denisend

Haven’t been drinking much tea since I got home.

Lupicia always comes through though.

Overbrewed so it tasted of hibiscus rather than hibiscus+apples. Meh. I’m not good at this manual brewing thing. I can’t wait to get back home to my automatic teamakers.

Also, it’s not good with leftover pizza.

So… probably the best (IMO) of the chai substitutes that are readily available that I’ve tried on this trip. It’s WAY WAY spicy (I like spicy chai, but this was a bit too spicy for me). It has a strong tea and spice flavor, unlike Oregon and Pacific, which I’ve also tried.

I suppose the next thing to do is to start mixing.

Also, I have tried the apple cider chai from SBS, and I prefer that to the whole mess of things I’ve tried here… but that can’t be found in a store and I didn’t order it before leaving. sigh

(backlogging)

I’ve had this one a couple of times this week without logging it. When I time the steep, it turns out nice and light and fruity. It’s delightful.

Once I didn’t time it, and the backnote was very strong of (I think) the cardamon, which just threw the balance all off. It was weird and I couldn’t finish it. This tea is not forgiving if you overbrew it! Bleh!

(backlogging)

Very dark and pretty spicy. I had this last night after work when I didn’t feel like making actual tea. I think next time I’ll add milk, since it wasn’t terribly creamy, but otherwise it was a decent cup (better than what I’ve tried so far).

Not as good as tea leaves and spices, though.

Obtained in a (non steepster) tea swap. This is a loose tea, not the bagged tea pictured.

I think the recommended 5 minute steep time is too long, it was bitter. I didn’t taste any mango, just bitter black tea. I’m going to try again later with a shorter steep time and see how that does.

(backlogging)

I ordered a (hot) chai latte from a random kiosk at the airport. I watched the barista, and it was made with steamed milk and this chai concentrate.

It was awful. When I first got it (and it was PIPING HOT) I was thinking that it was okay… I think I just couldn’t taste much. As it cooled and I got about halfway through, I realized that it tasted kinda sour and just like… milk. No spices or tea or anything. Blah. I threw it out.

(backlogging)

Since I’m in a hotel, I can’t prepare chai the traditional way (no stovetop). A friend suggested that I try this as an alternative.

It was okay, not spectacular (didn’t compare at all with making chai with actual tea leaves and spices!).

I had a migraine, so I “got” to taste it again an hour later. Now I can’t stand to look at it. I don’t want to rate it because of that. I’ll try again in a few days.

So this is the first tea that I made in the hotel room. I wanted to start with a familiar tea before trying new stuff, plus my thermometer hasn’t arrived yet (I had it shipped to the hotel) so I can’t try anything except herbals or blacks.

I had to buy a new tea kettle, though, since I forgot mine. I’ll be here for 4 of the next 5 weeks, so I needed a kettle.

It sweet and delicious, just like normal, so I feel like I can go ahead and try other things!

Needed something strong because my mouth tastes like the chinese food I had for lunch. The tartness of this one did cover up the chinese for awhile, but after about an hour the chinese flavor is back.

It’s a strong flavor, but not lasting. sigh

Had a frustrating evening so turned to this to relax me before bed. I still love the tangy tart sweetness.

Thanks to wombatgirl for sending me this! I’m developing quite a backlog of traded teas, but this one smelled the strongest, so that’s what I went for.

Wow, I’m loving this one! It’s sweet and tangy and fruity but still light; it’s not the super strong fruit flavor of many of the tisanes that I like. This tisane has depth as well as sweetness.

I’m definitely going to have to purchase this one. After I make my way through my pile of tea…

So I’ve been doing a lot of sour apple in the evenings and I decided to switch it up a bit.

I like this one, but not as much as the sour apple… this is a citrusy hibiscus. It’s good, but I probably won’t buy it again since I like the sour apple much better.

I thought I’d update on the experimentation we’re going through with this blend and the triniTEA.

I’m using about 6 tsp of English Breakfast and 2 (heaping) tsp of Lemon Youkou. It’s on the hotter setting of the triniTEA (II) and brewing for 2 minutes.

We’ll get about 32 oz of tea, which will then have sugar added to it (about 1/3 cup) and the pitcher will be topped off with ice (it’s a 1 L pitcher).

The bitterness seems to be gone (good, because I can’t brew it for any less time on the triniTEA!). I’m still playing with the amount of lemon because the last one I thought was not enough but the husband said it was too much. I’m making it more to his taste becuase he tends to drink it more than I do.

So I prepared this one like the directions state – 16 oz of boiling water for 5 minutes, then add another 16 oz of cool water and refrigerate.

I sampled it this morning… woah. It’s like drinking hibiscus and ginger root. Maybe there are other flavors there, but I can’t tell because these two are completely overpowering them.

