jessica

so after leaving the country for a bit, i am glad to say i am back to my dear tea journals on steepster! i really had to take a personal break from this type of writing, so i thought my summer break was a perfect way to do so!

i am extremely happy to say that this was a great tea to revive my steepster tasting notes with. although august is just beginning i can sense autumn on it’s way… or perhaps that is my own itching for autumn weather with warm mugs of tea…

perhaps it is that nostalgia that has driven me to make this cozy tea with a splash of soy milk! delicious!

mid afternoon mini monsoon calls for a nice milky, warm blend of masala chai! sure summer isn’t the typical time people think of undertones of cinni, cloves, carda… but then again my tea cravings are far from typical. so hah.

lovely with a steep brew and whole milk. and of course brown sugar!

yes, summer rain is now movie worthy! :)

it was 100 degrees in nyc! someone please give me frost bite! with no AC in my office i thought i was going to pass out. no worries though a quick pitcher of peppermint brought back my sanity as well as my coworkers’!

sure you can have any peppermint tea because it is such a “typical” tea. but honestly this tea is different. pure. clear. crisp. like a breeze of fresh winter in a good way.

after my 4 day hiatus from tea note writing, this tea makes me want to jot down some comments. first of all, the tin was a pain to open. upon prying it with a kitchen knife, i was floored to smell a mix of fruity and floral flavor! with the weather in nyc rising to 100, i decided to ice this white tea and enjoyed myself a solid cup of iced tea.

this is noteworthy! midnight blue is quite lovely

a middle ground okay lukewarm whole leaf green tea…
i enjoyed a nice warm cup of this right before lunch, but after 3 sips i realized that this tea was sort of like bland cereal—it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great. yes, that grassy flavor was there but it wasn’t really the I CANT STOP DRINKING THIS (in a good way) type of reaction i was hoping for.

not bad. but not good.
bland cereal tea.
at least it is fair trade

monday morning blues after quite a weekend: ze solution :::::: green tea powder? rushed out the door and didn’t have time to steep a tea so i tried this sample out.
while the flavor did not rival that of true loose leaf greens, this gave me a quick boost and made my mood a little more jovial…

good taste for powder. i can imagine that this would taste deeelicious sprinkled onto vanilla icecream! i guess i will save that for tonight’s dessert!

after the disappointing floral taste in the “oasis” green tea floral blend, this conventional tea bag looking tea has a nice kick of jasmine. good thing i do love jasmine tea although i was a bit disappointed with the overpowering of the more earthy flavors of the green tea…

all in all though a nice afternoon booster.

yes! nomnomnom. 3 rounds necessary

wow! welcome to nyc’s horrible transit line. woke up with 3 snoozes, the subway didn’t stop at my normal stop so i had to grab a cab so i wouldn’t be late to work. i know this is supposed to be a “tea note” but of course i am ranting because who wants a thursday morning like that ! geez. so to calm myself down i listened to some good old david bowie and am making myself a cup o tea.

hmmm maybe this wasn’t the best choice to brighten my day. i thought the floral would do a nice pick me up but i wasn’t too stunned with the flavor. it wasn’t really green and it wasn’t really floral. it was hardly and oasis… meh i guess i will have to revert to my favorite genmaicha later.

Funny how I mention every time that i don’t really love fruit infusions, but end up drinking them constantly in the summer. I think it is because after a good hardy meal I want something light, crisp and sweet. So of course today I opted for a “mango” flavored tea. I don’t know how many people have tried Indian Mango Lassi (a type of mango smoothing that is typically served in many Indian restaurants), but I was craving one and so I decided to go for the mango tea instead.

To my sad dismay this tea was more sour than sweet. Mayhaps the sourness was coming from the attempt to imitate “yoghurt” but nonetheless it was a disappointment. I ended up drinking it iced any ways…. O well

had a nice bowl of pasta for lunch and was hoping to wash it down with something sweet and refreshing! i bought this tin of tea a few months ago and have been looking for a good time to try it out. i love the blend of green and black teas with the subtle fruit flavor. whereas some artisinal blends loose the essential flavors of the tea itself, this one did not shame the leaves while also adding a touch of floral and fruit!

After lunch (or if I am quite frank, all day), I have been craving something sweeet! So attempting to practice some self control, I grabbed myself a cup of tea. As it is summer, I am trying a bunch of fruity “herbal infusions,” which is something I try to stay away from in all other seasons.

