Joy's Teaspoon

The first thing you notice about this tea is the smell. It’s so subtle and so specificly Jasmine all at once. The flavor is pretty delicate. It’s a tasty green with hints of jasmine mixed in. My cup is a darker yellow so maybe I oversteeped it but I love this tea as is. It’s perfect for a sunny day with it’s delicate flavors but warms you up and reminds you of spring when it’s doom and gloom outside!

Thanks for this one, too, The Purrfect Cup!

I really LOVE Kenyan Black Teas – mostly for their boldness! This one…fits the bill! It’s dark, strong, powerful, and a nice alternative to coffee!

A nice kick in the pants…anytime of day (unless you are trying to sleep, that is!)

I LOVE the color of this tisane. It’s a beautiful pink color. It’s pretty darn tasty too. I taste a lot of apple tartness and almond sweetness. I love the nuttiness of this tisane too. It does have an aftertaste that I can’t quite name and I don’t exactly love. It’s a good taste and it’s pretty awesome iced. Not my favorite but still really tasty.

It definitely requires the full brewing time to get the best flavor and if you cold brew it, it needs 8+ hours.

I really like this Darjeeling. It’s smooth and ever so slightly sweet. I’m drinking it with my breakfast (bagel & avocado) and it’s a perfect pairing. It smells a little mossy/woodsy and has a super smooth finish. I keep it at work so that I always have a strong, delicous black tea to help get me through the day.

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Genmaicha has always had a special place in my heart. It was my first experience with loose leaf tea and a tea that I drank exclusively for several months. Having said that, this is a fantastic Genmaicha. It’s a very clean green but you still get the tastiness of the toasted rice. My very favorite thing about it is that it’s hard to screw up. I have forgotten about this tea so many times and oversteeped it and it doesn’t get overly bitter. While you definitively lose some of the cleanness of the green, the toasted rice flavor really comes out in oversteeping. I don’t recommend oversteeping it but one can still enjoy the cup without a total loss. It warms your heart and your hands on dreary Seattle days!

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Another generous sample from Azzrian… and another new tea company for me to try!

Now, initially when seeing this tea, I had a suspicion that it would be similar to DavidsTea’s Forever Nuts. I am not wrong in the slightest. I’m not sure the two would be distinguishable based on aroma, at least. It’s hard to say if the flavour is much different, since I don’t have any Forever Nuts on hand, but I feel like there’s a bit more apple flavour coming out here, which combines wonderfully with the bready, slightly nutty cinnamon flavours. The blends are extremely similar though, but luckily, I absolutely ADORE Forever Nuts, therefore the same goes for this tea! It just won’t be one I need to purchase, since I have a local DT. [My rating should be 1 point lower than Forever Nuts, simply due to availability, but I don’t know what that rating is right now. Will change later.]

ETA: Two fabulous additional infusion (both in less water).

I love how many tasty steepings I can get out of this tea. It’s smooth and yet slightly floral. I like it as my afternoon tea since its a smooth flavor and while I need a little caffeine pick me up but I want an easy taste.

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This is one of my absolute favorite teas! It smells amazing and tastes just as good as it smells. It’s a rich and exciting tea. I like it hot on a cold rainy day to warm me up or after a big meal to help me digest. I also love it iced though. I think it’s at its best when it’s cold. It’s refreshing, crisp and perfect for a sunny day.

I love this tea. I drink it every morning. It’s rich and woodsy with just a touch of sweet and spicy. It’s perfect for my morning drive to work.

My daughter and I made lemon cupcakes with buttercream frosting thinned a little with fresh lemon juice.
Instead of adding water to the cake mix (yeah we didn’t go homemade we took the lazy way out) we added this tea.
Let me tell you these are the best cupcakes E V E R.
Like fluffy airy clouds of melting lemon yumminess floating on your taste buds.
Yay for Lemon Zest!
:)

My gut said not to use boiling water and upon checking a few notes here of others I was validated in that so went with a 195 degree at 3 min steep.
Results:
Smell – I am picking up the green tea aroma quite nicely! Peach is lush and juicy smelling, a small aroma of the black base coming through as well.
Mostly smelling the lovely green tea base however then peach.
Color is a light reddish brown – I can see the bottom of my cup.
Flavor – the green base is most present, peach is light, a little too light for me but I will say not artificial whatsoever. Very fresh, juicy tasting ripe peach. The black base does not over power at all but is lightly present minding its manners.
After taste of the peach is more present now which is lovely. I may have to take back what I said about wanting it more predominant, this is nice to have this light fresh after flavor.
Very bright cup, I know I keep saying it but VERY juicy.
No astringency, no bitterness, I recommend this temp and steep time.
Flavors become more predominant as tea cools somewhat but I find that with many teas.
Not sure how it would fair iced and since I only have the sample I will remain unsure but I agree with the other person who suggested the Joy’s Ocho sampler! I love my little tins and have washed some of them out to send others samples in! Great for the crafty sort of people who want to store gems, beads, pins, buttons, etc.
This is an excellent tea for those who like a light flavor that is very authentic tasting in a lovely mixed green and black base.
Personally when I have a flavored tea I like a tad more punch – I either go ALL natural with straight teas or all the way to the other spectrum with super sweet teas. The ones that lay in the middle are just not my thing but I can sure appreciate this tea for its super good quality, excellent flavors, and wonderful base. Artfully mastered!

