Cinoi

Hello! So sorry I have not been around, the headache turned out to be the start of a 48 hour flu/virus/bug thing, I won’t get into details, but that had knocked me out of commission for a few days. I’m at about 99%, food is still an enemy, but I am definitely feeling better, and ready for tea!

I started with this one, because I wanted the caffeine. I wanted a smooth black tea blended with a full green tea to help me kick start my day and push the rest of whatever that was that ruined the last few days of my life out!

Brewed hot, three minutes, added one packet of splenda sweetener. I feel the splenda, being sweeter than the equivalent amount of sugar, helps this tea. This tea hits the common problem that if you brew it long enough to be a black you make the green extra bitter, but if you brew only quick enough to be a green, you get no black tea at all. This is why, I always go with three minutes, a nice median, and a little bit of sweetener to brighten the black and dull the bitterness of the green.

I finally made this today. I wanted to brew and evaluate the tea a few times before writing anything so that I could give it justice. Here goes:

The dried leaves smell chocolatey and spiced, but not too spiced, you are not getting hit in the face with chai spices here, it just smells spiced. Like all chais, the tea is a jumble of leaves and pieces of tea that are assorted and pretty. I used 1 scoop (it is the wooden bamboo spoon from teavana, I have no idea how much tea it holds, but it is my usual tea serving size) of dried tea and was able to get three solid infusions out of it.

The first infusion was hot with no additives, brewed three minutes. LOVED it! good level of spice here, not overpowering, it is not the only thing you are tasting, here you can actually taste some of the chocolate but then there is spice, and varied spices, I am picking up cardamom mostly, but there is a hint of pepper with it. The spices actually come in waves or layers, however you want to interpret it. There is an upfront spiced flavor (not spicy, spiced), then chocolatey flavor with a hint of almond, then pepper spice (which is more of a spicy spice).

The second infusion was hot with sugar added, brewed three minutes. Still loved it, was ecstatic to get a second steep out of the same leaves. The spice seemed a little stronger here, so immediately after brewing (based on aroma) I added some rock sugar. Definitely did not hurt the batch at all. Still a good level of spice and the cocoa/almond flavors are a little more prevalent.

The third infusion was hot with a tiny amount of the sugar upfront into the brew basket. I do not think this changed anything, I feel the level of spice was about the same as the last two brews. The cocoa and almonds were not hurt and the pepper and cardamom were still well balanced. The reason I mention this one is because I got distracted (by shiny things) and forgot about my cup of tea, I left it about an hour. It is cold now, but still delicious and this has never happened to me before! Normally, I cannot handle a chai that is cold, the spice becomes overwhelming and I can no longer drink it. This is NOT the case here, it is still delicious. The spices are still there, they are upfront, then comes the chocolatey flavor and the hint of almond, then as you swallow, BAM! pepper! Fantastic!

I will keep brewing this, in varied methods, Cofftea has given me a ton of ideas about how to keep drinking this, thank you :)

Inspired(!) by Ricky, I went and brewed up a pot of this. I can definitely SMELL apple pie in the unsteeped leaves, they have the familiar black tea base and then what smells like cinnamon and vanilla to represent the “a la mode” and a faint odor of apples and sweetness which is probably the hint of brown sugar. This smells fantastic; both before steeping and as a brewed tea.

The brewing (hot with no additives) tastes like black tea with a hint, just ever so slightly, of apple. The predominant flavors are the cinnamon and vanilla with a sweetness from the brown sugar. All of the flavors are there, albeit very little in the case of the apple, they just need to be married a little differently.

I feel that a shorter brew time (to cut the amount of time to brew the black tea) and adding a little sweetener and milk will help bring this together to make apple pie a la mode.

Will try and repost!

When I read through the TeaFrog listing, I had to have this tea. I don’t really know why, but a pan fried green tea translating to “precious eyebrows” seemed intriguing. Overall, the tea is delicious. I used a little more for my standard pot than I normally would. I brewed for two minutes, hot with no additives.

The dried leaves are small, dark and curly, this is from the pan frying. The brewed tea has all of the attributes of typical green with a bonus. The aroma is vegetal with a little toast to it, the liquor is a pale brown color, the taste is similar to Dragonwell, it is definitely vegetal, but it is smooth and not bitter, I have the feeling if oversteeped it would get bitter, but right now it is not. Finally, the tea finishes with a sweet aftertaste. Absolutely fantastic.

Well as a blizzard slams NJ, I took off of work, I did not want to drive in these conditions, end of story. Anyway, since it is breakfast time and I can have a full breakfast on my day off, I will have some Breakfast Tea. I chose this one because it was on top.

The leaves are small and black and give a distinctly black tea smell. Ceylon. They do not smell unique or intriguing, just like black tea. I’m fine with this. Brewed 4 minutes hot, with no additives. As I have said, I traditionally take breakfast tea with milk and sweetener, but I chose to try this on it’s own first.

