momo

I haven’t slept at all. Just when I thought I was going to get some sleep, one of the two female test drivers in Formula 1 was in a freak accident, the car hit the transport truck while she was driving. And a witness said the helmet took the brunt of the impact, ambulance services say life-threatening injuries and I am trying to keep myself calm by drinking this but it just feels like it’s going to come back up.

I’m not really religious but if you are, please say a prayer for Maria de Villota, or at least keep her in your thoughts that she will be okay. All I can think about is how Dan Wheldon died in a freak accident last year and I’m just terrified.

The tea though, it’s helped ease things a bit. At this point it’s just something to comfort my nerves, but it’s pretty good anyway. I’ve never been much of a Ceylon fan but I could see myself drinking this every so often. Its smooth, there’s a little bit of a honey taste, but it just doesn’t stand out like other black teas do. But when you need tea for the sake of tea, this is a real winner.

Oops. I wish I had known there was almond flavor in this before I made it. I’ll at least give it a shot but I don’t know what it is about almond flavoring in tea that I just can’t stand. I love almonds by themselves, whatever else, but in tea I can’t stand the flavor.

In here it comes off a bit more like amaretto rather than the flavor I hated in DT’s Secret Weapon, but I still don’t like it. I wish I knew what these exotic fruits were, but such is what usually happens with ZenTea teas. The fruits are so exotic they are unknown. There’s orange, and there’s berry. Other than that I can’t specify even what berry. My first sip was almost raspberry, but raspberries aren’t very exotic.

Off to the swap list it goes too. Hopefully it can find a happy place to finish its life with someone who likes amaretto/marzipan flavors. For me it just sticks out way too much to be enjoyable. If it wasn’t for that, I’d enjoy this. I’m having it iced and other than that, it’s pretty good and refreshing.

Thanks for this, brandy3392

Oh, this is my 400th tasting note! Hooray!

I wanted to log this badly so sorry Frank, if you need to give it a legit description that isn’t just me copying the Cotton Candy one and changing it to bubblegum, lol

I followed the directions on the package for steeping the whole bag in 2 cups of water then pouring it into a pitcher and adding enough water to get it to 2 quarts. I love the packaging! I was surprised at the size of the bag in there.

At first I thought I might have let it steep a little too long because I had to heat up my jams to get them to actually set and of course both the water and the jam was ready at the same time. I let it cool off a bit more while I made some blueberry jam for something different (I am so mad, I have used the entire jar of pectin I bought. It said it’d make 22 jars. I’ve made 16! Now I need more to finish off the peaches!)

I tried it without agave at first, and my fears about oversteeping were negated; but it just wasn’t bubblegum sweet enough. Since I normally can’t chew gum without my jaw acting up, I love that bright pink, super sweet stuff. After agave, it was PERFECT. That is exactly what it tastes like if it included black tea. The base here is nice, because it lets the flavor shine through without being too astringent or anything else. But at the same time you know you’re drinking black tea. Awesome balance.

I’m glad I already ordered more of these, and I saved the bag to resteep again later on!

I tried making this cold, but it still is just so gross. It just tastes like a really bad, cheap alcohol drink. If the stevia and/or the yogurt drops just weren’t here this might not be so horrible. I don’t mind stevia most of the time but it just does not work in this tea.

I’m not even sure why I grabbed this tea since I’ve been making peach this and that all day and now it’s ruined the good taste of peach I had. I’ve made a syrup for soda and a peach rosemary jam so far, and next up is jalapeno and peach.

Onto the swap list this goes, and into the sink the rest of the glass goes.

Oh jeez.

I made this iced since it’s like 101 and I really really really have been wanting to try it. It smelled like I was making jam! (That will be happening later, actually, but with peaches.)

It tastes like blueberries for sure! Not so much jam, since it’s not too sweet. I actually might add some sweetener to it. Though it is good like this, blueberry, and a nice slightly astringent base.

