mattscinto

Ah. Malted Genmaicha. Old reliable. Very exhausting weekend; I had to wake up at 7am Sat/Sun for rehearsals and a gig. Not a very fun weekend. And today, I spent my day doing absolutely nothing. Yay weekends.

Also, I need to get some more tea; I’m sick of the stuff I have now. I want to order from Rishi but they offer no samples and I don’t feel like throwing down 20$+ for teas without tasting. Samovar does it great with the samples, but I usually am forced to pay 10$ shipping. Oh what to do.. I do want to try some of the stuff Rishi has to offer however. Suggestions? :)

Alright, alright. I’ll admit I’m getting back into the swing of things. Needed a quick caffeine boost at 8pm. Good’ol Gunpowder. Mmm. mm.

Hello Steepster!
Yeah so I had spring break last week which consisted of a week of doing absolutely nothing. Needless to say I kinda liked it a lot. But… now it’s back to the grind. I want summer to be here already! What gives! At least this malted Genmaicha is keeping me happy. And sane.

So I’m pretty addicted to the whole “malted” tea taste. It’s really bad honestly. But so good… SO good. I’m tempted to get some more malts from 52teas…

Threw in a packet of sugar into the mixed after steeping for about 3 minutes. Tasted good. I’m sort of losing the genmaicha taste now and getting a whole lot of malt. Maybe I’m just not tasting “hard” enough and just getting obsessed with the malt feel. I’ll put more into it later.

Enjoying a few hundred cups of my favorite green tea..

Mmmm. Made my own little malted latte tonight. Vveery noice. Steeped about a teaspoon and a half of tea in 4oz of water, then added about 6oz of milk and reheated. Mmm. Wunderbar. This is short and sweet. I apologize, however tis sleep time. GOODnight.

I wanted to get this note in before I pass out in my bed and let the ZzzZ’s begin so here we go.

Success! THANK YOU Cofftea for you’re lazy man’s Chai recipe.. it worked wonders! I put in a teaspoon of this blend in 4oz of heated water, steeped for 5 minutes and then added about 6 oz of milk. Reheated, and drank. DELICIOUS! Everything mixed so much better than my last tasting; very malty, chocolate was there and cayenne pepper was much less harsh. Definitely opt for less tea rather than more with this stuff as it can get really hot. Unless you digg that sort of thing. Regardless, I had an amazing latte. I plan on adding some sugar next time. I think that will bring it to the next level. Great. Now I want some more..

I’m proud to say this is the first tea I’ve given a rating of a 100! YES 52teas YOU’VE DONE IT!

But seriously, this stuff is awesome! If you are a fan of genmaicha I HIGHLY suggest you try this blend. It’s so different but so good.

And now for the analysis:
This stuff certainly passes the smell test. The maltiness is certainly there; not overpowering but there. It’s that, quite frankly, malt smelling quality to the smell of sencha and brown rice. And if you are a fan of milkshakes/malts like I am well, please, do indulge on this stuff. I steeped it for a good 3 minutes, throwing in about 2 teaspoons in about 16oz of water. The malty smell REALLY came out strong with the hot water added. De-c-i-lious.

Taste? This stuff is so milky and gets even more so as it cools. I LOVE IT. I will say that the maltiness is primarily the taste I got, followed by the brown rice and then sencha; in that order. The first flavor that hits your palette is the malt. It’s so milky. I was afraid that this tea was going to be all brown rice, since it is a pretty powerful flavor (or at least it was in Adagio’s Genmaicha), but I was surprised to find such a milky, malty flavor in every sip. Excuse me while I enjoy another cup. And go buy some. NOW.

I went to Teavana this weekend to get some tea for my girlfriend and this was one of the samples they had out for tasting. We both drank the samples and fell in love with the taste.. naturally we dropped 16$ for 4oz of the blend (Um a little expensive for 4oz? or is this just me), took it home, and here we are. In the store, it tasted amazingly sweet and bright; reminded me of fruity tootie gum. Then they wafted the mix into our faces, you know, the lid waving “technique” all the employees learn to do, and it just smelled SO GOOD.

