momo

Gawwwwwd this one smelled AMAZING when I opened the pouch up.

The dry leaf is just too cute.

This mostly tastes like caramel marshmallows to me, more so than Eight Candles. I didn’t get much chocolate. It’s a very, very sweet tea, so I don’t see any need to ever add sugar, but I might try it with a little milk sometime.

I made tea for myself on Monday and then left it on the counter. With time to spare, I went to the library for a giant $2 cup of tea and picked this one out.

I probably liked this even better than the tea I had made! (Which I never got to drink.)

It’s not as good as a specific single estate, specific flush Darjeeling, as in I really couldn’t taste my favorite nutty/citrusy notes, but there’s still honey and the lovely Darjeeling astringency. It was an all around smooth and enjoyable cup.

For $2 a cup I don’t have to get mad about forgetting my travel mug!

Can my self-ban on Steepster not include weekends? I think so.

I really did not enjoy this today AT ALL. The walnut got me, it just made the tea taste off. I went with the white tea setting on my kettle (10 below what I used the first time) but I have no idea how long I steeped it the first time… 6 min scares me for a white tea.

This was really good otherwise but since right now I trust Davidstea as far as I can throw the company, I’m not sure how I feel about this one. There are a couple from this Winter collection (see: cocomint cream) I’d like to have a bit more of but they are really making it difficult right now to know exactly what’ll be around and what won’t.

So I love anything chocolate cherry and when it was posted you could get a tin of this for $6.50 shipped I figured why not?

I have two other chocolate cherry teas, one from The Tea Spot, which was okay, and then Griottes from Della Terra that I haven’t tried yet.

I think this actually ranks above the Tea Spot one, though I have only had it with additions. I drank this plain and it was soooo perfect. I drank it while watching the series finale of 30 Rock as I cried at the end. Of course.

The chocolate isn’t super strong, but it tastes real enough. The cherry is perfect though. I don’t think it tastes medicinal at all, it tastes like a maraschino cherry.

Of course the only downside of this tea is a) you have to use 2 teabags to make a decent sized cup and b) it’s actually only available from World Market. But if I could get it at such a low price again, I’d get it. I have to try my other two again and see which one really prevails.

Now I must go check on course 2 of our coffee oatmeal stout night. First up was stout mac and cheese (I’m now dying earlier than ever) and next is chocolate stout brownies. My arms are tired from all the whisking and grating.

Well hopefully I can post this without getting kicked out or power going out. Between all the errors of Steepster (coming back 2 hours later and seeing the dashboard is busted — WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED?) and how absolutely hopeless I feel regarding one of the traveling tea boxes, I’m pretty much going on a steepster hiatus. I’ll probably come post notes every so often just for brand new stuff I’m trying, like this.

Let’s be real here, the draw of this one is the white tea stars. I’m not sure what they really add to the tea other than the possibility of feeling like you messed it up.

The vanilla isn’t bad, but this tea is not that good once it starts to cool. The vanilla starts to taste artificial, and the base starts to become bitter. When it’s still hot though, it’s delicious. It wouldn’t ever replace Vanille des Iles for me as a favorite vanilla tea. I may have to try it with milk and sugar to see if it gets that vanilla frosting taste too.

just a little thing to add, please keep Adairsville, GA, in your thoughts. A tornado rolled through there earlier and one person died. Their poor dog was outside and he was rescued but gosh the picture I saw of him still in his dog house, poor baby. There were cars just absolutely flipped and crushed on the highway and 18 wheelers overturned. Scary stuff.

Precious White Peach (thanks to Chuckieroy) + Peach Tranquility (thanks to tperez)

I had the white tea peach one before when I was at store I don’t like naming. I can’t remember now if I had it hot or iced, I feel like it was hot and I didn’t like it. It seems so suited to iced tea.

To add more peachiness to it, I threw in the peach tisane.

It’s not very much white tea to begin with just as PWP, but it’s still kind of there, along with peach. The tisane adds some pineapple to it too.

I just realized that I had been trying NOT to drink anything peach after having so many recently LOL but these honestly are the best tasting ones.

I wish I knew what temp I was using on this before, 2 1/2 minutes and 200 degrees is just not tasty. Too bitter.

I waited for it to cool off entirely before drinking most of it, but it just doesn’t really tasty appley. I think I’ll stick with less than 2 min and see how that goes first since thanks to Reasoned_Melody, I have more of this and don’t have to hoard it haha.

I can’t figure out if I had it hot before either…definitely love it iced.

I wanted something strong but this seems like it might be TOO strong. I don’t think I even steeped it more than 2 1/2 minutes before I was like this is too strong. Now with milk in it it looks like a ginger tinged cup of coffee rather than some tea.

