Jessie

I pined for the “tea of the month”-type deal from Stratford Tea Leaves for months and dropped enough clear hints that the boyfriend was lovely enough to buy it for me for my birthday. I had to wait another month before it finally arrived (ugh postal strike!), but here it is!

I waited till I had time to enjoy the first two teas to get down to it, and I’m starting with this one.

The dry leaf smelled delightfully buttery and sweet. The first infusion was really strikingly bright-green from the clearly fresh matcha. It was rich and a little bitter (I think my water was too hot). The second and third infusions are a light, sweet, slightly astringent sencha.

I want to crawl into my cup of this tea. It’s creamy, deep, rich, and mesmerizing. I made it to drink while I packed and cleaned up, but it’s made me sit down to savour it.

No notes yet.

Oh, I love this one. I’m so sad it’s (nearly) gone, as I really have no reason to buy more tea for a while. But, this one might justify it. It’s a very good standby. Sweet, creamy, a little bit tart. It tastes so fresh!

How could this not be good with these ingredients? This made for a very tasty first tea of the day. The nutty and caramelly-toffee flavours come through strongly. I steeped for 2.5-3 minutes, and think I’d prefer a longer steep as it felt a bit thin. I feel like this could/should be richer. And I want more chocolate. But, very tasty.

I drank this again last night and enjoyed it more, but it’s still not what I was looking for. I find it quite peppery.

Yum. As I drink this one more the herbally weirdness becomes less noticeable and the creamy, citrusy, actually nice ginseng taste comes through. I have been reaching for this one lately while studying (attempting 3 Greek comedies in one night last night).

This stuff tasted really weird to me at first, but has definitely grown on me. It’s sweet, but it’s also kind of, well, I don’t know. Metallic-tasting? It’s flowery but there is something else going on there. Anyway, I was really congested last night (air conditioning does terrible things) so made some of this. I was surprised that I actually really enjoyed it and it actually helped alleviate the congestion!

Oh, man. I drank this yesterday (or the day before?) and didn’t have any time to log it or my other teas. My memory of it is a bit too vague to properly comment or rate. But, I really liked this and found it delicate but nicely rounded. It was sweet and a little fruity. I much preferred it to the Makurazaki, and this was what I was looking for in the Japanese blacks I ordered.

I have bought this three separate times, and each time it’s tasted differently. Thankfully this latest is much more in line with the tasty first bit I bought. The middle baggie tasted a bit off.

I love this stuff. It can sit in water forever and never develop a weird flavour. It’s good before bed, in the bath, in class, at work, and indeed even in summer.

So, it took me a while to get around to trying this and I’m not sure why. Last night I finally dumped maybe half of one of the packets into some cold water, and tried it this morning. Delicious! I was mostly worried that it would be too strong if I hot-brewed it, and I was worried that it would be too weak cold-brewed, but this is actually perfect. Really flavourful and refreshing. It made me buy the second iced tea series even though I am so beyond my tea “budget” these days.

No notes yet.

I had a sample of this hot and then a to-go iced one at some point last week. This is mostly really prominently minty, with a bit of sweetness and that medicinal juniper underneath. I have a hard time not feeling like I’m drinking cough syrup when there’s juniper. It’s not terrible, but not something I’d buy. It did help me re-hydrate and was nice and refreshing in the heat.

My weekend, meant to be long and fun-filled, ended up being pretty rough. I became really sick at the wedding I was attending due to an uninvited guest: a kidney infection! Much pain and time spent in a cottage country ER, not enough tea!

After a few days without proper tea, I wanted something good and this afternoon I need something to help me mend. This was delayed in getting to me due to the postal strike but this was the perfect time to break into it. It makes such a bright, healthy-looking green liquor I don’t know how it can do anything but make me better! It’s deliciously sweet, has a nice body to it, and I can just pick up on the floral taste the description mentions in the aftertaste. Yum.

No notes yet.

I like bananas, but cannot stand them in any form other than freshly peeled and by themselves. In juices or smoothies they make me gag so, needless to say, this didn’t appeal to me. But I got in on the $1 iced tea refill mug deal a few days ago and my two options for free tea were this or Read My Lips. I’m not into Read My Lips either, and thought since this is from a temporary collection I should give it a try.

It was refreshing, and the rooibos in this was actually nice. The banana wasn’t too bad, but I think this was largely because of the way the tea gets really diluted after they steep it and then pour it over ice. That was okay by me, this time. Anyway, not a total failure but not one I would buy or probably choose to drink again. I think if you were someone who loved everything banana (are there people like that?), this would be delicious because everything else tasted good.

Really interesting. I don’t have much experience with yellow teas, so I don’t have much to compare with. I’m getting mostly sweet, light, green tea with a bit of toastiness like the description mentions.

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Yum. Rich, deep, malty, sweet. Also, the leaves were so fluffy and soft! I would like a bed made of tea buds, please.

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Oh, yum. So fresh and re-freshing! This is incredibly light; it looks almost just like water in my cup. It’s gentle and sweet, with a lightly floral aftertaste.

No notes yet.

I revisited this tea after a while apart, and absence did make the heart grow fonder. So tasty.