momo

Made a pitcher of this iced while waiting for my yixing pot to season. Still lots of time to go. I forgot I had added jellybeans in here so that was a surprise when I opened my tin.

It’s very orange. I had added like the red/pink Starburst beans and for some reason it really smelled like grapefruit when I poured it into my pitcher. That’s definitely not present in here, but I think it may have been the strawberry smell combining with the rooibos. Weird!

Now that the fun has really worn off this really is just your usual red rooibos with fruit flavoring. I had a lot of jellybeans in there but unlike before, they just don’t taste like they’re adding anything beyond color. It’s still enjoyable, it’s just not worth the novelty. And for iced tea, I prefer green rooibos.

I decided I’d give this a try iced just for something different. I think I very much prefer it hot. The sencha is so good but for some reason it being cold really makes the strawberry come off more like chapstick. So much like chapstick I wish I had that kind to put on right now. Definitely better at a warm temperature.

Cold pancake flavoring is very interesting though, makes me want to try pancake breakfast this way too.

Going down to Orlando for one day is horrible, but fun. Definitely a longer trip next time. This morning I felt like the child who was screaming bloody murder about leaving Epcot last night.

So no shop really had what I wanted, except Japan. Actually I didn’t intend on buying any tea at all but it was either this or every plate and bowl with an owl on it. My boyfriend’s brother’s friend works for Disney so he got us in free, and he got a 35% discount on shopping purchases. So this 50g pouch with a little Lucky Owl (to bring me patience) was not even $10.

Normally it’s $11. It’s in a gold foil bag that doesn’t reseal. But it’s sure immediate to tell it’s higher quality than the super cheap Gyokuro I bought in bulk. It’s obviously not as good as an even more expensive gyokuro considering the amount of dust, which I’m not sure is normal or the result of having to be carried around for like 9 hours. The leaves turned such a bright green as they steeped. Bright as grass that’s been perfectly manicured and watered.

I didn’t bother to follow the instructions since it called for boiling water and I think a 3 minute steep. I probably steeped it for half that. The liquor is the light neon color I’ve noticed in my genmaicha with matcha added. I don’t believe the cheap gyokuro did this! And it smells so good, like spring.

This is intoxicating. It seems so light, but it’s sweet and just perfectly grassy. It’s easy to sip and it’s so enjoyable. I’m glad my water temperature didn’t turn it bitter. I realized too late I probably wanted it a little cooler, but perhaps it really could stand up to boiling. I don’t think I’ll try though. It almost tastes effervescent upon taking a sip too.

I’d say I’m surprised to have gotten this at Disney but it was a Mitsukoshi store after all, I just wish I had bought one of the owl teapots there too! They were so cute and they’re so expensive on eBay!

Last tasting note until Sunday or Monday, I’m so excited to go to Florida even if it’s for not even 48 hours, ahhh! Of course, a couple orders arrive tomorrow. I hope they get put in a locker and not taken to the front office so I can’t have them till Monday, that would be sad.

This note is for the second steep of the teabag. If you want to resteep one of these, but don’t want a gallon of tea in your fridge at once because you can’t drink it all up in a couple days, it works really well to freeze the concentrated 2 cups for a couple days until you’re ready to drink more! If I had space for extra ice cube trays that would be perfect. You could just throw them in some water and be set to go pretty quickly.

But in my case I created a giant ice cube, let it melt a bit so I could just pop it into the pitcher, filled it up with water, and let it melt down to mostly all liquid for already cold tea! I’ve got one bottle to take with me on the road tomorrow and I’ve nearly had the rest to drink already today, wow.

I sweetened it before I froze it, but I think this steep actually tastes better than the first anyway. The banana is more subtle and sweetening doesn’t bring it to the point of candy. I think it makes it taste even more like real banana this time around. I will definitely get this one again!

Another day, another storm. This one sounds less intense so that’s good.

I decided to try to make this cold. I’m still not much of a fan of the taste of honeybush iced. It has a strange aftertaste to me. But since it is chocolate malt, it has to be cold! I did this a bit different. Steeped it double strength, then added coconut milk creamer to it, and a little chocolate syrup.

Honeybush when it’s cold just reminds me of wet wood. I’m hoping if I keep drinking it especially in such tasty ways, I’ll get used to it. Beyond the woody taste, this is so good. It’s like having a chocolate shake minus the heaviness of drinking one!

omg I can’t stop playing SimCity social on Facebook. It makes me wish there was a version to play on my laptop, shakes fist. I have never given my boyfriend back his SimCity Societies CD and it does not work on a Mac. Rude.

