denisend

Made as a “dirty chai” this time – half a cup of coffee, half a cup of hot water.

WOW, the ginger is really coming through this time. All I taste is ginger (and not the sweet gingerbread flavor, but real ginger). This is really peculiar. I know there’s coffee and spices and cream and other stuff there, but I’m not tasting it. The ginger is totally overwhelming it.

Tonight I remembered to drink something without caffeine. Go me!

The first time I had starfruit was on a family vacation during high school to the US Virgin Islands. Starfruit reminds me of the bright blue seas and days spent SCUBA diving and snorkling. I wanted a tea that would evoke memories of that sweet fruit and that vacation.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed. Oh, it’s not a bad tea… but it’s base is chamomile, and the flavorings (not actual fruit bits, just flavorings) aren’t strong enough to break through the chamomile. Chamomile is awfully strong… it was an odd choice for this tea, I think.

So, the major taste here is chamomile, then if you look for it you can find orange. Starfruit? Maybe in my imagination.

Again, it’s not a bad tea at all… just not what I was expecting from the name.

My Stash order arrived last night. This was part of the holiday sampler.

Yum, this is good. Taken with a bit of splenda.

I wasn’t terribly impressed with the packaging (cheap paper bag), but I was curious since one of the flavors listed is “Jamaican rum flavor”.

I know Chais are supposed to have milk, but I’m not much of a milk drinker, and I like this one pretty well even without it. Perhaps I’ll try it though with the other bag that was in the sampler.

I like it because it’s a smooth chai. It doesn’t beat you up with its spices, but the spices are still there.

Much more green tea taste than I was expecting – I couldn’t even detect any rice in this one. I suspect my husband will be drinking the rest of the box.

This has a good apple taste and a good spice taste. It’s a bit heavy on the cream for me. I like it, overall.

So, caffienated tea at night is bad. I was up way too late last night. BUT, my order from SBS Teas arrived, so this morning I rushed through my typical wakeup coffee to try new stuff.

Well, this is… interesting.

The gingerbread flavor is there, as well as the typical chai spice flavor, and the creaminess, and the sweet… all of the flavors I expect… but they just don’t really blend together well.

It certainly was easy to make though.

We’ve been drinking this particular blend a lot, so I thought I would just add it as a custom blend.

Preparation Details:
Zarafina Tea Maker: Black, Loose, Strong, 2 cups water, 2 scoop English Breakfast, 1 scoop Lemon Youkou (Teavana)
Sweetened with 1/2 cup sugar, then iced and water added to make 1qt tea.

I love it. It’s a perfect blend of black tea with just a hint of lemon/fruitiness.

Don’t hate me for putting this here!

This is “old reliable” for me. When I’m too tired or too lazy to actually brew tea, I dump one of these into a mason jar filled with ice and water and stir. I don’t like plain water, so this is often what I’m drinking instead.

The taste is sweet and tangy. I can’t help it, I like this stuff. I order it by the case from Amazon.

If I haven’t logged any real tea in a few days, this is what I’ve been drinking. There, my secret is out!

2nd infusion, added a dash of splenda to sweeten

This tea does multiple infusions well; still fruity and yummy (a little less fruit and more oolong-y than the first infusion).

(drinking the bagged version of this tea)

One of my favorite oolongs. It has a good fruit flavor, not overpoweringly mango, but just right.

Sweetened with a dash of splenda.

(backlogging from the weekend)

Before I added milk I was feeling ‘meh’ about this one. The milk really helped bring out the flavors. It’s a good balance of spices.

Mayorga is a coffee chain in DC, but I’ve never sampled their drinks before.

I was at National Harbor with my family to see ICE (carved ice sculptures). We ate lunch at our favorite Mexican place (Rose Mexicana). I wanted something sweet, but not food, and I remembered seeing the coffee shop between where we parked and the resturaunt, so while the rest of the family went to look at the man in the sand, my husband and I left for a coffee run.

This location is weird – half a coffee shop and half a sports bar. They had signs in the window for “Spice Cake Chai” (it’s not on their menu, so apparently it’s a seasonal item) and I thought that sounded good. The husband and the rest of the family had assorted coffees.

The drink hits you like spice cake… just like drinking spice cake. WOW, yummy! It was excellent. The mix of spices was just right.

As I got further down into the bottom of the cup, the taste changed. Perhaps because it was cooling, or perhaps because some of the flavor syrup sat at the bottom? I’m not sure. I began to get an aftertaste of……. bubblegum? It was weird. The initial taste was still spice cake, but bubblegum lingered in my mouth.

I would drink it again, but probably get a smaller cup and make sure to drink it before it cools. The bubblegum thing was weird.

2009-11-25 noon
Preparation: Teavana Easy Tea Steeper, sweetened with a dash of splenda

The first taste is black tea, and the aftertaste is a bit of chestnuts – it lingers in my mouth. It also has a somewhat starchy, dry feel in my mouth. Not really pleased with this one.

ETA: After 2 hours I haven’t even finished it… off to make something else, then.

