aisling of tea

So this is…interesting. The lemongrass and mint really work to make it refreshing. It isn’t too tart, but there isn’t anything outstanding about it. It’s just a decent herbal. It was a sample and I have enough for another pot to cold steep, so while it won’t be any hardship finishing it off, it’s not something I feel the need to stock up on.

Saturday, to wake me up, I had a travel mug of this blended with vanilla soy milk and Irish cream agave. It was heaven in a cup and did the job beautifully. So, so good. Definitely more matcha lattes in my future.

Cold steeped this and got nothing but bitter blegh. Definitely not restocking.

I had this iced yesterday as we were picking up our 20g of each of the new teas. It was…different. I dunno, it tasted off to me, too tart kind of? I don’t know how to describe it, but at the end of the cup my wife and I agreed that Blueberry Jam was infinitely better.

Love, love, love this one. I’ve had it cold steeping for a few days and I had forgotten how good is it cold. It’s minty and fruity and utterly delicious. It’s still that blue raspberry slushie flavour without all of the sugar and badness.

After being told I couldn’t use the kid’s tumbler (which I freaking LOVE) for the iced tea promo (boo!) I decided that since I had to pay full price for a cup anyway, I may as well try one of the new teas. This was…all right. I had it iced, since that’s what I’m in the mood for and I’m not so sure about hot teas in the kid’s tumbler. It was over steeped and bitter (due to the gentleman making the tea losing the timer and then setting it for a regular steep time when he found it a full minute later while my tea was already steeping), but what I could taste around the bitterness was good. I have some at home, so I’m going to try it with my own steeping preferences before I rate. But what I got was a creamy smooth caramel, so yay! Hopefully it’s not just a bitter tea.

I was so excited to see this on the tea of the day list. It’s one I love, but can’t justify the cost of, so I save it for buying tea by the cup. When it’s part of the iced tea of the day promo, even better. I had three tumblers-full by the end of my workday and it was glorious. I had forgotten how good this is.

Cold brewed this, but it turned out bitter. Sadness. Hot, this one is amazing, so I think I’ll save the rest of my stash for winter.

Buying the iced tea tumbler was the smartest thing I ever did! This was the tea of the day along with Bear Trap the other day, and while I went in intending to load up on Bear Trap (which, with a little bit of agave, tastes just like candy), I took a sip of this and had to try it. I am so glad I did. Hot, I found the hibiscus was too much for me, but iced….it was glorious. And while I prefer to cold steep here at him, I can totally see the merits of making the tea double strong and then icing it. The hibsicus doesn’t have nearly as much time to contemplate world (and tea) domination. This is one I can definitely see myself returning to.

I went through all of my matchas with my sister in law yesterday and gave her samples of quite a few. I also made us both a caramel apple matcha using this and Red Leaf Tea’s green apple matcha. She had hers hot while I had mine cold with vanilla soy milk….yum. Matcha lattes are amazing, I’m going to have to experiment more. I just placed an order for several of their new matchas, so keep an eye out for more reviews!

I am in love with this tea, I want to drink it all the time. I have yet to try it hot, but I’ve had it iced several times, both in store and at home. It’s just plain amazing. Juicy, juicy blueberries and a touch of tea…perfect. Definitely need a tin.

This was one of the iced TOTD’s yesterday, so I decided to give it another go. Nope, still not for me. I get a hint of watermelon flavor, but mostly it’s a too-tart apple.

No notes yet.

I cannot get enough of this tea. I really can’t. It’s so damn good. It taste like blueberries and tea and deliciousness. The word that comes to mind every time I sip it is “round”. It tastes like a big, round blueberry. Om nom nom

This was one of the two teas of the day for today, and when I stopped in this morning, this was the only one they had ready, so I snagged two tumblers of it. You see, when the iced tea promotion started, it was a day when the office was wretchedly home 30-40 degrees C, and I had forgotten any kind of drink at home. So when I went on a tea run, I bought two of the iced tea promo tumblers to get me through the day. Now I keep them at the office. I’ve almost made friends with a couple of my coworkers and let them know that they’re welcome to use them as long as they wash them when they’re done, so these suckers have seen a lot of mileage already, and they’re not even a week old!

