Steven Smith Teamaker

A little too mild for my taste – I would probably enjoy this if I had an upset stomach and couldn’t have a stronger tea and needed the mint. Not an “everyday tea” for me.

WOW! This is a bold and dense black tea! A definite favorite. Tried as a sample in a sachet, I very much look forward to getting this in loose leaf form!

A bold but not too strongly flavored Earl Grey. Not typical, even down to the name. This was a sample, I need to get some loose leaf to try it out.

Tried this again this morning, this time with a bit of milk. Either this batch is bad, or I’ve kept this sample from Terri for too long in my tea cupboard. This just isn’t good at all – it somehow manages to fluctuate between bitter and tasteless. Oh well, you can’t win them all.

Got this tea sample from the wonderful Terri. I tried it plain this morning, and got a weird combination of bitterish strong Assam, and pronounced lemon zest. I have a feeling that its more me than this tea, so I am going to give it another brew later on, and then one with milk and sugar.

It was there…and then it was gone.

I gulped this in a non womenly fashion, I’ll admit to that. I try to maintain a certain elegance when I drink my tea, but not for this one.

In fact, Im pretty sure my slurping sounds could be heard overseas…(will have to ask my friend Ysaurella about that)

This morning when I woke up, I felt I needed a kick in the tooshie, so I thought it was the right time to try this generous sample from Sil.

Never heard of this merchant, but this is more than I anticipated, shopping list material. It’s just a perfect assam, not too complicated, very fruity and malty with notes of sweet honey. A bit astringent, just the way I like it (please note that I go heavy on the leaves, I like a strong cuppa)

Once again, thank you Sil, I really dig this one :-)

OK wow. Long story coming here.

So I went to Chapters today, purposely, to get a book. Not just any book. Hollow City, the sequel to Mrs. Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. The first book was amazing. The perfect amount of suspense, drama, fiction, and history. Highly recommended, by myself anyway. I couldn’t wait for a sequel, not know if there ever would be one, but how can they just leave you hanging at the end of a book like that. I would have rather ordered it online and had it sent directly to my door, but it wasn’t released in time, and I will purposely be reading it shortly. So I went to the store, I put my blinders on. Straight to the books, don’t look around, don’t look around, don’t look around. Dammit, I looked around. Out of the corner of my eye I see a logo that kind of reminds me of the Harley Davidson logo, but is really the Steven Smith Teamaker logo (Steve you are such a bada$$). It took me like 2 seconds to forget what I went for and to get over to the display, which was a bunch of Tea Forte with some Steven Smith hiding in between. I was in heaven. I was still reeling from the adrenaline rush from finding it (I would say until now it was impossible to come across in Canada, and unable to order from the Steven Smith online shop due to shipping restrictions).

Sidenote: What is happening by the way, Fauchon at Winners, now Steven Smith at Chapters, the [tea] apocalypse is coming!

I was completely drawn in. Then I saw Lord Bergamot No. 55. Oh my! I stood just sniffing the box. It got kind of weird because by now the employees were watching my “strange” behavior in the tea section. And every other customer just kept walking by, browsing the Tea Forte. I was screaming at the top of my lungs, but only inside my brain, come on guys, this is Steven Smith! But I didn’t because it is mine, all mine, my precious!

Still reeling from the huge adrenaline rush I stopped at McD’s on the way home. Today was my Rob-Ford-minor-set-back. I will get over it, maybe :)

By the time I got home, I was super wishing I had invested in some expensive and ridiculous gadget that turned my kettle on through an app or something. Because then I had to wait, very impatiently for the kettle to boil. While this was happening I read the very sleek and cheeky tea box. The tea came in sachet form, but there was tonnes of room for expansion. The back of the individual packet reads “Steep 5 minutes, while pondering the Earl’s affair with the Duchess of Devonshire.” No! No. The Earl is mine, we are having the affair. He seductively waved me in with the beautiful scent and steam that arose from the steeping tea. I pretending to resist, but really, who am I kidding.

