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Today I went to Tealuxe for the first time. I ordered the Strawberry Sencha, and the woman at the register asked me if I wanted a “regular” or “large”. I said regular, which apparently means 16 oz in a to-go cup :/ The tea was way oversteeped and bitter. After I diluted it with LOTS of water, it wasn’t too bad, so I think it was just the preparation that made this tea undrinkable. For that reason, I’m leaving the rating off. The strawberry flavoring was delicious…I hope I’ll be able to try this another time steeped shortly.

Edit: Okay, I turned this into a really delicious iced tea (ultra, ultra diluted). Yum!

I think my palate is receding, because I brewed up a cup of this today (iced) and it didn’t taste that bad. It almost tasted….good?

There needs to be a smiley face rating that goes :O

Yay, my samples from Golden Moon are here! Woo!

I thought I’d start off with this one because I need some caffeine and the honeyed description sounded delicious. I used about half the leaves in the packet in 8 ounces of water. There is a sweet, honey like flavor, but it’s the kind that I’ve found in a lot of black teas. I think that good black teas tend to have a delicious honey/black tea/sweet aftertaste, if you know what I mean, and this tea has lots of that delicious aftertaste.

The flavor of the tea just seems like “default black tea” flavor, with very nicely executed “good black tea honeyed aftertaste” flavor. It’s just a little tannic, but I didn’t have any trouble sipping my cup without sugar or milk. That kind of smoothness without milk or sweetener is pretty rare for breakfast bends.

Personally, since I drown my tea in milk and honey and sugar, I would rather have cheaper, lower quality, ground up Twinings English Breakfast. It’s not nearly as smooth or honeyed as this tea is, but I don’t mind, since I’m going to smother it in milk and honey anyway. However, I think this tea would be perfect for those times you just want a nice, clean cup of delicious black tea. I might just keep this one in stock for those times, since I’ve tasted very few plain black teas as good as this one without additives. Yum.

There’s a heavy layer of flavoring oils at the top of my cup, but I don’t mind as this tea tastes pretty nice. Last time I tried this, I thought it tastes like someone had dripped real caramelized sugar into a cup of black tea. This time, however, it tastes a lot more artificial. I did, however, let this sit out for around 2 hours before I reheated it, so that could be affecting its taste. There’s a strong aftertaste to this tea…the caramel flavor lingers in your mouth long after you swallow. I know some people like that, and I usually do, but I don’t like sweet things so the lingering syrupy caramel isn’t so great for me. Still, not bad…

This is my first genmaicha ever, so I can’t say how this compares to other brands, but this is pretty yummy! I actually ended up making my own genmaicha extra green/“ryokucha” by stirring in some matcha powder, and the result is delicious! Toasty, milky, lightly sweet, vegetable-ey, a little bitter…om nom nom nom nom.

I finally was able to try out my new tea thermal! I ordered the Copco tea thermos (http://www.amazon.com/Copco-2510-4600-Tea-Thermal-Stainless/dp/B0028N6OLQ/ref=pd_sbs_k_1) which has a twistable infuser so you can stop steeping without having to dump the leaves. Unfortunately the inside of the mug is plastic, not steel…deceptive, because the outside is stainless steel!

Anyway, I decided to christen the thermal with one of my favorite teas, English Breakfast by Twinings. I heated the water and milk to boiling, put a little under 3 teaspoons of leaf in the infuser, added some Splenda and honey, and let it steep for a few minutes. The first thing I noticed was that the tea is HOT! And it refused to cool down until like an hour later…good if you’re planning on packing your tea for a long trip, but bad if you’re impatient like me :(

I’ve never made English Breakfast outside of the Zarafina, so it might have just been my weird steeping methods, but the tea did not taste very good. It actually tasted a lot like Irish Breakfast tea does…malty with notes of brown sugar and, um, sweet potato. I didn’t taste the delicious caramel-honey flavor English Breakfast with milk and honey usually gets. I don’t know if I added too much leaf, or oversteeped it, or if the temperature was off. I’m increasing the rating a little, just because before today, this tea has never let me down.

I found this on sale today at the store, so I picked up one box of this, along with a box of organic genmaicha. Instead of drinking this straight up, I made ochazuke with it! I layered cooked white rice, umeboshi (pickled plum) paste, wakame seaweed flakes, and bonito flakes in a bowl, poured a cup of hot green tea over it, and then topped it with some crumbled seaweed/wasabi flavored rice cake. Umai!