I just picked up some agave to give it a shot, at $3.69 it was worth trying. Now this is jam! This is summer in Georgia in a cup. I’m sure they don’t intend that as a Canadian company haha, but blueberry season here is soooo long that it totally is Georgia.

I am going to get more of this. And then I’m probably still going to get more of it. I want this fooooooorever!

Thanks for sending me this one in a swap, Will Work For Tea!

Ugh why don’t teas stay added to your cupboard? I added this not even a day ago! I just got back from getting my growler filled up and I am not going back outside again until it’s under 100. So gross.

Before I start drinking that, since hardly walking causes profuse sweating (and you can’t even breathe because it is most definitely a ozone code purple day just like yesterday, it’s terrible). I cold steeped this last night and am now drinking it.

SO much better than I expected! It comes on strong with the lemon though upon taking a sip, almost like a more natural tasting green tea lemonade. It quickly mellows out with the honeydew mixing in. It’s a very refreshing combination. This is well done, I might give it a try hot if I don’t run out of it for iced tea this summer.

Neither fruit flavor tastes very artificial, which I also appreciate. As usual, I could do with a bit more of a green tea flavor but it did end up steeping a pretty long time, almost 17 hours.

I had been drinking this last night, I did a lazy cold steep on it. Some is still left so I’m eating a real peach with it. I saw something last night say refrigeration makes them less tasty, which I think is a lie. This one is tasty, really juicy, and oh they are so much better cold.

So anyway this tea is odd because it doesn’t have peach in it, it has “peach crunchy” according to the bag. It’s made from pureed peach, tangerine, strawberry juice, and carrot juice. It still pretty much tastes like peach though, maybe a lot sweeter. Then the other strawberry pieces also help with that. There’s a bit of a berry flavor, but it’s mostly peach.

This bag got pummeled pretty badly by UPS, who made it look like the box was dropkicked by an elephant. I’m confused because Teavana sends stuff UPS, and I’ve never gotten a box that looks so horrible, and they’ve dented a few of my DavidsTea boxes but not to the point of causing damage. Both of those companies ship from further away than ESP Emporium. It’s so weird. It seems there’s more dust than usual because of it, so I’ll really probably be sticking to cold steeping this one. It’s perfect for iced tea anyway.

Yesterday was crazy. I got paid $125 to use a “perception analyzer” while listening to all NASCAR announcers on three networks, and then talk about them for an hour. Did I mention I really don’t like NASCAR? At least I was paid for it. But man, I was starving and drained when I got out of there.

So then today I got a bunch of stuff done in about an hour. Deposited the checks from last night, picked up tea, sent some off, and ..bought 25 pounds of peaches. I don’t know what I was thinking other than “oh my god, a box of peaches for $17.76? hauls away” Now I have less than 4 hours to write at least 2 more pages of a paper on Lyndon B Johnson so I’m finishing up my pitcher of this tea.

Since this has been sitting in my fridge a couple days now, it seems like a more floral flavor has come out in it. Of course that might also have to do with it getting a bit closer to room temperature, since my apartment is now 23 degrees cooler than it is outside. Gross! This seems extra refreshing because of the temperature now. Definitely glad I didn’t just judge this tea by how it tasted hot. It’s a cold steeping winner!

I was lying about not having hot tea anymore for the summer. I can’t do it!

My mom asked me on Sunday to knit an afghan for my grandma to put on her bed. When I first went to visit her, she had this fleece blanket I added an eyelash yarn border to on her bed so I was more than happy to accept this task since she would pay for the yarn. Only problem is I haven’t knit in FOREVER and it’s because I always lose steam quickly…so many unfinished projects. I’m hoping this tea will be an excellent motivator since I went from 10 rows on Monday to 2 yesterday. Of course it doesn’t help that I’m busy on other things, but right now I have the time for this tonight.

