Kittenna

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.

Yet another advent calendar sip down! Such progress today!

I honestly don’t recall what my roommate and I initially thought of this tea, but if I recall correctly, we didn’t like it. We did write notes on the back of the advent calendar box (which I ran across tonight, as it happens), so I should definitely check to see what we noted down!

With both the dry and steeped tea, the aroma is coming off as vaguely citrusy, but that’s about all I can pick out.

Flavourwise, now that I know there’s pu’erh in this blend, I suspect we a) didn’t like it and b) the pu’erh was the reason! Now I know what pu’erh is, and what to expect, so I can definitely pick it out here. Luckily it’s not particularly fishy, just has a sort of earthy/mustiness that I associate with pu’erh. I can’t really pick out the oolong at all here, not even in the aftertaste; perhaps it will emerge in later infusions. As for flavouring, a creamy sort of ginger flavour comes out in the aftertaste, which is actually quite pleasant, although it’s rather mild.

I know pu’erh has a multitude of purported health benefits, but I wouldn’t be too likely to pick this tea up again, as there are many other vendors with better pu’erhs that I’d rather drink for the benefits! This one’s pretty so-so; not terrible, but nothing special.

ETA: Bleh, the second infusion (~90C, 5 min) is not to my liking. I think I’m really picky on citrusy-flavoured things, and citrus + pu’erh is not to my liking (nor citrus + green tea, for the most part). No real loss though!

Another sip down from the advent calendar!

By aroma, this one smells exactly like Forever Nuts. I’m not actually certain if I’d be able to tell them apart. It’s a warm, cinnamonny, nutty aroma. Absolutely delicious!

The flavour does differentiate the two, however; Sleigh Ride seems to have some tartness which isn’t present in Forever Nuts, but other than that, it’s apple cinnamon pie with a hint of nuttiness. Really quite tasty, but I prefer the lack of tartness in Forever Nuts.

A great tea to have tried, but another one I won’t be missing! (Although now I’m having wicked cravings for Forever Nuts!)

ETA: Second infusion is weakly appley. Not bad. I could have used more tea, I think, so probably a pretty good result all things considering!

Ok, so apparently I’d already logged this one! Awesome! I’m finishing off the last of the Advent Calendar tin tonight, and remembering that this one is really quite, quite tasty! I wish I had brewed up 52teas’ Melange Rooibos to compare, but I didn’t, and I’m too lazy to bother, so I guess I won’t get to compare the two!

Anyhow, this one’s a perfectly spiced, seemingly nutty (and definitely coconutty!) as well as slightly chocolatey version of chai. No problems with the rooibos base here either; it’s quite mild and not medicinal at all, perhaps it is contributing to the nuttiness. Definitely a chai I’d re-purchase, although I have plenty of other non-caffeinated teas to finish off before I should be buying something else for the evening.

I’d highly recommend this tea to anyone looking for a delicious evening chai without the risk of caffeine!

ETA: Second infusion is still quite good! Perhaps a bit less chocolatey, but still deliciously spicy and lacking in strange flavours coming from the rooibos.

ETA again: Third infusion today was still pretty tasty. I’m very sad that this one’s all gone now! I think a fourth infusion may have been possible, but I have waaaay too many infusers on the go right now, and this one had been sitting around too long at this point.

Gave this one another shot today with breakfast. Even with using more tea, and a longer infusion (which I’ve found really only makes the tea overly spicy), I’m not satisfied with the base of this chai. It’s just too light for me, and too overpowered by the spices. I’m not getting enough chocolate for my liking, either. Perhaps with milk I would be happier, but as is, nope.

So… I tried an experiment. I had also brewed up some Laoshan Black for my roommate, so took the infuser filled with the once-used leaves, and popped it into my still-hot cup for… a little while (a bit longer than I intended as I received an email with some very sad news in it… the secretary in my dep’t had a massive heart attack last night and passed away :( ) Anyhow, the result was quite a bit improved! The chocolatey Laoshan notes complemented the chai so incredibly well, making the cup incredibly delicious! I did recently pick up a sample of the Laoshan Village Chai, and now I’m wondering if that’s essentially what I just made by mixing these two teas together.

So the first cup I tried this way was rather delicious, and a re-steep of first the chai (2nd infusion), then the Laoshan Black (3rd infusion) was also pretty good.

I don’t really want to have to mix all my Laoshan Black in with this chai though, so I still need to work on how best to drink this.

I was pretty sure I hadn’t reviewed this tea… it was one I purchased and drank pre-Steepster and didn’t much care for, so I probably haven’t had it since last December or January or so! This is part of my unofficial “Drink up the old teas!” plan. Also, apologies in advance – I have a bunch of backlogged reviews to get to in a bit! Internet issues earlier and a lack of time led to some unlogged teas – hopefully I remember them all!