So tea time it is instead. I should probably start packing for the weekend but I would rather drink samples I haven’t gotten around to yet, like this one from brandy3392. I can’t remember if I asked for this or not but I don’t think either way I would have expected so much lemongrass in the dry leaf.

That always worries me that it’s going to be overbearing, but so far, so good. This is hardly an assam, it’s very light and not in your face like an assam should be. Though of course, this is from Teavana, so it’s more fruit than assam in the end. The lemongrass isn’t too strong, but really nothing is. I taste it and the pineapple, so I guess we can call this one sub-tropical, ha ha.

I can understand why they discontinued this one. I’ll definitely use the remainder of the sample for cold steeping.

Cherry Vanilla Cola tea soda! This is too good, it’s too bad I don’t have much of this left. I steeped a teaspoon of leaves in my gaiwan because all my measuring cups were being washed, lol and I figured it was the closest I had to 2-3oz. Steeped it for 3 minutes, poured it in a cup, paid no attention to the amount of agave going in, added ice and topped it off with seltzer water.

I have some Coke Zero in my fridge because I’ve been mixing it with a little orange juice (this is actually amazing, thanks Germany), and that soda has nothing on this tea with some carbonation. It tastes like soda, but it’s still got that black tea flavor to it.

I tried adding club soda to it before but it really needs to have a concentrated steep for it to really, really work. I can’t believe it took me until now to do this.

I love how some half-dead giant wasp found its way into my apartment. Since it could only rotate itself and not even actually move, I threw my flip flop at it and landed it on the second shot. Sorry, wasp, you were probably a jerk anyway since you’re a wasp.

I figured I’d just write a new note from yesterday. My second steep was I guess too short because it didn’t really have any flavor. But the cold steeping of the leaves overnight, I guess maybe almost 20-21 hours now, is fantastic. It’s light but still tastes like creamy pistachio. It’s rich tasting despite the fact it looks like it might not have any flavor left.

I think I will cold steep a glass from the start just to see, since this was technically the third steep of the same leaves.

Soooo, I heard from one of the local news channels about my video of the storm/hail starting, and then…I missed it being shown at the end of the 6:30 news. I’m so disappointed in myself still so I’m hoping they might show it at 11 too. The one time something I record will be viewed by thousands of people and I miss it myself.

I also went out in the pouring rain to grab hail and my hair is still wet and I’m cold, so more hot tea it is! I was feeling like an oolong, but something I wouldn’t feel bad about not resteeping a couple times. All my tea is mainly in my bedroom right now for some reason (when you don’t even know why, there’s a problem) but this one was in the very back of my cabinet, poor tea.

I just love the fruit flavor of this tea. To me it’s not purely pomegranate, there’s definitely something else in there, something sweeter, since I think it’s far too sweet to be just pomegranate. Maybe some kind of berry. Either way, the fruit flavors blend so well with the floral TGY. It’s light, but it still shines through the fruit a bit.

I just realized a couple days ago that Caribou Coffee carries H&S teas. I had to promise I’m not that obsessed, I just noticed they had the iced tea bottles and finally put 2 and 2 together. Of course, then it was like, hot cinnamon spice…DUH. I’ve had this one there a couple times, but it’s never as good as the loose leaf at home. This one really needs space to steep.

Well, me drinking this tea got madly interrupted by a huge thunderstorm. I was on my patio taking a video because it had started hailing and there was rain blowing in two directions so I freaked out and went inside. I was enjoying this tea up until then (and the power was only out for like 5 minutes so that’s cool).

It smells like those cinnamon candied nuts you find at any sort of event that requires a generic set of vendors. Except that these are the best thing ever, and it made me wish I had some.

The tea does not taste like them, though. The tea tastes like a Parisian breakfast. Buttery almond croissants, fluffy brioche, oranges, sweet cinnamon bread, I want to go back.

Fun story: one morning while we were eating our morning croissants at a bakery in the 15th arrondissement, this little sparrow came right up to our table and started chirping. My mom dropped her a little piece of croissant. She took it and flew off, and returned several times for more. She was feeding her babies! And she had no fear at all to fly right up to us and get some more. (Meanwhile here I can’t even get a sparrow to take a piece of tortilla chip from a far distance on a Chipotle patio.) This tea reminds me of all those good pastries.

I never thought I really cared about pistachio flavored things until I had a pistachio macaron from Pierre Herme. WOW. (I also had an asparagus/hazelnut one. It was weird.) While this is not toothache-inducing sweet like those, it still very much reminds me of that macaron. And most importantly, it is readily available.

