Element Tea

SIPDOWN!

This is one of my oldest swap samples. I received this tea from Mercuryhime in December 2011 and first tried it in March 2012.

I did a concentrated steep of the remaining leaves and it’s surprisingly fragrant! The aroma is floral and coconut-y. The taste is slightly quieter than the aroma, but not by much. This is still yummy! I’m quite enjoying this. :) Thanks again to Mercuryhime!!

Sipdown, 177. Plus rose buds for this one!

I burned the heck out of my lip tonight while tasting dinner during cooking. A piece of molten hot spinach was stuck to the bottom of my spoon and latched itself onto my lower lip, and now I have a sizeable blister. So I had to wait until this one was fairly cool before tasting. Fortunately I somehow managed not to burn my mouth really.

This was pleasant, and even more so in the second cup after letting it steep for a looooong time, as the rose buds I put in came out more and added a sweetness that was lovely. I definitely need a verbena/lemongrass blend for evenings.

Mm, this is a nice blend. I know that I want to keep a lemongrass/lemon verbena blend around for evenings, and this has both! Also ginger, a plus for after too-rich dinners. The one part of this that I’m not sure about is the honeybush; it’s not rooibos, so that’s a plus, but it still has a kind of woody, medicinal flavor to it that I don’t think I need in my herbals. I mean, it’s not very strong in this blend, and this is still mostly lemon and ginger. A very pleasant tea for the evening, though.

Sipdown, 193. Cold brew.

This was a pretty tasty cold brew! The pear was nice and juicy, and that robust black tea flavor also came through in a tasty way. This was a tea that tasted much the same cold brewed as it did hot, but that’s ok because it was tasty to begin with.

Thanks to Tea Sipper for sending me this tea to try! I am finally getting around to it. I realize now I am logging two pear teas in a row, but many hours have separated them so I don’t really feel like I am on a pear kick per se.

Pear and black tea is an interesting combo; I always feel like pear is an appropriate flavor for a green or white tea. In the scent of this I can smell the bright pear, but also the robust black tea too. I was concerned about bitterness and astringency from this cup based on the smell (and also some of the comments here) but fortunately I am not getting any. It’s a pretty smooth, malty base tea that I am enjoying, along with some lightish pear notes. I often enjoy a lighter flavoring on my flavored teas these days, but in this case the pear and black tea don’t really do anything for each other, they just kind of are there together, sharing the spotlight but not improving one another. Anyway, it’s a decently tasty tea. I will be cold brewing this as well because I feel like cold pear black might work.

Another from the Traveling Tea Box! There’s a large amount of this one so I made up a small pitcher (and there’s still tons for everyone else!).

Peachy! I was expecting more of a flavor from the oolong, since it’s so pretty. Big, fluffy whole leaves. There is a small sample of the pure base in the TTB, so I’ll have to try it and compare!

But essentially this is just a peachy tea. I don’t know why it’s called ‘tropical’ because peach is the only flavoring I detect. I thought there might be pineapple or guava or something but this really tastes like a super basic black peach. Not like that’s a bad thing, especially sweetened and with some lemon slices, but I think they kind of squandered the base on this one.

This is, I think, the final tea I got in my trade from Tea Sipper (that I hadn’t had before, so I’ll be able to move onto someone else soon. I’m so behind on tasting my trading teas. With the possible exception of my Red Leaf Tea orders, I’m going to stop opening boxes from tea companies until I get through these trades. Probably.

Wow, this is strong rooibos. I’m not sure I like rooibos enough to really enjoy this tea. And yes, just taking some to drink, I can barely taste any vanilla but the rooibos is REALLY REALLY strong. I just don’t like rooibos this much. This is the type of flavour I would expect from a pure rooibos tea since the vanilla flavour is very subdued, if it’s even there at all.

Tea #26 from the ‘Here’s Hoping’ teabox.

Peach but no Oolong. It’s really strange. The peach flavor is nice, but then there’s nothing. None of the usual oolong flavors. I had no trouble finishing the cup, but it would have been a much nicer cup had the Oolong decided to make an appearance.

Tea #16 from the ‘Here’s Hoping’ teabox.

Backlogging this from last night.

This was my before bed tea. A very nice, relaxing herbal with lots of flavor. The strawberry was the dominate, but there was enough kiwi to keep it from becoming an all strawberry tea (not that that would be a bad thing). I added some sugar to help highlight the fruit and hide the hibiscus, and I ended up with a really pleasant cup.

