AJ

Didn’t mean to let the water cool this much before steeping it, but it does bring the grenadine flavour forward much more. Very fruity. I’m actually starting to get low on this, and it makes me sad because although I’d like to get more, I’d rather try some from a different company. I still strongly dislike Tea Desire’s flavoured blacks base.

Still, finding this enjoyable.

Smells like hibiscus. Which is… KIND of a rasberryish smell?

First few sips, I’m getting a surprisingly un-hibiscusy sour taste. Don’t know what it is.

I can’t, for the life of me, understand why hibiscus is at the TOP of the ingredients list in all these kinds of blends. It’s too powerful, put more of the actual intended flavours in. As it cooled I only got hibiscus.

I ALMOST think I taste raspberry, but I’m not sure. It was mentioned to try this iced, and I guess I probably should. Still, it’s a very pretty shade of red.

The tea’s cooled, and I’m starting to pick up a bit more raspberry.

I’ve only ever SMELT amaretto, never tasted it, but there is somewhat of a vague comparison in the scent. I don’t know, I haven’t sniffed it RECENTLY (not that I make it a habit or anything), but I’ve found it to have a syrupy sweet scent that I rather dislike. This, however, is a sweet, nutty, and fruity smell.

Sipping it, I get rooibos, and the SMELL of amaretto in taste-form. What. A sort of pungent, soursweet numbingly alcoholic taste. I’m not sure if I like it, but I know my mother rather enjoys amaretto, and I’m considering offering some to her next time I see her.

Smells like an earl grey, although brighter, a bit—I think I can pick out the sweetness of the mandarin orange. But there’s also a strong tea smell in there as well, which I like.

FIrst sip… Is tea and mandarin, actually. The mandarin is very mild, but it’s the first of the citruses to pop out at me.

As it cools, I’m getting the bergamot. No orange anymore. It’s devolved! Aaaah!

I keep telling myself to wait, and let it cool more, so I can make a few notes on the changing flavour, but I keep sipping it hot.

The mandarin’s slipping back in, as an aftertaste on the edge of my tongue. This is a very mild, afternoon sort of tea, I think. I enjoy earl greys, but I don’t think I have the palate to pick this apart like many Grand Earl Grey Drinkers (which I’m sure exist!). Still, I love earl grey variations. Mmm. Bit of a drying astringency in there as well.

I’m giving this a tentative rating, a “I’m not sure what my opinion is yet, this will probably change; let’s put it above this, but below this for now, because that looks safe”.

Also, this is my first Kusmi Tea! I was so happy to find it amongst the others, because I’ve been very interested in trying Kusmi. Especially their Russian blends. I want to collect ALL of their Russian blends, but can’t bring myself to flood my Shopping List with them. I’ve found a store downtown that is supposed to sell them, so I may be getting more soon.

Second steep has a stronger orange taste. Weaker tea and bergamot, so it pokes through more.

Another tea from AmazonV!

This one was very fruity dry, but the brewed liquid smells only of hibiscus. The taste is mostly hibiscus as well, although there’s something cooling in there, which I’m taking to be the pineapple. Otherwise, there’s a chewy non-fruityness as well, and… a hint of orange, I think. Hmm. Maybe I’ll try more next time. It’s still refreshing, though.

I see almond slivers and coconut shavings. Dry it has a creamy, sweet coconuty smell. Brewed is similar, but darker.

The taste is a creamy black tea, with a sweetness of coconut. I don’t think I’m getting anything from the almonds, but I figured those were just there for show anyhow.

Oh, maybe I am getting something from the almonds—a sort of nutty aftertaste.

Brewed this for four minutes, but I think it would have done all right at three as well.

Oh wow, before I even knew it my mug was empty. I clicked back to this window with the intention of finishing my review, but when I reached for my mug there was nothing left TO review.

Goes to show everyone that I enjoyed this. A lot. I will have to go back for a second steep.

Second steep smells good, although is considerably weaker in taste. But still creamy sweet. Mm.

Drinking this one again. Accidentally oversteeped the two minutes I had intended, and I don’t know by how much.

Hot, the rose is strongly present, and not terrible, but I am for sure not a rose fan. As it cools it gets bitter still, but mixed into the bitterness is definite hints of the darjeeling. So it’s not all rose. Still getting progressively bitter as it cools though, better but still to the point that I’m contemplating tossing it soon. Yick. This tea just doesn’t like me.

Still excitedly awaiting the teas I won from AmazonV’s art contest. It usually takes a while for things to get to Canada, so I’m patient.

I only have two posts logged for this, and yet I’m almost out. Whoops.

I wouldn’t mind more, though. This is rather nice in the morning. Keemun nutty. I will have to get more. Except that the Chapters that I got it from only sells the tins of the bagged stuff, and I’d really rather NOT start collecting Harney and Sons tins. If only they took paypal, god damnit.

