California Tea House

I do not drink oolong often, and then I taste an oolong like this and wonder why I don’t drink it more! This has such a smooth taste to it, it is a delightful brew.

So I’m not entirely sure that this is what I had last night. It wasn’t labeled but I did give some to my mom, which is labeled & looks like this tea.
I’m also pretty sure I took it from the traveling tea box the last time around.

It smelt creamy & coffee like. However once steeped it was light on flavour & smell. Probably a result of age & storing conditions.
I think that if this were fresh it would be quite good.
So not going to give it a rating due to that.

VERY pistachio-Y. Almost a little LIME-Y, too. Toasty, Nutty, Vegetal, quite…GREEN, really. I’m not tasting the chocolate notes they mention but maybe it’s the chocolate notes that contribute to the creaminess on the back end. Pretty good, just be sure NOT to over infuse – it can get a little bitter!

SIPDOWN!

Thanks to the lovely LiberTEAS for providing this one. It’s a solid Darjeeling. I’ve really enjoyed it! :) See my other note.

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Dinosara was so nice in sending this one along with a bunch of other nice teas! (It was so thoughtful that you remembered I was looking for this one.. I’m not sure how you did! thanks so much!) I had been checking their site (californiateahouse.com) to order some for months, but they have only been selling it in four ounce packages. I certainly don’t need that much of one tea if I have so many other teas. I was initially interested because someone told be this one was similar to my beloved but extinct SpecialTeas Vienna Winter Green (I had to look though my messages to see who told be about it and it was Mercuryhime — thank you!) So I’m so happy to be able to try this one and see if it is the same!

…And it does seem the same! I asked someone at CTH if it was the same blend and they said “not quite” but this seems pretty close to me. It has all the same ingredients… and man is it a rare list. The steep color is a buttery yellow, just like the flavor. This one really can’t be steeped over two minutes or it will get bitter. Definitely my favorite green tea with such a great mix of toasty, nutty flavors. It is so nice to find a replacement for the SpecialTeas blend! I wonder if their other blends are the same or similar? Hopefully this one will still be there when I need more… and I might even get the four ounces.

The SpecialTeas blend has such a nice Steepster history for me:
1) Nichole sent me some of the Vienna randomly when I first joined Steepster, and it became a surprise favorite for me.
2)Mercuryhime sent me some more of the Vienna when I ran out and also suggested the California Tea House blend, so I knew to look for that one.
3) Dinosara sent me some of the California Tea House blend after remembering I was l was looking for it!

I will never stop being amazed at the kindness and generosity of Steepsters! It is very appreciated!

My first order with California Tea House. Opened up the bag and I thought I was in my favorite Italian restaurant having some Tiramasu. Brewed it up and it had a very nice flavor. Especially good after work.
I drink it with sugar and a touch of milk to make it a touch creamier.

I received this as a sample with my recent order. Thank You California Tea House. I thought it was quite good and creamy. I did not enjoy the vanilla as much as I normally would a bergamot but it was very enjoyable none the less.

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I was very excited to try this, so I was very disappointed at first sip. I find this tea, when plain, completely undrinkable. Adding some sugar helped a bit, but there is still too much of something (I think maybe cardamom?). Adding milk really tempered the punch and now it’s actually quite nice! It’s not the most chocolatey tea I’ve ever had, but it is a nice chai, overall. I look forward to trying this iced, too.

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The sun came out for about 2 seconds and now the snow is all gone. Oh, southern Ohio.

I suddenly started feeling off and kind of nauseous for some completely unknown reason, so I had to quick think if I had any ginger teas in my stash here at work. I should have remembered this one! It’s been so long since I’ve had it, but it has been my go-to sick-feeling tea at work for a while. I still have a ton of it left. Fortunately it is still pretty flavorful and soothing, although I admit it is getting a little old and the flavors aren’t quite as bright. Well, I guess it’s time for overleafing this one whenever I need to brew it!

I found this in a box of teas from work. I thought I had either lost it or finished up the pouch, so I was glad to find it.

Over two years old, and still working on the same pouch – but it still tastes as yummy as it did the first cuppa I had. (Even more proof that you don’t necessarily need to use tins.)

The apricot taste is so delish! That’s a flavor you wouldn’t think would be all that strong/bold, yet this blend really packs a punch.

Tastes like happy! :)

I have been spoiled by the divinity of American Tea Room’s Lemoncello, which is also a rooibos based lemon tea. However, the Lemoncello is so mild that it doesn’t do well diluted with ice. In searching for a tea to ice this summer, I discovered California Tea Room’s Lemon Meringue Pie. Though the dry tea is very astringent, smelling almost as if splashed with rubbing alcohol, the brewed liquid smells fabulous! The liquid tastes and smells unapologetically zingy, zesty, but not too acidic. It’s a strong lemon tea, yet the rooibos keeps it from being grassy. I put it over ice, and it remained strong and refreshing. With sugar added, it developed a whole new character. A delicious find! As long as I don’t inhale while the tea is dry, this is a wonderfully full, versatile cup of lemon tea.

