Ian

Backlog from this morning! Many thanks to Fusion Tea Room for sending me this!

Oh.
My.
God.

This is actually amazing. I would bathe in this if possible. The mate is nice and robust and the sweetness of the raspberry and chocolate really compliments it nicely. This really does taste legitimately like a chocolate raspberry truffle! This will definitely be a part of a purchase from Fusion! Thanks again guys!

Thank you to Amy oh for sending me a generous amount of this tea! I’ve been eyeing this one for a long time and I’m so excited to finally get to try it.

Dry, this one smells tart. I know that tart isn’t really something that one usually describes a smell as but that’s the only word I can think of. Once I poured the water on the leaves, though, the scent immediately changed! The toastiness of the genmaicha really came out during the steeping and the cherry took the backseat. The tea smells sweet and yummy, like cherries.

So, the verdict-this is good! It doesn’t taste exactly like I thought I would but it is pretty nice. I think I really agree with what LiberTEAS said about this-I can taste the cherry, I can taste the cheesecake aspect, and I can taste the delicious toasty flavor of the genmaicha. But, I don’t see this as cherry cheesecake. It is good, but it doesn’t really taste like what I thought it would.

Thank you again Amy oh for letting me try this!

Many thanks to Bonnie for sending this my way forever ago!

I left the leaves in for a little too long because (like always) I got sidetracked, only this time I didn’t hear the buzzer go off. It didn’t really do this tea justice. As a result, it got kind of soapy and there’ s a lot of uncomfortable astringency. I’m not going to put a number rating on this one because I don’t want it to be judged on my bad habits. However, I am going to try again because this tea sounds like it could be pretty tasty! Thank you Bonnie for the sample!

Backlog, thanks Emilie! Just as comforting and homely as before! I really like this one!

In other news, my first “post” is up over on TeaTrade (it’s been a while I know :P). It’s a nice and relaxing playlist to drink to relax so go check it out! I’ll post the link in the comments!

SPOILER ALERT FOR THE STEEPSTER SELECT BOX READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

After finishing that last tea I thought, “What the heck! Let’s try another!” I’m saving the guayusa for tomorrow morning (getting up at 5:45 five times a week really kicks your butt) so I decided to make this.

I’m going to maybe be the first to actually come out and say it (or at least the first that I’ve met here on Steepster): I Like Honeybush A Lot
I don’t think it tastes like honey like you would think, but I actually really do like the taste.

This is no exception to that! It’s pretty much just a generic honeybush. There’s a nice…… “dampness?!?!?!” to it and it has a good woody flavor, with a nice and natural sweet flavor that remains in your mouth. This is very nice and a good late night tea!

Exciting tea world news for Ian: I made my Verdant Tea order today and I’m super excited AND to top it off the Steepster Select box that I won came in the mail today! So, if you’re looking forward to trying the teas and you haven’t gotten your package yet or haven’t tried them don’t read this because THERE ARE SPOILERS

So, this is weird-the steeping instructions say boiling water even though it’s a green and the one other review on here said the same. So, naturally I went with boiling water and did a 2 minute steep time. The dry and wet leaf smell……….. not good. Kind of like cigarette smoke, which may possibly be my least favorite smell in the world. The tea itself smells slightly better, though there is a slight cigarette hint in the smell.

This is actually okay, despite the smell. It has a toasty taste, but not in the way that you would think. When I thought of toasty I thought of sort of a genmaicha-esque flavor, but this is not like that. It’s very hard for me to describe the taste but the only way I can put it is like a non-disgusting ashtray. Not that gross ashtray taste that you get from burnt gas station coffees, but reminiscent of that. I know that probably sounds absolutely repulsive to most of you but it is somewhat palatable.

Overall this is okay. Not something I love but I don’t really hate it either. I look forward to trying the other teas in my box!

Happy Easter to those Steepsterites that celebrate it!

I went with my family to the church service and I’m now enjoying a nice lazy day before we go to dinner with my family this evening! I have some nice time to relax and I’ve finished most of my homework, so I decided to brew up this little number from the box LiberTEAS sent me!