It is definitely lighter in taste than it is in smells. I could probably have let it go to three minutes, but it totally needs the milk for my tastes. I can tell that without it, it would be really malty and I probably wouldn’t care for it.

It’s really rather honey sweet, along with what seems like bittersweet, dark chocolate. Almost tastes like a chocolate cereal to me too.

I bet if you can get this all the way to 4 minutes, it will get you on your feet in the morning.

Thanks, Reasoned_Melody!

Agree with people that say this is not as tasty as it smells. This was one of the make up samples Lupicia sent and I’m on the lookout for a black currant tea I like. This one would not be it.

I’m not sure if it’s the base tea or the flavorings themselves but the taste is just kind of meh. It’s very, very berry but it just seems kind of fake tasting. The base tea started off okay but has fallen flat in my opinion to holding up the flavors. It doesn’t help either that as it’s cooled it’s gotten a bit bitter.

Oh well, plenty more out there to try.

I quite like this. I got it as a sample when I ordered back in November and it was really the only one they sent me that I felt I’d even drink.

Feeling blah means this combination sounded most excellent tonight.

It’s nothing remarkable, it’s mint and lemon verbena. It mostly tastes like mint though, there’s maybe a little bitter/tart taste of lemon to it, but hardly.

I’d rather have just plain mint tea. But it was nice to try for something slightly different.

Ohhh I have exciting Black Bear Laboratory news, I am going to start on solid perfumes too. It just seemed it was finally time while I was ordering all the oils/butters and such for more. I can’t believe how many lip balms I made off 1 lb of wax.

Continuing on the finishing of samples, this one is out.

I don’t really like this at all. It’s WAY too strongly jasmine to the point it just completely overpowers the green tea. I couldn’t even drink it hot…okay I fell asleep because I had taken medicine.

Now I’m trying to drink it cold and it’s better, it just tastes way too much like I’m drinking flowers and now that I’m aware of other jasmine greens, I know that’s really not how it’s supposed to be.

Tea from last night…also during hockey…so far when I drink tea and watch hockey my team wins..hm.

I was tired of green tea so I decided black tea would be good, and when my friend went to make tea, there was a goal…so I thought I’d try. Didn’t work. Haha.

This is really good for a ceylon, I don’t tend to like them just because the briskness isn’t my favorite. But when you have a decent quality one like this you really don’t have to worry about it going bitter so quickly the way some flavored teas w/a ceylon base do. It’s sweet and brisk, but smooth.

You ever just make something that is so good you feel like you could go build a skyscraper or something? I made a curry sauce for pasta with spinach and green bell pepper and it made my nose run, something suuuuuper helpful right now. When I went back to the kitchen I seriously gave myself like a happy dance because I have another bowl for tomorrow.

It’s fun to watch these steep because they look like pea pods floating around.

This is odd. It tastes like juicy fruit and kind of more like oolong? Peaches or pears..I can’t tell.

I don’t get much butter/cream, just sweetness. It is just a little bit vegetal, and just a tad astringent at the end. Mostly I get sweetness from it too, though I would guess that’s why it tastes like pears to me.

I really feel like my taste buds are broken now.

This is pretty tasty. I barely get spinach or greens at all. It’s really sweet and almost has a citrusy note to it, like oranges or tangerines. There’s just a little vegetal quality to it.

Then again I am pretty sure everything it tasting sweet to me right now but there is absolutely nothing bitter or smoky to me about this.

I only got this as a sample and I am not sure it’s omg must have material but it’s pretty different for a green tea.

Also now for some reason my mouth feels really nice.

Second/last chance for me and this tea…still not feeling it.

I don’t get cake at all, nor chocolate. It tastes like maple syrup to me. And it’s just slightly creamy.

I’ll take the cake instead, or red velvet froyo.

Trying to go through and drink things marked as one cup left in my spreadsheets of tea.
Yeah plural.

I know lemongrass is supposed to be good for like anti-bacterial purposes and what not, so maybe it’ll help my sinuses. Cause the weather sure as heck isn’t going to help me out any time in the next week.

I’m not as blown away by this as I was before but with the stuff going on, it doesn’t surprise me. Still definitely can note that it’s both sweet and spicy but I don’t think it’s really something I want to buy and drink regularly.

What exactly is Steepster’s formula for a) deciding which of your tasting notes to display first and b) where they are on a page? I had to get through half the 260+ notes to find my bunch and for some reason like the oldest one (least amount of likes on it too, I always thought it was organized by likes/comments) comes up first. The rest are not in chronological order either, the next one in that order is the last one! I don’t get it.

Anyway I decided to have a pot of this and I steeped it for a shorter time than usual and I think I like it more that way. Everything comes off as a lighter flavor and everything blends in well with the black tea. I kind of think it tastes a lot like candy if there was ever a nice, delicate fruity and floral candy.

