Scott B

Butiki Teas is having an awesome “Create-Your-Own-Blend” tea contest. I was honored to have one of my submissions nominated by her panel of judges.

You can view the teas and vote here: http://www.butikiteas.com/Contest.html

Here is my submission:

Grateful Castaway’s Chilipaya Sweet Tropical Heat
Autumn, 1645

You, an intrepid tea trader caught in a storm in the Atlantic and blown wildly off course. Your mast torn, you drift for days, surviving by eating dry tea leaves and drinking rainwater captured in your tiny yixing teapot. At sunset, you see a speck of land on the horizon. You feel elated that your journey of hardship is over. However, hunger, thirst, and delirium overtake you and you drift helplessly off to sleep dreaming of better days to come. Hours later, you awake to a hot sun beating down on you. You are on a sandy beach clutching your last tea chest, out of the corner of your eye you spot the remnants of your ship smashed against some nearby rocks. With no tools, and no strength, you cannot access your only source of nourishment-your Nilgiri Frost Oolong tea leaves. Too weak to stand, you contemplate the last hours of your life. Suddenly, a crash right next to your ear! Just missing your head, your tea chest has been smashed open by a falling coconut! Landing within arms reach, you see the coconut has been cracked open as well and you find some of your tea leaves steeping in the coconut shell. Your stomach is not ready for solid food, so you guzzle the coconut milk tea with all your remaining constitution. Invigorated from the unusual drink, you arise and survey your surroundings. The beach is deserted, save for the lone, sparse coconut tree. The island appears uninhabited. You grab the last two coconuts and decide to move inland to search the distant forest for fresh water. It is essential to keep hydrated until the inevitable rescue of the important tea trader occurs. Inside the forest, you find myriad types of ripened fruit within arms reach or on the ground-papayas, mangos, limes, sucking every last drop of juice before you devour their flesh. The sugar rush is intense and you begin to ramble through the dense forest somewhat recklessly, picking up various fruits as you go. You encounter an unusual bush with a pretty little orange-red fruit. You take a bite and experience so much fire down your throat that you drop the fruit and fall backwards, spilling all of your tropical comestibles. Could this be the “hellfire habanero” you had seen mentioned in Magellan’s journals? Uprighting yourself, you frantically grab your coconut milk tea to cool off, only to realize as you gulp that the dreaded firebomb along with your other fruits has fallen into the drink. Strangely, the other fruits seem to tame the “devil fruit” in your tea. Although your throat still feels a little bit of heat, the succulent papaya fuses wonderfully into this serendipitous concoction, soothing your throat and heartburn. You calm down and start to notice the unique flavors. The unusual combination of sweet tropical fruits with the devil heat is amazing! Mangos, limes, habanero peppers, papaya, coconut and tea blending together as one. Papaya, habanero, and coconut are most prominent, but all the fruits are also identifiable separately. You thank fate for bestowing upon you this nectar of the gods as you continue to imbibe. You savor the sweetness and spice without getting the sugar high or burning throat as when eating all those tropical delights whole. Feeling relaxed, a quiet alertness takes over, your senses finely tuned. You see a creek that leads to a lush waterfall. Huge butterflies of every color casually flutter around you. A rainbow of delicate flowers emerges in every direction. Birds and trees of such beauty and rarity abound. You meander down to the stream gathering some crystal-clear water to make a cup of proper Nilgiri Frost Oolong in your coconut shell. As it steeps, you cannot help yourself, you are compelled to start throwing pieces of papaya, mango, lime, and yes, even a piece of that devil habanero into the shell! You ponder your fate while you sip this magical elixir. Away from the frenetic world, alone in this tropical paradise, your fears of survival until rescue evaporate and instead you, the grateful castaway, wonder “Do I ever WANT to be rescued?”

Grateful Castaway’s Chilipaya Sweet Tropical Heat is concocted by a fortuitous melange of Nilgiri Frost Oolong tea from the Blue Mountains of South India, red habanero peppers, papaya chunks, coconut shreds, mango pieces, lime and minute amounts of ginger bits and freeze-dried garlic. Daydreams of tropical paradise included at no extra charge.

This was the most fun I’ve ever had since I got into tea.

I had been wanting a Chili-Chocolate black tea for two years ever since TG discontinued theirs. There are others out there-but many are chais (which I don’t want), and some are not vegan and others I’m just not sure about the ingredients.

