Kittenna

Made a thermos of this to take with me yesterday, so I’d have something caffeinated to drink between church/the Thanksgiving meal. Unfortunately, I think there’s something about coconutty blacks that doesn’t sit well for me in the morning. Kind of like a cup of milk, which also doesn’t sit well first thing in the morning. So while the tea tasted alright, I’m left with a desire to not drink it again in the remotely near future (kind of like 52teas’ Coconut Cream Pie). How annoying!

No notes yet.

Currently cursing my body because I have a long day upcoming and try as I might, I cannot fall asleep. Figures; I’ve been sleeping 12-hour nights for the past week. Hopefully those will tide me through today and I can get a good rest tonight, because I’m running a 5K on Monday morning! Bah.

So anyways, it’s 6:26am, and I’m sipping a big hot cup of this one before trying one more time to even get an hour of rest. I’m heading to church with the boyfriend (eep) followed by meeting his extended family for Thanksgiving lunch/supper (double eep), so it really would have been nice to have slept prior instead of being anxious for the past, oh, six hours…

Interesting. I see this one has had a name change from Dr. Chocolate to Spiced Carob. Probably more appropriate, as chocolate is not predominant here! This one reminds me a fair bit of Coco Chai Rooibos, which I recently drank. I do like the spicing in it, but since having CCR, I think I’d go with it over this one, because the chocolate is more powerful and the spicing is similar, which makes it quite delicious. Also, caffeine-free! Not great for mornings, but perfect for bed.

Anyhow, this was a sipdown of my sample packet of this one, so now I just need to drink down a few more things before I will let myself go pick up more CCR…

So…. I thought I liked this one. Brewed some up today, and for some reason, the smell was nauseating, and reminded me far too much of Mango Diablo, which reminds me in turn of cooked green peppers. Which are disgusting, to me. Oh, associations. It definitely tasted peachy, although I couldn’t pick out the oolong base, but I really did not enjoy this cup. So much so that I actually dumped it out. To put this in perspective, I didn’t even dump out the darjeeling I tried today and didn’t particularly care for, as I still found it to be drinkable. I don’t think it’s the fault of this tea at all, but I don’t think I’ll ever drink any of this again. Strangely enough, I found yesterday’s Peaches and Cream Oolong from Teaopia more palatable than this one (although would prefer not to drink it again either). Perhaps peach teas are not my thing? I still have Peach Hoppi-Tea from Azzrian to try, maybe that will suit me better?

I feel like rating this would be unfair, as I don’t really think there’s anything wrong with it. My rating would be in the 40s, and this is probably a 70-80 tea. Oh well, at least I only have a cup’s worth left, and I think my roommate likes this one…

Another sample from LiberTEAS! Still have tons to get through, but this will be the last for today (or at least until I’m back from work).

This one brewed up to be the lightest colour I think I have ever seen with any tea! Just barely a hint of a beigey colour in the cup. As the tea has sat a bit, the colour has deepened somewhat, however.

The flavour is very, very mild here. I can definitely taste sweetness and the tea has an absolutely wonderful, smooth, full-bodied mouthfeel. If I try a bit harder, I can taste a light “tea” flavour amongst the sweetness. This one’s definitely quite pleasant, but seems to unfortunately fall into the category of teas that are a bit too delicate for my liking! (And then, I read the reviews…)

Ok! I think part of my problem here may have been underleafing my cup; I used maybe 1.5tsp of the rather fluffy leaf for my 8 oz. cup, but I think that may not have been enough. Luckily, I can try this one again :D Another potential problem is not drinking this tea on a fresh palate, so next time I should do that instead of drinking a strong matcha and black tea immediately prior (my bad!)

Thanks LiberTEAS!

(Oh man… I think that large cheesecake matcha is catching up to me… stomach not feeling so well anymore…)

Nabbed a couple somewhat random samples from my box of teas from LiberTEAS to try out this evening. I really need to make some progress on samples I have! The goal was to get through as much as I can prior to Christmas… we’ll see how that goes… (it’s helpful that my roommate likes tea though, and is willing to share a cup or two with me each evening!)