2009-11-24 4:30 pm
Preparation notes: Teavana’s Easy Tea Steeper with a dash of splenda

I figured out one reason that I dislike using the tea steeper – it’s much larger than my mug and when draining I can’t see how full my mug is to know if I need to pull the steeper off.

For this mug of tea I could have added more water (and probably should have, it’s pretty strong), but it’s guesswork. Perhaps I’ll just bring in a larger mug from home.

The leaves smell like cranberry, but the tea doesn’t. There’s a hint of fruit, but it’s not really identifable as cranberry to me. Maybe I just made the tea too strong so the tea flavor is overwhelming the cranberry flavor?

Not impressed. Teavana’s cranberry actually tastes like cranberry.

2009-11-24 2pm
Preparation notes: Teavana’s Easy Tea Steeper, 2nd infusion

I like the second infusion of this tea better than the first, or perhaps I had brewed it slightly too long the first time (my times are just guesses, I’m kinda zen about it). The taste is softer – less black tea flavor and more mellowness in the spice.

Still not thrilled about this tea, though.

2009-11-24 noon
Preparation Details: Teavana’s Easy Tea Steeper
not sure how much tea… didn’t bring any measuring devices (sigh)

So I just got a bunch of Adagio samples, but I don’t drink black teas in the evening (I have to sleep), so the only way I’ll get to try them before the weekend is to take them to work. Loose leaf tea at work is a PITA!

I read the reviews on this tea and put in more leaves than normal, hoping that if I brewed it strong the pumpkin flavor might come out. No dice. I’m only getting spice. It’s okay spice, but just spice. I have lots of spice teas, and this isn’t outstanding. I won’t be ordering this again.

2009-11-23 2pm
Preparation Details:
Zarafina Tea Maker: Black, Loose, Medium, 2 cups water, 3 scoops
sweetened with rock sugar

I was feeling awful (migraine and stomach upset) so came home early from work to find my samples from Adagio had arrived. Hooray! I sniffed them all to find one that I felt like drinking and would go well with crackers, and selected this one.

I’m not tasting any apple (sad!), even though I did smell it in the dry leaves. In fact, the tea does smell a bit like apple cider… just doesn’t taste like apples at all.

It tastes like spice, but I"m not sure what. Perhaps when I’m feeling better I’ll have another cup and I’ll be able to identify them.

2009-11-23 noon
This is the bagged version
prepared with a bit of Splenda

Spice dominates this tea – cloves and allspice. The finish is of black tea.

I’ve shared this with a couple of friends who abhore putting sweetener in their hot tea (including my husband). They’ve reported almost no spice flavor. I suggested adding a bit of sweetener, and they agreed that the sweetener does bring out the spices.

backlogging from some personal notes I have

A spicy orange. Mostly orange, just a hint of spice. I can hardly tell it’s a green tea (besides the color). Seems more white to me.

(this one was on sale and I was curious; again, I love fruit flavors and it was pretty likely that I’d like it – I do).

2009-11-22 8pm
Not something that I would normally drink, but I’m feeling under the weather. The taste is strongly like ginger – not a sweet ginger (like cookies) but a strong ginger (like freshly cut ginger root).

There’s a definite bite in the back of my throat from the ginger, it’s very strong.

2009-11-22 7pm
Preparation Details:
Zarafina Tea Maker: Black, Loose, Strong, 2 cups water
-second steep of 2 scoop English Breakfast, 1 scoop Lemon Youkou (Teavana),
-half scoop of fresh leaves of each type added
Sweetened with 1/4 cup raw sugar, then iced and water added to make 1qt tea.

It’s weaker than the tea my husband had, with far fewer fruity notes. Still an excellent tea, but not an OUTSTANDING one.

2009-11-22 7pm
Preparation Details:
Zarafina Tea Maker: Black, Loose, Strong, 2 cups water
-second steep of 2 scoop English Breakfast, 1 scoop Lemon Youkou (Teavana),
-half scoop of fresh leaves of each type added
Sweetened with 1/4 cup raw sugar, then iced and water added to make 1qt tea.

It’s weaker than the tea my husband had, with far fewer fruity notes. Still an excellent tea, but not an OUTSTANDING one.

2009-11-22 2pm
Preparation Details:
Zarafina Tea Maker: Black, Loose, Strong, 2 cups water, 2 scoop English Breakfast, 1 scoop Lemon Youkou (Teavana)
Sweetened with 1/2 cup sugar, then iced and water added to make 1qt tea.

This is my husband’s concoction. It’s an excellent sweet southern tea. The black tea taste is mellow and dominates, but there’s still the slight tang of fruit (lemon mostly).

2009-11-22 2pm
Preparation Details:
Zarafina Tea Maker: Black, Loose, Strong, 2 cups water, 1 scoop Lemon Youkou, 2 scoop English Breakfast (Teavana)
Sweetened with 1/2 cup sugar, then iced and water added to make 1qt tea.

This is my husband’s concoction. It’s an excellent sweet southern tea. The black tea taste is mellow and dominates, but there’s still the slight tang of fruit (lemon mostly).