Grossness. Hot hibisicus sourness that completely masks the flavor of green tea. Was a bit better when it cooled down and I added Splenda and honey. Otherwise, I won’t bother with this tea.

This blend tastes to me like your average English Breakfast blend, but it’s saved from mediocrity by this delicious syrupy sweet note. Still, I’m pretty disappointed by A&D’s Series 2 set so far…so expensive, and not that tasty. Sigh.

No notes yet.

Oh wow…this tea is pretty darn good, even though it’s from a teabag and decaf. I wasn’t even keeping track of how long I steeped it, but I think it steeped pretty long, in boiling water…yet not a bit of bitterness! I added in some milk and Splenda, and the tea is strong enough to handle it. It tastes creamy, orangey, sugary, and flowery. It’s late, and I apologize if this note is just blah. But the tea itself? Good enough that it’s making me feel better since my kitty, who peed all over her own winter coat fur bloomers, backed up into my leg 5 minutes ago and got pee on me. :(

(Side note….should I take her for a haircut? It’s the middle of winter, but my apartment is really warm…)

I measured up 11 ounces of water. I heated the water to around 194 degrees. I added a little less than 1.5 teaspoons of dry leaf to my teapot. I timed it for 3:45. I tried it plain. With Splenda. With milk. But the result was always the same—no caramel!

This tea is yummy on its own, as a smoky, non-bitter, savory tea. The texture is like silk, and it goes down easily. I won’t have any trouble finishing it off. But I wanted caramel, damn it!

This tea is almost flawless. No bitterness; just the dreamy, delicious combination of strawberry, papaya, and pineapple, and green and black tea. Lovely without sweetener. Without a doubt, I will repurchase this tea. For a more thorough review, see my last tasting note.

I’ve been craving some kind of strawberry kiwi high fructose corn syrup disaster all week, so when I saw this at the store this afternoon I immediately snatched it up. The smell of the leaves is unmistakably sweet strawberry kiwi high fructose corn syrup disaster, which I’m actually happy about!

Steeped up, the tea tastes like sour strawberry herbal tea. I’m not tasting any of the green tea, nor any sweet kiwi flavor. I’ve gotten used to drinking my teas without sweetener, so I was a little surprised by the fact that I wasn’t able to drink this tea, a fruit tea, on its own. I added a little Splenda, but unfortunately that didn’t work out. The sweetener didn’t blend into the flavor of the tea at all. Now the tea just smells like strawberries dipped in Splenda, with that characteristic “Splenda” taste. It tastes like Splenda in hot water mixed with strawberry juice. While I don’t hate Spelnda (I actually like it) I’m not really in the mood to drink Splenda Tea. So down the drain this cup goes.

I’ve found that it’s really hard to compare this to plain, unflavored matcha—they’re two different animals. Even though Mandarin Matcha isn’t the same as regular matcha, it’s still wonderful in its own way. The powder is olive green, rather than the bright, radioactive green of fresh matcha. I’m guessing the color is due to the pulverized dried orange that is mixed in with the matcha, and not just the quality of the matcha itself. The smell is flowery and sweet.

Today I’m using two scoops and 4 ounces of hot water. The color of the tea is a murky green, and quite a bit different from that characteristic jade green color of regular matcha tea. Mandarin Matcha does not foam, no matter how hard or how long I whisk it. Only a few weak bubbles appear at the surface.

The taste is a bit weaker and sweeter than regular matcha is at this concentration. I’m guessing this is because of the orange that’s mixed in with the matcha dilutes it. The orange taste is light and not artificial tasting. There is a strange sharpness or sourness near the back/middle of my tongue, but it’s bearable. Happily, there is no bitterness.

In exchange for the orange note, you do lose some of the vegetal/grassy flavor of regular matcha. At the same time, there is an interesting blossomy component to it that I didn’t taste in the plain matcha I have on hand. And oh, the smell! The smell of Mandarin Matcha is divine. Juicy orange, tart and sweet, cream, and matcha.

I think it’s a good change of pace from regular matcha. The novelty of the orange flavor certainly makes it worth trying. While I don’t know if I’d consider it the best matcha I’ve ever had, it has earned a place in my cabinet.

Huh. Today this actually hit the spot. It is very sweet, but it’s not “yucky” the way my last cup was. At the same time, this was so sweet that I had to chase it down with some water. I definitely won’t repurchase, but I may be able to at least finish off the carton.