The initial aroma of the brewed tea is what I expected, it is black tea: with the subtle earthy aroma with a hint of natural sweetness, maybe honey. Smells wonderful. The flavor however, goes so much further beyond the smell, it is earthy and rich, it is smooth and sweet without any sweetener, there is a full-bodied flavor going on here without any effort at all.

This tastes like the ideal you hope to get out of every black tea they serve you at a restaurant; it’s like an older, now-stale bag, you know what you want to taste, and what you want to taste is rich, smooth, full-bodied range of pick-me-up and start-my-day tea. This is EXACTLY what you are getting from this French Breakfast tea, hearty yet delicious black tea. I am so glad I added nothing to this, I may have to go back and try all of the other breakfast teas I adulterated by adding milk and sweetener.

Also, as a note, expect a full array of ratings today, the day is young, and I have no where to be. Until then!

Major headache, trying this to ease the pain, not really cutting it right now. Not that I thought this would make the headache go away, I didn’t, I just thought it would help to relax me, instead, I think I just need to go to sleep early…Sorry for the complaining.

Tea: Very dark today, perhaps oversteeped, definitely taste rooibos and strawberries, the cream is mostly lost, but it just adds a different flavor to the strawberries, not creamy per se, but varied.

For some 15 (or more) years of my life, my wonderful neighbor went to Germany to visit her children for the spring months. While she was gone, we watched her home, brought in the mail and other things for her. She would always return with a box of Lebkuchen as a note of gratitude. What is Lebkuchen you ask? A wonderful German gingerbread cookie, rich and moist in texture with notes of cinnamon, nutmeg and orange.

This tea mirrors those cookies. Brewed hot with no additives. It is rich, full-bodied, earthy and sweet. It blends the same ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, citrus flavors of the cookie, though they may not be present in the tea, it is wonderful. The spices blend in perfect harmony with a note of chocolate to deliver a naturally sweet and truly delicious treat.

Highly recommended.

Having only put a small dent in my Golden Moon Tea sampler, I figured it was time to really get to work on here. I must confess, that though I will try anything and usually do not have any trepidations about anything, I was a little nervous trying this. You should be happy to know, that my concern was unfounded!

The leaves smell sweet yet earthy. I brewed it hot, with no additives. The aroma of the brew smells fantastic: earthy and woodsy and like early spring when you are getting all sorts of fresh nature smells that you haven’t smelled in a long while because of winter. I’m rambling, but the scent is so difficult to describe. The taste somehow combines all of these different fragrant notes into a flavor: it is earthy with a little smoke and a little sweet.

Overall, this tea played to the senses, fantastic aroma both brewed and dry and delicious flavor.

I absolutely love this tea. It smells smoky and woodsy, like a campfire or fireplace on a cold winter night. The tea flavor is different though: there is a sweetness upfront, which melds into a piney-woodsy flavor. This is definitely a love it or leave it tea.

This was drank hot with no additives.

The smell of the dried leaves is spicy, but by this time, the batch I have is a few months old, so maybe it has calmed down a bit. It’s a black tea with additional spice and from my experience, I know that I will like this much more if I understeep. I brewed for three minutes instead of the usual five. The liquor is still very dark. The aroma is spiced black tea. As a precautionary measure, I add a pinch of rock sugar.

This is not bad. It is definitely spiced, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, the tea is a light black, not too strong in anyway. I believe the only way I do enjoy this at all is because I underbrewed it.

I think the best way to describe this tea is “gentle”.

The leaves smell of vanilla and black tea. The brewed tea (hot with no additives) smell again like vanilla with a hint of flora aroma. The taste is “gentle”. There is a slight vanilla flavor to the otherwise naturally sweet black tea. It is not overpowering, it is not artificial, it is not overly sweet (with nothing added) and it is not bitter, but the flavor is there, just slightly, again, “gentle”.

I think I wanted something more out of this tea, I wanted it to be slightly more vanilla or a stronger black with less vanilla, something stronger than gentle. Oh well.

Today called for a Matcha Smoothie.

Ingredients: Matcha from Teavana, milk (skim or 1%), Splenda/Sugar to taste, Dole Frozen Unsweetened Mixed Berries (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries), Blender.

Recipe: I put in a 1/4 cup of the frozen mixed berries, 1/4 tsp Splenda, 4 ounces skim milk (cold), 4 ounces cold water, 1/4 tsp Matcha powder in the Magic Bullet blender cup, mixed for about a minute.

Makes a thick, frothy smoothie, tasted like ripe mixed berries and matcha. Fantastic.

For some reason, I legitimately thought this was coconut and mint. Apparently I did not read any descriptions whatsoever, just thought that it would be good. I guess I assumed it would be “choco” or “cocoa” if it meant chocolate, but you know what happens when you assume.

The tea leaves are long, soft and green. I say soft, because when pulling a pinch out of the tin, they almost feel damp, but on further inspection, it is just the leaves and the tiny cilia that grew on the green tea before it was harvested. Sorry for the science. Anyway, the tea smells minty and the faint odor of cooking chocolate, the bittersweet and milk chocolate blends you buy in quarter-size flat disks to melt to make confectionery treats covered in chocolate, hopefully you know what I am talking about.

