Nothing But Tea

My first pu-erh, courtesy of a fantastic sampler sent to me by Angrboda!

…Okay, I totally see what everyone is talking about with the smell. There is definitely a delicate odor of cow barn here. (When people talked about “barnyard”, I was imagining something like the hay and leather scent of a riding stable, but no: this, my friends, is cows.) Weirdly, though, it tastes like it smells and it tastes good; I don’t know what to make of this! I am, so far, confused by pu-erh tea.

I did the first few steeps at near-boiling, under thirty seconds, and then had a few with cooler water and longer times. The tea didn’t get noticeably bitter, but the first few steeps were juicier, I think. The color was an utterly gorgeous red-gold!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4561061811/in/set-72157623664718933/

So: I am intrigued enough to come back for more. We shall see!

I really to love this in the morning! It doesn’t have that strong yerba mate aftertaste, and it’s just so fresh and lively. Plus it’s green tea, so you feel good about yourself.

Took it frozen to the beach, when I got there it was still very cold. I don’t know if it was just the heat and me being so thirsty, but it tasted really well.

Not that into flavoured teas, but I got this as a freebie with an order I placed (it’s the only one I’ve got left!). It actually went down quite well. Something about a warm spring afternoon, maybe. The strawberry smell is quite strong, but there’s a peppery bite at the back of the mouth (and in your nose). Quite compelling.

SIPDOWN! thank you kittylovestea for this one. I’m always intrigued by tea+ coffee blends since i do enjoy a nice cup of coffee every now and then. This isn’t exactly cakelike. there’s a hint of a creamy sort of taste going on, in addition to the clear coffee taste (likely from the coffee beans in this one). I don’t mind this one at all. It’s nothing i’d need to drink all the time but i certainly go for it now and then. :) thanks a bunch kitty!

These rings are so cute :) And they smell floral and gentle like a spring breeze.

Once steeped this tea is yellow in colour with the same gentle floral and grassy scent as it’s raw form.

This tea is sweet, grassy, floral, vegetal and fresh. Flavour key words would be sweet pea, jasmine, grass, cabbage and peony.

It’s a nice novelty tea and the rings have fully opened up to show it’s long, needle pointed leaves.

A nice green tea with unique charm. :)

More Darjeeling please :)

This tea is bright green and dark green in colour with a sweet and floral jasmine scent. The leaves are mostly finely chopped for the most part. I can see a little bit of twig but very little and no marks or discolouration on the leaves.

Once steeped this tea is dusky yellow in colour with a sweet yet soft jasmine aroma. Not as strong as say Jasmine Pearls but strong enough to be fresh.

Flavour is gentle and sweet with minor astringency. It’s sweet but also slightly musky and perfumey so it still has that true Darjeeling feel about it. Not as sweet as some Jasmine teas can be but it’s sweet enough for me.

Overall it’s a nice Darjeeling green and a nice jasmine green so as a Jasmine Darjeeling it’s pretty darn tasty! Two happiness meters for the price of one can be filled thanks to this beauty :)

SIPDOWN! mwahahahahaha i feel like the count today! in any case exciting eventual and productive work and tea day today. Made some baby steps forward with someone who i find challenging to work with (she likely finds me the same way so no issues there haha); got some things off my plate, drank a bunch of tea and i’m one day closer to vacation! woot woot!

I have relaly enjoyed drinking this one so thank you bunches angrboda!

figured i might as well try this one again tonight after having the zen tea version last night. Ill stick to this version thanks! could be the same supplier for all i know but this version seems so much creamier and raspberrier for me. I’m really enjoying this as an end to the evening. I didn’t get as much tea drinking in, but what i’ve had tonight has been delicious!

Other from angrboda that I’m enjoying. Now if only my dashboard would behave! Th initial smell of this one had me a bit worried because behind the delicious aroma was a hint of something artificial. Turns out that my worries were unfounded because brewed, this is simply a delicious raspberry vanilla tea. Makes me think of raspberry creamsicles a little :) the icecream mixing with the raspberry…mmmmm

Thank you Kittylovestea for this sample.

8g / 400ml glaspot
3m @ 80C

This tea does not look like a white. the tealeaves are dark. Almost like they dried in the sun for to long.

The tea itself is powerfully fruity. I think ripe peaches? Kind of pleasant, i think it would be good as an iced tea.

Interesting to try something as odd as this :)

sipdown! Thanks kittylovestea I managed to get this one to work out on my second attempt. This is a pretty decent cakelike honeybush and i’m quite enjoying my cup. It’s nothing i feel the need to restock but i am happy to have tried this one, especially now that i got it to work better :)

Thank you kittylovestea for this one! I totally didn’t steep this one for long enough tonight…it’s been a VERY long day and i’m semi out of it. Long story short i’m glad i have more of this to try again. I can tell this will be one that i enjoy quite a bunch from the small cup i had tonight. Just need to steep it for longer to bring out the flavours even more!

One of the more interesting shaped teas that I have experienced. It looks like some sort of grassy shell, I like the different shades of yellow, brown and silver.

