momo

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.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever had a Nepal black before, maybe, I really feel like I might have had one, or ordered one, from Upton.

In any case I just realized how they are so much like Darjeelings, but …even better?! This tea is not only from Teavana but a first flush and I’m LOVING it? It’s very, very much like a Darjeeling. Fruity, so astringent, but something about it is just better.

Of course they no longer carry it and I’m sure they overcharged for it. I’d love to know where they got it from though so I could find something from the same estate elsewhere.

I was hoping this would be just a tad bit more floral, given the presence of all the buds/berries and petals. It kind of just sweetens up the white peony in a different way than it is naturally. Almost like really faint notes you’d find maybe in a Riesling wine? I am going to use the rest that was in the tea box to cold brew a cup!

This is kind of neat! A nice Earl Grey, not too heavy, the definite taste of caramel that doesn’t come off too sweet, and pretty flower petals mixed with the leaf.

I believe there is enough to make one more cup so I am going to try it with a 4 min steep too and see if that boosts the bergamot a bit more. It’s definitely tasty as is, but I think if it was just a tad bit stronger, I’d like it even more.

This was definitely a good afternoon tea as I have wanted to fall asleep all day for no reason.

Skipped out on my morning class to study at home, and have a cup of this. Sebastian was a ridiculous chatterbox the entire time, which was kind of annoying (he’s of course silent right now). This one’s the last from the Kusmi Russian blend sampler that I have to try. The name is pretty but it kind of meant it also didn’t seem like a tea I want to try.

It definitely has a bit of a soap aspect to it, which becomes more obvious as it cools. The mix of flowers, orange, and bergamot is a bit weird. Like you can even make out other citrus notes before it starts to taste reminiscent of an Earl Grey blend.

Definitely my least favorite from the bunch, but I think I might be able to tolerate it enough to finish the little tin.

Had this last night, since I couldn’t think of anything else to say about the tea I last logged, I gave up on writing about this one at the time.

This is alright, it’s not as fruity as you’d be lead to believe by the name. I think pomegranate must be actually very difficult to duplicate in tea. This is just a bit tart, not really like a pomegranate, but more like berries.

Didn’t have any issues with bitterness, there’s enough for one more cup and I might give it a short cold brew and see how it is.

Ohhh this is nice, it seems a lot bolder than the other huang shan mao fengs I’ve tried so far. It almost smells like a Dragonwell.

Definitely sweet, almost reminiscent of a green oolong with the way it is so floral. There’s also a bit of vegetal notes to it too, not really sure quite what.

This reminds me a lot of all the raspberry champagne white teas I have tried to no avail. In reality, “light cabernet” is actually a better way to describe those things than “raspberry champagne.” Or maybe actually more of a combination, or even better, like blanc de noirs.

It’s kind of funny after I say that, looking through other notes everyone has compared it to a different wine!

This is pretty sweet though, at least for me. It also is pretty floral, definitely jasmine. It wasn’t bad but I am pretty particular about wine flavored teas, and for some reason white tea really just doesn’t do it for me as a base for any.

Had enough for one cup of this in the tea box, so I thought I’d give it a shot. Typically I am not a fan of these coffee in your tea blends but I sniffed this and it didn’t smell too bad so I figured it’d be ok.

I expected to have to add milk to it, but I perfectly understeeped it I think. It’s still got the orange and spice, and just enough espresso to not be gross. Still tastes like tea too. Not something I think I’d drink again, but I’m glad I got a chance to try it.

I’m baaaaaack. What a trip. Beyond my Habs pulling off a ridiculous 4-3 comeback after being down 3-1, the highlight has to be when one of them, a rookie, and one of my faves right now for sure (even scored the game winning goal) was walking down the street to the arena. I see him. He sees me. I’m wearing a Canadiens shirt. I turn around and face away from him.

He obviously notices this and my boyfriend said he got this huge grin on his face (though he’s already always smiling I’m pretty sure). And when he passed us he says, “Afternoon!” to me. And my boyfriend claims he pointed me out to another player when they were warming up. Oh my god. I laughed for 20 minutes after. It was terrible.

Continuing now into the traveling tea box, I’m trying this one out. I had to add milk and agave because it didn’t have a very pronounced flavor, as usual for me and Adagio flavored teas. The chocolate comes out a lot more obviously as chocolate now, previously it was like kind of chocolate, but bitter. Now it’s a lot more like dark chocolate.

The raspberry isn’t there at all. I already have plenty of raspberry truffle-ish teas too so this one isn’t remarkable enough to stand up to the others.

Sooo this is on tap at Whole Foods now, AND WF made the pricing make sense finally. $3 for 16 oz, $4.50 for 24 oz, $11 for a 64 oz growler fill. I wonder if I can take in one of my beer specific growlers for that…I have like 3 or 4 I’ve accumulated for free.

