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Thank you Dhart 1214 for this sample tea

Earlier today I drank a delicate tea, the kind that reminds me of Spring and the first flowers in the garden, a soft warm breeze and iced tea. It was jasmine and peach.

This evening, I chose a blueberry black tea to drink while listening to the rain outside. Blueberry and black tea sounded good.
It was interesting to see big snowflakes falling higher up in the mountains so early while watching the News on TV. SNOW!
Then I remembered last year and the freaky snow storm in October that hit early before the trees had lost their leaves. We live in an age of unpredictability. Pretty soon…!

I enjoy making a pot of tea and fixing a tray in the evening.
I set the tray on my coffee table (which is really an extra long Pottery Barn bench the length of my sofa) and keep pouring cups of tea. My April Cornell tea cozy’s keep the tea hot. (You can get them online for $14 reversible and $7 on sale)

Wow this tea was strong. I’d almost swear this was a Scottish Breakfast tea with some blueberries. It was strong and a little smoky too. Not for the faint of heart to be sure.
Straight away milk was added and some sweetening which set things right. The blueberry flavor enhanced the black tea with a dark, ripe fruitiness without adding sweetness.

The briskness of my initial tasting was so strong that the additions were necessary in my opinion. They created a decent European style tea. (Going forward, I would choose this for my morning tea and not for the evening.)

I’m totally awake now and not likely to sleep for hours, so I’ll have to find a good English mystery on Netflix to finish the last cup with.

Good evening all!

Thank you Dhart1214 for this big tea sample!

Just opening the foil bag and inhaling the dry aroma of this tea was enough to tempt me this morning. Dry tea doesn’t impress me 90% of the time. I ‘LOVE’ the aroma of wet leaves! I can sit, letting my tea get cold while sniffing away at a bunch of stewed leaves, yes indeed.
Scents that do arouse interest are jasmine and osthmanthus. Add some peach and citrus…well…I’m all in, waiting for the steep to finish so that I can sip the heavenly ambrosiac nectar.

After I emerged from the scent cloud, I was ready to taste the soft peach colored tea.

The flavor was like a jasmine silver needle white tea with a blush of peach flavor and more predominate tangerine citrus taste just below the jasmine. I thought it was cleaver not to make the tea too peachy and predictable. The tangerine kept the tea bright.

I was going to serve some of this to granddaughter Schey but she won’t drink it. No peach for her ever.
She picked peaches for a week with her mom and sisters in Fresno one Summer as a part of Gleanings (where you pick fruit for Food Banks). She picked so many peaches in the hot sun that it makes her sick to look at peaches. (that and the bugs did it!)
My first job in High School was at a Dunkin Donut shop and I still don’t care for donuts so I understand!

I like this tea though. Pretty good and refreshing. Wish I had it earlier in the season though. It would make a good Spring/Summer tea. (I don’t see it listed on their site any longer.)

Thanks you Terri Harp Lady for this sample tea!

Rain, Rain finally Rain! I’m happy it’s here!

I just noticed that the condo entrance median outside has two apple trees filled with small apples that I hope have a chance of becoming something wonderful to eat before the snows this year!
I noticed the bushes have suddenly turned red and overnight,the big tree across the street turned bright yellow-gold.
Because I’m halfway up to the clouds here at 5000 feet, they seem grander and closer to the ground. Huge, billowy, purple blue monster clouds came rolling over the higher Rocky’s with Spielberg-like special effect movement, around 5PM. This has always been exciting to me. I knew what to expect when I saw the clouds forming in the distance earlier, so I rushed to the grocery store so that I wouldn’t have to leave home for a few days. (Milk for Chai was on the top of my list.)
For tonight, I made Peach Oolong for sipping before watching TV. (Revolution, (giving this series a look).

The scent and flavor of this tea were both mild even with a 3 minute steep. I thought sweetening might wake up the peach flavor, but even sweetening didn’t bring it out.
I tasted mild roasted leaf that wasn’t bitter, but it had an odd plywood taste.

Hum. What was the creator of the flavored tea trying to achieve? Possibly not the flavor of the peach but the peach skin. That would explain the mild, dry and woody taste. Could be. To me, there was hardly an oolong taste or peach flavor. Peach skin was the closest.

