lightly smoky and is even smoother.

This is nothing like the PG Tips or Yorkshire Gold that makes me hide under the bed until it has been tamed with milk and sugar. It is more delicate, but not frail. I doubt it would wake up an Assam lover but it is good mid-morning tea for me!

My samples came! My samples came! And though I have been wanting to try Prince of Wales for a long time, I could not resist this berry flavored black. It was really calling to me.

I don’t remember having a Twinings tea that I disliked. This one definitely lives up to my expectations. It is a very nice berry flavored tea.

I am drinking it plain and hot and it is great, and it really tastes like it would be over the top good iced and sweetened.

The tea base is nice. Of the flavors, cherry is dominant to me, but it could be that red currant is a big factor also. I wouldn’t know since I have never had red currant, and only recently tried black currant for the first time.

This is a really nice cuppa! I wouldn’t mind picking up a whole box.

Our samples came with a coupon code (Mailer) for 15% off through March 30, 2013. Good thing, as I don’t think this one is sold anywhere locally.

Edited to add: Nevermind the coupon code. When you go on their site, they already offer 20% off.

Two of my daughters had tea with me today. Youngest and I had this one – it is a favorite of hers – with Hungarian Embassy cake which is basically pound cake with a streak of cinnamon and brown sugar and chopped pecans.

This is an easy introduction to smoky tea. The blend is very nice and has a lot of body and character, with a little Darjeeling personality thrown in with the smoke. It is a real pleasure to drink.

My best friend had never had unflavored matcha before so I offered to whip some up today. Even using my metal kitchen whisk in a plain cereal bowl I got a really decent froth.

My friend said she felt like she had just had a serving of vegetables. I thought it tasted a bit like buttered kale, although sometimes leafy green veggies can have a bitter taste and you really don’t find that here. She agreed about the taste. This is the veggie goodness. I told her I hoped she was prepared to do some housework with all the energy that would be hitting her in about twenty minutes!

Somehow I had failed to add this to my cupboard. What an oversight because I love this one!

Today I made a new cake to try out some new pans. I bought the half size Bundt pans and though I really should have made my pound cake recipe I decided to try a new recipe called Hungarian Embassy cake. I got the recipe from a friend who was at an embassy dinner over twenty years ago. She loved the dessert so much she asked for the recipe, and then was featured in our local paper for her baking and they ran the recipe, too.

I invited my best friend over for cake and tea. I also wanted a good excuse to use my new variable temp kettle again. The cake has a streak of brown sugar and cinnamon through it, so I thought this would be a good match for it.

My friend was captivated by the honey aroma of the tea. She really loved it. The resteep was just as good, making this an excellent value as well as an excellent tea. It was a great value even without its resteep-ability!

Smooth, honeyed, a tiny tad malty, and utterly delicious, this is a cupboard staple. Teavivre blows me away.

Finally! I have my variable temp kettle! I like the way it looks, especially with the filters in it, isn’t that silly? But it is attractive just as a pot for boiling water, too.

All of this section will be the pros and the facts. First, you can set the kettle on the base any old way. It spins – you can turn the handle how you wish. I find that handy.

The lid comes all the way off for filling and cleaning. (Some brands don’t, and they are harder to fill and clean because of the angle you must hold them.) The lid twists on securely so you don’t have to worry about burning yourself with steam or water as you pour as could happen if a lid popped off.

The lid and filters are plastic but they are BPA free. The dual filter allows you to tout leaves or bags in the small filter, insert into pot with filter raised, then you can lower it when the water reaches your desired temperature. When time is up, simply twist the top and the filter draws up out of the water and you can serve straight from the variable temp kettle if you wish. I bought this just to heat water, though!

The water came to a full boil at about 4 minutes 38 seconds. Testing it against my English kettle on the stove, which was more expensive than the electric kettle and is designed for super fast heating, the electric was a little faster as my stove kettle took 4 minutes 50 seconds to come to a full boil. I have noticed it whistles starting at about 195F so I gave it until I could hear the water rumbling a bit to stop the timer.

One of the deciding features for me – this kettle will hold your temp for ONE HOUR! Most others cut off after 20 or 30 minutes.

The lid and glass must be somewhat insulating because HOURS after I tested the pot I poured out the water and it was still warm. Not tea making warm mind you, but I expected it to be cold by then.