This has brewed up into a very bright yellow that tastes really nice! This has a nice creamy feel (not as much as a milk oolong but it does leave a nice heavy feeling in the mouth). It’s sweet with a very slight spinach note to it, and it’s very buttery. There’s a nice floral tone that skips around on top of everything else. As this cools, it’s becoming sweeter and lighter. A nice apple flavor has come out that is crisp and sweet and oh so delicious!

In other news, the Easter Bunny (due to a lack of idea for other gifts) brought me some money and I’m making an order tomorrow from Verdant Tea that I’m very excited for! I contacted David and he is allowing me to make a custom sampler pack with some teas I’ve been wanting to try and I super excited to try them!

I would like to apologize for my lack of reviews in the past couple of days/weeks. I’ve been super busy but come the end of April I’ll have more time to write on here. Trust me, I’ve still been drinking tea. Lots of it. But, I’m not going to kill your feeds with my backlogs as that wouldn’t be that fun now, would it?

Anyways, I got a generous amount of this tea from Emilie in our swap. I’ve been reallllllllly wanting to try the Sherlock and Hunger Games blends from Adagio as I’m a fan of both series and I think that not only are the blends a fun way to celebrate your fandom, but they also look super tasty!

The dry leaf smells oddly like Captain Crunch. That’s not actually bad, because I really like Captain Crunch! In fact, it smells quite enticing! One thing I don’t like about Adagio’s custom blends is that they don’t include any brewing instructions, so it’s up to you to kind of guess what to do. I knew that this was an all black blend, and those are more forgiving, but I also know that Adagio’s blacks are easily embittered, so I decided to go with a safe 195 (next time I will do 185 to 190 as this still did have just a hint of bitterness) for 4 minutes.

The result is amazing. I added milk and sugar (it seemed fitting as it is British, afterall :P) and it’s very good and I really hope all the blends by this “author” are as good! The earl grey is definitely the forefront flavor and the hazelnut and caramel add a nice extra creamy sweetness in the background! I really like this one a lot.

Thanks again Emilie for this and your other sample, they will both be enjoyed! Also, I know that you stated that you were having problems with this tea and I would recommend going with a lower temp for 4 minutes-it really creates a nice flavor.

In an attempt to finish (or at least try) all of the 4872876548 samples that I have, I decided that I would make a goal to finish all of the ones that the wonderful Bonnie sent me forever and a half ago (thanks again, Bonnie!).

I decided that since it’s still early (well, early-ish), I decided to pick this first out of my remaining selection as it’s coffee and it fits the theme. I did a quick (15 seconds?) rinse of this to get rid of the the fishy smell and then I brewed at 200 degrees for 5 minutes. This is good! I wouldn’t say I like it as much as the chocolate orange pu-erh, but I like this one a lot! It has a nice and smooth coffee flavor (like when you get iced coffee and it tastes like coffee but without the harsh bitter edge to it) and it also has a nice caramel flavor to it. This is good! Actually, the more I drink it, the more I like it! This will definitely be going in the basket with my next DAVIDsTEA purchase! I plan on steeping this one again and making a latte (as par Bonnie’s directions). I think that will be heaven on earth!

Thanks again Bonnie!

Backlog from last night.

I loved this tea. Like, a lot. But, reading the description here, and reading other’s reviews, I realize that my cuppa tasted waaaaaay different from the others. I guess this tea was supposed to have chocolate and hazelnut tones, but I didn’t really get that. What I got was really fruity. Like, I swear to god this tasted exactly like blueberries to me, and I asked my mom and she said the same. I don’t know what’s up with that, but I do know that I really liked the blueberry taste. It’s been sealed this whole time (thanks to LiberTEAS for sending this to me) and I’ve kept it away from all flavored teas, so I don’t know why it tasted like blueberries. I guess I kind of got another note, kind of woodsy in a way with a nice depth, but the main taste was fruity.

Weird. I’ll have to try again, maybe my tastebuds were just off!