The green tea is nice and subtle. It’s there, but it doesn’t take away from the flavors. Vanilla, pistachio, cream, they are all there. I get the macaron more than ice cream but it’s also hot and I usually have a hard time with typically cold flavors in hot form. It’s still incredible though.

I already made a second steep, and once it cools I will try it iced. Then I’m going to cold steep the leaves for later, I can’t wait to try this iced, clearly!

I tried.

It smells like popcorn to me, super buttery. I was excited to try it. But all I taste is metallic. I lowered the water temperature (started @ 205), I gave it a rinse, I don’t think this one and I are going to be friends and that makes me sad because it smells great. I’m also not a fan of how they fall apart, makes any sort of steeping rather difficult with little bits getting through even a strainer. I’d try a bit more (sweetening, whatever else I see from notes) but I am just so turned off it right now because metallic tastes and I will never ever be okay together.

OKAY you know how when you have something sitting there and you absolutely must conquer it? 4th try of steeping I finally got something I like. 30 seconds is far, far too long for me, but it works now. Didn’t bother to pay attention to the water temp though, but this time there isn’t a metallic taste, but delicious toasted rice.

I think it’s the herb in here giving me that metallic flavor, because I still get tinges of it in the aftertaste, and now I can tell that it has to be coming from it. Because now as it’s cooling it’s coming back. Argh.

Well, I got my haircut. Except instead of layers, I got Megan Draper a la Mad Men. Bah. Nice lady and all but seriously I said I wanted layers. I guess she was too busy yelling at me for bleaching part of my hair that was basically all cut off.

Thankfully I don’t mind it and my day was made better by more SBT bags coming in the mail, yay! I was feeling like banana so I decided to have this one.

It’s somewhat subtle, which I like because banana is a pretty difficult flavor. Too much tastes like candy and it seems like it’d be really hard to get a natural tasting flavor. Of course, if banana candy is what you’re after, give it a good bit of sweetener, and you’ve got it. I thought it was pretty good with nothing added because the banana just tasted so good with the black tea. But with a good bit of agave, it’s even more banana tasting with a candy aftertaste.

Love it! Definitely going to give this bag another steep. I should have about 2 quarts of bottles to take with to Florida this weekend then and I can just put this all in them hahaha. I just steeped it up and once it cools I’ll pop the 2 cups in the freezer until Thursday. This had me worried though, when I go up to North Carolina for 5 days WHAT AM I GOING TO DO??? The water there is horrid, I think there’s a hot water dispenser in the lobby but I am still terrified to use it with legitimate tea instead of the cheap tea bags I recall them having. I guess it might be cold steeping in the cooler with water bottles up there!

I should also add this is even better after its spent the night in the fridge. Even more banana flavor without the need of any sort of addition! Now I imagine if you REALLY wanted banana runts, you could add sweetener and it’d taste like them. Awesome!

I am so so so so glad that Mahamosa was able to find me two more pouches of this tea (and I said if any more come out of the woodwork, let me know, I’ll buy them ALL) so now I don’t feel like I have to hoard as I essentially have two ounces of it once again.

This has to be my favorite fruit tea in the world and that is why it’s so depressing that it seems to have vanished from being carried. It requires no sweetening, it’s just marvelous as is.

I like to boil water, pour it over the fruit and then just leave it to cool off while still steeping. So much cherry flavor, and not the least bit of a fake, medicinal kind. It’s tart without being difficult to drink.

I almost want to find a way to recreate it myself if it’s gone for good. It’s way too good!

Ok one last thing, Steepster. Since nowhere else on the internet has anyone helped me, I really want to cut my hair like this: http://www.allure.com/hair-ideas/2012/32-hair-ideas-for-2012#slide=3 (but less bangs in the front) and my boyfriend thinks it’d look good, but my mom is trying to say my hair is too thick for it. Since I know the boyfriend doesn’t know the first thing about it, I can’t ask him and nobody else has answered me, does that even possibly matter? I’ve had layers before. That page even says more along the lines of it not being good for super fine hair. I reaaaaally want to cut my hair but I’m so particular and I want this so much, augh. Now back to your regularly scheduled tea-related dashboard.

Ok so I’m not the biggest Harry Potter fan in the world…this just made me think, have I ever even read the last book even? Oh well. And I wasn’t a fan of the movies, after two I was done. (I was in eighth grade when the first one came out omg feels like forever ago!) But the food and things like that in book series that create their own amazing worlds will always draw me in. There is an entire site dedicated to making these food items a reality!

