momo

Backlogging from 11/25

I wanted something that said birthday without resorting to rooibos. So this was the winner, especially because I knew I could steep the leaves again and have it iced. I actually forgot I was doing that on the counter, so I came back home later and it was like surprise tea just waiting for me.

I think this tastes way more like buttercream when it’s cold. It’s not bad hot, but it really tastes like mango and chamomile separately instead, rather than combining to taste like frosting.

I love this tea so much, they need to give in and make it again >:O

Backlogging from 11/24

I’ve been having problems liking rooibos if it’s not fruity, but I figured this might work just fine because I do love chocolate and peppermint.

But they are not enough right now to cover how red rooibos will stand out and just taste horribly woodsy and sickening to me right now. So I didn’t drink much of this at all. I’m going to hold on to it though in hopes one day I get my taste for chocolate rooibos back.

This is so amazing! It’s like a 2nd flush Darjeeling meets a Yunnan black. Out of all the black teas I’ve been drinking in the morning, this needed absolutely nothing added to it.

I taste nuttiness, honey, chocolate, and just a nice touch of floral notes to it. Maybe a bit of caramel too! The caramel especially comes out now that the remaining tea has cooled a lot.

It’s a very mild tea, I found myself sipping it very easily, without even thinking about the taste, other than about how good it tastes!

I’d definitely get more of this in the future, I really wanted to take advantage of Butiki’s sale yesterday but I couldn’t justify it, and I tried to get my mom to buy even $15 of it and she just tells me she doesn’t like tea (and 10 minutes later she liked the chocolate tea I had last night when I gave her the mug to try it). Oh well. I’ll have money one day.

My brother doesn’t drink much tea, but he would not take his nose out of the infuser after the tea steeped.

SO MUCH CHOCOLATE. This was perfect with our birthday cake. My brother’s is today, my dad’s tomorrow, mine Sunday, so we sing “Happy Birthday to Us.” The cake was white frosting and yellow cake, so chocolate on the side was excellent. I added a little bit of milk for creaminess, and it’s like a really rich, malty hot chocolate. No more sugar, so much already in my system, and it doesn’t even need any!

A 3 min, 45 sec steep was really good. It’s more like a dark chocolate flavor, a bit bittersweet, and all around tasty. I think I only got this in a sample pack so I am definitely going to need more in the future!

This tea gets a seal of approval of not needing any more chocolate flavor, a rare feat!

Ok I can’t find this on the website so I guess it is no longer around.

It looks like it’s gunpowder with peppercorn, and it tastes like that too. I steeped it twice this morning and it was just really easy to drink. A little smoky, as you’d expect from its name I guess, but very mild.

It also had a bit of fruitiness to it, and I quite enjoyed it.

I apologize if this is a bunch of nonsense because after I drank it I went out to a bar just to get out and there was the most amazing IPA.

This really tasted more like a papaya rose oolong to me. Then again I try to avoid Chardonnay as much as possible, though I have a general idea of how it tastes. This to me tasted far better than Chardonnay and it was very delicious with the pumpkin cheesecake bars I made. I ended up also making a maple apple pie because my mom accidentally baked her pecan pie’s crust, and if any had been left when we got back, I would have drank it with a small slice of that pie.

I would definitely have avoided this tea just based on how I associate Chardonnay with this horrible oak taste, but this is far better than any Chardonnay I’ve had. Like I said, strongly papaya and rose, with a little vanilla. Not bad, but not my favorite so far of the Vintage Teaworks teas. Again though not the kind of wine I normally go for so don’t take my word on it.

I already can’t wait to get back to my full supply of tea LOL

I enjoy this for breakfast but it’s definitely not a favorite by any means. If I found it on sale again for $5 when I run out, I would probably get it again.

I just met my grandpa’s new dog and she is already attached to me. She doesn’t play, sadly, but she really like to smack people with her front paw. Apparently everything is “shake.”

I decided to have some different breakfast blend this morning. This sounded interesting so I ordered a sample.

I steeped it for four minutes, and added a little milk. I’m not entirely sure I like it compared to just the Yunnan tea I’ve been having the past couple of days. I like it and I like Assam but together it’s just not a flavor I really would go for.

It comes off kind of smoky, not in a lapsang sort of way at all, I feel like this might be the spicy notes mentioned in the description. It is a pretty smooth, bold tea other than that note that is just a bit too strong for me. And I steeped it for a minute less than the bag called for, next time I might try 3. Or maybe the 5 min is the way to go, somehow.

I feel awake though so it does its job as a big, robust breakfast blend.

Adagio sent me this in my most recent order because my birthday is right around the corner. I previously bought this and had the worst time with it. So I’m hoping now things might be better.

So far I can confirm NOPE. Let the water cool, steeped it for 2 min, 45 seconds, and added milk and it’s still a tasteless, slightly bitter black tea.

However, this tea is saved by Nonna’s Biscotti…they have salted caramel and chocolate biscotti! SO GOOD. I dipped it into the tea so it added a decent flavor to the biscotti. And so in turn I’m hoping it makes the tea tasty.

