Market Spice

This Earl Grey is touchy-touchy, in that if you look at it the wrong way it could turn bitter. I made this three times and the first time at 205° for 5 min = very bitter, the second time at 200° for 5 min = slightly bitter but not bad, lastly 190° for 5 min= perfect. My cup was roughly 12oz and I used 3 tsp of Earl Grey Creme. I added a La Perruche sugar cube and a splash of cream which made it even more delicious!

Oh my… I purchased 2oz of this only to discover that it’s not to my liking. This one is headed straight to the trading pile. I couldn’t get past the flavor of black tea to the point that this had me questioning if it was mis-packaged. I’ve been fighting off a cold so I do realize that my nose can’t be trusted but I honestly can’t smell even a hint of cinnamon or pumpkin… if I had to describe what I’m smelling, it smells like laundry forgotten in the washer. I may just have to head back to MarketSpice to compare smells because I’m honestly convinced that I grabbed something different.

At first glance this tea just looks like mulling spice and the idea of warm licorice sounds satisfying. All of the ingredients sound alluring but I can literally only taste the licorice. I tried to sip on this one to see if there were any subtle changes but every sip was like a slap in the face.

If you’ve ever had pure licorice nibs, just imagine melting that down and pouring it into water. The last time I tasted licorice this strong was when I purchased a tin of hard candy in Venice. Having been only familiar with Twizzlers as my reference for licorice (hah!), it was quite a surprise. That said, if you like strong (cloyingly sweet) licorice, then you’ll love this!

I was in Seattle for the morning and decided to poke my head in Market Spice. I’m not sure how great of a decision that was because it turned into a shopping spree. An hour of perusing later and this Cranberry Creme is one of the little goodies that came home with me!

A berry and sweet cream scent fills the air and the smell reminds me of the berry cereals that I would eat as a kid. You know, the ones that are really bad for you and make the milk turn into a pink sugary sludge. I definitely taste the cream but the cranberry flavor is light and almost just a subtle aftertaste.

So far, this and Honey Flower are my favorites of the MarketSpice that I’ve sampled. I noticed that trying one type of tea makes me (almost compulsively) want to try different brands of similar teas, so maybe it’s a blessing in disguise that I don’t live closer to any teashops…

Many thanks to RogersCK for including this in my Secret Turkey package. I like this blend so much that I’ve actually been hoarding it a bit. Alas, all good things must come to an end. This tastes like spiced apple cider, only much less sweet. The base is just present enough to assert that this is in fact a tea. This is really lovely and will be much missed.

sipdown

Yum yum! This is dead on for a spiced cider. I think I underleafed, because this is a bit weak. Still lovely. A bit of brown crystal sugar highlights the apple note, which lingers pleasantly. Thanks for including this in my Secret Pumpkin package, RogersCK!

Tasty! The smell of the loose leaf and after it’s been brewed is heavenly. Raspberry is what I taste immediately, followed by the chocolate. I can’t seem to find the taste of the mint. Still pretty yummy, though.

Chai, I am disappoint.

Chai’s one of my favorite tea blends, and this one smells amazing (as does most chai), but it is very mild. Now, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you prefer mild chai, but I like my chai on the strong side.

I’d like to find a go-to chai at some point, but I don’t think this is a contender.

The smell reminds me of pipe tobacco; a rich vanilla scent.

While brewing, it smells much of the same, only with a bit less of vanilla.

With some milk and a bit of sugar, tastes very much like a vanilla rooibos: simple, comforting, woody vanilla.

This would probably be great iced, though I prefer my tea warm. It’s too cold out for me to be in the mood for iced tea, so perhaps I’ll save a bit for the warmer seasons to ice.

Backlog from Monday.

A sample from Queen of Tarts, and the first of two stone-fruit rooibos blends to round off the evening. This is the more straightforward of the two – conventional red rooibos with apricot flavouring. My problem with similar teas in the past has been that the apricot tastes so chemically and artificial. I’d love to like one, though, so we’ll see how I get on here.

I gave this one almost four minutes in boiling water. The liquor is a pretty dark brown, but the scent is lovely –sweet, slightly fruity, with not a hint of rooibos to be discerned. The taste is similar – the apricot is very subtle, very delicate, but it’s sweet and juicy, and perfectly natural tasting. The rooibos adds a bit of depth without being overpowering, and without the typical “brassy” taste it can sometimes have.

On the whole, I’d probably have preferred a slightly stronger flavour. Mild and natural is better than strong and artificial any day, though. I liked this a lot more than I thought I would – finally, an apricot rooibos I could get behind! Thanks again to Queen of Tarts for sharing this with me!