Anyhoo, I had this without any kind of sweetner and it wasn’t bad! I did find myself craving something sweet in it, but that’s okay. It was still a cup full of mapley goodness on its own. Definitely one I would return to.

Finally cold brewed this and it is not as amazing as I had hoped, sadly. I think hot is the way I’ll enjoy this tea the most. It’s more shortcake with strawberry.

I wasn’t expecting to like this, I’m not a huge pina colada fan. But I was happily surprised at how good it was! I cold brewed it and it got me through a few days of brutally hot temps at the office. I think I need to get more of this! The girls told me it tastes like pineapple juice and it really, really does. Yum.

I got 25 g of this and used it all to cold brew a pot of this. It was good, juicy and light, but ultimately I had to use 25 g to make a pot and it just didn’t wow me enough to be worth the amount of tea I had to use.

Ugh. I came down with a bad, bad case of food poisoning Friday night and ended up having to leave work early yesterday because of it. When I’m ill, blood vessels burst in my face and I look like a zombie XD. But that worked in my favor when I asked my boss if I could go home early. Anyway, last night I was still feeling rough and I had eaten too much, so I asked my wife for a cup of this. I’m one of those bad patients who get sick, never wants to eat again, but then the second I start to feel better I want to eat ALL THE THINGS. When I was a kid, it frustrated my mom to no end. “Mom, I’m starving, can I have tacos?” “Here start with a cracker.” “Moooooom you’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?” LOL. Unfortunately now my mom is in another country and cannot keep me from eating all the things. Oh well, this helped settle my stomach so I could get a full night’s sleep. I think I need to stock up on this ASAP in case it disappears. Of course when I contacted the sushi place that gave me food poisoning, they told me there was no raw fish in my order, so there was no food poisoning. They were incredibly rude about it and I’ll never order from them again.

Guh. I didn’t think I’d like this, I avoided it due to hibiscus, but…guh. I took a sniff at the store, thank goodness my wife asked to sniff it! Wednesday we brought home 10 grams and today I went back for a tin. It’s fruity and light and I cannot wait to try it iced!

I bought enough of this to cold steep a pot and, well…it was less than perfect. I didn’t like it at all. Ah well, that’s one less tea I’ll need to add to my spreadsheet! It was just…tart and had an aftertaste of gross. Not for me.

So I’m starting to come to the end of my matcha reviewing career, I’ve tried just about all the ones I want to try and now I need to decide which ones I want to stock up on. This is one of those I’ve been eyeing, but it kept popping out of my cart in favor of delicious beauties like French Vanilla or Caramel. But I am very excited to be trying it now (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/sugar-destroyer-matcha.html).

It’s no secret that I sweeten my teas with sugar, all teas, without fail. I know, I know, I’m a horrible tea drinker. But this one is supposed to help curb sugar cravings and so on and so forth, so I’m going to try it without sugar first. It’s worth mentioning that this tea isn’t meant to replace sugar, it’s meant to do the following:
Regulate blood sugar levels
Curb your appetite for sweets things and goodies
Help maintain a healthy weight
Help maintain normal cholesterol levels
Taking all of that with a grain of salt, if replacing straight matcha with this can help curb my cravings for sugary snacks, then I’m all for it. Now I just need a tea to help me curb my desire for biscuits and gravy! Disclaimer, my cravings aren’t usually for sugary sweet things, I crave chips and bacon and savory goodies, so I’m not entirely sure that this will help me.

It tastes like…matcha! Surprise! I’ve never had a straight matcha from Red Leaf Tea, so I can’t really say how it compares to their matcha, but I have had straight matcha from other sources so I can, for sure, say that this tastes like matcha. Shocking, I know. I don’t magically feel like I don’t want anything sugary, but I’ll keep an eye on my cravings today and report back. Keep in mind, though, I’m only having a very small cup. The good news is that I am taking this matcha without sugar and while yes, I would like some sugar in it, I’m not dying for it. Maybe this old dog can be taught a few new tricks!

