laurenpressley

I’m so glad for my new rating system. I think sometimes I didn’t rate things as highly before because I didn’t want to rate everything that highly and I thought I would. I also didn’t want to rate teas too lowly either, so I stuck to the 60-80 range. This tea, though, deserves more! I really like it a lot and am (and will be) keeping it in my cupboard, so it is now in the 90s!

Oh no! This was not what I thought it was going to be! I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this floral tea, but I work on the magnolia campus, so I thought I should give it a try. I wasn’t even able to finish the cup!

No notes yet.

I’ve had this across two tiny teapots, with one resteep each. It’s a decent oolong, but not as good as I was hoping for. I think maybe the name was fun enough to up my expectations, whereas if it were just “oolong” I’d probably have liked it just fine. So far, my fav from Golden Moon is the caramel one… I know I’m ordering tin of that!

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lauren_pressley/tags/orchidtempleoolong/

Backlogging from a while ago. I just found written notes. Must not have been around the computer that day!!

I got a bitter bite with more jasmine than vanilla. I hoped for more of a jasmine tea, but the vanilla was still a bit much for my tastes.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lauren_pressley/tags/vanillajasmine/

No notes yet.

I forget what was going on but I had some sort of a tea crisis and needed some stat and picked this up at the grocery. It’s a decent cup! It’s not something that I’m going to work to make sure I keep on hand, but it’s not something I’d avoid either.

I’m backlogging from last night. I’ve been enjoying my candy cane lane before bedtime, so I wanted another option that would take me past the holiday season. This seems like the classic, so I went with it. I figured it’s not too much of an investment at m left trying to figure out what my bedtime tea might be. I have a box of this+jasmine green decaf on the way. Maybe that will tone down the spearmint a bit… Anyone have a best bedtime decaf/herbal cup?

I made a super strong pot of this today to stand up to soymilk and sweetener. Delicious! I really like traditional chai, but I like Adaigo’s Thai take on it more than their masala.

As I’m trying to work through this sampler pack, I decided to have a cup of this with breakfast. And you know what? It’s really good! You can completely pick up on darjeeling, assam, and ceylon, with bit of keemun in there. In fact, the keemun might be the ingredient that sets this apart. I think if I didn’t already love Brattle Street as my go to breakfast cup, I’d put this in the running. As it is, I might one day have to order a tin. Right now I have more breakfast blend than I know what to do with. I’m glad for this pleasant surprise.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lauren_pressley/tags/englishbreakfasttea/

backlogging from yesterday.

I am totally bummed out that this is nearly impossible to come by in my town. I’ve looked all over and the other Celestial Seasoning Holiday Teas are here, but I’m not really a fan of any of the others. I’ve resorted to purchasing a few of these from the website (with high shipping, and a guarantee to just squeak in here before christmas). It’s totally worth it, though. :)

backlogging & updating my rating to match my new system. :)

Wow there’s a lot of orange in this tea! Natural dried orange, freeze-dried orange, it just seems a bit powerful. I’m not sure what it is (maybe the rose?) but this doesn’t strike me as a christmas tea as much as I expected from the name. It’s okay, but not one I’ll be seeking out again next season.

Update: I’m clarifying my ratings system, and rating the tea now.

Just now had my first cup of this and My! what a punch it has! It’s far better than I expected!

I way oversteeped this. I just forgot I was steeping and looked at the mug and realized it was a lost cup. However. Add a little soymilk and sugar and it wasn’t bad. Not at all.

No notes yet.

This is the last of my sample. There was more than enough for my tiny teapot, but not enough for a cup, so I made a super strong tiny teapot and steeped for a shorter time (thinking of Samovar’s recommendations as I did). I have to echo the hint of peanut butter. Now that I’ve read that, I’m totally getting it, too.

This morning I needed something a little bit special, so I broke out a box of soymilk and grabbed the Sugar in the Raw and whipped up a cup of proper breakfast tea with all the trimmings.

No notes yet.

Just had a cup of this! While it reminds me a lot of other mint chocolate teas, it has a bit of a bite to it. I’m going to have to drink a lot more to figure out exactly what the difference is. ;)

Another year, another cup. It’s good, and more citrusy than I remember. I got a boatload of new teas over the holiday, so I’m looking forward to a bunch of taste tests this week!

I had a cup of this tonight and it was like candy! Perhaps that’s because of the sugar I added. Really, it smelled just like anise to me, and tasted like licorice tea. It also was really pretty while steeping. I recommend this, while listening to Jump, Little Children.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lauren_pressley/tags/whitelicorice/

So I finally dug back into my Golden Moon samples. I’ve had the family stomach bug that 15/17 of us got and wanted some ginger something to sip on. And now, halfway through the cup, I’m seconding everyone else’s comments. I don’t get a lot of ginger here. It’s a decent cup, not something I’d avoid, but it’s also not something that I’d choose if looking for ginger in the future.

Pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lauren_pressley/tags/whiteginger/

This new tea shop opened up in Raleigh. It’s a small storefront, and apparently has existed for some time on the internet. My favorite part is the phone number: tea-yall. This was one of the samples they had out. It was iced and surprisingly flavorful. I’m not a huge herbal fan, so I didn’t get any to take home, but did enjoy the sample.