I’m going to try it hot before giving it a rating, since I’ve had some other ginger teas that are fine hot and ick cold. Since it comes in a bag with enough tea for 32 oz of iced tea, I’m going to have to open the bag. Annoying.

So I got to work (after our 4 hour delay) and discovered that no one made coffee. This tea was sitting the the break room and I decided to try it while the coffee was brewing (I always start my day with 2 cups).

The smell of the tea was offputting, but whatever that aroma was, it wasn’t present in the tea’s taste. I just felt like I had to hold my breath as I brought the cup to my lips. Ugh.

It was okay, there was the sharp bite of mint and a hint of chocolate afterwards. I bet it would be better if made like a chai (but I’m at work).

I looked online for this tea (for a picture and description) and couldn’t find much. Apparently it’s a limited edition only sold through World Market.

I bought some TeaFrog samples in December, and they came in ziplock bags, so I need to hurry up and drink them. Tea doesn’t stay fresh in ziplock bags for long!

So the instructions say 1.5 tsp per some unknown amount of water. Awesome. I’m going to assume 8 oz. But then I realized that I just bought a scale. Measuring out (by volume) from the little sample packet was annoying, so I just dumped it on the scale. 9.80 g. I’m not sure how that translates into tsp? I’m new to this scale thing.

But, by eye, it looked like about a 16 oz amount of tea (I guess, I normally do tisanes which are less dense), so I dumped it in the Zarafina (herbal, loose, medium settings).

I may have used too much tea. It’s . . . weird. The rooibos is the dominant flavor, and it hits you first. Then in the middle there’s a touch of fruit, but it’s hard to tell what (the package says pineapple, coconut, and rose blossoms, but I just get generic fruit). The last bit is the woody rooibos flavor, and that hangs out in your mouth (hey, what’s going on? ROOIBOS IN THE HOUSE!). It’s not very pleasant.

The middle flavor is changing as it cools, but it’s still bookended by ROOIBOS! so… meh.

(backlogging)

I finally found a chawan that I liked, so I pulled out the chawan, chasen (whisk) and chashaku (scoop) and fixed a bowl. It’s supposed to froth, isn’t it? I didn’t get any frothing.

Erm. Wow. Drinking green tea as matcha really emphasizes a lot of the things I don’t like about green tea. This one felt like drinking a bowl of grass.

I’m going to leave off the rating for a bit until I’ve tried a couple different varieties and see how they compare. I’m not sure if I don’t like it because I don’t like matcha or because of the tea itself.

(Don’t worry about the tools and such going to waste – the husband loves matcha, so now he can prepare it properly).

I’m not sure what’s up with me recently, I’ve been craving a lot of chai. Since it’s a bit of a PitA to make, when I don’t feel up to making it I have my standby instant tea (so I haven’t been logging much).

So I’ve been looking for a chawan to properly drink matcha and finally found one that I liked at Upton Tea Importers. Since I was placing an order, I HAD to buy some tea… right?

Opening the bag and smelling this one, I knew I was in for a treat. I usually don’t write about dry leaves (oh, yeah, tea leaves; they smell) but this blend made me want to jump in the bag with them. SO GOOD – mostly like chocolate. Yum.

This simmered on the stovetop (with milk and sugar) longer than I normally make chai for – I was puttering about in the kitchen making a pitcher of iced tea for the husband and doing other random things.

The taste…. it’s a tossup if I prefer this or Adagio’s Masala Chai. Adagio’s has a strong spice “bite” to it, while this is smooth and rich. I’ll probably end up keeping both in my cabinet for the foreseeable future and pulling out whichever my mood calls for.

The chocolate is still there, though it’s no longer dominant. It’s allowing the other flavors to play (though I’m not tasting cinnamon). So good!

So, I put myself on tea restriction, but this isn’t tea, it’s chai… right? I needed it.

Yeah….

I love how strong the spices are. This is fabulous.

The chocolate note is… interesting. I’m glad I made it with milk and sugar on the stovetop because otherwise I think the tannins would have been overpowering. I think I like it, but I’ll have to have more to be sure.

Good as always. :-)

Finally managed to get to the post office this morning with the packages of tea that I owe to people. Would have done it Saturday, but we were snowed in.

I brewed this one a little stronger than normal and it’s good. Sweetened with a bit of splenda, though I think it would do better with honey (honey is too messy for the office).

It’s a good blend of cranberry, orange, and rooibos. I know someone said they tasted hibiscus in here, but I’m not getting it… I’ve also noticed that I’m not as sensitive to hibiscus as others seem to be, though, so that may be why. I like it a lot as a fruity tea with just a hint of tartness.

(this is the bagged version)

Not as spicy as Adagio’s Masala Chai, this one is smoother, silkier, calmer. It has more “tea” taste instead of “spice” taste. It’s good, but when I want chai I want something with stronger spices.