momo

Thanks for this sample, ToiToi! 1 cup of tea samples always make me feel really good when removing from my spreadsheets muahaha

So I ended up getting distracted from this but it was actually still really good cold. Like a creamy vanilla custard balanced with black tea. It’s just sweet enough, I wonder if you sweeten it, if that would become more like ice cream? I like it how it is though.

The jasmine petals in here aren’t just to look pretty, I think they add just a hint of floral flavor to the tea. Not too strong, but just like a good way to balance everything in here.

I guess now I’m getting Lupicia’s newsletter out of nowhere, not complaining but this was waiting for me in my mailbox. The jerkface mail deliverer jammed the Verdant teas of the month sampler into my mailbox. I almost gave up getting it out and writing a not very nice message on the side facing out.

I finished my closet: http://25.media.tumblr.com/0112f8b47cac4a20d472e10ffb72872d/tumblr_mk72xkat8Q1qz5e5oo1_500.jpg Now to finish my bedroom and the rest of the apartment…So I ended up drinking this cold.

It’s okay, I was curious about those Tochotome teas when the email about them came out but I’m really not fond of Lupicia’s strawberry flavoring I think. This one isn’t as chapstick-y as the green tea one; it tastes quite good at first but the aftertaste is kind of odd. I am wondering if that’s the flavoring or a product of steeping it for 3 minutes.

It does just really taste good at first. If only I lived near a Lupicia, that would make me give in to the desire to try the other strawberry tea too.

I will say it at least tastes better than the strawberry jalapeno soda I brought back with me…so painful.

I’m trying to UfYH (look it up, beware the cursing) starting with my closet, and I’ve already been cleaning for 45 minutes and it’ll probably take at least another half hour. And then I’ll have a ton of clothes to put in my dresser instead of the floor in there. But oh well, gotta start somewhere. Already have 2 bags and 2 boxes of stuff to take to Goodwill.

I just drove back home too by the way, which was quite…odd. All of a sudden traffic stopped and I called my dad to see if the 511 website had the …511, as the phone call did nothing. He said it said animal in road. So immediately I’m like oh god I don’t want to see this. But finally I got past it and five cops were over with…a horse and a cow.

Sebastian the parakeet now chirps on his car rides which I guess is a good thing for entertaining himself for 2+ hours since we always hit traffic.

So, I’m too lazy for loose leaf right now and I pulled this from the sampler box. It’s your standard jasmine green. Really, there is nothing that remarkable about it, but it’s not terrible. It’s not like drinking perfume.

It seemed pretty light in flavor overall though.

Eight Treasures Yabao is probably my favorite Verdant blend so when Terri HarpLady sent me some of the yabao, I was excited, why did it take me this long to get to it? Ha.

Immediately after being hit with water, these buds smell like hay, almost exactly like a white tea, and sweet marshmallows, with just a little mint. I did two rinses and I’m steeping for five seconds.

First steep: still got that mintiness and a bit of other spice, but with sweetness. It also tastes a bit like a hint of sparkling water was added to the cup.

I ended up steeping this about 6 times before I got bored with it, I still have it in the infuser so I may save it for tomorrow. It continues to be sweet and sort of marshmallowy, with a hint of pine.

Numi changed the name of this tea what looks like a bit of a long time ago. You can get like 100 of the bags with the old Ginger Sun name for $20 on their site! But ehhhh.

I’m not a fan of decaf greens at all. They just have that off taste no matter what other strong flavors are in there. I also added some honey to try to cover it, but it did not do that. It’s not even very strongly flavored, I was hoping for a bit more of a lemon taste with lemongrass and lemon in here.

Feeling 0/2 on this box so far.

So I ended up checking out Earth Fare and buying too much and putting it on the card my mom pays…hey if you’re gonna steal my spring break, I’m getting this Numi sampler and asparagus and bacon and smoked cheddar cheese.

So I opened the box and this one fell out, so I figured I’d have it first. I gave it a quick rinse and steeped it for three minutes. I added wildflower honey because I wasn’t so sure this would be very good, plus it is a pretty floral wildflower honey so it might help bring out this magnolia.

