Awkward Soul

O M G
This tea cold steeped for like 3 hours is AMAZING!

It’s smooth, really buttery, sweet with a hint of cherry and floral. Its taste is like the smell of falling cherry blossoms.

WOW

So good! I wanna guzzle this whole cup down, but I should savor it!

Drinking the last tea bag of this yay!

And oversteeping it as I have no where to put the tea bag! I’d have to go downstairs and fetch a saucer and I’m too lazy right now. I thought I had a saucer up here for emergencys like today.
Now I’m starting to think this kickstarter is a good idea http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/klip/klip-ditch-that-saucer-and-sip-as-you-brew?ref=live
Though, I’ve been doing in mug steeping because I’m out a 2 cup teapot. Maybe I should get just a freaking new tea pot.

Flavor? Actually not going bitter that fast and the coconut flavor is getting stronger. End of the cup the tea is starting too pungent for my liking.

Darn cold! This tea tastes bland and I know it’s not bland! This tea is freaking delicious creamy lemony and bit of lime tastyness!
I even added a couple lemon slices and some honey too! Though, bland is better than bitter – which happened last time I got sick and it got to my sinuses.

Not the most tasteful joke, but it’s my husband and he’s that kind of guy. I was complaining about my sense of taste being out from being sick and he said, “As long as you don’t make your tea with 100 bags”. Uggggg!

Time to save my good teas and switch to lemon, ginger, honey, cayenne brews until I’m better.

This is an interesting tea. It’s a fruity herbal. The pomegranate flavor is quite nice – tastes like pomegranate juice, though much weaker, but the tea finishes off with a bit of raisiny and vanilla flavor.

Totally not a fan of the raisin and vanilla mix with this tea. Tart pomegranate mixed with warmy sweet raisin and creamy doesn’t agree with me. I do love the pomegranate in this tea though. The best application has to be iced as it tastes like pomegranate juice, but with the weird flavors at the end. Worst was cold steeped – it was just pure on raisin tea. Not for me, but I’m sure someone out there will enjoy this tea! Anyways – this tea is in my swap pile, I hope it’ll find a loving new home!

Full Review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/pomegranate-fruit-from-georgia-tea-company-tea-review/
(fyi, prewrote this review before I got a cold, so it’s not my weird sinus cold making the tea taste funny).

DUNDUNDUHHNNNN!

I think I really only crack open this tea when I’m sick. Which I am. NOOO! It was my husband’s fault. He barely gets sick, and when he’s sick its a little sniffle. When the cold is passed to me it’s mutated into much worse.

So, lots of lemon slices and honey in this cup of Earl of Lemon. I think I’m not tasting much. A teeny bit of citrus and sweet. Craptastic! Hopefully my cold hasn’t hit my sinus killing my sense of taste again. Thankfully my lemon tree has gone beserk – I will be raiding it after this post to create delicious KILL COLD tea.

I’m really on a pu’erh kick these days. Something about pu’erh this weekend that has been calling out to me “DRINK ME” and each sip is very delicious and fires me up!

Annnd, lowering the rating on this one, as Butiki Tea’s Three Friends is much better for chocolate orange flavor! However, I think coffee drinkers would prefer this one more for the deep pu’erhness.

Sip down?

I forgot I even had this matcha! This was the first matcha I got, and I didn’t get the tin, so it was in a glasslock container squirreled away in the back of my tea book shelf. (yeah, my teas take up a book shelf)

I made this as a breakfast smoothie with soymilk, soy protein powder, caramel matcha and vanilla ice cream. Very yummy! I might need to get more of this matcha, but we’ll see once I start sipping down the others.

Sip down!

As a latte, with honey and german rock sugar. Adding both honey and german rock sugar has been my sweetener of choice these days. The german rock sugar is good, but the honey adds a little extra flavor. Really nice evening dessert tea.

Drinking this tea while snacking on some korean puffed rice cake. Kinda miss the korean market back home in Vancouver Canada – they had the crazy machine thwacking away making them.

CRAP, forgot to check the tea isle while I was at the korean market!