Now here we stand. 16$ later and this tea sitting in my cup. Will it live up to my expectations or will it be sitting in dust for the next 6 months? Find out next time…

No but seriously here we go.

I poured a good 2 heaping teaspoons of the mix into my infuser, poured on my water, and let it steep for a little over 3 minutes (prolly around 3:30?). The rooibos tropicana (i like that better than tropica) smell is present throughout, but very light tasting. Jasmine is there. I would best describe it as a light taste of fruitiness with a Jasmine base. It’s not badddd… I don’t know. I think they sugared the crap out of it in the store because it tasted like candy. I didn’t toss any sugar in and didn’t conform to buying the sugar they pressured us into buying along with our tea. Then again, I never put sugar any of my tea so yeah, nothing is ever like crazy sweet. I will say that this tea isn’t dull, but it isn’t very busy. Nothing real complex going on. It’s nice. That’s about it.

Got my order from 52 teas! Was excited to try this stuff after hearing alot of great things.

From the second I opened the package, I was overwhelmed by the spicyness of the cayenne pepper and the sweet smell of chocolate. It smelled AMAZING. I made 2 steeps of this, one with milk and one with just water. Let me say that I’m not rating this just yet because I don’t think I prepared it right at all (that’s where YOU get to help me!) but anyway, let me tell you what I did :) I attempted to make a latte for my girlfriend and I, in which I poured about 16oz of heated milk into about 2 heaping teaspoons of the chai mix. I let this steep for about 5 minutes before pouring. Yes, I realize this was not going to work well. I wasn’t sure how much water to add to the leaves, or whether or not I should have steeped the leaves in X amount of water and then added X amount of milk.. If anyone could give me numbers on these variables, much appreciated :) Regardless, I was able to get a little chocolate flavor in the milk blend, with a strong spicy aftertaste. Like really strong. After finishing these, I resteeped the leaves with water. The chocolate was almost non-existant and I REALLY tasted the pepper now. Sort of off topic but, one thing I will say is that this stuff will be great for anyone with a sore throat or congestion.

Not sure where I stand with this. I feel like my preparation resulted in a sub par experience. Help me! :)

Backlogging from last night.. Bad, I know.

I wasn’t sure whether to log this under Honeybush Mango or Gunpowder, since I went half and half with the two teas. This is now my new favorite blend. I think however, in order to get a better balance, that you should use more of the honeybush mango than the gunpowder. I liked my first blending experiment better, where I used 2 teaspoons of the Mango and 1 of the gunpowder. The veggie taste was still there, but it had an overall sweeter flavor since there was more Mango after all.

Wow. What a week. I don’t know if I’ve just been working too hard or if I’m getting sick, but I’m just exhausted by about 4 pm everyday. Perhaps I just need more sleep. Being a music major is harder than it looks! 4 hours a day just practicing, on top of another 2-3 hours of rehearsal on some days is just killing me. Oh yeah, and 8 AM classes. BOO. Luckily just one more week until spring break.. I can finally relax, sleep in, and even take a shower without shoes on.. you know. The dorm life. Also, perhaps I’ve been listening to too much folk music. It puts me in such a relaxed, tired mood. MORE GUNPOWDER I SAY!

Wow. I discovered the best blend EVERRRR but first lets talk about the stand alone Honeybush.

I ordered a sample of this stuff in addition to my Gunpowder order from Adagio. It had high ratings on the site so I figured I would give it a try. I popped the lid and the mango scent hit me immediately; it smells like candy. I knew this stuff was going to be good. I put in about 2 heaping tea spoons in the infuser, poured my water and let it steep for 6 minutes.

