denisend

(this is the bagged version)

I’m craving more Adagio sour apple, but I don’t have any at work. pouts

Lupicia doesn’t let me down though, I love their teas. This is a lightly flavored cherry black with a hint of sweetness.

Just not quite what I’m in the mood for.

(backlogging from last night)

I finally bought a scale, so I measured the amount of tea I’ve been putting in the Zarafina – 11.85 g for 16 oz of water (for the sour apple).

A bit more tart than normal. It may be because it’s hard to get the same mixture of apple pieces to the rest of the tea (which is hibiscus and cranberry, so very tart). It may be because I don’t have very many mugs that can comfortably hold 16 oz of tea, so I was using a clay mug, which was just wrong. I need to not do that any more with my fruity teas.

Anyway… I generally find this sour apple tea pretty soothing for right before bed. I love it, hot or cold.

Finishing up my sample of this because today I am LAZY and it’s instant. How’s that for horrible?

It’s more ginger-root than gingerbread, but otherwise okay. I’m not planning to reorder it, though. I like how easy it is to have chai at work, so I may order some of their other flavors (their cocoa is really good, too). That wouldn’t violate my tea restriction, would it?

Whoops… forgot to log this one.

From the tasting notes I expected a lot more orange flavor, but (again) my taste buds seem to be dull to “flavorings” and the orange sections didn’t add much. I got almost entirely matcha and a slight aftertaste of orange.

Plain matcha is okay if it’s what I’m in the mood for, but that day I wasn’t, so my husband finished that cup (he liked it alright, though I think he picked up the orange more strongly than I did and he thinks flavored matcha is WEIRD).

He makes good chocolate truffles rolled in matcha, so I’d love to have that done with this. Hmm….

Preparation details: 1 tsp in 8 oz hot water, frothed by electric whisk.

Made in the traditional manner. A bit weak, even though it simmered on the stove for over 10 minutes. Not bad, but not noteworthy.

More a review of the triniTEA than this particular tea blend…

The bitterness from the last brew totally covered up the taste of PLASTIC! Yuck! I wrote to Adagio to see what they would say, but it’s totally undrinkable (IMO).

I made the first cup in the Zarafina, so I’m not sure how long it brewed for. It was very light and tasted slightly of apples. Okay, but mildly disappointing. I’ll probably try in the triniTEA next time so I can make sure it gets the full recommended 8 minutes to brew.

(I’m drinking the bagged version of this tea)

All of those bad things I’ve said about “flavors”? I’m not sure if it’s because it’s green tea or because it’s Lupicia, but they don’t apply to this cup (or the other Lupicia green flavored teas I’ve had). The ingredients list on this one is “green tea, flavors”. I still like it.

Their brewing instructions are also NOT BRILLIANT and say to use boiling water. Haha, NO. Also “put the lid on while brewing for better tasting tea” which I’ve never heard before. My mug does have a lid (somewhere?) but in the office I usually just take small sips until I think it’s ready. I don’t have a timer.

I’m trying to break myself of the sweetener habit, at least with the greens, because I know it’s WRONG, so there’s less apple flavor and more grass flavor than what I generally get with this tea. The first taste (and scent) is grassy green flavor and the after taste is of mild apples. The longer it brews the more the apple disappears.

(backlogging)

Enjoyed this last night with some honey-toast as a snack before taking the cats to the vet. They have to go on a diet plan – they are tubby!

I think the tart and sweet are well balanced in this tea. It’s well done.

Bleh. I’d call this hibiscus and yogurt rather than mango and yogurt. The taste is hibiscus, yogurt, then random fruit mixture. Not something I want to drink again, but I did finish the cup.

Tastes mostly like spices. There’s a hint of apples in the back, but not much. I’m going to try mixing it with Adagio’s sour apple next and see if I get more of a “apple cider” taste (but probably not, since that would add hibiscus… but that’s the only apple that I have).

It’s not bad, but not outstanding.

(and now I think I’m all caught up)

So… we bought Adagio’s triniTEA (automatic tea brewer) to supplement the Zarafina. It was getting crazy with waiting for the other person’s tea to finish brewing and for resteeps, what do you do with the leaves, and so on. We thought that the increased capacity of the triniTEA would be nice for making large pitchers of iced tea, as well.

