gmathis

Reviewing in more detail for itsallabouttheleaf.com, and will update when it’s posted. Mild and genteel and pleasant.

Made a pot of this on the low temp/short steep side and chilled it. Nice and light on a hot & humid 4th of July.

Just updating: a lengthier review (and this is still good stuff!) posted at www.itsallabouttheleaf.com.

I’m beginning to think white teas are the reason non-teaists call it “hot leaf juice.” Used double the leaf I would normally use, kept the steep time at a minimum, and ended up with m-a-y-b-e a little mild buttery flavor in the cup, but not much. I think I’ll return to something with a little meat on its bones, thank you….

Expect a longer review later on www.itsallabouttheleaf.com (I’ll update as I see it posted) but this is one mighty intriguing blend - I continue to be fascinated that blended tea without further flavorings or additives can taste like a million different things.

When I saw how much this increased in volume during steeping—-easily triple what I spooned into the cup—I was sure I’d ruined it. Surprisingly, there was very little of that overcooked veggie taste; it was light and grassy and not bitter.

Jillian put this one up for adoption and it came to live at my house. I’m having a hard time deciding what a goji berry tastes like—-can’t separate it from the white tea flavor. But drinking it cheerfully and waiting for it to make me look, uh, youthier?

Regarding the dry tea: the blueberries clumped together a bit and made it hard to measure what seemed to be a fair quantity of fruit vs. rooibos. However, I must have gotten the proportions right. It’s nice and smooth and fruity—not a bit of tart. Rooibos is one of those funny ingredients that only goes with certain things, but blueberries work. Great chilled.

On ice. Nice!

Better as an iced sun tea, I believe, than hot. (But boy, am I looking forward to temps that don’t require cold stuff all the time!)

This was a “Shirley Temple Special” from Doulton that I was specifically saving for hot weather. Further research necessary—I didn’t care for my first sip hot; tasted awfully hibiscus-y; but on ice, the tartness took a backseat to the darjeeling. Wondering how it’ll behave with a little sweetener.

Heat advisory continues … still experimenting with what’s good cold. This is, but next round I will double up on tea or steeping time or both to keep the flavor from wimping out.

For an ALDI house brand tea, this makes a surprisingly good jug of iced sun tea. More ginger and peach than Assam flavor, but when it’s 97 and there’s a heat advisory extending through the next 48 hours, subtlety doesn’t matter much. Just mildly fruity and cold.

Received this as a review sample for www.itsallabouttheleaf.com, so I’ll save lengthy comments for that - suffice it to say this is one of the best Assams I have ever tasted. Malty, biscuity … all the good words!

(Later in the 95 degree, zillion percent humidity afternoon … GREAT cold! My husband humors me when I stick tea under his nose to drink, but reverts to commercial bottled most of the time; however, he truly liked this one. Must be the malty freshness. Or the fresh maltiness.)

You know it’s summer when I start out the morning with a bottle of something chilled … but this is really nice straight from the fridge. Flavor doesn’t go south when you’ve stored it for a while.

Made a suprisingly nice ice tea for lunch considering the age of the box (before CS updated the company logo) and the carelessness with which it was stored (shoved semi-closed in the back of a desk drawer). Lots of honey scent and flavor; not much darjeeling.

This one was from Doulton (and continued thank yous for all the little surprises in your care package!).

I do like rooibos, but I am still trying to classify the flavors and additives that belong with it. Chocolate, definitely. Mint…not sure.

I think this would be better with some doctoring…maybe a bit of milk or a spritz of sugar.

Trixie Belden and the Missing Tea
A Steepster Mystery

The first morning sip was fine, light, and winey. But within twenty short minutes of pouring it into a travel mug, the flavor was flat and tasteless as dishwater. Did a nefarious and sinister villain switch the mugs in transit? Who wishes the poor tea taster to suffer a poor morning cuppa? Can the missing flavor be recovered? Only Trixie and her new tea-sniffing Labrador named Tippy can crack this case!

Very, very, very pleasant iced! Doesn’t lose its peachiness at all.

Jillian kindly shared this one … catching some starch, catching some toasted marshmallow in the way-background, sweet on its own without additives. I’ll give it a “strange but friendly like the white-haired neighborhood cat lady.”

Still looking for a good stout black decaf tea for those mornings when I don’t need to be revved up like a jet engine. This isn’t it.

Smells heavenly; disappointingly hibiscusy. Just had a small sample, so I’m chilling it and adding a bit of grenadine syrup to see if I can camouflage the tartness.

(MUCH better after overnight in the fridge with a generous dose of grenadine, but now it’s more like HI-C with no tea-ishness to it at all.)

More detailed review is up at http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/ (with some other really enjoyable tea & product reviews - I’m enjoying reading them.)

Nice to find a local Bob Evans that serves a selection of Twinings instead of food-service-grade stuff. This was nice, even though the metal carafe couldn’t keep the water hot as I would have liked. Nice balance between the black and the “juicy fruit filling.”