It did not help. I really do not like this tea.

My mom was holding on to sachets of this stuff that had an expiration date on the bottom of the tin of 2008 LOL

She made the final sachets into iced tea and I had some today and it wasn’t bad at all for its age. Not very blueberry tasting anymore but just slightly berry in the mix of the green tea.

But I am not letting her make any old tea anymore, I of course finished it and then saw the date on the tin!

I tried to drink this without milk today but it was WAY too much for me to handle, so in the milk went again. It was actually the color of coffee I noticed, I was almost confused as to what I was drinking!

It definitely needs milk for me, but I guess if I cut down on the leaf again, I might get something that is drinkable without additions.

Ok, I really just need to get myself some of this already. Thank you for sending me some, darby!

I made it with milk and brown sugar again, and I steeped it a bit longer than last time. I definitely, definitely got more pumpkin out of it this time around.

I’m not sure which part of this prep makes it better than when I just had it with sugar, is it the stovetop prep or the use of brown sugar? Either way it’s so tasty, I wish I wasn’t out of it. Friday can’t come soon enough…

Ok, this time around with this tea I went with 2 tsp for 8 oz and steeped for 3 minutes. Added a bit of milk, and yum. It was so good, I had two cups for breakfast! It resteeps really well, the tin says 2 steeps but I think it could definitely go 3 if the first steep is only 3 minutes.

I always like an easy fix when the instructions for a tea make something that’s not my style. Two tsp of this is PERFECT, and I just can’t help but drink it with milk.

Next time I’ll try it first without it, which will probably be tomorrow because I am up in Tennessee for the next few days. Sebastian survived the car ride, and has started chirping! But that’s because he is sitting next to my mom’s birds, and one of them never shuts up.

I got this as a sample with my order from The Tea Spot, and I have been wanting to try black blends like this, so I was quite content! I do believe this is the first I’ve had that is specifically labeled as English Breakfast.

This is perfect for today, with its name, because it makes me think of Austin Powers and one of my favorite F1 teams always has silly Twitter hashtags for races, so this week is #AustinPowers as the race is in Austin, Texas. My favorite is still Korea: Yeongam Style! But this is still funny to me.

And better than everyone else going with Austintatious…except that’s my nail polish’s name, seriously.

I steeped this up for four minutes, because I knew I was going to want to add milk.

So good, I am really, really loving these hearty blends of black teas on cold days. I could probably drink this one without milk, but I was really craving tea with some in there. I did try it before adding, it was malty and tasted a bit of fruits and chocolate. I loved how it tasted with the milk even more though.

And the caffeine boost was nice though I don’t think I really needed one, as I am SO EXCITED for the race! 99 minutes to go…

Now I regret having all these packets of samples from English Tea Store…this is not tasty. I even steeped it for 2 1/2 minutes hoping to avoid any problems but it’s bitter and hardly tastes as good as it smells.

In fact the weird briskness/bitterness of this tea makes it oddly taste like fruits and stale bread.

Sadly I am not going to sit around with milk and sugar for this, which may help, as I need to go do some things. Hopefully that makes it drinkable, because it sure isn’t on its own.

I’m back home so I just tried it cold. Still tastes like stale bread, but at least it also tastes like cinnamon now. This may also be relegated to oatmeal.

Thank you, darby!

I didn’t even realize I really wanted to try this until I was swapping with darby, then I saw everyone’s notes again and that confirmed I wanted to try this.

I decided to try it cold, since that’s how I usually drink fruit tisanes. But I think if I can get it to resteep, I’ll try it out hot.

Iced, it is amazing! It’s tart, but not too bad. It’s kind of more apple tasting than the actual two fruits in the name, but I do get berry and it’s pretty sweet. The yogurt adds a nice creaminess. I think it might actually be more appropriate to call it a tangy tea than just tart.
Something with this many tart type ingredients going on might just beg for sugar but this is so good, it’s not even needed.

I’m sad I finished the cup already, but I’ll go make some to try hot and I’m sure I’ll be sending my boyfriend to get me at least an ounce of this next month…or if there’s a good Black Friday sale I will be all over this and that Bubbly one. Sometimes it’s not helpful having a birthday that always falls around Black Friday.

Ok, hot time: it resteeped pretty well! It is a lot heavier on the yogurt though. Thankfully I don’t mind this because I’ve been craving froyo and not going because I’ll go to get in the car and be instantly cold and it will be a bad idea. So something that still has that taste, but is hot sounds like a winner.

There’s still notes of strawberry but it’s not quite the same. I am definitely going to get more of this though, and I’ll have to try it hot on a first steep.

Ok, it’s been some time since I last had this. But I have a lot of it, so that’s okay. I just got these maple granules from Whispering Pines Tea, and so they are perfect to put in here! Extra maple without the syrup.

This is the best to go along with watching the first practice ever for the first United States Grand Prix in 5 years, eeeeee.