Impressions:
-Mango taste consistent throughout, not too strong (I could make it stronger if I wanted) but also it didn’t need any sweetener in my opinion. The taste was on the surface level, not too complex. After taste was a light and sweet. My mouth tasted of the mango afterwards.
-Cup tended to taste better as I drank it more. I would say that the steep of 6-7 minutes will work great but perhaps bring the temp. down a bit. I could definitely see this tasting great at a cooler temperature or even iced with some sweetener. Actually, not a bad idea :)
-Aroma is deliciousss. This is really one of those teas that tastes like it smells. I love when that happens.

MY PERSONAL BLEND:
So for my second steep I decided to add the overabundance of Gunpowder I have, as I figured it would sweeten up my vegetative cup with a little mango. I tossed in a tea spoon of green tea and let it sit for about 6 minutes. OH boy. this was good. It’s so much more complex this way.. at first I thought I put in too much Gunpowder, as my first couple sips didn’t have much mango flavor. But then, as the cup cooled, the gunpowder and mango blended so well.. an initial taste of green tea and then an after taste of mango and green tea. It’s so gooood. In general with this mix, cooler temp=better. End of the cup was a lot better than the start. I could see this blending with a lot of teas very well. And sure, you can try my own recipe for yourself :)

Such a long exhausting day. This whole week has been a blur. Seriously. You know, the days when you look at the clock and realize it’s 11:30 at night. Where did the day go?! I’m.. ready for spring break. 10 more days..

This tea. I don’t know. I’ve been drinking a lot more of it recently. There’s something about it. I don’t enjoy it too much while I’m drinking it but then after wards I always want to make another cup. What’s the deal Adagio? Do you line your teas with herion? Such a .. strange addiction. I’m excited to get my order of Gunpowder along with a few other samples tomorrow.. and my treats from 52teas should be arriving any day now. I love getting packages.

Been logging this stuff a lot over the past week but then again I did just order another 6 oz..

ANYway..
Let me say that I simply love Adagio. I find their website and service to be the most welcoming of anyone I’ve experienced and they take the confusion out of tea for beginners. I don’t know what it is, but I always get a feeling of ease when I shop with them. Also, since I’m a big twitter addict I love how they send me my shipment updates via Twitter, not to mention their shipping is cheap and quick. Nothin better than that.

But yeah. We all know how I feel about this tea :) Nuff’said.

Backlogging from last night..
Surprisingly tasty, and better than I expected. That good experience might push me to finish the leaves I have left of this haha. I think tossing a ton of leaves in brought out the lemon flavor a lot more than usual and resulted in a change of heart this go around..
I’ll have to see what the next cup says.

I hate Sundays. I think it’s because it’s still a weekend so I don’t feel like doing anything but I still need to do work. The two worlds are clashing. I figured Genmai Cha would brighten my life up a little bit and it did, until I realized I don’t have very much left..

Always an issue at hand. Luckily I’m a sucker for popped rice..

Ah yes. Gunpowder. Hopefully 3-4 cups of you will awaken me from zombie mode. Time to put you to the test.

Finishing up my tin of this, I think I got another cup left. I do enjoy this tea. It has a sweet aftertaste and the subtle taste of a green tea overall, not to mention it smells delicious. I’m honestly not sure how long I steeped my first time.. and this resulted in a slightly bitter cup. Either way, I do enjoy teas that are a bit sweet. Anyone know of any other sweet teas?

Not too too much to say about this tea. Sadly this is my last sample from Samovar.. for now at least :) I’ve had Adagio’s Houjicha and for the most part, I found it to be a little more smokey but not as smooth as this tea. I felt it was a good trade off; I’d rather sacrifice a little bit of smokyness for smoothness any day. Regardless, it had some good nuttyness and definitely was woodsy as the description says. There are twigs in the tea leaves after all…

This tea is a great staple and if your in the mood for drinking a smooth, nutty tea, this is the one. I’m all for exotic tasting teas, but this is one I could see myself having every day without objection.