The brewed tea smells like a decent blend, there is the green tea odor and then it smells like Junior Mints candy. The hot tea (hot with no sugar added) tastes like green tea with some chocolate and then the refreshing, minty, sweet-breath feel after you swallow the tea. As it cools, it loses all of these flavors and turns bitter, as if you over-steeped a green tea and allowed chocolate to burn in the bottom with little to no mint at all.

This unfortunate turn of events as the tea cools leads me to my usual conclusions. Either one, this brew probably would do better with a little bit of sugar, it does not need sweetness added, but I think that it would subdue the bitterness in the end. Or two, this has to go into a tea cozy or on a warmer or only be made in small amounts so as to always have it hot.

Overall, it was not bad, I enjoyed it while it was hot. Will try my own advice and let you know!

Tried this again this morning, brewed very quickly, about two minutes and added a few crystals of Rock Sugar. Still not where I want to be with this tea, still a little too bitter, still no notes of peach or cucumber. Going to have to keep playing with brew times and additives to get this right I think.

I know green and black blends can be very good, I am just hoping I can get this one to be where I really truly enjoy it.

The dried leaves are long, pretty oolong. They smell like a sweetened oolong with a light floral note. As the leaves infuse in the hot water, the fan out and release a light golden honey colored liquor. The aroma is intoxicating: sweet and slightly floral. I brewed this for the full three minutes with no sugar or any other additives. The taste mirrors the aroma, it is slightly sweet and difficult to describe. It is not a sugary sweet, it is not a honey sweet, and it is not a fruit sweet, it is a natural tea sweetness.

Absolutely delicious, unfortunately insanely expensive. I would say that it is an absolute must-try, as in it is worth the price.

This morning, one scoop into my strawberry and cream protein shake. Definitely made it better :)

Little splinters of Rooibos tea make up the dry tea blend; you can see small flecks of dried strawberry, but it is mostly rooibos tea. The dried leaves smell strongly like strawberry with a note of tea. The aroma of the brewed tea (hot, with no additives) smells strongly like strawberry with some citrus and peach aromas. The flavor is mild; rooibos with some strawberry and peach flavors. I brewed for a full six minutes which might have made the tropical fruits a little tart. However, I would call the tea mild, there is no overwhelming sweetness or tartness. Longer infusion time would probably make the tea more tart and adding sugar would make the tea more sweet.

Overall, I do not think this tea actually needs anything. It is pretty good in that it is mild with hints of tropical fruit flavors. I can see how this would make a nice blend with a green or a jasmine tea, but I think the tea was fine on it’s own.

I almost feel as though I wasted much of my weekend as I received two tea orders (one more should be here tomorrow) and tried nothing new. In an attempt to rectify this, here is the Tazo Passion.

I was looking for a decaf because it is so late.The description of the herbal tea sounded good, like it would be fruity. The smell of the bag is faintly fruity with a hint of cinnamon. The brewed tea is dark red, and smells strongly of citrus and hibiscus. The flavor is very tart (I brewed hot with no additives), but not unenjoyable. Unfortunately, I think the tartness from the citrus and tropical fruit juice is overpowering almost all other flavors, I hardly taste anything else. Maybe I oversteeped it? I think the tea probably needs to be brewed with some more earthy tones, maybe a vanilla, to help round out the flavor and make it more palatable.

I enjoy ginger, as long as it is not the pickled ginger you get with sushi, blegh, but fresh ginger, I enjoy very much. This smells like artificial ginger, very aromatic and sweet for no good reason. The smell is strong in the bag, for this reason I did an unreasonably fast steep (about a minute counting pouring the water into my cup). The aroma is even stronger in the brewed cup, which was what I feared. The flavor is green with a soothing burst of ginger as an aftertaste. Unfortunately, the aroma made the tea quite unenjoyable.

Ahh, sweet and full bodied, delicious and warm way to start my day. Taken hot, no additives.

Don’t have a lot of details this was made for me at work, thanks @nknotte7801, so I know it was hot with no additives. The tea had a pomegranate note to its fragrance, the tea itself was astringent though, not terrible considering pomegranates are not sweet, but not great.

Since I had already bought this after the first time I tried it, I gave the sample in my sample pack to my mom. Tonight we brewed that tea because it is extremely cold again here, and it was the best way to warm up :)

No notes yet.

Today being the cold and long day that it was, I was starting to get comfortable under some blankets watching TV while starting to fall asleep. It being barely 8pm, I decided that couldn’t happen. I brewed up some of my dirty chocolate chai with a slight twist: bring water to boil in a pot, add 1/2 tsp rock sugar, dissolve, add 2 tsps chocolate chai, let boil 3 minutes, lower temperature, add 1 tsp instant coffee (I know, I apologize, but desperate times call for desperate coffee), let cook one minute, add milk to taste, let warm through (about 20 seconds), strain and enjoy.

Blasphemous? Possibly. Delicious? Definitely. Best of all, I am wide awake and warm to the bone. Enjoy!