chrine

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For the fourth tea of Christmas, Frank gave to us Sheri’s Blend.

I opened the sample packet and smelled sweet, fruity – maybe peach, candy. Sheri’s Blend has the pretty autumn colors of orange brown rooibos, dark yellow flower petals, and dark brown chunks of apricot. This is one of Frank’s rooibos/honeybush blends I wanted to try.

Steeping, Sheri’s Blend smells nicely of stone fruits and sweetness. The liquid is a medium orangey brown. The first sips have more of an apricot feel than taste. As it cools some, the juiciness of the fruit comes out more. The cinnamon is like a faint dusting. This tea is lovely but more muted than Frank’s other blends. It would make a good companion for reading on a cold evening.

I tried a second steep and it was mostly apricot fruity warm water. I am finding I don’t mind drinking these though, even if they aren’t nearly as flavorful as the first mug.

I’m rating this tisane a 76, which is in the middle of my good range (70-80).

2nd steep: 12 min.

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I mixed the last small bits of leaf of this one with A&D’s EG. It balanced the overly bergamoty EG without adding bitterness.

This tea has been my go-to when I’ve wanted a better quality cup of standard black tea. It mixed well with honey when my throat was sore. It’s also the first A&D tea that I’ve finished off the tin of now.

Would I buy this again?
3 – maybe. This tea was a limited number release which is sold out so that’s a moot point. But it was a good reliable tea and while I likely wouldn’t go out of my way to order it specifically, it might be something I’d throw in an order if I were ordering other things.

2nd steep: 5 min.

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It looks like I’ll have to find another plain black tea to punch up this one cause I’m all out of the A&D Ceylon that I’ve been using. Since I was using the dregs of the tin for the Ceylon, this mixture was not half Ceylon and half EG. Last time, I did that and the smaller bits of the remaining Ceylon made a bitter mug of tea. This time I compensated for that fact and was rewarded with a not bitter mug of tea.

2nd steep: 5 min.

Backlogging.

For the third tea of Christmas, Frank gave to us Coconut Cream Pie.

I clipped open my sample packet and instantly smelled coconut again without even having to put my nose down to the packet. I had just mentioned in my Pina Colada Honeybush tealog that that tisane made me want to try the Coconut Cream Pie and low and behold, here it is.

Like the Pina Colada Honeybush, the Coconut Cream Pie has large shavings of coconut against a background of black tea and smells delish — a strong coconutty, creamy scent. Steeped up, it’s a medium brown and smells like warm creamy coconut. It tastes strongly coconutty with a good sense of creaminess. Between this tea and the Pina Colada Honeybush, Frank has that flavor down pat. And yum, is this a good tea too. I definitely like it and look forward to drinking it again. But it is no Pina Colada Honeybush, which I have been thinking about drinking again since I had it. But I seem to be oddly hoarding it for later, not wanting to have no more of it yet. I am starting to wonder if all the rest of the samples will pale in comparison to that tisane, which isn’t really an apt thing to say because neither of these teas paled at all. They were quite good. Just not Pina Colada Honeybush good. It might have been a flaw to make that the first sample.

Back to the Coconut Cream Pie. (Sorry that I could not help making the comparisons.) So yeah. Chris and I went to one of our favorite restaurants (local, fresh, Southern food – http://www.ilovetheglassonion.com/dailymenu) for a rather late brunch (fried quail, biscuit and gravy, and eggs for me; pork belly, biscuit with honey, eggs, and sausage for Chris) on Sunday and they had coconut cream pie on the desert board (it changes weekly) and I really wanted to have some after having had this tea, but I was so full and couldn’t. We’ve been obsessed with fried chicken Tuesdays this month so you know where I’ll be early tomorrow night (yes, they actually run out of the fried chicken, it is that good) and hopefully the coconut cream pie will be there still. I’ll keep you posted.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention. I did do a second steep, which I was sure would be too weak to drink, and it was. But it turns out, even warm essence of Coconut Cream Pie is worth drinking.

I rated this tea a 74, which is right in the middle of my good range (70-80).

2nd steep: 7 min.