Enter Stacy, of Butiki Teas, who offered to do a vegan custom blend for me. Because the teas and other ingredients were things that she normally had on hand, she was able to give me some great prices and smaller amounts-less than $4 an ounce for this blend. In fact, it was even cheaper because the deal was for 2 ounces each but she wound up with 2.5 ounces on one blend and almost 3 ounces on the other blend. I’ve paid the same or more for blends that weren’t custom made with lots of personal attention.

Basically, Stacy and I exchanged several messages-she asked what I was looking for in a custom blend and she offered suggestions on bases and ingredients. She also asked for any suggestions I might have. It really felt like a collaboration. Like maybe Larry David was taking your suggestions and writing a Seinfeld for you. After settling on the bases, ingredients and spice-sweetness levels she went to work.

Every few days I would get an update from Stacy-when she blended, when she tasted, additional blending, settling, etc. She even sent me a pic of one of the teas in progress-so exciting! She did all this on her own-not once did I ever have to ask her how things were going-she was SO conscientious. When the teas were done, I even got to name them-it was so cool to see my tea names on the distinctive Butiki Teas labels!

I probably should have let the teas settle a bit, but, they arrived Saturday and it was raining all day, so I couldn’t wait.

This tea has a Kundaly (Nilgiri) base and is loaded with mini-chocolate chips and chili strips hand-grated by Stacy. I couldn’t smell the chili too well so I went with 1.5 teaspoons of dry leaf for an 8-10 ounce cup (you could just use 1 tsp for less heat). The liquor brews and orangish-reddish color and is closer to translucent than opaque.

You can drink this straight, but I feel that a teaspoon or so of brown crystal sugar (rock sugar) brings out the chocolate flavor better and really completes the chili-chocolate fusion. On the sip, I first taste a little chocolate on the tip of my tongue, followed quickly by spicy tingling in the sides, eventually lingering in the back of my throat after the swallow. With the rock sugar, the chocolate taste is there until the swallow. The tea blends in perfectly with everything. At first, I thought the 1.5 teaspoons was a bit too spicy for me-which is not Stacy’s fault because I told her I’d rather have too spicy than not spicy enough. Now, I am getting used to the 1.5 teaspoons and loving the heat. It’s not so hot that you would need to drink something else or eat something to tone it down. However, you might not want to sip too fast as it cools because of the lingering heat. It might not be a bad idea to reduce the spice here 10% or so, but not too much. It’s still good and spicy with just one teaspoon-but it will more likely need a teaspoon of sweetener. Still, 15 calories of sweetener is better than a 300 calorie chili-chocolate bar!

I’m really happy to have Chili-Chocolate tea again and I hope the weather cools down soon because it seems such a great drink for the fall and winter-maybe with a touch of soymilk and some vegan marshmallows.

Working with Stacy has been a great experience-professional, friendly, and responsive. If you have an idea for a tea that no one has, consider asking Stacy about a custom blend. She’s a mad tea-ologist who loves to experiment! She also will try to work within your budget-she won’t tell you that you need a $15 an ounce tea for a base. It could be a great gift idea for a loved one as well. Thanks, Stacy for all your hard work! Hope to do another custom blend in the future.

I can’t really separate the tea from the experience because of the personal service. The tea is really great and the service is outstanding.

I have a few breakfast teas that I enjoy-most notably Butiki’s Organic Irish Breakfast and Mark T. Wendell’s Indonesian. However, I am not one to have the same cup or two day after day-I do like my variety.

I’ve also been on a kick buying some teas that are popular in Ireland and the UK-such as PG Tips, ToH Yorkshire teas, etc. It’s fun to try what people in other countries like-even if it is not necessarily high quality loose leaf.

Anyhow, Barry’s is apparently the big tea in Ireland, so I had to try that. The tea is a blend of Kenyan and Assam teas. Breakfast blends are generally not much to look at, but this is even less so-the CTC process makes this loose tea look like grape nuts cereal. Had I known this was just a CTC, I probably would have bought the bag form of this sold in a local grocery store. Anyhow, as I’ve been noticing while buying teas popular in Ireland and the UK, Kenyan tea is included in all of these. In the States, I don’t recall coming across an Irish Breakfast or English Breakfast with Kenyan in it. This tea distinguishes itself from the EB’s because it has a higher ratio of Kenyan than the EB’s I have tried. This makes it a little stronger, but in my opinion, a little less flavorful. Also, as Kenyan teas (in general) have a little more caffeine than their Assamica cousins from India (because the Kenyan tea trees are younger) this should mean a bit more caffeine and a bit more energy if you need it to start your day.