This. Tea. Is. Magnificent. It is smooth, and creamy, and bergamotty. Definitely a more citrus bergamot. It is creamy and silky, slightly sweet. The blend of base teas is perfect. The bergamot is bold but the base is not. Ahhhhhh! The adrenaline is wearing off and serotonin kicking in.

Steven, you are a genius!

I enjoyed this a lot. I steeped it three times, and each time it did not become bitter. The jasmine is present but not overwhelming, and has a nice green crispness to it that most greens have to me. I will definitely have to check out more by this brand for my teabag needs!

Steven Smith teas really intrigue me but I have no great way of getting them due to shipping restrictions, so I am very happy that TerriHarpLady shared some of this with me in our recent swap.

This one reminds me so much of an iced tea, except I am drinking it hot right now, ha ha. It is a beautiful blend of assam and Ceylon. The Ceylon is sweet but the assam is bold, they mix well together. There is just the slightest dry astringency in the aftersip but it works well with the taste of the tea.

Definitely want to try this one iced. I hope to have a chance to try more Steven Smith in the future. Impressed so far.

This is a soft, creamy green. Its not as smooth and buttery as some other green’s I’ve had but once it cools down, I find that this really is a wonderful cup of tea.

The color is a pale, clean yellow. The smell has a light, roasted quality that’s muted and you almost don’t notice it but its quiet and it sticks. Its like someone whispering in your ear and you get a faint scent of their hair or their smell and it makes their whisper that much softer or sexier.

I see people say vegetal. I don’t get that. Vegetal to me says, “cooked greens”, or “grassy”. I love green tea. Sometimes I crave liquified grass-clippings of a sencha, sometimes cups of neon-green Ureshin Tama Ryokucha. Other times, I just want a clean, easy-going, up-for-whatever cup of green tea that won’t make wonder if I over-steeped it by its asparagus-like, pungent plant power. You’ve had those, I know you have. This is not that tea. I don’t think this tea is vegetal.

This is going to sound weird but this tea reminds me of a beautiful hardwood floor. Its natural, its simple, its elegant and its comforting.

One of my favorites, out of a sachet or otherwise.

T&C Box 4/18

I like the packaging on this one—the wrapper is attractive and easy to read, and the instructions are adorable: “steep 5 minutes while pretending you’re Van Gogh painting in Arles.” Don’t mind if I do!

I don’t know how I feel about this one. There’s a lot of chamomile, but as it cools the other flavors become more obvious. There’s definitely a floral note and a citrus note, as well as a very slight rooibos taste. Chamomile can be too much in blends, but this one isn’t bad.

ETA: As this cooled down it got much better. The chamomile is less overpowering when it’s cool, and the citrusy and floral flavors are more present. I think this would be good iced!

Travelling Tea Box C

I really need to try more and more teas by this Teamaker. I’ve had quite a few awful earl greys lately, but this one was lovely! The ceylong base was full-bodied, fruity, and smooth. The bergamot wasn’t oily or bitter. A really lovely earl grey!

Sipdown (118).

Worst day ever on my gosh.
You know it’s a bad day when you don’t even feel like drinking tea at night because THERE’S NO TEA TO DRINK. Like seriously. I don’t feel like drinking any of the teas I have right now because I just feel nasty and gross and ugh no. I was dying in Philosophy today okay. After two presentations, I just wanted to run home and take a hot shower because my entire body was ACHING. I sat through the final two presentations and I was close to tears in the last one because my stomach was hurting so much, and my muscles felt tingly and weak and no.
But this one kinda just stood out because I wanted something minty so Fez it is. I’ve been saving it because it’s one of my favourites and now I am all out of it :(
Yeah. Today was just a bad day.

Super SUPER quick note before heading off to class.
I’ve got me some Fez in my thermos and I’m taking it with me to class tonight! Gotta stick to my sachets when I take my teas to go because I don’t have a Timolino yet. That is a MUST for me and I’ve already told myself that I’m going to get one soooon.

