Design a Tea

This is more of a clove and nutmeg tea with a black base.
Two of my favorite spices.
The pumpkin is not really recognizable it is so light, but oh I love the clove!
Reminds me of the clove gum, but the flavor is a bit more complex than the gum.
I really like this.

’Here’s Hoping’ traveling teabox Round #2 // Tea #10
Steep #1 // just boiled // 3 min
Oh my gosh, the pear is very accurate! Design a Tea, I’m not doubting you, if I was before! I’ve had a few pear teas in the past and they are usually way off, gross, or there is a drying effect to the mouth. This tastes exactly like juicy, sweet pear! It doesn’t have hints of artificial at all. It wins the pear flavored tea contest! The spices are nice with it as well, I think it’s mostly cinnamon, but the pear is definitely front and center. The black tea is perfect with the flavor too. Not too heavy, not too light.

Steep #2 // a few minutes after boiling // 3 min
Sadly, this steep lost the pear flavor, but I probably didn’t steep it as I should have. I like the slightly stronger spice flavor this time around anyway. I’m tried a couple from Design A Tea, and now I’m impressed. I want to steal this one from the teabox, but I will leave the few remaining teaspoons there for others to taste the magic!

Sipdown!! (176, because I found some teas that I forgot to remove from my cupboard so YAY!)

This is actually a very nice tea. The vanilla flavor is amazing and sweet and delicious while the pomegranate is more subtle but still great. Honestly, if you have not already checked out Design a Tea I recommend you do so as their flavors have all been great and you can create 5 samples for free (though you have to pay shipping): http://www.designatea.com/freesamples.php.

Sipdown!!

This is a nice tea. The black base is a little strong for my liking but once I get passed that, I really enjoy the fresh apricot flavor which has been drizzled with a nice bit of honey for sweetness. Good, but not amazing so I don’t think I would be ordering more. I am happy I tried it though.

And this one is finished. I really like the pear flavor mixed with the spices. The spice flavors have mellowed so much from when I first purchased it, but I find that to be a good thing because it really lets the pear flavor stand out. It’s a great fall tea, so I’m a little bummed that it’s all gone, but this is definitely a tasty last cup. I added cream and sugar and am enjoying.

This is something I might repurchase at some point in the future, but there are so many tea/flavor possibilities at Design a Tea that I think my next custom creation will be something new to me.

September Sipdowns: 31 (I didn’t log a lot of my sipdowns because Steepster has been so derpy.)

Now that I’m almost out of this one I’m starting to like it a lot. Go figure. Tonight’s cup had a very good balance between the pear and the spice. The pear was the main flavor with the cinnamon and nutmeg acting as highlighters to the fruit. Delicious.

I’m still planning on ordering straight pear tea with my next DAT order, but I’m upping my rating on this one because this is a cup of yum.

(previous rating: 74)

Backlogging.

This was a custom blend from Design a Tea. I love pear flavored teas, and I thought the spice might lend a poached pear flavor. The tea I received had a lot of spice. So much so that I set the tea aside for several moths hoping the flavors would mellow a bit. It worked! I’ve found with a shorter steep (3 minutes or so) I get a nice pear flavor and the cinnamon and nutmeg from the spice in a much more balanced cup than I had when I first ordered the tea.

The next time I order from DAT I’m going to get pear tea with no additional flavors. I think the company has a wonderful pear flavor – very juicy and sweet – and Id rather have that than pear plus whatever else.

Sipdown!!

This tastes like those caramel apple lollipops with a touch of oolong as the sip ends. If only the dry oolong flavor were not there because this is sweet and creamy and just a touch tart. Yum!

Sipdown!!

So this one is not as delicious as the Mango Zabaglione. It tastes like chocolate rooibos and not much else. Where is the banana?!? Oh well. One more tea to cross off my bucket list.

Sipdown!! (191)

Tbh, I was not expecting this to be as good as it is. I am not sure why, but I just didn’t have high expectations. Sipping on it now, I am actually blown away at how good this is. Initially, the taste is of rooibos, though a pleasant rooibos that is neither woodsy or medicinal. Then, a delicious sweet creaminess takes over, just as one would expect from a zabaglione. Finally, the mango sneaks in right at the end of the sip and just pops. I would definitely have this again and the success with this tea has made me excited to try the others I have.

thanks so much Dexter3657! I was craving blueberry but I thought I’d go with this one. It’s not bad! Sweet strawberry flavor on a decent rooibos that isn’t bothering my throat. There is a hint of cream with the strawberry (not exactly sure what the zabaglione is anyway). I swear I could have had a tea like this the other day, but I’m not sure which one (maybe 52Teas Strawberry Pie honeybush?). So many teas! It’s nice as it cools too. I like it!
Steep #1 // a few minutes after boiling // 3-4 min steep

Another fruity tea for the morning. This one has a white base and the scent reminds me of when I bake coconut loaf.