Now the one and only con I have found so far. It only holds one liter of water. I often make two Beehouse pots at a time and on tea party day I make three. One liter doesn’t quite cut it, but I can work around that, especially since I really bought this for gong fu steeping sessions.

Edited to add: Also, it doesn’t beep when it hits the target temperature. The blue light on the base turns red and flashes. I don’t know if that is a pro or a con! Beeping would get annoying, but sometimes I might not be paying enough attention!

So far, I really like it and I am not disappointed!

These are available at Tin Roof Teas and I had waited a long time for them to come back in stock. Just when they did, I found out that none of my kids were coming home for a couple of weeks, and I wanted my kettle yesterday, so I ordered it with a discount coupon code from Macy’s and also got free shipping. LOL! So it all worked out in the end, and I think I am still going to be picking up one more from Tin Roof for a friend!

This was sent to me by Bonnie a while back, and I really, really wanted to brew it gong fu style but I really didn’t want to be tied to the kitchen stove for 18 infusions! I vowed that I would not try it until I had a variable temperature kettle to make it easy. (The ancient Chinese didn’t have to worry about it. They had cast iron warmers with coals beneath that kept the water nice and hot for a long time! I have used my tetsubin in a similar way but a tea light candle doth not make the same heat as coals!)

So, of course my shipping notice said that my new Krups kettle would get here on the day I was going to be out of town ALL DAY LONG. But my neighbor watched for it and snagged it so it wouldn’t be in danger on the porch! And now the tea…

I out 2T in my little thick and easy gaiwan and gave it two rinses as the website suggested. The steeps are about four seconds and believe me, that is enough! The later steeps are my favorite, and quite frankly I feel like I am floating because I have drunk so much tea! Hubby abandoned me several steeps ago so here I am plugging on all alone and drinking it all! They aren’t kidding when they say you can expect about 18 infusions.

The first steeps were a bit astringent because I was having trouble juggling the new kettle and the somewhat awkward place I put it to be near an outlet and getting back to the tray in four seconds! They weren’t bad, just not remarkable. The later steeps are quite good – lots of stone and mineral taste in this with a nice overtone of the apricots and even a little spice like Ceylon cinnamon, the milder sort.

I plan to try it western style very soon! I will also review the Krups. Spoiler: I think I am going to love it, and youngest has already claimed it for making her tea on school days!

Next to Lapsang Souchongs, this is my youngest daughter’s favorite tea. I wanted to make a pot of tea that everyone in the house would like today. I had just made a batch of sugar cookies based on the America’s Test Kitchen/Cooks Illustrated recipe that is supposed to be nearly perfect. (It is.) Hubby got off work early – well, he got off slightly later than he was supposed to, but having just worked one 18 hour day followed by a ten hour day, it felt like “early” and I wanted to have a family tea time to celebrate. Plus, tomorrow is our annual Christmas shopping trip out of town and we are feeling festive!

This was the best choice for an “everyone will drink it” tea. I am not sure, but I think that for the first time, hubby drank a black tea without adding milk or sugar! If so, that is a huge deal. He drinks greens, oolongs, and puerhs without additions, but black tea ALWAYS gets at least some sugar!

Great tea, great cookies, a very nice day!

This was so good yesterday that I just had to have it again today. This was the first tea of tea party, as I wanted a great unflavored black tea to pair with our food. Today we had slices of homemade buttermilk bread, buttered and toasted, then spread with black currant jam, lingonberry jam, and/or Double Devon Cream.

How good was it? It was the only one of today’s teas that my guest requested a second cup and though she liked the other teas, said that this one was her favorite of the day.

Smooth, cocoa-y, hearty without biting, this is indeed a great black tea.

This is the third and final sample from Zen Tea in this round of tastings!

I requested this sample because a young man who works at the big tea company which shall not be named told me that this is one of his favorite teas. He really encouraged me to try it sometime. What better time than now when Zen is offering to let me pick a flavor to try?

I served this at tea party today as our final tea. The last tea is usually served after we have eaten all we are going to eat, so I often choose a flavored tea for that spot.

The dry leaf has an amazing coconut aroma. The wet leaves, when removed from the pot, scared me a little as they had a bitter smell. Nothing to worry, though, because the actual tea was sweet and smooth.

The coconut flavor is really dominant here and tastes very natural and pure. It is just like opening the bag of Baker’s Flake Coconut for the first time, and the smell of the sweet coconut rushes out.
There is nothing bitter or offensive in this anywhere.

