Jessie

I stopped in at Tealuxe and puzzled over their tea menu for a while before this one was suggested to me. I was so happy to see that they had a coconut pouchong! I want to try as many as I can get my hands on. So, I got a cup to go and 50 g. It smells, predictably, divine. It’s also tasty, but I find it tends to brew up bitter so I have to be careful with it. It’s delicious but I don’t think it really stands out from the pack, so I think Tealish is still my pick for a good balance of quality, accessibility, and price.

Tealuxe’s tea room and sitting area were lovely, just for the record!

Last week, I was in Boston to see Morrissey and hang out for a few days. I took advantage and drank some teas that are harder to get up here. Unfortunately for this one I tend to agree with a few of the other reviews in thinking it was pretty flat. Overbearingly, one-note, harsh cinnamon. I’m not going to rate it as I am pretty finicky about cinnamon in teas.

Yeah, I don’t care. I’m just going to say it: I have been loving this stuff lately. It’s delicious. It’s probably the most satisfying apple and/or cinnamon tea I’ve had.

I’m even going to admit that I get milk in it because the first time around I thought it was black tea. It was tasty and comforting so I repeated it. I get it on the way into work and it sits steeping until I get settled in and the phones die down and I finally have time to drink it, and it’s lovely. Also really fragrant! People have been asking me what it is.

No shame here.

I’m feeling rather odd about this one. It tastes good. It’s sweet, it’s black tea. It’s very sweet in what I’m coming to view as a generic sort of way. I actually don’t taste chocolate at all! It tastes like caramel to me. And, while you can’t fault a tea for tasting like caramel, that wasn’t why I bought this. My gentleman friend got one to go from the store, with milk, and when I had a sip and told him it didn’t taste like chocolate he didn’t know what I was talking about; not knowing what red velvet cake is and the tea tasting like caramel had him confused. Anyway. I’ve since had it at home a couple times and while I won’t be upset to use it up it is another that I’m not going to feel compelled to re-buy.

I barbarically over-steeped this one (Western style in one of my Tea Forte set-ups) this morning, on my first try, but it was still fantastic! A little over-astringent but not quite bitter. Actually, it was beautifully sweet with great earthy, spicy cocoa notes. One steep only, unfortunately. I’ll have more to say when I make it back to this one.

This one was interesting and I didn’t hate it, but I just haven’t been won over. I think I have an issue with some particular variety of cinnamon, found in this and in a lot of 52Teas teas. It just leaves a weird feeling in my throat and doesn’t appeal to me the way cinnamon usually does. Anyway, the tea is earthy, and it’s sweet at the same time. It wins points for being an interesting combination, and because I like the idea of it.

I think this stuff is great. I bought two bottles but was pretty convinced I was going to be disappointed/weirded out by them. Not so. They went fast. It’s actually very clean-tasting and refreshing: straight-up strong-brewed oolong flavour. It’s also one of the only not-water bottled beverages I feel comfortable drinking. I wish I could find more places that stock this!

Thanks so much to Peony Tea S. for their generous samples, which arrived safely and very quickly!

This is very nice. I went with four infusions in a gaiwan, and it held up admirably well, mellowing a bit in the third and fourth rounds. It’s quite bold. It has a nice, roasty Oolong flavour with a touch of spicy-sweetness. A little smokey, too.

I am, unfortunately, not enjoying shincha #2 as much as I enjoyed shincha #1 (which was the Minekaori). However, I had a bad splurge impulse last week and ordered up some more shinchas (as well as cute this houhin: http://www.yuuki-cha.com/images/large/BZhouhin5943_LRG.jpg) so I have more to try. By the by, ordering from Yuuki-Cha is such a pleasure.

I’m finding that this one features a very fine line between not flavourful enough and too bitter. When I manage to brew it in that sweet spot, it’s very sweet but quite mild. It has a similar buttery hay flavour as the Minekaori, but milder. If I go a bit too long, it’s quire bitter. Still an excellent tea that I’m not sorry to have to finish up, but not a contender for favourite.