The flavours are quite delicate and the scent of coconut loaf seems to come through, but it’s not distinctly coconut. I’m not really getting anything in the way of pomegranate, but this is a tasty cup.

Thanks Dexter3657!

P.S. This is a sample sipdown.

I was expecting something completely different from what I got, but I wasn’t disappointed!

I’m usually only OK with chai teas, with the exception of a few chais tend to be a bit overwhelming for me. I was making an order already at DesignATea and this is one of their signature blends. So I’m thinking ‘hmm… not as strong, green tea probably means subtly sweet and light… YES!’

The small sachet is SMALL, only 1.1oz, but a few teaspoons was all I needed. The presentation is plain, and purely functional. It’s a transparent plastic baggie with a cardstock sleeve printed with the label. After receiving most if not all my teas from online vendors in those nice foil lined ziplocks, I was a little surprised. I’ll have to keep these in a box or in the cabinet to keep away from light.

The green tea was rolled/curled in dry form, and unfurled in just one steep. The leaves were chopped, but tinged brown on the edges? Roasted perhaps? I don’t know. All the chai spices had settled to the bottom of the baggie. I had heard of other teas settling, but I could actually see the effects of it here with the transparent bag. I shook it up, but the bag is small, and doesn’t leave much room for shaking. I don’t know if I got an even distribution.

The flavor and mouthfeel is so different from what I expected. I expected a nice smooth sweet green with a small hit of chai aroma. What I got was… even made with water! it tasted/felt like a milk-based chai, but made with matcha! I can’t even express how awesome that is because it is entirely unexpected. It reminded me of when I was in college and I got chai lattes from the library cafe all the time. Creamy, lightly heavy mouth texture, with a chai spice. The green wasn’t bright as I was expecting, but a little smokey.

I completely oversteeped the second steeping. I put the water in…. and forgot about it. I found it this morning. Even cold it has that slightly heavy feel in the mouth I usually get from dairy. It was only a touch bitter, but nothing that detracts too much away from how much I like it. I wouldn’t cold steep this, there’s not that much of it, but I don’t mind it cold.

I really do like it. Too bad I don’t drink chai teas as much nowadays, if I did, I could see this being brewed daily.

Yum. Yay for getting more bedtime teas for me. I’m kind of backwards in that most of my tea drinking happens in the later hours of the day, but I didn’t have many non-caffeinated options.

Brian was soo nice and agreed to substitute honeybush for roobios in the things that I ordered. Even though the company specializes in custom blends, it made me feel extra special. This is one of their signature blends, but they were still able to substitute the base for me, talk about freshly blended!

This tea is lovely. The dry ‘leaf’ is honeybush (which looks like tiny wood chips) and what looks like very finely chopped mint. The green stuff is very vibrant either way and makes the blend look cheerful. The scent of the dry stuff is very warm and not too minty.

The first brew IS kind of minty, but I let it brew for a long time. The pecan flavor was a little like whole roasted pecans with the mintyness and the honeybush was there but it wasn’t overbearing or annoying or medicinal like rooibos.

The second steep is awesome. The mint is tamed a bit, and the pecan is just right, it makes the tea just lovely and warm and soft. Which sounds like a blanket, but it was just a really comforting tea. The mouthfeel was great too, but if you let it cool the after feel is a little bit dry/tight.

My weird design from Design a Tea. Blackcurrant Hazelnut Green . I think the Hazelnut is a bit more prominent than the blackcurrant although I am picking up both. I think this tea would be better as either Blackcurrant Green or Blackcurrant x2 Green. Thank you Design a tea for allowing me to design my own. Lots of fun! I will keep the little paper that came with the sample to record my own notes for future designs.

Oh hey, this is pretty good! Thanks for sharing, MissB!

It’s vanilla-fruit green tea. I was hesitant because I don’t often reach for green teas, but I really like the flavours. It probably won’t give me quite the caffeine kick I’m looking for, but it’s really nice at brunch. :)

This was a sample included with my last Design a Tea order.

It’s REALLY good – apricot and blueberry – it’s yummy.

That’s all I really have to say. Yummy…..

The dry leaf of this sample was quite broken up, but the basil was visible against the lighter white tea and I saw pieces of lemon rind and fruit. The sent is of slightly sweetened lemon and basil. The basil is more savoury and less spicy smelling than Tulsi (Holy Basil). The white tea and lemon combine in flavour to sweeten and emphasise each other. The tea provides a certain thickness and sweetness to the tea. The basil is quite present but is not quite as strong as I thought it might be considering the amount of it in the dry leaf. It provides a hint of me nt and licorice and savoury spice. The blackcurrant is present but buried in the background. A pleasant cup that tastes more of its herbal elements than others. Thanks Dexter3657 for the sample!

GCTTB!