The cup brews dark brownish copper in 3 minutes or so. I’ve gone up to 4 on this. It’s strong, but I didn’t really have to adjust to it like I did with say, an East Frisian Blend. With more Kenyan, the flavor seems a bit roastier and not as lively. Not really bland, but not exciting. I don’t really taste any bitterness or astringency, but there is a tannic taste on the back end. I’m sure that in Ireland most people drink this with some sort of milk and sugar. That’s not really my thing-I like even breakfast teas straight and plain. I did try it once with soymilk and sugar and it was okay. Different, but not better. It might help you get the cup down if this is too strong for you or if you don’t care for the taste. For me, the only tea I NEEDED soymilk to get through it was TG’s EB.

Overall, it’s a decent tea. It’s in my rotation because I bought so much of it. I’ve had this at least half a dozen times by now. I can’t say that it’s growing on me though. So far, I feel about the same about it as when I first tried it. Maybe that will change over time. If you like a good dose of Kenyan in your Breakfast tea or if you want to try a blend popular in Ireland, this might be something you’d like to try.

I bought this from The English Tea Store. It only came in 250 gram boxes-which is A LOT of tea when you have as much as I have. I’d never buy it in such great quantity ever again. I THINK the bag inside the box is foil-I just bought a big tea tin for it. It’s possible other places online have this in a smaller quantity if you don’t want that much. Or check your grocery store for the teabag version.

This tea was brutalized in shipping. I have not had this tea before, so I cannot say whether this has affected the flavor.

This is only the 2nd Scottish Breakfast tea that I have tried-Upton’s being the first. I bought a 4 ounce pouch. The pouch is a re-sealable and made out of a plastic-y film and not foiled-lined on the inside. Not sure what teas are in this blend, but it doesn’t taste like Asssam, Ceylon, and Yunnan. Maybe just Assman and Yunnan? Keemun? The dry leaves are full and have a malty and slightly smoky aroma.

The liquor is more brown than orange in color. This flavor is malty and really peppery (black)-especially when the tea is hottest. No smokiness in the flavor, so probably no Keemun in it. It’s somewhat lively, and although not weak, definitely not “smash you in the face” strong. An acceptable first cup-but I have better options. The level of tannins is surprising low. Not bitter or astringent.

I want to note about the shipping here. The box was literally beat to hell in shipping. The top flaps of the box were peaked up almost like an A-Frame house and there was a big dent in the side. I realize that UPS/USPS etc, handle the packages and not the tea shop. However, I have placed dozens of tea orders by now and have never had a box like this show up on my door. My orders from China and Taiwan have never looked anything but great.

The packaging issue is ETS fault. The cardboard was not sturdy and the box was too big for the order. The box had only some brown kraft paper on one side for “cushioning”. This did not work at all and the pouch of this tea had a gouge in it about one-half inch deep and 1.5 inches long (although the pouch was not actually punctured). If this had been an expensive signature tea instead of a ridiculously cheap $1 an ounce blend I would have sent it back un-opened. This company has several other online businesses and I picture all their stuff at a big warehouse-not stored properly and obviously not packed by people who know and/or care about tea. This tea is okay, but not good enough to make me ever want to buy from this company again.

NB – Rating number is for the tea alone. The other issues did not factor into the number.

Mellow Monk really wasn’t high on my list of tea companies to order from until I looked at their web site. I liked the idea of all their teas being grown by small, family-owned farms, imported directly from Japan. All of their teas are first flush. I also like it that all their tea comes from the southern island of Kyushu, which never had high levels of radiation last year. I’m impressed that MM only chooses teas that are popular locally and not primarily produced for export. They shipped really fast. My tea arrived safe and sound but I’d appreciate a little sturdier packaging than a plain, brown kraft envelope.

So, a black tea from Japan seemed like such an anomaly that I had to try it. Upon opening the pouch, I am hit with a slightly smoky scent that reminds me a bit of a Formosa Keemun and/or Dark Roasted Oolong. The dry leaves are short and mostly chocolate brown with a smattering of chestnut colored tips or bits of twig in the mix.

