The Whistling Kettle

I received a few cups of this from Marcel Duchamp. Thank you!

Milk Oolong is one of my favorites so I have been trying to sip as many as I can. This one was interesting. It was a bit less creamy than I am use to, it also had a hint of mint at the end of each sip. The tea was a little less green and a bit more roasted than my favorite oolong. All in all it was a good cup but not my top pick for oolongs.

From the queue. (I’ve upped the posting frequency from the queue because it seems to be growing faster than I’m posting at the moment… 25 pages and counting.)

Bleurgh… Husband is not home tonight so I’m fending for myself dinner-wise. Husband is vegetarian, and I am one on most days for the main reason that I can’t possibly be bothered to cook two separate meals for two people when whatever he’s having is just as good as anything meaty. However, on the occasions when we go out, have take out or I’m feeding myself, I usually fall into the meat trap. It’s possible that I over-do it a bit. Bottomline is, I enjoy the food while eating, but afterwards always feel far too full in the entirely wrong way. Full on meat feels very different from full on a vegetarian fare. To top it all off I also had half a glass of red wine, unusually for me but it’s one of these very posh wines. The sort of that comes in a box with a tap on it, you know. So I’m very very full and kind of sleepy. Hence, bleurgh… In short, my tummy is right now a rabbit of negative euphoria. ( sigh I shall miss Cabin Pressure)

I am in need of something light and restoratative. Green and fruity? Yes. Time for another Try from the EU Travelling Teabox, now winding its way towards Italy.

I’m not generally a green tea person, but I took some of this one because… I don’t need to go into this again, do I? Berry, attraction, done deal.

It definitely smells like blueberry. Actually it just smells blue all round. I’m getting a very clear sky blue. There’s a sweetness to it as well which is not all berry but reminds me of vanilla. There isn’t actually vanilla in it at all as far as I can see, so that might just be my personal vanilla obsession, but that is nevertheless what I’m reminded of.

At first, when I sip, I just get the green tea. It tastes fresh and vegetative, but not in the sort of fat, thick, almost salty way that some greens, particularly dragonwell for me, have a tendency to. This tastes more spring-like and crisp. Then, after a split second, the blueberry comes in. It’s a very clear blueberry flavour, here. Very sweet and a little creamy. Again, it’s as if it has been mixed with a little vanilla. The blueberry flavour sort of builds up as I sip, so that it’s as if the flavouring becomes stronger and stronger.

This is really a very good tea. It’s the sort of thing that makes me wish green blends caught my attention more often. I’m glad I got to try some of this one, although I do wish I’d pinched all of it now. This is a brilliant tea!

This one is a sample from BrewTEAlly Sweet! thanks so much! I’ve wanted to try this one for ages. There is popcorn here! I woke up thinking butterscotch, and I was trying to think of a tea that might fit with that craving. This one works more than any other teas I have, I think! It’s maple, which helps. Also cinnamon. This is tasty but it brews too light for my brain to be awake to read these Tournament books! It’s sweet, it does taste like maple and cinnamon. I can’t really taste any black tea at all. A bit of flavor from the two pieces of popcorn that fell in my infuser. It’s good but it needs a stronger black tea base! It reminded me of another tea I’ve tried… and sure enough, Tealux’s Maple Splash even has the same description. ah well, I have samples of both teas then! (Which is fine since reading the tasting note for the other, it said I wouldn’t mind buying two ounces of it!)

I haven’t been reading tasting notes and I miss them! Trying to catch up on books….

A sample from KittyLovesTea. I brewed up a cup of this last night, since I fancied a change from black or rooibos teas, which are my usual go-to varieties. I think I overdid the steep a little on this, as it was faintly astringent. Not awfully so, but just a bit drying at the back of the throat. The flavour was good, though. The green tea leaves are rolled and quite dark, so I was half expecting quite a bitter tea. It wasn’t at all, though. It was light, fresh and a touch vegetal, and matched the sweetness of the blueberry really well. I won’t say I got pie from this on the whole, except during one sip when I was convinced I could taste buttery, baked pastry. I guess it all came together in that one moment! Anyway, I have enough left for a couple more cups, so I can try and improve on my experience this time. It certainly made for a nice treat!

