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Thanks out to Rachel Sincere for a surprise sample of this!

I’ve been craving chocolate all yesterday evening and this morning! Hope this tea hits the spot!

DRY: Lots of big chunks of raspberry and chocolate chips! Though, some of my chips started to melt as it was 30c / 85f in my house when I got this tea in the mail. I got mad later in the day and made my husband turn on the AC.

STEEPED: nice amber brown colour. Smells like black tea, tart raspberry and something earthy.

TASTE: Great black tea that is not bitter or astringent. Delicious raspberry is there, with no tartness! Also a nice warm chocolate to compliment. I find the black tea is more up front here, with raspberry and chocolate right behind but still going strong.

Sweetened, the chocolate and raspberry come out to the front – almost getting creamy. I think I like this unsweetened as I enjoy the black tea base more that way.

WHO’D LIKE THIS TEA: Those fruity tea peeps, I know you are out there! Chocolate lovers too! Also this is a great black tea, so don’t be scared to step up and try it non black tea drinkers!

COMMENTS: MMMmm tasty! Enjoyed this tea to the last drop! I love the black tea in this, so dang good! Having raspberry and chocolate was just icing on the cake! I’ll probably end up ordering this in the future!

I bought a new cute sakura print tea pot from Dasio for $4 – holds about 12oz of tea, which is perfect for me. I really wanted a nice green to test the pot out.

The tea pot did good, but the infuser insert was meh, so I got chunks in my tea. But they were delicious chunks! Pistachio Ice Cream is soo creamy and nutty and lots of yum! I drank this while eating a late breakfast. I immediately resteeped the leaves for something to sip on while I modpodge some tea tins. The resteeping wasn’t as creamy but still amazing. I didn’t sweeten this tea again as its pretty good as is!

Cookies and Cream Matcha – Black Matcha base

What kind of oreo person are you? I was one of those double stuff gals, who would take two double stuff oreos missing a top and combine them into one quadruple stuff oreo! YEAH!

So, I am the adventurous type and customized my Red Leaf matcha to be made as black matcha, which is ground up black tea. I do love my black tea, especially blended with other flavors. Black tea + chocolate + cream = win!

My matcha specs:

Cookies and Cream black matcha
http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/cookies-and-cream-matcha.html
Quality: Black Matcha
Flavor: Robust
Small Tin

I’ve been choosing Robust flavoring as I find it pretty strong and with a background taste of the matcha. Of course, the tin is great as it keeps the matcha safe and easy to scoop from. I have one matcha I didn’t get a tin for and I’ve often got some on my hands reaching into the bag and made a mess.

The matcha powder is light chocolately colour, looking tasty! A strong chocolate liqour and a mysterious zesty black tea smell.

Prepared as a traditional matcha, the froth is a little hard to achieve, and does not linger for long. The colour is again a light chocolate. The taste is a bitter strange, some astringency, but also a mysterious creamy note. At the end of my sip, there is a strong black tea taste. Strong as in if you over steeped a cup of black tea or added too much leaves in in some ambitious plot to make it taste more like the flavoring. This was a pour out for me as it was just too bitter strong crazy for my liking. Maybe black matcha needs to be prepared at a different temperature than green matcha?

In another attempt, I whisked another batch up, but instead of more hot water I added a teaspoon of sugar and topped it off with hot soy milk. Now, this is much much better! Creamy, lightly chocolately and oreo filling taste! There is a slight black tea aftertaste similar to the traditionally prepared cup but goes with the whole experience. At times I can totally taste I’m drinking cookies and cream ice cream, but other sips I’m reminded this is black tea. I love it! This totally is one of the best black tea lattes I’ve had!

I’m thinking I’d love to do this as a smoothie – blend this up with milk, ice, sweetener and top with some smashed oreo cookies. Or, I could take the cookies and cream latte to the next level with whipped cream and cookie crumb topping! Yeah.. I need to watch my figure, so I’ll stick to the basic latte or smoothie.
I probably will never buy any oreo cookies because I’d eat them all, so maybe a scoop of low fat cookies and cream ice cream on top? I’d love to have some cookie chunks with this matcha!

Overall, I don’t recommend Cookies and Cream black matcha base as a traditional cup, unless I’m failing at preparing this correctly. As a latte, pretty solid and delicious, especially if you are a black tea drinker.

Feeling very full from this matcha done as a smoothie. This matcha tastes deliciously strong green tea and earthy. The sugar buster matcha has a slight natural sweet taste at first, then the sweetness disappears off my tongue. It’s like the opposite effect of stevia to me (which taste like nothing, then hits the back of my throat sweet) but much less sweet.