The brewed leaves smelled a bit like a Taiwanese Ruby Red-slightly malty and minty. The liquor is fairly light-darker than a FF Darjeeling, but not much else. It has hues of burnt orange, amber, and chestnut brown.

The flavor is very smooth, zero bitterness or astringency, and about as mellow as you can get with a black tea. As for specific notes, I am having a hard time gleaning those. I can’t say that my cupping mimics what MM describes. To me, it tastes mostly similar to a Formosa Keemun (not exactly like) but I feel like I am still figuring this out. I think my rating number may change the more I drink this.

Brewing based on MM’s instructions, I got two cups of tea. I think maybe I can get a third if brew a little longer.

I wouldn’t recommend this based on the smoke alone, because I don’t think there’s enough of it for those who really enjoy smoky notes. However, if you like milder black teas or just enjoy the idea of a black tea from Japan made with green tea varietals, you may like this tea.

_{Brew temp 208}

I have too many teas.

That must be the reason that I don’t drink this delicious tea every day. I’ve had many different chocolate teas before-and even chocolate raspberry teas before and this is the only chocolate tea that I have ever had that has actual chocolate chips in it! And this has real raspberries too.

The Kundaly Nilgiri base fuses well with the chocolate and the raspberry. You can taste all the flavors. I have no idea what the natural flavoring is, but it is definitely very natural tasting. The tea is sweet-as you would expect in this type of blend-but not cloying. It tastes great plain, but a teaspoon or so of sweetener (like rock sugar) enhances the flavors very nicely. Of course it is very smooth and has zero bitterness or astringency. Chocolate and raspberry is a kind of classic flavor combination to me-something that I would always come back to over time. I’m sure that I’ll be buying this in the future after my current batch runs out. Excellent.

_{Brew temp 208}

I have no idea why I am buying a decaff Irish Breakfast tea.

I guess it’s for those days when I want to chain drink tea. I pretty much limit myself to 4-6 cups of caffeinated tea a day (depending on how caffeinated they are). When I have a high quality tea that re-steeps multiple times (like a Dian Hong), I can hit the 4-6 cups ceiling really fast. My herbals and other decaffs are all sweet in one way or another and I like a more traditional option such as this.

Anyhow, this is just okay. It’s not bitter or astringent. It has a reasonable, but not tremendous, amount of flavor. The first Irish Breakfast I ever had was Ceylon and Assam and I pretty much expect them to all be that way, but of course this is not the case. This is Assam, Kenyan and possibly others. To me, it doesn’t taste a lot different than an English Breakfast with Assam and Kenyan such as PG Tips. Another strike against this is that the bags are only 2 grams-PG Tips and Taylor’s Yorkshire blends have 3 gram bags. I’m not excited about this, but still, I think this will do on one of those days when I really NEED a lot of tea, but need to watch the caffeine and don’t want lots of sweet herbals. However, I think I will look for a higher quality, loose leaf, decaff straight tea like an Assam in the future.

I just don’t care for this. The chocolate and banana can’t drown out the medicinal flavor most rooibos blends have. The only rooibos I have really liked was heavy on spices-like a masala chai. I do taste what seems like black pepper here (from the pink peppercorn?), but it’s not enough to overcome the medicine-y taste and it certainly does not complement the chocolate and banana flavors either. Maybe I’ll try an extra long steep, but I probably won’t be buying this again.

Wow, so I found a second coffee shop in town that carries Harney & Sons tea!

Unfortunately, only in bags. I wonder if H&S sells the teas to shops as a package because it looked like the exact same list I saw at the other coffee shop. I was hoping to try their Golden Monkey, but I guess they think it’s too expensive for people to buy-or because they sell their teas in one price package to shops and it’s too expensive for Harney to include it. The choices are mostly not interesting, but Black Currant was new, so I tried that.

It’s really hard to give a number rating because they put in just one bag for a 12 ounce cup, which is a little watered down from what I’d have at home (8-10 ounces in a cup). I don’t think that I’ve ever had a black currant tea, so I was mystified as why the black currant taste in the tea was so familiar. Eventually, I figured it out-they must put the black currant flavoring in their Paris tea! I don’t know if that’s well-known or not. When I got home, I opened up my Paris and took a whiff-definitely some blackcurrant in there. Anyhow, this tea is okay. I’d be willing to buy a sample from Harney’s to make at home under controlled conditions, but I won’t buy it again at a shop where their cup sizes are too big and they dilute the bags. Maybe they could just sell me a bag to take home? It was only $1.75. We’ll see. I’m not exactly excited enough about this to run out and do it. Maybe next time I’m out that way.

