Culinary Teas

Had this for breakfast. Pretty decent. Not great. I added some milk and honey to my first steep. Was heading out the door and added half of an actual salted butter caramel from Trader Joe’s to my second steep. That was was really good. Like most of the Culinary Teas, I enjoy it, will drink my whole sample, but probably won’t re-order.

Love this tea iced… just sweet enough, but not overpowering, and the black tea base doesn’t overpower the flavors! This is also one of the best smelling loose teas I’ve ever had… The vanilla smells artificial, but the berry is one of the least artificial-smelling artificial blueberries I’ve ever smelled. Love this one.

Strongly citrus aroma. I think I’m beginning to get a general sense of CT’s stuff now—the flavors are nice, but what I’m finding disappointing is the black tea base they tend to use in everything. It’s not terrible but it’s not flavorful or smooth enough in its own right, and the authentic but light flavors they build over it are usually not quite enough compensation to push any given tea of theirs into the “would definitely buy again” zone.

I do appreciate the way the floral notes come in later in the swallow, after the citrus, and linger.

Had this tea rated at 82, but had to lower it. It just isn’t sweet enough… Drank it iced today, with extra sweetener, but the orange flavor was very faint… the tea completely overpowered it, and made even the slight hint of orange taste burnt and completely unappealing. Finished for the caffeine, but didn’t enjoy a sip.

I’ve tried a bunch of teas over the past few days but it’s been pretty crazy over here so I haven’t logged them. I’ll try and get back on track! This tea smells awesome. The flavors are good and all present (Chocolate, caramel, nut), but I wish the black tea base was a little stronger. It gets tastier as it cools. I’ll definitely enjoy the rest of my sample, but I doubt I’ll reorder.

I dig the way this has a sort of floral, perfume-y thing going on, not just straight up sweet strawberry. And there’s definitely a rich creamy-pastry thing going on in the aroma too; it’s less evident in the swallow, but the overall effect really is of good homemade shortcake with freshly whipped cream and sunpicked fresh berries, the small flowery-smelling sort, not the bland supermarket behemoths. Nice. I’m sure the slice of strawberry cake I happened to have on hand and enjoyed with this didn’t hurt either!

This tea while it’s brewing really does smell like good pecan pie—you know, a pie that’s more about roasted nuts and buttery flaky pastry than a ton of corn syrup goo—and almost a little chocolate-y, sort of like Dorie Greenspan’s very adult/sophisticated recipe for chocolate pecan pie with the secret ingredient of a little espresso powder. So that’s a plus.

As for the actual flavor while drinking…like Irish Cream, not a lot to write home about bad or good at first. But once it cools slightly and a tiny pinch of raw sugar is added, the pecan pie flavor comes through. I’m beginning to suspect most of the Culinary Teas dessert-y flavored teas I got are going to need this treatment; I don’t think they enhance their sweetness with sugar or licorice root or whatnot in the bag, which hey, I’m not complaining (you can always add sweeteners, but you can’t get rid of them if put there as part of the blend!). It doesn’t take much sugar to let the nutty caramel flavor shine through. The nutty taste is still slightly thin on the first/front part of the swallow, but then it deepens and lingers nicely in the aftertaste.

I still don’t think so far CT’s rich dessert-y flavored black offerings are on par with, say, American Tea Room’s, but they’re a step up from supermarket brands and they definitely don’t taste adulterated with cheap artificial ingredients.

at first i was pretty disappointed because as another reviewer said, there’s not much going on here, good or bad. just tastes like plain nothing-fancy black tea. but there’s a creaminess to the finish, a thick silky mouthfeel, that accumulates as you drink the cup as it cools down. it’s still not quite what i was hoping for, but it’s not bad either. fairly faint and nondescript.

there was also the slightest twinge of bitterness initially, but i blame my steeping approach and haven’t made that mistake since with CT’s stuff (it needs to be slightly less than boiling and definitely not a full 3 minutes).

next time i’ll try adding a bit of raw sugar and see if it helps.

This is a new favorite for me! I love the Ceylon black tea base here. I didn’t have any milk but added some sugar to this strong chai blend. I love this! The flavors are natural.

