momo

Yay Steepster’s back. I was trying to remember if this tasted like Hot Toboggan when I was greeted with “oops! Google chrome can’t open this page” or whatever it is.

Sad times. (Actually the real sad times is that I burned myself with steam on my right wrist while cooking dinner. And I have no idea how to not look nuts in public tomorrow since for right now I wrapped a washcloth around it and secured it with a hair tie.)

But yes, in the end, this does taste like HT BUT it also tastes like green tea, which is useful. That was the downfall of Hot Toboggan for me.

But in the end I am not sure cinnamon apple is something I really like as a tea flavor, at least for a green. But other than that, this is good.

I have to say that apple works since I plan to make Mariage Freres Tarte Tatin au Thé for Easter and it involves steeping vanilla tea in butter. I am so excited I want it now…so you can see why I picked to try this tea out. Thanks for sending me some, Krystaleyn!

Not a big fan of this. I thought I’d give it a try but it’s pretty much what the description says. Sweet with an astringent finish.

I thought that maybe the tea between first and second flushes would be good, but it’s just okay. I thought maybe there’d be a bit of a light floral flavor and a bit more of the body of a second flush with that but it’s like a first flush without the real notes.

On the plus side because it’s so neutral it’s going to go very well with this cherry danish.

Hahah here I took a picture and everything, expecting this to not be listed yet, but Tabby beat me to it.

I love the bulk stuff at this “farmer’s market” (it’s more like an international grocery). I did not know before that they had greens and oolongs because it’s so crowded I only saw the black teas. So I had to immediately grab this.

I was not expecting much. I paid $2.30 for about 3 1/4 ounces.

I don’t know if it was my low expectations or what, but holy crap, this is actually good! It’s very grassy but sweet. I didn’t want to make much so I used my gaiwan and guessed a bit and steeped it for a minute. It could probably go a bit less and of course I couldn’t find the little booklet from Den’s Tea to at least try their parameters on it. (That search begins after this.)

This will do until one day I have the money for a really good gyokuro.

I can’t sleep so I’m gonna drink tea. This tastes really peachy this time around. It really is reminiscent of white wine. I am not tasting green tea at all though. I also get a honey flavor even though I didn’t add anything.

But at least unlike the tea I had earlier, there’s a bit more to it. I updated the info on the tea, and it had said 1 1/2 tsp per cup, and my label plus the site say 1 tsp now. I really think it needs to be brewed with 1 1/2.

But it’s still good with just 1 heaping tsp, I just wish I could taste the green tea.

This tea is interesting. I do have a pomegranate white tea I got at a local shop, but it does not turn pomegranate juice red when I steep it like this does. Of course I also used all I was sent to make a cup so that it would be very flavored. But then it loses out on the white tea base.

Smells like pomegranate, tastes like…cranberry? I guess this is the doing of the hibiscus but it really just tastes like warm juice. Since it had already cooled a lot with about 3 oz left, I put some ice cubes in the mug and it tastes even more like cranberry juice iced.

But, if there’s anything I’ve learned from flavored tea it’s this: if at first it’s too flavored, steep it again.

Still very pink, but more like I’d expect for pomegranate flavored tea. Still smells like a pomegranate. But there’s still no white tea taste! It’s a lot less flavored this time around but it still doesn’t taste a thing like Silver Needles :(

Thanks for sending me some of this to try, Krystaleyn!

So after the first iced matcha latte I made, I made another…and made myself sick to my stomach so I had to negate so much matcha with pizza. Except I so rarely get pizza and usually make them bring me it, so I got lost trying to find the pizza place I ended up in some way rich neighborhood and then I didn’t want matcha anymore.

Finally today I feel it is okay to go back to the matcha since I got enough nachos for 3 people at lunch and won’t have to go outside again. I added some sweetener, but it wasn’t enough. I don’t think I would really like this sweeter unless it came from the matcha itself.

Also I had no idea last week I think that Starbucks has green tea lattes so I tried one and it failed in comparison to using this stuff. Not surprising but I wanted to at least compare with the most readily available version I could get around here.

I will not drink another one when I finish this off. I will not.

Thank you again Krystaleyn for swapping iwth me, making it possible for me to try so many more DavidsTea products than ever before possible without spending a fortune. Of course, border patrol opened up the package because clearly tea samples are the new marijuana or whatever they think would be sent from Canada to this lovely drug trafficking hub. Thankfully they took nothing but now I’m all uncomfortable that they are watching me or something.

I had to try the sparkly tea first of course. I used to not really like cinnamon in tea, but it’s growing on me. The clove is a nice touch too in here, it makes it feel like I should not be drinking this with days getting close to 90 close ahead (ugh).

It smells like it’s just going to be another cinnamon spice tea but it just doesn’t taste ordinary. It tastes like real cinnamon, which can always get me, thanks to once working in a craft store. I know that nasty fake cinnamon smell and it’s not in this tea. The sugar adds just the right touch of sweetness to keep the spice from being overpowering.

I made it in a t-sac because that’s all I have right now so I could not fully enjoy the sparkly. Next time. I am going to have to buy those cake teas coming out and this might be an additional purchase with them because I am loving it.