I decided to try again this morning with the same combination of teas I used yesterday

This time I modified it to 1 teaspoon of the sencha, 1 teaspoon of the orange grapefruit, and then half a teaspoon of the mate. Oh. My. God. This was heaven. I just can’t even contain myself adklfjdklzxjfkljs. If this was a blend that was actually made-I would buy 5 pounds of it, not kidding. It was pretty fruity and a little tart (but not excessively) and then there was that sweet grassy flavor of the sencha that peaked through just to say hello. I couldn’t taste the mate, but it did its job in a slight caffeine rush. Oh my goodness. This was so good, and I really want to try it iced now. I will be making more of this, and I think I might just devote whatever I have left of each of these teas/tisanes and just mix them together in one big tin. This was heaven.

I was in the mood for a fruity green tea this morning and so I decided to try my hand at custom blending!

This was made up of 1.5 teaspoons of Sencha Jade Reserve by Teavana, .5 teaspoons of Orange Grapefruit Fruit Tisane by Fusion Tea Room (thanks for the sample!), and .5 teaspoons of Fresh Green Mate by Mate Factor (to help wake me up). I figured the mate would be best mixed with a green tea because it’s unroasted, and I knew that I had a lot of Sencha left to brew up, and I wanted to try to do something with the tisanes that I got from Fusion Tea Room. So, this monster was created!

The verdict: eh. Just eh. I know the reason is that there wasn’t enough orange grapefruit and too much sencha. Next time I do this combo, I’m going to do 1 teaspoon of sencha and 1 teaspoon of the tisane, and the same amount of mate to provide just a little kickstart. I think that that will elevate the flavors.

This a sample from the box that LiberTEAS sent me forever ago (I always forget to thank her for all the wonderful samples she included!). I’m trying to work through all the samples that I have because quite frankly there are too many to handle and it overwhelms me sometimes. I guess that’s kind of good, though, because it just means that I have a LOT of different kinds of tea to enjoy.

This is nice. I don’t think it’s a secret that I really enjoy a good black tea (it’s my favorite tea variety). This is no exception. The little balls brew up a beautiful, dark red-brown liquid that is very delicious! It’s very bold and malty, and reminds me a lot of an Assam, though the website states that it’s from Yunnan. I don’t get a lot of the nuances that they state. The main flavor I taste (I’m on my second infusion now, boiling water for 7 minutes, and the leaves have held up the same flavor as the first) is the cocoa note. It’s more of a dark chocolate, as others have said. It’s full bodied and has a slightly sweet tang at the swallow. There’s pretty much no astringency.

I did enjoy this and I hope to try more teas from thepuriTEA soon!

Hmmmm….. I’m surprised to see that I’m the first to review this……..

I got my very generous samples from Fusion Tea Room about a week ago and I haven’t gotten around to reviewing any of them yet (I apologize, I’ve been busy!). I’ve tried two others besides this that were EXCELLENT. I decided I wanted something citrusy and I knew that I had this waiting for me so I opened it up!

I meant to steep this for 7 and a half minutes (that’s how I usually brew herbals) but I forgot and so it went well over 10 minutes. I was a little nervous because this has quite a bit of hibiscus in it (though I must commend them because there’s a pretty equal ratio of orange rind to hibiscus) but surprisingly it didn’t get too tart! I’m not to sure that I like it as much hot and plain, however….. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good as it is, but I have two very distinct ideas on what I’d like to try with this tea. The first is obviously to make it iced (I think that would be AMAZING) and the second is to mix it with some black tea…. Maybe a Ruby Black? I think that would be amazing!

This is pretty good and I would like to thank Fusion Tea Room again for sending me this generous sample!

Yet another tea from my Teavana haul. I haven’t been in a huge tea mood lately, and I don’t know why, but I blame it on stress. I’m trying to get back into the swing though!

So I’ve had this once before this. I liked it waaaay better this time. Last time I got mostly strawberry but this time I made sure to get more actual tea in there, causing it to brew to more of a tea color than the bright red I got the first time. I’m curious as to just what teas are in the base…. I see mostly green oolong but there’s also some pu-erh in the mix when you pick through it. I’d be interested in trying Teavana’s pu-erh alone, but they don’t offer it as a straight tea, which leads me to believe that they get it from another company/supplier and rebrand it.