I’m kicking myself for not knowing about Element Tea earlier because I would have loved to have ordered from them. I think I have liked every tea I have tried from them out of the teabox, and they have some of the best herbals ever. Many thanks to Tea Sipper for allowing me to try these great teas that I otherwise would have missed all together!

Tea #14 from the ’Here’s Hoping’ teabox.

Oh. Holy. Yum. This is delicious.

I normally stay away from banana flavored teas because I think that too often that they end up tasting like banana flavored Laughy Taffy. Thanks, but no thanks. This tea, however, isn’t a banana tea as much as it’s a tropical tea with banana as one of the flavors. The coconut keeps the banana in check, and the two blend with the black tea very well. There is a bit of an artificial flavor that comes out more as the tea cools, but if I ever have another cup of this I doubt it sits around long enough to cool.

Element Tea, please, please, please carry this again!

First tea I’m trying from tea box B, I really should also get back started on box A now that I think about it! This one though has very few teas I don’t want to try.

I thought this might be something good for having this morning, plus I wanted to try making a EG cream without over steeping it.

At first sip this was almost terrifyingly bergamot tasting. Since I had to make a ton of bread last night and we got whole milk for the purpose, there’s still a cup left so I added a little to the cup and now it’s a lot more tolerable.

I think this one is just a bit too strong for me, I like Earl Grey but some of them just are way too much flavor for me. It actually feels like the vanilla is increasing the strength of the bergamot oil! The milk did kind of smooth it out, and it is definitely creamy tasting, but the way it switches over to this strong citrus note is a bit too much for me.

Tea #5 from the ’Here’s Hoping’ teabox.

I love lemon and ginger, so when my daughter asked me to make this for our afternoon tea I was happy to do so. The scent while steeping is mostly ginger, but when I poured the tea into cups the smell of lemon was really strong. It made our house smell so good!

The taste was much like the smell – lots of ginger up front with a sweet lemon burst towards the end of the sip. I really loved it, but my daughter thought it was just so-so. If some honey were added it would be the perfect sick day tea, and while I toyed with doing that I decided to add ice to the last cup. I let it get lukewarm and then added a bit of sugar and lots of ice. Heaven. This is an iced tea that’s meant to be drunk outside on a wide porch while rocking in a big white chair and chatting with the neighbors. It’s light and citrusy, but the ginger gives it just enough of an edge to keep it from being boring.

Another tea added to the shopping list. Yay for wonderful teaboxes!!!

Apparently I’m on a pear kick, in part because I got quite a few teas with it as a flavor from TeaEqualsBliss! This is from our swap rather than the TTB but they came together so I keep forgetting which tea came from where.

I love a good pear. That first juicy bite, the super firm and crisp flesh, the tart rindy taste from the peel. Pears are great, especially because consistency is a real issue with me when it comes to fresh fruit and I often find apples (other than Granny Smith and some reds like Honeycrisp) super mushy and revolting. Just looking at a golden delicious makes me shudder. But pears are where it is at, so perfectly firm!

Of course you can’t capture that sensation in a tea, but just the smell of this reminds me of a perfect autumn pear. The flavoring is spot-on, totally authentic and delicious. I drank this for the first time a few days ago when I had a friend over: he took a sip, looked at me amazed and said “it tastes like a pear!” He’s used to bagged teas so I suppose the transition to nice loose-leaf is initially a shock. Like holy cow, a flavored blend can be this good?!

I would rate this blend really highly if not for the base, which has come out a touch bitter both hot and even in a cold brew. A little more astringent and assertive than I’d like in a fruit blend, but now I know to just cut down on the leaves.

Not a sipdown, oh well. I got this one in a swap with Tea Sipper, thanks!

I like lemon and ginger, so I have high hopes for this one. And it totally delivers! This could be my perfect sick-tea… I often want lemon and ginger when not feeling well, and this is great. Sweet, lemony, gingery without being “hot” or too spicy. I think I could steep it longer and still be very happy, or possibly happier, with even more gingery lemon flavor. This is the kind of herbal tisane I can get behind,

I got this as a sample with my Element order a while back. It’s older now and it wasn’t in a very airtight package to begin with. My two teaspoon sample just looked like regular green tea. No hibiscus was supposed to be here at least but there were rosehips mentioned. Nothing in the ingredients about pomegranate, but raspberry! I’d rather have the raspberry. The taste is not as fresh as it might have been some months back. (Though my nose is a bit stuffy right now.) I am getting some raspberry hints! The green tea isn’t very good but maybe I steeped it too long (four minutes).

