momo

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.

Fixed this one up to match the other Fauchon teas on here now, it was bothering me because I was searching “an evening” and it left out the an. All better!

Steeped this for less time by accident, more focused on studying. I think it worked out better though only being steeped for 3 minutes. It tastes far more like blood orange and apricot now.

sipdown~~~

Tried the rest of the sample iced. Definitely not as good as it was hot, which I find weird because it says in the description it is good iced. The cinnamon becomes way more obvious, but it also tastes a lot more like it’s just flavored with hibiscus instead of fruit. Definitely not getting black currant, peach, or apricot. Just hibiscus and cinnamon.

I don’t think I’d get this one again though. It was great hot, it disappointed iced.

I prefer macarons over macaroons, to the point I have an irrational hatred for macaroons for when people spell macarons like macaroons.

But I do like coconut. A lot.

So this was okay at first without sugar. It smells really nutty. But what I think must be the base tea is giving it this smoky aftertaste. It’s not offputting enough for me to dump the cup, but it just really doesn’t match the sweet cookie thing this tea has going on otherwise. I added milk and sugar and it makes it more tolerable, as does letting it cool off a bit more.

I added way more sugar than I usually do, which makes this tea taste like I’m having dessert for breakfast.

Thanks, JoonSusanna!

Wow. Sebastian got started chirping to a Lady Gaga song on the radio so loudly I could barely hear my kettle beeping right next to me!

The first time I had this, I had it with sugar so I’m trying it without just to see if it really needs it. Not that I remember that first cup, it’s been like seven months.

I really love this tea. It’s a shame it’s hardly oolong but because of that oolong it’s overpriced. I’d love to find a dupe of it… even just a strawberry rose tea.

Anyway, in my mind this doesn’t make sense hot so I’m having it iced. I taste strawberry, rose, and champagne! But not oolong. Obviously. It has the color of rosé (oh my god have I mentioned there’s a chance of going to France in 2014 for the 24 Hours of Le Mans? I’ll pack like one outfit so the rest of my suitcase can be devoted to tea and rosé), but of course rose flavoring is not really why rosé wine is named as such. The rose kind of gets soapy though, I think sugar helps with that.

It almost does taste bubbly too, I can’t believe it. It’s actually probably one of the closest to champagne tasting champagne flavored teas I’ve had. I wish this was just a tisane.

eta: I have decided I am going to find a strawberry tisane I like, get rose petals or buds, and add it to DavidsTea bubbly. VOILA.

Ok so I don’t think this is one that has aged well if I deduce the same one tea has been around since its first tasting notes on here 3 years ago. There’s something off about it. It doesn’t smell much like fruit at all, and it barely tastes like pineapple…and there’s just something weird about the aftertaste. I know I slightly steeped it longer than I wanted to, but it’s not the taste of oversteeping.

Another to join the garden I need to get started on soon, if only I hadn’t just painted my nails. Amanda problems.

Thank you yssah for this one!

This is an interesting tea. I am not really familiar with the flavor of figs (I’m also terrified of them since they can essentially eat bees, no not the part about there just being insects it’s the part where the fig can just digest it, NATURE!) I know the flavor of fig but I’m definitely really just getting brown sugar.

I have an ounce of it so I will give it another shot soon, I did not get any of the fig pieces in my infuser but I’m not sure that really matters. In my mind it does.

The spice to the white chai remind me of Christmas! As soon as I take a sip it’s just like I’m hit with a taste that reminds me of Christmas when I was a kid…I’m not sure what it is…but man those were the best Christmases, I’m straight into remembering Polly Pocket.

As it cools it becomes stronger and I just kind of feel like I am drinking cologne, like something in there got incredibly woodsy so that’s what I’m getting with the blend of spices and what seems to be the caramel.

So this is a pretty aromatic tea, as you can see. Haha before that point I quite enjoyed it, definitely something that needs to be hot, but I imagine if you just went straight to it being cold it might not be so bad…lukewarm, just nope.

This is interesting, I’m pretty sure it’s an incredible disservice to white tea because it looks and tastes more like a tisane.

It’s very fruity, very tart since most of the fruits in here are tart…oh and there’s hibiscus.

I kind of like it. Not enough that I regret not getting some myself, but I like it enough that by the time it’s actually summer I’d love to have this iced.

Thanks, Cavocorax!

I have had this tea for awhile now, I must have swapped it to someone too? I don’t know. I think everyone’s notes about it threw me off. I do recall one about how we Americans probably have palates more suited for stronger tastes than the nuances of this. Anyway, first I made sure I didn’t touch the leaves and just popped them from their inner bag into the infuser.

I definitely smell honey in the liquor, the color of this tea is even reminiscent of honey.

It tastes slightly sweet, not too sweet for something coated in honey though. There’s a lot of minerality to this TGY. And then in the middle of drinking it I left to meet up with JoonSusanna so now it’s cold, and it still tastes good.

Decided to give it another steep because how can you not with an oolong….but I oversteeped badly so maybe next time.

TTB countdown, only 5 left now I think!

I am keeping this, I feel like I really don’t have any plain sencha. It’s not much, just one of Persimmon Tree’s sample packets but I quite enjoy it. Grassy and sweet, and just right for when I had it…right before noon, more beer cheese soup. I am so full still.

Also I really, really love the color of the brewed tea. It’s almost as if it’s tinged with neon yellow just slightly.

I keep having issues with this tea LOL I made it yesterday to take to class and it smelled so soapy. But then eventually I couldn’t drink it because I guess I didn’t fully get the cinnamon out of the tumbler from when I made hot cinnamon spice. Meh.

So I gave up on it, but I really wanted to taste it, and tried again this morning. The rose is really strong in the aftertaste, it’s kind of interesting. It feels like otherwise you can’t taste it. The ceylon is alright, not the best one I’ve tasted. It’s pretty bitter for my parameters too.

I barely drank any tea yesterday because I had a paper to finish and wow hockey took at least three years off my life, what a game. I also had a growler full of ale I bought to make beer cheese soup. Beer cheese soup only needed 3 oz of beer. I bought 64 so I had to try some.

Now today is back to tea.

This tastes terrible and I am putting it into soil and not back into the traveling tea box. Time has not treated it well.

It tastes like perfume. Not in the floral way but that way when you accidentally spray a fruitier scent into/near your face and you happen to be breathing at the time.

Into the last dozen TTB teas I haven’t had, woooo. The only problem with this is I’m basically just trying each one and sending them back on their way because nothing has been OMG MUST KEEP when I have so many teas….way too many….someone make me stop.

So I thought I’d get vanilla and cream from this especially given an addition of coconut, but eh it’s really light. I actually kind of get more a nuttiness than a creaminess from the coconut. I’m guessing this is because I only did a 3 min steep? I also let it get way too cool…I need to set a second timer for when tea is at my optimal drinking temperature. Jeez.

May try this one again, not sure yet.