This one has always smelled predominantly like somewhat orangey bubble gum. Not my favourite flavour/aroma; I was always hoping this would be more like an orange creamsicle. And when I put the infuser basket into the water today, I was greeted by a rather vomit-like aroma that I don’t recall from having this one previously…. not exactly making this sound appetizing, am I?

Anyways, the unpleasant aroma appeared to have dissipated by the time I went to drink the tea (whew!), and today, for whatever reason, the flavour seems to be much closer to orange creamsicle than I remember! Joy! It’s actually pretty good! Creamy citrus, with a minimum of flavours that could be interpreted as bubble gum. Rooibos fairly quiet in the background, perhaps a little woody, but that’s about it. So I must admit, surprisingly tasty, but not a tea I’d be too likely to pick up again. I won’t have much problem finishing off the rest of my bag though!

This tea came to me by way of Azzrian, who received it via Steepster Select and found it to be nothing special… but I am so glad it found its way to me!!! Let me explain:

First off, the smell! Delicious, delicious pear Jelly Bellies! That’s exactly how it smells, to me! I’m not really sure that it’s a particularly realistic pear aroma, but I happen to like pear Jelly Bellies, and fake pear flavouring, so I’m pretty excited! I could smell a touch of rooibos behind the pear, but it wasn’t really bothering me. I had my roommate smell this one as well, and she found something in it to be offputting, which I found surprising (but that’s ok, more for me!)

Anyways, onto the flavour! I lost track of how long I infused this one for (a while), but it’s ok as it’s a rooibos… and also not an issue because the flavour is absolutely delicious! A strong pear flavour as per the aroma, again with the rooibos present but unassuming (thankfully) in the background. I’m not sure that I’m really getting “caramelized” pear from the tea, and would really like to mix a little creme caramel rooibos or something similar in here to see what happens…. but this tea is sweet and delicious as is! Much less finicky than DavidsTea’s Sencha Pear, but with the same great pear flavour.

This one’s a winner for me! And bonus – caffeine-free, so I can enjoy it before bed! Perfect! Thank you so much Azz, this tea definitely found a better home here!

ETA: Re-steep pretty good! A bit more rooibos, but still a strong pear flavour. Tasty!

Drinking a Timolino-full of this while waiting for the boy’s soccer game to start. First time I have ever actually been thankful for the Timolino’s ability to retain heat… I brewed this up over an hour ago, and it is only just cooled enough for me to avoid scalding myself.

Delicious as usual, even with a hint of chai. 11-minute infusion today, this oolong can handle anything!!!

Bought a sample of this on a whim because it was being, at least temporarily, discontinued. Not flavours I care for, just insatiable curiousity! Therefore unless it’s fabulous, no numerical rating from me, because mint and I usually do not agree.

Brewed, the aroma is, to be honest, revoltingly of mint. Yep. I’m less enthused to try this one now that I’ve smelled it, but past experience tells me that sometimes aromas to not dictate flavour. So I’ve crossed my fingers… eh, nope. In this case, it’s pretty accurate. Lots, and lots, and lots of mint. A nice refreshingly minty aftertaste (which I don’t seem to find with many mint teas), but I’m not getting any other flavours aside from the pu’erh base. I neglected to rinse this tea, but I doubt that that would have had a great deal of impact on the flavour unless it perhaps brought out the pu’erh a bit more. The second infusion smells like pu’erh (I would almost be inclined to call it “fishy”, but not quite) and again, mint, although the flavour is more pu’erh than mint this time. Still not getting any of the other flavours.

Ah well. This one is not a blend for me, and that’s ok! I had no expectation that it would be, so at least I only have a cup’s worth left to finish off! I do have to say, though, that I’m disappointed to not be able to discern any of the flavourings aside from mint (although I can tell there are both spearmint and peppermint here).

Just brewed some of this one up, and OH MY GOODNESS this smells so incredibly delicious! Like creamy caramels mixed with that delicious vegetal flavour… it is all I can do not to gulp this down, but I’d surely burn my throat quite badly.

Cool faster, tea!!! Updated tasting note to come…

Also, for reference, I brewed ~4g of this in ~6oz. of 175F water for about 30 seconds. All approximate, yep. If this is as delicious as the aroma, hopefully I can replicate it…

ETA: Ok, I have very little experience with straight white teas, but this one is absolutely amazing! I love love LOVE vegetal greens, particularly ones with a natural rock sugary sweetness (like the Dragonwell-style Laoshan Green), but this is completely something else. Not rock sugar, but definitely creamy, sweet caramel with that Laoshan background. Amazing. I only picked up a sample of this one, but I suspect a full ounce or two may be headed my way sooner than my bank account would prefer…

ETA again: Yummmmm. I would be hard-pressed to identify this as a white tea over a green, but I really don’t care… this one is so good!