Alphakitty coming your way!
See previous notes :)

I needed some black tea this morning! I’m realizing I don’t have many strong, deep flavored black teas in my stash. Zentealife.com’s Phoenix Pearls are an example, but I can’t drink those everyday… I’ll feel spoiled! But those have the flavor profile I’m talking about. Something like the Della Terra black teas have a great base for the awesome DT flavors, but not enough kick that will wake me up. The leaves here are medium sized, dark and dusty. The brew color is deep and dark. I haven’t had many “English breakfasts” so I’m not sure what to compare this to. The flavor is a bit sweet, punchy, spikey, tougher. I love the fragrance. As it cools, there is something marshmallowy about it. But that may be because I was sipping it with some sweet potato pie.. but that didn’t have any marshmallow on it! The next cup will be my last so consider this an advanced sipdown!

Tea Sipper sent this to me a while back and I temporarily misplaced it apparently! Oops!

I am just finishing a cup of this and it was a little puckery but it was the strawberry and kiwi that were puckery and not overly hibiscusy puckery if you know what I mean. It’s ok warm but think it would be better iced. Not too shabby!

Thanks Azzrian

Oddly I can taste each one of these ingredients!
Hibiscus blossoms, raisins, candied papaya, lemongrass, rose hip peels, orange peels, lemon peels, candied pineapple bits, Candied Mango

I’m not really sure that I love this but I am sure it’s much better iced than hot and I’m drinking it hot now. The lemon is nice and the other tropical fruits are ok the hibiscus – serves a purpose – in this case – which is RARE that I ever say that,I suppose – it IS puckery and plump and tart and citrusy regardless.

Thank you Dhart1214 for this big tea sample!

Just opening the foil bag and inhaling the dry aroma of this tea was enough to tempt me this morning. Dry tea doesn’t impress me 90% of the time. I ‘LOVE’ the aroma of wet leaves! I can sit, letting my tea get cold while sniffing away at a bunch of stewed leaves, yes indeed.
Scents that do arouse interest are jasmine and osthmanthus. Add some peach and citrus…well…I’m all in, waiting for the steep to finish so that I can sip the heavenly ambrosiac nectar.

After I emerged from the scent cloud, I was ready to taste the soft peach colored tea.

The flavor was like a jasmine silver needle white tea with a blush of peach flavor and more predominate tangerine citrus taste just below the jasmine. I thought it was cleaver not to make the tea too peachy and predictable. The tangerine kept the tea bright.

I was going to serve some of this to granddaughter Schey but she won’t drink it. No peach for her ever.
She picked peaches for a week with her mom and sisters in Fresno one Summer as a part of Gleanings (where you pick fruit for Food Banks). She picked so many peaches in the hot sun that it makes her sick to look at peaches. (that and the bugs did it!)
My first job in High School was at a Dunkin Donut shop and I still don’t care for donuts so I understand!

I like this tea though. Pretty good and refreshing. Wish I had it earlier in the season though. It would make a good Spring/Summer tea. (I don’t see it listed on their site any longer.)

I made the mistake of not realizing this had actual black tea in the blend instead of just the usual chai spices… because I steeped it late at night. Hopefully I can get some sleep tonight! The black tea isn’t the typical “leaves” which is why I guess it is called indian black tea. It looks like little stones or small chunks rather than leaves. My two ounce bag has mostly black tea — not much spice! But somehow the flavor is spicy. Not too spicy, but pretty good. I actually wonder where all the flavor came from. There is also a nice slight vanilla flavor. The steep color is a gorgeous dark reddish brown.

3. BB for today – thanks Muppetlove

Well, again…not bad tasting but very VERY little Vanilla…maybe my tasters are off…not sure. It tastes just like Rooibos to me…not vanilla and rooibos. I taste tested at 5 mins, 10 mins, 15 mins, and longer…just left the teabag in there.

Again, because I do like the taste of the rooibos but I can’t really taste the vanilla at all I don’t know how to rate it so I won’t for now.

Thanks, Azzrian!

This is actually not bad, considering I think pear is a tough flavor. Of course, with enough flavoring it probably isn’t, but this doesn’t taste the least bit artificial.

I made it iced but as it has warmed up to room temperature, the pear flavor has come out better.

I’d add more but I made it with lunch, but fell asleep after, and now I have nothing else to say. Except it tastes like pear and black tea. And from what I remember the black tea was a little floral and malty. I really didn’t like the first sip because it reminded me of dirt but once it sat around a bit it was much improved.

Azzrian thanks for a pack of this!
I had a cup earlier but need to remember to do a double shot next time – the flavor is juicy but subtle. See previous notes…