chrine

The third bagged tea of the day yesterday. My dad and I had teas while my mom was at a finance meeting in the evening (she’s the office manager/accountant at her workplace). He boiled the water, started a cup for himself, then asked me if I wanted anything while the water was hot. Yay for tea with dad!

So I picked this to have with milk and a touch of honey because for some odd reason honey vanilla chai sounded good then. I knew I was going to add milk to it so I steeped it the maximum recommended time. I got a mug of creamy honey spiced black tea. All of those things vaguely. But sweet and desserty so I enjoyed sipping while studying. He watched investment/finance channel shows then a vintage/older (think 80s)/sports cars auction show. Dads lol.

I’m not rating this tea right now because I made it with milk and honey and did not get a true sense of what the tea itself tasted like. But it would have definitely fallen within the nice bagged tea range this way.

Second bagged tea of the day yesterday. Definitely peachy. With a bite that is supposed to be ginger and I could identify as ginger, but was also a kind of off ginger taste. Not quite sure how to explain. It wasn’t yucky or anything. Black tea base was a little lighter than the previous tea, but I could still taste it. I cannot remember if I steeped this one for 3 or 4 minutes, but it was one of the two.

Drank when my mom got home. We both had cups of tea. And while studying briefly before dinner, which was thick cut breaded but baked pork chops with grainy mustard, black pepper roasted brussel sprouts, and sweet potato gnocchi with cinnamon and brown sugar browned butter.

Rating this one a 55 (nice bagged tea range 50-60).

I spent yesterday at my parent’s studying in their empty quiet house while they were at work. And I drank a lot of bagged teas. So here comes the bagged teas recap.

This one was a solidly nice bagged fruity black. I can taste the black tea, it’s not bitter or overwhelming or underwhelming. And I can taste tart fruit that is reminiscent of pomegranate. At least, it doesn’t taste like generic tart berry, that is to say.

I made all of these in a big pottery mug, which most of my parent’s are, and enjoyed sipping them as I studied.

I’m rating this one a 58 (nice bagged tea range is 50-60).

I was going to drink one of the remaining two white teas I have from the previous year’s 12 teas of Christmas. But then decided I’d rather have this one. I enjoyed 4 tasty steeps yesterday. The leaf possibly could have gone another steep or more. I still think it tastes just like 52teas Black Current Bi Mu Dan and cannot really taste the bergamot over the black current.

As a side note, I really wish I’d tealogged all my 12 teas the first time I drank them because I do not think I’m going to remember my initial thoughts on them as well by the time I have them a second time.

2nd steep: 1 min 30 sec. 150 F.
3rd steep: 2 mins. 155 F.
4th steep: 2 mins 30 sec. 160 F.

This parameters worked fine. Possibly could have gone 3 mins on the 4th steep.

Left this one resteeping on the counter last night when I went to bed because I didn’t want to lose the second steep from it. Took out the tea when I woke up and lidded it. Drank it later in the day while studying and mmm!

First steep last night was at an increased time. I’ve been increasing the steeping times on all my honeybushes to 7 minutes and 30 seconds then sometimes 10 minutes to see if it makes any difference. I’ve found that it does seem too. This one was also good with the increase but I’m not sure I’m getting as much of a difference as I have with some of the others I have. But I did drink it up awfully quickly.

I’ve had this at least twice but apparently I haven’t written a tasting note for it yet. So this time, as an experiment, I cut open the sachet and measured the tea to see how much was in it and how much water I should be using. It turned out double the amount I use in a standard mug. So I used a big mug this time. What prompted this was that I remember the tea being overly strongly flavored before.

This first steep was eminently sipable so I think it was the right track. Still most heavy on the clove, I can also definitely taste the almond and think I can find the cinnamon. The citrus I cannot taste except maybe in that I detect a juicy quality. So while this tea is a bit bitter from the clove, it’s not at all astringent or drying. The second steep was light but spiced and drinkable. Both mugs were consumed while studying with some gaming in between.

I’m rating this a 68 (upper end of my nice range) for now while I tinker with it.