This isn’t too bad, I think sweetening it really helps bring out a floral taste…not really sure if it’s magnolia. There’s also a kind of weird aftertaste that almost reminds me of the way freezer burnt food tastes…so yeah.

Found it quite weird that even though this is labeled as a puerh on the bag and obviously by the name of the tea, green tea is listed as the first ingredient.

No notes yet.

So happy, I went to get lunch with a friend I’ve not kept a very good job keeping in touch with since I moved to Atlanta. She had been in Israel but got sick and had to come back home for the time being. Lunch turned in to me being there till past 6! And we’re going to get together tomorrow too. I cannot get over how good it feels to have someone to hang out with since I have like one friend at home. I had planned to have an afternoon with a puerh but that didn’t work out and probably won’t tomorrow either but that’s ok :)

Thank you for sending me a sample of this, Ze_Teamaker! I was super psyched that you thought to ask me if I wanted some :D I just kept putting it off and putting it off, it wasn’t even going to be my first tea tonight but I found I brought it with me and knew I should have it now! (Ok, also because I finally got my Verdant $10 voucher and I want to make sure I like how this tastes before buying the official version.)

Like I really needed to “double-check” first. Of course this tastes amazing. I always get chocolate and cinnamon from Laoshan Black, so this is like having a brownie mixed with a rice krispies treat.

Even though this is pretty sweet as is, I thought it might be intriguing to add some sapin honey in here. It’s a darker honey with a pretty distinct smell, and it is kind of beyond awesome in this tea. It kind of amplifies the toasty rice and the maltiness of the laoshan black. Apparently me adding honey to my tea was very fascinating to Tucker as he is now laying on the couch next to me.

Second steep, I had to add the honey again, this time maybe a bit less. Still enjoyed the first one more, this one was just more malty, and I lost my cinnamony notes.

Loved trying this, definitely have to get the official one now!

SUPER ANNOYED it’s spring why is it 28 degrees with a wind chill of 17?!?! And it’s still supposed to get down to freezing next week. I’ve been waiting all month to plant stuff and I feel at this point it should stop being that cold this month.

Normally I decided not to log teas unless it’s the first or last time or something incredible has happened that requires a new log. But I realized the first time I had this, I forgot about it so I had it cold. So here I am trying it hot.

This does in fact taste like every single thing you’d think it would. It’s kind of weird because to me part of the appeal of toast is the crispy texture of it. Obviously tea does not get a crispy texture.

But yes, cinnamon, raisin, butter, it’s all here with bread too. It’s actually a little too sweet in the aftertaste but that’s probably just me.

I’m gonna have to let the rest of it cool and try it cold again, I couldn’t believe how could it was that way.

I don’t know why I never noted that I only had enough for a mug of this one. I would have probably tried it way sooner then!

Out of curiosity does anyone live near an Earth Fare? There’s one here in Chattanooga and I’m very curious, especially because they have amazing email coupons. I just signed up yesterday and I have one for a free chicken or box of veggie burgers, two free pineapples, and $1 each jelly, peanut butter, cookies, crackers, and something else. I’m sure I can’t use them all at once but man I wish there was one of these by me! I’m guessing because in Atlanta there’s a ton of Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s they don’t think they have a market. I’ll probably check it out tomorrow or Friday and hope I don’t find a bunch of stuff to take back with me.

Wow…this one is a bit too spicy for a tea. I love the pepper mango one from Gurman’s, it has the right balance and you can taste green tea. This one, I really can’t taste tea. There’s maybe a little bit of this graininess to it, but I don’t know where that’s coming from.

I love spicy food, but this is just unpleasant.

I’m going to let it cool down before I give up on it, it already seems like it becomes more tolerable as it cools. It still has a bite but it doesn’t cover your tongue and make it feel like you can’t taste anything else like it does hot.

Another sample sipdown. I had this cold last time so I decided to try it hot, and I added black alder honey. Probably not an ideal one to use but I tasted it on its own and thought it might be interesting with black currant. Or maybe the whole they’re both from something with black in the name thing happened.

