momo

meh, it’s hibiscus with other stuff added in to pretend it’s not just hibiscus.

When I drink this, all I can remember is the crepe I had in Paris, that’s all I taste. Crepes with maple syrup and pecans (the one I had in Paris was walnuts but pecans are superior anyway). Ugh sorry I have been having bad travel bug wants to go back feelings.

I hadn’t had this one for awhile and it just seems so much more mapley to me today.

Also I am so excited right now, I got a garden plot in the community garden my city FINALLY got started.

So I didn’t go to bed until nearly 5am because of a Formula 1 race, and then I had a weird dream where you could go to McDonalds and have Adagio tea. Because if you could sit down and have tea, a fast food place is the spot to do it.

I’ve been meaning to try this sample for awhile now, it smells amazing, but the taste is…very off. It tastes like pepper. Pepper and just a little citrus. It’s so definitely the oolong that is making it taste like pepper. And it’s kind of gross. I’m hoping letting it cool off will make it better.

It’s disappointing because I just picked up a six pack of San Pellegrino’s grapefruit soda for $1.50!! I don’t understand why it’s being discontinued because it tastes so good that I am drinking a second can today while drinking grapefruit tea and now I want a legitimate grapefruit.

My jaw is absolutely killing me tonight, and I don’t know what happened. I’ve had a problem that I’m sure is TMJ since I had braces and they put some robotic looking thing in my mouth to try to pull back an overbite. I’ve complained to my dentist before and I’m “too young to have jaw problems.” So if I end up at an urgent care place tomorrow because I’m crying we’ll see how that goes. There are periods where it’s feeling like it’s trying to separate from the rest of my skull, not even kidding.

Now it’s cooled and I still get the strong pepper notes. It’s not that terrible but I’d like just a bit more grapefruit from it.

I’m not sure how I steeped this the first time I had it, but I noticed there was a lot of green tea in there so I steeped it as a green. I wanted to have it iced since I noticed when I let it cool off completely last time around, it was delicious.

Indeed it was, this definitely is a nice, fruity tea for iced tea. I still really don’t know what a jackfruit tastes like so I’m going to continue to think it is this tea. It’s definitely got that tropical fruit flavor going on.

Next step: cold brew, for sure!

I…don’t understand how one puts kombucha into a tea bag. I am pretty sure that’s some kind of ploy to get you to buy this one for medicinal benefits. Like similarly I’m not trusting anyone who claims to have yogurt probiotics in a tea bag either or something.

So no, this doesn’t taste like kombucha, and I doubt whatever is in here to pretend to be kombucha has any semblance of drinking actual kombucha because the whole point of kombucha is to have the live stuff in there. I highly doubt that stuff survives being turned into a powder or whatever’s going on in teas like this.

For what it actually is, it’s not too bad, but I think it tastes terrible hot. When I let it cool off, the plum and passionfruit flavors were stronger. Before it was just the lemongrass and mint with a little fruity aftertaste.

I wouldn’t drink this again.

I really wanted green tea and mint this morning but I wasn’t feeling like something of the Moroccan Mint variety, so I was glad I remembered I had this. My stomach was not feeling good due to the previous night’s wine celebration of the Canadiens making the playoffs. Oops. So I really wanted mint to settle things down and since it cooled off from the rain (and barely took any pollen away, gross) something a bit toasty and nutty for a base sounded great.

So now that I am over the fact this isn’t going to have chocolate despite its name, I do quite enjoy it. It’s a nice, different take on a minty green.

I’m going to have to give it a try iced too. I was actually wondering about that earlier and I wasn’t sure how it might be, but now I’m thinking it’s a must.

I have not had the best of luck with the Art of Tea samples I bought back in November. Granted it also didn’t help it took them weeks to bother to send. This is the first of them that I have actually liked and I only have one left to try…

I didn’t think the jasmine was overpowering at all in this. Granted all the other notes for this are years old so maybe Art of Tea got the balance right finally. I’ve also had it for 4 1/2 months at this point. It’s a nice mix of fruit and floral, I think the blueberry was quite a bit stronger though with jasmine notes following.

