Teas Etc

I thought this was an appropriate afternoon tea. My kids and I went to a U-pick blueberry farm today. It took a little over an hour to get 7 lbs, but it was so worth it. I am not sure my nearly 12 yo DS was much help, but he sure did eat a bunch. Now I just have to decide whether to make muffins or pancakes…… or maybe just a pie?

Good blueberry flavor, but I am going with the more sophisticated Black Currant when this is gone. They are so very similar, I almost can’t justify having both…until I run out of Rosey Earl Grey and am looking for things to add to my Teas etc. order.

Another humid one. This calls for one of my favorite hot weather teas in the whole wide world: Rosy Earl Grey. I love how delicate and heady it is (jasmine!) despite it containing black tea. The perfect marriage for me! Another summer day in a cup. Swoon.

Also, I thought it was funny/neurotic that even though I was carrying in a thousand things this morning, I still stopped and bought bottled water for my tea making because I knew we were out at the office. The thought of that nasty spigot water ruining Rosy! No, no, no!

Goodmorning Steepsterites.

Still going on with the warm-ups for sample week, and this poor thing is the choice for today.

Poor? Oh yes, I seem to be thoroughly mistreating it. A little more leaf than I would normally use for a pot, but not enough to split in two. Fine, a stronger cup then. Then the discovery that the saucepan didn’t hold enough water to actually fill the pot, so I’m having to boil more. I hate this way of making tea! Tomorrow the boyfriend is coming home, thankfully, and I have received word that kettle is safely in his possession and that it will fit easily in the suitcase.

In other words, cross your fingers that this doesn’t come out horribly wrong and I haven’t just wasted a sample. And not just any sample, a smoky sample! It almost doesn’t bear thinking about.

However, we are dealing with a Chinese black here, and as we know Chinese blacks will often take an awful lot of abuse before becoming completely undrinkable. Strange that, but it’s part of why I prefer Chinese. They’ll spring back from almost anything.

This one is no exception, and I can’t even taste any traces of the mistreatment it has suffered at my hands. It’s smoky and smooth with no hints of astringency or even beginning bitterness. Nothing. It’s just patiently coping with everything that has been thrown at it and is still coming out on top. The only thing that makes it any sort of rough or prickly is the smoke, and that’s supposed to be there.

There is a sort of tangy flavour to it, though, and not really the fruity sweetness that I’m used to in the regular Lapsang Souchongs. It’s like that note has been replaced by this slightly spicy and tangy note. I think I prefer the fruity sweetness.

I quite like it, although not as much as my regular LSs, but it’s a very nice tea.

My afternoon ‘dessert’. I do still like this one. I am about half-way through the 3 ounces that I ordered along with my love that is Rosy Earl Grey. I am still on the fence if I will reorder or not. It does have a good basic base, and the blueberry is pleasant.

24 oz pot, 3 perfect teaspoons (about 4 1/2 actual tsp), freshly boiled water, 4 minutes, double the usual sweet.

Ah, rose Earl Greys. Why have you eluded me thus far? I have yet to try one that was what I wanted it to be, but then, I haven’t yet tried this one. It’s been on my list for a while, what with all the Steepster love, and now thanks to JacquelineM I finally get to try it!

The dry leaves smell amazing, but I’ve learned to be skeptical of that coming through in the taste. But the brewed tea smells great too: way more jasminey than the dry leaf, but with a certain depth from the rose that is lurking in the background.

Fortunately, this tea has not disappointed! This is one of those teas, like some of the French ones I have, that each of the flavors plays out individually at different parts of the sip, but then they all come together at the end. The florals are the first things I taste, first sweet, lovely jasmine, then rich, thick rose. The bergamot, the Earl Grey, seems to hang out at the end of the sip, but then on some sips it underlies everything else. All the flavors just work so well together, intermingling, playing off each other. They meld together more as it cools into one great floral bergamotty flavor. This tea is just as amazing as I had hoped!

What was missing from all those other rose EGs was the jasmine, obviously. My favorite lavender Earl Grey also has jasmine in the mix, and I think that it goes a long way toward making the other florals work so well with the bergamot. Thanks again, JacquelineM!

ETA: After reading one of JacquelineM’s previous tasting notes in which she let it “cold steep” in lukewarm water during an office meeting, I filled my cup back up with cool water and let it sit for an hour until lunch. Not exactly “iced” tea, but cool from the air conditioning tea nontheless. The jasmine green was the predominant note in the cup (both the sweet jasmine and the grassy, vegetal green), but the rose and bergamot were definitely present. It was really tasty, and something I’ll definitely try again!

Post matcha baicha: aborted. Rose chocolate matching cup of citrusy comfort: acquired. Perfect morning off acomplished.

And as a bonus I get to admire the rose sticker on my tin. =) Thanks again JacqulineM!

notes later

Will do notes later.