Another great tea from Zen!

I was hungry but I have had a moderately angry tummy since yesterday. I wanted black tea with a snack, but I knew I couldn’t drink just any black tea or I risked making things worse. I thought this one from Nature’s Tea Leaf that was sent as a very generous sample (I STILL have some left, thank goodness!) would be just the thing. It is delicious and would satisfy the black tea craving, but it is smooth enough not to upset things further. At times like this, Assams are out of the question for me.

This is an excellent Chinese black tea. I steeped one teaspoon of leaf in 8 ounces water, resteeped, and poured it all in my big Christmas mug. This accompanied second breakfast which was cinnamon toast, heavy on the brown sugar and cinnamon. So yummy! I have really got to reduce my cupboard enough to order several teas from this company. This one and their Dragon Pearl Green are definitely on the list.

I made this by the hot latte instructions they include in the tin. I added Turbinado sugar instead of the six cubes of Demerara. YUMMY! I know this isn’t pumpkin flavored, but the spices in this make it taste like liquid pumpkin pie. I think this is my favorite chai, mostly because it doesn’t taste like other chai I have had. No turmeric, no pepper, just yummy spices. Of course, it doesn’t have chai in the name so maybe it is not really considered one.

Last night I steeped these leaves for one pot of hot tea. Then, thinking about Bonnie’s puerh reviews, I put the leaves in my Bodum iced tea pitcher, filled it with filtered water, and out it in the refrigerator. By the time I was ready for bed, the water in the pitcher was as black as cola and even had bubbles along the sides that made it look carbonated. I decanted the first cold steep and put in more water to see what would happen.

When I got up this morning, the second steep was still pretty pale so I poured a bit in a glass and it was very weak though good. I added a bit of it to that ultra dark first steep.

I tried a glass of that mix, and Oh. My. Goodness. This is the most refreshing thing I think I have ever had to drink in my life. Sometimes a fine white or green tea will have a taste of snow melt to me. This is a whole glass of icy cold fresh pure snow melt with the loveliest aftertaste. Pristine. I really really want to do this some more. This is going to be amazing in summer heat.

Matcha time! My friend came over and had tea with me today, and before she left she was lamenting about how much work she needed to do when she went home. I suggested that she try a matcha latte and see if that gave her a boost of energy. It must have worked, or it just tasted really great, because she is texting me right now picking what flavor she is going to buy, what size, what flavor level. I told her that picking the flavor is the hardest part for me because there are so many tempting ones.

This review will be about my latte, however, not hers! You can get the matcha right here:

http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/belgium-chocolate-matcha.html

I bought this one in Robust flavor level to mix with peanut butter to see if I could get a Reese’s peanut butter cup flavor, but I also wanted to try this one by itself as a hot cocoa substitute.

For this particular latte I made it the lazy way. I poured one cup of milk into a two cup Pyrex measuring cup. I added a spoonful of Turbinado sugar, which I am finding goes really well with the lattes. (I have to consume it all because I tried it in the kids’ drinks and they swear it tastes different from other sugar and they don’t want it in their drinks!)

When the milk was hot I used a plain kitchen strainer to sift 1/2 teaspoon of matcha into the cup. Then I just whisked it with a regular Kitchenaid brand metal whisk. I got a good froth, I suppose because it is milk instead of water. That helps!

This tastes good and creamy. I had to add extra milk because it was a little strong and you don’t want to add TOO much of the flavored matcha. The taste suffers. The good thing is that means you can use less and make MORE matcha lattes! It doesn’t taste exactly like hot cocoa, but it does taste like a hot drink that is chocolate, if that makes sense. This isn’t a kid’s kind of chocolate flavor, but rather a more adult one.

I do think I will order this in a milder flavor level next time, but for now I will just add more milk than usual to my lattes.

My best friend really loves puerh tea and I wanted to have some more today to keep trying to counteract all the holiday food, so I invited her over. Of course, I made apple dumplings to go with it, so how much did it help? LOL!

The instructions on the bag call for a great deal of tea and a rather short steep of 1-2 minutes. I put a bit less tea than called for and steeped it just over two minutes. The resulting tea is rich and dark dark dark – as dark as coffee. But it is oh so good. There is a cedar oil aftertaste to this one that I love.

Bonnie mentions cold steeping her puerh, so I only made one pot with these leaves and then put them in cold water in the refrigerator. It is already so dark! I can’t wait to see how I like it.