I had this one at the cottage on the weekend, and all went as usual. I find this a nice lazy morning tea. But, I left the second cup to chill for me to come back to later as I thought it would make a lovely iced tea. When I did, it was incredibly bitter! So bitter that it was unpleasant to drink. I’ve never experienced that before, when a tea is nice and light hot but bitter cold. I think this would be nice cold-brewed, though.

My cat woke me up (for a second time) this morning, earlier than I was planning to get up. I wear an insulin pump with tubing that runs to an infusion set on my abdomen, a continuous glucose monitor sensor on my upper arm, and a medical alert bracelet for type 1 diabetes. These medical accoutrements have become targeted by him. This otherwise pretty sedentary 20-pound lug gnaws enthusiastically and mercilessly at one or all of them when he doesn’t feel he’s been fed quite recently enough. I preferred his chewing on hair phase, to be honest. Anyway, at a certain point it ruins the indulgence that was meant to be “sleeping in”.

So, I thought I would make the most of it and get up and enjoy the morning. I had my gaiwan and setup already out ready to go, so I went for the heap of Tao Tea Leaf samples I still have from a couple months ago, thinking any of them would be a sure thing.

Unfortunately, I’m having an odd experience with this one. I botched the first two infusions by not realizing I only had the Zojirushi set to 175. The leaves had a slight roasted, woody scent, and the liquor came out rich and orange-brown, but I wasn’t getting much from it. Only a slight mineral taste. I heated some water to 195 separately, for the next three infusions, but had only a slight improvement. It was a little more smokey-tasting, but still very underwhelming. Is it me? Is it the tea? Is it my water? I don’t know!

This is one of two shinchas I ordered from Yuuki-cha, and it’s made up the bulk of my at-home tea drinking over the past few weeks. It’s delightful, and I am quite taken by the novelty of drinking tea harvested only a couple weeks before I receive it! Over the past several months I’ve been drinking mostly Chinese teas, so this is a nice return to Japanese greens.

The leaves, post-infusion, are the most vibrant green ever. They don’t look spent the way less fresh tea does after steeping. The liquor is also an amazingly vibrant yellow-green.

While it’s steeping, it smells like delicious freshly-cut hay. It might be odd to term any type of hay “delicious”, but I grew up spending most of my time in stables and often helping bale hay, so I have good associations with the scent and have always found it really nice, simultaneously refreshing and comforting. The liquor after the leaves are strained smells a little more earthy, and more buttery.

The butter really carries over in the flavour. It tastes like snow peas swimming in butter. It has a nice, full mouthfeel to match and a savoury-sweetness. It’s moderately astringent, but not bitter at all. So lovely! I get three really solid steeps out of this.

This one’s interesting. I kept getting a nagging voice in my head telling me I was drinking Secret Weapon, based on the scent. It’s indeed similarly nutty, obviously, but quite sweet. I like it. I’m not sure how I feel about the massive Brazil nuts, though I acknowledge that’s kind of the tea’s whole gimmick. But, how much flavour do whole nuts actually impart? All I know is nuts are heavy! Anyway. Aside from that, and the slight bitterness that came out even at 3 minutes at 200 degrees, I enjoyed it.

Oh, Steepster. I’ve been quite MIA for some time now. I’m so behind on the things I’ve been drinking! I’m going to ease back in with this one, which I’ve had a few times now both iced and hot.

I found this one a really pleasant surprise! It’s a well-balanced, straight-up blueberry black. I haven’t had a blueberry tea I’ve liked, so this carries the distinction of being the first. The stevia doesn’t interfere too much (though I still find it an odd choice to be in so many blends). I’ve had it iced from the store a couple of times, and it’s flavourful enough to be satisfying while a lot of DT’s teas can be underwhelming iced in-store.

Herbal Infusions very kindly included a freebie pouch of this in my order some time ago when they were sold out of a tea I’d ordered (though they also substituted a different tea for me). I’m so glad! This is delicious. It’s simple so I was prepared to be underwhelmed, but it’s the most faithful fresh apple tea I’ve had. It just tastes like apples. I’m sure it would be delicious iced, but I’ve had it hot a few times as I find it a very comforting nighttime tea.

