Jessie

This tastes much better than I expected! I could really go for being woken up today but I’ve had plenty of caffeine, so I gave this a try. I think it’s helped clear my head a little and boost my alterness. There are a lot of ingredients in here I don’t really like, but blended together they make for a pretty pleasant spicy-but-sweet tea. Not something I’d reach for, but good for when I’m feeling herbally, I think.

I’ve found this is my perfect ugh-I-have-to-work-early-Saturday breakfast tea. I make a cup to have at home plus enough to fill my travel mug. It helps me get myself together enough to get dressed and out the door and then once I’m here its sweet-bakey-buttery goodness consoles me while I mourn that I have to wake up on a Saturday to come sit in an office no one will call for the first three hours, anyway.

Last Saturday I left my travel mug full at home and it well ruined my morning. But the Bodum stainless steel travel press kept it hot enough on the counter for hours until the boyfriend woke up and enjoyed it on my behalf. He liked it. Review: “So pancakey.” Yep.

Anyway, I think my point in this note is that this should be permanent. it’s my favourite 52Teas tea.

Okay, so this is better with a longer steep. But, I still think it falls far short of its awesome smell, concept, and hype. It’s still kind of watery and yet biting. And I wish there was actually tea in here because I feel pretty cheated when there are only a few tea leaves!

I really love this tea. I’m not sure, exactly, why but it has a nice crisp base and the apricot-strawberry combo is so different and delicious. I’m now almost out of it and really don’t need a reason to order more tea, but this is so hard to resist.

Yikes, I looked at the label on this sample and apparently I’ve had it since early March!

Well, I’m finally giving it its dues. This is my first yellow tea. I decided to shirk the Breville tonight and make this in my little ForLife tea pot and matching dainty cup because it’s fun and I need to make this study session more exciting.

This is supposed to be brewed for three minutes, but I was really looking forward to several short infusions, so that’s what I’ve done. This is very flavourful on the first infusion with a rather short steeping time, so I don’t think it was a bad choice. Nutty, clean-tasting, and sweet!

I am liking this less as time goes by. I had it iced (cold-brewed), and I’m rarely in the mood for something so tart. I thought it would be a little weaker when cold-brewed, but it was so potent!

No notes yet.

I am really loving my samples of this, and wish I had more. It comes out so incredibly dark after just two minutes steeping, it looks like coffee. But it’s incredibly smooth to the point I couldn’t imagine putting milk in it even though it is my morning tea today. It tastes a little minerally, and subtly sweet.

The leaves look different than I’m used to seeing Dragonwells; a bit darker, and more irregularly shaped though still cool and flat. It smelled very mildly woody dry.

It’s toasty, a bit nutty, and both sweet and astringent on the end of the sip. Very satisfying.

I’m finding the flavour combinations in Kusmi teas really fascinating, and this one was no exception. Grapefruit, spice, vanilla?

I made this this morning while getting ready for work. It smelled great but to my disappointment wasn’t really doing it for me. It seemed too overpowering and like it should be saved for a cold winter’s night. My stomach was a little unsettled at the time, but I didn’t expect a reaction like that.

I’d made extra to take to work in my travel mug. I started sipping an hour or two later at work, when it had largely cooled down so it was more just kind of warm. And I really liked it! The spiciness was certainly front and centre but the vanilla and citrus danced around in the background. Very smooth, nicely sweet thanks to the vanilla. I’m not sure how I managed to get two very different impressions from the same infusion, but I’m capable of amazing things.

I do like this rooibos, but for some reason am never quite in the mood for it. But, I got tired of pulling out pouches of caffeine-free teas and rejecting them as my before-bed cup so went for this one.

And, homemade coconut milk is giving me a whole new appreciation for this! I am smelling coconut creme brulee in my near future.

No notes yet.

I paid altogether too much for a Kusmi sample set simply because it was the second time I’d run into one in a week. I’m surprised my willpower stuck with me that first time, and it certainly didn’t this time. The tins are so beautiful! Pretty packaging always gets me.

This is one I really wanted to try. It sounded delightful, even though there’s a lot going on. The tea is crisp and bright and there is that red berry flavour off the top, subtle caramel sweetness at the end, and a little citrus throughout. It feels very summery. Fitting, since a carnival suddenly set up shop and closed down a large chunk of my street with no explanation this weekend. It’s been a weird set of sounds to have in the background for the past few days. And it’s disorienting leaving your building and seeing a bouncy castle. Okay, I’ve just looked it up and I think this was Taste of Little Italy? I was certainly fooled as I saw no delicious food, only carnival games and a train ride. I should’ve walked further west.

I’ve had this sample for quite a while and never got around to making it as I’m not into mint teas. But, I remembered I like mint teas with vanilla (when I opened this up it smelled a lot like DAVIDsTEA’s Santa’s Secret), and thought this might make a refreshing iced tea.

Apparently it did as my boyfriend drank the ENTIRE pitcher before I had a chance to taste it. Well, it looked and smelled good!

I wasn’t sure about the creaminess but in fact this is nice cold-brewed, which is good as for some reason I’m not such a fan of it hot. I like the flavour but it’s too sweet. Better cold!

Phase 3 of the get-productive plan (phase 2 was finally showering): iced Jungle Ju Ju. I haven’t noticed this waking me up yet on any of the occasions I’ve had it, but I keep hoping. It’s fun and mild and earthy and fruity so it’s not difficult to drink lots of it to see if bombarding my body with caffeine helps.

Alright. Way behind on my paper, feeling lethargic, left eye is swollen and sore, would rather be in bed. I need a serious kick in the pants, so I brewed this up nice and strong. And then I realized that I had no milk. I’ve told myself to stop buying milk, so that makes sense. But, I really like milk in my breakfast tea and this looked hazardously dark and strong without it. As a result, this is my first experience with coconut milk in tea. Not bad! It doesn’t taste coconutty at all, actually, just a little lighter.

As for the tea itself, this has been my preferred breakfast tea since it came into my life. Malty and rich but really nice and smooth. Delicious!

This was a tasty little genmaicha. Satisfyingly roasty, but nice and sweet. It tasted lighter and brighter than others I’ve had.

No notes yet.

This was a little nutty and a little caramel-sweet, but surprisingly underwhelming. Going by the scent, I really thought it would deliver! It just didn’t stand out in any way and was weak.

Nice and flavourful as a cold-brewed refresher.

I made this cold a while back and haven’t had it since. But I brought a little to work with me today and it is so much better hot than I expected! Yum. I hope the caffeine has some sort of effect.

This type of tea (I think I’ve seen it called king’s tea?) fascinates me whenever I see it, so I figured for the steep price of $4.34/50 g I should throw some into my Lochan order.

It’s proved very interesting. It smelled like an herb shop but very mild. I thought I could make out the scent of licorice which I think is added to these sometimes. The rolled-up leaves look completely encased in a powdery substance and took longer to open up than normal. I expected it to taste pretty strongly of ginseng, but my first sip really surprised me; it just tastes like a dark, toasty oolong. But, as I proceed and especially on the second infusion I’m getting a strong aftertaste and a sweetness that really lingers at the back of my tongue. I’m still not sure what I’m tasting, but it’s an interesting adventure.

Yep, I ordered tea from India on a Friday and it arrives Tuesday morning as I’m trying to decide which tea to start the day with.

This smelled delicious and appropriate for helping me get productive after an unofficial long weekend of lounging and birthday celebrations. It’s quite tippy and brewed up a lovely dark ambery brown. It’s nice and deep and malty and very smooth on its own but I couldn’t help adding a little milk a few sips into it.