Joy's Teaspoon

There is nothing subtle about this tea! It’s in your face pear and cinnamon. It’s a good thing I like both of those. The pear is nice and natural. We have pear trees in the back yard and I love eating them in the fall, so this evokes harvest memories. The cinnamon is slightly artificial, but not so much so as to be a complete turn off. I added a little brown sugar in hopes of toning down the connamon and making it a little more complex. I think I’ll have to add a pinch more. I don’t taste the base, but being as there is no bitterness or astringency I’m ok with that.

No notes yet.

So far this is my favorite from the Joy’s Teaspoon sampler I got it. The smell of this tea is intoxicating and fruity! Even though I steeped it in boiling water because I didn’t remember it was a white tea (I was too lazy to look up steeping directions on the website), it was still very yummy! The base tasted to me like a buttery green tea. The fruity tones were very prominent, maybe a little more raisin rather than grape. It was a little dry feeling in the mouth, but that works if you’re trying to imitate a wine. I have just enough for one more cup at a lower temperature steep on another day. I’ll look forward to that.

Smells so, so, so good. I love a good pear as much as and sometimes even more than a perfect apple (seriously, I think 3/4 of my dessert recipe files are pear-based), so I had high hopes for this one. Also some trepidation though, ‘cause I’ve found I can’t stand apple in tea for some strange reason (despite loving apples otherwise). So I was a little afraid. This has the juiciness and magic of a pear combined with lots of warm holiday-ish spices, particularly cinnamon. And…I don’t hate it, I like it a lot! Yay! That painful astringency apple tends to bring doesn’t show up here. Eventually you even get the slightly reed/woody mouthfeel of having eaten a juicy pear (which some of my friends hate but I adore). This is a tea that automagically puts me in a good mood.

Aw man, this tea psyched me out—it smelled (and looked!) so good dry and brewing I had to will myself not to eat it, super toasty almonds and cinnamon, drool. Then I took the infuser out after the (quite unorthodox I must say!) 10 minute steep time and was surprised to see a very bright, almost pink red cup of tea. And it tastes fruity-astringent, very apple-y, in a way that reminds me of oversteeped Celestial Seasonings teabags from my youth—exactly the sort of thing I wish to avoid now. Alas. That said, it is still OK tasting—there’s still wafts of that toasted nutty deliciousness, and it smooths out that apple-tartness some both in flavor and mouthfeel…even the apple astringency is of a more authentic, crisp-real-juice sort, reminding me in an excellent way of coming home from middle school in the fall in upstate New York and eating warm empire apple crisp before doing homework or raking leaves for my father—but next time I’m going to see about steeping for much less time and see if I love it more. And here I was, all excited at the notion I’d found my no-caf answer to, say, Della Terra’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookie. But this smells like its namesake to the max, and then tastes more like something called, say, Cinnamon Apple Nut Crunch.

Still, the longer it lingers on my palate the more I recognize it’s pretty much a quintessential fall tea, evoking memories up the wazoo for this upstate gal like a madeleine might for a Frenchman. ;)

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This also tastes a little like some baked good I must’ve eaten or maybe even made once, a soft fat cookie thing where the center had some sticky spiced applesauce-y filling, and the rest of the cookie or cake was pillowy, slightly chewy spiced dough studded with nuts or oats or something. Maybe an Archway thing? Hm.

For something that seemed so initially disappointing out of shock this sure is sticking with me.

Doing a comparison between this and Harney and Sons Earl Grey Supreme. Dry, I think I like the smell of this one better; it’s gentler and sweeter. The H&S dry hits you over the head with bergamot.

Brewed, they look identical, a lovely ruby hue. The Joy’s continues to smell mellower, though the aroma of the H&S has backed off a bit now. The flavors match the smell impressions; Joy’s is gentler, softer, but still full of flavor. The H&S isn’t bad at all, but in the context of such immediate comparison it comes off as far more bitter, though still full of nuance. The Joy’s is easy and enjoyable to take straight whereas the H&S can handle a healthy splash of milk. This leaves me conflicted because I tend to add milk to my afternoon Earl Grey just out of habit, so while I like the Joy’s more here the H&S might be more appropriate for how I tend to use EGs. Hm…

