Peggie Bennett

Sweetener and pu-erh don’t mix well for me. It was like a blend of those sweetened Lipton RTD’s and pu-erh.
And for some reason, the bottle cap is really really difficult to get off. Even after it’s been opened.

bleh.

I’m bound and determined to drink the rest of this tin down because it’s been in my cupboard for too long now and I have many other teas to drink!

I still like it, I have it at work mostly, but it’s time to move on to greener or oolong-ier pastures.

Also, I’m trying to turn my pee green for St. Patrick’s Day! ;-)

My green rooibos cherry has been broken. ;-)

I love the aroma when you open the package, peaches, mangoes, and a hint of papaya. The dry mix is beautiful! You can see the flower petals and the chunks of fruit. Like a potpourri trail mix!

The tea brews up light, like an oolong, but with a reddish tint to it. Smells like the dry tea. Very fruity.

The taste is fantastic! Rooibos-y, fruity, it does remind me of tropical days, and summery weather. Sweet, but not too sweet. Almost juicy tasting. I don’t really taste the flower petals, but really I’m not sure what marigold tastes like, so maybe I just can’t identify it here. It’s yummy hot and cold! This will be a good one for the warmer days ahead poured over ice. Perhaps a little rum or something else sweet and alcoholic to mix in? Mmm, perhaps….

Really needed this tonight as I had too much shabu shabu. I never would have though that vegetables and some seafood would make me so full!

It’s a nice gingery taste, similar to the Yogi ginger tea that I’ve had before. Smoother taste though. A couple of cups of this and I’ll be fine.

I will say that I am a sucker for packaging. If the packaging catches my eye in some way, especially in food products, I will probably buy it once just to try something new or to experience the new packaging. So this “bagged” tea intrigued me because it was this foil “stick” form. I got the sampler pack to try their tea and this “stick” concept. Each stick is individually wrapped in the box and the flavor is on the flag part on the end of the stick.

It’s not good. It doesn’t smell like jasmine. It doesn’t taste like darjeeling. Or anything having to do with jade.

It smells musty. It tastes musty. Like musty dried flowers. From last century. The kind left behind in the back corner of a museum of dead dry musty things. I couldn’t even finish the cup.

Um, no thank you. Maybe it’s the foil? I wonder if the tea is old? I don’t know. A little disappointed, I hope the other three flavors are not like this too.

On their site, Zen Tara calls this Pu-erh & Blood Orange Blend, but the package they sent me says “Organic Red Tiger Tea” so I put that in the title too.

Open the package and it smells like fresh citrus fruit, mostly orange. Yum!

The liquor never gets as dark as other pu-erhs do, and really all I can taste is the oranges and grapefruit. Mostly the oranges. I get a little spice in there, maybe the licorice, but not much, just an accent. It kind of reminds me of those orange spice kind of teas, except juicier and just much better. Also with those orange spice teas, it’s usually a black tea that it is blended with (I’m thinking Constant Comment here-side note-Constant Comment was the first tea I ever had with sugar in it, a patient’s sister made it for me, and really it was pretty good.), but the pu-erh is so subtle in this, you almost can’t tell it’s there. The mellowness and earthiness of the pu-erh goes soooo well with the citrus. Seriously, this tastes and smells like fresh oranges squeezed into your cup of pu-erh, without the pulp and that sometimes acrid smell from the pith. I’m talking good fresh oranges. It’s very fresh tasting.

Oh my gosh, I love this one. Quite excellent.

I love this one. Clean and simple tasting like the Zealong Pure, but with a little bit of roasty goodness. Never got bitter or astringent (you know I have a tendency to oversteep, I think I like things dark). And still held that sweetness that was in the Zealong Pure, a kind of oolongy sweetness.

This tea clears the mind, like the Pure, and puts a smile on your face. I think between this and the Pure, I would use the Pure for relaxing days and the Dark for I want to relax but I have some things to do days.

I’ve been sipping on this for a day and a half now. Lasted through almost four infusions!

The dry leaves smell a little sweet, there are fairly good sized chunks of chestnut in the tea, like the size of baking chips. I want to pluck them out and eat them!

The tea is so light, and doesn’t get dark at all. And it pairs perfectly with the chestnut. The flavor is almost pure chestnut, sweet, roasty, and the smell is heavenly!

I will say I am biased, I love roasted chestnuts, but darn they are so much work to make! This tea is just so lovely with its sweet chestnut taste. It’s not overpowering and the sweetness lasted through all but the very last infusion, when the green made a big show for the finale! Yum all the way through!

This. Is. Crazy. Good.

Almost buttery smooth, a creaminess is there, but still light, clean, pure, and I can taste a beautiful green flavor coming out. A little sweet, a rich quality, there are so many layers here. And every infusion brings out something a little different.