I made this tea hot, then served it from the fridge… I’m sure that the rating would be a lot lower if hot! The black tea base is strong and a little bitter, and would’ve overpowered the peach flavor without sweetener. However, iced, with about 1 packet of stevia per liter, it tasted great! The peach was obviously artificial, and you can tell that just by smelling the loose leaves… Bad if you’re expecting an authentic, juicy peach experience, but fine for the a tea. The cream flavor is pretty much nonexistent to me, but I didn’t really miss it. Especially at the low price, I’d buy it again for iced.

Back after a long, and quite frankly awful, absence. I’ve been sick for a week after having an allergic reaction to some antibiotics. Wasn’t able to have any of my tea! =(
The worst seems to have past. Now I’m just resting up so I can be back to my normal self.

This one came from TastyBrew!

The dry leaf smelled amazing. Very sweet and caramelly, with just a hint of the black tea base. Once brewed, this tea it picks up an even stronger, almost melted white chocolate/caramel aspect.

Unfortunately, I don’t seem to be a huge fan of caramel teas when it comes to taste. This one, like many of the others I’ve had, ends up tasting too artificial for me to really enjoy. The caramel flavor is there, but it’s got an odd taste and aftertaste. The black base is present, but slightly astringent.

I’m happy to have gotten the chance to taste this tea, but I wouldn’t buy it for myself. Oh well. If every tea were a favorite, I’d be in debt and seriously out of space. =)

Someone left some of this in the communal tea area at work so I decided to try it. Meh, its alright…nothing spectacular.

No notes yet.

This blend is balanced really well. It has some blueberry, a splash of vanilla, and a bold black tea base. I think I may prefer this to the blueberry cream cheese danish from 52teas. The blueberry comes through more as it cools. Thanks Jackie T!

I’m the first? Weird! Well unfortunately this isn’t going to be very groundbreaking!

This is the second Monk’s Blend I’ve tried, the first being from English Tea Store and received in a swap. This one came from Tastybrew after seeing how much I enjoyed the first.

This one was also very good! I ended up making some in my travel mug to take to see Evil Dead last night. I do that all the time. Last night my brother was there and he was all like “Is that TEA?!”

Uh, yeah…

“OMG you’re such an old lady!”

Whatever, I love it.

It seemed much fruitier than the ETS one. I can smell a big difference but my ETS is just a few remnants in a ziploc bag that has been sitting in a box with other baggies received in swaps so the smell isn’t very obvious at this point.

I will do a comparison tasting later!

Either way. I had no idea that Monk’s Blend existed until I found Steepster so just colour me happy to have a new yummy tea in my stash and in my heart!

Thank you Tastybrew for letting me adopt your unwanted Monk’s Blend! It’s right up my alley :)

(Boiling for about 3 min)

I bought this one and the plain vanilla black tea as 1oz samples ($2.20 – really good deal) and have been drinking them interchangeably without taking time to find out which one I prefer. Since I just had the plain vanilla I figured I’d have the vanilla cream and see if there is much of a difference. There actually is. The cream has the same yummy vanilla flavor, but (surprise surprise) is much creamier. Like having a vanilla tea with a little whipped cream in it. I think I prefer it. It’s a little smoother, doesn’t need much milk or honey. Both are good, but this is just a little better.

Needed a solid vanilla tea this morning after having a less than stellar one yesterday. Yum. Nothing too fancy about this. Just a good vanilla tea.

Uhm so, something very odd just happened. I had picked up a package of Queen Mary tea from The Secret Tea Room a while ago and decided to have a cup today. After reading the description of this particular tea, and the descriptions of several other Queen Mary teas, I was expecting a nice, malty tea with some floral notes. Ohhh, this tea was so not that. It had those little tiny granules of tea leaves with a whole bunch of large pieces of dried spices (cinnamon bark, maybe, and some other thing that I’ve seen before but can’t remember what it is, it looks like marshmallow root maybe?) I thought, well maybe this is just their adapted version of a Queen Mary blend. So I steeped it, and it was terrible. Alright, maybe not terrible, but just so not what I was expecting. I had anticipated sweet, warming maltiness and instead had some borderline bitter tea with a strange, icky spiciness to it. I am sad because, 1. I couldn’t even finish the tea; and 2. I feel like I can’t even really rate it because I don’t even know what tea it was. I think TSTR obviously mislabeled this one, and I will ask them the next time that I go in. It will drive me crazy until then, though! Has this ever happened to anyone else???