Here we are again.. finishing up my round of samples from Samovar. Of all the teas I was most excited to try it was this one, although I did find some new favorites this week as well. Blood Orange Pu-erh.. hmm. What to say.. or rather what not to say.

Opening the package is an experience all in it’s own, as I was smacked with the aroma of oranges instantly. And yes, I did like it. The pu-erh-y smell was masked in the dry leaves but really came out after I rinsed them the first time. I’m honestly not the biggest fan of the smell; too fishy for me. Like.. really. Too. Fishy.

I ended up doing two steeps with about 8oz of water, one for 6 minutes and another at 7. There wasn’t too much of a difference between the two, although there was less pu-erh taste in the 7 minute steep. This tea certainly looks like a pu-erh.. very, very dark and bold looking flavor. Now lets talk about the flavor itself..

This tea is interesting. Pu-erh in my opinion is very interesting in general and something perhaps I need to get used to, or rather we all need to get used to. I will say I enjoyed this a bit more than the Maiden’s Ecstasy and I’ll have to contribute this to the strong blood orange flavor. In describing this tea, I think the best way is to say it’s predominately orange in taste, with ginger that tends to bite your tongue a little, while sitting on a pu-erh base. You can certainly tell that this is a pu-erh tea, although the orange tends to mask that very bold earth flavor you get with plain ol’ pu-erh. However, without the pu-erh, I can’t see how the orange flavor could be as dark as it is. You certainly get a dark citrus taste, as I would assume would happen when adding any kind of flavor to Pu-erh. It seems to darken up everything a bit and give it that earthy quality.

I’m not sure what to think of this tea just yet. I’m questioning my rating as I’m not to sure how accurate I’m really being. It’s really subjective. However, I am glad I tried this tea as I do like spicing up my palette with some new flavors. Right now, this isn’t one I can see myself drinking on a daily basis, or perhaps even one I can see myself craving, but it does have it’s place. And… I’m open to pu-erh now. It’s definitely.. different.

AHH. Backlogging from this morning.
I woke up with a craving of this stuff so decided to make a cup really quickly before class. In rushing I actually let it steep too long (ironically enough) so it was a tad bitter but still good. I dunno. I love the taste of buttered spinach and this stuff reminds me so much of it. Great staple tea in my opinion. Anyone know of any other brands that are good? I’ve only had Adagio’s Gunpowder and I wonder how it stacks up to other companies.

Oh. Oh wow.
Seriously.
I’ve had mint teas before, you know, the run of the mill altoid dissolved in water, or 1 part listerine 3 parts water. Those sorts of mint teas. Then I opened my sample back of this stuff from Samovar and WOA. Hold up. It’s Christmas all over again.

I heated my water, steeped the stuff for 3 minutes and plunged my head into my cup. I wanted to live in there. I also stuck my nose into my infuser.. the combination of mint and steam lit my nostrils on fire. Not a pretty sight.

From the second I took my first sip, I knew this was the good stuff. The peppermint was so powerful, but yet so complex. Okay, the peppermint was there. Candy canes, yes, check those off. Then what was this other taste? It seemed so familiar. It wasn’t a licorice taste that reminded me of Twizzlers.. no. It was reminiscent of an earthy licorice. Ah yes. Fennel. And I happen to love chewing on the stuff.

And the aftertaste… oh well I think that’s the best part. Sweet, yet with a strong minty taste. It’s still lingering. I found it amazing that I was able to get such a tingley feel on my tongue, like I just finished eating an actual peppermint. Did I mention sweet?

But seriously, this is one of the best teas I’ve had. Reordering… now!

Let me say that this is my first time trying Pu-erh and it was certainly an… experience. I’ve heard a lot about this blend from Samovar and was pretty excited to try. In terms of smell, there really wasn’t too much until the leaves were wet; the dry leaves smelt earthy but weren’t strong by any means. I followed the suggestion Samovar gave to rinse the leaves before drinking, so I tossed my first steep. After I did that, the smell was much stronger in my infuser. To be honest, at first, I was a little put off by the smell; it was extremely fishy. However, after the second steep, the smell turned into more of an earthy, wet-forest smell. It was certainly different than any tea I’ve tried before.