So, the rain is here. I’m ready with soup and tea in my cupboard! Cool weather is perfect for Chai and looking out the window at big clouds and watching a movie!

Better late than never…this blend is almost gone and I’ve been sitting on this first ounce of tea for a couple of weeks without tasting it. Then I saw the notice that only a pound was left so I ordered some more. It’s time to taste and review this Chai!

I’ve been tasting Chai’s lately from various sources, looking for different tastes and flavors, socking a few away for the Fall and Winter. I was sitting at my tea bar discussing this with Eric the other day. "Eric, every Chai I drink either has too much pepper or too much cardamon or the wrong kind of cinnamon that makes the Chai bitter. I think I need to make my own Chai, " I said. “That’s what I do,” he replied. And we both sighed.
Eric works at a tea shop! He’s tasted lots of Chai samples.

The only Chai’s I’ve liked so far are one from Butiki and the Verdant Chai blends.
(Some companies have Chai’s I can’t drink because they add Rooibos which I’m allergic to…so it’s not about not liking them, I can’t drink them!).

This brings me to the sadness of this tasting. An experience of a wonderful Chai that I should have ordered long ago but didn’t.
A Chai that is exactly what a Chai should taste like.
Wah! Sniffle! Stomp my Feet! Tantrum!

I threw the directions for brewing this Chai in smaller 8oz steepings out the window. I DISOBEYED VERDANT’S INSTRUCTIONS! Now I think I have to do a Verdant confession or something. Not sure.

So, what I did was make a whole pot of Chai…(yes I did indeed). I brewed 32 ounces of golden delight…honey spiced glee for me!

I poured 1 cup…warming my whole mouth with saffron and a mixture of cardamon, coriander, sweet vanilla and caramel. Luxurious!
I sipped for a bit…and could not wait.
This was not tea. I had to change how I was thinking about the whole experience!

Suddenly, I traveled to the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in India, http://youtu.be/dDY89LYxK0w becoming one of the characters draped in bright flowers. With Hindi music throbbing in the background (which I like), I added cream to my next cup of tea and honey in large amounts. YES! This was the way to drink this CHAI! WOW! Taste EXPLOSION!

The next cup I just added some honey. NO WAY! Nah!

Milk and honey…that ‘IS’ the proper way to enjoy this fine Chai. I’m not kidding. I’m going to steep the leaves in milk…to make the flavors even more silky and creamy and warming and cocoa vanilla.

The cardamon wasn’t overpowering and the chocolate from the Mi Lan was like the ‘Chocolate XXOO Love’ Bar’s produced here in Colorado.
Thick and Rich!

So why sad…wah! It’s gone…when I’m done with my stash…GONE!
I’m requesting a repeat next season from Verdant! This was a treat!

Goodbye My Chai Love! http://youtu.be/RUCiGqAHx4g Monsoon Wedding

Woo Hoo thank you..this is the tea I won from Teave!

One of the things that I never expected when I began my adventures with the Steepster community are the ‘Free’ tea’s.
You know, the tea companies that have contests or sample giveaways and sample trading with other Steepster members. The bonus that makes so many of us able to try a huge variety of tea’s.
I for one would never be able to write so many reviews without the generosity of everyone, and I know you can relate too (I can hear a rumble of amen’s).

Thank you one and all!

The name of this tea matches the tea perfectly. You need to be aware of what you’re doing, pay attention and look at the dry tea. It’s so pretty! There is truly a confetti of colorful fruit and nuts, oranges from big chunks of mango, pineapple, cranberry, peach and flowers. No, this isn’t a dust or fine chop, it’s chunky with big pieces of bright fruit.
When the steeping is completed, the liquor a deep honey peach color with the aroma of cinnamon.
I had to dig around in the wet leaves for fruit…especially the big piece of mango and the cranberries. Chomp!

As much as I love the color and the generous amount of fruit, the cinnamon was all I could taste. If you want a nice cinnamon tea for the Fall and Winter, this is sweet without being bitter and the fruit is yummy.
I’d like to taste the fruit more and have the cinnamon toned down.
Where was the black tea? I searched the basket for black tea. Even in the bag there was little to be found which makes this more of a fruit tea and hardly a black tea.

