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i made House Party 3 some catnip tea. but despite what this pic looks like, she didn’t actually taste it. cats. sheesh.
http://instagram.com/p/Zrasqsoc8X/

After developing a taste for iced coffees, I finally talked myself into having tea instead of coffee. I brewed up the last of my chocolate mint tea (that may or may not be from the actual chocolate mint plant) and added milk.

In the words of Takei, Oh my!

This is delicious! Lovely and minty and chocolatey. The milk brings out the mint and chocolate more and then it makes it creamy. Like mint chip ice cream! Decadent~!

When I go to my boyfriend’s, I bring along a reusable bag filled with teas that are small samples, or just a bit left, in hopes I can finish them off. That was precisely my plan to ice Teavana’s Precious White Peach again, but I did not have enough for a full 16oz. I have a very small amount of DavidsTea’s Kanpe with me, definitely not enough for even a cup, but I figure I’ll throw it in there too.

They actually don’t have any ingredients in common from the looks of it, but I figured why not give it a shot. I have more Kanpe but it’s still a sipdown combination of excellence.

I only had this peach tea by itself once and I had to delete the note so I can’t remember much of it. I do remember it was not hibiscus pink, which this turned thanks to Kanpe.

I might have let the temperature get too hot for the white tea? It’s very bitter. Which is weird, since you know, it’s not very much white tea in the first place. It starts off very strongly tasting like Kanpe, with the addition of peach before going bitter like that. The cinnamon is pretty strong too, I really was not expecting this to taste so heavily like Kanpe when I barely had enough for a cup of it hot, let alone iced.

I’ll probably finish the glass anyway but I’m glad that I have no more of that white tea. It really isn’t very good and it seems to be incredibly picky.

Cold brew experimenting turned out really well today.
I paired together peppermint amour and lemon myrtle from DAVIDsTEA.
Very refreshing on a nice spring day!

Celestial Seasonings Sweet Apple Chamomile + a second steep of Shang Tea’s honeysuckle white = one fragrant, sweet cup of fruit-and-flower tastiness. Delicious. Even more so looking at a freshly mowed backyard with a scrappy, perky little cat lounging in the scraps of late afternoon sun.

Couldn’t you just use a month of moments like this?

1tsp of English Caramel at the Tea Haus
1tsp of Courtlodge from the Metropolitan Tea Company

The last bit of my courtlodge was combined with English Caramel, and steeped for 3 mins.

I found that the caramel flavour was still there and nice and strong. I didn’t lose any flavour really from the courtlodge. If anything, the courtlodge just seemed to enhance the malty, basic black tea flavour that I get from black teas.

I love the English Caramel, but I’m finding that I’ve definitely hit my limit with this tea. It’s really good, but I think I’m done with this one. I may give what I have left away to a friend. I don’t know if I’ll finish it or not…

My brother and I went shopping for Mother’s Day today and we stopped by the Coffee bean stand. I got some more Taro bubble tea and it is awesome like always. They have an almond flavor that I think I’m going to try next time, but I am almost too fond of the taro flavor to change. I really need to find some taro powder so I can make it at home.

I’m not sure if this is a tea blend or actual leaves from the chocolate mint plant, so I decided to put this tea in here. One of my old roomies sent me this tea and I brewed it up today.

The liquid is a dark brown. It is like I’m brewing up a black tea instead of an herbal, so I’m not sure what I’m getting. The scent is like a hint of cocoa. I’m not getting any mint in the taste, but it does remind me of a Hershey bar. It is really interesting and I have enough to brew another cup. I might try it with milk next time.

Tazo Calm + Shang Tea Chrysanthemum = sweet little bouquet to assure me that it IS spring. Really.

The chrysanthemum is thick and silky; the goodies in the Tazo sweeten it a bit; the fresh planty-ness of the chrysanthemum overcomes the annoying sweetness of the licorice. Warm cuppa in my hand; warm laptop on my shivering legs. Everybody’s getting along.

Ha! More bubble tea today. They made it with matcha and it was fantastic! I actually ate most of the bubbles this time because I didn’t want to waste any matcha taste clinging to them. So fantastic!

The bubble teas they have in the mall are more like smoothies than anything, but it was fantastic to have something nice and cold on a hot day after a long day at work.

