Eteaket

For my first cup of the day, I prefer strong, malty black tea blends with milk & sugar. Breakfast blends generally stand up well to milk, so they’re usually a good standby for me. This, unfortunately, is not one of them.

The dry leaves are very pretty, with several golden tips scattered throughout the chocolate-brown leaves and twigs. The liquor is a deep coppery brown, and when brewed for 3 minutes is actually quite good drunk on its own, like a slightly more astringent Russian Caravan. It’s just not what I would consider a breakfast tea.

I steeped the rest of my pot for an extra minute for my milky cup. It wasn’t bad, but it was dull enough that I was drinking it begrudgingly about halfway through.

Because this tea is so different with and without milk, I feel compelled to give separate ratings.
With milk: 50
Without milk: 82

Just received my Eteaket order today! I was going to try the Sailor of Hamburg blend, but what arrived in that caddy did not match the photo on the website (I think I got coffee leaf tea instead).

I went for my second choice, Highland Fling, a CTC blend that smells like it has quite a kick to it. The leaf bits are smaller than I was expecting and surprisingly dusty – there was a little shadow of fine particles left on the counter when I moved my filled infuser into my cup.

It’s punchy, like the description says. Straight up it’s quite similar to my usual morning black bagged tea – strong and bitter, but with a bigger astringent twang, and somewhat more drinkable, oddly enough. The drinkability improves with sugar (though the 1 tsp I added was probably a bit much). I then added soymilk, thinking a tea like this would take it very well, but it covers up a lot of the appealing flavors. When I was almost finished with the cup I was met with some more particles that had escaped the infuser and expanded to the size of coffee grounds. Blech.

It’s a pretty nice tea on the whole, but it seems a little unnecessary to keep on hand when I have bagged black tea that I like – they take milk better and don’t leave gritty sludge in the bottom of my cup. Maybe I’ll get some paper infusers for this one.

My first venture into tea drinking and I realy didn’t expect to like it but i was so wrong I love this tea, fresh, sweet and clean.

I got some of this from TeaEqualsBliss a long while back. It was such a generous package I’m still trying to finish it up. :) This one was intimidating for me. Chilli cherry rooibos? How crazy is that? I don’t even like cherry flavored things. They either taste like chapstick or cough syrup. Usually. But I’m pretty low and non-caffeinated teas so I thought I’d finally brave this tea.

Gotta say, I’m not too happy with this. I enjoy spicy foods and chili, but I don’t like it in this. Plus the cherry tastes like chapstick. The is pretty pleasing for a rooibos. It’s a nice smooth base for taking on flavors. I’m going to try and finish this mug, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to. I just don’t want my tea to be so spicy…

This was very refreshing after my failed attempts at making a decent pot :/
I didn’t realize it was my 200th tasting note!! :D

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss!! This is such a cute tea! It’s fuzzy! I think I liked the feel and look of it more then I liked drinking it haha I love it. It smells so pretty. It smells floral and grassy. The flavor is sweet with a hit of citrus and it finishes off with a melon taste. Mm I love white teas :) it is very smooth. Thank you again!!

The last time I had Eteaket’s peppermint infusion, it was whole peppermint leaves in boiling water, and it was beautiful. A few months later, I bought some as a gift because I enjoyed it so much. Unfortunately, instead of whole leaves, the packet contained very dark green fragments of twigs and leaves, which made a chemically, dark yellow infusion with a bitter taste that persisted however long I brewed it for. Horrible, and disappointing. I really hope Eteaket switch back to whole leaves soon.

The leaves looked beautiful, all rolled up and bobbing on the surface of the water. I have to say, though, this is not my favourite oolong. I find it not so much grassy as straw-like, and with a very dry aftertaste. It’s almost certainly my palette’s own shortcomings rather than the actual quality of the tea, but I’d not recommend it unless you like seriously robust flavours and possibly grew up on a farm.

It’s the Great Swap-Down of 2012! Here’s another from my collection going to a good home…keep you eyes peeled!

The iced tea version was just overly-sweet green tea with a huge slice of lemon in it. Tasted like someone had spilt matcha in some 7-Up and was too embarrassed to tell anyone.

This tea is really complex and fresh-tasting; very different from the Second Flush Darjeeling I usually get. It has notes of rose and citrus, as well as an almost green tea-like grassiness that develops more as the tea cools. The tannins are quite dry though; I would suggest a relatively short brewing time (maybe 15 seconds shorter than suggested in eteaket) and a small amount of sugar to balance it.

The first few sips are delightful, but after that I find it a little insipid; too sweet and floral. Like drinking a doily.

No notes yet.

The little blue cornflowers in this tea make it look really special. It’s nicely balanced too, a good blend with just the right amount of bergamot. Great with lemon!

these pearls were the worst yet Ive tasted. Fake and chemically, there was something not right in the green tea (not white tea like one lady in the staff tried to convince me)

A good tea, if only the staff knew how to brew it

Was one of my favourites, but in recent years it just hasn’t been as good as it use to.

not their best

Bouteaque Blue Mist is one of the tea’s that Erika prides herself on discovering. Her staff will go on and on about how many awards it has won, and granted finding a Nilgiri tea un-scented now a days is rather unique. However that being said Nilgiri’s aren’t really known for their distinctive flavours, the opposite, they were predominately used for bases of flavoured and scented teas.

For being a black, the first time i had this tea I was severely disappointed in it. Lowering the temperature did significantly help this tea, and did help to bring out some subtle flavours that had otherwise gone un-noticed.

Is it worth the price? probably not. Is it worth a try, most likely in the sense to try a tea that often times gets over looked.

*edit I just made the perfect pot, Bouteaque Blue Mist, why must you be so temperamental. (but oh the roses and flowers that were the essence of the tea!)

What Eteaket calls “tangyness with a hint of fresh grass” is hitting me as “lime with a hint of floor cleaner.” But in a good way, if that’s possible. Not a bit of chemical, but definitely a citrusy-clean thing happening. The way you want your house to smell.

Lovely for a breezy afternoon at Shabby House. Temps in the mid 70’s, clean post-rain sunshine. I want to bottle this weather.

So soothing and relaxing. I love jasmine. Love it. The green tea is light and lush, and the jasmine is soft and sweet. A delightful jasmine pearl.

This is quite yummy. Dry, it smells like cherry and spicy chili with a faint woody tone from the rooibos. Brewed, I can still smell the notes of the cherry and chili and rooibos, but they have become more “meshed” together into a unified scent and it is difficult to pick out the individual fragrances.

The beginning of the sip starts out sweet with a carrot-y note. The carrot is so slight that I can only taste it just at the start of the sip, before any of the other flavors have a chance to develop. Once the cherry hits the palate, the carrot disappears. The cherry is sweet and delicious, and lingers throughout the sip, from just after the start to well into the aftertaste. The chili weaves itself in and out, leaving a slight “burn” type of feel on the back of the tongue. This burning sensation lasts well into the aftertaste also. It isn’t an unpleasant burn, it’s a rather intriguing one. The contrasts between sweet and spicy are very beautiful in this blend.

Even though I could smell the rooibos, I can’t really taste much of the rooibos. I’m just fine with that, though!

This is delightful. Such a smooth and creamy Oolong with a nice vegetative note. Sweet and delicious.

I’m off to write a review of this one for the SororiTea Sisters – it will publish in a few days!

I had a couple of cups of this with dinner tonight (two infusions), and it is just as marvellous as it was the first time I tried it. I really like this one a lot. My full-length review of this tea can be read here: http://www.teareviewblog.com/?p=14803