The first batch didn’t go so well. We’ll ignore the machine’s faults and just talk about the tea… Nathaniel followed the instructions that came with the machine and not the instructions that came with the tea, so he put the timing knob on 5 minutes (Teavana says to brew the English Breakfast for 2-3 minutes and the Lemon Youkou for 5-6 minutes, but we usually just brew it as a black tea). The result was BITTER and had no lemon taste. UGH. It was totally overbrewed.

Not the tea’s fault, or the machine, really. We have to do another run with a shorter time.
(I’m leaving the rating where it is because when brewed right this tea is really good)

(backlogging)

We were waiting for the vet to do some tests on our cat, so we went to the mall to kill time and run errands. One of the errands was to stock up on stuff that we drink regularly at Teavana. We ended up buying so much that they gave us free drinks! That’s never happened before, but we usually shop at a different store on the other side of town.

I decided to try one I hadn’t had before and ended up buying a few ounces of it. I like this one because neither the fruit nor the tea taste dominates, there’s a nice balance of both. I’ll do another review later when I’m sitting at the computer with it (and so can write more detail). I just remember it being a very well balanced cup of tea.

It’s calming notes are helping since we put our kitty to sleep this afternoon.

3 steeps (cold brewed) is more than this tisane can handle. It’s pretty much just colored water at this point. Bleh.

(Now to the real reason for the update)
Yates is out of surgery, though it was rough on him, so he’s still in the oxygen tent (and hating it, according to the ICU tech). The really bad news is that we still don’t know what’s wrong with him. We just now have a ton of biopsy samples to send to the lab.

Thanks for all of the well wishes!

(this is the bagged version)

Top ingredient in this one is hibiscus and I can taste it. Hibiscus, cinnamon, and then plum.

My kitty is scheduled for surgery in another 20 minutes so I’m having a hard time concentrating on the tea.

I read their suggestion of preparing this like chai with a bit of doubt. Mint chai? But the husband wanted chai and it was the only thing I had enough of to do 2 cups (then I opened the box from Adagio and remembered that I ordered a sampler of their Thai Chai, so I guess that will be next).

This is… WEIRD. Instead of that sugary (dirty) mouthfeel of most chais I’ve made, this leaves my mouth feeling fresh and clean.

There’s tea/chai flavor, and a hint of vanilla, but mostly mint. I have enough to drink this prepared as a regular tea, so we’ll see how that turns out.

I decided today would be CHAI TASTING DAY. I’m saving a sample from each one that I make and will do them all together at the end – it easier for me to taste subtle differences that way.

There’s a spice in this one that I’m not fond of. I’m not sure what it is, though. Perhaps when the husband gets home (and I do all of the samples together) he can help me identify it.

It’s a good chai, just not as good as Adagio’s Masala.

My beloved cat is dreadfully ill, so I finished off my tin of this to soothe myself.

And when I placed my Adagio order this weekend, they were out, so who knows when I’ll have more.

This chai is delightful though.

It’s definitely better as an iced tea (brewed hot, sweetened, then iced and refridgerated).

The scent and first taste are of a mild black tea, but the lychee flavor is there in the aftertaste. It’s good and a nice variety from the sweet tea blend that my husband makes (which has a lemon flavor).

Made as a proper chai this time. It’s amazing.

I cold brewed this in the fridge, and… WOW, the ginger was strong. It was like GINGER and hibiscus. Theoretically there are other flavors in there, but prepared that way, that’s all I could taste. I couldn’t finish the glass. Yuck.

Drinkable when hot, so I’m only sliding the rating a touch. Still… I’m kinda glad that I finished the package of this one.

Taken hot, with rock sugar crystals

I’m not sure why it’s called Lychee Red Tea, when it’s a black tea…

Fixed this way, the lychee flavor is very subtle, so mostly I’m getting the mild black tea flavor. I’ll have to try my next cup iced and see if I get more lychee that way.

I’m not really sure what lychee tastes like, anyway… I’ve only ever had it as a flavor in things (like sake!). I’ve never had a lychee fruit.

backlogging…

I made this over the weekend while at my sister’s house. I boiled milk, water, and sugar together with the tea, then let the tea steep for several minutes before straining the leaves out and drinking (what I could remember of takgoti’s chai method posted on Steepster earlier).

It was definitely better prepared that way than when I had done it with straight water, but there was still no pumpkin flavor. It’s just a spiced tea, and I’m not really fond of the spice blend used in it.