Don’t get me wrong though, this tastes good. I think with all the high quality ingredients (and these are really good!) they are not shining but being covered up by the overpowering cinnamon. This could be in any companies top best seller list if the fruit came to the forefront.

My rating will be on current flavor.

Ingredient quality rating: 97

Thank you Dhart1214 for this tea sample!

The only Mate I’ve had thus far has been unflavored. When I saw the bag of Chocolate Mate in the samples from Dhart I was intrigued. It sounded like a good combination. Earthy Mate and Chocolate would be a natural.

I steeped the mix for 5 minutes and the resulting brew smelled more like prune or raisin and carob.
My first taste was interesting in the odd meaning of interesting.
If I was a hard liquor drinker, I could pick out a whiskey that this tasted like I’m sure of it.
I just stopped and went to the Georgia Tea Company Website to read the ingredients because of the odd taste (non-listed on the package).

UH OH…ROOIBOS!…I’M ALLERGIC TO ROOIBOS! (Good thing I only drank 1/3 of the cup so far! And the rest of the package will go elsewhere! I know Dhart had no idea!)

Anyway, the ingredients are: mate roasted, rooibos, cocoa bits, barley malt, coconut rasps, cinnamon, cloves, flavoring, cornflower blossoms.

Even with cream and sweetening this didn’t taste like chocolate. When you look at the ingredients is there any wonder?! It could have been good!

A heads up to all tea companies. If you call a tea ‘Chocolate’ and nothing else, it had better taste like ‘Chocolate’. Also, PUT THE INGREDIENTS ON THE LABEL! People like me have allergies!

So I didn’t write a story this morning with this tea, I soap boxed.

Happy weekend to all!

Hi everyone! I’ve been AWOL….Absent With Out Leaves yesterday and today (until now) doing TASKS mostly. I rarely disappear.

My daughter’s house is getting new carpeting. They’re house is 3500 sq. feet and even the bathrooms are being tiled so everyone had to get out!
DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT TO DO WITH 8 KIDS AND NO HOUSE?
I know, because yesterday, they came to GRANDMA’S!

And I went to a Greek (yummy food) dinner about schools being built in Northern Kenya (I talked about tea at dinner…obsessively!)

AND….I put together a hardwood desk with bookshelves on both sides and a keyboard shelf ALL BY MYSELF! (I put the shelf sliders on backwards the first time).
I now have a proper place to write instead of the dining table (which has caused me a fair bit of pain this year).

I was so exhausted by 5pm today that I stopped by Happy Lucky’s Tea House and asked Eric for a pot of this V98 Puerh that they have in big baseball size tuo cha’s.
There was a Friday evening concert in the Plaza a block away this last warm evening. People were wandering in and out of the shop ordering iced tea’s until concert time. Then things got quiet. I was dragging…a real mop at the bar. I needed CAFFEINE!

Eric steeped my pot of Puerh at 30 seconds and the first sip was smooth, sweet without bitterness or earthiness. I thought about a sweet mushroom flavor but couldn’t remember what kind, and at first there was a sense of furry redwood bark in the texture. I thought about bread but this is such a common taste comment in Puerh reviews that I stopped myself. Was this bread? No. A cracker like a saltine but without the salt…a water cracker. Yes.
Towards the end of the first pot, when the Puerh became almost buttery, I added a bit of raw sugar and loved the flavor of a just cracked Cream Brulee crust.

I asked for the leaves to be put in a Gaiwan to steep for 3-4 minutes. I wanted to taste a strong brew.
The liquor had a touch of purple around the edges and the aroma was
blackberry and a sweet wet mulch.
When I took a sip I was so amazed at the smoothness and lack of bitterness for such a long steep. Everyone tried some because they had never tried steeping it that long either.

Really good!

This is one of those everyday tea’s that (as the previous reviewer stated) would be a great beginner Puerh. It would be hard to mess up.

I certainly perked up and I’m back!

Thank you Stacy (Butiki) for this sample tea!

(I’m Whispering…
…..we all know how good Stacy is at creating tea’s that
are…
not nasty and artificially flavored…the really special tea’s that we love! Shhhhh, listen up!…..
…..This one is my favorite Butiki Tea Flavor of all!)

I want a pound of this tea already. I ONLY HAVE A SAMPLE! STACY!

The wet leaves had the softest aroma of green beans and sweet grapefruit as though the clock had been turned back and Spring was here once again.

