Pearl Fine Teas

The Final Sipdown: Day 4.3

There we are. Delightful.

This tea smells of vanilla, and is that hazelnut? Maybe it’s because I’ve got hazelnut on the brain right now. I put way too much tea in here and tried to compensate by lowering the steep time. While it seems it could have stood [I just tried to use the word standed…what?] to have been lowered more, I can still taste the vanilla.

Not much to say about this tea. It tastes of rooibos. It tastes of bourbon vanilla [mainly in the finish and in the aftertaste]. Both flavors are fairly loud so if you don’t like one or the other, I wouldn’t bother with this tea.

Also, while it is tasty, as is bound to happen I’ve had better in the span of a year. And thus, a bump down is in order.

That’s all folks; I need bed. Bed needs me. Bed bed bed. And so on. I go to sleep on a cloud of vanilla. Not a bad way to hit the sack.

Teas Downed: 12

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Sweet, intense, floral.

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Really good, but I’m not crazy about the aftertaste.

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Thoroughly enjoyable golden monkey tea, with a warm chocolate finish. Definitely an everyday tea.

This has black tea,coconut,chocolate,vanilla.and roobios. you can see the ingredients. I’t smells sweet and slightly coconut like. I steeped it up. I wanted to give this the chance because I like black tea,chocolate and vanilla. But all I am getting is a sweetness and coconut. And I do not like coconut so this is not for me. If you like coconut you will like this.

I found this tea by happenstance, at a tent down by the National Harbor. I saw a sign that read “I love sipping tea!” and wandered over. This was the tea they happened to have for tasting. I’ve never liked Earl Grey, I’ve always found it too ashy, but lovely Elise from Pearl Fine Teas suggested I try it, just try it.

I was amazed. I went back and bought another cup once I finished the first, along with a pack of tea. It’s smooth, I can taste the earl grey flavor, but the ashy taste that always put me off is eased over by the slightest hint of vanilla. It looks and tastes like it should, should be a very light tea, but there’s something hearty about it. It’s definitely worth a try.

Spicy, warm, and good.

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A delightful milky caramel fragrance. It has a very light taste, not heavy at all. I had stir fried Brussels sprouts for lunch and needed a sweet chaser. This is a nice one.

The dry leaves and flowers are beautiful and they smell like old fashioned orange rind candy. The chamomile adds a honeyed note. It is not all that different in the cup. It brews up into light liquor with a sweet citrus smell. It tastes strongly of orange with notes of chamomile peeking through. There is a very slight hibiscus note, but I wouldn’t have noticed it unless I was looking for it. I can’t say that it makes me sleepy, but it is a nice relaxing cup of kindness before bed.

Shhhh. I’m just going to sneak in here quietly and pretend that I haven’t gone AWOL for the past…you know what? That’s not important. While you’re cooperating, we’re also going to ignore how late it is and strike anything that might come out in Stupid instead of English, okay?

I’m not going to elaborate on how bananas [B-A-N-A-N-A-S] school has been, except to say that when this semester ends I am going to do nothing but smoke hookah, drink tea, sleep, sleep, sleep, and maybe play some HALO or something.

Three things have been helping me wade through life.

1. http://www.youtube.com/user/nervouscircus

2. 30 Rock.

3. The tea that Carolyn sent me.

In no specific order.

This smells like vanilla. It tastes of vanilla. And it does so in a sweet, sashaying kind of way. [As opposed to a lure you into an alley to knife you and steal your wallet kind of way, I suppose.] What’s particularly lovely about it, is that it doesn’t smell like artificial vanilla or even have that pungent edge that vanilla extract can take on. It’s more of a fresh, wafting variety. Those of you who have ever slit open a vanilla bean pod know what I’m talking about.

It’s not so strong that I can’t taste the rooibos, and that’s something that I appreciate about this tea. The only possible downside that I can see to it is that it’s slightly one-noted. It hasn’t ever been cloying to me, but I suspect that’s because I don’t drink it every night. Vanilla, as a general flavoring, not just with tea, is something that I don’t think I would be able to intake every day, and the same goes for this guy.

In moderation, however, it does quite nicely. Warm, comforting, and with just enough of a hint of an exotic, faraway place to keep it from being boring. I’ve found myself reaching for it at night, when I need something sans caffeine and I want to nudge my mood in a better direction.

You can smell the black tea with abit of chocolate. I steeped the tea for a couple of minutes or so. The black tea was nice and strong but,there was not enough of a chocolate taste for me.

It is a very pretty green tea with purple flowers. It brews up into a yellow liquor that smells of pineapple. The underlying tea has a vegetal note and a slight astringency.

It smells wonderful in the bag, like candy. It brews up into a slighly murky, light brown liquid that smells of coconut and some kind of sweet spice. As advertised, it pretty much tastes like a candy bar as well. I will probably steep it longer next time to get a stronger the tea and chocolate taste from it, but so far I like it.

I haven’t liked most of the rooibos teas I’ve tried, but this one is quite good. It doesn’t have the dusty taste I’ve come to associate with rooibos, though it does dry my mouth a bit, but that’s ok. It has a strong scent of Bourbon vanilla, which is one of my favorite vanillas. In the cup the vanilla and rooibos combine to create a creamy delicious whole.

It’s nice to have a soothing non-caffeinated choice for evening drinks.

Been busy with a move! Finally getting back to normal tea-drinking patterns. This oolong’s greener than most, but it’s good stuff!

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This is one of my personal favorites. A fabulous green tea blended with wild pineapple and papaya. Not overwhelming, just haunting notes of the tropic. Fabulous iced as well. I steep at 90 seconds.

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