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This time, brewed under better circumstances. Still, this one is very very light on flavors. I want these flavors, but I want them to be stronger! I can try to steep it longer, although I know that Kusmi teas tend to do better with a cooler steep temp so I don’t want to steep it hotter necessarily. I suppose I could also try more leaf, but as someone very sensative to bitterness in teas I am concerned that the base will react badly. Well, it’s still decently tasty, even if not the best. Guess I should stick to Amandine Rose for my rose and almond fix, and blend in something else if I want a kick of citrus as well. I do have a ton of this, though, so I will be experimenting for optimal conditions for sure!

Later in the day of unpacking I found my stash of black teas. Yay! I still hadn’t found my teaspoon so I guesstimated the amount of tea on this cup too, but with much better success. This was a delicious, lovely, chocolatey cup. Love this tea!

I drank this at work this morning. Normally I wouldn’t drink a green oolong in the morning, as I usually prefer a black tea then, but I just started unpacking my tea and all I could find immediately was an assortment of greens and oblongs.

I also couldn’t fine my perfect teaspoon to dish it out, so I guesstimated by pouring a little pile into my hand. Must have guesstimated kind of off, though, because this cup really lacked the yuzu flavor. I pretty decently buttery, slightly floral high mountain oolong, but yuzu, no. Oh well. I did find my teaspoon by the end of the day so at least I will have it for tomorrow!

Wow, it has been forEVER since I have had matcha! Between all the traveling and the moving, I just didn’t have the time or the equipment for it. But I actually got a bamboo matcha whisk for Christmas this year, and I was excited to try it out finally! I have been making my matcha with a regular metal kitchen whisk for months so I was interested to see how it would make a difference.

I made a matcha latte, although with real milk instead of almond milk as I had been. Turns out I prefer the almond milk! I think because the milk we had was 1%, so it was considerably waterier than the almond milk. Honestly the matcha whisk seemed odd to me but that is mostly likely because I am so used to whisking the dickens out of it with a metal whisk. It didn’t do much for the foam on the pre-milk matcha, but I did get a nice foam after adding the warm milk. So glad to get my matcha routine started again!

Like many people, it seems, I got a free sample of this in my recent order from Teavana. Given that the first ingredient listed was German rock sugar, I spent some time pulling out pieces before steeping this so it wouldn’t be crazy sweet. They were pretty easy to take out since they are very large, and I purposely left in some of the smaller chunks because I was planning on brewing this with milk.

I guess I didn’t think about the fact that oolong an mate would not make a dark brew, but it still was surprising to see a very light colored chai when I poured it out. I may have used a bit too much milk to brew it with because it seems like a lot of the flavors are muted. Mostly I just get a ton of cinnamon, and maybe a hint of clove. I’ve never tried the green version of Harney’s Hot Cinnamon Spice, but this seems like what it would taste like (with milk in it). In any case I will likely brew this one without milk first next time, then add a splash of milk after I try it to see if I can coax any other flavors out of it.

This is one of my favorite blends, made all the more amazing because I am not typically impressed with Teavana’s blends. So when I happened to see that it was on sale during the sale recently, I went ahead and bought 4oz, which for me is enough tea to last a looooong time.

This morning I had some and managed somehow to not boil enough water to fill my teapot, so I steeped it for a bit shorter than normal to make up for the higher tea:water ratio. It worked out perfectly, with not a trace of bitterness. Just lots of almond and rose, two of my favorite flavors ever (I have particularly been on a rose kick lately). Yum.

I discovered 3 extra sachets of this tea recently… I had thought I was all out. I had one sachet a few days ago and I am having a second now. And I am definitely remembering why I love this tea so much. This was really the tea that got me into tea and I still love it so much. Eventually I will pick up some more for sure, though it may be a while before I can bring myself to make another tea order. I will miss it once I actually am officially out!

I picked up a big tin of this tea at the Kusmi shop in NYC before I left. Yes, I have officially moved away from New York, and all of its lovely tea shops. It’s definitely a bit sad but I am moving on.

I bought a whole large tin of this tea because it was not included in their Russian sampler collection but I very much wanted to try it, since it included almonds and rose as two main flavors. I do not have optimal brewing conditions here at my parents’ house, but I can tell I will definitely enjoy this tea a lot when brewed properly. I definitely get light almond and rose, with a bit of orange. A very pleasant blend.

I am using up the last of my sample for this cup, and I am somewhat sad to see it go. I wouldn’t have expected to enjoy a blend of these ingredients (peppermint? chamomile? chocolate?), but I really do. I didn’t really have quite enough actual tea left in my sample for a cup, so I threw in an extra pinch of Laoshan Black.

Today I really need the calming yet awakening properties of this tea. Dissertation committee meeting this afternoon, and I already know it’s going to go poorly (I mean, it’s a committee meeting, they never go well). I steeped this up and I am just sitting here next to it, waiting for it to cool enough for me to drink it, and I started smelling wafts of what smelled a lot like amaretto. Wuh? No, just the notes of this tea combining in an intriguing way.

Very tasty, and I am consistantly getting those amaretto notes in the aroma this time around, but not in the flavor. The flavor is all lovely Laoshan black with additions. Man I love Verdant’s blends.

Sample #2 of the day. This one comes to me thanks to Faith!

Not being very familiar with the Canadian prairie, I have never had Saskatoon berries. But I am always up for a new and interesting fruit!

The the tea smells very berry-ish, definitely the tart, sweet kind. I also smell the warm, roasted oolong base underneath that seems like it goes pretty well. I am getting quite a lot of tart berry from the flavor, cranberry for sure and perhaps Saskatoon berry, though I don’t know that I would be able to identify it. The oolong base is a touch roasty but not very strongly so. As opposed to several other reviewers, I get basically no maple syrup, and I would hvae liked some maple syrup. Still, this is a pretty tasty tea and I enjoyed it.