On the fifth day of Christmas, 52teas gave to me Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake black tea.

(Backlogging. 3 days ago. Tuesday morning.)

I opened this packet and thought it was a chai. lol. I was so wrong. For this tea, I could taste the caramel definitely, the pumpkin some, and a creaminess that might have been cheesecake. It was a good cup. Second steep was too weak. Would not resteep in the future.

2nd steep: 20+ mins.

On the fourth day of Christmas, 52teas gave to me Earl Black.

(Backlogging. 4 days ago. Monday afternoon.)

Upon cutting open the packet, I immediately identified the smell as Black Current Bai Mu Dan and thought we had gotten that before I pulled out the label. Taste-wise, the first and third steeps tasted pretty much identical to what I remember the Black Current Bai Mu Dan tasting like. The second steep I thought I could taste some citrus from the bergamot. The fourth steep was close to too watery to be drinkable and I prolly wouldn’t do again.

I’m rating this 74 same as the Black Current Bai Mu Dan.

2nd steep: 2 mins, 150 F
3rd steep: 3 mins, 160 F
4th steep: 4 mins, 160 F

Backlog. 8 days ago. Last Thursday morning.

I’ve been drinking a lot of DFT’s previous year’s holiday blend lately because it’s older than this one and logically, I should use it up first. But decided to have a mug of this one today to change it up a little. I drank this while packing and getting ready to leave to go to my parents to spend the night there before leaving out from there early the next morning to go on an overnight shopping trip to Charlotte with a stop in Seagrove the first day.

So coming to this page, I was surprised to see this tea not only not in my cupboard but never been logged either. I’ve prolly had it half a dozen times. I see that I gave DFT’s previous Holiday Blend an initial rating of 74 so I’m giving this one an initial rating for 76 because I remember liking the smokier richer notes slightly better.

Yesterday, I woke up with a headache that was bad enough that I went back and napped in my bad. It was considerably better once I woke up a couple hours later. I then had this tea and continued along that trajectory.

2nd steep: 20+ mins.

Breakfast was oatmeal with blackberries, raspberries, and honey, and this tea. For some reason, I can make this tea well in a 12oz mug but it comes out weak in a 10oz one. lol

I drank nearly a whole bottle of wine myself last night, if not more. Waking up the following morning, I just wanted a plain black tea brewed strong. Not coffee. My parents have a decent collection of mostly bagged teas, most of which are black and flavored. So this was my pick for a standard black tea. Maybe because my stomach wasn’t feeling well and I just needed tea now but this tasted just fine to me and did the trick.

I’m rating it a 50 (drinkable/decent). It’s your basic bagged plain black tea.

My grandma brought me a sampler set of Bigelow teas for my birthday two months ago. Four boxes, each with three different teas in it. Plain black assortment, flavored black assortment, chais, and vanillas.

After the 52teas’ Milk & Cookies black tea yesterday morning, I felt like I needed one more cup of black tea for the caffeine to get going. I wanted something quick and easy and that I wasn’t going to feel obliged to resteep. So I perused these boxes and selected this one. It had the same vanilla taste as the decaff version, however I could taste the black tea in the background too. Strong faux dessert like vanilla was still the dominate taste but overall it was a decent cup.

I’m rating this one a 52 (low nice bagged tea range). It’s easily drinkable but not amazing. Has the potential to bump up a few points with repeated drinking.

Yesterday, I couldn’t help but wanting another cup of this one.

Backlogging. 2 days ago. Late Friday night.

Another 10 minutes steep, and it was so v good again. =)

Backlogging. 2 days ago. Friday morning.

A nice strong big chocolatey mug to wake up with and it was very good.

Backlogging. 3 days ago. Thursday morning.

Steeped up the remainder of my remaining leaf in a large mug. It was strong and orange-limey with a hint of creaminess and so very good.

My rating (middle of good) remains unchanged.

Would I get this again? 3 – maybe.
I would throw this one into an order if I needed a another tea or two to fill it out. Again, 52teas is a limited release company so this isn’t really an option.