But yes. Fez. Nice spearmint smell when you open up the pack and then a wee bit of a floraly taste comes out when it steeps. Dude. I loooove this tea! Definitely one of my favourite spearmint teas!

Still laughing over the fact that there still isn’t option in the Flavours at the bottom ahhaha

I have a headache. Sister says peppermint will help with headaches. So here I am drinking spearmint tea hahha totally the same thing, right?
Well it’s in a sachet and it’s full leaf so it’s good.
Out of the package it definitely smells like spearmint, without the whole toothpaste-y smell.
Drinking it wow. It’s really good. And the aroma that comes out isn’t strictly spearmint. Can definitely tell that it’s a blend with a floral-y flavour. And lemony. Must be that lemon Myrtle! Well yeah. It’s good and it works. Probably going to add some honey just because I can :)

I feel like because I was so happy to rid this tea from my shelf, this tasted much better than I remembered it.
Decent tea. Seems like any regular red rooibos soooo yeah.

Legit going to have a sipdown party sometime soon because I only have one sachet of this left and I have like another 15 teas in my sipdown pile and I’l right at 100 teas and I’m expecting packages soon! I would absolutely LOVE it if I’m able to get down to like the low 90’s before all my packages come in the mail.

But this tea. My sister bought me a box for my “Congrats on getting into the DCP!” present, and I’ve finished that off. But then, when I came home, she forgot that she bought me this tea and bought me another box as a birthday present!
I’m not the biggest fan of this tea, but I just drink it because it’s tea and there’s no caffeine. Seriously. Every time I drink it I like add lemon or honey or have it plain or any variation but.. dude it just never works out.
Definitely not my favourite tea, but it was a present so I feel like I should drink it all. It’s a good “I don’t know what tea to drink so I’ll just drink this tea so it’s one sachet closer to a sipdown” tea hahah.

Dang. This tea is just so weird okay.

I never learn from my mistakes.
I have had this tea SO MANY TIMES and it just.. doesn’t taste good. I really want to like it, I do I do! But it’s just… ehh. This is the tea I drink when I am not picky with the rooibos that I drink. I go for this tea because I know every time I drink it, it’s one sachet closer to a sipdown.

Today was a very productive day so I’m allowed to be lazy and have ramen for dinner. Come on, that’s the epitome of a college life right there okay. Ramen plus coffee equals COLLEGE.
But of course, I don’t drink coffee, only tea :) Ramen like… once or twice a month at most because I enjoy quality foods. But today was very productive, I’ve done over half the things I needed to finish so just leave me with my ramen and my tea and my netflix hehe :)

This tea though. I’ve had it plenty of times before and I can just never get it right? It either has too much or too little flavour. Ahh well. It’s in a sachet so easy clean up for me! Once again: THE LAZINESS IS TAKING OVER.

You have no idea how many times I’ve drank this tea and I don’t know if I like it or not.
Red tea is.. interesting. It may be a bit too fruity for my tastebuds? Ack idk. I’ll try another cuppa in a few days. Don’t think I’ll completely fall in love with it, but it’s still a pretty good tea to have at night :)

I had a craving for a mint tea after all heavy and spicy food. Very refreshing. I like Moroccan tea in general but I think this extra lemony flavor adds something special, sweet citrusy flavor. I think it’s balanced and pleasant. Probably will be excellent as iced tea

This came as a sample sachet with my recent order. It is indeed most excellent. Very strong peppermint even though I don’t notice any “distinct chocolate.” It makes the air cold when I breathe in after a sip.

I could see myself ordering the loose version of this, or even the bags to toss in a purse to take for after dinner when eating out.

Tisane of the mid-morning here; I am attempting to take it easy on the caffeine today, or at least trying to pace myself. This reminds me a lot of Bonbon by Steven Smith. which is in a tin I can’t open right now (with my bum arm). I like cinnamon and ginger but there could be a little less licorice in this and I’d probably be happy.