So, this is my first darjeeling ever. Well, as far as I’m aware. The aroma makes me think boring black tea… it smells like a bagged Lipton, or other generic tea brand. Not that smell necessarily dictates anything, but it can be a bit of a warning sign sometimes!

The flavour… is definitely unexpected. I was expecting boring black tea flavour, instead I’m getting a kind of winey-ish, possibly muscatel flavour, with a black base. A bit floral, almost? Or, that’s how it’s coming off to darjeeling newbie me. Weirdly, I’m also getting a “rotten” note in here which is… rather unpleasant. Like, a decaying vegetal matter sort of note. Although it doesn’t seem to be appearing with every sip.

Hrm. I’m not going to write off darjeelings just because of this one, but as I’m not a fan of black teas in general (minus Laoshan Black and other similar ones), I’m not surprised that this one isn’t doing it for me. Oh well! Thanks for the tea education, LiberTEAS!

So I received my redirected matchas yesterday, woo! As I’m heading into the lab, a shot of energy seems appropriate, so time to try the much-loved cheesecake matcha. I ordered the robust strength with the regular base, as that seems to be the preferred combination here. http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/cheesecake-matcha.html

When I first tore into the packet, I have to say that I was surprised/shocked to smell not cheesecake, but strawberry. A similar thing happened to me with the Madagascar Vanilla, where I smelled not vanilla, but strawberry. A bit disappointing, as I was expecting a strong tangy cheesecakey aroma. Upon further sniffs, I detected a bit of a milkyish, possibly cheesecakey flavour, but given that this is “robust”, I really expected more.

As usual, I decided to make this into an almond milk latte. I used 2 heaping teaspoons of matcha whisked into hot milk, then mixed with cold almond milk. To my surprise, the latte tasted like nothing but a generic matcha latte. Not even a hint of cheesecake. So I added another generous tsp or two to a new small bowl of hot milk, whisked, and added it. Same deal. And keep in mind… I think I’ve used about half of my 30g packet by now. This is one EXPENSIVE latte… I added some maple syrup as sweetener (no other options), and now I have quite a tasty drink… but definitely not what I was expecting. I can almost smell cheesecake if I sniff quite hard, and a sip of the latte leaves a bit of a cheesecake aftertaste, but this is unfortunately not what I had hoped it would be. Perhaps the cheesecake blends in too well with the almond milk? I wouldn’t have expected that, given how well my delicately flavoured Caramel matcha worked with it (and also, I tried a taste of the plain milk + matcha and couldn’t taste cheesecake either). I would love to blame this on my tastebuds or something, but I have a series of other teas with me that I can definitely smell and taste quite fine, so that’s not the problem.

Oh well. I do love the caramel matcha, so perhaps will simply stock up on that one instead!

ETA: It just occurred to me that I may have made a fatal error by drinking almost my entire latte on an empty stomach… uh oh…

After my recent sipdown of DavidsTea’s Cream Earl Grey, I was craving it rather badly (figures), and decided to look through my giant box of teas from LiberTEAS to see if there was another variant in there, since she is fond of earl greys. Sure enough, I found one!!! So this came with me to work tonight in the no-longer-quite-so-chai-scented Timolino.

Unlike the DavidsTea version, I found this one to be much more like a straight earl grey upon the initial sip, with the cream coming more in the aftertaste. This could have been an artifact of brewing the tea a bit stronger than intended, but I don’t think so, I think the cream aspect was just done a bit differently here. I have to be honest and say that while the tea was still hot, I really wasn’t getting much of the creaminess, and was therefore kind of disappointed, however as the tea cooled, the delicious creaminess emerged more and more. I definitely like earl grey creams better a bit cooler!

Anyways, I think I’d be likely to choose either DT’s or Upton’s Cream Earl Grey over this variant (which is probably ok since I think SpecialTeas is no longer?), but all three are quite delicious. So much nostalgia for me!