I should at least take a picture of this tea so there’s something. I went to use a 50% off coupon at ZenTea and saw this. It’s not on their site, but it’s in the store so that’s all I really know about it.

It smells very caramelly in the bag. The honeybush is coarser than I’m used to, which is perfectly fine because that means less bits in the cup.

Steeped up, it smells a lot like coffee. Thankfully it doesn’t really taste like it. The chocolate tastes kind of artificial and thin, but the caramel is good stuff.

The honeybush is okay, I can’t really taste it. I would like to be able to because I think it would help out the chocolate taste. Maybe I should have just kept on steeping it, but I think it had already been 10 minutes.

I’ll let it steep much longer next time and see if I like it more.

Decided to make this iced. Now I can really taste how this is a bit like Swampwater, but I get less of the weird berry oatmeal taste.

This really has lots of little bits. Despite straining twice, there was still a lot of stuff floating. I used my tea tumbler, and it’s not very fine, but the second strainer is and it still made it through :(

The first time I had this, I cold steeped it because I was curious as to how rooibos tasted that way. I did not like it at all. So this time around I steeped it up hot, then poured over ice. I still don’t really like how it tastes. I feel like I need to sweeten it but now I’m too lazy to get up. But I think it would benefit from just a little sugar or something.

It might just be I don’t like how the blackberry tastes in here, which is weird because they’re pretty much my favorite fruit. It just isn’t strong enough so to me it doesn’t really taste like blackberry. I’ll give it another try hot.

I am so out of it. This is the first time I’ve had tea since Tuesday. But at least jury duty wasn’t bad. I just sat there for 3 1/2 hours then I got to go home…except I stopped at a food truck and it was awful and I’ve felt horrible since. So, if I want tacos from a food truck I know who to avoid now but meh.

Now it tastes more like I expected! So buttery and fruity. It really does feel like I just bit into something covered in butter after I take a sip. This is the perfect tea for a honeybush base.

I can taste both the cranberry and orange, I only wish I had a real scone to go with this, except that I’m drinking it in hopes I go to bed early given my “duty” for tomorrow. On the plus side I realized a) I get paid and b) I got lucky because food trucks are downtown tomorrow. Now I just hope I can bring in my tumbler of tea and I’ll be set.

Yeah this is going to start off rather tl;dr.

I am not in a good mood. I forgot about getting a jury summons for tomorrow, I thought maybe I wouldn’t have to go because I’m in a standby group so I didn’t look much at it otherwise. Now, that I of course have to go, I finally see the small print on the back about excusing students. I look it up on their website and they just defer you until a long break and will only do a deferment in “extreme emergencies” on the day you report. So I have no idea if I should try that tomorrow or just suck it up and hope it’s just for one day. Luck hasn’t exactly been on my side so far. ARGH.

I am in the last group so I may just have to sit around all day, which is what I’d do in class anyway.

And then my favorite way to stream hockey got shut down and so now I have to listen to announcers in English and I’m not pleased, not to mention it keeps stopping.

So. The tea. It’s not exactly pretty being a broken leaf grade, but when you’ve been wanting to try a Margaret’s Hope Darjeeling, you take what you can afford at the time. It steeps very quickly, the suggested time is 1 – 1 1/2 minutes so I went with 1 1/4. It’s very dark even for a 75 second steep.

It’s very sweet, probably the sweetest tasting Darjeeling I’ve had. There’s very little astringency. I had expected it to be astringent given the leaf quality but it’s hardly astringent at all. It’s just completely delicious sweet grape tasting.

15g of this tea was a dollar. A dollar. I completely forgot how much this one cost and now I am legitimately amazed because it’s so good. I’ll probably buy the 125g for $6.40 at some point because this is definitely something I could see myself drinking every day when I want a Darjeeling fix but don’t want to use something more pricey.

This is 39875293 times better cold steeped. It kind of loses all raspberry, but I wasn’t tasting much raspberry to begin with. It’s just sort of this vague fruity/sweet flavor with the coconut. It still definitely tastes like a coconut macaroon though, but this time with zero burnt cookie flavor.

I may be going through my whole pitcher today alone.

I can’t sleep because my sleep schedule is all messed up from this weekend’s Formula 1 activities. I was up until about 7:15 this morning thanks to the race starting at 4am AND having an hour rain delay after just 9 laps. Blah.

As a Georgia resident, I figured I had to get this tea at some point. I’ve had plenty of peach iced tea, because let’s face it, peach flavored black tea is fantastic.

In the bag it smells very funky…it smells a bit like a bad alcoholic drink. Around 3 minutes into the steep, the yogurt chips start leaving weird bits on the top of the tea. I really don’t understand the yogurt chips for this aesthetically displeasing reason.

Steeped, it smells like peach and I still get that alcohol smell. I am trying to recall if I ever had a bad night with some kind of peach drink and that’s the reason I keep getting that smell, but nothing is popping up. Or it’s the stevia, this is the first time I’ve ever had something with it so I don’t really know what it would smell like.

