Praise Tea Company

Saturday Sample Sipdown #2

Thanks to Amanda for this sample. Not something I would buy, but it was ok.

My original review of it, written in character on International Talk Like a Pirate Day, is here:
http://steepster.com/Terri%20HarpLady/posts/130732#comments

Since I nearly gagged one one chamomile-related herbal today I figured I would try and throw down another one I have been holding off on.

This has no color. It looks like water. Smells like Lav and Cham.

Tastes like Cham & Lav. Not bad for those two ingredients but not my fave ingredients at that. This one is certainly more stomach-able than that last one. I just wish I liked these two flowers in herbals more. No rating for that reason. Perhaps if you love those two ingredients you would love this tisane and I don’t want to taint that.

Oh my. In all fairness I can’t bring myself to say who sent this to me. They are too kind in every way and the other tea’s were fine.

This one, is haunted with the taste of raspberry beets. Not good and sweet beets but canned vegetable soup tasting beets.

I must protest…my tastebuds yelled at me. One cursed.

Dear, oh dear.

This tea is fired!

The peach flavor is spot on! It has a peach essence with a very light floral note at the end. The smell alone is divine.

The white chocolate and orange are very prominent. The chocolate tastes rich and sinfully decadent, while the vanilla is sweet and creamy. These two are in a pleasing balance.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea.

This is a delicious green tea. I do not see it on the Praise Tea Website anymore though … I wonder if they’ve just sold out or if they’ve discontinued it?

It’s vegetative (sweet grass taste) with a smooth buttery taste at mid sip. A moderate astringency (slightly dry, not pucker-y) toward the tail. Very enjoyable, it is very soothing and relaxing to sip. I taste warm, nutty tones, and a lovely fresh sweetness. A wonderful cup.

Hmm, not really a fan of Chinese sencha. The flavoring is quite nice though. Blueberry and a bit of lemon. Feels a bit bubbly somehow. :) Hot tea on a cloudy chilly autumn morning. Could anything be more comforting?

Thanks for the sample TeaEqualsBliss!

First, thanks to Amanda (the “Be a Fruitloop in a world of Cherrios” Amanda, there are 2 Amandas here) for this tea!!

I’m sitting here, eating breakfast & sipping tea with my left hand, & typing with my right hand. I thought that might occupy little T so I could write this review in peace. This is the 2nd of 3 teas she thought would fit the “talk like a pirate day” theme. (The third one is Buttered Rum, by Davids Tea, which Bonnie sent to me. I already reviewed it last week).

Dry, it has a fruity & buttery aroma. A dark tea with bits of cacao nibs, very enticing. I brewed 1 tsp in 8oz for 3min.

“arrrrrr…tastee! Buttery, creamy, bold, & worthy of a sea-farin’ swag like me…a wee bit of a bite, but not ‘nough to blow a man down. Tastes more like rum than whiskey, to my per-view, & I likes me whiskey, says I, says I. She’s a lovely diversion, a beauty for sure. Takes me back to the beaches of Moroloro, where I sat, stranded for a year, aye, yes it does. ’twould’ve been a miserable one, that, had I not found a treasure in the cave: barrels of black tea, 50 cases of rum, & some food rations. Endless supply o’ coconuts on that Isle…aye,… ’twas a year of wonder…”

Thank you Dhart1214 for the big tea sample!

We all love Dragon Pearls (well most of us do)!

Even the few who don’t prefer black tea have to admit they’re pretty to look at.
All chocolate colored with golden strands rolled shape of a malted Whopper. (I popped one in my mouth once just to taste the malty leaves)

I’ve collected interesting shaped tea’s for when my young grandchildren come to visit. I have pillows of green tea, cigar shapes and pagoda’s. Tea’s with berries that plump up. AND, this
type of tea with their round shape which looks best in it’s jar like candy and scoop some into a glass pot for brewing.

Everyone loves a cocoa malty tea with some sugar and cream. It may as well be hot chocolate, but it’s better (and easier) to make.
Another infusion and there’s more in a hurry.

I had this tea by myself this morning.
The most cocoa of the Pearls I’ve tried has been Teavivre, but my local shop here in Fort Collins is so close to that standard that I’ll probably buy from them.
The Praise Tea Company Black Pearls are a extremely light cocoa.
I liked the maltiness and smooth richness of this tea, however. There was a baked bread comforting warmth to it.

Sometimes it’s hard to separate malt from cocoa so I carefully made a whole pot of tea, drinking it plain, then sweetening it, then adding cream and then going back to plain again.
I looked for the cocoa and just didn’t hardly, barely find it. (There was a potato chip aftertaste that I noticed after awhile)

I like this tea though. I am a fan of malty, homemade bread goodness in the morning. It’s all yummy to me.