For the second tea of Christmas, Frank gave to us Chai with Chocolate.

I smelled the chocolate even as I was cutting open the packet and started thinking now which chocolate teas does Frank have in stock. I put my nose to the packet and smelled ginger strongly. Then I looked and knew it was a chai.

So the question was: To stovetop or not to stovetop? If I stovetopped, I’d use more of the sample and be able to try it less times. But it’s stovetop. So I went with stovetop. There was little decision there.

Sipping it while it’s still likely a bit to hot to drink, I get ginger then chocolate. I like ginger. =D This is good. Not Pina Colada Honeybush awesome good. But quite good.

I finish my extra large mug quite quickly. As I drink, I get ginger, chai blend, and chocolate at times. The chocolate is not majorly in your face but you can taste it and you can definitely smell it. This tea feels decadent to drink first thing in the morning.

I gave this tea a rating of 70 for now, which is right in the middle of my nice/good range (60-80).

1 cup water. 1 tbsp sugar. bring to boil. 1 tbsp tea. steep 5 mins. 1 cup milk. bring to boil. turn heat off. steep 10 min.

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It came out a bit strong this time – honeyed with a bite. I had the second mug in the early evening.

2nd steep: 5 min.

Backlogging.

For the first tea of Christmas, Frank gave to us Pina Colada Honeybush.

So my thought was to cut open each sample pack and, being careful not to look, smell the tea and see what I thought it smelled like. Even with my nose a bit stuffed up and even if I had not known that 52 Teas has an award-winning Pina Colada Honeybush, I’d have thought this tea smelled exactly like a pina colada. I could actually smell the rum as well as coconut and pineapple. And everyone is right when they mention the huge chunks of pineapple and shavings of coconut.

I tried to convince myself to have a nice caffeinated black tea to wake me up and save this to drink later in the day. But I could not.

Steeped up, the tisane smells distinctly like rum and coconut. It’s a nice medium brown with a bit of amber. It tastes of coconut and rum. I do not get any pineapple specifically. But it’s exactly pina colada overall so it must just be blended in very well. And the coconut — it’s very creamy. I don’t know how Frank does it, but it is.

I should say that I’m not a big fan of pina coladas. If one of my sisters were to mix some up as a summer drink, I would drink them. But they are not high on my list of frosty drinks of choice. I’d be a margarita girl, I think. And no, I do not think margaritas in any way would make a good tea. But I’ve digressed. This is not a tisane I would have likely ordered. But I loved it. I did. So much so that I had barely finished the second paragraph of this tasting note when my mug was empty. Of course, I got up and put the kettle on to try a second steep right away.

And yes, I did eat the chunk of pineapple and the shavings of coconut. They tasted like Pina Colada Honeybush. _grins This mug smelled only faintly of pina colada and the tea was an opaque amber brown. It tasted like the essence of Pina Colada Honeybush. But, this tisane is that good that it is worth steeping a second time even for that. It makes me want to try 52 Teas’ Coconut Cream Pie.

Frank, you rock my sox. I cannot wait to try the rest of my samples.

I gave this tisane an 88 rating, which is on the high end of my great range (80-90).

2nd steep: 12 min.

Backlogging.

Half Ceylon, half A&D EG. Very little of this tea left so tea dust made for a strong cup.

Backlogging.

Half EG, half A&D Ceylon. I have very little Ceylon left and some dust is getting mixed in with the leaf when I make tea now. Because of this, it came out very strong. In a good way I think. I made the addition for the second steep all EG and that evened out the cup.

2nd steep: 6 min.

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I used the wrong amount of leaf for the size mug that I used but it was still yum.

2nd steep: 5 min.

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One cup of this with sushi. The grassy green complimented it well.

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I think the honey is temperature of the tea when you drink it dependent.

2nd steep: 5 min 30 sec. 205° F.

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I remembered to use only one green cardamon pod. Still pretty cardamony but also now gingery. Perhaps I just taste cardamon too strongly? I’m thinking about adding some black tea next time to see what it does to the spiciness. But what kind?