This is really nice. It’s not really chocolate bar chocolatey, but instead reminds me a lot of natural cocoa powder. There’s that definite cacao flavor but without being super sweet. And I love how much cinnamon I am getting from it. Last month, I tried a cocoa mole ale, but it was waaaay too much for me so I made cupcakes with it, topping them with a cinnamon chocolate buttercream. This tastes just like the buttercream but as a tea. I wish I had tried this before then, because a slight touch of mint like I can taste in here would have made it even more incredible.

I have some in the freezer and I am so tempted to make another cup of this and pop one in the microwave! Except I just looked at the clock so maybe tomorrow.

This is very comforting, and quite intriguing. I’ve started to enjoy chamomile, and I can tell it helps bring together the flavor in this tea.

Hahaha…I bought a bottle only to take it back now because of the Takeya sale on Fab. This one sounds a lot more trustworthy than the other though I may still keep it to have two different ones around, which would probably do me good.

Anyway, now I can finally drink the tea I was meant to drink all day. I received this in DaisyChubb’s secret santa iced tea swap.

I wasn’t a big fan of it the first time I tried it, but I had it hot. This time around, I cold brewed it. I like it muuuuuch better this way. I can kind of taste white tea, but hardly. It’s very fruity, but not entirely mango. I got peach before too, but now I’m also tasting apricot. I have no idea how, since the realm of orange fruits in here does not really include apricot. Maybe it’s tangerine and the entire mix with other fruits in here comes off as apricot.

I like this a lot better now. I’m so glad to have something good to drink now! I think the time has finally come to give up on hot tea until September…it’s supposed to be 97 tomorrow and get to 104 on Saturday! GROSS. At least it seems that humidity isn’t around for the time being but still. Another forecast says 108 and that’s just plain terrifying. I still remember how much this sucked (on multiple levels): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Heat_Wave_of_1995

There will be many, many pitchers of iced tea this weekend.

This is so gross. I hate the bottle I bought for iced tea (it sweats, if the opening isn’t a certain way it leaks) and I didn’t feel like cleaning it this morning so I needed tea between an appointment and class.

Bitter, terrible, finding a new bottle on the way home UGH. All I want is something that doesn’t sweat and can hold at least 24oz, and doesn’t cost more than $20. Sadface. This is what happens when you buy a sad bottle, you have to drink sad tea.

eta I am now wondering why I didn’t buy a nalgene bottle in the first place unless Target is just rude and sells them for $9.99 online only.

First in trying new things is drinking everything from previous swaps. Thank you Krystaleyn for this one!

I used all I was sent to make some iced tea so I could also remove it from my spreadsheet (it was #100 which is rather…scary). I’m enjoying the steep hot and pour over ice method with rooibos and this is no exception. I let it steep longer than necessary first since I’m finding it necessary to complain a lot about gerrymandering.

Did I mention I have a test on Foreign Policy tomorrow and a paper on the Vietnam War due Friday? I still feel the need to rant about another realm of polisci entirely, haha. But really I am annoyed to find I have been moved away from a really awesome congressman into the dungeon of the northern suburbs.

So yes this tea. It is probably one of the best green rooibos blends I’ve had to date, although that hasn’t been many. It just really lacks the grassy herb flavor that’s stood out to me in some others. I remembered this time to use a t-sac instead of trying to strain to no avail.

In the first few sips, I taste a lot of papaya. The aftertaste is very sweet (probably the apple), although it still has that green rooibos flavor that I’m not sure about. As it’s cooled a bit more with the ice, there’s peach joining the papaya. I’ve become a peach snob after the ones I had from the farmer’s market so this isn’t up to par, hahaha. I think that the weird aftertaste I get with the peach comes from the green rooibos though.

I would possibly get this again. I love papaya but I never really get anything papaya flavored. It reminds me of my brother’s hamster he had about 6 years ago. His name was Mr. Nibbles and he absolutely loved yogurt covered dried papaya chunks. This tea reminds me of him with those dried pieces in here!