No notes yet.

My afternoon tea….

After floating all morning in my love that is Keemun Mao Feng, I had to find something that was just as wonderful, but in a different way. I do agree that this one is blended so perfectly. It is sweet and floral, and such a comforting and relaxing tea. The jasmine, rose, green tea, and Earl Grey all have their place in this blend. Wonderful.

This is one I added to my order for Rosy Earl Grey from Teas Etc. I have been on a blueberry black tea kick as of late. This is not my favorite blueberry tea, but it is pretty good! It is a good, solid black base with a hint of blueberry that comes out more with sweetener. Definitely pleasurable, very drinkable, and readily available, since my favorite blueberry tea is limited….. ;)

Another cup of this before bed.. surprise, surprise! I am really liking this tea at a lower water temperature. Tonight it’s smooth and sweet, just the way it should be!

Yes….Happiness and relaxation in a cup. This truly is a restorative to me, and will be close to my heart like my Rose Congou. Luckily, Teas Etc. finally returned my email with good news….it is back in stock!

There is a perfect balance of floral and bergamot notes along with green and black tea base. I did slightly sweeten mine, but truly a wonderful tea! Thank you JacquelineM for sending me a generous sample! I am noticing that our tastes seem to run very similar!

Really yummy cup of tea, as always. This is a perfect cup to have while relaxing at the end of the day. Delicious!

Got this with my Teas, etc. order on a whim. Well actually my brother picked it out for me, which is really fairly typical. I should probably stop listening to him on these matters because our tastes are vastly divergent. He really likes tea flavored tea, whereas I like nifty flavored tea. Anyway I decided to ignore that and go with this instead of the summer currant which I had originally been going to get because any time I buy something currant flavored I am disappointed and I thought that I would just break that vicious cycle.

This is an interesting tea and, appropriately enough, one I think my brother would like. It reminds me of the Upton Rose Congou in a way, since both base tea and flavor are very mild, although this is much milder than the rose was. There is the faintest of hints of citrus about it, but nothing that really screams grapefruit specifically at me unless I’m concentrating – so, again like the rose congou, this is a good tea if you want something that you won’t necessarily pay too much attention to.

I probably won’t be getting any more of it, but I’m going to recommend it to my brother!

Very much in the mood for more tea today, I put a teaspoon of my Rosy in with the Earl Grey de la Creme leaves I’ve already used. One of my favorite tricks! It gives a tiny bit of creamy vanilla flavor to the already sublime Earl Grey, Jasmine, and sweet rosiness. Ah!

Man, everyone is so into this tea, I was really excited to be trying it because I am always on the lookout for kickass dessert teas. But…I have to say I’m pretty disappointed by it.

Now, full disclosure here, I do not actually like coconut all that much. I know, however, that in some forms of pastry it becomes quite nice (german chocolate cake y/y?) which is why I tend to give it the benefit of the doubt in tea, especially in dessert-y tea. Sometimes it works out well for me, as in 52teas’ coconut cream pie, and sometimes it does not. Like now.

I can only assume that my problem with this is that it is just too coconutty. I don’t know, I’m getting this odd sort of spicy aftertaste, I’m not really sure what’s going on, but I am not that enamored with it. Props to Teas, etc. for being able to give it a really coconutty texture though. Impressive.

I will tell you a secret though: pouring a bit of cognac in? smooths it right out, VERY tasty. Certain parties, * coughmybrothercough * have gone on record as saying that if you have to pour alcohol into it to make it good that means it’s not worth the effort, but I can tell you right now that it doesn’t actually work for EVERYTHING.

For the record, I do not pour cognac in everything just to see what will happen.

Just most things.

Time for my quarterly return to Steepster! I actually had a revelation earlier this week that one of the reasons that I don’t come by here often is because the dashboard takes forever to load these days. I hit the steepster link, go off to do something else while it loads, proceed to completely forget about it and finish off whatever tea I was drinking in the meantime.

In any case, we’ll see how long this return lasts. Probably until I finish my current research paper which I am at this moment procrastinating on while writing this note. I think I’ll probably stick to only logging new teas as I try them rather than logging all the tea I drink unless I get a strongly different impression from it than previously.

In any case, I’ve been wanting to try this tea for a while, since I loooove earl grey the best. Even more than the crazy ass teas from 52teas. Although I love those too, of course, just NOT AS MUCH :P Anyway, I was really wary of it, but I know Rabs loves it, so I had always been planning to try some. Sadly, my finances have not been great of late. Yay for being at a public university in California! Motto: We Have No Money.

I finally got a bit of a break when mum sent me a check for Valentine’s day with instructions to buy tasty chocolates for myself because she was busy. I think that we all know that “tasty chocolates” is a universal code for “nifty tea and possibly some posh beer.” So I grabbed several Teas,etc. teas. Including this and coconut custard, which I had also been coveting for a while.

