Sterling Tea

As a sweet tea drinker who’s trying to cut calories, making this with Stevia in the Raw was still delicious – but when I tossed in a couple of brown sugar cubes the flavor really went through the roof!

Will be a part of my permanent stash.

1ST STEEP INFO:
Amount: 1.5 tsp per ~ 12 oz mug
Additives: stevia in the raw
Water: tap, boiling
Tool: finum paper tea bag
Steep Time: 3 minutes
Served: Hot

Yum!

Drinking this sweetened & love the creamy notes of pineapple & coconut. Will definitely have to add this to my permanent stock. Found myself sniffing the empty mug just to inhale the wonderful fragrance. Resteeping the leaves now with an additional 1/2 tsp to have again.

Bought on a whim, now it will be part of the permanent stash.

Last time we had this I thought it tasted most of all like celery, which is not something I enjoy. Husband disagreed vehemently with this assessment and told me I was ‘smoking rocks’.

Then I forgot all about it.

Fast forward to tonight where I made it again in a wish to use up the leaf, and I was completely unaware that I had actually disliked it until I went to remove it from the cupboard and eaw the other post. It made me laugh so I reminded Husband.

A little while later he came in and demanded to know what I had done. Now he’s apparently getting the celery flavour and I’m all vindicated.

LOL!

I had never heard of this brand of tea before, but picked up an 86 cent sized bag of it at the supermarket in the bulk section on a whim. It smelled like the discontinued Bangkok Lemongrass Teavana tea. I liked that one, this could be promising. I brewed it up and took a sip… yeeeeeeesssss, the lemongrass is strong in this one. It has a heavier, fuller taste than the Bangkok tea. I think I may like it better. Each sip fills my mouth with lemongrassy goodness and I ADORE lemongrass. The rooibos is present, but hangs out backstage. Not quite as delicious once it has cooled. Could it be I’m falling in love? I’m going to have to check out more teas by Sterling because this one was awesome.

Auggy shared this one with me, I think because she had said she wasn’t getting along with it and I told her of my new-found appreciation for flavoured rooibos. Although for me that’s largely berry-y flavouring. (And I still think it’s new-found.)

I cannot shake the notion of celery. Both in smell and flavour.

A statement which caused Husband to exclaim, and I quote:

“You are smoking rocks!”

He thought it smelled like some sort of orange-y chocolate-y drink. I can’t find either. I can barely even find the rooibos!

Celery on the other hand…

I don’t much like celery.

Husband is enjoying it, though.

Those of you that know me know I don’t like red rooibos. Green rooibos is cool, but red tastes like rotting wood to me. Which really doesn’t explain why I keep buying it.

This is another tea I picked up from my grocery store. I knew it was rooibos and I probably wouldn’t like but it just smells so good! The dry not-leaf smells like orange sherbet or dreamsicle ice cream. That scent is one of my most favorite smells in life so I couldn’t resist buying a little.

I didn’t anticipate liking the taste, especially as post-steeping this still has that lovely dreamsicle smell, but it is coupled with the sadly stronger wet wood smell that is rooibos. But surprise, surprise! The taste is 90% dreamsicle. Yay! Slurping brings out a bit more orange fruit flavor which is nice and juicy. The rooibos comes in at the very end of the sip; a bit sour, a bit rotted wood. It’s not really all that pleasant but, after the first sip, it’s not really all that present either.

Sadly, I think the flavoring of this might not be my friend as I seem to have developed a bit of a headache after finishing my first cup. That is sad because this is a rooibos that is quite delicious. If drinking it didn’t hurt, I’d definitely do it more.

Oddly enough, this is a true and proper bai mu dan. The leaves are huge and unfurled even when dry. It reminds me of the bai mu dan that TeaGsch sells (although their leaves are even bigger).

In case you hadn’t noticed, I don’t really “do” flavored (or scented) teas. Like flavored coffees, they are usually an excuse to sell poor quality product by hiding it under too much flavor agent. I’ve had both teas and coffees that you can cut 20 to 1 with unflavored and the flavor agent is still HUGE in the cup. I just don’t get it.

Especially on white teas. What is it with people flavoring the most subtle, most delicate of teas?

But Sterling is a Texas company and they were hanging out in our Central Market location a few Sundays ago (I always do a shopping run there after services each week) and the folks were so nice and the sample they offered was… GOOD.

So I decided to do the local thing and picked up some of this white earl grey. If nothing else, I knew Liz would like it.

But… I like it too. In spite of myself. Neither the vanilla nor the bergamot are at all overpowering here — and that is saying something with vanilla. And the underlying bai mu dan is a proper, good set of leaf that are essentially undamaged in the flavoring process.

BEWARE of over steeping. This gets bitter FAST.

But if you get the timing right, you are rewarded with a warming, gently sweet, tangy cup. Bai mu dan are some of my favorite cold weather teas and the additions Sterling have added to this one make it a great “winter warmer” cuppa.

Hey this IS a good earl grey. My husband brought this home from the grocery store, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I have a black-tea based earl grey with vanilla in it at home, and the vanilla just tastes really overpowering and artificial. This is different. The tea looks really high quality- the bai mu dan leaves are lovely. The vanilla is a nice, muted backdrop. And the bergamot dominates just enough to make this a good earl grey, without wiping out the delicate white tea leaves. Am digging this one.

Very smooth and a nice delicate blend of floral flavor with the green and black. I could smell the fruits much more than taste them, but personally I prefer it this way.

I’m finishing up this from my stash as well. I must say it’s one of the better Chai’s I have had. Sorry to see it go…

I received this in a tea swap today. First time I I have tried this tea AND this company! Thanks Karen!!! This is full of spices! I’m steeping now. Some of the spices are floating to the top of the steeper/holder. I see a chunk of ginger switch kind of frightens me. Oh well, I’m game! The color is a true brown. Not much else to say about the color. I have to sample a sip more than once to make up my mind. I did use a little less of the blend because of the scent I thought it would be too overpowering. BUT I really don’t think it is. It blends well. I think it might be the hint of peppermint to offset the other spices. I never add anything to my teas…no milk/sugar…nothing so all my reviews are based on the true taste and this is a nice middle road for a chai. If you have had bad experiences with chai before give this a try if you are looking for something way over the top and spicy this may not have enough kick for you…but if you add milk or other things to it it just might work regardless…depends. It’s not bad…I like it.

Very nice fruity and tangy flavor. The hibiscus really stands out, but not so much of the orange peel and lemongrass. I don’t taste much of a strawberry flavor, but it still tastes very good.

I could taste either the papaya or pineapple I wasn’t quite sure which one, but mostly it tasted like green tea with a hit of black and a little fruity flavor to it. Not a big fan of this one.