atuinsails

Since I was pretty sure I was going to love this just from the smell, I immediately made a three cup pot when I got home from shopping this evening. The smell of fresh, hot blueberry muffins filled the kitchen when I poured the first cup.

The taste in the first two cups was not as intense as I thought it would be. It was very berry, but not blue berry. Then I added some honey to the second cup, and the blueberry flavor just popped for me. I could taste the honey as well, but instead of masking the flavor of the blueberries it seemed to bring it out.

The last cup was the same. I’m so happy I picked this up this evening.

I think one of the things I’m beginning to like most about loose leaf tea is that every time you brew it, the tea tastes a little different. This time the smell was more like fruit loops but the taste had less citrus to it.

Still yummy, just a little different.

I tried to ice this, but pouring the hot tea over the ice didn’t really work. Will try again because even luke warm and kind of diluted, this tea is still very yummy.

Lovely peppermint tea to sooth my sinuses and try to control this horrible cold.

Horrible cold and sinus congestion meets peppermint tea, and peppermint tea knocks it out. I feel so much better. Definitely having another cup later.

So I think I’ve finally hit on the best way for me to drink this chai. 2tsp of tea/cup, and I did a slightly better job of measuring the boiling water when I put it in the ingenuitea. I prepared my cup by putting a tsp or so of crystallized honey and say about a fourth of a cup of milk into my mug.

When I let the tea drain into my mug, it almost over flowed, but the temperature was just hot enough to melt the honey, and it was drinkable after a few stirrings. It was very milky, and I guess it was what you could call a chai latte. It was good. The apple flavor was right there in front, not masked by the honey, and the spice caused the slightest tingle on my lips and tongue.

Very drinkable, so I’m going to bump the rating.

By steeping this earl grey for 2 minutes instead of 3 I suddenly have some thing yummy I can drink without additions, well except for a teaspoon of honey. However, that is just to round out the bitterness at the end of the cup. Not sure why the last swallow was so bitter, but I was able to do a second steep, and that last swallow was bitter as well, even with the honey. Still, I enjoyed it enough to bump the rating..

I’m just a little afraid of this. I’ve had chamomile tea in a bag before, but the loose tea was just too much. I’ve decided that I need to taste the rest of the tea in my possession, so I thought I would try it again in the bag.

The smell of the tea bags is like the loose tea, but not nearly as strong. I’m brewing this in my three cup pot.

First cup: A lovely, almost golden color. The smell is sweet, unlike the loose tea. Starting to feel a little better about this. First sip — can taste the vegetation but it’s not nearly as intense.

Second cup: Pretty much as the first. I wish I had brought the honey with me, but I usually don’t put honey in my chamomile. For some reason, I feel overly sensitive to the taste. I keep expecting to take a sip and get that horrible cabbage like taste I got from the loose chamomile flowers. I’m not sure why, but I do.

There will be no third cup. I used to like chamomile just on its own, but not anymore. Especially, since I usually find something far more tasty and exciting in my tea cup nowadays.

So I wanted to try a less complicated chai after trying the spiced apple chai. This tea bag smelled like a carrot cake. One of the really nice ones with lots of yummy spices. I put one tea bag in a cup and microwaved for two minutes then steeped for three.

The taste was more bitter than spicy. Milk definitely made it better, but when I added honey, it was kind of like drinking spice cake.

I kind of forgot to time this for green tea. So, what I have is very raspberry like. I like it.

So I tried this with milk and honey. I started off with just milk, say a tablespoon or so. I could still smell the vanilla, but the woody taste was still there. Adding the honey seemed to overpower the vanilla smell again, but it also completely covered the woodsy flavor. With both the milk and the honey, the entire taste mellowed into this slightly unsweetened caramel flavor with just a hint of vanilla in the aftertaste. I think I finally found how I want to drink this tea. I was also thinking I might try blending this will the blood orange, but that is for another day.

This never starts getting old. Yummy!

I used two tsps as suggested. The smell of the raw tea is something like dark chocolate. So imagine my surprise when I taste it for the first time. It was kind of like bitter, raw cabbage. Some honey helped, but this is nothing like any bagged chamomile I’ve ever drank. I tried milk as well, but the milk and the taste of green vegetation turned my stomach.

I really want to like this, and I suppose I need to try it with less chamomile, or maybe blend it with something else.

The experiment continues.

The smell of the raw (is that appropriate?) tea is very lemon but in a sweet sort of way. I used the boil the water then wait 2 minutes to approximate 180F, and then steeped for three minutes for 1 tsp of tea. The tea really unfurled, but I wasn’t seeing much of a color to the tea itself.

The tea smells less lemony and a little more like cut grass. While not unpleasant, it is not a very strong smell. At first, the taste is lemon, then just hot water at the end. Nice, but not really what I’m looking for. There is this ephemeral taste on the back end that get maybe every other sip that I guess is the green tea.

That taste is getting stronger the deeper into the cup I go and the lemon is lingering more in the aftertaste. I’m still not sure I completely like this tea. It’s good, but I think I should try this iced. I bet it’s really quite refreshing iced.

