aisling of tea

My first hot matcha in God knows how long. Summer just doesn’t lend itself to hot drinks, I’m more likely to just my matcha with cold water and blend vigoriously. But this one (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/pumpkin-pie-matcha.html) was just crying out to be made hot…so I’m taking it to work with me today (all I ever do anymore is work). Well after a day straight from hell, this tea was sorely needed. After yet another patient called in to yell at whoever was unfortunate enough to answer the phone (aka me), I decided to take a break. I found a quiet corner and curled up with Hunger Games and this beauty of tea.

It tastes exactly as advertised! I really did feel like I was drinking a hot cup of pumpkin pie…yum. So much yum. I’m not the biggest pumpkin pie fan, but it’s grown on me in recent years. But I am a huge fan of pumpkin lattes, at least I was, so this is definitely going to be mixed with soy milk next time. And cheesecake matcha. And french vanilla matcha. The possibilities are endless! This has made me eager for Thanksgiving and my signature pumpkin pound cake. I wonder how that would taste with a matcha icing…

I’ve heard great, great things about this matcha and I couldn’t wait to try it. But real life stepped in and I didn’t have the time to give it the attention it deserved, so, well, I had to wait to try. But I wait no more! Today I got to mix up my first frothy cup of cheesecake matcha goodness. I was stuck at the location I hate at work, so I desperately needed a thermos of matcha comfort and boy oh boy was I not let down! This is amazing stuff. Creamy and just that touch of tang found in a good cheesecake….yum. One of my specialities around this time of year is a pumpkin cheesecake….nom. I can’t wait to mix this (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/cheesecake-matcha.html) with a touch of Pumpkin Pie matcha and see how they go together.

Oh cheesecake, I have missed you desperately. Cream cheese is one of those things I absolutely cannot have or I’ll be ill for days, so cheesecake is, unfortunately permanently off my menu. But with a little beauty like this in my tea cupboard, I find I don’t mind nearly as much! I want to try mixing this with all of the flavors in the Red Leaf Tea catalogue, and I’m sure every one of them would be delicious!

This tea gave me the best idea ever: Zombie Gingerbread Men. Every year for Christmas, I make cookies for my wife and sister-in-law to decorate and they are insane with it. In the past years we’ve ended up with Ed Wood, an Orion slave girl in a Star Trek uniform, a Purple People Eater, and many, many other cracked decorations. These two really shouldn’t be trusted with pastry bags. But yes, this year I am definitely making sugar cookies with gingerbread matcha and letting them go at it. I should get some of those gingerbread men cookie cutters that look like they already have a bite taken out of it. I need to do a trial run to be sure they taste alright, maybe for Hallowe’en.

Anyway, yes, on to the matcha (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/gingerbread-matcha.html). Well, one thing is for sure, it is definitely GINGER bread. The ginger is very, very strong, but I’m not entirely sure that’s a bad thing. Maybe a touch of brown sugar will help round out the edges, because right now I can’t really taste anything but ginger. I tried it witht he brown sugar and while it did bring out the molasses goodness of gingerbread, it’s still a bit too gingery for me. But the taste that remains on my tongue is amazing…maybe I’ll get used to that bite of ginger over time.

Irish cream teas tend to make me sad. What I’ve found is that they tend to taste like regular tea with a hint of Irish cream in the background, like you had poured a drop or two into your tea. Which is all well and good, but I drank Irish cream straight up when I was in college, and I want something that tastes like the drink itself. At this point, you’re probably wondering if I did anything but drink in college. The answer is….no, not really. Ha! I want an Irish cream tea that I can splash into other teas to make them taste like Irish cream.

So I cheated a little with this one. Just a little, I promise! I mixed my spoon of matcha with a few drops of my Irish cream agave before adding the water. I was blown away. It was so, so, so good. It got me through an incredibly long day at work and it kept a smile on my face long after it was gone. It smelled and tasted so strongly of Irish cream that my boss side eyed me a few times until I showed him it was just matcha. And then he was jealous.