Butterbeer has to be the frontrunner out of anything I can think of for tea, and it’s awesome. I’m drinking it ice after brewing it hot, with just a little cream and sweetener. I liked it without the additions, but it was freaking me out how much it tasted like buttery root beer. With additions, it’s more like root beer butter. The flavors taste much more rounded out. The root beer seems to pop and the butter seems more creamy.

Adding sweetener/cream also brought out the chicory and licorice just ever so slightly, along with some of the spices in the root beer and it makes it even better. It’s so unique and ridiculously awesome.

Wah if only I drank this a day earlier so I could have gotten my mom to raid my brother’s room and bring me that last book! It’s all his fault I never finished it since he took FOREVER.

Since Red Leaf has 2 in 1s now I figured I’d make an entry for this anyway in case anyone else thinks of it.

Today my dad rode around Atlanta Motor Speedway in some kind of open wheel formula car! They claim Indycar but it’s clearly not to anyone who has watched Indy ever. This is him getting in the car! http://instagram.com/p/M1lTMCJa52/
Afterwards, since it took no time at all (they said be an hour early but he got to ride right away) my mom wanted to buy peaches. Really. I just made SO MUCH JAM and I was giving her some, so we stopped at the state farmers market again and it was basically full of watermelon. I wanted one sooo badly but refrained for once.

So finally back home, I decided since both fruits were on my mind again, why not mix these matchas with some coconut milk cream? These are awesome together. First it tastes solely like the watermelon, but then the peach comes in. I could drink these together all night but I will try not to, because sleep would be great at some point. Can I just declare my love for this coconut milk creamer stuff? It has such a rich taste without being heavy whatsoever and it makes all these matchas taste so good with just a small amount of it.

Now if only Red Leaf would get back to me with my next certificate so I can get orange and combine it with the Coke flavored matcha…there is my true summer drink!

Thanks for this one, TeaEqualsBliss!

I just ate a soft pretzel, whatever that brand is you can buy at the grocery store. I hadn’t had them in AGES so I was quite surprised when I took one out of the bag. I know I’ve clearly gotten bigger but they seem to have gotten much smaller at the same time! I made this iced and it was done at about the same time, which was amusing.

It’s the perfect accompaniment to a salty snack. It’s sweet, but not in a candy-like way. The peach flavoring actually tastes like peach! The cranberry I don’t get as much but it’s definitely got a tart presence in here.

This makes a very good iced tea, I’ll have to try it hot too though. It’s refreshing and I’m glad it has aged well because it is tasty!

Thanks, silvermage2000!

Since this is an older 52teas offering that I always wanted, I figured I should probably use a bit more leaf than normal. I made it iced too because, well even at 9am today it felt too hot.

I think I may have slightly oversteeped it, or its age isn’t working to its advantage, or I am just getting a lot of lemongrass. It oddly tastes like genmaicha on some sips, followed by lemongrass, so I’m leaning towards it just being heavy on the lemongrass here. (I am kind of weird, if lemongrass is strong I get grain flavors from it, especially Fruit Loops. I’ve got these chicken lemongrass rolls from Trader Joe’s that seriously taste like the cereal!) Sometimes a sip is berry with a little citrus. This is a lot of fun and I’m glad I’ve got some to try!

Augh I went to some friends’ house last night to play Cards Against Humanity (offensive/evil/awesome if you’re a terrible person game like Apples to Apples) and of course the house rules were winner of the round chooses someone to take a shot. Four shots and four hours of sleep later, I am not feeling so nice this morning and wishing I hadn’t made plans to meet a friend for Ethiopian for lunch. Of course I don’t have anything good for hot tea with me so I’m drinking iced tea before 8am. I’m already on my second glass of this because holy dehydration.

This brews up super light. It’s kind of worrying at first but it definitely has flavor. It’s not particularly green apple to me, but it’s apparent the fruit flavor is apple, with a bit of kiwi. I’m surprised it’s as good as it is because I’ve learned not to expect much of anything kiwi flavored.

The base tea is okay, it gets bitter way too easily which is tough when the tea looks like water even after 2 1/2 minutes. That’s really about the limit of this it seemed like, but the temperature might have been a bit higher. It’s easy to just drink down which I attribute to it pretty much just tasting like flavored water for the most part. I’m wondering if it really needs the space to steep in like a basket rather than a t-sac, but I wasn’t in the mood to strain. Next time I’ll try that though so maybe the green can really show through in a more delicious manner.