ETA a third time: Second infusion, 175F for a minute, is astringent but not unpleasantly so. The vegetal, green-beany flavour is very present, and leaves a strong, caramelly, vegetal aftertaste. Oh so good. I do, however, think that a 45s infusion may have been a touch better – less strong! Or more water. Either way, this is one yummy tea.

Another work tea; I needed to amp up my stash so threw a (not entirely) random bunch of teas in my backpack last night. Yay!

Sadly, although this smells delicious as usual, I am getting a major hit of stevia here which is throwing me off. This is a new bag from the one I previously had…. so perhaps they were different. Or, maybe I just overleafed and therefore over-stevia-ed. Anyways, I’m not enjoying this one as much as I remember previously, and it’s mostly because it’s sickeningly sweet (the chocolate is quite nice though!) and rather scummy, although the latter bit was expected.

Sad, sad. Perhaps I’ll leave the last of what’s in my cup, add some water, and re-steep…

ETA: Blegh, my re-steep attempt was not pleasant. I’m going to hope that this was a one-off occurrence, and my next cup is better, as this one was, frankly, rather icky.

Brewed this one up again today, mostly because it found its way to work somehow, and seemed appealing at the time! So why not. I seem to recall having hibiscus issues in the past, so kept the infusion to a careful 4 minutes.

While it’s certainly never going to make it into the ranks of my favourite teas, this cup really isn’t too bad. The ginger is mild and soothing; the strawberry is reduced to more of an underlying fruitiness, but that’s ok. I’m finding it to be a touch weak (maybe I should have used a higher leaf:water ratio), but I’m drinking it cooled right now, and it’s rather refreshing.

ETA: Re-steep for quite a while produced a tarter tea that was bitter from the ginger, but still not bad, especially compared to the stevia-laden wonder (i.e. Chocolate Cake) that I was attempting to enjoy alongside it.

Brewed this up tonight but drank it while playing a game with the boy and my roommate, so failed to noticed a great deal about it. It was good, but spectacular? I’m not sure. I used probably about 2.5tsp in ~10oz. of water at close to boiling for ~30 seconds. I’ll have to re-infuse later, and write a proper tasting note when I have a bit more time to contemplate the tea!

ETA: Second infusion tonight, for 1 minute (I think), and it’s roast and bakey like a darker oolong. The leaves really have such a burnt smell to them; I find it fascinating! I think the Four Seasons Oolong from Butiki smelled much the same. Perhaps I should try the two side by side if I remember someday. Anyhow, this is tasty, but I need to spend a bit more time on it next time! Here’s hoping the leaves are good a little bit longer…

Another tea I haven’t had in ages! That I logged in February, therefore must have bought this package then…. getting old!

The aroma is kind of fruity and rich; I could be convinced that it’s fig. Although I used to eat fig cookies all the time, and have eaten figs, I’m not actually super sure as to what sort of aroma they have!

Oooh, this is oversteeped :( A little astringent for my liking. It’s also a little… weirder than I remember. The flavour’s a bit floral, almost, although more fruity. That’s probably the fig, though. I can kind of taste the oolong background, but the astringency is really ruining it for me here. Astringency gives me an unhappy tummy. I’ll finish the cup, but… bleh. Probably not a loss that DT discontinued this one.

Grr, my data is being all stupid. What’s the point of a program that does automatic calculations of area under the curve when it doesn’t work properly and you have to do it manually anyways!? GAH!

In other news, this tea is delicious. I feel like I should stop drinking it so that I can keep it around longer so I don’t have to buy more, since I need to not be buying tea…. which kind of makes sense, but really is more backward than anything! :P Ah well. It’s one of the best replacements I’ve found so far for the sugar and fat-laden coffee beverages I used to buy from Second Cup a little too often…. and it comes without the upset tummy! Joy!

Brewed this up a couple nights ago. The first infusion was unfortunately somewhat ruined by the chai-flavoured Timolino sad face but the real reason I’m writing this note is because of the second infusion! I left it steeping for OVER AN HOUR (by complete accident), and it was absolutely delicious! This was following a 3 minute first infusion the day before.

Anyways, just needed to record this awesome event for future reference! I’m not sure the leaves will have anything left for a third infusion, but I hung onto them anyway to see if I have time tonight to try.

YES! A sipdown! From last year’s advent calendar, no less! I told my roomie that we should try and finish off all of our advent calendar teas before Christmas, as they’re getting a bit old… Luckily, I didn’t start buying a lot of tea until Jan/Feb (and even then, it was mostly DT, and not really a “lot” in comparison to a month or so later…)

Like any rooibos blend, this one really requires a fine filter. Unfortunately, I’m at work, and the only options here are a teaball with large-ish holes, a fine mesh teaball that would be great except for the fact that it has gaps between the two halves, and paper filters. I wasn’t thinking, and used option B instead of C, so am left with a cup full of tea bits. Oh well.