I love this tea (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/irish-cream-matcha.html). With the milk allergy issues, Irish cream was one of the things I had to give up and it was with a heavy heart that I did so. This is one of those teas I’ve been searching and searching for and once again, Red Leaf Tea did it right. I am constantly impressed by them…you’d think by now, I’d just expect their matcha to be amazing. But no, every time I get a new package, I’m floored by the tastiness.

Oh, egg nog. When Red Leaf Tea first contacted me, asking what flavors of matcha I’d be interested in trying, my immediate response was this. Egg nog. Oh goodness, egg nog. Please, oh please, egg nog. When the holidays come around, I miss it with a burning passion. There’s just too much cream in it for it to be worth the risk, unfortunately. We have been able to find soy nog, but it’s just not the same. But I have to say, it does the trick when I’m really just dying for a cup of nog. It certainly brought my father in law and me closer last Christmas when he was always more than happy to get me a glass of soy nog so he had an excuse to grate fresh nutmeg on top. He cracks me up.

So this matcha (found here:http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/eggnog-matcha.html) had high, high, high expectations to live up to. It was delicious, very much so, but a little weak. I got a hint of eggnog flavor that was greatly overshadowed by the flavor of the matcha. Which isn’t a bad flavor at all, it just isn’t what I want when I drink egg nog. Maybe a little soy milk will bring out that creaminess for me and give me that egg nog flavor I crave.

I love cookies and cream ice cream. I love Oreos. I love cookies and cream candy bars. So this was another flavor I suggested when Red Leaf Tea asked what kind of flavors we’d like to see in matcha. And oh, was it ever a good choice. Yum. The cream part I knew would be good, Red Leaf Tea has always been amazing with their creamy matchas. But the cookie part was also very present and very delicious. It honestly felt like I was drinking an Oreo. This cup got me through my first day back at work after a week off for my brother’s wedding. It was wonderful and I kept reaching for it, even as the day got crazier and crazier. I may have to make another cuppa to get me through today….but no, I have so many other new, wonderful matchas to try! Though I think mixing this with the cheesecake matcha would be too wonderful to be believed. I want to just go sniff the matcha, but my nose is all stopped up and I wouldn’t be able to appreciate the goodness of it. Sad. But this is definitely one to keep around for ever. If you haven’t tried it, I whole-heartedly recommend it. (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/cookies-and-cream-matcha.html)

I’m so glad it’s finally cool enough to start my mornings with a cuppa, and this has been a longtime favorite. It wakes me up without making me jittery. I really, really love this blend.

Oh my God this is my happy place after a stressful day at work. It’s finally cold enough to drink hot tea again so I celebrated with this beauty. Love, love, love this blend. Love it.

When I found myself with a bit of free time after work, of course I wandered over to Davids to get this little beauty. I got a cup to go and as soon as we got home, I also made De make a pot for us to share. It’s so, so good, but a little weak. Both the in-store cup and the pot made at home were weak when steeped with our usual parameters, so you might want to give a bit of extra time. Still, it is delicious!

This tea is…painfully refreshing. It’s just floral enough to just be really…refreshing. Maybe I need to try more rose teas. I really really like this. I don’t think we’ll be getting a tin, but I definitely plan to get a bit more. Iced this is lovely, but I don’t think I’d like it hot.

This is so good. I had to try it after my first sniff! I have to say, I’m not getting much toasted marshmallow from the flavor, but that’s okay because I’m in love anyway! Because while the name might be toasted marshmallow, this is the eggnog tea I’ve been searching for! It’s creamy and spicy and utterly beautiful. Definitely getting a tin and putting it next to the Santa’s Secret for the holidays.

Love this one. Always have, always will. It saved my life at work when I would start to lose my voice, and it kept me going when all I wanted to do was curl up in the corner and nap. I have been painfully sick and I’m finally on the mend, though working 11 hour days hasn’t helped much. But Bravissimo kept me talking and for that I am eternally grateful. I have a tin of DavidsTea’s Throat Soother, but I’ll choose Bravissimo over that every time.