Two or so day ago, I went to go have breakfast at The Whistling Kettle and decided to try out a tea I’ve had my eye on for a while – the vanilla silk oolong from this fine place. The price was around $3 or $5 for a pot but well worth it.

It was a great choice and went well with my sandwich. As I always do my reviews while drinking said tea, I’ll have to do this one from memory so this isn’t going to be as descriptive as I desire. The tea was of very nice quality, normal for the Whistling Kettle, and was a very light and floral taste. The vanilla taste was not very prominent but it was pleasant because you could tell it was very delicately flavored with very good quality flavorings. However, the vanilla was there regardless. The oolong they used was also very yummy. I wish that I had some of this myself so I could give this an entire rundown like usual, but this will have to suffice.

First tea of the day. Yes I know it’s after 6pm here. My day got away from me, what can I say? Picked this one up at a tea tasting the other night as I thought I remembered having it, but now I think I had a similar blend from Capital Teas as this tastes a little like their Toffee Puerh, but this one from WK is very smooth and rich, with nice hints of caramel/toffee. Really yummy and perfect as it has started to snow again.

First off, yep I changed the name back. For me it is way easier (plus I started the blog back up too).

On to the tea. We went to a tasting last night at The Whistling Kettle and as always you can buy the teas they offered at the tasting as well as stock up on other teas they carry. So I was looking over their extensive catalogue and found this. I knew I had to try it. At the time I didn’t know I’d fall so hard for it! I tried it this morning and wow. I am blown away by the flavor. Very earthy with that extra touch of spice and a hint of chocolate that make you sit up a little straighter and sip the tea a little longer.

I’m going to need to stock up on this one!

Thought I had reviewed this before. But apparently not. This a lovely dessert-like tea that is sweet and satisfying. I love it as a tea latte. Reminds me of a yummy sweet cake!

I liked this very much. I made it in a glass tea tumbler, and so did not remove the leaves after steeping – the flowers were very lovely, so make it in a glass pot or mug if possible. The floral and fruity notes are not too strong and don’t overpower the blend of green and white teas. I was surprised at how well balanced the flavors are in the mix.

Ever since I gave birth to my baby girl (6 months ago!), my love for tea has been on the decline. I haven’t had time to truly enjoy making and sipping tea. On top of that, my husband and I moved to my parents’ house. They have a keurig. I had succumbed to it! Recently, I have been getting into tea again.

Anyway, today I decided to try this sample. It pains me to have so much tea sitting around! This one smells faintly of sweet syrup. There was one piece of cinnamon and popcorn in this. I was very excited about that. Upon brewing, the cinnamon wasn’t very overpowering. In fact, it was well-blended. This tea didn’t need any additives at all. It was naturally sweet. The black tea base wasn’t overpowering either. Good tea blend overall. Next time I will try to brew this for longer and add milk to see if it changes the flavor at all.

This tea is well worth the 7-10 minute steeping time (side note: mesh steeper highly recommended, as it is a very fine tea). Both the marzipan and almonds compliment eachother in a way to create just a perfectly smooth and luxurious tea. The almonds give it a nice, nutty flavor which is present just enough to compliment the deep vanilla flavor of the yummy marzipan. Not enough to overpower it, however. There is also a nice sweetness to it – just enough to tickle your tongue. I love this tea, it is very smooth yet crisp, and just delectable. Very very recommended to try out! :)

This is an earl grey which is like no other. The smell of the raw tea is strong and smells like perfume but do not let that trick you! The taste is very smooth and has hints of earthiness to it, while soothing your tongue with a sharp yet not overpowering flavor that is similar to the smell, however this time it’s a perfect strength that is very pleasurable. Good for any time of the day for me. I highly enjoy this tea!

Simply delicious! The smell is just wonderful! and the taste is a very rich, yet a perfectly balanced, chocolate and caramel flavor with some undertones of yummy spices. One of my favorites for the mid-day :)

Boy did I use too many leaves this time! I used 2 generous tsp plus a little more for a 16 oz Timolino. I can tell that the leaves have not oversteeped, since the tea is not bitter. It’s just too strong! This is a stronger tea than I remember. I’ll remember – 1 tsp per 8 oz max!