Regardless, this is just okay. Like the other teas I’ve tried from Teavana. It tastes like strawberry and I don’t really get too much tea flavor. I’d be interested in seeing if this will actually aids in weight loss….. Interesting.

Even though the teas I’ve tried so far have all been “eh” (except the Cha Yen Thai…. I bought some full size and I LOVE it), I won’t give up hope in Teavana. Believe it or not, I’m really trying to like their teas. I’m going down to Valley Forge in April and we’re going to the King of Prussia mall (the largest mall in America….. DON’T BE FOOLED. The Mall of America has the most stores and is certainly more impressive but King of Prussia is the physically biggest mall, with the most leasable retail space) and they have a Teavana and I do plan on picking up some teas to make iced…. Their fruity blends look like they could really shine iced, and it will be that time of year!

I don’t have too much to say on this one simply because it is so un-remarkable. It’s not BAD, but it’s not AMAZING. I don’t think it would be something I would repurchase, especially not 2 oz of it. It’s pretty sweet for a chai and, as others have said, it tastes A LOT like redhots. Which I mean, that’s okay because I like redhots, but I don’t really look for that taste in my chais.

Also, I don’t know if I’ve said this or not, but I’m not like a super huge fan of chais. They’re alright every once and a while but they aren’t my favorites, at all.

Sorry I’ve been rather absent the past couple of days! I have been drinking tea but I’ve been super busy and so I haven’t bothered to do backlogs because I quite honestly can’t remember how most of the teas I’ve drank have tasted.

I’ve been feeling rather under the weather today (blame it on exhaustion) and I was in the mood for something light and fresh. This is one of the teas I picked up at Teavana and I decided to brew it up.

This is nice! It’s light and fresh, and as it cools more and more the sweetness of it really starts to come out more. It’s a fresh sweetness, like spring air. Not floral but rather…… bright. If that makes any sense. I’m not too familiar with senchas but I am enjoying this one! It’s not something I’d repurchase but I will enjoy it while I have it.

(ALSO, I think I’m going to start rating teas again. I know that I only recently said I would stop but my point of view has changed a little and I’ve realized that rating teas is kind of fun! I think Steepster will be for rating teas and my actual tea review blog (which I have yet to start :P I’m trying!) will be for focusing primarily on taste)

I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack. Long time no see Steepsterites! I had a lot of fun at New Englands but now I’m back and excited to start drinking tea again.

So, I have a confession to make. And I may or may not be slightly embarrassed about it………..

I blew the $70 I made babysitting and doing chores ALL on tea. ALL of it. We stopped at a mall in Nashua, New Hampshire that had a Teavana (on the way there) and I HAD to stop by. We don’t have one in Vermont and I’m deathly afraid to order online (based on all the horror stories I’ve heard here! Also, I didn’t have to pay for shipping costs this way!) so I decided to pick up some tea. Luckily, it was a very small shop and there weren’t any obnoxious people on the floor trying to sell me tea! The only complaint I had was that they pulled the routine “You should get a tin!” and I decided to decline and just get the bag (and save myself a good $30 extra dollars it would have cost to get all the tins). Anyways, I picked up 7 kinds of tea (3 on the way there, which I was SO afraid would be damaged by all the traveling they did, but luckily remained in tact, and 4 when we stopped by the second time on the way home). I got mostly flavored teas but I also got 2 straight greens because I want to try some more of Teavana’s straight varieties (you really hear about their blends more).