This one is just the best. I could drink it forever. I just love how sweet and slightly herby it is. And now that The price makes far more sense I am probably going to get a cup every time I come in here.

This is probably super rambly but I’ve been drinking this for almost an entire day now.

I finally did it. I opened my sample. Now or never, what good is the super special tea you can’t afford sample unless you brew it?

There’s a lot of hype around this one, that’s for sure. You just say Golden Fleece and I think people faint thinking about it.

I decided to go with the gaiwan in a basket hybrid steep because I absolutely suck at being able to pour water in the gaiwan and then pour out the tea within 3 seconds. I barely have put down the kettle at 3 seconds. Maybe I just need two more arms.

So 4g in a basket with one of my glass cups where the basket reaches the bottom just right works perfectly. With the glass being 8 oz it’s pretty easy to guess 4 oz.

At first I was not impressed. All the hype. Then…it started to taste just like vanilla ice cream and that coarse decorating sugar. Not fair.

As I’ve steeped it over the past 20 hours, its’ gotten a bit earthy which I don’t really care for. I am not a fan of mushrooms at all and that’s precisely what it tastes like.

I am not really blown away by it but if I could just have those first 1-3 steeps over and over…

I will say that the scent of this tea no matter what just …I want to bottle it up and wear it.

Ok I almost gave up on it, but it’s gone back to being sweet as whipped cream. I don’t even know how many times I have steeped it at this point. A dozen?

I’ll be steeping it until my boyfriend comes to get me so I can leave my car at my apartment complex hopefully in about 2 hours…and at that point I might stick it in my travel mug and cold brew it for the car ride to Clearwater tomorrow.

cold brew update: I think this did not really work because my stupid travel mug lid would not get rid of the cinnamon from the previous, DAYS ago tea…it was far more subtle than it was brewed hot, but it still had that amazing lingering taste at the end, so I did drink it after all.

Really want to make another tea now and sit on the balcony out facing the water. But I am in a food coma and I also strained a muscle in my neck/shoulder sleeping last night and just want to lay here.

Sebastian is acting like a fool this morning, I have no idea what his deal is but he was even chirping like a crazy bird before I uncovered his cage. Now he’s quiet. Whatever bird.

I did not realize how big these rosettes are. They look like sea anemones. I dropped one into an infuser basket and let it infuse for 3 minutes on the first steep, four minutes on the second.

It’s a pretty smooth, malty tea. Kind of sweet like honey.

I don’t really find it remarkable, it’s just like pretty simple, nothing really super flavorful about it. I prefer other black teas. I think this might be more suitable for me in the morning, but it clearly has the ability to be resteeped without really changing its flavor.

I’ve got a little tin full thanks to Autumn Hearth so maybe when I have time to just sit around all morning with a tea (week of the 17th? :D) I can just have it all morning.

I kept enough of this to make myself another cup and decided to do so today. I gave it a rinse to try to wake up the juniper berries first.

It definitely worked! So much pine still though. I feel weird saying that because I have been all about pine/juniper notes in IPAs lately.

It’s not bad but I just like the non-winter blend so much more. This one does have a bit more of a savoriness to it that feels more like winter…like the weather today.

I figured I had to finish this one up because I hope today is the last wintery feeling day until far later in the year.

Ok I started writing this last night but got distracted by hockey failures.

Thank you to Starfevre for the sample of this, I had been thinking about getting it previously so a sample really really helps!

I am especially glad because I don’t like this very much. The rooibos chai is way too dominant of a flavor. When I first saw this blend I was like, ooh chocolate spice cake?? But it’s more spice. And that’s it.

I still keep forgetting to finish this but really I need to try this again in some other way so there’s more to it than the chai!

This is only my second time having hojicha, it reminds me a lot of genmaicha but less intense. Roasty toasty!

There’s just really nothing special about hojicha to me. If I wanted this taste, I’d more likely go for genmaicha.

I went to Target in hopes of getting flip flops, but they only had those flimsy thin fabric bottom ones, and they wanted $15!! for a pair, pfffffft. Thankfully the trip was not a total bust because I found a pretty cool 34 oz carafe, and since at the time it was 64 degrees out, I decided to make iced tea in it.

I have been meaning to try this forever. I didn’t really realize it was so hibiscus based, but it was actually kind of hard to tell. I don’t know which of the other ingredients made it taste so much like cherry.

I can’t really make out any other fruits in there, it just has that fruitiness to it but it’s predominately cherry to me, with just the right hint of cinnamon.

And I am still saving the rest of the carafe to go with my eventual pizza in an hour or so to go along with hockey. And then because just the sound of the wind outside is making me feel cold inside, it’s back to hot tea!

