Skittlefox

oh man, I tried not to fall off the face of the earth, but I did anyway. I’m just a few days away from finishing school and have barely had time for tea!! A cup of this was perfect at the end of the day, now that things are winding down. My Tea Master appears to be broken :( (leaky) so this was perfect, just steeped for a few seconds. Ahh.

No notes yet.

OMG smells SO GOOD. My nose is in the bag right now I can’t take it out!! All the fuzzy white hairs on the leaves make me excited! The leaves actually look like tiny string beans! This is the second of my spoils from Distinctly Tea, and despite my terrible experience with Teaopia’s White Pear, I am encouraged about delving into white teas again.

When steeped, the leaves float in a vertical orientation at the top, looking a lot like (and kind of creepily??) like string beans perfectly stacked and spaced on an invisible vine. Weird! I’ve never seen that in a tea before.

In taste, it reminds me of Darjeeling, but less nutty. Very light, a little bit buttery, but altogether very very nice. I can’t stop sipping! Yummy!

I am guilty of buying this tea for two very bad reasons: 1) I was trying to impress the manager of the tea store by buying a semi obscure tea in order to potentially woo her into hiring me at her super awesome tea shop, and 2) It was in a pretty bag. I was under the impression that Pu-Erh was distinctly Pu-Erh because it came in the characteristic packed-cake form, but I learned today that caked does not a Pu-Erh make. This Pu-Erh came in loose form, in a cute red bag with just enough Chinese lettering on it that I felt my tastes were exotic and traditional but also enough English that I knew what I was actually buying.

First steep was terrifying, because it was quite unpleasantly bitter, something my previous Pu-Erh experiences seemed immune to. I was horrified that my pretty sizable new bag of Pu-Erh was going to be a colossal mistake. But second steep, much to my surprise because it was much longer, had no bitterness to be found! Just Pu-Erhy goodness. Third steep proved the same. Phew!!

I’m pretty happy with my purchase :3 Hearts to Pu-Erh!

Absolutely perfect with milk and sugar on this cold, dreary, wet, depressing March day. Adore.

Squeee!! Am drinking this this morning out of my brand new shiny (ok, matte) Yixing mug!!! (looksie: http://tinyurl.com/yixing) Mmm Pu Erh. I must buy more of you.

I actually quite like this! The dry leaf smell is absolutely divine, and though the liquor’s aroma is decidedly much more subtle, I still quite like it. The leaves swell up to an alarming size, so make sure you have enough room in your vessel!! The flavour is wonderfully smooth, with a healthy astringency that reminds me of Chinese restaurants. Quite lovely at a slightly cooler temperature than normal just so you can appreciate the full flavour in your mouth. I might try it with a shorter steep time next time. Would buy again for sure.

Had this with breakfast! Delish.

Yawn. Teaopia often has this as one of their sample teas, and I can’t imagine why. It’s bland. I’m not getting anything like the delightful sweetness of Pomegranate Green. It is wholly unremarkable. Pass!

I blended this today with Teaopia’s Rise and Shine for my morning class, and not only was it super delicious, it kept me awake! Points! As a blending ingredient, I might recommend this!

Yay!! A green tea I actually really enjoy!!

Though the dry leaf smells beautifully of pomegranate, I couldn’t find any pomegranate coming through in the flavour of the liquor, which is too bad, but it didn’t really matter because the flavour was so nice and sweet and a little bit citrusy. Very lovely. I’m on my second cup, which is kind of unheard of for me and green tea. I’m actually ecstatic that I’ve found one that I like!!

Sorry Irish Breakfast, I wish I had you for St. Patty’s, but alas the English are just too tasty. Also the only Breakfast tea I had in my cupboard this morning.

Here, have some Joyce to feel better!

“When I makes tea I makes tea, as old mother Grogan said. And when I makes water I makes water … Begob, ma’am, says Mrs. Cahill, God send you don’t make them in the one pot.”

Happy St. Patrick’s everyone!

No notes yet.

I SO wanted to like white tea. It’s light, refreshing, delicate—yes please! But why oh why must there be grassiness. Curse you grassiness!!! You are the BANE of my tea-loving existence. I do not understand how people can appreciate you. I once ATE grass, and did not enjoy it at the least (hush, I was a child, I was curious) and so why there are many who enjoy a hot steaming cup of grass I will perhaps wonder over forever. (I once entertained the idea that “green” tea was so labeled in order to warn those who know the truth about grassiness to stay away)
I would like to share the following that Erin posted while describing Adagio’s White Pear: “like latex and corn syrup stewed in a mug with some asparagus.” YES. YES YES YES. WHY.
Also, although this smells deliciously of promises of peary goodness, there is no “pear flavour,” Teaopia. I could not find it.