It tastes absolutely awful at first, like something burnt, and then right when I want to regret taking a sip, there’s a nice sweet peach taste. I think I’m going to let it sit and cool off and try it at least lukewarm before I throw it in a glass with ice instead.

So far, you are not much of a southern belle, Southern Belle.

I cold steeped this before, which is a total waste. Seriously. In the future if I want it iced, I’ll do it a normal way because it does not do it justice.

Now I can really taste all the cantaloupe flavor, with just a touch of honeydew. I love it. I don’t even care for cantaloupe or honeydew, and this makes me want to go out and get one of each and eat them.

There’s still a bit of flavor from the white tea, it gives it a bit of a floral edge and adds to the natural sweetness. This was good before when I couldn’t even taste all it had to offer, so now it’s even better in my eyes.

I ordered a bunch of Darjeeling samples from Upton, and I couldn’t wait any longer to try some out. Since most Darjeelings I’ve tried before have been second flushes, I figured I’d start with this one.

In the bag the only way I could describe how this smells is fresh. It just smells really clean, but not like much else.

This blows all the rest of the Darjeelings I’ve had out of the water, wow. It is so sweet and fruity. As it cooled, I really started to get the pecan taste. I love it! I’ve been thinking how there’s really not pecan in tea, well, who needs it when this tastes just like it. The fruity taste seems somewhat orange-lemony.

Definitely will be getting more of this when I use up my lesser Darjeelings!

Decided to give it a second steep and it worked beautifully. There’s less pecan and more orange this time around but the flavor is still strong.

I steeped this for 5 minutes and I think it’s too long because it’s got a bitter taste at the end. And it’s kind of not good. It makes it taste like a burnt macaroon, which is even weirder because I made it into iced tea. I’ll try it for far less time next time.

Other than that, I do like the flavor of this. I’d been wanting to try it for awhile so thanks for sending me this in a swap, brandy3392!

No notes yet.

Thank you Bonnie for sending some of this my way!

I saw people rave about this tea for a good bit of time, so I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to give it a shot. It’s definitely not something I would normally think to get, but it’s really good.

The rum flavor is really apparent when the tea’s still very hot, but I am liking it more as it cools. It has a very creamy taste, with a touch of rum and coconut. Next time I am going to steep it a bit longer because it’s just a little too subtle overall at 4 1/2 minutes.

It’s also making me incredibly hungry and I have no idea why. I have to stay up for another 3 hours or so and I made this to avoid that happening. Argh!

Wow, talk about weird. I went to look up ESP Emporium on Google and looked at the map on the right, wondering why things sounded familiar…they’re based right in the middle of where I used to live in Illinois as a kid.

Anyway, this is nice to look at as a tea and all but where’s the chocolate? Don’t call something chocolate cake if it doesn’t even taste like chocolate! I took matters into my own hands and added chocolate syrup. Now it actually tastes like chocolate but it kind of completely defeats the purpose of everything.

Otherwise, it just tastes like a caramel honeybush, which isn’t bad, but it’s not called caramel honeybush.

Thanks for sending me some of this, brandy3392!

This is a very, very scented tea. It doesn’t really taste like dragonfruit the way it really comes off as lychee.

I made it for iced tea, and it feels like as it gets colder it cuts down on the very perfumelike taste this has. It’s not too bad but I’m not big on flavors like this.

Thanks for some to try, The DJBooth!

I decided I’d give this one more shot at a lower temperature, and sent the rest of it off in a swap so that I can remove teas from my spreadsheet of tea instead of constantly adding them…which I did today. A lot. I always know it’s a good day when there’s a mail locker key in my box.

It’s better with a lower water temperature, but it’s still not that vanilla-y for me. Maybe it’s me.

Well thankfully I made this in my cast iron teapot because I am having SO many problems with AT&T and everything else is going wrong lately that when I finally got through their stupid robot spiderweb phone menu, nobody is there to talk billing at 10:30pm.

I of course found all this madness right after I made the tea so it has steeped for a long time and it is soooo good and making me feel slightly better.

I get a lot of cheesecake tang, and it is very lemon-lime. I thought the lime felt more predominant but then it got really lemony. And it’s nice and sweet…unlike AT&T

So I’ve been wanting matcha for awhile, and didn’t really want to spend too much on it. I’d only had it before at a Japanese tea ceremony, and I thought it’d be worth trying again.

When I couldn’t find a modestly price matcha at an international market, I figured $14 and change for 30g shipped to me wasn’t going to hurt.

I don’t have the proper tools but you know what, an immersion blender does a fine job too. After using it to whisk the matcha up nicely, I added about 4 oz of coconut milk and poured it over ice.

It’s not bright green like your typical matcha, but a rather precious pastel olive green.

It was a bit chalky at first, but I ended up pouring it into another glass and now it’s perfect. The thickness gives it a really rich taste. It’s not too sweet, which I’d figure for its price point. It’s a touch bitter, but I think the usual green, vegetal flavors tone it down a lot. I used water that was probably around 180 degrees so maybe I’d go even lower next time.

Not bad! I’ll give it a try by itself later, considering half the glass has me feeling rather reinvigorated right now.