JoonSusanna

Mixed half and half with Upton’s Spearmint blend, so 3 tsp. of each in 16 oz. of water.

My last review of this was a long time ago and it was spot on – it is the perfect sick time tea. Guess how I know that :(.

But on the plus side it is making me feel better, so I’ll just keep sucking it down. Good to have on hand, but it’s a shame it can only be pulled out in not so fun circumstances.

My sweet spot for this tea is definitely exactly 5 minutes, with 1.5 tsp. leaf.

It’s amazing how fruity and creamy it can be all on its own – just what I needed to get going this morning.

You know, this pairs really well with dark chocolate on a cool fall night. It was perfect as is – no milk or sugar needed.

Every time I drink it I’m reminded of how much I want to try the coconut version, though. One day I’ll get it. You know – that same elusive day where I’ll drink all of my existing tea so that I’ve actually got room for it in my cupboard. :)

1 heaping tsp. of leaf, at below parameters. Added a splash of milk.

Mmmm, decadence. I love the sweetness of the caramel, and the spice of the pumpkin. My first sip today gave me that hint of cheesecake flavor, but it disappeared after that. I’m also getting strong butterscotch notes in the flavor and scent, which I like.

Actually, pretty sure I can’t find anything about this tea I don’t like – it was made for my tastebuds!

Another backlog – and my 300th tasting note!

After the disappointment of my last go round with this, I extended the steep time to 5 minutes and added a splash of milk. That did it! It tasted exactly like it smelled!

1.5 tsp. leaf at the below parameters, no sweetener because I’ve cut out sugar. It would be great with sugar, I’m sure, but the strawberries and cream was perfectly recreated (and just as delicious) without. Yummy!

Backlog from yesterday morning:

I tried this almost 2 years ago when Frank did his Valentine’s day sampler, so my memory is hazy. But I finally got around to ordering it again and was absolutely blown away by the smell. Strawberries and cream! Tantalizing!

Unfortunately, this particular steeping was lackluster. I think it had more to do with the timing, because the smell was wonderful but the taste was essentially hot water. I used 1.5 tsp. of leaf with no additives at the below parameters. So my goal for the next time was to increase steeping, and add milk to make it creamy, and see what happens. I know there’s potential to get the smell to manifest in the taste!

And…now we’re up to date!

This was my birthday tea of the week, so I had to order it. That and it combines some of my favorite tastes, so this was a no brainer. :)

The dry leaf smells dizzyingly (is that a word? I’m suddenly not sure, but it fits haha) buttery. Buttery caramelly. And then there’s the spice of the pumpkin. I don’t get much cheesecake other than a kind of tang, but that’s good enough for me.

I’ve mentioned that I’ve cut out sweetener, but another thing I’ve also done in the past few months is to cut out wheat products (for health reasons, boo!) so that means that traditional cheesecake and pies are off limits to me.

But I can at least get them in tea form! And OH MY GAH does this deliver. I steeped about 1.5 tsp. leaf at the below parameters and the steeped smell of buttery sweet pumpkin made me swoon. Or keel over with joy. Whatever, I’m a dramatic person who hasn’t put her nose near a baked good in a while. But still it was pretty fantastic, even if you are a person lucky enough to get to experience these things for real.

The taste was very strong on the caramel with lingering pumpkin spices after the swallow. One thing I’m not getting, though, is the cheesecake tang – maybe milk will bring that out? Will give it a shot next time. Which will probably be happening in the morning.

If I can get that cheesecake out, I’ll give it a solid 100 for sure – but otherwise it’s still a really amazing tea!

Backlog from this morning.

2 heaping tsp. of tea to 500 ml. water in my Breville.

Shared this with the bf – as always. He perks up every time I mention making tea in the morning, and suggests this.

Today was the first time I just added milk, with no sweetener. And I think my tastebuds are FINALLY learning that they can sense things other than saccharine, because that little bit of milk smoothed out any rough edges and left me with that lovely, sturdy and hearty black tea taste. The kind that gets you through a morning with a hint of chill in the air.

It was so very cozy. That’s why it’s among our favorites, though!

Backlog from a few days ago…

ARGH. WTF is happening to my tastebuds?

