teaNsympathy

I find myself torn with this tea.

In reading the description I was so excited to try, even though I had never actually had star of anise before. I got so excited I almost bought it without even smelling it at the David’s store (new location on 6th ave!!) However at the last minute I noticed that licorice notes were in the description and that can go either way with me. However, it still smelled delicious enough, so I had to give it a try.

We have a small teaball at work, and although not my usual, preferred method, I couldn’t wait to try it. It was a challenge just packing what appeared to be a good representation of the blend into the teaball. I decided to stick with the tealeaves and coconut in the ball and allow a single star of anise to float freely in my cup. It looks very fancy!

I love the initial flavors, however the aftertaste reminds me of mints I had when I was younger (and despised). They were chalky white, but when you sucked on them a black, bitter/licorice-tasting and seed-like filling was in the center. I just can’t shake the comparison.

I think I need to try a few more cups before I make this decision – I do so want to like it!!

Once again! Spoiler alerts!

I am backlogging here. As previously mentioned, I may be going about this advent calendar thing all wrong. However, I have chosen my path and decided to stick with it.

Before we get to the tea I would like to relay this very positive experience about DavidsTea. I had placed a very large order earlier in November (part holiday gifts, part holiday teas to get me in the spirit!). I kept checking the status, as the 24 days of tea were ordered and I was getting anxious as December 1st inched closer.

Nearly 10 days after the order had been placed, it had yet to be shipped. I called DavidsTea to check on the status. The customer service agent couldn’t have been more helpful or nice. He informed me they had a processing error, which continued to accept orders of the 24 Teas of Christmas, long after the quantity in their stock had been spoken for. He then told me he would call down to the shipping department and make sure it was sent out that day (as they had received more of the calendars).

True to his promise, he called me back not ten minutes later. He told me they were sending it out immediately, and I had the shipping confirmation before I hung up the phone.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE when a company I’m fond on proves to be a pleasure to deal with. I understand there are always extenuating circumstances and the possibility for hold-ups, but such attentive and congenial representatives just further my love for DavidsTea!

This tea was the perfect kick-starter to the holiday season! Welcome December! It sums up the holidays in a cup: cool peppermint, and sweet deliciousness – it’s a real delight!

So…before I proceed I will admit that this post may contain spoilers (if you have also purchased David’s 24 teas of Christmas).

I always forget the proper execution of Advent Calendars!! I thought about it for a while and then decided I would use this adorable DavidsTea version to count down to Christmas. This means I started with #24.

Today’s edition (#23) was a delicious Vanilla Oolong. This is somewhat ironic because I just purchased David’s Vanilla Orchid Oolong as well, after realizing I hadn’t gotten any new oolongs for a spell. This one was simply delightful. Subtle warm vanilla hints in an otherwise traditional oolong.

My family’s Christmas party was last night. We had a house filled with neighbors, family and friends. It’s always great having an opportunity to catch up with people around the holidays. It really sparked the holiday spirit, and this morning, reflecting on this with a warm cuppan was a great way to start my day!

I simply love this time of year, and few things match it so perfectly as this tea. It sums up everything I love: the crisp, brisk air, the emblazoned leaves crunching underfoot. There’s nothing better than taking a deep breath and enjoying it, putting on an burnt orange sweater and warming up your hands and heart with this perfect fall companion.

I cannot say enough good things about this matcha. It is a perfect afternoon pick-me-up. I like that it’s made with wheatgrass, since it is something that I don’t like to drink on it’s own I feel better that I’m able to consume it in a more palatable manner.

First off, I will admit that I am a huge fan of matcha in general. That being said, this tea truly is the best of all possible worlds. You get the inherent health benefits that come with matcha (ingesting the entire, powdered leaf, instead of just steeping) and the additional benefit of the wheatgrass. All this, and an all-natural, sustained energy-boost?

Like all RedLeaf Matcha the color is very verdantly green, but due to the wheatgrass it tends to be a little lighter than some of their others. After whisking up a cup, the flavor is very vegetal. It has the smell and flavor of fresh-cut grass, and I mean that in the best possible way. It tastes fresh, crisp and warmly -if ever so subtly – sweet.

It’s perfect for re-energizing during the post-lunch 2-3pm drag, and a good replacement of the post-coffee-guzzling-guilt.