Sadness! I’ve tried this twice so far using my Zarafina, and I never got the caramel taste. Instead, I got smokiness—almost like the black tea version of Shanti by The Simple Leaf. The cup I made at the “green” Zarafina setting was not bitter at all and went down easily without sugar or milk—a rarity for me. I didn’t get to taste the tea made at “Oolong” setting until 5-6 hours after it had been brewed, and it was cold and super bitter (there was a lone tea leaf in my mug, so maybe it kept steeping).

Sigh. I need a thermometer, I guess.

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

This is the first “plain” Irish Breakfast tea I’ve had (that I can remember) and I have say…I am not fan. It brewed up very dark and looked like coffee, which is neat. Surprisingly it wasn’t bitter at all.

But the flavor….gag me. I love English Breakfast and black teas, but this just didn’t work for me. To me, it smells and tastes like salty yams and garbage. Someone else’s tasting note said “sewage”, ha. I had tried Adagio’s Aries blend, and it had the same yucky taste, which I assumed was from the chai…nope. It must have been from the Irish Breakfast mixed in.

If this is was “malty” tastes like…well, I don’t think I like malt, then.

I’ve been on a milk tea kick lately, so I thought I’d open up this tin and churn out a tasting note. What can I say? It tastes a whole lot like caramel, and not much like anything else. The caramel is similar in taste to homemade, slightly-burnt, caramelized sugar. The caramel flavor component is quite strong and can be easily detected by tongue, but it balances well with the black tea flavor. Luckily, the tea doesn’t taste fruity the way Adagio’s black base often tastes. It’s just a nice, solid black tea flavor that supports the caramel. It is a bit astringent (drying) but not particularly bitter. However, I would imagine that oversteeping this one would lead to a very bitter cup.

I know some teas are all smell and no flavor. Adagio’s Caramel is not one of those teas. This tastes just as much like caramel as it smells. With a little milk and sweetener, it’s almost as though someone melted a milk caramel and stirred it into some black tea.

While there’s not a lot going on in this tea, I rather like it. It’s simple, and seems like it would be great for mixing with other teas.

Just made a super-sweet dessert shake using this. I mixed milk, a very ripe banana, some egg custard powder, and a scoop of this in a blender. It came out very sweet so I’ll probably forgo the custard powder next time, or use less. This would probably be better with ice, too. I’m actually going to try and make a banana matcha custard out of this…I wonder if it will work.

Had a bit too much to drink last night at a party I helped throw, and then had to get up super early this morning to make it to my volunteer shift. Factor in menstrual cramps, walking through the freezing morning cold to get to my job, party clean up duty, a ton of catch-up homework I have to do, and an nerve wracking interview this afternoon, today just might be the worst day ever. So, I heated up a cup of chai, hoping it would make things a little better….and, I didn’t even get to drink it because I had to go and clean up after the party. I just got back, and now I have a cold cup of chai sitting on my desk. Sadness. Well, it still tastes okay, but it’s not quite hitting the spot. The spices are coming through surprisingly well, considering I only steeped it for 3 minutes and used a lot of milk. Lots of cinnamon. It doesn’t seem as special as I remember it being. At least it’s a lot better than that Adagio Aries blend monstrosity.

I have to wonder…am I losing my taste for chai?

Oh hai, Adagio tea! Sorry for not visiting recently, I’ve been really busy with school and have been spending most of my time at my friend matcha’s house. Anyway, how’s it going? Oh hey, so, since I have so much of you, I think I’m going to use a little more than a teaspoon this time. Is that okay? Gosh, I hate treating you this way….it’s not like I want to get rid of you or anything…it’s just that we need some time apart, you know? I just feel like you’re suffocating me whenever I look over to the cupboard and see you sitting there, glaring at me. I think having a little room to expand and unfurl and steep will be good for both of us.

Anyway, I’ve thought maybe I’d turn the temperature down a little, since there’s so much of you in the basket. Oh my gosh, no I am not calling you fat! Aww, now you’re being all sweet to me…thanks Valentines. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to call you a tin of ground up cardboard disguised as tea. I’m so glad you’re not all bitter over that either. You’re style seems so different at this temperature…you’re kind of fruity, kind of clean even. Wow, this temperature really suits you! Maybe this won’t be the end of our relationship, after all…

Edit: Wait, duh Shanti, there’s some residual milk in my cup that I forgot about. No wonder this is so much smoother and less bitter than I remember. Sigh. I thought you were different…