Steeped the usual way, the usual time, with the usual amount, and it wasn’t until it cooled down that I got much of anything from it. It’s a long hard road, this cutting out of sugar.

Meh, I’ll keep trying with this one – I love it too much not too!

So, uh, hi guys! :)

I am, I’m ashamed to say, a seasonal tea drinker. And since spring started about, oh, March 1 in these parts my hot tea drinking stopped pretty much around then, only to start back this past week. This, actually, is a backlog from last Monday, I think – but I wanted to count it because well, it’s my first tea of fall!

Unfortunately I didn’t really get much flavor from this. Could have been too little leaf, or water that was too hot, and also that I’ve cleaned out my diet and so no more sugar in tea for me – but it was pretty much like drinking hot water. Oh, well, it’s a sample pack so I have a few more tries left on it to get it right.

Man, it feels good to be back!

Saturday mornings are awesome.

This tea is awesome- buttery vanilla with an orange tang in the aftertaste. It’s more cream than earl grey, but it’s a balance that works for me. Prepped 3 tsp. in 500 ml. water at the below parameters in my Breville.

Happy weekend, everyone!

And that’s the end of this tea for now….(NOOOOOOOOO!!!) :(

I am a month away from taking the darn licensure exam and getting a job, and once that happens I’ll have the money to replace this, but until then…I’ll just have to remember it fondly.

Until next time, coconut cream pie!

ACK! It’s been so long since I’ve been on Steepster!

In my defense, I’ve been drinking tea – just a lot of iced Lipton stuff (sorry) that tends to be my staple when it gets warm out. This is the first hot tea I’ve had in almost a month. Crazy.

And it’s my old standby, of course. The one that pairs so well with biscuits and that I’m starting to run low on. I’ve reached the point in my tea drinking where I’m wanting to just have a handful of my favorites as my stash, and this is in my top 5 for sure.

I must start waking up early to have tea in the mornings again!

Prep: 3 tsp. leaf, 500 ml. water, at below parameters.

I always like Lupicia teas when I’m drinking them, but for some reason they aren’t my first choice when I look in my cupboard. It’s a shame, really, because they are SO GOOD.

This is from my Lucky bag (like, from 2+ months ago) and I’m just now getting around to trying it. I was super wary about this blend because pineapple and coconut just aren’t flavors I like combined. I know I’m in the minority where this is concerned, but there it is. However, the buttery oolong base in this makes it phenomenal. Pineapple and oolong show up more in the taste at first, with coconut finishing off the sip. Their brewing parameters surprised me (boiling water for an oolong?!) but I’m glad I trusted them because despite the temp, this was a very smooth brew.

I am drinking this hot and without sugar, but I think iced (and probably a little sweetener) will be the way I have the rest of it. The boyfriend gave it a sip and concurred, which is good because he’s going to have to help me drink it. :)

Super tasty – now the real test will be how it holds up iced!

No notes yet.

Having this again today with the boyfriend, since he didn’t try it the first go round and was curious. Prepped with the same parameters as before, he drank his straight, I had mine with milk and sugar.

Guh – the smell of this is so lovely. I’m trying not to open the bag and sniff too much because I don’t want stale tea, but I really want a candle or something with this scent. Buttery vanilla with a slight tinge of zingy citrus at the back. It’s such a heavy, comfortable smell.

Oh! That’s what I noticed was different this time, too – the bergamot is so zingy there is almost a mint type tone to it. Not a typical Earl Grey for sure. Boyfriends one critique besides “It’s different” was “It’s smoother.” Not very descriptive, but then that’s why he doesn’t write these. :)

Yep, I still vastly prefer this to the Teavana Earl Grey Creme. Yum!

Prepped 3 tsp. leaf to 500 ml. water in my Breville at the below parameters. Added milk and sugar.

This is from my most recent Upton order – the boyfriend goes through tea filters and their Moroccan mint like crazy, and we just finished Teavana’s Earl Grey Creme so I thought this would make a good replacement while I was at it. I was right (thankfully, because I totally bit the bullet and bought 1/2 pound since it was so cheap)!

