atuinsails

I just want to stick my head in the bag. Lovely fresh smell. I love the ziplock bag with the color coding on the outside. I am following their directions for this first cup. I’m also using the ingenuitea, which is almost exactly one cup, but I will probably be doing multiple infusions, just to get an idea of how long this lovely stuff lasts.

So, first infusion, boiling water, steeping approximately five minutes, 2 tsps of peppermint tea per cup, and we have an almost over flowing soup mug. That smells delicious. BTW, there is never going to ever be anything cooler than the ingenutiTEA. At least until I find the next afforadable gadget. The color is just right, a mossy brown, and the smell is just divine. Taste is strong. Very strong to begin with. My sinuses are thankful, but for a minutes I thought I was going to have to get the honey pot, but then it settled. Very smooth but strong.

Second infusion, same tea, boiling water: Color is much lighter. The smell is a little sweeter. Not a lot of taste.

I need to try this with just one teaspoon of tea.

I had exactly two tea bags left of both the cinnamon apple and the chamomile. So I decided to brew all four bags together. Will be drinking them while working on the next project, so, ya know

First cup: Lovely color and delightful smell. Smells like a dessert. The first taste is not very desserty, but there is a tartness there that I like.

Second cup: Less smelly, but the taste is more fruity. I can also, just barely taste the chamomile. Still rather tart on the back end of the swallow. Very tasty.

Third cup: Very little smell, but the taste is very tart with something more of apple than was in the other two cups. What I thought might be the chamomile is gone.

While this is really nice, I don’t think that cinnamon apple herbal tea is my cuppa. It does make me want to try the spiced apple chai I have coming from adagio.com.

Brewing with cinnamon apple, see next tasting note.

The flower is very pretty. The color, even after seven minutes is very light. I tried shewhoreads’s suggestion and followed the directions at the link she gave me on a comment to an earlier tasting note involving raspberry green tea. After navigating that sentence, I think it might be cool enough to sip.

First cup: Smells very pretty. The tea tastes very floral and sweet, but still need to cool. After taking the flower out, I can see the tea has a very light yellow green color. Still smells pretty, and I can really taste the jasmine. There is some astringency that might be tea behind it but it tastes kind of like hot jasmine water.

Second cup: Still smells pretty. Definitely more of a traditional tea taste in this one. First thing you taste is jasmine, then as you swallow, I’m guessing the green tea kicks in. Just not sure if it supposed to be this weak. It still tastes mostly like hot water.

Third cup: Still smells pretty, but with less jasmine taste. If that is what green tea tastes like, why do so many people like it? This is not the same tea note under the raspberry green tea from celestial seasonings. In fact, this is pretty much unpalatable. It leaves my mouth kind of dry from the astringent nature of the tea. I knew this flowering tea was most likely old since I recieved a huge amount with the flowering tea set that I ordered from woot.com, but this is just kind of ridiculous.

No more green tea experiments until I can find something that is like real green tea. Or at least not something that I don’t know when it was prepared.

So, I have actually had this before, but that was a week ago. Mainly because the taste was overwhelmed by the raspberry. So, three bags in a three cup pot (reduce the raspberry taste maybe), and the water wasn’t quite boiling (just beginning to bubble with that low roaring sound). If someone would like to comment on the water temperature and how to tell when the water is appropriate for green tea without actually using a thermometer, I would be appreciative.

So, first cup: lovely reddish brown and smells of raspberries. However, I wouldn’t really know what green tea smells like, so maybe that other smell that is kind of hiding behind it is the green tea. The taste is a little on the tart side of raspberry. BTW, I can not express how much I needed this cup of tea. Not really caring about the taste at this point. It is warm and wet and the ritual of making it comforts me.

Second cup: with the sinus dragon now defeated by Knight Tea, the taste is more tart (tarter?) than the last. But I can also taste something under the tartness that just might be green tea.

Third cup: slightly more astringent. Definitely more of a green tea taste. I really need to try this stuff without anything mixed in. Since I’m not sure exactly who bought or gave me this tea (I didn’t buy it), I’m been trying to get used to the idea of actually trying green tea, which I’ve only had iced and did not like.

Will look into acquiring actual green tea. As for this, I like it but I think next time I’ll go back to four tea bags to a pot. The tart is nice, but I prefer the sweet too, and that I got with the four bags I used previously.

I just had one tea bag left, so I nuked this in the microwave. I very rarely do this except for single bags. That, and I didn’t have anything that I wanted to brew it with, which is usually the fate of such sad, lonely tea bags.

Only cup: Gorgeous smell. Taste is almost too astringent. This tea bag might have been a little on the old side, because I keep imagining I taste the paper bag on the back end. Half way through the cup, the taste of the peel shows up. I know it’s weird, but I like that kind of bitter citrus taste. Unless I find something better, this is going on my shopping list.

This is the first time drinking this tea. I haven’t tried a decaf before. I’m using four tea bags for this tea pot. The tea pot usually give me three cups plus one bag for the pot. I might reuse those teabags later, but I doubt it.

First cup: interesting. I’m not getting a lot of sweetness (just finished a slice of coconut pie) or flavor. Kind of like drinking warm scented water. The tea smells of chamomile.

Second cup: Tea still smells of chamomile. At first taste, it’s a very weak herbal tone, then the finish is a more stringent “tea” taste that was missing from the first cup.

Third cup: Not sure if the lack of taste is because of the decaffeination or if it’s a tea bag. Will definitely save the bags for another brew. Surely, green tea is supposed to have more taste than this.

The first cup smells light and delicate, while the first taste is really bland. I’m going to leave the tea flower in for just awhile longer. By the way, the flower is very pretty.

The second cup is much darker and the smell is less floral and more tea like. The taste is more vibrant. Having never had earl grey before, I can only say the taste is not like any of the tea I currently own.

The third cup is darker, I can see now that some tea got left behind in the teapot. The color is darker, and the tase richer. Definitely liking this now. I’ll have to try some real earl grey tea.