Bethany

Sweet, creamy goodness.

Mixed a bit with Adagio’s black Cream tea. Kind of an odd flavor combo.

I’m in an excellent mood this morning and I’m not sure why. Today is my best work buddy’s last day at the office, which should be making me sad. But I got a new MyTouch phone last night and I am LOVING it. Hey Steepster, can we get an Android app?

I opened up my 2oz bag of this for the first time yesterday and was blown away by how much matcha was mixed in to this genmaicha! My sample from jennlea had a lot, but this had a TON. This is definitely the best genmaicha I’ve ever had.

As promised, I ordered another sample tin of this to have around. Very tasty stuff – interesting to see how it compares to Orchid Oolong, which I’ve been drinking a lot more of since I last drank this. You can definitely notice the difference that the orchid makes in OO.

I adore Adagio’s Yunnan Noir, and now that I’m out for the time being, I’m making due with their other two Yunnans that are in my cupboard, Jig and Gold. Yunnan Gold is actually the first Yunnan of theirs that I tried and loved. Yunnan Jig is one that I’ve neglected, mainly because it’s the cheapest/lowest quality of the three. But it’s still good, and still has all of those great Yunnan qualities – the slight earthiness, the cocoa taste, and the peppery spikiness on the tongue.

This is pulling very vanilla-creamy today, which I have no problem with.

There’s always time for Orchid Oolong.

Smoky and slightly bakey, from the Keemun.

Last of my sample. I think today will be the first day I can actually drink tea again!

I didn’t drink tea all weekend. My stomach just couldn’t handle it. Turns out I might be trying a bit too early – I literally took one sip of this and the caffeine went straight to my head. Proceeding with caution…

I was really liking this tea in my pre-Steepster days.. it’s Chinese Sencha blended with rose petals and mallow flowers. The mallow definitely shines through with a bright sweetness, and you can taste a bit of the rose, as well.

It looks like a lot of my staple teas – this one included – are about to run out at the same time!

Probably one pot left, darn it. First tea I’ve had all day since I’m feeling even worse than I did yesterday. Can’t taste much, but it is soothing my throat.

Wow, hard to believe I’ve gone over a week without drinking this tea! This is one of the non-black or green teas left in my office stash, and sounded good right now. Wish I had some more Bollywood Star, but this will more than do.

I’m still feeling like crap, so excuse me while I rant for a second.

Why, in the name of all that is holy, are there ROSEHIPS AND HIBISCUS IN A MINT BLEND??!?!?! This makes me want to smash things. Instead of a nice refreshing mint tea I get a hint of mint followed by that ridiculously awful rosehips/hibiscus/red flavor. UGHHHHHH.

Out of herbals at work. Gonna have to raid the crappy bagged teas in the break room next.

Drinking once more to stave off this oncoming illness. Adagio’s chamomile is really good, and I’m almost out. Darn it.

Thanks to TeaEqualsBliss for the tin of this!

I didn’t get home til midnight last night, there’s a brand new blanket of a foot of snow on the ground, and I have a sore throat. The thought of black tea, my usual morning cup, made me ill, so I reached for this one for some throat-soothing instead.

I was disappointed, sadly. All I could taste was lemongrass with some chamomile in the background; no spearmint. And it didn’t do much to soothe my throat, either, even with some honey.

I like Foxtrot, the other Adagio chamomile blend, much better.

Second steep. Much grassier and more floral, with a hint of pineapple sweetness.

Wow, this is good. Like, really good. Perfect combo of sweet grassy Sencha and really sweet pineapple. The pineapple isn’t overwhelming but definitely complements the Sencha beautifully. It’s like the sweetness of the Sencha flows right into the sweeter pineapple. I also got a free sample of their Orange Sencha with my order, so I’m curious to see how that compares.

So far I’m really loving Den’s Teas!

Weird. I expected this to taste very much like Adagio’s Hazelnut, which I really like, but I taste very little nutty flavor. To me this tastes more like a very light vanilla tea with a touch of nuttiness and smokiness thrown in. It’s good, but not at all what I expected.

Definitely steeped too long last time. Shut down steeping as soon as I finished pouring in my water (it took about 10-15 seconds since I had to wait for the leaves to absorb the water), and it’s much sweeter and lighter this time. No bitterness at the end. Upping my rating, and putting this on my shopping list!

My Den’s order came today! Talk about super quick service. I reallllly want to try the matcha, but it’s too late in the evening for that. So I decided to try this out first, which came in my sampler.

This is pretty freaking great. As I’ve said a million times before, I generally don’t love green teas. But this is sweet, soft, and so soothing. There is a bitterness at the end of the sip that I don’t love – I’m not sure if I steeped too long or if that’s supposed to be there; Den’s website does mention a bitterness with this sencha.

This is the beginning and end of my sample, since I made a whole pot. Will report back on the next steep.