Oh, wow, I think I finally hit the green tea. That’s interesting. Slightly bitter but without the astringency I normally associate with bitter tea. Not sure if I like this flavor. It isn’t bad or horrifying. I certainly like it fine, just not sure if I want to pay for “like it fine.”

Decided to brew this in my three cup pot. Not really liking the mesh strainer in this thing. It’s kind of hard to clean. But, 4 tsp. of tea made for a wonderful pot. My sinus headache is almost gone, and I feel so much better. Definitely going to have to get the bigger ingenuitea and put this on my must have list.

I like this so much I decided to try it in my larger, three cup pot. So three heaping tsps, boiling water, and a five minutes steep (Hoping to get another infusion if I steep this for less time). Lovely red color. Lovely taste as swell. This is definitely going to stay on the shelve, unless I find something better.

So I tried brewing this with 1 heaping tsp instead of 2 like the directions suggest. Much milder. I didn’t taste the apple this particular time, and there was a bitterness that went away after I added some milk, but it tasted much better than last time. I don’t think this is going to be my favorite. I still need to do some experimenting :D.

Even with milk and honey I am having a problem with this tea. There is an underlying bitterness that I find distasteful. I don’t usually have a problem with bitter citrus flavors, but this time I do. I’m going to adjust my steeping time to see if that helps.

So experimenting with 1 tsp versus 2 tsp. I would have to say that if I were having a problem with my sinuses, I would definitely go with 2 tsps, but for just a lovely cup, 1 tsp is much smoother and tasty. 2 tsp is so strong that it has a medicinal taste that using less tea changes into yummy. Bumping up my rating.

The smell of the raw tea is amazing. The directions say one heaping tsp/cup with a steeping time of 5-10 minutes with boiling water. I’m going for the max steeping time because even with a heaping tsp, it doesn’t look like much. Maybe my heaping is not adagio’s heaping. Who knows.

First infusion: The smell is more floral than citrus. That must be the hibiscus. The first taste is tart but is balanced by a sweetness that complements the tart. Very well balanced. This has the distinction of being the very first loose leaf tea that I don’t need to add anything to or experiment with. Definitely going on my will need more of list. The only thing that could make this better would be just a hint of spice. Maybe I should try blending this with the spiced apple chai.

Second infusion: Very little color to the tea, but the smell has more of a citrus smell. Not a lot of taste, though. I guess this is a one infusion preparation.

This tea smells delicious as soon as you open the pouch. I used the instructions — 2 heaping tsp of tea/cup, boiling water, and five minutes of steeping time.

First infusion: This tasted very astringent and tart, with an appleness toward the end. After the second swallow, I added a tsp of honey. And the apple taste went away completely. What was left was very tea and slightly bitter. So I added some milk, and then the apple taste back and the tea was delicious. Very weird. My daughter liked it more than I did I think.

Second infusion: This didn’t need any additions. There was some tea and spice taste, but it only really came through with a lot of slurping.

I think from now on, I’m going to reach for milk instead of honey if the tea needs something to make it more tasty. Definitely going to do some experimentation to find out if there is some way to drink this without anything. It smells so good, surely there is some way to drink this without an addition.

So at first sniff, the dry tea smells like vanilla coffee. My daughter thinks it smells chocolaty. I was very ambivalent. I brewed it using the directions: 1tsp of tea/cup, boiling water, five minutes of steeping time.

The first smell was gorgeously vanilla and something else that my husband said smelled like a cookie. The first taste was kind of like licking a piece of wood that smelled like vanilla. My husband also agrees. Once I added a teaspoon of honey, the tea became drinkable, but the smell of the vanilla went away. There was this vaguely coffee taste with a woody finish. I never imagined that anything could taste woody, but this definitely has a woody taste (and not oak or pine my friends).

With honey, it isn’t bad, and I will probably finish it unless I decide to see if anyone wants to swap me anything else, but unless I find a better way of using it, like putting it in a cookie, this will be last rooiboss vanilla I drink.

Maybe I just need to try a different rooiboss, any suggestions?

The smell of the unbrewed tea is just fabuous. I followed the directions on the bag — 1 tsp of tea, boiling water, steep for three minutes.

First infusion: very astringent. I can see why people use this as a substitute for coffee. I had to add honey before I could take more than a few sips. Once I did that, suddenly the orange notes started to appear. Wow, that is just yummy and good.

Second infusion: I made the mistake of adding honey before tasting. Again with boiling water and steeping for three minutes. Mmmm, just on the too much side of sweet. It is still astringent, but not like the first infusion. I really need to try the second infusion without honey.

I definitely like this. I’m going to do some experiments with steeping time to see if I can get something that I feel comfortable drinking without honey, but this is pretty good as is.

There is nothing cooler than this gadget for me right now. At least until I get the bigger size. I’m just too used to drinking a pot of tea (my fave pot holds three cups), especially at tea times. Getting a big mug all at once is enjoyable, but I think it might become frustrating at meal times.