1 cup water. 1 tbsp natural cane sugar. bring to boil. 1 tbsp chai tea leaf. simmer 5. 1 cup milk. bring to boil. turn off heat. let steep 8 min 30 sec.

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Crave, crave. Cannot wake up today. No second steep.

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I brought this tea along with one other at one of those little specialty gourmet foods shops just to buy a little something after walking around. The tea bag smelled weird. The tea smelled weird. The tea tasted sour and tart and not in a good way. It had very little tea taste. I manged to drink more than I thought I would, which still wasn’t very much. I am willing to give it one more try at some point, then it goes.

I am rating this tea a 30, which is the lowest end of my meh range (30-40).

Backlogging.

Somehow Thomas has escaped my cupboard. Steepster says he’s in there, but I did not see him. I tried a single steep of Thomas with just a touch of half and half. He still retained his honeyed touch.

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I had a single steep of the lovely Darjeeling Goomtee on a day that involved too many unplanned naps when I had too much to do.

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Somehow this came out too strong and I didn’t finish my entire cup.

Backlogging.

Tiger, did you think I’d forgotten about you for Thomas? I actually drank this later in the day cause I really needed to wake up.

2nd steep: 5 min 30 sec.

Continuing on with the backlog.

I made this with lots of leaf and a long steep time. It was strong and good.

Backlogging.

I’ll admit that I’m starting to go through a bit of a Thomas phase. That day Thomas had a little more bite and a little more biscuity. I had to leave right after the first mug so I didn’t get to the second steep until later.

2nd steep: 5 min 30 sec.

Backlogging.

I must have been having a bit of a dud night because I am already hoarding this tea and drinking it only occasionally as it is a bit of a different change from the usually ‘sleepytime’ blends. It was, as usual, very drinkable and I consumed two cups like snap.

2nd steep: 9 min 30 sec.

So apparently I have a problem with getting my teas logged in in an appropriate timely manner this holiday season – okay, for the past few months. But at least I had the forethought to make notes on an old envelope this time. It should be a New Year’s resolution for me to log my teas within a day or two. lol

So on to Thomas. One cannot ignore Thomas for too too long. Lovely honeyed again. I drank while making lists and eating a strawberry goat’s milk yogurt.

2nd steep: 5 min 30 sec.

NOT backlogging — I drank this tea a few hours ago!

We got Indian takeout (cauliflower and potatoes, spinach and chicken, and lamb with onions and bell peppers) earlier this week and I really wanted a cup of Hot Cinnamon Spice after dinner. But, it was nighttime and I was all no-caffeine-this-late so I did not have one even though I knew I was going to be up late that night.

Tonight, I ate the leftover takeout while my husband was at work and then had a mug of Hot Cinnamon Spice cause I knew I was going to be up late and I really wanted one again. I steeped it up in a real big mug cause I knew it didn’t resteep and I thought I’d be wanting quite a bit of it and might get out of making two mugs this way. It was quite good, but I think I could have used more leaf.

So I’m bumping up the rating 5 points cause I really love this tea to an 88, which is on the high end of the great range (80-90) cause it’s nearly awesome (90+).

Which brings me to be bit of a brief ratings rant. This makes this tea my highest rated tea. (Yes, I am a hard grader.) But I have other teas that I like better than this one. But those teas are plain blacks and such, which I’ve rated in the mid-80s, cause I’m sure as my tea drinking career progresses, I will have better examples of these teas. I try to drink a tea and rate it as far as where it goes on my words scale (awesome, great, good, and so on down) then place it numerical on whether it’s towards the higher or lower end of each category. I do this instead of ranking teas compared to each other in general or with in a certain kind of tea. I trusted that it would work fairly well on lining teas up with how much I liked them and it has so far. But this tea definitely falls where I put it for me on my liking scale. It’s just odd for me that it’s higher than teas I like more. But I feel they should also stay where the are for what they are. This discrepancy bothers me a bit. But I don’t want to change it. I’m trying to tell myself it’s okay because it takes into account somewhat how much I like a tea for whether it’s a good example of a darjeeling, sencha, flavored black, or whatnot. Anyways, this did not end up being a brief rant. Sorry to write so much. =)