I had just enough tea leaves for one precious mug full.

I took a sip of the pale yellow liquor and was amazed at the restrained taste of the grapefruit next to the more robust but smooth savory bean flavor. This was a juicy tea.

I added a little sweetening (as Stacy suggested) which brought more of the grapefruit flavor to the forefront, still perfectly complimenting the savory base flavor of the tea.

I used to make a grapefruit salad years ago with ruby grapefruit, carefully removing segments of ice cold fruit from it’s membrane, then mixing it with chopped avacado, salt, olive oil and lemon. The acid and sweetness of the grapefruit with the smooth creamy avacado were perfect compliments to each other. (It was an 1980’s popular California salad.)

This tea embraced that idea of combining crisp grapefruit and the creamy savory tea in a similar way. It worked really well!

There was that Umami thing happening in my mouth when I added some sugar (but without the bitterness, and the sour was just the normal grapefruit tang).

Yes, this was/is the best flavored tea in my Butiki book! It hits all the marks for me! Bravo Stacy!!!

Thank you Terri Harp Lady for this sample tea!!

First let me say for all you people on the East Coast…I hope you are dry and well…drink tea and hunker down! The wind and rain on the news looked fearsome! My prayers are with you all!

I live in that la la land called the ‘Mountain Time Zone’. (Hey, that makes me a Mountain Mama doesn’t it!)
There are probably few people who can name any States that reside in this Zone (and a lot of people don’t even know there IS a Time Zone other than Eastern, Central and Pacific (I know Hawaii and Alaska have there’s too!)). Up here in the Frontrange with the migrating birds (they’ve started to arrive), I’m waiting for the temperature to drop. 80’s are better than the high 90’s of Summer…but I want FALL!

I do Spring Cleaning and Fall Cleaning. Today, I took down anything that looked like Spring and Summer and began the transition. I changed my floral arrangements, pillows and throws first. I’m sure that will change the temperature outside in the same way that washing my car makes it rain.

My morning tea today was this Parisian Breakfast that Terri sent in a swap. It was an easy choice. It had the word “Breakfast” in it.

There were little bits of orange rind (without pith) in the dry tea
which was a pleasing aroma.

The liquor was dark and very strong. (Not the kind of tea that I would drink plain.)
My first sip, tasted of vanilla and orange but again, it was strong. I was sure this blend was meant for milk or cream.

I added sweetening and cream which brought the tea to where I believe it’s intended to be enjoyed alongside a fresh crossiant or buttered roll.

As the tea cooled there was some astringency and I didn’t taste any cocoa or chocolate during my tasting (curious). Vanilla, yes…lots of vanilla and some light orange.

A pleasing little tea, not spectacular but good with sweet buttery bread.

There have been a lot of Butiki Tea’s reviewed today.
Is there a Butiki full moon or something? Hey Stacy, what are you cooking up now?

I have to confess that tonight I watched the (awkward moment)
Finale of “So You Think You Can Dance!” Can I see a show of hands? Who else has watched the entire 9TH season with me? Fess up!

Right before the Finale began, I made a whole pot of Almond Indulgence and settled down with my tray of tea, a mug, cream and sweetening. I WAS READY!

I told Stacy that this tea reminds me of Apple Pie. I don’t know why since it’s an Almond tea but I think of Apple Pie when I taste it. In fact, this tea only needs a nudge of spice and it would make a great Chai. (Thinking about it and scheming I filed that thought under: Future Experiments with Tea.)

My favorite way to drink Almond Indulgence has been with cream and sweetened. I love it this way. I’d like it steeped in milk too. (Note to self…“Try milk steeping.”)

Feet up and mug in hand, I watched the results of the last show of the series. What creative choreography and gifted young dancers. They’ve inspired me. The Arts have always inspired me.

Does it matter that I can’t dance like those young, strong dancers.
No!
I dance with them in another way. I soar in my spirit with every lift, bending and spinning or rising up light as a leaf on the wind, my feet hardly touching the ground.

I fly!

The abandon that I still remember from earlier days, my younger years… playing a classical piece on the piano or putting my fingers on a canvas, creating thick, emotional strokes in the oil paint.

You never forget abandon. And you enjoy observing the joy of it in others your whole life.

What talent!