momo

Tea from last night.

So today’s the first day of class and I am sitting in bed, I don’t know if I actually feel sick, or if it is just the effect of all the damn rain. But there’s a flood watch and I have no waterproof shoes other than way too warm boots so, I’m sitting here as I’m not in the mood to have wet feet if I feel gross.

Also I don’t want the flu so I really don’t want to be around people again already.

So last night I watched The End of Time and cried a bunch and drank this tea. I have somehow acquired a lot of it through swaps. So I figured a pot of it would be good. I hadn’t had it for awhile either.

I have to say I am not that big of a fan of it. I added coconut milk creamer and agave, hoping to boost the custard but to no avail. The strawberry is good though, so maybe just the sabayon flavor doesn’t age well? I’ll try one of the newer bunches of this tea next.

Sebastian says hi https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/72284_4326538490660_922155857_n.jpg

Of course as I come to do log this note, my internet stopped working and I had to reset everything, which is always a good time. Also like half an hour before the bulb went out in my desk lamp so that was great too, hopefully nothing else goes awry.

So I really want to love peach green teas but alas, the peach just never tastes right. This one at least works for iced tea beyond a flavoring issue for me. It just really doesn’t taste like peaches. It’s just kind of a vague fruity flavor that seems to happen a lot.

Thanks, Azzrian!

also I apparently totally missed getting to 900 notes earlier. confetti~

So over football, the bandwagon is SO STRONG WITH THIS ONE. I hate football anyway but even if I didn’t I’d be against this on principle because we lost our hockey team and meanwhile the mayor is all on board for the football team to get a billion dollar stadium. N. O. P. E.

So anyway it’s too warm right now still for hot tea. When I opened the bag of these sachets from my slightly-happy bag, they definitely smelled like they’d be perfect for iced tea.

It’s definitely sencha, and good sencha at that. I really wish Lupicia would disclose the flavors in this. I honestly can’t tell a single fruit it might be. Mango maybe? Definitely some kind of stone fruit too. Pineapple, citrus too? Fruit Stripes gum is pretty accurate.

It’s really sweet too, I was kind of surprised by it when I first took a sip.

I’m kind of surprised by Lupicia’s parameters for brewing…does anyone actually only use only 5 oz for a cup? I put two bags in a mug that’s about 9 oz and then poured it over ice and I can say it’s definitely not watered down or anything…it’s perfect iced tea. I’m curious for when I’m making the loose leaf too, they all seem like that, 5-6 oz cups.

Still kind of not a fan of the aftertaste of this tea because it is so drying. But a lower temperature and a shorter steep have made it an easier drink.

It’s very sweet and malty, even with less time it’s still a very full bodied tea.

And now this time as it cools, I don’t like it one bit. It becomes almost slightly sour with astringency.

Thank you, tperez!

A blueberry white was the second of my two first loose leaf teas but I never repurchased it for some reason. This one has always intrigued me so yay. I could take or leave the acai but I’m pretty sure acai just tastes like blueberries anyway in 99% of American acai stuff. Anyway.

I made iced tea with this because it’s too warm today. It’s definitely on the light side. It also just completely smells like a cocktail so I covered the leaves in vodka but I don’t think it’s really going to do much, it’s been almost a day now since that.

This does seem like a difficult tea, I would guess you need more than the 1.5 tsp suggested to really get a decent flavor. It’s not a bad blueberry flavor but it tastes like a waste of white tea.

I have to say I was not looking forward to this when I saw almond extract as an ingredient, but I figured it couldn’t be that strong of a player in the tea.

It’s not.

Something about this just tastes off to me. The raspberry smells and tastes odd, it actually almost smells like a savory soup at times, it’s not chocolatey at all, and it tastes like pepper.

Going to try again with this at some point but I’m put off by it right now :(

This is probably pretty old but I don’t even care, because it actually does taste like blueberry pie.

When it cools off it’s kind of meh but when it’s still hot, it’s delicious. I am pretty sure I’ve had this more than the one other tasting note I have suggests, but I would like to try this iced and also with a little agave to see if that really brings out the pastry notes even more.

…it is 67 degrees outside, gross.

S’mores for breakfast!

I love this tea, I think maybe I could sweeten it just a touch and love it even more though. I don’t think it’s very chocolatey, but the marshmallow and graham cracker is pretty awesome despite that.

I tried this with a 4 minute steep today and it was perfect, definitely a temp to keep in mind for the black teas from Della Terra, I always have a problem with it not being enough in the end.