Teas Etc Persian Lime + Mahamosa Spearmint

This was AWESOME. I made a quart pitcher of iced tea, and I believe I used 1 tbsp of spearmint leaves and around 2 1/2 tbsp of Persian Lime. I don’t think I added any sweetener to it, but I do remember that I completely missed starting the timer on my phone so I had to guess at steeping.

It turned out perfect so that was fine. The lime and mint were perfectly matched, I was worried I didn’t have enough mint in there but it was just right to give a burst of mintiness at the end.

I have no idea what else to say since it took me hours to finally finish this and this tea was from yesterday. Blah.

Awwwww sipdown :( I didn’t even really have enough to make a good cup which was a problem because my intention was to have a quart hahaha. So in my slightly larger than 8 ounce cup, it was kind of watered down tasting and there really wasn’t any tequila flavor to be had.

This was definitely one of my favorite iced teas. Now to go do the email pls bring it back thing for it though I probably already did.

Do parakeets have off switches? The nicer it is outside, the goofier Sebastian acts. I feel bad because I can’t open the windows because of my allergies. The pollen count was 2607 yesterday. Today it is 4151. Thankfully it is supposed to rain tomorrow so hopefully it won’t get 9000+ like last year (seriously. http://www.atlantaallergy.com/pollencount.aspx?year=2012&month=3). It was horrible enough last night when I went to get my mail…you can just feel the large particles in the air. Ugh. And they’re not even the problematic pollen.

I had this iced last night, it was a lot more subtle than I hoped for. That might be something I can change by adding agave or sugar or something. I didn’t really get kiwi, just a tiny bit of strawberry in there.

I’ll finish it but I far prefer the 52teas kiwi strawberry margarita white tea I still have a bit of…gonna have to have some more of that today. I think these flavors may be better suited to something more delicate than black tea. This is overall a pretty good black, it tasted great iced and was really smooth.

DavidsTea Stormy Night + Chocolate Orange

A friend was curious what she could mix that was a chocolate tea to tone down the cinnamon in Stormy Night. I thought Chocolate Orange sounded like the best bet, and it’s definitely good.

Stormy Night came off as really thin-bodied the first time I had it, and the puerh gives it more of a body. The cinnamon is way less intense, as is the coconut. It doesn’t taste like slightly chocolatey cinnamon coconut water anymore.

I’m gonna try it w/cocoa canela tomorrow. I’ve only got enough Chocolate Orange for one more cup so I think I’m going to have to drink it on its own, but this was a good experiment.

When I opened this to take out some to give to JoonSusanna, it just made the entire room smell like a key lime pie. And it lingered. And finally today I couldn’t handle it anymore. Warm day? I need iced tea.

It smelled amazing again while it was brewing. I find it pretty cool they use a Nilgiri base for this.

I decided I had to have it iced, and at first it was WAY too strong, I think that was a product of the lime peel rather than the tea. Once the ice diluted it and I added a bit of agave it was really good.

I don’t think there are that many lime teas out there, but there doesn’t need to be any competition for this one. It’s awesome. It tastes just like lime with no weird aftertaste.

I may have to make a pitcher + spearmint for tomorrow, I believe it is another 80+ day :D

So there’s a reason I haven’t had this one in forever. It’s one of those where I had it once, wrote this average tasting note on it, and then tried it again, hated it, and didn’t say a thing.

So then I find it in the cupboard and I’m like, oh chocolate cake! I make it. I taste it. I absolutely despise it.

I mean, it tastes awesome. It tastes like chocolate ice cream cake. But I have a serious texture problem with teas that have so much flavoring oil in them. I can feel it and it grosses me out.

At least this means I have less work on deciding the last bunch of teas to add to a traveling tea box…and I can remove it from my spreadsheet!