I did a full picture loaded review on my blog, http://bunnyjiujitsu.wordpress.com/2012/09/15/sugar-buster-matcha/

Some additional notes for my fellow steepsters: found this matcha hard to achieve froth, but did fine as a latte. Very mild taste off regular matcha, though I did get the delicate flavoring. The sweetness effect is interesting, with a resulting astringency effect but on my tongue. I don’t taste any sweetness post drinking this. FUNKY!

WAHHHH!

I had a brutal Brazilian jiu jitsu practice today. There was a penalty for not getting up correctly (you have to get up a certain way so when you are up you are less likely to get tossed off balance / ready to fight / uses less energy) and if one person messes up, both them and the partner has to sit down and get up properly. Each time, it goes up by 10 reps. So my partner screws up right at the end and we had to do 90 times! WAHHHH! I did it though!

So I’m really busted up and tired out and dying for a good cup of ice tea. I hit the local conveyor belt sushi joint and their cold green tea was oversteeped bitter hell.

I got home and mango was calling to me http://youtu.be/d9wOuSyralQ

I prepared this iced, with a bit of agave. Nice real natural mango flavor and refreshing! Slightly nutty and a quiet background of rooibos. I’m not a rooibos person and found Mango Lassi is a really good iced tea.

I need to try this hot, but Uggg so hot here and I’m too thirsty. I’ll do another official tasting note sometime. Right now I’m going to soak in a heavy salted bathtub sipping this tea, Bai bai!

I snagged this matcha during a sale! This is the fourth matcha I’ve tried from Red Leaf Teas http://www.redleaftea.com/
As a quick rundown, Red Leaf teas matchas are very flexible and you can select the strength of the flavoring, matcha quality or type of matcha. I’m a fan of “Robust” flavoring as you get a big hit of flavor with a good matcha base. What I ordered:

Bavarian Cream Matcha
http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/bavarian-cream-matcha.html
Quality: Starter (Basic Grade)
Flavor: Robust, because I wanna drink some strong vanilla custard!
Small tin
I really recommend to get a tin with your order, unless you already have good sealing tins. The matcha comes in a non resealable gold foil bag.

If you don’t have much in matcha preparation gear, the most important thing is to sift the matcha. I use a fine mesh tea strainer. I do this for every matcha I prepare. Other gear you need is a ½ teaspoon and a small whisk. The bamboo whisks work amazing but a small wire one will do in a pinch.
Matcha is very flexible in preparation – I often make iced lattes with a blender bottle intended to mix protein powder drinks, which is fast, easy and achieves lots of froth!

The smell of bavarian cream matcha is strong creamy with a hint of lemon. The lemon was a surprise to me as I was expecting more of a vanilla custard cream puff taste. The colour of the matcha is a rich green.

For a traditional cup of hot matcha, I used just under 1 teaspoon, whisked in a little 180f hot water to bring to a nice froth and a little extra hot water to taste. For this matcha, I found the froth was just not happening for me today. I’m thinking with stronger flavored matchas the froth isn’t as easy to achieve since I can get a great froth with my delicate caramel matcha, but my robust cheesecake matcha preforms similar to this one robust bavarian cream one.
The taste of the traditional matcha is creamy, smooth with an excellent green tea base. A lemon taste lingers in my mouth after my sip. Sweetened with a little white sugar, the citrus turns brighter, like a lemon drop candy. To me, it was more lemony than custard.

For my favorite iced matcha recipe, I added just under a teaspoon of sifted matcha, about 1 or 2 teaspoons of sugar, 4 ice cubes and about 300ml of soy milk to my blender bottle and gave it a good shake. I got 1.5 inches of tasty foam. The taste, AMAZING! Very creamy custard taste! The lemon taste is now subdued, but there in the background to add interest and dimension, like adding lemon zest to a pie. I can’t taste much matcha surprisingly, but I don’t care as drinking about 90 calories of custard is total win!

Overall, of all the flavored matchas I’ve tried so far, this one is now hands down my favorite latte! For traditional prepared matchas, it’s pretty good, but find it not as close to its intended flavor as the lemon comes out more than I like. I can see Bavarian Cream matcha going well with cheesecake or caramel matcha.

Another Butiki tea sample!

This one looks very promising. I’m a sucker for florals and pretty looking teas! Also wanted something that had multiple infusions so I can hammer away at the Shawl of Dooom while having multiple cups of tea! Oh, funny thing is I finished knitting the lace section and thought “hey, this would look better longer” so I decided to extend the lace because I’m freaking crazy.