I have also, since, finished off one or two teas… Downsizing my cupboard a bit.

Wow. I’ve posted so rarely about this tea, it’s been moved to the ever end of my cupboard.

I’m enjoying this and its faint nuttyness this morning, because I have it bagged and thus don’t need to drag out any infusers, which I have already packed away. I’m going camping with my family.

I packed pretty much as many teabags and small travel-tins of tea as I could. I didn’t have a travel-tin for it, so I threw my tin of A&D’s Caravan right into the bag. You CAN’T forget your SMOKY TEAS when you’re going camping of all places. My father was DELIGHTED to learn that I was going to bring the ‘bacon tea’.

My backpack is filled with art supplies and tea. …There are some clothes in there as well—those I could fit around the other two.

I’ve missed this tea too. Light, flavourful, pear. The white tea is the prominent taste, but the pear is in there, faint and very refreshing. And I’ve got a whole box to enjoy.

This was on my shopping list for a while, but I’d pretty much given up on actually getting it.

But somehow! Tealicious happened to be selling them. I’ve never seen them selling any other teas but their own. But either way, it was buy one get one free, so I picked up a box of this and white pear.

Dry, I could only just make out a whiff of lavender. The bergamot was the centre stage. Brewed, the lavender was much stronger, mixing with the bergamot, and giving it an oddly… ginger smell. Huh. I think it’s because both lavender and ginger’s smells are classified as “pungent”.

I get floral notes, and only a little bergamot in the first sip. Very little of the actual tea. This is my first time tasting lavender, and it’s much different from any other florals I’ve tasted. Again, more pungent, although it has its own sweetness. The bergamot comes back as the tea cools.

I’m starting to run low on this, sadly. And I don’t know what I’m going to do when I run out, because Chapters sells the tea, but only teabagged in tins, and I don’t want to start stocking up on Harney and Sons Paris Tea tins. If only Harney and Sons accepted paypal, I would buy a bag of this looseleaf! I already have a tin for it!

I need to go and buy a prepaid Visa or Mastercard giftcard for myself. You’re supposed to be able to use those for internet purchases.

Mmm enjoying this while it lasts, though. It’s just a peculiar, fruity, bergamoty mix.

I was half-tempted to pick out the little caramel blocks and eat them. I was able to resist.

Dry, it has a strong, buttery caramel smell, with a smokey woodsyness underneath. The smell is similar brewed, though slightly sweeter and more woodsy.

It’s a very mild taste. I’m inexperienced with rooibos’, but it’s a mild, pleasant wood-and-caramel mix. It’s got a coffee-like element to it, which might be the caramel. The sort of dark smokeyness that I’m getting, or something.

Oh, delicious maple! How I have missed you.

I bought a nice 100g bag of this this time around, along with a 50g bag of caramel rooibos. She was also selling some Revolution teas (which I have not been able to find ANYWHERE, so I was quite surprised); buy one, get one free. So I finally get to check Lavender Earl Grey off of my shopping list, and also got a box of White Pear free. I also wandered by the used book store and left my name and contact in case they come across a copy of The Scarlet Pimpernel, which I have been pursuing for a while. Also wandered into my favourite comicbook store, but didn’t end up buying anything. I had meant to ask if I could put in an order for some comics not normally sold in this country (copyright complications, you see), but I forgot the information I had written down for them—ISBN and all that. Sad.

All in all, it was a good day.

Of course, I don’t hear the timer go off and thus oversteep it. I don’t know by how long.

Somehow the full Due South theme seems appropriate to listen to while sipping this.

♪ You can walk a hundred-thousand miles and never find a home. You always knew one day you’d have to strike out on your own. You look up to the clouds and you can see which way the wind is blowin’. ♪

Just as I remember it, and I don’t seem to have oversteeped it too badly. Nice, strong, maple flavour on a fantastic base. Delicious. No sugar needed, and it’s got a touch of sweetness on its own.

Due South, that’s the way I’m goin’, due south. ♪

Every time I pass tea-aisles in stores, I look at their maple flavoured teas, but in the end, I’m glad I hold out and try to ignore them because this is always divine. I’ll try not to oversteep it next time.

I tried this iced. Iced chai, you say? I call it Iced Chai Latte! Although I think lattes have steamed milk in them or something—to constitute the “latte”—but heck if I know, and I like the name. It was inspired by Starbucks. Either because I looked at their menu and saw that they had “iced chai lattes”, or because I looked at the menu and thought “why DON’T they have iced chai lattes”.

It looks like Starbucks’ and Tim Hortons’ iced lattes, at any rate. That coffee cream colour with icecubes, that makes it look like an alcoholic drink—a coffee or chocolate liqueur—because no reasonable person would put icecubes in milk. I didn’t double the recipe because I remember this being so spicey on its own, and it does hold up quite well, although maybe I should have 1 + 1/2’d it or something, because the flavour is slightly weaker with the cold. Still very tastey.