Another stop at the same Teavana.

I was wanting a tea with some real cherries in it and Teavana has this. I knew the reviews on Steepster were pretty bad, but I thought one to-go cup wouldn’t hurt. Don’t know how long they brewed this, but they said brew temp was 175.

This started out okay. I was sipping in store and I didn’t taste the cough medicine-type flavor people complained of. It seemed promising, if not exactly as exciting as its appearance. However, after just a couple minutes of slight cooling, the nasty flavor came through. Not sure I would say cough syrup, but something akin to it-very artificial tasting.

I bought one Teavana storage tin (had to buy an 8 ounce tin because they discontinued the 6 ounce tin inside stores-in a sneaky effort to upsell your tea purchases, no doubt). As I left, I continued sipping until I could taste nothing but the artificial tasting cherry flavor. It was just overpowering. I wound up dumping about half the cup.

The customer service at this Teavana is good and not pushy-I even looked at the cast iron kettles to see what would happen and they just let me look. However, when I asked a question, they were right on top of it. Unfortunately, they had the same 6 boring samples as the last time I ventured that way a few weeks ago-and I’m not spending $12-15 just to try 3 teas in to-go cups, so nothing other than that cup purchased today.

Hard to call this tea disappointing, since ratings are so low, but it’s still kinda disappointing anyway.

I bought this from the English Tea Store during their free shipping promo, although you can buy it directly from Davidson’s if you are so inclined. My box from ETS was completely brutalized in transit, but I’ll discuss that further in a later post.

The tea is packaged inside a rather cheap, re-sealable ziploc-type bag, which is then placed inside a pressboard/cardboard pouch-shaped box. This is a 63 gram box. If you buy larger sizes from Davidson’s, perhaps they have better packaging.

I’m wondering if the packaging is a factor in the fact that the dry tea has almost no aroma at all. I had to practically ingest this in my nose to get even a faint scent of anything. This Assam-Ceylon blend brews a coppery brown cup. The ratio of Assam to Ceylon is good-more Assam than Ceylon. This is malty, but a bit bland and boring for an Irish Breakfast. It’s not very brisk or robust at all. I think I am going to call the company and see if I can get a production date, because I have a feeling this may have been on a shelf in a warehouse for entirely too long. It’s not stale or bitter, but it is uneventful. If I’m going with Irish Breakfast, I am in the mood (or NEED) something lively and bold and this just isn’t it at all.

EDIT-I just got off the phone with a very nice rep from Davidson’s and apparently the tea was produced in January (by them). Of course, the Assam and Ceylon must be 2011 harvests-but they shouldn’t be so weak so fast. Not sure how ETS stored this, but I am inclined to call this blend “Irish Breakfast for Wimps.” Of course, I am sure that even wimps enjoy good flavor-and there’s not lots of flavor here. Disappointing.

Ok, I got 3 orders of tea in yesterday and I felt so overwhelmed over which tea to try first I felt like Imelda Marcos trying to pick out a pair of shoes.

So, I punted and chose this as my first tea today. I’ve developed a lot of affection for this tea since I first reviewed it about 2 months ago. It’s kinda Assam-like which is good for first thing in the morning. Malty and tannic, but not bitter or astringent. I feel there are some notes of nondescript spices in the tea-as if there were spices growing near the tea garden. Somewhat robust, but not too strong. It’s full leaf which means it’s higher quality and not insane on the caffeine. It appears to be an estate tea so I usually get 2 steeps out of it. Other than that, it’s nothing fancy, but it’s reliable. This is my “first cup” tea more than any other. Upping the rating.

Thanks to Angel and Teavivre for this generous sample to review.

I’ve only had silver needles once before (from a different company), and I wasn’t crazy about it-too floral for me.

However, I’d like to drink a little more white tea and jasmine-scented sounded promising.