Thanks for including some of this for me, LiberTEAS , and saving me from having to run to DavidsTea to get my fix! I still have enough for at least another cup; hopefully I can stave off the craving for a while longer (or perhaps there’s another cream earl grey lurking somewhere in a swap box that I have yet to track down…!)

Hmm. It seems I’m really not too big of a fan of Teaopia, so I’m not so crushed that they’re gone… This one’s another big miss for me. It sounds absolutely divine, but the flavour is weak and slightly fruity. In the aftertaste I can taste unsweetened fuzzy peach; perhaps it’s meant to be drank with sugar, but that’s a black mark for me. I can’t really taste the oolong at all, even though there’s clearly a lot in there. Bleh. Well, it’s not terrible, it’s just really, really boring. What a bummer. I’m glad I didn’t waste too much money at Teaopia; companies with small sample sizes are definitely the way to go.

Oh…. I should have known that the hibiscus would ruin this one :( The dry tea smells just like sangria, and is oh so sweet and winey and delicious, but steeped up, it’s a whole host of tart, overwhelming hibiscus (with a background of fruity flavours, and a definite citrus twist). And that’s only with a three-minute infusion. Think of the horror it could be at 5 minutes. Or more! It was certainly still drinkable, for sure, but as a newly realized hibiscus-disliker, it’s a bit much. I tried sweetening it with a bunch of sugar, and the result (while hot) was a bit too reminiscent of vomit for my liking. I left the cup sit while I went to work, and drinking it now, it’s actually really not so bad. Tastes much, much more like sangria. The hibiscus is tamed a bit, so the result is fruity and citrusy, with a bit of a fruity wine flavour. So, lesson learned, this one’s best for icing, with sweetener. (However, I’d much prefer to get rid of it, so if anyone’s interested….?)

Can’t get over how delicious this tea is! Shared it with the roommate tonight, and she was in love as well. I made it a touch weak in order to reserve one more cup’s worth for another day, but it was still pretty darn delicious! Bounty bar, all the way! Best coconut black I’ve tasted (whether that’s because of the chocolate, or because of great coconut flavouring, it’s difficult to know). And, a lack of gross scumminess! This is one of those few teas that actually could satisfy a craving for sweets, I think, kind of like Creme Caramel teas, because it is just so, so close in flavour to the real thing. Deeeelicious! Thanks again Alphakitty for the generous sample! Someday I’ll have to figure out how to work a H&S order…

Still on a quest for teas I can taste tonight, and this one fit! Still not as tasty a chai as I’d like (I’m badly craving DavidsTea’s Coco Chai Rooibos right now), but it’s great that it’s caffeine-free!

Still sick sick sick, decided to go for a tea that I can “taste” whether or not I can actually taste things (i.e. the ginger is a sensation less than a flavour). Definitely not a big fan of this one though, I just wanted the ginger tonight. Unfortunately, gingery hot water came off more weirdly to me than I expected (but I still drank it, accompanied in the last half hour by some lovely NyQuil Sinus LiquiCaps that my boyfriend took me out to buy partway through our movie). Here’s hoping I improve soon! Sadly, the boy was also quite sniffly tonight, and I think he’s coming down with a cold as well, though we haven’t seen each other in five days. Poor us! :P

Wanted something strong-ish and flavourful tonight (and not a new tea to review, as my nose is out of commission), so picked this one! I can smell the delicious cocoa-y notes and taste them well enough, although I think I underleafed/understeeped the cup. Ah well! Still delicious, as always. This is from a different batch than the sample I had previously received, but I’d probably be hard-pressed to find differences, especially when I don’t brew gong-fu style. All that matters is that it has the same overall flavour profile, which is most certainly and deliciously does!

Received a sample of this with one of my recent Verdant orders. Drinking a second infusion of it right now, as my roommate drank the first a night or two ago. Not a ton of flavour, but I can definitely taste the jasmine. Probably would have been tastier had I been able to smell properly! There’s enough in the sample package for another cup, so I’ll have that at some point in the future. I definitely prefer jasmine whites to jasmine greens, and should really get around to trying the jasmine silver needle from Teavivre.

