TeaFrog

It’s been a trying couple of weeks. It was about high time I make time to whittle down some of my tea storage. I had tried this once already as a gongfu prep, and – frankly – it did not hold up well. I don’t know if it was the leaf size (i.e. smaller pieces) or water temp, but it just didn’t work.

Today, I deferred my usual morning pot o’ black for a pot of this – done with boiling water. And – to my surprise – with a western-style prep, it was mighty tasty. Can’t say it was as nuanced as other Formosas out there, like Ali Shan, but it does offer something fruity and robust. That works for me in a pinch.

No notes yet.

Excellent second steep. The coconut is less candy-sweet and the lemongrass becomes more pronounced. Still superbly balanced. Did I mention I love coconut in my tea? Goooooood stuff!

This is some serious coconutty jazz! Macaroon srength. Lemongrass gives it a little dimension. I’m on my first full strength cup, so I’m not catching much green tea at all, but I’m thinking it may creep out on the second steep.

In the meantime, this is gooooood!

Quite nice this morning.

As I sat at my kitchen table this morning, trying to decide on a tea to drink before breakfast, they typical questions swam through my head. “Do I want white tea?” “Do I want green tea?” “Do I want black tea?” Well, this morning, I was able to deal with two of those questions at once in the form of TeaFrog’s Asian Mint Tea! This tea is a blend of gunpowder green tea and Ceylon Orange Pekoe black tea. Contrary to how it may sound, Orange Pekoe is a designation for a high quality tea leaf.

I heated water as though I were making a green tea, wanting to not scald the gunpowder green tea leaves. Three minutes of infusion later, and I had myself a cup of tea that looked like a typical, light, black tea. Seeing nothing different about it, I took a whiff of the tea. That is when I could smell the smoky, vegetal green tea aroma wafting out of the blend. And they mix perfectly!

At the forefront of the flavor is the black tea. Mild and yet flavorful, it leads this tea blend well. Then the gunpowder comes into the mix for the finish, and, with a smoky roar, sweeps pleasantly through the taste. This was really delicious. I can imagine that a bit of milk would add to this tea, if milk in tea is to your liking. This might become a new favorite for my morning cup! On my personal enjoyment scale, I would rate this tea a 91/100.

Yesterday, I declared that I would stop sweetening my tea. I drank my Dilmah Earl Grey without it and honestly, kinda suffered through it. But I stuck with it again today and brewed this up, adding only ice.

Yeah. I can’t do this. It’s going to be some kind of low calorie sweetener from now on, because all the sugar I’ve been consuming lately has been hurting my waistline. Anyway, um, about the tea…

Got it in a trade with Spencer. This is pretty tasty. The bergamot could be a bit stronger and cleaner-tasting, but it’s not bad. I particularly like the creamy aspect. But as I drank it, all I could think was “Man, this would be good with some sugar…” Especially since I brewed it on the strong side, and it was pretty bitter. I wish I had some more… I feel like I can’t even properly review it after today…

I’m going through a toasted/roasted tea thing right now so I was excited to try this. I am thoroughly enjoying my sample package from TeaFrog, which arrived yesterday.

This tea definitely has an overtone of roastiness from the rice that takes me back to my Puffed Rice cereal/rice cakes days. While those two foods annoy the heck out of me (as Styrofoam should) the rice in this tea doesn’t. Instead, it adds an interesting dimension of aroma and flavor, along with a pleasant lingering aftertaste.

I was thinking this tea came along because someone, long ago, wanted roasted green tea without roasting the actual tea leaves, but the story I’ve read is that it was accidentally created when monks roasting tea leaves in cauldrons that already had rice in them ended up liking the combo. I like it too. Time for cup #2.

Mmmm! This tea smells intriguingly wonderful! Upon first opening the package, a big cloud of bergamot oil hits me across the face. It is almost overwhelming. Then, I take a moment (to catch my breath), and I sniff at the leaves again. There is a smooth, underlying creaminess, reminiscent of vanilla, that suggests that the coming flavor might be something special! Following along with the instructions, I add one teaspoon of the very-scented leaves to my cup and then pour a cup of just-boiled water over them. Whoosh! The creamy scent billows up from the now-steeping tea. TeaFrog recommends 3-4 minutes for steeping, and I like to steep my teas about midway. Three and a half minutes later, a golden brown cup of joy awaits me. The aroma has mellowed out and the Earl Grey scent blends with the creamy notes. Drinking this tea, I find that it is so smooth! Delicious Earl Grey flavor, just as I think that Earl Grey should be, mixed with a creaminess that really hits the spot. The cup probably could have been steeped for four minutes and been just as tasty, if not a bit more so, but I will try that next time. I am also thinking that this tea would taste great if it were iced. This is definitely worth a try for any fans of Earl Grey (or someone looking to try something new!) On my personal enjoyment scale, I would rate this tea a 95/100.

Backlogging and now swappin’ ammo (while listening to the Humpty Dance) LOL

I thought I’d try the rest of my sample iced. I definitely prefer this hot, but I was so sure it would be even better iced! I find that the tea base gets a little too astringent and the blueberry gets lost in it. Perhaps I cold steeped it for too long, but either way, I can tell that the blueberries don’t have a chance. Oh well.

Tried this again, but this time I put 1 tsp of pearls instead of 6 measley pearls. What a difference.
The brew is now light yellow instead of slightly tinged water and it tastes so much better.
These pearls are not as good as TeaVivre’s but they are still slightly sweet and not overly perfumey like some jasmines are.

I don’t usually wake up craving anything but heavy black tea, but it’s a lovely sunny morning, i woke up to birds and sunlight instead of an alarm clock (a gift in itself!) and in a flight of fancy, started the day with this, which is in my itsallabouttheleaf.com review box.

