Lisbet

Do you know how muggy it is in Houston right now? Well, actually, it’s not too bad- only 77% humidity and 82 degrees- downright mild, by Houston-in-June standards. Not to be deterred, I made a big ol’ pitcher of iced Champagne Mojito and stuck it in the fridge. It seemed to call for a straw- wanna see the cool glass straws I have? You should totally buy some: http://www.glassdharma.com/sets.html (the dots’ set).

But I digress… this tea kinda grew on me as an iced tea. It mostly tastes of spearmint, but there may be something like dry champagne behind it if I’m not mistaken. I wish there was at least a slight lime kick to this.

I learned an important lesson today, folks… and that lesson is- no matter how big of a chocoholic one is, one should not pick chocolate chips out of one’s tea. The lil chip had essentially taken on the taste of the rooibos, not to mention the bits of rooibos that clung to it and that I was unwilling to go to great lengths to remove. I mean, c’mon, I was already being so lazy as to pick chocolate chips out of tea when I have chocolate in the house.

Brewed, this one tastes to me like… rooibos, mixed with what tastes a bit like a very watered down hot cocoa. It’s faintly chocolatety, but not enough that I’m digging on it. I think it smells more chocolatey than it tastes, but the smell is mostly of the cacao nibs. For some odd reason I don’t find that the chocolate chips really dissolve much for me. I take a chopstick after the tea is done brewing and try to moosh them up a bit. So odd….

I think I need to stop caving into chocolate themed teas (some of you will be nodding and going DUH), because they almost always disappoint. It’s hard to make a good rooibos chocolate blend, I guess. I don’t want tea makers to resort to spray-on artificial cocoa either, so I guess I’ll just do without after I finish this tin.

Wow, this one tastes just like the Neapolitan Honeybush to me! Uncanny. This doesn’t wind up being a bad thing, as I liked the Neapolitan.

I have been using this one lately to experiment with tea lattes, but I wouldn’t call the experiment successful yet because it’s still not as good as one I’d get at a shop. So, tell me what I am doing wrong:

-Steep 1 cup (8oz) of water with tea. Add agave nectar to taste while doing this, plus 1 tsp vanilla extract (or almond, or whatever)
-Heat 1/2 cup (4oz) of soy milk (or whatever milk you prefer) – I do 1 min 20 seconds in the microwave.
-Use frothing wand to make plenty of foam.
-Pour steamed milk over tea, scoop on rest of the foam.
-Sprinkle cinnamon.

It LOOKS great but tastes too thin, so I guess I need to either steep a lot more tea or use less water. I tried steeping it extra long this time to no avail.
Here is a photo:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4558670&l=b7d7567f43&id=535762108

I loooooooove lemons, so I rushed to buy this one! I’m hiding indoors where it’s air conditioned today too, so I’m trying this one hot for my first cup. It’s got a very pleasant, tart, lemony taste that reminds me of some of the lemon cream or lemon chiffon blends out there. It’s much more mild than the typical black tea with lemon types on the market, and so far, I’m really enjoying it. I don’t know that I’d be able to identify most of the lemon notes in here, as to my palette it basically just becomes ‘good lemon’, but I’ll bet this one really will make a stellar iced tea. If you’re shopping iced tea-fodder for the hot weather, and don’t stubbornly hide indoors as I do, check this one out.

Kristin sent me some of this (thanks!), and I was eager to try it despite her sad review, because the photo looks so good. Brewed, it tastes of herbs, but not at all of berries. I feel like I’m drinking a cup of sage in hot water. Funny for a brew that advertises itself as fruity… straining to taste something fruity there may be a hint of berry, but only because I’m trying so hard. Meh to this.

Did I not review this one yet? Weird….. anyway, I adore mojitos, but I’ve never had one with champagne. That sounds like a hybrid mojito-mimosa. Either way, a delectable sounding summer tea! I decided to try it iced today, and that actually turned out to be a mistake. The spearmint wound up tasting a bit toothpasty to me, and I couldn’t escape the sensation that I was drinking either that or chewing gum. Hot, it seems to be a somewhat pale mint tea – don’t know about this champagne business, as I don’t detect either that or the lime. I’m not as impressed as I’d hoped to be, considering mojito tea would be at the top of my fantasy flavor list.

Ho-hum, I’m not really digging on much these days, it seems! Maybe it’s me!