So here I am a few hours later, ready to report. Now, keep in mind again that I’m not horribly keen on sugar snacks, but after a long, long day at work I discovered that I hadn’t ready craved sugar at all today. It was interesting but inconclusive. But I’m glad to have tried it and I look forward to trying more and seeing if it really does help when I’m dying for a good sugar buzz.

Mmmm strawberries. I cannot begin to tell you how much of my life has been spent picking strawberries. As a child, I hated it, but now I remember it fondly…isn’t it weird how that happens? So good…strawberry shortcake is the most delicious thing in this world. Especially made with fresh, sun ripened strawberries. As long as I can remember, my mom has had a row or two of strawberries in her yard. When we lived in Michigan and we had room to garden (and soil that was more than just clay), we had tons of strawberries. Tons! But then we moved to Tennessee, and the soil there was not as habitable, but she still managed to squeeze some delicious berries out of that red clay. So strawberries and strawberry flavored things that actually taste like strawberries always remind me of her and of that gorgeous garden she kept in Michigan. Of course, they also remind me of the time I was about 7 and picking strawberries in the garden when I felt some grass brush over my foot. I looked down to see a snake slithering over my foot. shudders I have never screamed so loud in my life. And thus a lifelong fear of snakes was born.

So the real question here is will this matcha be a snake or a shortcake?

Shortcake. Oh my goodness, shortcake. This smelled amazing when I opened the package, like creamy, sweet strawberries. Like, well, strawberry shortcake, to be honest. Guh, I just want to dive into it. I took it to work with me and my mind was blown by it. I kept getting distracted by how good it was. I love a good tea. I’m trying to figure out which six I want to keep in stock and this is a definite front runner. I think mixing this with a little French Vanilla would be out of this world. I love berries so most of my smoothies are berry smoothies…this will be an amazing addition to that particular mix. Now, it doesn’t have that hint of tartness that fresh strawberries do, but that’s okay. I’m in love anyway. It tastes like strawberry candy, but I know Red Leaf Tea doesn’t use artificial ingredients, so I’m very excited to have this. Next time I’m craving a bag of strawberry puffs, I’m going to reach for this instead. Mmmm…maybe I’ll take some of this to work with me today too! (Found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/strawberry-matcha.html)

I have such a love/hate relationship with licorice, and I had to try this one (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/licorice-matcha-organic.html), I just had to. Licorice in tea is one of my favorite things of all time, and the Licorice Mint tea from Red Leaf Tea is a must for me when I’m sick. And while I love allsorts, any other licorice candy is not for me. I just think it’s vile. Every Easter my mother would gleefully sit by as I sorted out all of the black jelly beans from my basket. She was the only one in the family who liked them. Is there anything more gross than popping what you think is a purple jellybean into your mouth, only to discover it was a horrible, horrible, licorice one? Blegh! But allsorts….mmm. They’ve become a bit of tradition in our family. They’re impossible to find in Tennessee, so when I’m sending a package to my folks I always include Coffee Crisp for my mom and allsorts for my dad. That is, if I can keep myself from eating them all before the package goes out! Trust me, it happens more often than I care to admit.

I kept eyeing this tea, adding it to my shopping cart and then removing it in favor of another flavor of matcha, adding it back to my wishlist. I finally bit the bullet and I’m here to find out if this is an allsort or a black jellybean.

It’s not a black jellybean at all! It is a lovely sweet licorice that soothes the throat and makes me unbelievably happy. I was very scared of this blend, but those fears were unfounded. It is delicious and definitely one I need to keep around for when I’m sick but I have to deal with work anyway. Completely lovely. It’s not really an allsort either, it’s the licorice I’ve come to know and love in teas. I should have expected that, but I was scared by the picture on the website.

Licorice tends to polarize people. You either love it or you hate it. I’m one of those who loves it, but my wife is one who hates it. If it’s in a tea, she can taste it, and it bothers her. But for me…oh, I love it and this matcha is beautiful in the balance of flavor to matcha. I want to make a large mug of this, but I have other matchas to taste and review!