If I were to be reincarnated as a tea, this would probably be it.

This one is blowing my mind. It is probably one of the best tasting oolongs I have every had. Seriously.

It has the subtle flavor that I love about oolongs. But instead of being crisp, it’s got a creaminess to it, which totally contradicts the pale clear liquid. There is a sight fruity note in it, but very mild. It’s not a “fruity” tea at all. Other sips, I can taste a “green” note, which must be the pine. Sweetness, a little bit of a rawness character to it, mild in flavor and color. Just all around goodness. I could drink this all day and just think about each cup. I think this one will have to be for special “I have nothing on my calendar” days!

And let me tell you, the leaves are HUGE. Even dried. Opening the bag and peering in, it looked like they put the whole plant in there (except for the twiggy parts). But they are a beautiful green color, like they were dried not that long ago.

Fantastic. Heaven in my cup. I’m sure I said that before, but this one is really amazing.

Simply delicious and refreshing. The flowery jasmine and the tart lime are perfectly balanced. It was warm today, so sipping this while helping my son set up his elaborate plan to ask his girlfriend to the homecoming dance was most helpful.

I have so much jasmine tea at home and since i love jasmine so much, I could probably mix this at home for myself.

It’s similar to the Green Tea Frappuccino at Starbucks. Except that I love Peet’s and not Starbucks so I’m going to say that it’s much better! :-)

I made the rest of this today as iced. Why? I’ve been getting rid of a lot of baggeds, to make room for my looses! And I didn’t like this one, but I hate to just throw it out. Okay, but the real story is that I got my shipment of Hawaiian Oolong today from Samovar and my nephew is here, drinking all of my tea. But he just drinks it to drink it, he could care less about the taste. He wanted to try the Hawaiian, but I didn’t feel like opening that for him. New teas I like to have on a quiet day at a quiet time, so I can relax and focus on the tea. So I diverted his attention with the Key Lime and it seems to have worked. He drank almost the whole pitcher, while I stealthily hid my Hawaiian in a safe spot.

This one is decupboarded and not wasted after all!

Oh yeah, iced still not great. Actually loses more lime taste iced! Isn’t that weird?

Another from my LA tea spree!

Love LOVE this! So good! Smells more of coconut when dry, but definitely tastes like pineapple when steeped! I had some hot, very mellow flavor, warm pineapple scent. Cold is fantastic! Light, refreshing, and just the right amount of sweetness that you can drink it all day, like I have been. Makes my summer days happy, even when I was at work.

Does not do well with oversteeping (oops). But the following infusions (three so far) have been great.

Picked this up while shopping today.

I absolutely love Ito En. Oi Ocha is clean tasting, no bitterness, no aftertaste, no sweeteners at all, just tastes like tea brewed and poured into a pretty bottle for me.

So so good, and chilled for the drive in the heat today. Ahhh!

Another prize from my LA tea spree.

I loved this shop when it had a French name, still the same owners, still the same tea. This was a sample to try in the store, and after one taste I had to get it. Fruity, like real blueberries, smell and taste so much like the fruit. Absolutely LOVE this! I had it iced at the store, and hot with my dinner when I got back to the house that night. SO good both ways! One of my faves and will be on the reorder list for sure!

Randy, one of the owners of American Tea Room, had excellent customer service skills and was just so so nice! He really took care of me and gave me fabulous ideas for teas I already had at home for making my own blends! I have all sorts of ideas running through my head now about blending my own tea! Randy made me more of a tea enthusiast than I already am! And it was so nice to talk to a tea person like I talk to techie people! :-)

So I went to LA to visit the college my son will go to and to visit my best friend. Went on a mad tea shopping spree at Lupicia and at American Tea Room! Oh, I can’t buy any more tea for a while until my inventory whittles down, or I go to another tea shop. haha

I was so excited to visit my second Lupicia store! In my tea shopping excitement, I remembered that I wanted this grapefruit one after reading TeaEqualsBliss’s review. I also bought four others. Yes, lots of reviews coming down the line!

I LOVE this one! Smells like fresh grapefruit, tastes like grapefruit in green tea (duh). Grassy grapefruity goodness! Yes, there is a little tartness from the grapefruit, but it’s a mild tartness and it’s delish. Had it hot tonight, can’t wait to have it iced tomorrow! Such a good flavor for the summer!

My friend sent this to me, she has a friend that sells it.

I had to look up neem, never heard of it. Apparently it is a miracle plant. Cures skin ailments, it’s a male contraceptive, it keeps your blood sugar stable and wards off diabetes, it can cure chicken pox by laying down on the leaves, it makes a mean curry, and you shouldn’t drink it if you are pregnant or trying to get pregnant. Man, that’s some crazy stuff! Now I wonder what my friend was trying to tell me when she sent this! haha!