I just added a ton of teas to the swap post on the discussion boards. Now the next step is to try everything I’ve yet to try so I can probably add even more…joy.

This one however will not be going there. I know I have 11 billion strawberry shortcake type teas but this is so good. The black tea is really good, it’s a nice base for the flavors. This tastes just like strawberries and whipped cream, and there’s even a cake flavor. I haven’t added anything to this, and I probably won’t (because I’m lazy) but I bet it might make it even better.

This one is definitely better than the DavidsTea version. Of course I had that one cold and I’m having this one hot, but I’ll definitely make this as iced tea soon.

Thanks for sending me this tea, darby!

I decided to switch it up to drinking it cold since it cooled off a lot while I tried to figure out what on earth the government was doing to my FAFSA in conjunction with my idiotic school. Turns out most of my loans get to be federal ones since I’m “independent” so this is beyond pleasing because the private ones always have such horrible interest rates. Cold now it’s getting kind of a bitter aftertaste, and I’m not sure why since I went with the low end of the steeping time to begin with. But the strawberry now seems even sweeter. I’ll definitely try this one out cold brewed to see if that cuts that bitterness, along with maybe a 2 1/2 minute steep instead.

I went to Fresh Market looking for soup and couldn’t pass this up. They used to have a lot of bottled Argo Tea drinks but this time around there were only 3, 2 I’ve had and 1 hibiscus one. Now there’s 2 Harney & Sons ones too.

It’s sweetened with cane sugar and honey, and just black currant flavored. It’s not too sweetened, given there’s 5g of sugar per cup and not like 20. I think the honey is stronger than the black currant. It tastes really good anyway, because that’s a pretty nice pairing of flavors as is. The black tea tastes like it was just made unlike a lot of already bottled iced teas.

Well, this tea is sure pretty with its flowers, but it doesn’t taste a whole lot like cookies and cream.

Before additions: tasted like a slightly sweetened with maple syrup Ceylon. It reminded me of something that I still can’t pinpoint, but I wanted cookies.

After: flowers and chocolate. So this tea does know the way to a girl’s heart, I suppose. But I didn’t want the pretty petals to be brought out, I wanted cream! (Sidenote: I swear the milk I bought is no good. I don’t know why I continue buying milk for cooking at this grocery store because it always tastes horrible to me. I’m just not sure about coconut milk working in a ranch dressing type setting, especially since I’m already replacing nearly everything with Greek yogurt.)

Anyway, I can’t decide which way it was better. I love the chocolate notes, which is what I want in cookies. But I miss the maple sweetness from before. I’ve got plenty of this though to get through. And I’ve had it for awhile so I should probably get drinking.

No notes yet.

I love rosé wine, although I have found I am a bit picky since this love blossomed in France. And of course I love champagne. And I love tea. So, this tea is perfect for me.

Of course I guess the rosé in here comes more from strawberries but that’s okay, as you can guess I also love strawberries.

I find it odd there’s somewhat of a floral flavor since that’s not really what rosé is. But it really does fit in here.

The strawberry is a bit too much like candy rather than fruit for my liking. And it definitely has a dry, grape flavor reminiscent of champagne. If it wasn’t for the dryness, the candy berry flavor really wouldn’t be as good.

Strawberries and champagne would probably be a far more accurate name, but I’m sure most people don’t care that much, haha. This is definitely true to its flavors, however, and would be perfect if you want the taste of wine without actually drinking any.

Thank you for this tea, Will Work For Tea!

No notes yet.

I picked this up a couple of weeks ago and finally got around to trying it. So far I haven’t been much of a green rooibos fan, but all previous experiences have been hot teas.

I steeped it hot and let it cool off a bit then added some ice. I forget that a T-sac works far better than a strainer with rooibos so I’ve got rooibos all in the cup. No big deal. Since this tea isn’t on ZenTea’s website, I don’t know entirely what is in it. I see some flower petals, possibly marigolds, strawberry, and orange peel.