2 tsp Butiki Teas’ Raspberry Truffle + 1/8 tsp Adagio’s Peppermint

This combination was inspired by Marketspice’s Holiday Tea that I tried earlier today. I eyeballed the Peppermint, so I’m not 100% sure what the exact amount was. It’s definitely less than 1/4 tsp though. I’m excited for this one! I hope the ratio works out well.

The brewed tea aroma is mostly raspberry with only a whisper of mint. The flavors were a little too quiet for my liking, so I added some Truvia. Hello! That worked! I’m getting a nice balance of raspberry, chocolate, and mint now. The mint could probably be stronger, but then so could the chocolate. I really love chocolate.

My husband gave me a bunch of Lindt and Ferrero Rocher truffles on the morning of our wedding. I’m trying to make them last. But all I want to do is stuff all these glorious truffles in my mouth pronto! LOL! This tea is a good compromise for my waistline. Tea to the rescue!!! I’d rate this combo an 88.

Tea of the morning…..

I am onto a new Franken Breakfast Blend. The last batch got over smoked by some Lapsang Souchong (and that will permeate everything in the blend, so go very, very sparingly if you blend with smokey teas as they take over!) Right now it is 2 parts Mountain Rose Herbs Assam, 3 parts China Panyang Congou from Upton, and 3 parts Gen Ben Shi, a Yunnan from Upton. At one point, I was going to give this whole blending thing up, but today I am glad that I did not.

The resulting blend is very good. Smooth, malty, cocoa-noted, and cozy. Not a hint of bitterness or astringency. There is a slight difference in leaf size on these three teas, so I did my scooping from the bottom of the tin (the Gen Ben Shi is a huge tea!) It also reminds me that I probably need more of the Congou at some point as it is perfect for blending tea and smoothing everything together.

Usual teapot method.

I mixed close to a teaspoon each of The Whistling Kettle’s Salted Caramel and their Chocolate Cake Honeybush. Reason being I can’t recall if I mix the cake or their Nutcrunch honeybush with the Salted Caramel…because both of those look pretty similar. SO I tried it and it is def. not these two teas mixed together. This isn’t bad but it isn’t the salty-sweet combo I was looking for this morning.

Life has done a number on our family this week—sick mama, medical trauma, severe storm drama, (I’ll throw in commas and llamas and pajamas, too, just because they rhyme).

Thus and therefore, I am in dire need of a full night’s sleep to have the energy to face more of the same. Tulsi to relax + chickweed to replenish whatever nourishment I’ve neglected to intake this week. About 1/3 of the chickweed to 2/3 tulsi. The spiciness of the tulsi keeps the chickweed from tasting too weedy and barky.

Another tea mixture this morning!

1 tsp of Hazelnut cream
1 tsp of English caramel both by the Tea Haus

I find that the english caramel is definitely the more powerful flavour in this mix. I didn’t notice the hazelnut really at all. I was hoping it would be a bit stronger as I was sorta looking for a nutty flavour, but it didn’t really come through.

Have you ever had a tea that you loved and drank so much of it that you’re sick of it? I’m getting that way with the English Caramel. I bought like 200 or 250g and I’m actually finding that I’ve hit my limit with this tea. I’ve had other teas that I can drink like 700g of before and never been feeling that way, but this time… I dunno… maybe I should try something different…? I’ll play around and see what I can do with it.

Teas Etc Persian Lime + Mahamosa Spearmint

This was AWESOME. I made a quart pitcher of iced tea, and I believe I used 1 tbsp of spearmint leaves and around 2 1/2 tbsp of Persian Lime. I don’t think I added any sweetener to it, but I do remember that I completely missed starting the timer on my phone so I had to guess at steeping.

It turned out perfect so that was fine. The lime and mint were perfectly matched, I was worried I didn’t have enough mint in there but it was just right to give a burst of mintiness at the end.

I have no idea what else to say since it took me hours to finally finish this and this tea was from yesterday. Blah.

Experiment Number 31: Berry Blue Jello Popsicles made with super-concentrated (3 tsps per cup) Tardis Blend Tea instead of water.