Having a reward cup of pu’erh after 2 hours of making kimchi.

I was up to my elbows in reddy spicy garlicy sauce! Phew, so much work but so worth it. I used this recipe http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/easy-kimchi

I did a really short steep of 45 seconds, so I can have a lighter cup, but with a bit of tropical flavor. yum! My roommate likes this tea way more than I do, but I love the bold pu’erh taste mixed with tropical combination.

uh oh! I can see the bottom of the tin now!

I made this matcha as a breakfast drink – so soy milk, some ice cream, frozen strawberries, soy protein powder and matcha. yum!

I feel like having adventures today, a sunny saturday in Long Beach! Hmmmm.

I don’t know what is up with pu’erhs, but when I have an icky cough, a few rounds of pu’erh helps out.

This pu’erh is really nice. Oddly, I had a great first steeping which was unexpected. 2nd was too strong, 3rd was tasty! I’m on the 4th now and it this is the best one, next to the first!

Geeze, I’ve been so pooped today. I drank this tea with lunch, finished my blog review, then napped longer than I thought I was going to nap!

Now, after waking up from my nap, I think I’ll need another cup of bursting lychee before I cut off my caffeine for the day. Man, Steep City, not sure what it is, but all the teas I’ve tried are pretty tasty. I love the lychee flavor in this – it’s juicy and even milky like eating a real lychee.

Sweetened and iced, this tea tastes like lychee juice! Very good!

Full review on my blog, the oolong owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/bursting-lychee-from-steep-city-tea-tea-review/

OMG THIS TEA HAD CORN, PEAS, CARROTS AND PEACHES! I have no fear in trying this tea! (though, in the back of my mind I was worried this would taste like veggie broth). Benson, my holland lop, will be very angry if I didn’t buy rabbit themed tea!

Hot, this tea is quite light tasting that is slightly peachy, with lots of buttery vegetal flavors going on. The corn adds some interesting body to to this tea that I’m not sure if I like or not. It’s kinda weird. Sweetened, it really tastes like corn. Weird.

However, cold steeped is where this tea is at! 2 hours in the fridge = magic! The light Rabbit Garden tea becomes this full flavor garden of super peachy and sugar snap peas deliciousness!

Really hard for me to put a number rating on this tea. Hot, it is okay – really light though. Cold steeped is amazing! I will cold steep the rest of my 1oz stash!

Full review on my blog, the Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/a-rabbits-garden-from-della-terra-teas-tea-review/

I was planning on making a strawberry matcha post weight lifting smoothie, but I found some sad looking frozen blueberries in my freezer and decided to do an all blueberry smoothie instead.

blueberry matcha 1/2tsp + soy protein powder + 1.5 cup soy milk + blueberry jam + frozen blueberries + some greek yogurt + ice. phew!

and I inhaled my smoothie! I was so hungry and this doubles as lunch!

I decided to attempt another photo shoot with Benson for the photo contest http://www.butikiteas.com/Contest.html

I chose to use this tea as I should really drink it up, and it’s spring + bunny, hey!

Anyways, I got the bag thrown at me and it got chewed. Now there’s holes in the bag.

Thankfully, I got one good picture and a video evidence of the bag getting chewed and tossed. Benson! My bunny is full of mischief! I’ll link the pic and video once I get it submitted.

Now, I can relax and have some of this tea. I forgot how crazy buttery and full flavored this tea is! yum!!!

SOOOOO GOOOOOOOD!

Really nice chocolate, orange and marshmallow taste in this tea! With a fab black tea base to boot! Totally reminds me of Terry’s Chocolate Oranges and chilling out with my Dad.

I had some interesting steeping observations, I noted on my blog:
I had a few steeping times that were off due to impatience or not paying attention. I accidentally oversteeped it by 30 seconds and the marshmallows really popped out. The marshmallow was interesting, but I preferred a weaker marshmallow flavor. I found at the 3 minute steeping mark you get a good balance of the chocolate/orange/marshmallow. The 2:45 minute mark there is very little marshmallow flavor in the first steeping.

