Michelle

I don’t really get the Earl Grey in here. It’s a bit perfumey, especially in the smell, but when brewed with milk it tastes sort of like any other perfumey black blend. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t get anything specifically bergamot or jasmine in it.

I went into Teavana looking for the Swiss Vervaine, and I managed to snag the last pound of it that my store had. Success! I’m really sad to see that one go – I can see why it might not have sold well, but it was definitely my go-to sick tea. I wanted to smell the CocoCaramel Sea Salt, because it just sounded so weird, but they were all out of that one for the holidays, so the associate asked if I wanted to smell this one instead. Sure, why not.

It smelled good, so I got 2oz of it and took it home. I finally got around to brewing it – and there’s hibiscus.

I don’t smell it, I don’t really taste it, but in a blend that is so almondy and caramelly, it’s downright bizarre that the drink is pink. On top of that, I had a feeling that this would be best with milk, so now it looks like Pepto-Bismol. If I don’t look at the tea while I drink it, it tastes good. But I just can’t get past the pink liquor. It’s like green ketchup. I can’t do it.

Edit I was lazy and didn’t actually look at the ingredients… Turns out its not The Hib at all. It makes sense. It’s beetroot pieces. Still weirdly pink though.

This came in my swap box from TassieTeaGirl! Everything she sent me is so unique – I never really thought about American flavors v. Australian flavors. It’s delicious. I love how it’s a Christmas tea that isn’t especially spicy. Instead, it’s really warm and almondy. The black tea is smooth. I didn’t try it with milk or sugar, but I think it would be really creamy and desserty that way! Resteeps well.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Another delicious sample from Azzrian!

Rainy days are oolong days. This one is deliciously sweet, but still tastes natural and oolongy :)

Brewed Western style, 2tsp/16ish ounces.

I really like this one. I’m stocking up before they discontinue it. It’s good with honey for a sick day :)

Really good: creamy and sweet and a little bit floral. I’m really sad to see the end of the bag – I still have a few more steeps left, but still.

Creamy and heady.

It’s been a hard week.

It’s a good tea.

This came in a holiday sample box from Azzrian. Thank you Azz!!

It smells so decadently vanilla. The aroma is authentic and strong. I steeped 1tsp/8oz/4minutes. The black base is strong, but the vanilla is really creamy and sweet. A little bit of agave and milk and I’m in heaven. A lovely way to start the day after a late night :)

This came from Azzrian – thanks so much!

It’s been awhile since I’ve written, since honestly I haven’t been drinking much tea. But I’m back, baby, I’m back.

I’ve been wanting to try Vintage TeaWorks ever since I heard about them, and I was delighted to find a sample of this in the package from Azzrian. Being 19, I can’t really comment on the accurateness of the Chardonnay, but I feel fancy.

I’m always really a little skeptical of flavored teas, because I want to be able to taste the tea itself. Fortunately, I can here. The oolong is rich and kind of dark, and the fruits compliment it incredibly well. It’s definitely a blend of flavors, with the oolong primarily but with a strong supporting cast.

Delicious!

Really light and sweet. I think I’m going to steep a pitcher of this for my Creative Writing class to try tomorrow. I’ve got to bring some of them over to the Dark Side…

(In other news, we used this tea because of its color to stand in for the whiskey in the show I just did!)

50/50 ratio of Adagio’s Chocolate Chip to Adagio’s Birthday

Creamy and sweet!

Not especially surprised that this one’s been discontinued.

It’s okay, brews a pretty gold color, but it’s a bit flat when it comes to flavor.

After that last mishap with the Sugar Cookie tea, I’m still feeling lazy, and so I reached for a bag.

It’s delicious when drank in combination with a Three Musketeers bar!

Hum, I haven’t figured this out.

The smell is strong and spot-on.

The taste is lacking. Maybe it’s that I’m used to the punch of loose-leaf now, but it was just kind of weak. Last night I put 2 teabags in my 16oz mug with a bit of milk and agave, and it was weak. Today, I put 4 teabags in the same mug, with milk and agave as well, and it’s strong, but not sugar-cookie strong. It’s not sweet enough. Maybe I didn’t add enough agave for the 4 teabags.

If I can figure out how to make this perfect, though, it’ll be delicious.

A pleasant cup, if fairly bland. I taste more of the green tea than I do the pomegranate. It’s a decent green, though, and it’s good to sit here and sip while I NaNo.

My friend gave me a little sample of this to try. Her grandfather bought it apparently at a restaurant in New Mexico. He has since passed away, and neither she nor her father has any idea of how to find it again. She asked me what I thought, and based on her description “smells like the inside of a spice drawer,” I pointed her in the direction of a masala chai.

I was wrong, way wrong. In the sample she gave me, the leaves appear mostly homogeneous. They are rolled into little balls reminiscent of a gunpowder, but they look black. The scent is definitely very strong cinnamon.

When I brew it, it brews a light golden color. The smell isn’t necessarily cinnamon anymore. I suppose it’s still there, but what it really reminds me of is bonfire. Not Lapsang bonfire, but something more… like the smell of fresh wood and wet ground and maybe a little bit of smoke.

The wet leaves have unrolled, first into long strings, and then into full leaves. Just looking at the leaves in strings and fully unrolled, it reminds me of a Wuyi oolong.

Tasting it, it also tastes kind of like that. I do get some cinnamon in the taste, but it’s not as prominent as it is in the dry smell. I wonder if it is some cinnamon-scented Wuyi. I don’t think it’s a black, although maybe it is.

It’s a mystery! I wish I had something to recommend her that was close, but I’m really puzzled. Any idea, Steepsters?

I’ve been waiting for this for awhile.