I just keep thinking – this tastes just like Chinese Restaurant Tea! It’s very smooth, but not sweet like the description made me expect. It is not bitter at all, even though I always let my leaves stew (I just leave them in the cup). The leaves are smallish and the liquid is a really pretty golden brown. It is a very satisfying cup of tea, and I expect that I could drink this on a semi-daily basis.

I steeped this in a regular teapot and it was really yummy! I could definitely smell and taste the orange and the ginger. When resteeping (which I did 3 or 4 times) the orange and especially the ginger taste faded, but the oolong base is lovely and continued to taste good. I might re-buy.

Saturday sipdown! I have too many samples of tea to drink. Decided to hit this one hard today, since it’s been grey all morning followed by a hard downpour. Without adding any maple syrup to it, it ends up tasting like a pretty normal black tea at this point.

Finally digging into the samples my sister gave me for my birthday.

I steeped for about 3 minutes, after reading comments here that 4 seemed too long. I tasted the tea plain, and the maple was very subtle, but present. Otherwise, a nice black tea. Added some half&half and a dash of maple syrup from the bottle I had just purchased this morning.

The first steeping of this tea was very strong and astringent. But, the second and third were very nice. It had a deep elemental taste with a hint of flowers. Next time I try it, I’ll try to remember to do a wash steeping.

Update – I tried this again, gongfu style. It was much more pleasant that way and not at all astringent. The first steeping is still a little bitter, but it was a pleasant bitter. The subsequent steepings had a nice floral taste to them. I’ve updated the rating.

Everyday I take a travel mug of oolong with me to work. I usually drink a light oolong, often Alishan. I received a large container of it from a taiwanese student. Each morning, I put 1-2 tsp of tea in my mug and then fill it with hot water. I drink it throughout the morning, putting in more hot water at lunch and then some more during the afternoon. So, I look for teas that I can resteep in such a fashion and do not get overly bitter as they stew in the water. This one is a perfect example of this! It stayed nice tasting through three steepings.

I drank this all day today! I filled my 20 oz travel mug with 2 tsp of leaves this morning and added hot (not boiling) water. I sipped on it all morning, refilled at lunch, then refilled mid-afternoon. Yummy, sweet, and a teeny bit creamy all day long. No sugar needed to bring out the sweetness or the light floral nature to this tea. I love it and hope to always have it in the house. My sample is running dangerously low, and I’ll have to make the trek up to The Whistling Kettle soon.

Just had a lovely tea time with my husband! We used a gaiwan to brew this very flavorful tea. I washed the tea to begin with, but regretted it. Last night I had a small pot of it and didn’t wash it and its first brew was sweeter. We ended up getting 6 brews out of it, not counting the wash. Some were better than others, the second and third being my favorite. The predominant flavor is orchid, but there are notes of milky sweetness, especially in the first two steepings. We did add a little tiny bit (less than 1/8 tsp) of sugar to the third, fourth, and fifth steepings to bring out the sweetness. A very satisfying tea and one I will buy again and again. This is the best tea I have ever tasted.

Tea #28 from Another Traveling Tea Box

I really like the combination of puerh and white teas they used here. They compliment each other really well. The puerh is earthy and rich and the white is sweet and delicate.

That said, I not so surprisingly enjoy this cup. The tangerine flavor and chrysanthemum come through primarly. And the tangerine is crisp and citrusy. There’s also a gentle tartness that I’m associating with the acai. I feel like maybe the floral aspect could be turned down a little bit, as that’s all I get at the tail of the sip and as an aftertaste.

Tea #16 from Another Traveling Tea Box

I almost didn’t try this one since I’m still trying to acquire a taste for puerh, but I actually really enjoyed this. I’m not really sure what acai is suppose to taste like, but the tangerine stood out, giving the blend a nice citrus flavor.

This isn’t something I would have thought to order for myself so I’m glad I got to try it.