Nearly as good as Della Terra’s Lemon Chiffon, which is saying something coming from me…gets the creamy sweet lemon thing right in the same way (smells wonderful dry and brewed), smooth, not too astringent. The one tiny edge DT Lemon Chiffon has over this is that it has more of that buttery lemon bar crust element than this does (not surprising or a failure on its part really, as the name doesn’t indicate anything about trying to taste like lemon pastry). But the mouthfeel and flavor and aroma are scrumptious. And something it provides that Lemon Chiffon doesn’t, for better or worse, is a transformation as you finish the cup: as it cools, it gets less rich and more astringent, more like the puckery juiciness of straight lemon zest (yay accurate naming), though never reaching an unpleasant point. I do enjoy teas that change throughout the experience of the entire cup provided I like all the steps involved, and I do here, so it’s fun. The aftertaste/mouthfeel finishing the cup is more like you’ve been drinking uber-fresh lemonade or ODing on lemonheads than eating a lemon bar, fresher, intenser, more immediately lemon-y, less sweet. The lemon flavor lingers vividly in the mouth for quite a long time afterward too, complete with the oiliness (might sound bad but is great). I welcome both types of lemon experiences.

I’m going to think of this as a very decent back-up plan or occasional substitute for novelty’s sake, something I could order if for some reason DT ever didn’t have Lemon Chiffon available (the horror!).

Was a bit worried this would go the way of the dessert-flavored stuff I tried from Culinary Teas (not bad, just disappointing, with an unsatisfying tea base and more aroma than flavor) because they both have ceylon as their foundation, but no! This was surprisingly yummy, and a lot smoother and silkier than the CT stuff. The cinnamon smells and tastes like true cinnamon, strong and not sweet, and the tea base is actually quite decent, round and satisfying, and seems to go well with the cinnamon flavor. I would definitely drink this again! Takes well to some milk and raw sugar.

This is much better than Della Terra’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookie. I was beginning to think that pastry-inspired tea was just not for me. I didn’t love this, but it did give me hope that these kind of teas might be ok.

The best thing about this tea is that you could still taste the base under the cinnamon. It was rich and dark. It was also really smooth. There was a note that tasted like raisins, but turned a little more to chocolate as it cooled. The cinnamon was nice, not fake tasting. There was something artificial that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. It was kind of like that dreaded soy lethicin taste I hate, but not quite as strong. That’s the one thing that didn’t make this tea a win for me.

No notes yet.

The smell of this tea was SOOOOOOooo much better than the Japanese cherry. It smelled grassy, almost like hay and a little flowery. It reminded me of being in an open field.

The taste starts out grassy just like the smell. It’s got a lightly sweet aftertaste that is intensified if I hold it in my mouth. As I smell more of it and as it begins to cool, the grassy smell becomes more floral and the sweet taste becomes a little more defined as fruity- kind of a warmish apple taste?

Overall a pleasant tea. I look forward to trying another cup of it.

I received my Ocho Sampler from Joy’s Teaspoon today! Yay!

The smell coming off the dry-leaf reminded me a little of cherry cough syrup. I’ve always been pretty tuned-in to artificial flavors and can usually detect them quickly, but I decided to try it though to see if it would taste any better.

The tea liquor definitely tastes like cherry and I found it kind of aggravating that I could differentiate between both the natural, floral-tasting cherry and the artificial flavoring. It kind of drove me nuts because the real flavor was pretty nice, but the fake stuff kind of left this soapy aftertaste that ruined it.

I probably under-leafed this because it was very one note. The base as far as I could tell was a nice, light, green base.
I tried sticking the infuser back in to see if it would help bring out the base a little more, but it got a little to bitter.

I also made up a cup for my mother and she enjoyed it, but then again she has never been as sensitive as me to artificial flavors and drinks things with them all the time.

This is one of my favorite teas. The best part is the after taste. I love how the ginseng lingers on your taste buds. It’s such a smooth tea it’s easy to drink at any time. The pre-brewed smell is a little funky.
The version I have is not Joy’s tea brand but I am not sure of who made it cause I can’t find it in their online store (Cooks of Crocus Hill – Goods and Goodies)

This tea wasn’t for me. I bet other people would like it though. I like a darker chocolate, I think this is a milkier one.

Now this is a good tea. Really good. I don’t tend to like fruity teas, in fact, I generally avoid them. I got this because I needed one more for my ocho sample so I threw this one in. The only way I can describe this is in terms of Jelly beans. But this isn’t an overly sweet tea. Just sweet enough. It tastes as though I have both a juicy pear jelly bean and a cinnamon jelly bean in my mouth. And those happen to be 2 of my 3 favorites (the other being the popcorn jelly bean—anybody found a tea for that one?). I will definitely be re-ordering this. So far I’ve really liked 3 out of 4 of the joy’s teaspoon teas. Not bad!

In the past couple days I’ve had this and forever nuts and I’m pretty sure they are the same. This tea is ok for me. Tealizzy is right that brioche tastes very similar to this but with a good black tea base. She’s so right. I love brioche, but I like the dimension the black tea adds to it. This tea tastes ok, but just seems to be missing something. Plus I’m not a fan of the beetroot.