Made this into a traditional chai today! Suspicions about lack of spicyness confirmed.

Mmm! Smelled divine. Looked divine. It’s rooibos (green!). I was so sure this was going to be perfect. But first steep (4 min) was disappointingly weak. It actually kind of reminded me of the McDonald’s “orange drink” they used to serve us at summer camp that was just orange flavour powder extremely diluted in water. 7 min was more promising, as the flavour had some time to strengthen up. I think I can see myself wanting this for breakfast as a light, citrusy refresher, but I gotta admit I prefer my rooibos earthy and rich.

I am a fan of fruit but not so much grassy, and while this has both, they seem to cancel out each other, thus something I am now dubbing frassy in flavour—the two elements are there but together they somehow fail at being either. The addition of honey I hoped would give the fruity the win, but it really just tastes like honey now sigh. Pretty unremarkable. Yawn. Am curious about the sustaining “mateine” effects, so will report back later.
ETA: I didn’t get the woozy jitters like I do with strong plain caffeine, but I don’t feel tired at all, so a tentative thumbs up to the stimulating effects!

I tried a few sips of this without milk and sugar to start, and I get that it’s supposed to be a transition tea from coffee to tea. It’s quite dark, strong, and a little spicy. The smell is very sweet, predominantly cloves. A little milk and sugar later and… mmmmm. Everything I want in a chai: sweet sweet sweet with a little bit of lingering spice on the tongue. Delicious!!
ETA: points off because I find myself thinking I’d like this to have more spicyness

I’m really excited to try loose leaf peppermint teas, because I love having peppermint in the afternoon as a refresher! In the meantime, this does the job :)

Bought the loose leaf tin of this yesterday and not only is the tin super cute (I may now be hooked on cute tea tins!!) but it tastes ten times better than the bagged kind! If there wasn’t conclusive evidence that loose leaf kicks bagged’s ass, I think this is it. Yum!

mmmm om nom nom

My first Pu Erh!! Wee!
First time I tried this I steeped it for probably 20 seconds, I was so nervous about it being too strong. I LOVED it. The red-copper cup is so pretty, and the feel of it is ridiculously silky smooth. I was expecting it to be bitter and smoky but it has this lovely medium bodied, smooth flavour that is strangely delicious! I could not have been more pleasantly surprised.

I did a second steep this morning, intending on seeing what happened after about seven minutes, but then forgot about it and went and had a shower!! Total steep time ended up being something like half an hour, and I was completely resigned to sadly having to throw it out, but a quick sip told me no, that would be silly! It was still delicious!! The cup had changed to a dark coffee colour, but bitterness was nowhere in sight!

I really didn’t expect to like Pu Erh, but after having this tea, I can safely say I love it.

As much as I wish I was a mellow type, I inherited my father’s curse of getting incredibly anxious over even the tiniest and silliest things. Part of the reason, I suspect, that I love tea so much is for its calming properties. This one is a gem for me, maybe even a necessity. Just smelling it will immediately slow down my breathing rate by half. Maybe it’s the placebo effect, maybe I don’t care. It works. Doesn’t taste like much, but that’s not what I’m paying it for.

This tea had big shoes to fill: the box promises to “inspire sharing, relaxation, integrity and authenticity.” The first I believe-delicious teas make me want to share them with people. But inspire relaxation? Plain old making me relaxed would be better. Integrity and authenticity, furthermore, do not come from tea. But hey! Maybe a bagged tea could prove me wrong.

I was confused about what category to put this in… it says “Lychee” in big letters on the box but there is no lychee in the ingredients, rather there is ginger root. “Natural flavours” might be the lychee? Hopefully.

It smells like lychee, but that’s about all I really like about it. The flavour is meh and hardly noticable. Would not buy again.

ETA: alright, maybe I was too mean to this tea. But really, it was asking for it, with all of its presumptuous boasts. After two more cups, I found the lychee. Turns out it is in the aftertaste. It’s quite nice actually, lingering very smoothly and making you want more. Problem is, the swallow of tea itself only laughs cruelly at you because it does not taste anything like it. I don’t know that I want to absolve this tea for its aftertaste alone, so I won’t. There are enough lies on this tea box, they should have just called it Lychee Aftertaste and have been done with it.