Dry leaves are green with a silver-white coating and the needles are long with some curves. A very pleasant, but not overpowering, jasmine aroma emanates from the leaves. In addition, there is a scent of the tea in the undercurrent that I can’t quite describe. It’s sort of floral, but not exactly-but it’s nice.

The leaves brew into a pale, translucent liquor the color of straw.

The flavor is sweet, smooth, and of course jasmine-y. Although it’s delicate, the jasmine is not overpowering and it’s very natural. It’s lighter than say Jasmine pearls and I wonder if the flavors aren’t a touch more complementary here. This is a very good tea and it’s definitely worth trying if you like jasmine.

I had three western-style steeps of 1m, 2m, 3m.

A little early for me to be going decaff, but I am expecting to have two or three cups of high caffeine tea later, so I need to save up for it.

This tea doesn’t have nearly the amount of berries in the photo-and none of the bright ones. The few I have look like raisins and are hard to find in the tea. Maybe I just got unlucky. The most prominent ingredient is the yellowish calendula petals.

I’m not sure if the base is a Nilgiri or an Assam as the berries and flavoring are all I can smell. The tea leaves appear to be full-leaf (or large broken pieces). The liquor is a coppery orange.

The flavor tastes very natural, but in addition to the berry taste is a bit of a floral taste. Maybe it’s the calendula petals, maybe it’s the flavoring. It’s not bad, but I didn’t really want anything other than berry and tea. I can taste the tea base a little, but not enough. The berry flavor is brought out a little better with some sugar.

If I had to go all decaff with my tea, I’d probably buy this for some variety. But, absent that, I probably wouldn’t buy it again.

Like PG Tips,this is another “Oh, I can’t believe I found this English tea in my grocery store!” purchase. I had thought about buying this on Amazon and now I don’t have to.

This tastes very similar to PG Tips, and the Kenyan tea added to the blend makes those teas distinctive from other English Breakfast teas I’ve had. It’s bold and robust, but there is just something missing here. It just doesn’t seem flavorful enough compared to the similar PG Tips-especially considering the bit of tannic bite. I’ve tried brewing at 2,3, and 4 minutes. Leery about going 5 minutes with a bag of this-getting so much caffeine as it is. It’s not bad, but I am doubting that I’ll buy this again. The same store had Yorkshire Gold-maybe I’ll try that next.

Thanks to Angel and Teavivre for another nice sample.

Although I have not tried lots of green teas,Teavivre has done more to get me to appreciate green tea than anyone else. I’ve already had great results with their Dragonwell, Jasmine, and Xin Yang Mao Jian.

This tea is completely new to me. I really appreciate that Teavivre seems to be producing more organic teas.

The dry leaves are bright green and similar in shape and length to pine needles. The pleasant aroma is vegetal in nature. Brewed leaves are a bright, almost kelly green and contain more of the vegetal scent. Liquor is translucent and a pale greenish yellow in hue.

The flavor is more of the vegetal-cooked spinach is the flavor it most resembles to me. The tea is slightly sweet and a touch savory. It is smooth with zero bitterness or astringency-don’t let it cool too much though. Also note the recommended brew temp of 195 instead of 175 which is common on some of their other greens.

This is a nice refreshing cup on a hot day. It is really light. The tea was plucked in March of this year, so the antioxidants and nutrients are probably a little higher in this fresh tea-just the thing you need in summer.

Another good job by Teavivre.

So, in the middle of another string of 100 degree days and I am drinking a hot tea better suited as a treat after raking leaves on a cool, windy fall day.

One thing I really like about Butiki Teas is that they tell you what kind of tea base they use in their flavored teas. This tea uses an organic Ceylon base-many companies would just list “black teas” on their flavored teas and you’d have no idea what it was. I also love that the base is organic-how often do you see that in a blend? Butiki teas really respects its customers and I greatly appreciate that.

The tea itself is delicious. I can’t really compare it to a “real” pumpkin creme brulee as I’ve been vegan so long, I’ve never had one. However, the pumpkin is very natural and it has that amazing creme flavoring that is also in the Canteloupe and Cream tea. Some reviews have felt they tasted too much cinnamon or too much nutmeg, I feel the balance between the two is just right. It is not a super sweet tea, however it is perfectly drinkable without sweetener. Butiki recommends adding brown crystal sugar (which I think is the same as rock sugar?) and it certainly brings out more flavors that way, but I appreciate the fact that it’s left up to me whether I want to add sugar or not as opposed to dousing the whole bag with sugar.