Full review with pics at my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/03/19/three-friends-from-butiki-teas-tea-review/

EDIT: this is my 500th tasting note! WOWZZAAaAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

When I got into my bag of tea I noticed that all the starfruit slices are sticky! Uh oh!!! I’ve never had that happen to tea!

With that said, I should really drink this tea down! This cup wasn’t too bad – I added a bit more extra leaf than normal. The fruityness was improved, but the white base is still unappealing. So disappointing!

What the? Sipdown? I thought I’d have this tea perma stashed.

But it was my last iced tea batch, barely. There’s 1/4tsp of strawberry rhubarb parfait in there. Lots of dusty bits that got steeped – yum, bottom of tin bits!

Very melony for my last iced teas! I made this with both german sugar and a little honey – very tasty! This tea will be missed, or restocked next time I do a DT order. Not sure when that’s gonna be, I already asked my dad to buy me teaware I wanted from the spring collection!

This sample was amazing!

I wish I took pictures of this blend! More if I could capture the smell to show everyone! Very amazing apple scent!

Taste? Great black tea base, loads of natural and fresh apple flavor. I sat there awhile trying to figure out what kind of apple I was tasting. The apple was crisp, like a golden delicious, but the skin tasted sweet like a red delicious or gala. The floral is really low here but melded with the apple.

Love it! I need more of this tea sometime.

Full Review on my blog, the oolong owl. I did a review of the 3 samples I received! http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/ninas-paris-sample-tea-review/

Mmm, Nina’s Japon smelled amazing before steeping!

I do like the combination of the black tea and genmaicha, plus it was creamy! Those flavors really worked well with the creamy, caramel and coconut aftertaste. I’d personally like a little less black in this blend, but I did like the extra depth it added.

This one seemed picky to steep and needs a shorter steeping time.

Full Review on my blog, the oolong owl. I did a review of the 3 samples I received! http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/ninas-paris-sample-tea-review/

I had high hopes for this one – papaya, melon, peach and cream flavors?

However, I didn’t pick up those flavors, maybe a teeny bit – but the black tea base was overpoweringly strong. The black tea was going astringent for me as well.

I’m not sure if this one just lost it’s flavor, or it’s more for a black tea drinker who wants a strong black tea with secret fruit in it! Alas, this one wasn’t for me – I want melon flavor!

Full Review on my blog, the oolong owl. I did a review of the 3 samples I received! http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/ninas-paris-sample-tea-review/

Wooooot! S’mores Genmaicha! I was very excited to see this tea up! Though, my tea no buy plan was unhappy. Pfffff! When a cool 52 Tea comes out, no buys are out the window!

Anyways, I greatly enjoyed this tea and will be buying another package if it ever is reblended! It better be reblended!

This genmaicha is very dark chocolately with marshmallow flavors, with a savory, roasted, little smokey genmaicha. If you had Marshmallow Treat (and love chocolate)

Full Review with lots of pictures at my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/03/16/smores-genmaicha-from-52-teas-tea-review/

gotta run! easter craft fair time!! Whhhheeee! Love bunnies!

Kamba Berry!

This one is a sneaky tea! Purple tea, lots of blueberry going on, some strawberry, little natural sweetness, some puckery tart (making it remind me of cranberry almost), some herbyness, and some dry ginger. The berryness is lovely and I love all the interest with the herby and ginger. The dryness was SNEAKY in making me want to keep drinking! I’m not a huge fan of tart and dry but I enjoyed this tea for the very good berry taste!

Very good iced as well – I think I’ll continue with the rest of my batch iced.

Full Review with lots of pictures (of owl bears attacking my tea) on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/kamba-berry-from-butiki-teas-tea-review/

oh yeah! Made a nice 24oz pot of this tea to enjoy for brunch. Turned out very well – 175F for 4 minutes is perfect!
Cherry, creamy, floral flavor, but when I smell the tea it is really sweet, but doesn’t taste overly sweet!

I was feeling off the last day or two, so I thought this tea would be a nice treat, which it was! yay! /love