The scent is very gentle and hard to detect other than a slight hint of flowers. A gentle sweet pea, jasmine medley.

Brewing this in my Gongfu for the suggested three steeps.

Steep One – 80°C – 4 minutes – The tea is pale yellow in colour and has a gentle peony type floral fragrance. For the first steep it’s quite strong which is probably a result of the long steeping time. It has some astringency but only slight at this point. It’s quite light and refreshing.

Steep Two – 90°C – 4 minutes – Yellow in colour with the same peony flower scent. The tea itself has fully blossomed now and looks like some strange tropical underwater plant. Flavour is thicker and more flowery with sweet honeyed tones. Still refreshing and peony like.

Steep Three – 100°C – 4 minutes – Paler slightly in colour but still yellow. Deeper in scent. Still no bitterness and now very light and hard to detect much apart from an extremely subtle floralness.

Overall – It’s a pleasant enough blooming tea that goes well with summer/hot weather. It’s floral, delicate and refreshing and a great introductory piece for people that are new to blooming teas. As always it’s a great show off drink, friends and family would love this.

PS. Thank you to Lala for the lipgloss.
https://twitter.com/kittylovestea/status/330628269210742784/photo/1

Coffee is not my drink of choice and it’s been over a year since I had a cup of it but I still like to try coffee blended tea infusions as part of my ‘something different’ tea campaign. “What do we want? Unique tea. When do we want it? NOW!!!”

While I’m not a fan of coffee I do love a nice slice of coffee cake every now and then. :)

In raw form this tea has a wafer (as in ice cream wafer) like bitter smell that is more cakey than coffee like. Very interesting and unusual but I’m kinda liking it. It’s hard to see what the ingredients are exactly but the most I can work out is black tea and a few coffee beans with what may be nuts and or fruit?

Once steeped this tea is golden brown in colour and has a strong and spongy coffee aroma.

Hmmm… a little bitter and sweet at the same time and a definite wafer like flavour. It smells more like coffee than it tastes but could perhaps be mistaken for a weak flavoured coffee. Also a little dry on the tongue which I remember is a coffee symptom I always got. Also it does have a nutty maybe popcorn like taste.

Overall it’s a strange blend and I have certainly not tasted anything like it before. I’m enjoying my pot of it but it would not be something that I would purchase again. Imagine a warm coffee flavoured ice cream cake with wafers and that is what it tastes like… to me anyway.

I bought a puzzle book on holiday for the car ride home from my holiday, there is nothing like a pot of tea and a crossword puzzle :) Plus the little troll on the end of my pen is catching the attention of my cats so it may be play time.

Since I’m going on holiday tomorrow I still need to do a multitude of checks and make sure my house is spotless for my kitties to play nicely in. I will only be gone three nights and my Aunty Ann is coming in to make sure the cats have food and water etc but leaving them always makes me panic. I know they will be fine and I also know I’m going to miss them so much.

When I return on Monday 29th April I will be doing a tea swap with Sil and this sample is one she wanted to try. So if I have one cup to quickly review I can then put it aside for her. :)

In raw form this tea is a lovely mixture of brown colours with quite large caramel pieces, it does look chocolatey. It also smells like chocolate mixed with butterscotch and caramel. Very sweet and very delicious, one of the best smelling dessert teas I have encountered.

It’s a long 10 minute steep but I have a feeling it’s going to be worth the wait. Once it is steeped this tea is brown in colour with a sweet and delicious chocolate treacle aroma.

This tea is sweet, dark, chocolatey, treacle like and full on flavour but the body is light (meaning it won’t make me feel heavy or bloated). You can taste the honeybush but more of it’s sweetness above anything else and I think the balance of flavours is perfect.

It tastes like a hot chocolate drink rather than a tea based drink. :) Also reminds a little of Oh Canada – Davids Tea due to it’s dark syrup like flavour.

Sil you are in for a treat :)

My last pot of tea before bed time. I’m going through a phase of waking up multiple times a night at the slightest sound and finding it hard to get back sleep. I bought this tea to help, usually anything lavender like knocks me out.

In raw form this blend is quite finely chopped and has a minty lavender scent. Mint and lavender is a little bit of an odd combination in my opinion but at the same time it seems to work.

Once steeped this tea is dark red in colour (reminds me of a dark rose wine) and has a minty somewhat herby aroma.

Mint with a lavender chaser and echoes of lemongrass with a herbal finish. No Rooibos flavour is present but it does carry a slight sweetness that you would associate with it. The strength is at the right level and all in all it’s quite mellow considering the amount of ingredients. It’s also clean and refreshing with no ickyness to speak of. My husband said it tastes like cough medicine and would be best suited as a winter night time drink.

Half way down my cup and it still tastes unusual and different but more and more in a positive way. Whether it’s psychological or not I have yawned whilst sipping this and I thought I was not that tired pre cup but know I should have been.

Overall it’s growing on me and is a sample I am happy to have bought when I really shouldn’t have. I would consider stocking this again but perhaps my husband is right…it seems like more of a winter/cold night tea.