So the bag (yes, bag. Forgive her, she doesn’t know. But it does also come loose leaf.) smells like when I walk into the big greenhouse in Golden Gate Park. Very floral, very lush. Not one particular flower, just a smell that is a mix of a lot of flowers, orchids, roses, tropical flowers.

Steeped, the liquid is dark dark, black tea. The scent is still there. In taste, the scent lends some to the flavor, but otherwise disappears. Which sounds disappointing at first, but really, I don’t know that I would like orchid tea. Orchids I love, they are beautiful, but don’t look like they would taste good.

I do like the mild flavor of this, the scent brings me back to my childhood always visiting that conservatory with my family and the rose garden outside. Good thing I’m not pregnant or trying to get pregnant. I have some neem nectar tea when I’m at work, so it’s a forgiving tea (I need that at work). I look forward to it every time!

My first tea from Teatulia, I can’t wait to try the rest!

This is so light in color, I wasn’t sure if I had gotten the right tea. I showed it to my mother, and even she thought it was very light looking for an oolong.

But the taste is nice and smooth. It leans toward the green side of oolong, I believe, it almost tastes like a green tea, but not with that something that comes with green tea, just a vegetal flavor. And there is almost a flower in it, not like jasmine or anything like that, just a sweetness in the scent that lends to the taste. But still, there seems to be a little missing. It’s good, but nothing to scream about. Maybe that’s just my mood lately, I want productivity and I want it NOW. :-) I think I can pull this out for mellow weekends. It’s mellow tea.

It’s tasty still, hot and iced, like I’ve been drinking the past couple of days. And man, those leaves look like my lawnmower bag after it’s all done steeping.

Had this all day today iced. I was almost giddy with excitement and fatigue brewing this last night so it would be cooled down and iced for today.
It’s perfect. Although I think I prefer it hot, iced is mighty fine as well.
Oh goodness gracious, if I could have this replace the blood in my body, I would be so so SO happy!
Still hoarding this one until I can find a replacement. But really, nothing replaces your first love, right? :-)

Okay I tried this again today, decided to give it a full work out to see if it improves.

No it doesn’t. Not temp, not adding sugar, nothing works for this. I like sour, I love sour, but this is just kinda gross. I’m disappointed. :-(

I’ve been drinking this for a few days now (not in a row) and I still can’t describe it. I thought I’ve had rooibos before, but in a bagged version. Although now that I taste this, I can’t actually say with any certainty that I’ve had rooibos before, and if I didn’t, what did I drink?

So anyway, I open up the bag and it looks and smells like tobacco from a cigar shop. Dry though, and the tea is a fine small size, the size that creates static cling and sticks to everything, like glitter does. After steeping, a very beautiful red-brown color, kind of like cheap garnets. I don’t like my garnets this color, but in my tea cup is acceptable!

The smell is weird to me, it is sweet, but not sugary sweet, and then there is a strong note that reminds me of…alcohol? The kind of smell that makes me react like I do when I smell wine. Maybe because I am allergic to alcohol, then I also sensitive to that smell and therefore react the way I do. My stomach gets tight and red sirens go off in my head.

(Yes this happens with all alcohol for me, even in food. I have had allergic reactions to Chicken Marsala and believe it or not, kombucha. But I still drink as much as the allergy will allow and I just drink in a bar where for some reason, I can’t smell any alcohol. Unless it’s wine, then I’m usually at a friend’s house, but I can’t smell it when I drink it. I will hold my breath and sip. Why hasn’t all this yet stopped me from drinking at all? Because I LOVE mojitos and red wine.)

So the taste is sweet, mild, I like it. I want to experience more rooiboses and I’m glad there is no caffeine, I’ve been enjoying these at night during the wind down to bedtime. Who knows, my rating may climb as I become more familiar with the roob.

Hmm, I think this is from Cafe Moto, only because all of the teas at my local coffee shop come from there, but I couldn’t find it on the Cafe Moto website. Unless they call it something different.
Anyway, this oolong is mild with a touch of sweetness that lingers. It is somewhere in the middle of green and black. I get a hint of something at the beginning, at that whiff right before you put the cup to your lips and the first moment it hits your taste buds. It’s like a malty? Or smoky? Not like LS, but maybe a hint of roasting? The taste is mellow definitely. But it’s hiding something, or it’s just something I cannot articulate today.
Hmm, I like it, it’s mild, probably just enough to get me through work tonight. Yet, not hop me up too much like that darn Zipfizz I had yesterday.

Tonight I made this into syrup and poured it over vanilla ice cream. SO good! My friend was licking it off the spoon. Really really good! And I didn’t even add in the suggested liqueur, Curacao.