Now, this is a black and green (and bunch of other stuff) blend, which has historically been problematic, but I tend to get around this problem through the highly scientific method of treating it like a black tea and selectively forgetting that the green tea is there. I recommend this method for anyone as chronically lazy as me.

Now then, to the tea itself. This is, to put it frankly, AMAZING. I can’t believe that it has all that stuff going on in there (jasmine and earl grey and rose, oh my!) and yet it all manages to come together somehow without anything becoming too overpowering. That’s right, I am getting the rose and the jasmine and the earl grey in basically equal amounts! I am freaking out here guys. I am going to have to keep this on hand ALL THE TIME, I am not even lying. As with other “augmented” earl greys though, I don’t really see this as a substitute for normal earl grey, which I need in the mornings to function. However, I really love having this throughout the day, or making a big pot of it, since the different flavors mean I won’t get tired of it even if I’m drinking it for several hours.

tl;dr version: A++ would drink/buy again!

Addendum: I think my other reason for slacking off on Steepster is my chronic inability to write short tasting notes. WHY IS THIS SO LONG.

Another tea from the box of goodies courtesy of JacquelineM! This is a greatly blended floral tea. I love how the jasmine and rose mix together while not clashing with the bergamot. Everything is just perfectly girly and perfect for a relaxing evening.

I don’t know what it is about Earl Grey de la Creme, but after I have two cups, I crave Rosy Earl Grey! I think the creamy vanilla flavor and those pretty blue cornflowers remind me of the beautiful pink rose petals and jasmine flavor in Rosy!

So this afternoon, out came Rosy! Light and delicious. Brewing it like an oolong (195) seems to make all the different types of teas blended together reasonably happy. The sweet floral quality was so enjoyable and reviving. That little bit of froof did me good. I was feeling overworked and dreary, but now I’m smiling! I simply adore this happymaking tea.

Rachel!!!! I got your package today! Thanks so much!!!! This is really something special right here…YUM…It smells like Coconut Cookies with a little lime and the taste is excellent…coconut and key lime…creamy but tangy! The infusion color is pretty light brown which kind of surprised me…but this is the complete package right here!

This was my sipping tea for the 15 hour shower of gloom today, to be brewed with breakfast and left on my desk and slowly be drained through the day. This is because I was a bit scared to make it; the bergamont smell had that perume like strength. And I’ve found both Earls and Jasmine green best cooler.

Great choice for the day! This was delicious cool and all of the flavors are easy to sort out and enjoy in a few sips. The jasmine and bergamont pair so harmoniously I have to wonder why this isn’t as common as the two bases! The green isn’t detectable but a hint of the black base adds a ground to the garden.
Second steep: Hmm. The leaves smell nice even across the room. Should I risk a weak cup of beauty for a good strong scent? I’ll compromise by smiffing the tin thoughout the day.
Still good, more jasmine than I expected and less rose. Worth the loss of the brewed scent.
But I can smell the tin! And stare at the leaves as well! I wish I had the money to buy another glass jar and fill it with this tea. It would match my rose tuocha jar. =)
Another gloomy day brightened by tea from JacquelineM. Thanks!

There’s been a lot of coconut in my tea- life lately. Well, I ruined the low-calorie element of this by having it with a giant peanut butter choco-chip cookie, but it was worth it. The dogs had a different kind of cookie so nobody felt left out.

Anyway, this really does remind me of coconut custard, a dessert I do enjoy :)
It’s sweet and slightly milky. I do think this one would benefit from a bit of oversteeping, because at 5 minutes it tastes a little pale and watery. I can also see trying this in a vanilla-syrup added soy latte (one of my favorite things to do to tea lately- I don’t know why either, but it could be my missing Adagio Teas in Chicago).

A great after-dinner tea. I may mix this with 52 Teas’ Coconut Cheesecake honeybush just to see what happens.

p.s. Thanks to QueenOfTarts for sampling me some of this!

Another goodie from MeghannM! Thanks!
Oooh, jasmine…rose….love! This tea smells amazing dry, just like walking through a flower garden on a warm, humid day. I brewed this baby up because I just couldn’t wait to try this! Wow, this is something. Something wonderful for sure! Honestly, the ingredients in this tea could lead to a big, scary, disgusting mess but it works beautifully.

This is like a mix of the best jasmine pearls, most amazing rose, and a delicious, balanced Earl Grey. I think I’m in love! And, the tea cup doubles as aromatherapy! I’m sitting here with my nose in the cup letting my day melt away with each deep breath of jasmine and rose.

Although this is a black tea, I have a feeling that this would be great to have before bed as the florals are very relaxing. I really needed a cup of fru-fru today!