It tastes really, really juicy. I don’t like it hot like I did iced, and I’m kind of meh about black currant now compared to how I felt about it months ago.

Since I have two samples of this tea from who knows when, I figured I’d bring one along and give it a try. I have plenty for a couple different times, so I figured first up, I’d brew it western style according to the directions on Verdant’s site.

The first steep was the best, it was like a dian hong meets an assam. It tastes a lot like a cake made with malts. Very sweet and deeply flavored like a dark honey in there too.

I wasn’t impressed with the second steep but I probably did not steep it long enough.

Third steep is more like the toast mentioned by a lot of people, with a lighter honey taste, and just a bit of spice.

Will have to try it iced also, and in my gaiwan when I’m back home.

Steeped this time for 3 minutes, and added some of the acacia honey from my Fauchon set to sweeten it. Perfect way to add a boost to this tea! Acacia is so light in flavor but has just a hint of vanilla and wow it makes the banana pop and kind of gives this the pancake flavor without me waiting for it to cool off.

I ended up finally being able to go back to sleep after I ate breakfast, so now this is cold. The pancake flavor definitely comes out even more now with the honey. I may have to cold brew the rest of this sample that I have!

Yaaaay another sample sipdown!

This seems like it either lost its flavor or 2 minutes doesn’t work for it. I am pretty sure it’s the 2 minutes thing, because it’s a DT white. Smelling the try leaf, I get a small hint of fruit but mostly the cinnamon. So I think it probably lost the flavor.

Oh well didn’t this one get discontinued anyway?

Used up my sample of this today but for some reason it seemed less flavorful as it did before. There was still violet but it seemed a lot more subtle. I feel like maybe it was something I did, I steeped it longer and I may have used too much water.

I don’t need more tea now but if anyone is interested in Kusmi, I think through this week you can get a free mini tin (choice of 5 last I checked) for free. It almost got me, but I resisted.

I’m sad this doesn’t have lime in it, I was expecting that and there aren’t any here right now so I guess tomorrow I will go to the store for some.

Sweetening is a necessity for me when it comes to teas with soda flavoring, especially to have it iced. It makes it taste just like cola.

This is pretty spot on for rum and coke, but without the lime it’s just not a Cuba Libre to me. I know it’s typically without the lime in a lot of countries but the original drink is with lime. I can’t wait to get a bunch of limes and try it out that way.

Sorry if this sounds like oddly critical but I made sure to order a Cuba Libre last week in Tampa and it is my precedent for this. I was sure I wasn’t that big of a fan of rum and cola before I had that thing. I think the secret is you have to use regular and not diet coke. And the just adds the right acidity to make the flavors pop. This is definitely a tasty tea, it definitely tastes better than the prior time I had rum and coke! But I really love how these flavors are even better with lime, and I think a real lime would always be better over there just being lime flavoring in here.

Oh now I realize why I thought I don’t like rum and coke! My parents ALWAYS use spiced rum which I find horrible, so I just made one with white rum to compare and it is so much better, it also tastes just like this tea except that it has the not as great addition of alcohol aftertaste over black tea aftertaste.

This reminds me of restaurant iced tea. It’s less gross when it’s cold. And you know how always it’s never actually cold so all the ice you put in there really doesn’t last…that’s what it tastes like warm.

Cold now, it’s just still not very drinkable for me. I just can’t stand how it’s just flat. The lemon just smells fake even though it says it’s lemon oil…it just ugh. Moving on.

I woke up too late to go to my stupid lab since the instructor is a rude jerk who won’t count people as there if they’re 5 min late. Then with 9 minutes to spare I realize I have an email from the management that there’s a water break at my building and the water’s going off at 10:45. I filled my kettle to the brim, I filled my Brita pitcher up, and then there’s about 80 oz of water to clean out infusers left. Whooo. I’m set.

This is from yssah, thank you!

This reminds me of Blueberry Zabaglione but a lot more subtle. Blueberry’s there, but it’s not predominant until it cools, the vanilla cream flavor is more prominent.

I like it just fine this way, but I wasn’t hoping for strong blueberry I suppose. I like the base tea to this, there was just this tinge of maltiness to it that was really nice.