I definitely taste orange. There’s maybe pineapple too, it might just be a flavoring. The strawberry is more subtle, though there is a definite berry taste.

I enjoy green rooibos a lot more iced. It’s kind of grassy but very neutral. This is definitely a keeper for the summer!

Wah Estate teas have been intriguing to me for quite a bit.

This is a very interesting cup of tea. It feels very thick on the mouth, but it’s light and sweet. First I thought the thickness came from what I ate before so I did everything possible to make sure it wasn’t me. It’s definitely the tea.

I don’t quite care for the way it smells. “Light pungency” is just kind of being nice in the description I think and it carries over into the aroma of the tea, not just the taste.

After the sweetness subsides, it kind of has the aftertaste of pita bread. I have no idea how I’m getting pita bread, but it really tastes like astringent pita bread, if that existed. Before that it’s kind of almondy.

Not sure I like it, but it was worth a try.

Ok, last night I took watermelon, mint, and a half teaspoon of this matcha and made myself a lovely drink. I don’t know what else to call it because it’s not really a smoothie, but it was good. Before I put the matcha in, the mint was way too strong. But with the matcha, it mixed with the green tea and had a green taste without being too overbearing.

And while I was cutting up the rest of the watermelon just now, I had to try what Invader Zim suggested in the comments on my tasting note from yesterday. I took a piece of watermelon then rubbed the matcha on it and ate it. SO. GOOD. I had to stop myself because a) I had a different cup of tea waiting on me and b) I was going to probably run out of the matcha.

I knew this was coming today, so I stopped and bought a quarter of a watermelon on the way home. Except of course, the stupid train aggravated my back so I took pain meds and now I don’t want to touch a knife for a few hours. But still, I had to try this immediately especially since I finally got a legitimate matcha making whisk. Although I had discovered that my smoothie maker attachment for my hand mixer did an excellent job.

I of course spilled everywhere but that’s the cup’s fault. After seeing aisling of tea’s note that this had that bitterness of the peach, I used room temp water and all is well.

The watermelon was a bit light, so I added some sugar and now it tastes a lot more like sweet, juicy watermelon mixed with matcha. Drop in a touch of cream, a couple ice cubes, and this is the perfect mid-afternoon refreshment in the summer.

Later on though, the smoothie attachment is coming back out, along with the watermelon and some of the mint in my garden.

This is also probably the most realistic tasting watermelon tea I’ve had. I enjoy Luscious Watermelon but if given a choice between it and this matcha, I’d take the matcha. Out of all of them I’ve tried so far from Red Leaf, I think this one is tops in combining the flavor with the matcha itself.

This is the only thing keeping me from passing out asleep in Foreign Policy right now. I am so glad I brought my laptop.

This stupid bottle doesn’t keep things as cold as it should given the interior cooler pack type thing. It needs to be just a bit cooler for the base blend to really shine with the cotton candy flavor. But right now, all cotton candy is fine by me.

One hour to go. Thankfully I have a LOT left.

I blended up half a peach and added it to some of this. I think the temperature was too high again, so I think I’ll just stick with using room temp water on this stuff. It has a bit of a bitter aftertaste. But on the plus side, it frothed up so amazingly well. I usually can’t get it whisked up fast enough to get a lot of bubbles but this time I did and it was beautiful.

Before the aftertaste though it is so sweet and peachy, I still feel like I “wasted” one of my peaches though because they are the most beautiful and delicious ones I have ever had. Their flesh color is so intense, they almost look like mangos inside. Their flavor does come through so not all is lost and I guess it’s less messy than me eating it.

The addition of cream actually cuts down on the bitterness a lot, and thankfully tames the sweetness a bit too because it was getting to be too much for me! Now this is reeeeeally good.

I’m getting their watermelon one next…you don’t even need to guess that I’ll be replicating this but with watermelon! Seriously the more I drink it, the more heavenly it tastes.