So, after that mess, I am really in need of a tea that is exactly what it says it is. I’m trying this Prince of Wales blend that TeaRunner sent out for our “The American Heiress” book club. She even sent along a little printout about the tea from the Culinary Tea’s website, which is so helpful! This tea is a pretty blend of medium black tea leaves and those cute little rolled gunpowder balls. There’s also some little blue and orange flower petals. The dry leaves smell like fruity black currant, while there is a lovely black tea and sweet fruit aroma from the tea itself. This is a really nice tea with a thick, malty flavor. The finish is very robust, and almost bitter, but good. The black currant comes out very lightly in the aftertaste, but it’s there. This one sort of reminds me of Harney and Son’s Black Currant, but I think theirs is just a little more smooth and rounded. I do appreciate that this one is so flavorful, though. It would be a great tea to get you going in the morning! Thank you TeaRunner for this one!

-Dry blend has medium black tea leaves and twigs and dark green rolled gunpowder tea with small blue and orange petals.
-Dry leaves smell lightly of fruity black currant. Tea liquor aroma is of black tea and sweet fruit.
-Tea liquor is a clear dark orange brown color.
-Thick malty flavor with a very robust and almost bitter finish. Light currant aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Very good tea. Really flavorful with a light black currant note.

I just received my shipment of “Pure Green Matcha – Everyday Drinking Tea” from Tealux today. It tasted a little stronger and more full bodied than the Japanese green tea you get served when having sushi. It had a subtle bitterness to it because it was the cheapest of the Matcha teas so it isn’t as sweet as some higher grades of Matcha. I will be ordering a higher grade soon for making lattes! I want to attempt to make green tea ice cream now too!! :D

Overall, average tea but exactly what I expected. :)

I’ve had this tea first thing in the morning for the last week. And it’s a very tasty genmai cha. When I make it straight I don’t detect much matcha (which is what I want first thing the AM). To make it perfect, I add a 1/2 tsp of the culinary tea matcha powder. When it’s time to resteep I just add a little more matcha. I think this is the way to go with the genmais + matcha. I’ve found that very few of the genmai+matcha have enough matcha for my taste. The only brands that have enough matcha from the get go are american tea room and rishi. They actually look like the picture listed for this tea. Nonetheless, this is still a good tea. With altering, super good.

Sipdown tea #8! I got this in my first swap with momo and had just enough for a cups worth.
I could have sworn I’ve already done a note for this one… Buut anyways.. The aroma of this tea is soo juicy. It has a nice apple\pear scent to it. The flavor is pretty juicy too. Lots of lovely pear and apple flavors. The rooibos makes a nice base for this. Adds a bit of an earthy\woodsy note to it. Only wish I had more!

I had this back when I was sick last week and had lost my ability to taste anything. It was ok, but not great. I wanted to give this fair shot so I tried it again this afternoon. It was pretty good. Nice smooth caramel flavor. But I didn’t taste the burnt sugar I want from creme brulee. Its definitely good caramel tea. But I won’t be re-ordering as I prefer the salted caramel from david’s.

Sipdown tea #3! Thanks to momo for sending me this sample. The aroma of this tea is lovely, smooth and chocolatey. The flavor came out a bit bitter but it’s still drinkable. I can taste the black tea base and creamy notes of white chocolate. I liked this one. Thanks again!

I wasn’t crazy about it, to be honest. The first thing I noticed when I opened the bag was a medicinal smell, like cherry cough syrup. That was followed up with a medicinal taste when I brewed it. It didn’t remind me of chocolate-covered cherries at all. Maraschino cherries don’t taste like Tylenol. I tasted a little chocolatiness, but it wasn’t very pleasant when combined with that fake cherry flavor.

I’m glad I only bought a sample and not a 4 oz. bag. I wasn’t impressed. If I want to taste a cherry cordial, I’ll eat one. This tea doesn’t measure up.