This tea is so weird, totally not in a bad way. It is roasty, chocolatey, and a bit creamy…it actually really reminds me of chocolate ice cream and I’m not sure how. I think it’s just that it’s such an odd combination, and yet it’s working for me. It’s chocolate genmaicha.

Had some of this again earlier with added chocolate, by way of hot chocolate mix. Soooo good, I know I should try it on its own already but chocolate and mint and I are really getting along right now.

I now need to go make tea for right now, as I was given a $50 Sephora gift card for Christmas and I can’t figure out how to not go too far over the total….I have to buy online though because LOOK AT THIS. http://www.sephora.com/very-colourfoil-manicure-trade-P377711?skuId=1491273

Ok so this tea has definitely not been a favorite of mine but I just tried some amazing technique given to me by Brenden from Whispering Pines.
1/2 tsp per 8 oz of water, 200F, and 8 minutes.

Now finally I can really truly say this tea has FLAVORS. It’s not like just being hit in the face with a bold, malty tea. It’s sweet, and it is so fruity. There’s definitely orange, maybe also sweet potatoes (not a fruit but deal with it for right now) and it has this amazing clean aftertaste.

This poor tea should not be made following Rishi’s directions. Not at all.

Ok now we are up to date. I kept putting this aside to try later, and finally it was time.

I didn’t smell the tea in the bag at first (though I did when I got it), and was I put some in the infuser, it was the most glorious vanilla cream scent.

This is alright. It’s really light. I guess it has been awhile since I’ve had any oolong but…I can’t taste it over the vanilla. I was hoping since they named it Vanilla Orchid, I would get those lovely orchid notes from the base tea, but not so much.

It wasn’t as amazing as I was hoping though, I have saved it though for a resteep! But that is later.

Drank this earlier but it was nothing memorable. I think I oversteeped it or something because the base tea was kind of overpowering and this odd mix of malt-smoke. Next time I will pay attention. Still had a bit of plum to it but I ended up letting it get cold.

You guys I am so close to becoming the Battlestar Galactica episode of Portlandia but with Doctor Who. I started back on September 14 (thanks Netflix activity history) out of just pure curiosity and now I’m to the point where going out to mail things was like a serious problem in continuing to watch. I am not even writing tasting notes at the right times hahaha. And what do I do when I get to the end of what’s on Netflix??? WAH

Ok so had this last night. It is a bit blueberry muffin-ish I suppose, all I really got was blueberry with a hint of cake. I guess it makes sense since you just put streusel on top of a muffin, so muffin is a perfectly acceptable thing to say. Eating streusel by itself is kind of iffy. At least for me.

Maybe I could use this a little sweeter, it doesn’t seem as wonderfully blueberry as Blueberry Cream Cheese Danish. But there’s butter and brown sugar notes and definitely cake. I will have to experiment a bit before this is up there in deliciousness for me.

Thanks Kittenna! All of a sudden samples from you that I’ve been holding on to for forever have made their way to the forefront. Probably a good thing.

I’m not getting much flavor from this in the way of raspberry or apricot. Sencha though? Definitely. And there is a subtle fruity sweetness to it but it’s kind of hard to tell what it might be.

I let it cool off and I can taste raspberry for sure now. I think I will save the rest of my sample to cold steep.

Also I am so excited for hockey I am already plotting places I want to go in Raleigh. I can’t believe how long North Carolina is, it’s only 65 miles further to go to Tampa and driving back from Tampa felt like AGES. Short list: Tin Roof Teas, tea buying moratoriums stop when you’re somewhere new right?

But I know my boyfriend wants to go to Tampa because they have tesla coils in the arena. Wah wah wahhhh there aren’t even schedules yet what am I doing.

I wish this could be around forever, sadly I have enough for 2-3 cups left. Wah. It’s so perfect for a quick iced tea, and I love having a kiwi strawberry tea that doesn’t involve hibiscus.

See previous notes for more, I am already mourning.

How did I ever drink this and why did I rate it so high? GROSS HOT. SO GROSS HOT.

Now that it has significantly cooled, it is FAR more drinkable. I was about to just leave this at gross, but curiosity got the best of me…so I took a sip now and it’s tolerable. Still a bit weird tasting, but at least somewhat like neapolitan ice cream.

Thankfully I only have enough for a cup of this left now. augh.

Having such a lazy day today. Bleh. I had wanted to go see Les Miserables by myself but after crying at Doctor Who earlier in the day I did not want more of that. Also lazy. Although how lazy can you be while learning French. Je bois du thé et je mange du pain au fromage.