Basically followed the usual stovetop recipe, sweetened with honey, then poured over icecubes. Ended up with three glasses, so the other two are in the fridge. I plan to share.

Very refreshing. The tea and spices aren’t so much in the sip as they are in the trailing aftertaste. But still, it hit the spot. Way better than spending four bucks at Starbucks for something similar. Although I’m sure theirs are sweeter. But mine’s homemade! Mmm.

Now that I think about it, condensed milk might have been an interesting alternative. Well, maybe not ALL condensed milk. Halfandhalf. Not that I have any, but it would have made it sweeter. It’s a thought for next time.

Or a dollop of whipped cream on top. With brown sugar and/or cinnamon sprinkled.

I’ve concluded that the prominent taste in this seems to be the rose. Which would explain why it tastes a bit like the earl grey with rose tea I purchased and disliked some time ago.

I find I am not much of a rose fan. Perhaps picking the dried petals out will reduce the flavour… I get hints of bergamot and vanilla in the aftertaste, but no jasmine. The bourbon is in there fairly strongly as well.

Seeing as this is a Cream of Earl Grey, I’d hoped the bergamot and vanilla cream flavours would be the most prominent. Although it is an interesting take. I should try a second steep of this; see if any other flavours take over in it. And next time I have a cup, pick out all the rose petals and see if it makes a difference.

On another note, yesterday while drinking Irish Cream, I figured out the perfect temp/time pairing to overcome the horrible black tea base Tea Desire uses in their flavoured teas. Hurrah!

I went to pick out a tea to sip today and kept getting drawn to an oolong. So I decided to go with this, since I haven’t had it in a lengthy amount of time, and I’ve still got a good few scoops left.

The liquid appears greener than I remember, and the smell is faintly of jasmine. Or at least something a touch floral in with the usual cooked vegetable scent. Steeping this in sets of half a cup of water per steep. About four ounces.

The taste is how I remember it. Very light and green, touches of floral. The greeness is more refreshing, less baked. I think this is a good Book tea. I’d sip it while I read. I’m pretty sure I mentioned that last post. I’d have to go back and reread it.

Second Steep: Seems sharper, I suppose, a little stronger and less floral but still very smooth, almost butter in the back of the throat.

Third Steep: Starting to take the hot water through it, I think. No floral whiffs left at all. Sharper taste, but still very pleasant.

Fourth Steep: Pretty much like the third steep.

I let the leaves sit out and dry overnight.

Fifth Steep: May be because I left the tea to cool as I made toast (I remember Jillian saying something about oolongs becoming sweeter as they cool), but it did taste slightly sweet. And not as sharp. I think the jasmineish floral taste might’ve been making a slight comeback as well.

Sixth Steep: The colour has yet to weaken. Still getting a sweetness, even though I’m drinking this one much hotter. A slightly sharp, vegetal sweetness. Mmm.

Seventh Steep: Holy crap still going strong. Still a sweetness, and the smooth vegetable taste. I’m not getting any more original with my descriptions here.

Eight Steep: It seems the taste is finally starting to wane. Still smells strongly, though. No sweetness this time around.

Dropped the temperature a bit. The smell of the bergamot is stronger, finally holding its own against the other flavours. Now it REALLY smells delicious. Like candy. Sugary and fruity and vanillay.

The tea base is still there, but the lower temperature has made it less bitter and sharp, so it now blends much better with the other flavours. Still, the base could be better. The temperature change only does so much.

It’s recommended that you do the fifteen-second initialrinsingsteep. Which I did! However, I am still holding that initial steep. I figure, it’s there, I might as well try it. The tea leaves will still be in the infuser for the “Real Steep” when I get back.

The smell of the tea is… oriental. Which seems like a weird description, but really, I sniff it and it reminds me of Japanese foods. Sushi and whatnot. Ooh, pleasant. It’s also not as inky-coffee-black as people described. Just a good, dark tea colour.

First sip is fishy and earthy. Not… not in a bad way? Sort of coffeeish. Very earthy. It’s nit bitter, but is sort’ve charcoaly.

Second steep (20 seconds) managed, somehow, to be DARKER than the first. Smells the same though. Taste is similar, but a bit different—slightly more black tea-like, while still retaining the earthyness. Almost bitter, but somehow still smooth.

For a Cream of Earl Grey this one sure goes over the top. They should have just made it a Grey Variant. They ALREADY have one called ‘Charming Grey’, which I was also considering trying. Bergamot, vanilla, jasmine, rose, BOURBON?

It smells delicious, though. Although the smell reminds me mostly of this company’s Irish Cream, and I’m picking up no bergamot.