This is the first straight green I picked up (the second is the Sencha Jade Reserve). I like a good genmaicha and so I decided to try Teavana’s just to test it out. It smells slightly sweet and kind of… full, if that makes sense. There’s a lot of rice, and the pieces are pretty tiny, which I kind of have mixed feelings about. ALSO, I got 2 oz of every kind of tea (except Citrus Sage Lavender which I got 3 oz of) and I have two complaints:
1.) They won’t let you go less than 2 oz which is so frustrating because they measure it out right there and they’re perfectly capable of doing it. It would be nice if I could pay for what I want, and not have to buy one flat size.
2.) I don’t think their scale worked right…. It might be just me but there definitely doesn’t seem to be 2 oz of tea in the bag…..

Anyway, on to the tea. I steeped at 175 for 45 seconds in my Noble mug. The wet leaves taste really good… Like (who would have guessed? :P) toasted rice. The tea itself smells slightly vegetal with a nice sweet note mixed into it.

This is pretty nice. It has a pretty full flavor (typical of many genmaichas in my experiences at least) and yet remains rather light in the flavor side of things. The gyokuro adds a nice grassy vegetal flavor and the rice adds a nice toasty body to it that makes for a really nice contrast. This is pretty good! I’m rather impressed! I plan on increasing the steep time for 15 seconds and I think I can squeeze two more infusions out of this.

In the mean time, I’m exhausted. I got back last night from Connecticut and besides sleeping I haven’t really had a moment of rest since. The order of events are:
Thursday-Left for Connecticut at 7:30, woke up at 5:20 on Thursday and 6:45 on Friday and Saturday
Saturday-After having a grand total of 15 hours of music rehearsal in two days, I had my concert and then retreated back to the hotel (we stayed overnight while most people went home because we had my little sister and travelling again would be too much of a hassle) and went to dinner and then bed.
Sunday-Up at 7:00, left at 8:30. Stopped at Nashua for an hour and a half but other than that I was in the car the whole trip. Got home, returned our rental car, and then went to ANOTHER music rehearsal for 2 more hours. Got home at 7:30, unpacked, went to bed.
I
Feel
Dead.

But, I have to work through it and get my work done. You don’t really realize how much not having a computer for 4 days can really impact your life until you actually do it…. But regardless, it was worth it and I had a lot of fun and made a lot of new friends! Plus, I have a butt-load of reviews to read C: !

ALSO (this post is so long), I just finished reading the first Hunger Games. O. M. G. I haven’t read a better book (of that genre) since Harry Potter! It’s so good and now I’m even more bummed that I can’t go to the midnight premier this week! :(

I’m on my second cup of this today (I made this one as a latte with soy milk and maple syrup [my new favorite way to do it], but the first was just straight up) and it is very good!

It’s pretty spicy and very energizing! It also has a subtle sweet creaminess from the coconut that I really enjoy!

I’m in the midst of finishing up last minute homework and packing because tomorrow (at 6:50 in the morning :( I have to wake up at 5:20 because the bus is 40 minutes away from my house :( times 10!) for the All-New England Music Festival in Dayville, Connecticut for 4 days! I’m excited/stressed/upset that it’s happening when it is/anxious but hey it comes with the territory of being a musician AND a full time student!

I was in the mood for a good caffeine free dessert tea, and I am particularly fond of this one.

What I Love: The taste. Oh my goodness this is good. I definitely am going to buy a full sized version of this.
What I Don’t Love: The little floaty’s that escaped from my infuser basket and are now all over my tea :( oh well, I’ll just have to live!

All my notes from last time still stand!

FOREWARNING: I just finished writing this, and it’s VERY long. So please don’t feel like you have to suffer through it. Blame it on my hankering to avoid my homework and not writing a review for a couple of days!

Did I make this tea while I was literally on my way out the door to get to my school’s girl’s hockey championship game (they won)? Yes, I did. Did I forget about it the whole car ride and when I got there I was already late so an almost full cup sat in my car for two hours? Yes. Did I drink it two hours later anyways? Yes. Did I also unintentionally leave the tea leaves out all night? Yes. Did I ignore this fact and continue to resteep them almost 24 hours later? Yes. Did I forget that my timer went off so the tea steeped for about 15 minutes? Yes.

SO MANY BAD HABITS THAT IAN IGNORED IN ONE TEA!

Anyways, this is a tea that I received in my swap with The DJBooth. Thanks for sending this along!