Thanks again to Kittenna for a sample of this, although I got a bit of a packet of this too now so yay. I quite like it.

The bag makes it sound like it is going to be more like a chai, which had me worried, but it indeed is snickerdoodle cookies.

I only discovered snickerdoodles a couple years ago, so of course I had to make them. My boyfriend LOVES cinnamon, so they were a hit. I even had to make them for him to take into work once. This tea is just like them, a bit of vanilla, a bit of cinnamon sugar, and the black tea does do a pretty excellent job of being reminiscent of baked cookies.

Tea from last night! I got distracted while drinking it. I’m learning French through Duolingo and once you complete a section it has all these crazy timed sessions and the tea got cold.

It is definitely still one of my favorite honeybush blends. It’s almost like a caramel apple cider but tea instead! Tastes exactly like caramel apples. Nothing much else to add.

Looking at my old note, I still have a bottle of that caramel apple ale. I need to toss that.

Want to make this actually taste like chocolate? Add a teaspoon of hot cocoa mix. Awww yeah.

You don’t lose out on the mint either, but I bet a mint hot cocoa mix would be even better! Sadly I only have the mini marshmallow kind or salted caramel kind right now, so mini marshmallows it was!

another attempt at just entertaining myself using Teavana blends:
(3 tsp of Raspberry Riot Lemon Mate + 2 tsp of Blackberry Mojito + a mug full of 175* water) x 2 min = something that most definitely needs to be poured over ice (and then saved for cold steeping).

I like Raspberry Riot because it’s like caffeinated juice and I could go for that right now. Then I thought, well, I have all this Blackberry Mojito that I like by itself, what if I had a bit of mint to the mate?

I’d actually not steep them together in the future because I prefer the mate steeped a long time and obviously I don’t want to steep a green tea more than a couple minutes. So I’m not sure if this will really be like caffeinated juice today (although that’s why I went with 3 tsp), but I do taste both the raspberry and the lemon. Blackberry not so much, but the mint is definitely there.

Also this makes it way too hibiscusy. I can stand both of these teas on their own without thinking they’re too bad, but this one…yikes.

I tried.

It’s been so long since I’ve had matcha. I feel silly.

Now of course this has probably aged, though I’ve been keeping it all in the fridge. But I think the problem more is that I have forgotten the parameters I liked. So really I think I made this too light, because it smells like cheesecake in the tin, and this sure tastes like matcha.

I also realized I don’t have milk of some sort so I probably went too heavy on the coconut milk creamer. Oh well. It’s the matcha part that counts right? I don’t want this stupid flu that so many people have.

I need to get back into the reviewing for more matcha thing, I am in desperate need for some of the other flavors but first I should finish off what I have :)

Hoooooly cow.

This tea smelled so good before I even drank it that while signing up for a fantasy hockey league (OH MY GOD FINALLY!!!! still), I decided to name my team Golden Monkeys.

It’s like an amazing cake. I don’t even know what to say but I am wondering why I took so long to try this out!

It’s so sweet, definitely like honey. I honestly wish I knew what sweet potatoes tasted like on their own…it’s been so long since I’ve not had any that tasted purely of orange juice in a casserole type dish. May have to fix that myself. Anyway, I’m sure that flavor is in here too. It’s also malty, and it does remind me a bit of red wine.

I have to say….if I finish off my two sample packets I would have to buy 100g…

Today is not going my way right now. I was doing a nail polish inventory and discovered my favorite polish has dried up! But on the plus side, there is a polish that looks JUST like it that’s only $2! So I’m going to go try to find it tomorrow. And then I wanted to make pretzel bites, but I don’t have enough flour! (now I could make cheese sauce..muahahaha)

And then this tea. I bought a tin of this thinking I’d give it to my friend for her birthday. Of course, she bought it for herself on Black Friday too. Thankfully I too am a Sagittarius so I was just like alright, keeping it. She ended up giving me a sample of it, so this is from that sample.

Not a fan as of right now, I think I need to add milk to it. It’s just WAY too floral, and there is absolutely no raspberry or vanilla. I doubt there would ever be raspberry if it’s just the pieces in the tea, so it’s pretty much over the top earl grey.

Trying it cooled off now and it’s far more subdued, maybe I can taste vanilla. It does seem far creamier now, but there is still no raspberry. I do not find this tea to represent me as a Sagittarius at this time.