I looove chai, but generally choose to make a sort of pseudo-chai using just the spices, so as to refrain from consuming the caffeine. Feeling a bit woogy this morning I thought I’d give this chai a go- and it’s pretty mediocre. Just … vaguely chai spiced. (Not as good as the masala chai from SpecialTeas). I thought the cinnamon chips would stand out, but I don’t taste them at all.

Chai is, however, really great for soothing the tummy.
I accidentally oversteeped this one, and it still tastes a bit…pale… glad that the black tea didn’t turn bitter.

You know, the tea bag seemed a bit under-filled. I know a cup of tea always uses far less loose tea than I expect, but it still looked a bit sad. Revolution teas are always overpackaged, but they’d make good stocking stuffers or care-package add-ons. I’m gravitating towards tea bags as I am heading off to a scary language-intensive training program that involves living in a dorm. I am far too old for dorm living.

This brewed really dark for a white tea- as dark as a black tea, actually. Not promising. I’m also discovering that it really doesn’t taste like tangerines, or like much of anything. (I swear, my palette is fine this weekend!) I was kinda unimpressed by this tea in the bag too, as it looked a bit sawdusty. I do smell the tangerine in the form of a kind of bitter orange rind, but it just doesn’t come through in the flavor… or, if it does it’s doing too close of an impersonation of plain black tea for me to be that thrilled.

Yeah, this one just tastes like rooibos to me. I swear, I steeped it enough- but no ridiculousness involved. It’s just bland and weirdly flavorless. I’m sure I tried the right sample that K sent, as the packet smells strongly like raspberry- but sheez, nothing going on in my cup.

Well, my headache came back, and I was reading that mint tea can cure headaches (it’s even in the description on here). Don’t get me wrong, I popped an ibuprofen first, but I’m finding what is essentially a plain mint tea to be very calming right now. I don’t think there’s anything special about this at all- but sometimes that’s what I’m in the mood for. Mint tea, unlike my previous teas of the day, is a great antidote to the hot, humid weather. It cools my mouth and body, despite being hot.

No notes yet.

Oohhh thank you so much to Kristin for facilitating my tasting of this one while I’m trying to pare down my teas in anticipation of living in a DORM this summer. It’s delicious smelling, definitely reminiscent of a coconut dessert. When I put this one on to steep I had a massive headache that wouldn’t die, and I needed something to make me feel better. It actually took my headache away, no lie. Placebo effect, I’m sure.

When brewed, I find it hard to believe that this is a tea! It reminds me of the taste of the coconut milk powder that I ordered a long time ago, and stirred into a few teas before the powder somehow got “weird” in my humid kitchen. Also, I imagine this could be heavenly sweetened.

I’m not enraptured by this tea, per se, but I really do like it enough to buy it, particularly because all of the other coconut teas that I’ve tried that have tasted this strongly have ended up really greasy when brewed. I’m glad that the tea doesn’t look like an oil spill.

I feel thoroughly appreciative of all things modern right now as I sit and drink this indoors in the AC while it’s 91 degrees outside and humid. Having had the AC broken last week, I am willing to offer it whatever sacrifice it demands to keep it up and running. Sorry environment- my otherwise aggressive eco-hippiedom breaks down here.

I think what I’ve learned on steepster today is that there is a restaurant called P.F. Chang’s- actually, I do think I remember passing by it in Chicago when I lived there. That said, I am actually drinking this at home as part of a Revolution sampler pack (love sampler packs…) Dragon Eye is a really nice oolong, with just a hint in it of what tastes like peach- but just a hint. It really is very relaxing somehow, and I’m glad that I wound up inadvertently trying it among my miscellaneous samples. I’m about to sound like a broken record here, but this’d be a really good iced tea.

I’m not sure a strawberries n’ cream Kitkat from Japan would ever be a recommended pairing with this, but I went ahead and took that risk anyway. When I went to the Tea tastings at Tea Gschwendner they frequently gave us pieces of Vosges chocolates to go with whatever tea we were sipping. My husband thought the chocolate blunted the tea too much, but I loved the combination.

The cute little boxes are admittedly totally unnecessary- and disguise, I think, pretty mediocre tea. I think this might just be plain honeybush-and the caramel tacked onto the name to describe a characteristic of the honeybush itself. Mostly this tastes of pencil shavings- take the taste of rooibos and make it just a little dryer. Not very tasty at all, no sir.