Have not had time or energy to tea log today. Computer has been running slow all day due to cruddy internet connection. Started a new exercise routine which is kicking my butt BUT needed lol and trying to focus on work more.
Miss you all though and try to catch up late at night but will try to pop in tomorrow more and read more of your tasting notes!
For now I am going to cuddle up and watch How I Met Your Mother – we are into season 6 now (I think) and enjoy this wonderful lovely tisane – my favorite. Yummmmmmmmm

Mmm, tasty tea! The moment I read the description for this, I thought it sounded a lot of David’s Tea’s Forever Nuts. and it is indeed very similar. This one tastes more natural though. And the apple seems more present. There’s definitely a lightly cinnamon-y cookie flavor. and it tastes like fresh toasty almonds! How is this done? Magic I tells you! Very tasty and nutty and good. My dog seems to like it too! Yaay.

Imagine a hot cup of this tea with a puppy napping on your lap. Heaven.

Oh yes, I happen to be home because I’m in between temp assignments at the moment. I think I just landed another one to start next week! At my previous assignment, some permanent people looked on me with pity, but I think of this as a vacation. I don’t have any debts or responsibilities at the moment so you gotta enjoy life while you can!

Until then, I’ll keep looking for that job which will allow me to bring my pups to work. :D

I haven’t had too many Kenyan teas but the few I’ve had have always been very earthy crunchy teas. This CTC tea from Joy’s Teaspoon is rolled into little balls almost like gunpowder. It’s got a taste similar to assam but only slightly. It isn’t bitter but it is strong and perfectly acceptable without milk and sugar. The taste reminds me of unsweet granola or wheat germ. I also can taste a whiff of coffee but that might be my mind playing tricks on me because I know its an African tea. It really is quite nice when you want a morning tea but not an Assam or Ceylon blend.

Also want to add that this came in a very generous sample from Joy’s Teaspoon which makes me definitely want to get some more soon!

Another wonderful sample from Naomi at Joy’s Teaspoon! This beautiful green has a mild cherry touch. It was perfect for my upset stomach. Warm and smooth and relaxing. Not sweet or bitter. Looking forward to my next steeping. I may try increasing the time to see if I can get more of the cherry.

Thank you so much Naomi from Joy’s Teaspoon for sending these along! You have been wonderful!

Smell: Very berry. (Berry berry!) And I like that. I like that it is labeled and smells the way it is labeled, you know? I want to smell berries in my tea if that’s what flavor I’m supposed to get. I didn’t look over what type of berries, but I’m going to guess blueberries and blackberries.

Taste: Ooh, yummy! I could taste lots of berry flavor, definitely blackberry. But what I loved is that I could still taste the classic flavor of Earl Grey, but it was very smooth and subtle enough that it let the berries shine. I really loved this tea, and I want more!

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Got this as part of an Ocho Sampler from Joy’s.
This has a very well balanced and well blended pear and cinnamon flavor.
Also, the tea base is not overly complex but present and the flavors certainly do not overshadow the tea itself.
The pear actually tastes quite natural! Pear is a difficult flavor to get right in my opinion but I feel that this has been blended masterfully so that you get a natural pear essence and not so much that the blend is trying to over compensate or be too upfront.
The aroma is stronger than the flavor itself which I feel is a good thing because usually when you do get a very strong pear flavor it is not all that palatable!
This tea is done right.
The cinnamon is not too assertive – either – another flavor component I find often is over done.
I am very impressed!
I had this both with and without sugar in the raw – I enjoyed it both ways.
I being one with the persistent sweet tooth however liked it a little more with sugar but it was not a startling difference as I only added a touch and that was all it needed!
Would be amazing iced!
Don’t save this one just for the autumn season, pear is delicious any time of year and the cinnamon is not chai like strength. Although again – stronger in aroma than on the palate so don’t let the strong smell worry you!
I have found all too often flavored teas to be on one of two ends of a spectrum – either SO strong and riddled with fake flavorings that you just can’t even drink it unless you don’t mind chemical crud in your tea OR so weak that you strain to savor any flavor at all.
This tea is done perfectly so that you know exactly what flavors you are getting without having to play hide and seek with them yet not so overly done that you gag on it!
Great selection – you should get some!

Ohhhhh my my my. This is pure velvety heaven. Thank you Naomi at Joy’s Teaspoon for this fantastic tea! Opening the 6oz sample – yum. I am a Respiratory Therapist and I don’t like the smell of cigs, but have you ever smelled a very fine vanilla tobacco? Add a sweet lemon dash and this is it!! Steeped for 4 then 5 mins per instruction. I prefer 4. At 5 I was worried it was borderline Lemon Pledge tasting. This tea is a mixture of creamy white cake and lemony goodness. Don’t get me wrong it is not overly sweet, it just makes you think of caaaakke. Strange note, it was hard to keep hot. Weird. But no matter the temp, I feel it would be terrific. Oh I am so ordering this again. Soon and a ton of it.

So, since I like being honest in my reviews, I’m going to admit that this tea tasted much better the second time around, even though I did give it a pretty decent rating the first time. Reason why it’s better: I didn’t have to tamper with it as much to get it to taste good to me.

First time I did this: Steeped 4 minutes at 212 degress, and put in 3 packs of sugar, and a bit of milk, AND some extra chocolate chips. It was wonderful, but it took all that.

Second time (now): Steeped five minutes, at about 205 degrees or so, and added 1 and a half tablespoons sugar (this time regular white, not raw cane in the packet.) I think the extra steep helped bring out the natural flavor much better.

Smell: Still cocoa-y and yummy.

Taste: Way more chocolatey from the start, and a bit more sweet milk chocolate rather than more bitter dark. It also tasted creamier. :-) I’m happy to report I’m upping the rating (my original rating was 83) and I’m hoping to order some of this sooner than later.