Sadly, I don’t see it on their site anymore.

Despite being totally jaded by my poor experience with Tea Leaves’ tea of the month subscription, the tea is piling up so I need to dig in. It’s now been a year since we ordered it and only 7 of the packages have arrived (and two of those were within the past two weeks!), at seemingly random intervals.

The teas are still lovely, though. I haven’t had a lot of experience with straight, unblended Keemun but I’m enjoying this as my first cup of the day. It’s sweet, and a little woodsy and smoky. I’m also getting some spicy, peppery notes from it which I’m not particularly in the mood for lately but it’s not so overbearing to be unpleasant.

This is a crazy tea! I can’t believe how much fizz is going on here. It’s citrusy with a punch of tart lime and spice. It really tastes (and feels!) like some sort of limey carbonated beverage. I will probably save the rest to make iced, because this one is begging to be chilled.

I am writing this for a few reasons:
1) to celebrate that Steepster is now loading in a bearable amount of time for me (though I just lost my first bit of post as I’ve seen people mentioning)
2) to remind myself to take the term “intensive summer course” more seriously next time
3) to scold myself for not having finished last year’s shincha (and to be excited for the new shincha I have on its way soon)

That’s pretty much all. This is still quite nice. I chose wisely with the pan-fired one. It’s got some buttered veggies goodness going on, but very sweet.

This is really nice! I haven’t got around to making it at home yet, but got an iced cup to go today. I contracted my first cold in a year from a friend and am miserable, but this was nice and refreshing. Very flavourful, even from the store which is pretty remarkable as it tends to be quite watered-down that way. This is straight-up pineapple/coconut, and the coconut manages not to be soapy as in some of the other pina colada blends I’ve had.

Cold-steeped, this improved but not markedly. The man of the house liked it a lot, but I still found it tart and weird.

When I bought my sample of Mango Diablo, I decided to revisit this one so I had a non-chili version to follow up with. The man of the house made it last night but I ended up drifting off on the couch before I could drink it and was barely with it enough to throw my mug in the fridge on my way to bed. So, I had a nice iced version waiting for me this morning. I’m typically too lazy to hot-brew-then-ice teas; it’s either consumed hot or cold-steeped.

It’s very in-your-face sweet, ripe mango. I see (and steep) this one as a fruit blend because any tea aspect in it is totally negligible. It’s good, and I’m convinced by the mango, and it’s nice cold. But, it’s not stellar for me. Solid but not stellar.

This is really nice! It delivers on the sweet and creamy fronts. It’s definitely the strongest, most convincing caramel I’ve found in a tea. At 200 degrees for 2 minutes, the bitterness was kept mostly at bay and drunk plain this was a nice, indulgent cup to accompany my slacking off.

This one, thankfully, really satisfies my anticipation that it would be 1) interesting and 2) spicy-sweet. It’s flavourful, and I really like the mango flavouring DT uses. Each sip starts off juicy mango and ends with a little kick (I went with only 2 minutes for this on the suggestion of the employee who sold it to me). The chili is just right, boldness-wise.

But, I don’t often find myself in the mood for spicy teas. I like them, but don’t usually want to make them after that first try. I don’t see myself actually reaching for this too often, but it does what it does well.

I never added this to any of my Verdant orders as, well, I have enough breakfast teas. So I thought. But it showed up in one of my tea of the month packages (I’ve fallen so far behind!) and I finally tried it this morning. We had it along with a pretty decadent breakfast of some bacon and avocado followed by some homemade raspberry-lemon muffins and, why not, coconut cream chocolate fudge.

Well, Imperial Breakfast was amazing with all of these rich flavours. It really accomplishes what the write-up describes; it’s bold and rich but not bitter or too astringent. It’s perfect. Roasty, malty, cocoa-y, and smooth. I could really pick out the Big Red Robe and the Laoshan Black, which was awesome as they’re two of my favourites. The Yunnan also contributes to the sweetness and great body, I think, but it’s balanced with the others so well that I don’t notice the Yunnan spiciness so much. Once I make it through some of my Laoshan Black, I think I’ll need to grab some of this.