This one is tonight’s advent calendar sipdown! Unfortunately though, my roommate and I brewed up a nice big pot of it (literally, a pot. On the stove. Neither of us has an actual teapot here) and when she tasted it, it tasted fishy to her. We don’t recall this being a problem previously, but perhaps it’s an age thing. I can’t really taste any fishiness myself, but I also am a bit suspicious of my tasting capabilities at the moment given my cold. Soooo, looks like it’s up to me to drink the entire pot. She finished off our tin of Buttered Rum instead (which I must say, smells way, way better than the bag of Buttered Rum I have…. interesting.)

From what I can tell, this is a lightly citrusy (bergamot) tea with an aroma much like a standard earl grey. I can’t really tell is there’s much green tea in there; my tastebuds are muted enough that I can’t really be sure. I do remember liking this one in the past as an interesting twist on earl grey (which I thought I didn’t like straight, but apparently I just needed to try non-Tetley versions!) However, now that I’ve tried DT’s Earl of Lemon, that one would probably be my go-to non-black earl grey over this one, even though I think the bergamot is a bit stronger with that one. And I must admit, I prefer the Cream of Earl Grey over either. Nom nom nom.

WOW. Of all the failish things to do, I just blew my nose and tossed the kleenex…. straight into my cup. Grosssss. Lucky for me, I have another half pot + downstairs waiting for me, so I can pour this out, rinse the mug, and refill it…. sigh.

Shared a pot of this with my roommate tonight, in another advent calendar tea sipdown! There was enough leaf leaf (4.5 tsp or thereabouts) for two large mugs each, which we both thoroughly enjoyed.

To me, this tea smells primarily like a light earl grey, but the flavour is oh so delicious. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that the tea contained creamer and sweetener, just like in the good old days when my best friend and I used to go through pot after pot of heavily sugared/creamed earl grey, spending the night playing games and laughing. Clearly this is a less sinful version! Unlike straight earl greys, the creaminess of this tea softens the bergamot and eliminates any bitterness/astringency coming from the black tea base. A perfect cup (although, perhaps not the best thing to drink immediately prior to sleeping!)

ETA: Re-steeped the infuser in a single mug of tea for ~3.5 minutes, and ended up with a really delicious, surprisingly not too strong cup of tea. Yum! I think I no longer have any more earl grey creams in my stash :‘( (Unless… there’s one in my box from LiberTEAS?! I will have to check ASAP!)

ETA again: Third infusion is as far as this one went. At this point, it’s less like an earl grey, and more like a weak black tea. Still ok, but I’m drinking this because it’s an earl grey cream, and now it is much less so. Oh well, felt bad about throwing so many leaves away without at least attempting some additional infusions!

Sadly, my first attempt at this tea was a complete bust. I can’t entirely recall my infusion parameters, but I think I infused about 2 tsp of the tea in ~8oz. of water for 1 minute at about 205F, and ended up with…. what tasted like water. The only indication that it wasn’t water was the colour, which was a lightish yellow (later on I noticed that it was somewhat sweet water, but certainly couldn’t identify any other flavours). I suspect that my problem was poor brewing parameters – our internet was down when I was brewing this up and so I just guessed at what I was doing instead of following Verdant’s suggested brewing parameters, which I prefer to do when brewing up a tea for the first time.

After my failed first infusion, I ended up carelessly infusing the leaves a couple more times for a longer period of time, and got something vaguely oolongy that I did drink (and at one point mixed with a 3rd infusion of Butiki’s Gui Fei Oolong).

Luckily, I not only have a sample packet of this tea from my dragon well pre-order, I bought an additional 2 oz. so I have plenty of tea to play with!