I happened by the Market Spice shop while in Seattle for a conference. If they would not have had a sample in the store I would have walked right by it. As it happens, this being their trademark tea and all, the samples were present and I was hooked! I literally drank this everyday all winter. For me it’s the perfect fall/winter tea. A few notes:
1) When you open it up and take a big whiff of the dry tea (and yes, I mean BIG- you’ll thank me later) it smells very orange-y.
2) When you steep it-the cinnamon really shines through! It isn’t so overpowering that you feel like you just dumped a Sam’s Club size tub of red hots in some water and washed it down with 3 packs of Big Red, but if you love cinnamon (like myself), then you’ll be in heaven!
3) Yes, the dry leaves do have an oil on them, but don’t let that stop you. It’s simply the deliciousness pouring through the leaves! :)
4) I’m reordering the giant 3 pound bag from Market Spice very soon-only half or so will be mine. I’ve successfully turned on just about everyone I know to this tea.
5) This tea doesn’t really survive to a second steeping (sadly). It’s about the only negative.

I picked some of this up in teabag form when I was in Washington a couple weekends ago, and I have to say it’s a pretty good standard black tea. Good for first thing in the morning. It’s a little better quality than your usual black tea in teabags…I think because there is more depth to the flavor, perhaps since it is a blend of black teas. I’ve had it a couple of times, and have enjoyed it. Leaving this one and the huckleberry tea at work, since bagged teas make life easier at work!

This was the best tea ever. Now they’ve changed it. Why? The new “Market Spice” is nothing like the old one – not sweet, way too much cinnamon. I don’t think I can drink it. I encourage all lovers of the old taste to comment here, comment to Steeps, write, call, do whatever to try to get them to switch it back. Please Steeps, market spice at night was a highlight of my day. Please bring it back

Taking the day off today after a fabulous weekend, filled with family visits and a Steampunk-themed wedding, which also was sort of a college friend reunion for me. Totally had a blast!! So much fun!! Glad I took today off though, because our flight was delayed 2 1/2 hours last night, so we didn’t get back until 2 am!

So, we went to Pike Place Market in Seattle yesterday, and I discovered this shop! I had seen it on Yelp! because, prior to our trip I was curiously searching for tea shops up there, and I totally ran into it without even knowing it was at Pike Place! Score! I was overwhelmed by their wall of tea canisters, but I found some 10-bag sampler packs, which I promptly picked up. I only got two, but now I’m considering an online order. Their tea is really inexpensive, surprisingly.

So, this huckleberry tea is pretty good. I couldn’t help myself and opened the sealed foil package to smell it while we were stuck at the airport. Totally huckleberry! Reminded me of the huckleberry taffy my friend sent me a long time ago. I brewed some up this morning. The teabags were oddly moist, but the tea tastes great! This one has a lot of huckleberry flavor….pretty much straight-up huckleberry. I would have maybe liked a little more tea flavor, but I still enjoyed it, a lot. I think it might be fabulous iced! Definitely a taste of the northwest, and a great end to a wonderful weekend! :)

SO rasberry-y! I want more of this and then to live off of it iced all summer long.

This is the cup I made for the bf! He adores cinnamon teas, as does my dad. It seems to be a trait in the men in my life—for example, I think Smaug is probably both of their favorite teas. I like cinnamon in moderation, but strong cinnamon teas aren’t usually my thing, but I grabbed some of this one from the Traveling Tea Box (B) for my boys!

This is…. holy cow, strong cinnamon! Tongue-numbing, mouth-tingling cinnamon. Hot and spicy cinnamon! The orange is a nice background for it, but oh man is this a strongly flavored tea. But if cinnamon is your thing, this is the tea for you!

This is one of my favorites. I keep this in my freezer – the tea bags strongly smell like cinnamon and and have an oil to them. This tea I drink hot and add a shot of zwack liquor to it for a bedtime toddy. It does stand out in my tea collection due to the cinnamon smell and taste.

Was able to try this (steeped it separately but at the same time as a Jasmine and the Mango tisane) and the first time I did, it became bitter easily so I did a cold brew of it with ice cubes and a little bit of water. It turned out nicely :) though it did become bitter when I left it to steep overnight in the ice, hehe :]

It is also good blended with some Jasmine tea :)

my first EG creme, im not sure if this is how it normally tastes but got used to it by the end of the tiny cup. resteeps have a more gentle flavor.

may double the water for the first steep to lessen the strength of the cream flavor :)

I brewed this today but there were too many cardamom’s in my mix and it was overwhelming. Milk and sugar couldn’t save it so I’ll have to try again later. :|