So I tried out this sample that I had of German tea. I wasn’t sure how it would taste but the first thing i noticed were the freeze dried oranges! I was happy to actually see fruit in this infusion… .nonetheless the flavor itself was disappointing… it wasn’t bad (don’t get me wrong) it just did not live up to its smell…

Although the citrus was nice it could have used a little more grapefruit flavor… the orange was dominating. Not ecstatic but this will do for now. A different cup in the afternoon…

i was craving something sweet and cold so i brewed this tea and added a dash of coconut milk. it was nice and refreshing but i feel like there could have been more of a punch…

i have many thoughts but for sake of simplicity and honesty, i am keeping the description to this tea in one phrase:

this is why you drink loose leaf.

i am not a fan of tazo at all. when it first came out i was impressed with its packaging and interesting flavors (particularly passion tea), but later as starbucks continued to push the line… my enjoyment of the tea declined. more importantly the quality of the leaf is lacking….

regardless, i did enjoy this tea’s ability to conjure up a strong blueberry flavor that reminded me of blueberry muffins! i couldn’t taste the cranberries so much, but i do think that it did its job as a fruity white tea… and pretty good for tazo

Egh. it was one of those mornings when you wake up too early and you can’t fall back asleep… well for those deep sleepers out there i guess that is pretty unimaginable, and i am envious. But yes, it was one of those mornings. As a result I ended up eating three cream puff pastries… and was wanting something wheat-like but instead continued on my sweet tooth rage by brewing a fruity black tea.

I was automatically a little off put by the fact that the aroma was not too strong and there were no bits of real fruit in the loose leaf mix. After a slight steep you could smell the hint of apricot more than the peach… and the taste was more black than fruity. I guess that is good for me as those cream pastries were too sweet anyways, but if i grabbed this tea on a day I was craving a fruity kick of goodness I would have been disappointed.

There is one spice in the world that will always make me smile and that I will always crave…. dum dum dum CINNAMON! gah! i love cinnamon anything and everything so perhaps that is why my rating for this tea is a bit biased. Nonetheless I must say that this tea is a delicious dessert for the day! No sweetening needed because it is naturally so sweet… And let me tell you if you smell the box well you are going to get a big strong whiff of a cinnamon stick… in a good way.

Although I loved the smell, which was reminiscent of the holidays, and I loved the packaging, I think that the quality of the leaves could have been better. But all in all it was the perfect afternoon cup

Lupicia is probably one of my favorite tea bag companies because they do not sacrifice the quality of the leaf because of the packaging. I wanted something strong but fruity. The first thing that I noticed was the red cherries. I enjoyed the smell but I must agree with the other posts that the competing flavors was a bit too much for me. The first few sips were enjoyable but after that I think that my tastebuds were a bit confused.

The tea overall was okay but I feel like it could have been a more simple blend.

So, I am not normally an herbal infusion fanatic (fruit blends that have no tea leaves in them whatsoever) but since the weather is hot and I can’t eat icecream all the time, I have been trying out some fruity ways to make a refreshing tea drink.

I tried this out with a friend after shopping in Soho and I really loved it. Rather than adding a splash of lemonade I added sprite and some wine to make a sangria like watermelon tea…. the tea on its own is also delicious but this a great mix up!

So, I am not a big tea bag person because you can tell that most of the tea bag leaves have gone through the crush and tear process…. but I was impressed that the tea leaves (for green tea) were at a moderate to good level.

I must say this was a convenient way to have an iced tea ready to go during my morning rush! It was great not sweetened but surely a different quality from drinking loose leaf green tea. Still, if you need a quick iced green tea with a good flavor I would recommend this teabag

I noticed that all the postings are about how this tea tastes hot and since it is summer time, I thought I would try this tea chilled. I recently went on a tea shopping spree and wanted to try a good “roasted green tea.” I steeped a strong amount of this roasted tea in 175 degree water and let it cool. Then I added cold water and ice.

After refrigerating it, I enjoyed as a nice refreshing afternoon drink! I liked it a lot it was a toasty flavor (still despite the cooler temperature) that reminded me of barley tea that I used to drink in Korea. All in all I though this was a nice variation on a normally “wintery” drink.

So I have been trying to find different ways to incorporate tea into cocktails and I came upon this “strawberry margarita” flavored tea. I know I should have been weary of it, but the fact that it was made out of Orange pekoe and black teas sold me.

I tried it today over ice with a dash of honey. It was lovely. Basically tasted like a virgin margarita. Although I enjoyed it overall, I felt like the flavor was a bit artificial and would have been better with a splash of alcohol…

I bought this tea hoping for a cup of tea that is fragrant yet strong. I did not really get any berry flavory at all and it tasted more like a strong white tea.

I would not recommend getting this if you are looking for something fruity.

the first thing that i noticed and loved was the packaging, which had steeping time recommendations as well as brewing tips. then when i opened the package, i felt like someone was cutting strawberries on a spring day with the sunlight streaming in. in short the smell was heavenly! beyond the smell you could tell that the quality of the tea was ideal as the leaves were not too dry and there were full (not crushed) rose petals.

i brewed this tea after a heavy brunch and the green tea with hint of rose with vanilla (which gave it the fruity taste) was a perfect way to clean the leftover taste of potatoes and eggs.

although it is recommended to be enjoyed with milk i loved the tea simply with water.