This is one from the box of teas I bought from LiberTeas a year or so ago. As I think we all know by now, I’m not even remotely punctual in my tea-drinking but I get around to everything at one point or another. Dry, this has a jammy smell, very sweet and berry-ish without being able to name a specific aroma.

Steeped, I have a shockingly orange liquor with a relatively simple black tea smell but a delicious and complex taste. It’s tea, yes, but that berry/fruit/jam aroma I got from the dry leaf has translated beautifully into the steeped taste. I am not sure what muscat smells/tastes like but I like to hope that it is the ‘jamminess.’ I get a sense of bitterness that never fully develops, and quickly fades out to the sweet fruit I’m enjoying.

The leaves in my pouch are a bit more ragged than I might prefer, but they are large enough to avoid undue astringency, so they’re good enough. This is actually a pretty good tea – I know almost nothing about darjeelings so I don’t know if this is a good example of what they are or is a bit lower quality, either way it’s pretty tasty!

It’s been a long time since I’ve had this tea, but I suddenly started feeling a bit queasy this morning and I knew I had to dig it out. It’s a lemon-ginger green blend, and I’ve used it many times in the past to settle my stomach.

Fortunately, it is working. Despite the fact that this tea is getting old, it’s still plenty lemony and there’s enough ginger to settle my stomach (though not really enough to taste in a big way. Lemon Drop to the rescue once again.

Yum!
I still had a lot of this from one of my first swaps way back when with Dinosara! And so – I made a small pot of it.

It has a hint of chocolate taste to it surprisingly – and I definitely get pistachio! There’s a hint of bitterness, even though I only used 160 degree water – but it’s very tasty. I’ll probably make the rest into iced tea so we’ll see how it fares then!

So this is the fate of a tea that has been with me at least 10 months, simply because I was saving it for an occasion. I went geocaching, that’s occasion enough! haha

This tea is very subtle, which makes it a perfect tea for me to drink in between two other types of tea. I never get tired of this tea. It is very important with this tea to use soft water with few minerals, else the taste of the water wil overshadow the taste of the tea.

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Love this tea! Iced or hot, the citrus is delicious and the flowers are lovely.

Made a half of a pitcher of this to keep in the fridge as it’s currently 102º outside. Oh and that’s not counting what the humidity makes it feel like! Gross…

Anyway, I really like traditional Italian dessert. The coffee and cream in it is so rich that I can only occasionally enjoy it. So I thought this would be a lovely way to have my dessert but without the crazy fullness that happens after I indulge.

Steeped 2 cups of water with 5 tsp. of tisane for well over 10 minutes. I couldn’t wait until it cooled down, so I poured a little of it over a couple ice cubes, some whole milk (no calories spared here!) and some simple syrup. This is DELICIOUS – Definitely a wonderful way to have this! I taste coffee and cocoa and if it wasn’t already in there, the milk takes the creaminess over the top!

I’ll probably be keeping this on hand to have latte-style!

My plans for a tea tasting extravaganza got cut short yesterday. My fiancé and I are doing P90X together, and yesterday was Day 1. At one point, he turned to me and said, “Okay are you ready to start?” And I responded, “Umm, I’m practically sloshing with tea. I think I would puke if I worked out right now.” So, what did he say next? Solution = stop drinking tea! I started to protest and he thought I was just trying to get out of the workout. So alas, I stopped drinking tea way before I wanted to.

But today is a new day, so I’m picking up where I left off! I’m a little stuffy today, which means I’m not going to be able to describe the aromas or flavors particularly well. But so far, I’m loving this Darjeeling! I’ve only tried a bagged Darjeeling from Twinings once and it was awful. I’ve been afraid of trying it again ever since. But this is great!

It reminds me of Bailin Gongfu and Yunnan Dian Hong, with this being somewhere in between. I’m excited that I can enjoy this sans additions because that’s a rare event for me and black tea. I think I also might be starting to understand what muscatel means in a tea. It does slightly remind me of grapes and wine. But it’s also still prominently TEA. Time for a second steep!

This infusion was for 3 minutes, and I added skim milk and Truvia right away. Mmm, still delicious! Now I understand the hype over Darjeeling. This is a thoroughly enjoyable cuppa. Smooth and bright with no bitterness or even astringency to speak of. Thank you LiberTEAS for sharing this and re-opening my world to Darjeeling teas!