The color was certainly new to me. I’ve never seen a tea so dark, almost coffee-like in color. It looked like a very bold tea, and certainly upon drinking I came to discover it tasted as dark as it looked. It had a very, very earthy taste to it. I steeped for 3:30 the first time and found that the taste was extremely dark, but smooth. It wasn’t bitter; just a very deep flavor. It wasn’t light or bright by any means. As I drank more, and the tea cooled down, I started to get a faint sweet aftertaste. At first, I’ll admit, I didn’t think I liked it. I thought it was too strong and foul-smelling. But now, seeing as I’ve had a few cups of it, I kind of want more. There is a sweet taste lingering on my tongue. I ended up trying a bunch of different steep times, again at 5 minutes, 6 and 7. I found that 6 minutes was the best for me. The tea didn’t taste as dark or dirt-like and was a little bit sweeter. Like a dark fruit sweet.

Overall Observations:
-Very Dark tea
-Smells of wet-wood, and a little fishy for the first couple of steeps. This smell lets less and less fishy over time.
-Extremely dark taste; much more earthy than any green tea I’ve had (I like to think of it as a very dark Hojicha), taste seems to brighten up more if you let it steep for longer.
-Easily get a lot of steeps out of a serving, and your cup will not get more bitter as a result of adding more steep time.
-Very different tea. I’m excited to try the Blood Orange Pu-erh blend. I think citrus will work nicely with this taste.

Everyone should try this at least once in their tea-drinking adventures. I seemed to enjoy it more and more as I kept drinking it.

Wow. Long week and even worse one coming up. Three exams in 2 days is never fun. Within these stressful days I was looking forward to getting my Samovar bundle of samples. Surprisingly they shipped within a day of ordering and I actually got it within 2 days of shipping. A+ service in my opinion. Delivery estimate was the 22-25th.. and I received it yesterday.

Anyway, I was eager to try the first of my tea samples, and what a better tea to kick it off with the ever popular Ryokucha. With all the ranting and raving I knew this stuff had to be good. I mean, if your going to call it “tea crack”, then I guess it’s got some serious credibility.

I followed the steeping instructions on the bag it came in. When I first opened it, the smell of Genmaicha hit me; very similar to the Adagio blend which I’ve been drinking for a couple weeks. The matcha was clearly visible; the pieces of brown rice were a vivid green and overall the smell was somewhat different that the Adagio Genmaicha. I’ll have to credit this to the matcha powder. I heated my water, poured the contents of the baggie into my infuser, poured my water in, and let it steep for a full 3 minutes. It brewed a bright green color. It looked quite delicious.

IMPRESSIONS:
When it first hits your palette, the brown rice flavor is definitely there. It stands out strong and lasts throughout the first sips. In terms of after-taste, I wasn’t getting the sweet, matcha flavor a lot of people were talking about. It was vegetative, but not so sweet. Then again, it was smooth; there was no harshness at all. The taste of Genmaicha was certainly there, although the matcha seemed to be a little hidden. I was a little disappointed in this regard. I did experience the “milkiness” towards the end of my cup, and then a noticed the matcha powder was sitting on the bottom. Maybe I needed to stir the tea around a bit before drinking. I ended up steeping a second and final time, although not much changed. I tasted the brown rice and vegetativeness of the tea but the milkiness was pretty masked by the other flavors. I will say however that between steeps I did have a sweet taste in my mouth. And this did make me want more :)

I guess my only gripe is that this didn’t taste much different than Adagio’s Genmaicha; maybe my sample wasn’t too great or perhaps I steeped it too long or too little. Other than that, it is a great genmaicha. I can see myself reordering.