Black tea is all I want to drink today for some reason, and combine that with butter and syrup and a cakey taste and I am set.

I don’t like gingerbread that much. But when I was making my order with Della Terra I thought I’d at least try this since they do dessert blends so well.

I am quite enjoying this one, it really tastes like cookies. And the rooibos, instead of being annoying and woody and medicinal, really blends into the flavor well.

Thank you for this sample, Teavivre! Sorry for taking 3928752 years to get to it.

I wanted more white tea tonight, and realized I had a lot of unopened silver needle samples. Jasmine sounded especially nice so I brewed this one up.

This is really light after 90 seconds. And I don’t know if I like jasmine with silver needle, because it tastes so amazing by itself. I’ll give it another try at some point, because it was just too muted for me.

I feel like Goldilocks…first a white has too much flavor for what I was looking for, then the next one is too light! I’ll revisit this again soon and steep it longer.

This tea smells SO GOOD.

On the other hand (hurr hurr, literally?) I am not a fan of the packaging. Chipped my nail polish on three nails trying to get it open. It’s okay because I need to change it up but it was still sad.

Riesling is my favorite wine…at least if it’s on the dry side. Though if it’s a tea I don’t care!

This is very apricot with nice floral notes too. It seems actually really more flavorful then I was imagining it was going to be.

I’m glad this is a small amount because I’m not sure I like it too much, which pains me to say because this was pretty pricey for me compared to other teas I’ve bought lately, coming in at nearly a dollar a cup.

Maybe if I resteep it later, it will taste more like I was expecting. We shall see!

Second steep is very heavy on the lemongrass in that fruit loopy way. I may next time only steep the first cup for 2 minutes instead of the recommended 3.

When I got 100 cup points, I decided I’d get this. It was between this and the Sagittarius zodiac tea and now I feel like I should have gone with that. But they’re basically very similar…blackberry or raspberry? I have to choose blackberry.

I don’t really taste blackberry in here though until long after I take a sip. It seems like it’s just a floral bergamot flavor, but it finally fades into blackberry.

I’m surprised though at how smoooooooth it is. I gave it just a 3 minute steep, and it’s perfect for me. Not too strongly bergamot, and very easy to just sip.

A latte sounds like a great idea, especially since this one comes with FOUR ounces of tea instead of just three.

I didn’t realize I gave so much of this away, lol well I guess I can always buy more. It comes with more chocolate chips now too.

I steeped it for 3 minutes and it’s kind of harsh. Blah. It seems more chocolatey than last time I had it though, so that’s a plus.

I let it cool and it became a bit easier to drink. And now that it’s been melding for a bit, I like it a lot! Definitely a good mint chocolate blend after all. Just need to work again on not getting grossed out by the bitterness of Adagio’s black base and tweak the prep just right. JEAH.

yay! Thank you so much for sharing, Azzrian! A combination of my two favorite drinks! I had been hoping to get some back when Stacy mentioned it on the boards because I was seriously at the time at a place with a peach IPA on draft.

This being based on a lambic is interesting. I have only had a raspberry one, and they are way too sweet for me. This tea is not too sweet, but it is pretty peachy! I think Georgia would give it a seal of approval just based on that.

I am liking it better now that the cup is cold. I don’t even know what I got distracted doing, probably something with the bird given the feather stuck to the bottle of Chai Cola still on the table. I can taste the hops more now, which definitely makes it taste a bit more like an IPA. I looooove hops. And I imagine the base tea makes it all the better.

I’m going to have to try the guranse on its own at some point definitely.

This makes me especially excited for when I have the money for a custom blend, because I want it to be based on tripel beers I could so go for their flavor without their insane alcohol by volume numbers, as I learned the hard way on Saturday.

Thank you again Azzrian!

On my way to the kitchen, I looked right at my tin of Tower of London sachets and decided I wanted some of them instead!

Getting home has been a real pain…every week some male decides he needs to either bother me on the train or say something that is definitely sexually harassing near the train station downtown or on the train. It’s getting REALLY old and thankfully today a police officer was nearby and he went to talk to them. Vile.

And then I caused another police incident, when another entitled male decided he didn’t need to use the call box because I was coming into the apartment complex. Sucks for him that my apartment complex has no tolerance for people like that…they called our police courtesy officer in.

I think I’m going to start being a misandrist.

Anyway, this tea really struck my fancy today. I still wanted a good hearty black tea but the apricot/peach/honey in here was even more what I wanted. It’s cold out there, and all my black teas are going to be in full use for the last two!!! weeks of class this semester.

Last time around, it seemed more Earl Grey to me than Paris, this time around I really wasn’t getting that. It just seemed a bit more like Paris regarding the bergamot. But the fruits are just different, this one is definitely stone fruits to me, like the description says, and Paris comes off more berry. It is like Paris meets Fruits d’Alsace…sounds like my study abroad trip!

I’m now starting to wonder which I would pick between the two…I do like this one a lot.