Opening the bag, the smell is really sweet and strong, like a cherry-flavored cough drop or hard candy. It smells great.

The tea is a light pink color, and it’s delicately sweet. The cherry plays nicely with the appley flavor of the chamomile.

Bizarre.

This came in the herbal sampler pack. My friend bought it for when DEV came to sing at our school, but DEV didn’t want it, so she gave it to me instead.

I didn’t really know what I wanted for tea, but I picked up this box, and there was a peppermint.

It doesn’t really taste like peppermint, though. It’s minty, but at the same time there’s a weird taste to it. It’s like it tastes like there’s tarragon and licorice in there as well. Maybe it’s not good quality peppermint? I never have this problem with Harney.

Oh well.

Murr murr murrr.

I remember liking this one a lot, and I haven’t had it in a long time.

It needs milk and sugar. I have sugar, but no milk. The tea is overly astringent and the cream tastes fake. With sugar (well, agave), it’s just weirdly sweet.

I remember this being really good as a latte, but not all on its own.

This was sent to me as a free random sample from Teaves Tea Company. Thanks!

I tried this once awhile ago, and didn’t like it, so I put it away for a time when I’d be able to give it my full attention.

The leaves are pretty. Strands of what look like calendula run through the black leaves, and there are big hunks of ginger. I smell a strong scent of ginger.

Unfortunately, when I brew it, that’s about all I taste. It tastes like a black ginger tea, not like a ginger peach tea. There’s something sharp about it, and I wonder if the black tea is a bit of a cheaper quality. It reminds me a bit of an Adagio style blend.

It’s okay. I’ll definitely drink it, and I feel bad leaving a “meh” review as the first review on a tea, but what can you do.

Song of the night: I and Love and You – The Avett Brothers

Edit: Much less harsh on resteep. A bit peachier, but mainly just less astringent.

This was sent to me by Autumn Aelwyd. Thanks!

I do love TGYs. They’re so floral and buttery and creamy and sweet. Green oolongs are definitely my favorite oolong. Maybe my favorite tea variety.

For some reason, oolong has become the category of tea for weekend night Doctor Who marathons. It just feels right. I brewed a big 20oz TARDIS mug full of this, and resteeped the leaves halfway through. Delicious.

Not-Tea Review

Can we talk for a moment about how much I love Daylight Savings Time?

After our second night show (it was not a slump, but I’m not sure I should repeat our term for it on here ;) ), we all went out to Eddie O’s, a bar/restaurant downtown. By the time we got there it was late enough that no one was really sitting down and eating; most of us just got appetizers and split them. As the night wore on and everybody got drunker, we lost most of the people that had come with us. Finally it was almost 2, and we got up to leave – before realizing that we had to turn back the clocks, and it was actually only 1!

So we migrated outside, where it was cold, and those of us who were of age were very drunk. We ended up home around 1:30 ultimately, and I’m using this time to NaNo.

So I made a cup of tea to help me with that. I’ve already written about 1k tonight, and I’m aiming for another 800 before I go to bed. And then I’ll finish the other 800 sometime later today, and hopefully get ahead.

Tea Review

I haven’t had this tea in awhile, and I have to say, it’s still really just okay for me. It’s a delicate chai, which is good, as I’m not huge on strong ones (and we don’t have any milk right now), but it’s just not my thing.

I don’t know why I got this tea. I picked it up the last time I was at home, but it took me about a month to get around to trying it.

It’s good. Oh, it’s good.

The leaves smell kind of musty, like opening up an old book. It actually kind of smells like a library, in a way.

It’s so smooth. I poured the water over the leaves, and as it passed through the strainer it immediately turned gold. I worried a bit – was it going to get too strong? My morning teas usually end up with about a 7 minute steep because I brew them on my way to class.

It wasn’t astringent at all. It wasn’t even overly malty, which can turn my stomach if I’ve not eaten anything. It was strong, but really, really smooth.

After that class, I filled the mug up with hot water. I wanted to resteep the leaves, but I didn’t feel much like drinking it during my next class. So I left it there, and let it steep until lunch (~3 hours). I know that the water I resteeped it with was less than boiling, maybe 180 or so.

And it wasn’t astringent at all. In fact, there was a beautiful sort of honeyed sweetness that came out of that.

I really regret only getting 25g. The next time I’m in Boston with Boy, I’ll make him stop in so I can get some :)

The last of this sample from the summer is keeping me company over a late night. It’s the third steep, and it’s still going. Thank God.

This is the first time I’ve ever really had Hell Week for a show. Sure, I’ve had rough weeks, but I’ve never had a show this bad: a props-heavy show where I’m not allowed to help with set changes because I needed to be on book until the week of the show; the biggest scene change occurring as quick change because you “can’t break for intermission there;” a director who’s so obsessed with being perfectly period she wants us to print out paper labels and tape them onto beer cans so that the label is right.

I can’t take it anymore. I’m crackin’ up.

On the plus side, I love my cast to death. I’ve never had a Hell Week before but I’ve never loved my cast as much as I do now. Sigh.

Tomorrow’s going to be absolutely awful. I have my 7:30 class and then I have to teach until 3, and then I absolutely have to meet my professor sometime between 3:30 and 4:15 because I missed the meeting I was supposed to have today, and then I have one rehearsal, and then I go straight to this rehearsal… It’s gonna be horrid. And I’m doing it all completely exhausted.

Sorry.

Tea.

This tea is getting me through the night. It’s so creamy and smooth, and it’s a darker oolong but it’s not especially rocky. The vanilla tastes so natural that originally I didn’t think I tasted any vanilla. I don’t taste any vanilla flavoring, that’s the difference. Bravo, Tea Merchant. Bravo.