Still has a nice black tea to support the flavors, I would keep this as a staple, for sure.

I would be the one to get sinusitis in a year of bad flu. Hah. I should have realized it weeks ago probably. So lots more tea it is.

I knew I was going to like this, Assam and Darjeeling blends are quite possibly even better than an Assam or Darjeeling by itself. So I made an entire teapot full.

As it’s sat in there though it’s lost some of the super sweetness it had at first, but that’s okay.

While it’s nothing REALLY special, it’s nice. The strongest thing I can taste past the maltiness coming from the Assam is honey. And it is tasty. Also very helpful for getting out the nasty taste of nasal spray (did they really think putting fake sweeteners in there helps? BLEH).

Honestly if I didn’t want a kick, I don’t think this is really afternoonish. I’d drink it more in the morning. But I also prefer a more rounded blend of black teas. Speaking of which I am still SUPER tempted by that Rue La La Harney deal because I would spend it entirely on black tea blends.

I am not even kidding when I say this tea got a song in my head…and so then it was obviously changed to…you make me feel like I’m living a Canadian dream~

Nope. Honestly can’t even think of a Canadian beyond Ryan Gosling for this to apply to (says the person who is obsessed with hockey, all my favorites are American, oops JUST KIDDING I found one: http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0sj8jJSO21qe46u5o1_500.gif how could I forget when he stared me down last February. Sigh. Now on a different team. Cries.) Also find it funny that the description says New England maple syrup.

I still have yet to find a maple tea I really like. This one is okay, definitely smells of maple syrup but I am starting to feel like maybe it just doesn’t translate well for me with black tea? Not that it could really go with any other tea but at least this one is definitely drinkable to me. I guess I could always up the maple syrup.

Thanks, Itachi!

Funny, first time I drank this I complained about it with boiling water, and I used boiling water again and definitely oversteeped it, and loved it. I loved a first flush! I had to go back and also double check it was a first flush, haha.

This is basically a hockey backlog and I don’t even remember the tea well now…just that it seemed a bit heavier than most first flushes. Or maybe age is good for it for my tastes? Ha.

Ok I got distracted because I had to make this hummus: http://www.cookincanuck.com/2012/11/creamy-curry-hummus-recipe-healthy-snack/ Hummus is way too terrifyingly easy to make especially now that I know I can get a jar of tahini for a more reasonable $6. (This one does not include any tahini which is why I like it.)

Still lukewarm, this is great. Mostly banana, still enough raspberry. I actually think I may like it better cold, I’ll have to give it a try. It seems like as it cools off, it gets creamier.

All around it’s a nice sweet drink.

Another one from last night, this is most excellent.

Sebastian is now chatting his little beak off and omg it’s so cute, I guess he’s trying to sing along to Adele.

Ok, this is pretty light, kind of floral, and deliciously pineapple. It’s not strong at all though, I’d take Butiki’s Flowery Pineapple over it (still have DavidsTea’s to try). It only appears at the end but it tastes so good anyway, I just wish there was a bit more.

The oolong is nice though. It does have a bit of that milk oolong smell to it, very orchidy too.

I’d like to try it iced when it’s not being 39 outside.

Really not in a good mood at all…this is from last night as Steepster was not working. Missed my alarm because my phone’s charger port area is messed up and I only now found out it is common on this phone, it’s 2 months out of warranty so if I want something I can trust to charge, I am on my own. It’s definitely not the battery because it holds the charge just fine when I can get one, I am almost tempted to say it’s the cord and get a new one of those first because I tried my car charger and it was fine. Ugh so I’ve been so upset/irritated/annoyed I can’t even be bothered.

Otherwise I just packed up a $92 textbook for Amazon credit and a warehouse deal phone it is.

And then there’s the fact I still don’t have my loan refund from my school. Supposedly they release the funds today but I would REALLY like to have my money already. Nothing like paying interest yourself on money that gets held hostage.

Ok tea.
I still can’t really taste cheesecake in here. Definitely get caramel though.

Guess I’ll try some agave in it next time.

Stovetop preparation: 6 oz water, 6 oz milk, 2 tsp tea, a spoonful of honey.

I am tempted to take the cardamom out of here to use on my sweet potatoes later. I went to the store and found they want $11 for a jar of cardamom LOL Instead I’m gonna do curry powder. Anyway, yeah, I just realized I should have gone to the Penzey’s up the street.
Derp.

I almost feel like I put too much honey in here. But that’s okay, it definitely tastes like a gingerbread cookie!

I used to hate getting 52teas Chais because I never really understood how to make it right…stovetop is the way.

Thanks JoonSusanna!