What a little lifesaver! At my job, there’s really no such thing as a sick day. If you can’t make it to a shift, you have to find someone to cover you. If you can’t, you have to come in. So I sliced off hours where I could (only weeks after asking for more hours, go me!), but there was no real chance for me to just rest at home for a few days. So every morning I made three travel mugs of hot tea. Cold 911, Bravissimo, and usually Detox with the occasional Santa’s Secret thrown in. This tea saved my life and kept the cough away long enough for me to do my job.

This tasted vaguely minty, but that was probably the fault of my travel mug. Still, yum. Apparently I was just in a berry mood as I made my iced teas this week, and it has worked out well for me. I prefer DavidsTea’s Blueberry Jam, but this is not a tea to be missed if you can help it!

After a two week long fight with knock-me-on-my-butt flu, I finally felt good enough to return to my iced teas. Two solid weeks of drinking nothing but Cold 911 and Bravissimo will do that to a girl. Wonderful teas, but boring after too much of them. When facing my empty cold steeping pot, this was the only tea I could think of and so it was the first tea I made and I am so glad I did, it is delicious. I have love in my heart for this beauty, nothing else really compares!

I used the last of my stash of this to make a pot of cold steeped tea and holy cow is it ever tart. Not necessarily in a bad way, but the first sip did make my lips pucker. Still, it’s darn tasty and if I ever put together an order for Teavivre, this is definitely going in there. I love the blueberryness of it!

No notes yet.

This tea makes me so happy, I don’t know why I don’t reach for it more. It was one of my first teas from DT and it’s still a favorite. I had this iced in store yesterday and loved it. It was cinnamonny and tingly and tasty. So much love for this blend.

This is…okay. The raspberry tasted really artificial to me. I cold steeped it overnight and added a touch of agave and it just wasn’t doing it for me. Luckily, the very kind man who is tearing down our garage for us loved it, so I’m using up the last of this to make another pot for him.

There are not words for how much I don’t want to be up this morning. Guh, I feel like a zombie. Depression – it’s a hell of a drug.

ANYWAY. Our A/C worked overtime overnight so while the cold didn’t make it any easier to get out of bed, it did make it just cool enough to enjoy a hot cuppa for the first time in ages. I reached for this, hoping it would wake me up, and it has…to a point. I love this blend so, so much…it almost smooths away my grumpiness. Almost.

This blend (found here:http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/orange-matcha.html) is one I worry about, which is why it jumped in and out of the cart so many times when the new matchas were first released. I love oranges, but I’m very specific about. If it doesn’t taste like fresh oranges, then why bother? For years, until just recently, in fact, I thought orange candies, like orange Skittles or Runts, were put in because they were cheaper to produce because nobody really liked them. Everybody knows that grape and strawberry are the good flavors, right? Wrong. This is what comes from a skewed worldview, folks. But it works out beautifully, because I love the strawberry and grape flavors of the world, and my wife loves the orange, lime, and lemons. So what that long story was winding up to was that if this matcha tastes more like candy orange and not fresh orange, I will be very, very sad. And then I’ll mix it with the French Vanilla and everything will be just fine. And, of course, cranberry is one I must try mixed with the orange at some point. I also have a history of citrus matcha not turning out as good as I’d like (I’m looking at you, Lemon and Peach), but there is a history of my being afraid of blends and having them turn out amazing (That’s Watermelon and Earl Grey) as well. So I’m just trying to keep an open mind!

I’m sitting here with three little cups of matcha to try (Orange, Apple, and Brandy) and I reached for Orange first. I took a sip, chuckled, and handed it to my wife. She doesn’t like matcha, but she likes this one! I knew she would because that first sip is tasty, tasty orange candy. It’s incredibly tasty (as you might have guessed) but it isn’t really fresh orange or orange juice. It’s orange Runts and juicy orange Skittles. Yum. My wife likes it, so I think this might become a morning treat for her, but for me…well, I don’t know! But if I want oranges in the morning, I’ll likely reach for orange juice proper. I have cotton candy matcha, also from Red Leaf Teas, what other matchas do I need? Still, I keep reaching for it as I sit here writing, so maybe it’ll grow on me. It is very good, and if you’re a fan of orange candy, this is one you must try. Not a touch of bitterness, though!