This is a backlog from a few days ago. Unfortunately I failed to take good notes about this tea, but I do remember that the flavour was quite reminiscent of creme caramel rooibos teas (which I thoroughly enjoy), although there was a definite sencha flavour that I was able to pick out. However, I decided that although this is good, I’m likely to stick with straight rooibos versions if only for ease of infusion. However, this tea is quite tasty, and I will happily finish off my sample packet (paying close attention to infusion time/temperature!)

I’m so impressed…. I re-steeped the leaves that my roommate and I first used on Sunday morning with breakfast for a fourth time, and I’m still getting a delicious cup of tea! And these leaves have been seriously abused – first off, a normal 1-minute infusion. Then, probably about 5 minutes or so of sitting in a ~70C cup of Chocolate Phoenix Chai. Then another 5+ minutes of Chocolate Phoenix Chai at a hotter temperature. The flavour isn’t super strong, of course, but the rich cocoa-y flavours are unmistakably present, and absolutely delicious. Whoever would have guessed that I’d actually fall for a black tea?!

And since I’m writing this… my roommate felt the exact same way. I gave her the choice between this and Chocolate Phoenix Chai that morning, and she picked this one, saying “this is an unflavoured black? You said, unflavoured?” Needless to say she was quite surprised to find that she really enjoyed it! She’s more of an oolong girl, as I am, but I’m glad to have introduced her to something new!

Finally getting around to trying this one. I guess it didn’t really interest me, as I’ve had a sample of it for quite a while.

The aroma is primarily kind of sweet and nutty; the flavour is much the same. I was initially just going to say that this is sort of a “dry nut” sort of flavour, but it occurred to me that what I’m tasting reminds me of hazelnut coffee! Which gives me a strong desire to sweeten it and add some milk, but I’m too tired for that sort of effort tonight (and have enough left for one more cup, so can try that another day). Although it’s certainly palatable unsweetened (and there’s only a touch of astringency), the thought of making a hazelnutty tea latte far outweighs my desire to drink this straight (and the nuttiness/astringency makes it a bit more drying in the mouth than I’d really like). Better than I expected!

ETA: So I let this one sit overnight, and in the morning when I drank some to help a tickly throat, it tastes remarkably chocolatey! Or at least, I think it was this one, and couldn’t come up with any other teas I’d brewed up that would have been chocolatey. Interesting. Second infusion (5min, close to boiling), I’m primarily getting a kind of chocolatey flavour as well. Nutty chocolate, a bit akin to… Florence?? From H&S? I can’t recall, whichever one is chocolatey and nutty. Definitely better than expected. Enough to bump the rating some. I assume the chocolatey notes aren’t an artifact of my stuffed up nose, as I could taste better earlier today when I had the cold tea.

It seems that I have caught a cold :( so time to bring this tea out as it seems rather appropriate!

The dry tea smells very potently of ginger and lemongrass. The intense ginger is a bit worrisome, as I’m not the biggest fan of strong ginger, it seems that the ginger is tamed a bit after steeping. Also, it smells like DT’s Ginger Pu’erh – shocker, eh?

The flavour is much milder than I anticipated. There’s a bit of a burn from the ginger, but it’s certainly not as strong as the aroma indicated. I can’t really taste much in the way of lemon though (or even lemongrass), although the honeybush provides a nice base.

I personally think that a more apt name for this blend would be ginger honeybush, as that’s about all I can taste. Not bad, however, but probably not a tea I’d go for again. I’d prefer a cup of hot water infused with fresh ginger, lemon juice, and some real honey. (But too lazy to do that now).

ETA: About all I’m getting in the second infusion is a strong gingery tingling in my mouth/throat. Can’t really taste a great deal at this point, but I think I like this infusion better (or perhaps it’s because I can miraculously get some sort of sensation from this one!) Still can’t beat the real deal though, I think.

This one is still seriously delicious. Smooth but present base with an absolutely delicious butterscotchy/caramelly flavour. Another tea I would love to have more of (but need to resist buying!)

Second infusion in less water is still worthwhile, but loses a fair bit of the caramelly flavour. My previous note indicates a third infusion is unnecessary, so I’ll stop there.