STEEPED: As I was pouring the tea from my steeper into my cup, an amazing floral and sweet strawberry smells came swirling up. HOT DAMN I’D WEAR THIS TEA AS PERFUME! Also a very pretty tea with the tiny pink flower bits. Tempted to just sit here and smell this tea instead of drink it! oh, is a gold cup of tea.

TASTE: One sip and I was drooling! Smooth, floral and a burst of strawberries that explode and cover the whole mouth. No bitterness, tart or astringency.
Sweetened, Strawberry Oolong tastes less floral, but the strawberry is sweet (duh). I like this tea unsweetened more I think, but both pretty good.

Second Steeping: Smells more sweet strawberry than floral to me, however tastes more floral oolong. Still tasty! Not bitter or astringent.

WHO SHOULD BUY THIS TEA NOW: ME! HAHAHAHAHAA! I haven’t even finished the first cup and I wrote this tea on my list for my next order.
Okay okay, this one is great for a floral tea lover, but a black tea sweetener type would also enjoy this tea as a venture into oolongs. The oolong isn’t strong so a peep into flavored greens or whites would like this too.

COMMENTS: Best strawberry tea I’ve had! The strawberry is not tart or fake. I need more!

I woke up determined to get through most of the Butiki tea samples I have before I make an order. You know, so I don’t miss anything I need. Almond Indulgence is one I’ve been saving. Sounds yummy, I love almond cookies, but sometimes nut teas are hit and miss for me.

STEEPED: Very pretty to steep with the pink flower bits! A nice brown tea that smells of nutty cinnamon!

TASTE: Very smooth! Light flavored earthy and nutty. Slightly cinnamony. No bitterness or astringency.

Sweetened, smells like almond cookies! The almond comes out a bit more – real almond not fake extract stuff. I think I like this tea sweetened since I have a sweet tooth, hehe!

WHO’D LIKE THIS TEA: Peeps who like cinnamon teas that aren’t overpowering. Lightly flavored black tea lovers. Someone wanting a nutty tea that isn’t fake tasting.

COMMENTS: Yum! I was hoping for a more flavor blast, since I do like strongly flavored black teas, but this is expertly done.

Mmmm, blueberry tea! My fav blueberry teas are by DT – White Tiger and Blueberry Jam. But this is a purple tea? Ultra fun! Thanx to Stacy @ Butiki for this sample on my last order!

STEEPED: low saturated brown colour, very interesting! Smells like sweet blueberries. After steeping, the leaves look pretty smushy.

TASTE: Floral, blueberries and light to moderate astringency. Very tasty aftertaste of blueberries. I’ve never had purple tea – with this it is kinda earthy but light. Like a really earthy green.

Sweetened, the blueberries come out in a mellow warm honey like form and less astringency.

EDIT: second steeping, no sweetener needed! The purple tea held up and is not astringent anymore with a good aftertaste of blueberry that is sweet! This purple tea stuff is intriguing.

WHO’D LIKE THIS TEA: someone looking for something a little different. Blueberry tea peeps should try this to change up having the typical white or black blueberry tea.

COMMENTS: Pretty fun tea! I’d love to have more than a sample to play with the steeping times to minimize the astringency.

Drinking so much tea today!

Woot, I won first place in the Butiki unflavored tea giveaway! Drinking my winnings away now starting with Gui Fei Oolong!
I’m sipping tea, listening to the new Devin Townsend Epicloud album and working on the knitted shawl of dooom! 12 rows left (that are 300+ stitches long with beading)! Nice and relaxing!

DRY: Kinda floral, sweet, and fruity.

STEEPED: Oolongy nutty woody and lots of other smells. Pretty complex.
I did the recommended 4 minute steep for my first steeping.

TASTE: I can pick out a great nuttyness, subtly sweet honey and a roasty taste almost. The honey note sits on my tongue, yum! No astringency or bitterness.

Second steep I did for 8 minutes at 175f, and it was much sweeter and fruity! Amazing! A slight slight astringency is starting to peek out, but no bitterness still. I could drink this steeping all day! Next time I’ll do the first steeping at 8 minutes.

COMMENTS: mmmm very tasty! I chose this tea because Kittena did a long steep saying it tasted like ice wine. MMm ice wine! Reading the description of this tea… “green leafhoppers are allowed to bite the tea leaves..” OMG bugs ate this tea?? I wonder how they rigged it so the bugs didn’t eat all the tea? I know if my bunny ate part of anything he’d leave broccoli and fur notes instead of honey notes!