Backlogging. 4 days ago. Wednesday evening.

I had a tasty cup of this one with spicy chicken bul-go-gi and sides for dinner.

Backlogging. 4 days ago. Wednesday morning.

A nice strong first cup of the day. Put a bit of raspberry sugar in the second steep. Kind of made it taste a bit like soap.

2nd steep: 20+ mins.

So I’ve had this tea for awhile now and I’ve liked it but only so so. For I don’t know why reason, I’d been trying my honeybushes at 7 minutes 30 seconds lately instead of my usually 5 minutes. This came out really good that way. So I decided to try it at 10 minutes tonight. Again, really good like this. A stronger raspberry, a more muted banana, less candy-like overall.

Steep time: 10 mins

Oh my! Have I really never tealogged this tea?

The Chocolate Caramel black tea has been one of my faves so far from the 52teas chocolate sampler. It started out just sweet and vaguely chocolatey caramel-y. But over time, the flavors became more distinct and paired against the black tea base.

This cup was also my last of this tea. I had thought it might have the last portion of tea leaves too strong thing going on. But quite the opposite, even though I wasn’t short leaf for a single serving size. The cup was a bit weak. But still nice.

This tea gets a 73 rating (a solid good).

Would I buy this again? 3 (maybe)
It’s definitely good and I definitely enjoyed it. I wouldn’t go looking for it specifically again, but might dump it in an order. But 52teas is a mostly limited edition company and this one was from a sampler so it’s a bit moot.

So this morning, I reached into my 52teas box of chocolate teas intending to have a delicious cup of chocolate caramel black tea as my first cup of tea for the day. I portioned out a single serving size and noticed I would not have enough leaf left from another single serving size so I measured the rest into my steeping basket and got a larger mug. Then I went to rinse the tiny tin out to keep. And noticed I’d used the wrong tea. Oh well, it was already in the steeping basket. There was no turning back now!

Being the last of the tea, the cup came out stronger than usually. At first, I thought too strong but a little way in, I was liking it. It was very creamy this time, I’m guessing the white chocolate.

Then something wonderful happened. I had somehow distractedly left less than an inch of tea in the bottom of my cup, which became quite cold. I decided to gulp it down anyways before I made another cup. Omg! Bingo! There it is – white chocolate strawberry. This tea has been good but had never tasted exactly like it until then. But it was totally noticeable cold.

I’m upping my final rating of this tea to a 70 (high nice/low good) from a 64 initially before I decupboard it. Overtime, it’s tasted more and more like white chocolate and fruit/strawberry and I’ve come to like it quite well.

Would I order this again? 2.5 (neutral to maybe)
While I would definitely drink this if I had it lying around, I’ve had better 52teas, chocolate teas, and chocolate teas from 52teas. So I think others would trump this when making an order. But it’s a moot point. 52teas is a mostly limited release company and this was part of a sampler.

After I finished the Rainbow Sherbet black tea, I immediately made myself another cup of tea – this one – then made myself eat my sandwich. Ham with some kind of cheese that I don’t know exactly what it is but tasted a lot better than I expected it to, yellow cherry tomatoes, some kind of frise looking like lettuce, and a sweet spicy red bell pepper mustard on multigrain bread. It was pretty good.

This tea has the creamy sweet texture of white chocolate with a background of fruit that might be strawberry. It was good too, but not the omg I needed this so good of the previous cup.

Returning from another Unlogged Period, though not a Great one this time, a Small one.

I had a pretty bad headache this afternoon for the second day in a row. Usually I like plain strong black teas when I have a headache. But I’d been planning on having this one this morning before I woke up with the headache and it still sounded good to me. So I went with it.

You know how post really bad headache you’re just so grateful and happy and things taste so good again. That’s how this tea was today for me. Like mmmm this tea is so good and right right now. Creamy and citrus-y. I am finding 52teas often change over time and usually for the better. I immediately just wanted another cup of tea and not the sandwich I’d made to try to eat something.