More comments when I write a real review, but I think I actually steeped it properly (no small accomplishment for a morning tea slob!) so that I can accurately assess it.

Glad I got a sample of this. The dry leaves are delicate and wispy, and actually smell very strongly of blueberry. I was actually worried that the steeped tea was going to taste overly artificial and off.

Steeped, the tea truly does smell like blueberries, and the taste is just perfect. So far, this is definitely the best blueberry-flavoured tea which I have tried. The white tea allows the blueberry to shine, and impressively, I can get more than enough blueberry flavour even though I only steeped this for a minute-and-a-half.

Blueberry tea appreciators ought to try this one. It’s smooth and gentle, yet prim and proper, if that makes any sense.

No notes yet.

For years, I’ve been drinking Genmaicha that I’ve been purchasing at an Asian supermarket in a nearby city. Super tasty, yet incredibly cheap. I chose this one as my free sample from TeaFrog just to see if there would be a difference.

The dry leaf smells pretty much the same as everything else I’ve had, but I do notice a slight difference in taste. Actually, the smell of the steeped tea is more roasted than everything else that I’ve tried. The taste is exquisite. Again, I get more of that soothing roasted taste from the brown rice. It’s truly a comforting tea, and as mentioned in previous reviews, Genmaicha is always a staple. It’s also always been a tea that automatically makes me feel healthier. I’m still sick with a pesky cold so right now, Genmaicha is a must.

I just ran out of my supermarket Genmaicha, and because I’m currently living in a rural area and don’t know when I’ll make a trip to the city next, I just may suck it up and order this online despite the fact that it’s twelve times more expensive. It’s really worth it!

Ok seriously, right off the bat, the aroma of the dry leaf reminded me of a fantabulously tasty thai dish I had last time I was at a fancy Thai restaurant. Even the steeped tea smells like that! Now I want Thai food.

Well would you look at that. It even tastes like that too! There’s a perfect balance between the lemongrass and coconut. There’s a gentle creaminess to the coconut too, like in a coconut lemongrass curry sans spice.

Glad I picked out a sample of this one. I’ll admit that I didn’t really expect it to taste Thai-esque because I have a tea with very similar ingredients and they smell and taste totally differently. This one lives up to its name.

Out of all the TeaFrog samples that I ordered, this was one of the samples that I was the most excited about. I love all things chocolate and spice. In the pouch, this smells good enough to eat. Like a spicy chocolate pudding that’s heavier on the ginger.

Steeped, the aroma has already changed. The chicory hath emerged. Flavour-wise, this is also all about the chicory, although I can feel the slight burning sensation of the peppercorns and ginger at the back of my mouth. This is my first hot chicory beverage, so while I’m not used to it, I still think that it is nonetheless unique. I’m a bit disappointed that the chicory overpowers everything else though. I was hoping to get a balanced symphony of chocolate, spice, and chicory. No dice.

The more I drink this, the more I taste the ginger, though. It’s a nice change from what I usually drink but I’m grateful that TeaFrog offers sample sizes because I wouldn’t personally invest in a full-size pouch of this. I have my eye on other TF teas when it comes to upgrading, though!

No notes yet.

My first Tulsi, so I’m not quite sure what to expect. I’m really enjoying the smell of the dry leaf. It’s a melange of floral, herbal, and verbena. It kind of smells like a tea store, with all the teas mixing together. Well, minus the dessert teas.

The taste is very intriguing. Definitely get the lemon verbena and chamomile together, then the lavender. No basil whatsoever.

Very satisfying tea. I can see myself reaching for this whenever I’m sick, or if I’d like something to make me feel healthier in general.

This is a beautiful-looking tea. The pink rose buds add a touch of femininity to this. The smell of the dry leaf kind of scares me though. It’s a little on the artificial side, and reminds me of the Vanilla Oolong from DavidsTea, which was a no-go for me. Let’s hope the taste won’t disappoint.

Fortunately, the aroma has improved ten-fold once I steeped this. The coconut has come forth and the vanilla toned down on the artificiality.

Wow, first sip = Holy Coconut Batman. The most coconutty tea I’ve ever had. I don’t really taste any vanilla but I’m definitely not complaining. This is absolutely lovely.

Today’s a great day. Not only did my first 52teas order come in, but so did my package of TeaFrog samples.

I wanted to try this one first because as soon as I opened the pouch, the smell reminded me of Tea Desire’s Irish Cream, which I’ve always enjoyed. Comparing them side by side though, there are definitely some differences. While Irish Cream is sweeter and creamier, Chocolate and Cream has more chocolate, and it even smells like chocolate liqueur or something. Or like a chocolate truffle with a few drops of rum.

Wow, is this every chocolately. It’s like biting into a bar of dark chocolate. While the steeped tea smells like milk chocolate, the flavour is bolder. Colour me impressed! It’s like drinking hot cocoa. The real stuff.

Ok, so I just cheated, at least in my books. I almost never add any sweeteners nor milk/cream but halfway through my cup, I decided to add a couple tablespoons of milk. It’s actually pretty good. Turns this more into, well, milk chocolate. The aroma smells more bakery-like too.

A very nice Chun Mee. Pleasant fruity tones to this and a smooth, thick texture. Very soothing to sip on a cold, rainy evening.

An interesting flavor—I like it!

Citrusy, sweet, spicy, tangy and toasty all at once. Reminds me of Thai food—with all its melange of flavors.

Roasted cardamom and pineapple upon cooldown.

Really yummy…and strangely comforting and refreshing at the same time.