Everything violet flavored just makes me wish I could live in France already.

I think I prefer Violette to Kusmi’s Violet. It seemed to only taste right when I prepared it a certain way. This one smells so much stronger, which I was worried about at first. As it steeped, the aroma carried over to me and it was just SO GOOD.

So of course actually drinking the tea was amazing too. It’s far more floral, but not like soap at all. It’s sweet and smooth.

There needs to be more violet flavored things around here. I think there is a gelato shop here that does flower flavors, they must have one. I just have no idea when it’s ever open! And of course one of my favorite cocktails is the Aviation with creme de violette.

Thank you for sharing this with me, Ellyn!

Ok I drank this Sunday but have been lazy about writing the note.

I love love love love this. In case you are unaware, a Victoria sponge cake is like a two layer cake with strawberry or raspberry jam (raspberry looks to be the original but strawberry pops up in recipes) and whipped cream in the middle. Yes I want to make one because of this tea.

If you’re looking for a pure cake taste, this is not the cake tea you want. It tastes more like those middle ingredients sandwiched into this cake. Granted, a sponge cake honestly doesn’t taste like much of anything on its own anyway; to me it’s more about it being a fluffy, sweet vehicle for berries and cream. Or ice cream, if you bake it thin and just enough so it’s done but pliable…and you roll it up…but I digress. You can’t exactly get fluffy cake across in tea. I hope.

Sweet is covered though I think, and this is most definitely creamy and jammy. I still can’t decide if this tasted more like strawberry or raspberry, but it was all around like jam was in there. The coconut doesn’t really come across as coconut, but instead makes the tea creamy. I think it was sweet enough to not need anything else. The bag says without milk but really, it’s a tea based on a cake with cream in it, I may have to give it a try with the addition of sugar to see if it becomes even more decadent.

I don’t know why I got this, maybe because I love watermelon and mint, and also because it was on sale at Whole Foods for $5.49. So that’s 68 cents a quart by RoT measurements, but you have to be kidding if you think I’m only gonna steep this bag once….so saying I’ll steep it twice, four cups a quart… 8.5 cents a cup. Not bad for a RoT product.

And this isn’t bad for a watermelon tea! Usually they never taste like watermelon. This one definitely does, so much so I don’t really taste any mint. I am kind of sad they used peppermint instead of spearmint, but since I can’t notice it beyond how it makes the black tea itself taste, I think I can add in some spearmint myself in the future.

I was certain I was going to regret just grabbing this stuff but now that I’ve made it, I’m glad I did. Also I’m happy they made sure to say to toss the pouch in the garden after! I don’t think the pouch will ever biodegrade but they made an effort, I’ll cut the leaves out and throw them in.

I am going to hopefully go back to planting now…these bumblebees are being psychotic and chasing each other around and they like to wait to be chased by hovering in my patio area and they’re driving me crazy. In the past week, there have been two dead ones on there…I was wondering why but I figured it out. Three bumped into my legs earlier, one bounced off one of my planters, another fell right into one being a goofy bee, etc. I’m trying not to freak out because I know they’re not gonna hurt me as they’re so obsessed with each other (mating? idk what’s going on) but that buzzing just hovering right behind you is super creepy.

eta: second steep does not work at all. I have very anemic looking iced tea. I think the only reason it has any flavor is because I added sugar. I even steeped it for 5 minutes (first steep was 3) and it was still very pale. Boooo, RoT, boooooo. I guess cold steeping is always an option but I imagine it’ll still take forever to get anything out of that.

I remembered I was to try this hot, at a lower water temperature. I still do not like it very much. In fact, it seems kind of flavorless until this hit of strawberry far into the aftertaste.

Guess I’ll be trying this one cold steeped too, and then off it goes for swapping.