So the thing with Earl Grey is that I’m pretty sensitive to bergamot. And I have always been more attracted to the “cream” or “vanilla” in these types of blends than the bergamot flavoring. Teavana’s variation of this blend was quite heavy on the bergamot, and the vanilla was more present in the smell than anything else – it was also kind of a sharp, thin smell – there wasn’t any “cream” in the scent or flavor. What I really wanted was it to be the other way around – bergamot as more of an afterthought, vanilla front and center.

The dry leaf in this was amazing! Though visually it didn’t have any of the pretty cornflowers and was just the brown, unadorned leaf – the smell made up for it. It was very vanilla at the forefront – actually more of a buttery vanilla. It smelled luxurious. I was up late last night so I prepped the Breville to be ready first thing this morning, and spent a good few minutes inhaling the aroma. Yummy!

Once steeped, the buttery vanilla smell remained, and transferred over to the taste. Bergamot does exactly what I wanted it to – creeps into the finish to let you know it’s there, but doesn’t dominate. And with milk and sugar, this is fantastic! I can see myself rotating this with my beloved East Frisian in the mornings – almost makes it worth getting up early for!

This is a backlog- cold brewed 15 g. of this in 1/2 gallon water for 8 hours.

I really do like this cold brewed – the peach flavor is quite refreshing. It probably is a travesty to go this route with such an expensive tea, but it’s just so nice this way!

Life has been SO BUSY lately. This is the first proper cup of morning tea I’ve had in a while- between family visiting (& all the prep work going into it) and mid terms I just haven’t had the time.

But tasting this, the wait was worth it. I will be ordering more (so much more) as soon as I have the spare funds, which will need to be soon as I only have enough leaf for about 2 more cups.

It was a lovely reintroduction back into the world of tea!

No notes yet.

Prepped my usual way, with milk and sugar added.

I’ve started running again so I think my metabolism has amped up. Tonight I wanted something sweet but we didn’t have anything in the house – except for all my lovely dessert teas.

The syrup and butter are really popping out of both the smell and taste, and it is totally hitting the spot. And as an added bonus, it’s doing so for a lot less calories than a big stack of pancakes would!

YUM.

It’s been a while since I’ve had this, and it’s been even longer since I’ve had this without additives, but I wanted it plain tonight. And it is fabulous – tangy and coconutty. The boyfriend thought it smelled vanilla-y and since vanilla and coconut are similar scents I’ll give it to him. He still won’t try it though – he thinks the more desserty sounding teas are “too weird”. Ah, well, more for me!

This was the free sample that came with the Lupicia magazine this month.

The dry leaf smells super peachy with a touch of vanilla. I didn’t smell much of the green tea when it was dry, but it still was amazing. Almost to the point of overwhelming – but from experience with Lupicia’s tea, the strong scent of dry leaf turns into the perfect amount of flavoring when it is steeped.

And this was no exception – once steeped the buttery green tea came out more in the scent. The taste was perfectly balanced – green tea then a candy-like peach, with hints of vanilla in the background. The vanilla adds that extra complexity that really takes it over the top. It doesn’t need anything added to it – the sweetness of the peach and vanilla are perfect.

As good as this is hot, I think it really would have been amazing iced – I will likely have to get some for that purpose. Peach candy green tea will be a wonderful complement to this coming summer, I expect.

Another free sample generously provided to me by TeaVivre!

Dry leaf: Small and dark green leaves that smelled of spinach. They were whole, but the leaves were so small that they resembled a BOP grade, almost. I understand the reasoning behind the short steep time when looking at the leaves.

Steeped leaf: Once steeped, the liquor is a light brown – the fact it is so dark is surprising given I’ve steeped some greens for 2 minutes and only gotten a pale green. The smell is quite brothy and savory, and as it cools, almost…floral, strangely enough.

The taste is…strong. And very different. It’s drying like a white wine on the tongue, but not thin or watery. It seems kind of bitter, but that plum aftertaste was there – it seemed a bit metallic, though. It is definitely memorable and different than any other green tea I’ve tried. As it cools most of the dryness and the sharpness in the aftertaste fades away. It leaves more of a sour nuttiness in its stead.

Overall: I’m glad I got to try it but I don’t know that it’s a tea I want to keep on hand. It could be the fact that it shares so many qualities with wine or sake – I don’t drink alcohol because I can’t stand the taste and so this is has unpleasant associations to me. Maybe later steeps will be more to my liking?