Why do I watch a sport that requires getting up early? At least its something interesting, two people I know were watching Australian hockey last night and I do NOT get it at all. Who seriously cares? One of said friends from last night is Australian and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t care about it. I guess it’s impossible for some people to get a life in the offseason or something. I ranted about this for half an hour before bed apparently but SERIOUSLY this one girl is STILL UP now watching this stuff.

What’s this? A tea with almond that I can stand? GASP.

It’s not overpowering, maybe thanks to adding coconut milk & agave because once I saw the almond slices I figured maybe those would bring the fruit flavors out better (or at least the coconut, just something that wouldn’t be the almond slices). And they did, because this is like spiced cider with a shot of amaretto. I am loving the cardamom in here instead of them just going with plain old cinnamon apple.

The milk made it so creamy and it’s so good. I probably won’t seek out more of it but it’s good to know there are some teas with almonds that don’t make me run for cover.

Thanks, Kittenna!

I finally have conquered the 25 pound box of peaches. I’m so proud. Except like 6 jars of jam are in my fridge but I should be getting rid of 6 in the next couple of days to people so yay freezer space.

Now I have to clean up the massive mess that is my kitchen now. Do not want.

It was quite nice between preserving and jam to see that a big box of tea from TeaEqualsBliss came in the mail, except it was at the leasing office soooo..I was lazy and drove myself there because I probably would have passed out on the way back. LOTS OF TEA!

I was so so so excited to see this one in there, because I did not discover DT until this one was gone. I had hoped maybe it would come back with the cupcake teas but that did not happen. Now I feel victorious!

This is indeed creamy but the mango is a bit too obvious in the taste. It smells so good though, I kind of lose control of myself and end up dipping my nose in the tea. It truly smells like buttercream.

Letting it cool down a bit. I’d ice it but I’m out of ice from blanching peaches and for some reason the icemaker won’t make more? Is it mad about all the peaches sharing its territory? It’s getting to the point I’d go out and buy a bag of ice if I had any space, I want my ice! It’s far better once it’s cooled a bit. The mango becomes more like a sweetness than a fruit flavor. It gets more buttery too.

So going to have to try this iced really soon even though there are tons of other things to try!

I have a test tomorrow, I know pretty much nothing on it. I have zero interest in studying or caring. First it doesn’t help that there’s a constant boom boom boom from fireworks, but Maria de Villota lost her right eye in the accident and I’m just gutted. I hope nothing’s worse than that for her. She’s one of my heroes since she’s one of the two female test drivers in Formula 1 and I’m just still in shock even though it’s been almost 12 hours since finding out the news.

So I have returned to peach, again. At least this time I think it’s a reliable one though I haven’t had it in a long time. So now I probably hate it since every other Adagio tea I’ve ever had has been a total bust to me and that’s why I’ve been ignoring it.

Nope. I still like it. I like the woody flavor of this oolong with the peach flavor. It’s light, though, so if you’re looking for juicy peach this is not the tea. It’s obviously not a very good quality oolong, but it’s always been clear to me Adagio’s base teas are not very good. This is the only one I can stand.

I think I’ll use the rest of the bag to cold brew.

Seriously I can’t even explain how angry I am to have an exam tomorrow. Thanks for ruining my holiday. I bet if this class was Monday/Wednesday he would have liked to find a way to have us have class today too despite the school being closed.

I’ve wanted to try this but I didn’t want to commit to a pouch. Good thing, because I’m not sure I like roasted mate too much. But I mean this is my second roasted one, most of the ones I’ve liked have been green. So I’ll give it at least a few more tries before I give up on it.

It smells good, it reminds me of coffee and Whoppers together. That might be pretty good. I let it steep for about 10 minutes and tried it. I wasn’t getting much other than mate, so I added cream and agave. Now it’s like warm chocolate milk, but it’s just not chocolatey enough for what I want right now. I’m actually not even sure why I just want chocolate so much. Guess I should just eat it instead, huh?

I think next time I’ll try a legitimate latte with it. I picked up like half a pound of cacao nibs today for like $1.25 so maybe I’ll throw a few more in too.

Thanks for this one, Will Work For Tea!

I should be sick of peach by now. I mean I even ate one while waiting for this to cool.

Good thing this really lacked on the peach at least for me. It’s just chocolate. But artificial chocolate.

I can’t even take another sip.

The rest of this is definitely all yours, Kittenna. It seems you love it or you hate it but there’s only 3 other reviews. Mine makes it split.

Bleh. It might be the spices or something but this just is not for me.

Thanks brandy3392 for this nonetheless!