My back is still sore and I am a little flighty from the two Flexiril I took last night. Youngest made a pot of this lovely oolong for me so I could enjoy it on my heating pad!

This is such a good tea, and I am still drinking that sample from SimplyJenW. it was a BIG sample. Thank you!

The aroma is fruity leaning toward a minty scent rather than a candied scent. It is described as softly flavored, and it is. There is enough flavoring, but it does not interfere with your tasting the oolong base. Very good!

Yes, quite a strong lemon flavor. Too strong. Like chemicals. Like pine and lemon cleaning product. Perhaps I cold brewed too long? It was not pleasant. My husband refuses to waste the pitcher and plans to drink the rest with copious amounts of sugar. fortunately I have I good supply of other tasty lemony greens.

Sorry this was wasted on me TeaEqualsBliss. :(

This is the tea that led me to Praise tea in the first place. I like their Chocolate Pu erh better though!
*also it called Chocolate Whiskey Cream now ( if you are looking for it)

There is nothing wrong with this tea but I have recently learned I do NOT like hibiscus and rose hips!
But if you do like hibiscus this is probably a lovely tea :)

This one is too fun NOT to share…so…someone will be getting it from me and soon :)

I was disappointed with this tea as far as the “caramel” ( or I should probably say lack
of caramel ) was concerned. The tea was nice but did not live up to the name of Caramel Delight.
I continue my search for an awesome Caramel tea :)
I do like this company though and have a couple of favorites that I already reordered!

I just made a cup of this and I am surprised I like it as much as I do! It smells super spicy in the package and it is a pretty spicy cup of tea. However I can’t distinguish any specific chocolate flavor whatsoever.So if anyone is looking for chocolate goodness not sure this would be the best pick. But it is a nice chai and I think it will be tasty in the winter.

I think this came as a bonus in my swap with TheDJBooth, so thank you for letting me try it!

I’ve read that rooibos is good for coughs and chest troubles so I was curious to try this one, given the way I’m feeling tonight and I’m low on other rooibos blends besides. I steeped this for 5 minutes at 212F. When I first smelled the leaf steeping it was like cough syrup for sure. But then after I let it sit for a while and cool off, it isn’t too bad. I usually add soymilk to my rooibos blends which helps me like them a bit more. I really don’t think this tastes anything like cabernet, it has the familiar smell of wet socks or something but the flavor isn’t terrible. Mildly grape with flowers. Sorry I’m kinda picky about my rooibos blends but I always appreciate a free gift. :)

No notes yet.

backlogging from last week and a sipdown…I’m very behind on evening logs! Oops!

No notes yet.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this very unique tea!

At first, I thought that there was some kind of mistake when I opened the package – there’s a mini tuocha in there! The tuocha adds a little earthiness to the cup, but what I like is how the other teas work together to soften the earthiness of it, making for a very smooth and palatable cup. Sweet and remarkably well balanced given the number of teas that are in this blend! The strawberry and pineapple are more of an accent to the primary flavors of the teas, and I like that!

Really very nice!

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me this tea. It’s really quite nice. I was a bit skeptical at first, as I thought Chun Mee would be a bit too strong a tea for a delicate flavor like pear, but, it works together quite nicely. The pear is more of an accent rather than a strong note, the Chun Mee tastes grassy (even a bit like seaweed, but, I am still finding it to be an enjoyable flavor despite the fact that I generally do not enjoy seaweed) and it possesses hints of plum that complement the pear notes.

This is delicious!

I wanted to try and expunge some old samples this morning, but most of my samples are really contain more than one cup (so there won’t be any expunging today I don’t think). This one is like the sample that never ends! I think I still have more than one cup left after using tea for this one.

Well, it’s still a pretty tasty tea. Chocolate and coconut; now I’m wondering how this compares to Harney’s new(ish) Soho Blend, which is also chocolate and coconut. Also, as my mind is wandering while drinking this tea I am thinking about how it would taste with a pinch of almond tea in it… kind of like almond joy in a cup! That should be a way to enliven my next cup. I enjoy this tea but it’s not something I reach for; I certainly don’t crave it, hence it’s taking forever for me to get through the sample!

I wasn’t planning to review any further steeps of this one since I had done four already, but this merited an extra word or two. I continued to resteep and had this with a simple lunch of Mac and cheese and Chinese buffet style green beans. Even though it was the sixth and seventh steeps, this was excellent with food. I mean REALLY excellent with food. Around the eighth steep it started getting pale and weak. This was a great tea for today.

Special note: don’t drink eight steeps of anything prior to a round trip of fifty miles into the country for the puppies check ups at the no kill shelter that is basically a big barn. It doesn’t matter if you pee five seconds before you leave, you WILL have to go again! And you can’t stop at a Hess station with three squealing puppies and a largely untrained mama dog. LOL! So glad to be home…