This tea just oozes Autumn and I can’t wait to get some more when (or if) the weather cools this October. I’ll definitely be having this with some pumpkin pie during the holidays.

_{Free sample provided by Teavivre for review}

Every time I think I don’t like floral teas, along comes Jasmine. Sweet and naturally “perfumey” I truly enjoy the dry aroma almost as much as the tea.

Teavivre has a new Jasmine tea that is supposed to be even higher quality than their premium Jasmine. While I am not doing a side-by-side comparison today (I’d be all jasmined out) this is a superior Jasmine.

The dry leaves are rolled into tight pearls and are olive green with prominent silver-white fuzz from the leaf tips. In producing this tea, the infusion of the leaves with jasmine is a time intensive process as the tea leaves are scented with jasmine flowers 7 separate times. If you have ever had cheap jasmine tea (that was probably just sprayed with a scent), you will truly appreciate the effort made here.

Liquor is pale yellow and translucent. The flavor is as you would expect-very sweet and jasmine-y. Not sure what else smells or tastes like jasmine. The tea is completely smooth and natural. I got 3 good steeps out of this at 1m, 2m, and 3m respectively with a constant water temp of 175. If you like high-quality jasmine, you should check this tea out.

_{Free sample provided by Teavivre for review}

Many thanks to Angel and Teavivre who contacted me about doing another round of reviews. The shipping was REALLY FAST this time-8 days to my door! And of course, practically before I opened the box, Angel messaged me to make sure everything was okay with the shipment. Teavivre is really on the ball and I love it! I received approximately 16-21 grams of every tea in individual foil bags all inside one large re-sealable foil pouch.

This tea is first up, it being a Keemun (which I really enjoy) and a new tea being offered by Teavivre.

The dry leaves are long, a dark chocolate brown, and twisted to be very thin, with just a couple of light brown leaves mixed in. The scent is very fruity, similar to some FF Darjeelings, but without the accompanying “weedy” smell.

First Steep _{(Infused One minute @195)} The liquor is predominantly orange with touches of red and brown. Brewed leaves smell more fruity and a little floral-a bit like a Ruby Black. Flavor is smooth with a fruity finish. No smokey or chocolate notes really. I did catch a couple tannins while splashing this around the back of my mouth.

Second Steep _{(Infused for 2 minutes)} Brewed leaves are really starting to smell like a Ruby Black now-according to my notes, that means a little malty and a little of some type of mint. The flavor is weaker. I’m catching just a tiny hint of smoke and chocolate. Tannins are a little more noticeable. Mouthfeel is almost light.

Third Steep _{(Infused 3 minutes)} Brewed leaves smell more like Ruby Black than ever-crowding out other notes. The tea is now starting to taste a bit like Ruby Black, although overall the flavor is weaker.

As always, this is a high quality tea from Teavivre. If you have wanted to try Keemun, but are afraid of smoky notes, this is your tea. However, if you really enjoy the distinctive smoke and chocolate notes, you may miss that with this cup.

Chance placed me in a Teavana store this afternoon-for only the second time ever and the first time in 3 years.

They had 6 teas available for sampling, but zero black teas. Then they had the nerve to tell me that they didn’t carry Assam because basically, it was crap and they only carried the best. Considering all that cheap Rooibos they sell, that was a rather ridiculous statement. However, I was not in a confrontational mood and let it slide.

This was listed at one of their top-rated teas on Steepster. Well, we know that they don’t sell in amounts smaller than 2oz, just because. So, I paid $5 to try this as a “to go” tea (in store), my first Golden Monkey. Now I see that there are TWO entries and it seems it’s not so well-liked after all.

I did briefly see the leaves before they brewed them, but I failed to take notes. Who knows what parameters they used. It was small and crowded so I couldn’t get that info. Not ideal tasting conditions. It tasted pretty good. Kinda chocolately and maybe notes of butter or caramel. I would have bought one ounce to try some more, but I wasn’t paying $18.50 for 2 ounces of something I wasn’t really sure about.

They didn’t once take me over to the cast iron teapots or suggestive sell too much and they understood that “no, thanks” meant “no, thanks.” However, they tried to overpour my 2 ounces of Strawberry Paraiso-2.85 ounces is not “about” two ounces. They had 5 employees sharing one scale and one register, add in the customers and it was a mess, so you really had to keep an eye on them trying to overpour.