Initially all seems to be going well. I figured that the sugar in the jello would sweeten out the tea enough.(Note, this proved to be incorrect. Adding some stevia or so to the blend before chilling will probably take care of that.) The Tardis blend balances nicely with the berry blue, which was encouraging, even if it made a weird green color. In the future I will probably use a cheap bagged earl grey instead, as the berry blue over powers most of the berry from the Tardis blend, maybe even add a touch or two of vanilla extract. The earl grey however, is very much there. I believe I made the tea a bit too strong, as there’s a sort of lingering bitterness to the popsicles that probably makes it unsuitable for friend sharing. I’m not sure how long these will last in the freezer, but they seem tasty enough for a first experiment.

DavidsTea Stormy Night + Chocolate Orange

A friend was curious what she could mix that was a chocolate tea to tone down the cinnamon in Stormy Night. I thought Chocolate Orange sounded like the best bet, and it’s definitely good.

Stormy Night came off as really thin-bodied the first time I had it, and the puerh gives it more of a body. The cinnamon is way less intense, as is the coconut. It doesn’t taste like slightly chocolatey cinnamon coconut water anymore.

I’m gonna try it w/cocoa canela tomorrow. I’ve only got enough Chocolate Orange for one more cup so I think I’m going to have to drink it on its own, but this was a good experiment.

Experiment number 30: 50% Vanilla Green and 50% White Peach.

This didn’t go very well. While the White Peach helps the flavor of the white green, the vanilla green drags down the white peach. I had to add sugar to this, which I almost never have to with white blends. The Vanilla Green didn’t play very well with my sample of white blueberry either. Gonna have to try the vanilla green with some green fruit blends when I can get my hands on them. I’m thinking I see a sample of apricot green in my next Adagio order.

This morning, I woke up with a slight sore throat (my hubby has a bad case of a headcold so I’m sure that I’m coming down with it too) so to combat the sore throat, I decided to grab my “Kitchen Sink” breakfast tea which is a combination of small bits of black tea blends from all different companies and brew it, and then add some of my ginger/honey crystals to have a spicy hot soothing cuppa that did WONDERS on my throat. And it tasted good too. I’m glad my tastebuds haven’t been affected (yet) by the cold. Hopefully they won’t!

It’s been a beautiful Spring day in St. Louis, but unfortunately with the beautiful spring weather, we have tree pollen. Allergies always make me feel irritable & overly sensitive: physically, mentally, emotionally. Today I’m feeling sensitive to tastes, light, colors, pretty much everything! Add to that, I spent a few hours working on my taxes, & although I’ve made progress, I still have plenty to do before they are done. That’s enough to make anyone grumpy, right?

Most of the flavored teas I like don’t taste as good to me today.
I wanted something natural.
This is a combination of 2 teas, both Black dragon Pearls:
One is from Mandala – Thanks to Azzrian
The other is From Praise Tea – from our dear Ms Bonnie!
I didn’t have enough left of either one to make a cup, but combined together they are doing the trick!
Plus I get to claim a Double Sipdown!!

I have been craving star anise seed for some reason….. also tartness. I decided to make Yu Lu Lan Cha western with a single star anise and two medium pieces of hibiscus. Made 4 steeps and combined them and put in 3 spoon fulls of light agave nectar. Warm the a anise see was strong, a little too much. I will use a smaller one next time. When it cooled a bit the hibiscus showed through more with a nice tartness. Iced this is even better….. or slushi that is. I left it to long in the freezer. The added herbs are more balance and the roasty chocolaty tea shines through.

Overall very good. I like how the tart hibiscus helps cut the spicy licorice flavor of the anise. Might try it again.

While I was at the college today I needed to refill my 16 oz tea thingy, & looking through my purse, I had 1 of each of several things. I’ve been carrying around ‘chocolate hazelnut decaf’ (stash), which was a free sample they were handing out at the last Bridal show I played at (I should have took more than 1, right?). I had Numi’s ‘Breakfast Blend’, Harrod’s ‘Earl Grey’, Mighty Leaf ‘Earl Grey’, & Numi Magnolia Puer. The first 2 won out. I felt like they were probably compatible, so into the cup they went with a little stevia. Not bad! The chocolate hazelnut is probably pretty tasty on it’s own, & it’s flavors held up nicely. Now I’m home…hmmm….what to drink next?

For a lark, threw some black peppercorns in with some aging Belgian Chocolate rooibos (Metropolitan, I think). Couldn’t taste the peppercorns separately, but I think they added a little depth of flavor and warmth, rather than heat, that brought this oldie but goodie back to life.