I absolutely love this blueberry tea- the scent is just overwhelmingly blueberry! Blueeeeeberryyy goodness. I love the freeze-dried pieces of blueberry. I won’t lie and say that I cannot taste the (organic) rooibos, but I actually like the taste of rooibos so this is fine. I do seem to be the only reviewer who could make it out though, so perhaps it’s in my mind. Do be mindful not to oversteep this one or it quickly veers into medicinal territory- berry teas tend to do that to me.If you’re getting a hint of the cough syrup, tone down the steepage. I love the Rishi flavors, I really do. Mmmmmm.

Thanks for the sample, Meghann! I really like this one, but I am quite partial to blueberry (about to bake some blueberry muffins, in fact, and I had a blueberry smoothie for lunch). I was careful to stick to the brew temperature and time, and what resulted was a very mild tea that I’d actually like to try iced (I’m on an iced tea kick). I’m not sure this unseats my favorite rooibos blueberry by Rishi, but it’s quite good.

So it turns out that while I might not like pineapple to snack on, I do like it in tea. Or rather, I like fruit+ coconut. This particular 52teas blend tastes mostly coconutty, but it really smells like a pina colada, with a bit of rum in the background. I like that the fruitiness of this is sort of quiet, and I can really see this one growing on me a bunch as I enjoy the rest of the sample kindly gifted to me by Meghann. I may be tempted to throw this one into my next 52 teas order, but we’ll see how my next few cups go.

No notes yet.

I typically can’t stand this one- it’s like drinking warm ‘mixed fruit’ juice. But I’ve just discovered that it’s pretty good iced. Cold, the orange becomes more tart and just slightly bitter. The backdrop of red fruity pieces actually peps this up a bit. It’s like enjoying a refreshing glass of cold juice, but without the cloying sweetness- not saying I’ll buy this again, but it’s got at least one good use.

Oddly I keep finding myself forgetting that I have this sample- proof, I suppose, that I rarely reach for fruity teas. I also don’t like the taste hot as much as I do cold; the tropical cocktail taste just really goes with a cup of iced tea. Do give this one a shot for summer iced teas though!

I have actually found that I really like this tea- for a flavored black that is (not its fault). There’s just something about the raisin flavoring that works with the black, but it took a while for it to grow on me. I really feel as though I’ve crumbled cinnamon raisin toast into my cup, but in a good way. I didn’t expect to like this more as I kept drinking it, no sir. It’s a tasty afternoon cup with a splash of almond milk.

This is SUCH a good idea for a tea blend that I think it needs to be redone. Because my bag is essentially just a plain rooibos tea. Even looking in the bag all I see is plain rooibos. When I sniff it I don’t really get anything but rooibos. And when I brew it there’s nothing else there. I LIKE plain rooibos, but as I’m fond of saying- I can buy it plain when that’s what I want. Totally bummed out that I didn’t get a peanut buttery taste out of this.

This is a pretty weird one- sniffing the dry tea in packet I’d have not known how to identify it if it weren’t for the label. I admired the pineapple pieces in the mix, although I’m not sure why- I hate pineapple, supposedly. When I brewed this, my first impression was that it reminded me of the raisin toast 52teas blend, which isn’t a bad thing. The cherry tones in this just really resembled the raisins in the other. The second brew definitely had a bit of a kind of pineapplely fruitiness to it, unless it was just wishful thinking on my part. I do like this tea, but I’d never on my own identify what it was supposed to be. I wish the cherry came out more.

I adore rooibos and adore gingerbread. So this blend kinda lept out at me, despite it being so humid in Houston right now that I feel like I’m in a sauna every time I step outside- I keep sticking to things. This one doesn’t taste like ginger tea- which is what every other gingerbread blend I’ve ever tried ends up as. It really does taste like gingerBREAD. However, it’s fairly subtle without any sweetener or cream, albeit tasty, and it had actual chunks of gingersnap in it. I definitely wouldn’t compare this one to a chai, which is what I’d been expecting, and I don’t taste the rooibos particularly strongly either. I think I like it, but I’ll definitely be updating my evaluation as I go through the bag. Not sure the gingersnap pieces actually contribute any flavor when left to dissolve with the tea leaves, but they were a nice visual touch.