I picked this one out since it’s down to the last little bit of it and i didn’t want the tea to get any more crushed than it kind of already was. Plus, i’m game for trying things i don’t always love…that’s part of the fun of a TTB (wait till you see what i’m going to drink later…willingly…heh)

I’m not getting a lot of blackberry out of this one, but i can taste the basil and it’s an interesting addition to the tea. White’s aren’t usually my thing, but in this cup it’s actually a good pairing with the basiland lemon. I just wish the blackberry was a little more present :)

Like Dexter3657, who gave this sample to me, I only get clove and cardamom out of this – zero pumpkin. Too bad, because it had potential for a lovely chai-like pumpkin tea! It’s still drinkable, just less so than the cup of amazingness (Indian Nimbu) next to it.

1.5 tsp in 12 oz.

A solid sencha, if a bit on the bitter side for me. Did I steep it too long, ever-so-slightly? Hm. Perhaps. I’m getting little mango – perhaps due to the overly mango tea I had earlier today, which may skew my tasting – and only a faint creaminess. The bitterness is what’s most apparent, sadly.

This is the first time I’ve ordered from Design-A-Tea, and I was impressed with how quickly it got to me. Sadly however, all of the samples I also ordered somehow got mixed up in the process, and I only got this tea. I’ll have to try again soon, and make sure that the samples go through.

2 tsp in 12 oz.

This is the last of the tea bags, and a tea that my friends designed themselves. It feels right to have saved it for last.

The rooibos is what I primarily taste here. It’s a little sweet, and I think there’s something else there too, giving it just a hint of an aftertaste, but whether I’d get it after looking at an ingredient list, or if it’s just too weak for me to get here (again, these teabags are not the best size for flavour profiles, sadly) I just can’t place it.

Still, not bad. Could be better, but not bad.

Gong Xi Fa Cai everyone! The Year of the Wood Horse has started and there is a nice dusting of snow on the ground with the weather predicting more. I have been jealous all winter of my mother on the East Coast getting lots of snow while we have only received a small amount. Snow really is the only redeeming quality of winter!

Today’s tea on this final day of Design a Tea week has nothing to do with New Years, but it does evoke winter. When I was but a wee thing my favorite ice cream and candy treat was Chocolate Mint, the cooling quality always reminds me of winter time, so it was my Southern way of simulating snow in my mouth. Chocolate Mint with a base of Black Tea has a rich aroma, quite a lot of chocolate and a hint of mint. The aroma is very evocative of candy! Luckily the mint is balanced, a frequent problem with minty things is being overpowered by the mint, so kudos to this blend for taming its mint.

Once the leaves take a dip in their sauna you can start to detect the aroma of the base tea and not just the sweet chocolate and cool mint. The black tea has the aroma of earthiness and oak wood which blends quite well with the chocolate’s richness. The liquid sans plant matter is quite sweet blending mint, chocolate, and rich malt.

Tasting time! The taste is smooth with balanced mint and chocolate. There is an underlying hint of earthiness that lurks beneath the chocolate and mint. The tea is fairly sweet and leaves the mouth feeling cool and refreshed. The tea does not really need sugar and cream, but if you want a really dessert like treat, it will turn your cup of tea into a bowl of melted ice cream. The final verdict: Design a Tea makes good blends! I strongly suggest ordering loose tea if you give them a try since there was a significant difference between loose and teabag (as to be expected).

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/01/design-tea-chocolate-mint-black-tea.html

So I have decided to start a new and exciting project, I am creating a list of all the teas! Not all the teas by every vendor and such, that would take a lifetime, but a personal ‘master list’ of teas, their names (and all permutations, in various languages and dialects) and where they are from. That way I won’t have any more ‘oh Pouchong and Baozhong are the same tea’ moments, because I will have a list!

Welcome to day four of Design a Tea week, today we are looking at Apricot Caramel Rooibos. I have a really iffy track record with Rooibos, or more likely I have a really iffy track record with flavored Rooibos. The aroma is tart and woody with apricot notes and a bit of caramels sweetness. It is a good balance of sweet and fruity tart, I am not running in fear from the imminent salivary pain like I do with some tart teas.

Steeping the tisane just reminds me that I really need a steeping basket with a finer mesh for Rooibos, but at least I get to read the tea leaves…wait, does it still count with an herbal? The aroma is not at all tart, just sweet apricots (specifically dried apricots) and caramel sweetness, with a woody, earthy undertone. Sniffing the liquid, well, I found the tart. It is not overwhelmingly tart, but just like with some apricots, the tartness is present along with a hint of caramel and the expected Rooibos woodiness.

As expected, this tea tastes a bit tart, but it slides just under my ‘too much’ scale, so I do not find myself balking at drinking it. The taste is woody and the mouthfeel dry, typical of a Rooibos, with notes of caramel candy sweetness. The taste of apricots seem to float through the entire mouth, from beginning to aftertaste. This tea did not ‘wow’ me, but I am really finicky with fruit tea (turns out I am actually really finicky with fruit in general) but this is definitely a tea I can see people really enjoying.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/01/design-tea-apricot-caramel-rooibos.html