Update: Actually, this one is growing on me. Not as fakey as forever nuts. More apple maybe? Hmm, I may actually reorder this.

Thanks to Sil (and technically Azzrian) for a sample of this tea :)

The aroma is very similar to DavidsTea’s Orange Blossom, IMO, except perhaps a bit more orangey, and maybe a bit less creamy. I wasn’t hugely fond of that tea, though it wasn’t terrible or anything. Flavourwise, I have the same feelings – much like Orange Blossom, but perhaps more orangey. I haven’t had OB in a while, so can’t really give a good comparison, but as I’m passing off the rest of it to Sil shortly, I’ll try to have my last cup of it in the next couple days so that I can try and figure out what the differences may be between these two blends! I do definitely enjoy the flavouring here, I just wish it was on a different base. Fingers crossed for Della Terra’s Orange Cream! (I know, still rooibos, but hopefully better?)

Thanks to Sil for a sample of this one (via Azzrian, I see!)

Opening up the tin, I got a whiff of something rather floral, yet still fruity. Not really plum, to me, but I figured I’d try it anyways. So I wasn’t expecting too much of the tea, which was probably for the best! I have yet to have a tea that really comes off to me as “plum”, and although this is probably the closest I’ve tasted, it still falls much more into the realm of “generic fruit” than plum. Thankfully, though, it isn’t particularly floral, and as well, it is quite smooth, so even though it doesn’t taste like plums, it’s actually quite a pleasant tea to drink! I might try overleafing a bit next time to see if I can coax out a bit more flavour (although I’m a bit worried about making it bitter by doing that).

ETA: Tasty re-steep with similar flavour profile.

Additional notes: Sample sipdown! This has to be one of my older teas, but I was savoring this one. I’ll miss it, though I do have an ESP Emporium blend that is a lot like it. I never stopped being MYSTIFIED by this MAGICAL blend! It is so almondy and sweet. The scent is almost better than the flavor. Any tea lover REALLY should try this one at least once!!

Thanks Keen
This is a whole lotta HERBAL.
I usually don’t got for those type of tisanes.

This is pleasant. Not my fave but ok. I will say after I had a cup I was STARVING…lol…

Cold Brewed.

so-so

The aroma is breathtaking!

After watching a youtube video showing clips of Starwars people saying “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.” I immediately reached out for it.

It is an unusual EG! Flowery and gentle, it is a soft EG slowly draws you into its charm. Thank you for sharing this very nice tea with me, Melanie!

It’s tongue dancing flavor changing little green leafs were so great I had to brew up a large pot in the timolino gravity pot. It’s like a real fancy grade jasmine with all this great stuff in it not in the least too flowery, but then again jasmine from fujian is my all time favorite and staple tea. Were I to be brief I would call it intoxicating, see other notes, I’ll get many drinks per day out of this

This tea is everything I want in a ginger tea. From my first whiff the ginger convinced me I had to try it, but it was the mysterious peach undertones that kept me transfixed.

I forgot to make note of my steeping time because cleaning up the dishes from dinner distracted me….so I’m sure it was well over 8 minutes. However, when I returned to my tea I was delighted to see that the leaves had all unfurled along with a little white flower that looked a little like a miniature dandelion (I’m guessing it’s one of the marigold blossoms). It was quite unexpected, but really fun.

I’m somewhat new to the loose leaf tea experience and the only peach ginger tea I’ve had was my standby Celestial Seasonings. Let me tell you, this Jinja Momo a world apart from that!! Instead of being hit full force with ginger, the ginger in the Jinja Momo slowly snuggles up to you. It’s like the difference between an awkward prom date aggressively rushing the romance versus a smooth talking player whispering sweet nothings in your ear.

The deliciously subtle ginger flavor is paired beautifully with the peach. Since I’m not really that experienced at tea tasting I had trouble figuring out that it was in fact peach I was tasting; I almost thought it tasted a little like anise, but I knew that couldn’t be right. However, when you smell the brewed tea it’s mostly peach with just a hint of ginger you smell. And now that I know it’s peach I can’t imagine why I thought it was anything else.

The chamomile quietly works its magic in the background sort of pulling everything together and making this feel like a very distinguished and refined ginger tea.

Overall I’m very pleased and I know I’ll be having more of this delightful ginger peach green tea.

Additional notes: Sipdown on my sample! I’m sad that not many others have tried this one. It’s a very strong rooibos, if a rooibos could be called strong. Meaning it has more flavor that most rooibos teas do. But I like that. The rooibos kind of competes for the spotlight with the raspberry and vanilla. I can’t believe this one still tasted so good, since it wasn’t even in a resealable package.