If they ever get around to selling samples or at least selling one ounce of tea, I would give this another try. However, the end result of this is I will probably try a few golden monkey teas from other companies who sell their tea that way.

Overall, I’d say this was an okay shopping experience-I did get some rock sugar because I wanted some and it was there. AND they had no minimum on how much to buy! I’d go to this store again if I was around to get a to go cup of a couple of their teas, but they don’t have a lot that really excites me.

_{Free sample provided by FONG MONG Tea}

I must apologize for taking so long to get this review done. I had tried this once before and got distracted. All would have been well except that I accidentally deleted my tasting notes. So, fresh tasting today.

Dry leaves are mostly olive green with a couple of medium brown leaves and a smattering of light yellowish green leaves/tips. Leaves are twisted and are of various lengths-I would say most are medium long, but some are quite short. Dry aroma is a typical floral that you get with green oolongs. I can definitely see describing it as somewhat perfume-y.

The brewed leaf aroma is similar but more subdued. Liquor is transparent and very pale with much more yellow than green. The flavor is very smooth and somewhat sweet. I detect mainly floral and some vegetal notes. This is definitely a high quality tea. If you like Pou Chong Oolong, you will probably enjoy this tea.

I’d like to thank FONG MONG TEA again for the free samples. My favorites would have to be Sun Moon Lake Black and the Top Grade Oriental Beauty.

Next up-I received some more generous samples from Teavivre and will be reviewing them in the coming days.

One of my earliest memories as a child was my mother teaching me about how companies kind of lie to you to get you to buy their product. We were walking down the cereal aisle and there was this box of shredded wheat with giant blueberries on the box and I wanted some-badly. I was too young to read and my mom explained that there were no blueberries in the box and that it was just a “serving suggestion”. Well, what does a 4 year old want with plain shredded wheat? I moved on.

So, now I’m an adult and there’s this apricot tea from Harney. The pic here shows apricots, the pic on their site shows apricots. Now, I love dried apricots, but I never considered them in a tea. However, the tea has some good reviews and the apricots in the pictures called to me. Harney doesn’t really list ingredients, but I bought some anyway.

So, let me be emphatic there are no apricots in this tea! I don’t see why not, I’ve had all kinds of dried/freeze dried fruit in tea, but there isn’t any here.

Disappointment is not a good way to start with a new tea. However, I moved on. This tea is okay. Good even, I suppose. I taste the apricot and it seems fairly natural. It goes well with the black base. It’s sweet, but sugar improves it if you are so inclined-usually I’m not. The tea is smooth and not bitter. I really can’t find a time of day to have this tea-not strong enough for breakfast, too sweet for afternoon, yet not really “dessert-ey” tasting. Maybe it would be good iced.
It’s a decent tea, but I probably wouldn’t buy it again.

Finally! I’ve been looking for this tea for over a week now. I found it in a box under some Upton samples, that I am sure I checked at least 4-5 times before.

Anyhow, this brews a beautiful deep copper cup. The tea is robust, but not bitter or astringent. Still a little more Ceylon and less Assam than I’d like in a Ceylon/Assam Irish blend. However, it’s the best Irish blend I’ve tried in awhile. I also enjoy the fact that it’s organic. This will go into my rotation of breakfast teas and will be my preferred Irish Breakfast. Good stuff.

Thanks to David at Verdant Tea for enclosing a free sample of this more pricey tea in my recent order. Other places just throw in the same cheap stuff no matter what you order-I’m talking about you TEAVANA Youthberry, among others.

Quality Yun Nan Dian Hong is kind of a special tea to me. It’s relaxed and mellow, meant to be savored. I only drink it when I know that I have time to get 3 infusions out of it-no one and done cups like with a breakfast tea.

The dry leaves here are medium-long, tighly-rolled, and colored golden brown. The brewed leaves turn chocolate brown and contain notes of cinnamon and sweet potato. Liquor is a pleasing copper hue.

The flavor tastes mostly of the sweet potato and cinnamon (no orange citrus notes like in some Dian Hong). I also detect some other spices-perhaps clove. The cup is very smooth. Zero bitterness or astringency. Good stuff.

I have had 3 infusions so far, brewing one minute longer each time. Very nice.