This is actually really yummy! Generally, I’m not a fan of Teavana for these reasons:
1.) Their blends are like…. all blend no tea. This one actually isn’t an exception… I can hardly see any tea in all of these spices, but it is still very good.
2.) I HATE their website. I can’t stand it. I can’t pinpoint exactly why, but it has to do with the colors/design choices and the fact that it doesn’t flow.
3.) I’ve only been to their retail locations like twice (there aren’t any in Vermont) and the sales people were annoying.
4.) I’m scared to order online because of what I’ve heard from the discussion thread here….
5.) Along with their salespeople, they. know. almost. nothing. about. tea. This is not true with everyone, I’m POSITIVE about that, but the few that I’ve met in person knew nothing. They couldn’t answer my questions and they thought Teavana was all that (quote on quote: “I’ve tried a different version of this tea from a different company and I love it, so I don’t want to try this. Thank you though!” [me] “That’s impossible! Teavana makes the highest quality teas in the US. You won’t find better than this” [sales person]. In fact that tea was one of the lowest rated teas by them here on Steepster).
However, I won’t say that I’m unwilling to try their teas. Personally I don’t like the company and the environment they put off. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy some of their teas.

Anyways, on from my rant.

This tea is very good. It’s pretty bold and has almost a chai-y type flavor to it. Next time I brew this up I think I’m going to make a latte! I think that would be SO good, and it would be sort of reminiscent of Thai tea.

Pretty good! I wouldn’t repurchase it, but this is very nice. Thank you again, The DJBooth for letting me try some of this!

Oh yeah, PS: The brewing parameters are for the first steep!

This is a pick me up tea as I lost an hour of sleep last night due to that stupid thing called “Daylight Savings Time.” I was horribly frustrated as I forgot to set my clock in my room an hour ahead and so I woke up thinking it was 9:30 and I would have the house to myself when it was actually 10:30 and my parents would be coming home soon from church.

Regardless, I am quite tired and I had a mate latte at a coffee shop in Burlington the other day and it was quite lovely, so I recreated it. I brewed up the mate at 195 for 5 minuets, added some maple syrup for sweetness, and topped it with some frothed soy milk. The result is an easy to make and delicious (and healthy AND a great pick me up, the perfect package :D) latte. It’s really good and I think this will be my pick me up drink of choice from now on!

I’ve come to the unfortunate realization that all of the teas on my list from yesterday won’t be able to be reviewed because I had to go to a dinner thingy last night and I stayed for much longer than expected, and I have homework to do today :( AND I have orchestra rehearsal. Meh. Regardless, I’ll try to get some of them done.

This is what’s currently in my cup! This is a sample that Bonnie sent me forever and a half ago and I haven’t gotten around to trying yet! Thank you Bonnie!

I was in the mood for something minty, and this looked and smelled like it was a minty tea, so I brewed it up.

It’s pretty nice! It’s verrrrry sweet (even with no sugar in it) and it’s got a nice minty flavor that comes out a lot in the aftertaste. This one would make a great latte and I plan on doing that next time.

Now, this part is mostly a reminder to myself but you can feel free to read this if you’d like.
Teas That I Need to Review This Weekend (* means for TeaTrade):
1.) Ripened Pu-erh Mini Toucha by Teavivre*
2.) Taiwan Jin Xuan Milk Oolong Tea by Teavivre (in gaiwan)
3.) Lapsang Souchong by Dr. Tea’s Tea Garden
4.) Coffee Pu-erh by DAVIDsTEA
5.) Chiran Sencha (white label) – Kagoshima by Chado Tea House*
6.) Keemum 3 Monkey Tea by Culinary Teas
7.) Huo Shan Yellow Sprouting by Mark T. Wendell*
8.) Compare Paris and Tower of London

Many thanks to ashmanra for sending this along!

This was very good, but to tell the truth, I couldn’t tell the difference between this and Paris! I will have to try them side-by-side to say the main difference, but since I haven’t had Paris for a couple of days, this honestly tasted just like it.