Meh. I am just not impressed with Lupicia’s peach flavor. Even if it tasted like peach candy, I’d be happy, but I just don’t get peach at all. This one at least is the most tolerable out of all momo related teas, which is good because I got an entire tin in that happy bag.

The green tea itself is really good though, I wonder if it’s the vanilla that just throws everything off for me. I may have to try cold brewing it to see if I like it better cold and maybe prepared a different way.

I decided I’m not going to class tomorrow because I am afraid of going downtown until this Final Four stuff is done. Also pollen but that’s a terrible excuse as I’m going to be planting. My city started up a community garden and I may get a plot! I just have to keep living here then…I was considering going back into Atlanta proper when my lease was up but I am dying to be part of a community garden, especially if it’s just starting up.

I had this iced yesterday and I think it probably needs sweetener to really bring out its flavors. I couldn’t taste strawberry, maybe just a little lemon, but mostly it was flowery. It seemed a bit too harsh so I think I’ll steep it less time too.

Dear Nearly Nirvana,

Thank you for staying true to your keeping grumbling tummies happy description. It is actually working. These jerks working on a condo across the NARROW road from my boyfriend’s garage are parked so much in the way that we cannot get his car out.

They are still here and they want to continuously argue with him. I might not have the lack of anger a monk does but hey, I’m surviving it being 2:15 now and I haven’t had lunch yet.

This was one of my samples from Bluebird, and it sounded like something I’d like so I had it. It was refreshing, the combination of citrus, mint, and jasmine really can do that. It would probably make a good iced tea too but I finished it off before it even got cold.

It was really relaxing too, I know I got more than enough sleep last night because I was bored enough to go to bed before 12:30am, and it still made me kind of sleepy when I had it.

I don’t know what it is, but I cannot enjoy these Simpson & Vail teas I got. After Strawberry Cupcake, I’ve just been afraid to break into the others and it’s evident why with this one.

I don’t know what I can do differently! I steep for 3 minutes, I use 200 degree water. They just taste watery and have an unpleasant aftertaste.

This one at least is more tolerable than the strawberry one. But I don’t think it really tastes like apple cinnamon cake or anything. Maybe a bit cinnamon but i don’t understand what it is about either the flavoring they use or the base tea.

Ugh this tastes even better now that I’m finishing the sample. It’s just SO clean and it makes me feel less angry that we’re coming up on 24 hours of not being able to register for classes.

Citrusy, creamy, flowery woodsy, tasty.

I was gonna just steep it once and move on but I can’t.

Now I regret not buying more but buying more of anything isn’t happening for a long time don’t tempt me.

Supposedly right now it’s April showers time, except you know, to me, April showers should not include it being cold and windy. (Tomorrow when I get back from this economics in the private sector career thing I am finally planting my garden!) This feels and tastes like it’s still another lovely mid-60s day.

Final three! Oh god I am so tired of Final Four stuff around Atlanta. I’m not even going downtown Monday because I am going to hate everyone.

I also cannot register for classes, “the 3,000 students able to register today” crashed it. Funny, this has never been a problem ANY OTHER TIME. The last time I have to register? Down for hours. Ridiculous. If I miss out on this Politics and Film class I’m gonna lose it.

So I swear there was an entry for this somewhere but I can’t find it so whatever. This is a really savory green. Seems like there’s a hint of smoke in there, and it’s still a bit sweet and grassy.

It’s okay, but it’s going to continue on in one of the boxes because…well too much tea already.

Hey I can do this sipdown with numbers too…62 left in the spreadsheet for herbal/fruit! …cries

Yesterday was a pretty tea-less day because I had two tests and I was going to a taping of Conan! That was awesome. I did have a tea from Caribou while I was studying but eh not worth logging.

So it’s warm again today, and I made this iced while I was starting on gardening.

This is more like hibiscus lemonade than anything, I definitely do not get mango at all in here. It’s very tart and it tastes like lemons and rosehips and hibiscus.

It’s okay, I think I’d add something mango flavored to it if I had more.