From tea box B.

Last night my mom suggested I try to see if Sebastian would play with these plastic balls with bells in them. The first parakeet I ever had, Beaky, started playing with us when my mom and I rolled ping pong balls on the floor.

I took Sebastian over to my bed so I could kneel on the floor and hopefully that’d make him feel more comfortable. I set him on the bed. I start shaking one of the balls near him, and he just jumps on that hand. Soooo…guess not. But hey, he likes my hand! He then eventually flipped out and this ended with him climbing through my hair. I thought he was lost in there briefly.

I have had only one white EG, but I thought this sounded intriguing so it’s my first tea today, another day where I am too irritated to go anywhere. I don’t know what my problem is and it’s driving me crazy. All the tea I drank yesterday didn’t help.

I am experimenting with white tea steep times now, since I liked a tea at just one minute the other day, I tried it with this one. It works, I quite like it better than going for 3+.

At first I wasn’t sure about this, the way the hay notes of the white tea blended with the vanilla was kind of weird. But after letting it cool just a tad bit more, I quite enjoyed it. It’s really light on the bergamot, though it mixes nicely with the white tea.

I would actually like the bergamot to be a bit stronger but since I’m sure the other notes on this steeped it longer than me, it doesn’t seem like that can be brought out with a longer steep. No problem though, that’s just how this one is!

This was a pleasant surprise! I didn’t get this when it came out since I was certain there was no way I’d like this being almond flavored. Amy oh sent some to me in our last swap and today I decided I’d give it a shot.

It was actually really good! I don’t like those fake super sweet almond flavors and this actually tastes more like almonds than a flavoring. The cherry isn’t bad either, not medicinal at all. Definitely a really cool mix to go with a gunpowder green. All the flavors meld together beautifully, and it makes for a pretty tasty cup.

I don’t understand what went wrong with this tea. I bought it expecting a chocolate and cream Earl Grey. Instead it tastes like a slightly sweet lapsang.

The other disappointing thing is that listed on the bag is black tea, bergamot oil, and chocolate. There’s also a ton of sprinkles of various types in here but they aren’t listed. There’s also some weird dried small flower I guess? There is chocolate in the form of very small chocolate chips.

And it does taste smoky. I don’t like it. And it isn’t what I ordered. No chocolate, not really any bergamot either.

Just wanted to edit this to note that Della Terra brought it back according to their FB page and properly marked it this time. It DOES contain lapsang souchong, and I’m pretty disappointed that they didn’t feel the need to say anything about that anywhere in the description? Black tea is one thing, lapsang is like, another thing entirely if you’re a person like me who can’t stand it.

I’ve properly labeled my bag now and I’ve stuck it in traveling tea box A so if it gets to Sil with it still in there, hopefully it can find its way then to Kittenna LOL or if anyone else gets it along the way it has two warnings of containing lapsang souchong.

For the age of what this one probably is, it wasn’t bad. Something was just off for me in the way I think the candy cane combined with the black tea. It just made a weird aftertaste I guess. I think I am having a candy in tea off day.

I prefer the Adagio one that I have a giant bag of, so this one will also continue on its traveling tea box journey.

I can’t figure out if I thought this was a green tea or I just accidentally hit the green tea button on my kettle this morning. Either way, I ended up steeping it as a green tea based on that button pressing error. Oops.

Once I started drinking it I was honestly glad I made the error. Holy cinnamon! That’s about all I could taste because it really wasn’t enough time to steep the black tea, although I might not believe there is black tea underneath all this cinnamon.

There is one more sachet, so I’ll be using it and steeping it like a black tea and seeing how that goes for me. Or maybe I’ll try to get my boyfriend to drink it since it’s cinnamon.

Also I probably should have realized before that Harney sachets are always 12 oz cups so two in a 16 oz travel mug would have been tongue torture if I steeped it right.

PS this is note 1000!!! woooo~

I was waffling over making another cup of tea last night as it was midnight, but I was still yelling at my microeconomics homework, claiming it had calculus when it did not. So this being a rooibos, it made sense.

I honestly do not know why I even made this. Carrot cake is the only cake I would ever turn down, except in cases where I really want cake then it doesn’t matter. I’m not sure why I thought carrot cake tea might be better.

It. Was. Not.

First I knew we were going to be having problems because the smell of red rooibos was overpoweringly medicinal in this one. And now I can’t remember if I was doing well with dessert rooiboses or not…I think I was. So I had thought I’d be fine.

And then I took a sip. And it was just too much grossness for me. It first tasted like it’d be good but I don’t know where we went wrong. I could only take that sip and then I made a mad dash for the sink.

That one that comes up with a green rooibos base sounds like something I could do, this one will be returning to a tea box as it is not for me.