This was apparently the box of “things I’m not really that fond of, but want to try in matcha form”. I don’t drink a lot of cola, I’m just not fond of it. It’s too….burny for me, if that makes any sense. Don’t worry, I know it doesn’t. But one thing I do love is vanilla cola. Which is why this was purchased. Vanilla cola matcha for me and cherry cola matcha for the wife. I’ve had other cherry cola teas from other companies, but they were less than stellar. The cherry cola from 52 teas is just horrible, and I’ve nothing good to say about the cherry cola from DavidsTea. But here I am, trying again. Maybe this will be the cola to end all colas. When I was in college and I’d start to feel sick, I’d go buy a vanilla Pepsi and let it go flat overnight so I could have it in the morning…nothing settled my stomach better. So the fact that the cola won’t be carbonated is far from a problem for me, I prefer my sodas flat anyway. I generally only drink cola when I need a caffeine boost, so if I could make my perfect vanilla cola matcha without the hassle of all the chemicals in regular cola, well, then I’m all for it! And then I’ll be on a quest to make a Dr. Pepper matcha.

I got a new teacup with a extremely wide mouth that is perfect for matcha, so I broke it in with this little beauty (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/coca-cola-matcha.html). I whisked it up, added way too much sugar (oops!), and fell in love. It tastes like flat cola, which is awesome! But it even tingles at bit at first sip, which makes it all the better. I can’t wait to try it with some vanilla and cherry. It’s not really a cola flavor but more of a diet cola flavor, to my tongue any way. Regardless, next time I’m craving cola flavor, I’ll be reaching for this instead of a teeth rotting cola. With every sip, I’m more and more impressed! This really does taste like a cola drink. I’m curious about mixing in a touch of club soda, but I’m worried about the matcha separating. Still, it might be a good experiment. What I love most, though, is that the matcha flavor isn’t lost in the cola flavor, it’s still very present, but it blends well. Well done, Red Leaf Tea!

This was added to the box in an continuing effort to seduce my wife to the ways of matcha. So far, the best I’ve gotten out of her was “That’s….interesting.” Ah well, more for me. London Fogs, also known as an Earl Grey with vanilla and milk, are her favorite winter drink, so that’s what I had in mind when I snagged this little beauty. That and she’s a sucker for anything Earl Grey. But I’m looking forward to mixing this with, you guessed it, vanilla. An Earl Grey/vanilla was my very first tea, though I’m not much of an Earl Grey fan nowadays. But still, it sounded very tasty and I had to at least try it (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/earl-grey-matcha.html). I’m a bit worried, after the bitterness of the lemon matcha, but I was worried about the watermelon and it turned out amazing. And we’re big fans of the Earl Grey from Red Leaf Teas around here, so we have a lot of faith in this blend. Their Earl Grey Oolong is one of the teas my wife absolutely cannot do without, and their Raspberry Earl Grey was one of the few teas I’ve actually seen her mourn when it was discontinued. So yes, if there was ever an Earl Grey matcha to get her into matcha, it would have to be from Red Leaf Tea.

Success! We went to the zoo on Friday and my poor wife was only running on a couple hours sleep, so I made her a matcha London Fog and she loved it. Loved it! I stole a few sips of the Earl Grey before mixing it in with everything else and it was perfect Earl Grey, and I knew that I’d made the right choice. I mixed together equal parts Earl Grey matcha and French Vanilla matcha (both from Red Leaf Tea, of course) and whisked it together in a bowl to be sure to get all the lumps out. Personally I don’t care about a clump or matcha or two, but it really turns her off of her drink. Anyway, I heated up some vanilla soy milk, frothed it up, added it to the blend and it was perfect. She loved it! And it’s so much better for you than the regular London Fog, full of syrup and dairy…blegh. This is one I think I’ll have to keep in stock, if only for my wife’s sake, which I am more than happy to do.

No notes yet.