I was wondering how this one was any different from Swiss Mountain, and I realize now it has vanilla too. Duh. I should have also figured out they were slightly different when I added milk and it didn’t taste like thin mints.

This one’s also a bit sweeter on its own because of the shamrock sprinkles, which of course did not fully melt because why would I be so lucky as to have that happen, and thankfully my finger is not still green from infuser cleaning.

This one is creamier than Swiss Mountain, and the creamy notes are definitely boosted by adding milk. Chocolate kind of takes a back seat to the vanilla and the mint, though it’s still there.

I prefer the other one, but this is festive for the time being, and just different enough that if I’m looking for something with less chocolate and more cream, it’d be the right choice.

Thanks ToiToi for this sample!

I ended up kind of forgetting this and drinking it cold for the most part. It smells amazing dry, and it turns into a pretty sweet tea.

I didn’t get too much caramel, although it was there. It was mostly this candy-sweet fruit taste with the black tea. Once it had cooled it toned things down a lot, it was more drinkable this way, which was quite surprising.

This was alright warm, but I let it cool off thinking because it smelled so much like a nice, tart granny smith apple, it’d be great iced. Instead it’s so gross, bitter, and the feeling it leaves on my tongue is terrible. Completely undrinkable.

I guess I’ll try coldbrewing it and hope it turns out better. Perhaps also give it a shot with the 160 setting on my kettle.

I believe I got this from Lazey, thank you!

I prefer the Lingonberry tea from last night, the addition of spice to the mix is alright, but I prefer just straight berry. Not sure also how I feel about black tea as the base for the flavor. It could make for an interesting iced tea though, I may have to try it that way.

That’s really all I want to say right now…just found out a guy who had been playing for the Canadiens’ AHL team and suffered a fractured skull back in Nov is retiring from hockey…he’s 24…I saw his first game as a Canadien, and I really liked him because he was from the south too. Also he was the FOURTH generation of the same family to play for the Habs. So sad.

There’s a ton of this in the traveling tea box so I figured I had to try it. Haven’t been a fan lately of red rooibos of any sort.

I figured this sounded different enough…flowers and hibiscus, kind of weird. I figured since I should probably end my tea-filled day with a tisane, this one would work. Steeped it for five minutes, and it didn’t look like it’d be super rooibosy.

It’s a good bit different, the hibiscus isn’t terrible, instead, it kind of gives it a fruity taste. The floral notes aren’t very strong, I kind of wish they had a bit more of a pop.

Since there’s a bunch in here I’ll probably save enough for 2-3 cups and move it along. It’s a good bit different than most other rooibos blends. It’s not like super flavored, but for something more subtle it still covers a good bit of the flavors of rooibos I can’t stand.

Well that’s sad that nobody’s gotten to this one yet. I’ve been lusting after it since the Ambessa teas came out. Good lord I love me some Marcus Samuelsson. I once almost attended some Buick event here to get to just watch him cook. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-avuddQQwKaY/T3310OgSOAI/AAAAAAAACNE/AR8yGdd6tRI/s1600/edun-pioneers-marcus-samuelsson.jpg You’re welcome.

I love lingonberry flavored things. Especially that drink at IKEA. But I hate the IKEA here so I am now missing out on it. When I got my big H&S order yesterday, I couldn’t help but open this (I’m trying to hold off on everything else though), and oh it just smells sooooo good. And the smell is the same in the cup too, it’s killing me to not be able to drink it because it’s still too hot!

It’s really rather light. I even steeped it for three minutes. The lingonberry flavor is there, but the green tea isn’t. At least hot. Eventually I let it cool off and it’s a lot better cold. Definitely tastes like green tea, and the lingonberry REALLY pops. Nice and tart. Will definitely have to give this a shot cold brewed.

Out of curiosity I checked the menus for Samuelsson’s restaurant in Harlem, a pot of this is $6. I wonder how they make it there! Because if I was given a $6 pot of tea that tasted how this did hot, I would not be very pleased.

Oh also the tin is so nice. I love that it’s matte.