The taste… Wow. I got a hint of bergamot, a lot of cream vanilla bourbon. No jasmine, I think. Well THIS is a cup of deliciousness. I had feared that it would be using the same base as their collection of flavoured blacks, and thus would get bitter as it cooled. It’s still too hot to tell, but it’s very delicous and sweet and tasty right now. And I think I’m getting jasmine hints in the aftertaste.

Hmmm the bitterness is starting to set in. I had hoped, being a grey, they would treat it differently. Ahwell, it just means the reduced temperature I had to do to the others to get rid of the bitterness. Still quite nice.

Although now as I continue to sip it, I realize I can no longer make out the bergamot and wonder if I imagined it in the first place. This really does just remind me of a milder version of the Irish Cream. Huh. Well, that’s disappointing. I knew I should have just gotten up earlier and picked up some Earl Grey Cream from Tealicious to try instead.

Went back and got a second steep of this, and although the whole thing is very watery and doesn’t resteep well, I think I can taste a touch more bergamot.

Thank you vague description that gives me no clue into the black teas used in this blend! You forced me to guess wildly at the steeping time.

It was marketed as an afternoon blend, but is said to have malty tones, so I couldn’t figure out if it might have some Assam in it—which would have had be reducing the time a bit. Floral notes as well, so.

I find that I prefer plain black teas over flavoured. Mostly tea blends—if they’re all black tea, or some black and green teas. I enjoy them more. Flavoured blacks are a bit more of a novelty. I enjoy them a lot as well, but.

The tea is quite a deep red, and has a distinct Assam black kind of smell to it. However, the taste is very mild. …This may be because I burnt my tongue earlier today, being in a rush. There’s definite notes that do remind me strongly of Assam teas, but lighter, and there is a sort of baky vegetalness that makes me wonder if there isn’t a bit of some oolong tea in here as well. I figure that taste is what they meant by the ‘floral’.

I’d suggest taking what I say with a grain of salt, because really, my tongue is quite burnt and that’s probably scewing my taste considerably. But I don’t know, I rather like it right now.

Actually, tasting this, I think I understand more what it means for something to be ‘malty’ than I ever have drinking just marketedly ‘malty’ Assams. Huh. And this still goes down very smoothly, with just touches of astringency as it cools.

And THAT’s the last of that. Finished up the rest of this in one, big pot.

I don’t think I have much more to add. The last tasting note I did on this expresses my most recent and final thoughts on this tea. Smokey, still tasty enough to be a good staple, but a little on the “burnt” side.

I let my father sniff this tea, and he’s reevaluated his “bacon” stance and now calls it, more appropriately, “campfire” tea. And actually asked whether or not it would be a good one to drink around the campfire. I think it would be.

This’ the last of this. I think I’ll finish off one more tea, and then finally allow myself to buy new ones.

This one was a nice staple to have in the cupboard. I had two teabags left, so I shared one with my mom, who liked it as well. It steeps a bit cloudy, being a fannings teabag and all, but it was and is still enjoyable. It’s a nice ceylon, with its own distinctive flavours, perfect for the days I don’t feel like having anything “fancy” enough as flavoured blacks.

Maybe I’ll get some loose leaf of this next time I make the commute to Murchie’s. I still have the tin left over, and it’s a very nice tin. It’s even double-lidded for extra fresnhness! And the “Uva Ceylon” nametag was just an easy-to-remove sticker.

Well, this’ the last bag of this I have. I’ll miss it. It’s one of the staples I carried in my Travel Tea Bag. I don’t plan to actively go out and pick this one up again, but if I come across it—maybe it’s marked down, or I have yet to find a vanilla black that I like more—I’ll probably pick it up again. It’s just a bit pricey. Fourteen freakn’ bucks? Come on. Otherwise, I will probably try Tealicious’ vanilla black next. Murchie’s was utterly flavourless, and I don’t know if Tea Desire even carries a vanilla black… They gave me a list of their full tea stock, but I seem to have misplaced it. Plus, I haven’t been to Tealicious in a while, and I actually LIKE the base used in their flavoured blacks, unlike Tea Desire’s.

As for the base used in Mighty Leaf’s, well, this is the only flavoured black I’ve tried from them. It’s not wonderful, but it’s far from terrible. Sometimes it takes on this weird spinachy taste—it’s particularly prominent in the second steep, although still quite noticeable in the first. But if I avoid a second steep (difficult, because I feel like I’m wasting it if I don’t—except for fanning teabags, which you usually can’t get a second steep out of anyways), and don’t mess with the recommended four-minute steeping parameters, it’s usually fine. Fairly enjoyable. Keeps my vanilla cravings at bay.

Now that I think about it, I had always meant to mix a sachet of this with some earl grey. Too late now, ahwell.