I like this one today better than I recall liking it last time. For whatever reason, it’s a little bitter (mate??), but definitely honey-sweet in aroma, and with a sweet-ish flavour that makes me think pollen. Also, there’s a hint of lemony citrus flavour, but just a hint. I don’t think I’ve ever tried pollen, so why I’m compelled to say it tastes like pollen, I have no idea. The honey/pollen flavour also remains after swallowing as a rather pleasant aftertaste. So, this blend is tasty enough, and I could see maybe dosing other blends with some of it, but I doubt I’d pick any more up (and no longer have any left).

I’d start an ‘advent calendar tea sipdown’ countdown, but I don’t know how many we’ve already finished! Hmmm, I should find that out. We’re probably done aproximately 1/3 of the tins, but some, like David’s Organic Breakfast, and the Japanese Sencha, are still very full, as we only drank them once…. More things to do with all that time I don’t have!

ETA: Second infusion was pretty unremarkable. Not bad, but not a great deal of flavour. Worth it if there’s no other tea around, but that’s probably it.

Wow…. it has been ages since I’ve drank/logged this tea! I’m trying to get through some older teas before they “expire”, so when I saw this one today, I figured it would be a good candidate, as I bought a 100g tin sometime in February 2012 or so.

Brewed up, it smells deliciously sweetly of fruity cranberry, and the flavour is much better than I remember! The black tea is quite unobtrusive, but I can taste the fruitiness from the pear/cranberry (and apple) quite well. This is one tea that definitely requires a longer infusion though, as the fruitiness takes a while to show up. However, the positive of this is that the black base only becomes slightly astringent with an extended infusion, so either leaving the infuser in indefinitely, or for 8-10 minutes, works quite well.

Yum! What a lovely afternoon cuppa. Still have a fair bit of this one left, so I’ll have to remember to drink it a bit more often!

ETA: Still got flavour in the second infusion, yeah! Probably because I actually took the teaball out. I was annoyed, though, because when I went to throw out the tea, I ate a cranberry and it was still rather tart. Which means there was still some flavour left, which I hate (that means it could have been in my tea! Grrr.) Oh well! Didn’t eat them because the tea leaves get all in there, and I’m not a fan of eating black tea leaves. Green, on the other hand, can be surprisingly tasty…

Yay, my first of two recent Verdant orders arrived! Lots of samples, and an ounce or two of a few other things! Couldn’t wait to get started.

I used 2 tsp of tea in a probably slightly-bigger-than-it-should-have-been mug, and followed the western brewing instructions on Verdant’s website. The aroma is of quite a spiced, delicious-smelling chai, both dry and brewed.

The flavour, unfortunately, is a touch weak, and is coming off to me a bit more like spiced water than chai. I blame this on a poor leaf:water ratio. However, the spicing itself is delicious!! I can’t pick them out individually (and need to get going, not sit here contemplating for ten minutes!) The aftertaste, however, is of a rich dark chocolate.

A great blend with a lot of potential, but I think I need to put some effort into testing different brewing parameters to get the perfect mix! Right now, there definitely isn’t enough tea background for me (but since I have a nice little 1 oz. package of Laoshan Black now, I could always add a bit of that!

At the first whiff of this one while steeping, I was pretty sure this would not be a tea I’d like. The name makes it sound so good, but… so much mint! And I really, really don’t like mint, especially when it’s the dominant flavour in a blend.

Surprisingly, however, although it smells incredibly minty, the flavour is so much more complex! It’s kind of creamy and rich from the white chocolate and vanilla, and although the spearmint is quite apparent, the combination of the flavours works quite well and masks whatever it is that I hate about mint (I’m not too certain about this…) Definitely a blend I’d drink again!

Thanks for passing some of this along to me, Amanda!

Felt like trying a new-to-me honeybush tonight, so poked around in my box from Amanda and found this one! Perfect!

The flavour is definitely fruity (I could be convinced that it’s raspberry), however it’s also a bit perfumey, and the aftertaste seems to morph into a bit of a fakey-fruit flavour. I can’t say I’m tasting the ‘cream cheese danish’ part at all, but given my usual inability to taste such flavours in teas, I’m not terribly surprised.

Ok, the more sips I take, the more I believe I’m tasting raspberry, but unfortunately, that’s it. However… it’s a pretty good honeybush anyways! I’ve been looking for new options to drink in the evening, and don’t have too many fruity rooibos/honeybush blends, so I’m quite happy to have another cup of this one for a future evening!

Thanks for sending me a sample of this one, Amanda!

ETA: Bleh, not really enjoying the second infusion of this one. No surprise, as it’s a honeybush. Down the drain you go!