Be sure to pick some up here:
http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/wheatgrass-matcha.html

I got sucked into David’s amazing, yet sneaky trap once again. While on a quick trip to the store to pick up some gifts for friends and fellow tea-enthusiasts I knew instantly that I must have this. After one whiff of this heavenly concoction, I jumped right in with 4oz for myself. It’s just sweet enough. The perfect compromise for hot chocolate fans and tea fans alike. The little marshmallows are the cherry on top (And yes, I admit to eating one or two out of the tin) They add the perfect extra sweetness to this delicious treat.

Perfect for this brisk fall days.

How could anyone not like this??

It is a combination of some of the very best things in life. I knew instantly I had met my match. Creamy salted caramel with chocolate tones and a just-strong-enough black tea base. Once again, a delightful blend from David’s.

Hi Steepsterians! I apologize for being MIA lately. So many different things going on. But don’t think I haven’t been drinking more than my fair share of delicious teas and miss you all! My apologies, I will be more diligent in the future, I promise!

So now that the time for Iced tea has come and gone – it’s great to welcome the fall. It’s amazing to me that I can have so many different teas with this flavor palette and still appreciate them distinctly. David’s Checkmate being one of my weekly go-to’s for a morning cuppan, I was hesitant to try this one as well. However, being that I work and spend most of my time in NYC (as well as being a frequent visitor to the Harney Broome St. Store) I felt somewhat obligated to try.

To my delight, it is decidedly different and unique. I get mostly the chocolate, balanced out by the coconut and light-yet-present florals. It is delicious! I have since incorporated it into my weekly routine. Although I enjoy it plenty now I can see it being a perfect winter tea.

I believe this is the tea I’ve recently enjoyed as a part of this month’s installment of steepster select, however I don’t see any mention of it being Organic.

As I don’t see a non-organic version of this on here, I’ll assume this is the correct one.

This is a beautiful tea. I have previously only utilized honey bush to add a sweetness to my brisker black teas. I tend to blend them in with my morning tea, or add them into whatever I’m bringing in my travel mug to get me through the workday. They’re always the perfect accomplice, but I never before allowed it to be the star of the show. I was skeptical because I tend to go for full-bodied, complex teas. And while I have nothing against caffeine-free blends, I usually prefer rooibos, and don’t often go for herbals.

This changed all my ill-begotten misconceptions. This was exactly the full-bodied, multilayered tea I enjoy and appreciate. It was like a black tea, not syrupy or overly sweet, or watered-down and weak with a hint of honey on the finish, as I was expecting. An overall treat that was enjoyed for multiple infusions ranging from after dinner to later tonight. Hats off, once again, to steepster select for broadening my perception of tea.

No notes yet.

Back to Backlogging:

A million more thank-you’s to ScottTeaMan for this wonderfully delightful Bangkok Blend, and plenty of it to enjoy! I had this on one previous occasion and had been dying for another taste of it.

The subtle coconut melds so nicely with the verdant grassy green tea. (I fear I need to expand my diction and descriptors when talking about green tea, they’re all the same..)

This was the perfect accompaniment to the first day of spring yesterday, and the pleasing weather that it brought with it.

So after all the backlogging, I’m happy to be writing about one tea that is currently still warm in the cup next to me.

First off, a HUGE thank-you to ScottTeaMan for this wonderfully generous portion, among others. I had been intrigued by this blend for a while, and it seemed to elude my shopping list time after time. I originally fell in love with it’s backstory, and have been meaning to try for some time.

To get to the point, I’m adding this to the ranks of my other favorite Harney straight black teas, Malachi McCormick’s Blend and Royal Palm Court. It’s a wonderful breakfast tea, and perfect way to start the day. It’s brisk and bold, but has a pleasant maltiness, and full-body appeal to it. The presence of 8 different teas does not create chaos and incongruence as I sometimes fear has the same effect as wearing more than one perfume at once. These eight separate teas, however, complement each other nicely, adding depth and complexity and bringing out each other’s full potential. This would fit well among the ranks of the best solid black tea blends.

Backlogging again:

So I must say that this tea was initially a big disappointment. After spending a while stalking my local Davids in an attempt to get it (They had sold out of their initial shipment in a matter of hours, apparently), I gave in and placed an online order, which I try to refrain from, being as it proves always to be a slippery slope for me. I continue to add things left and right, and before I know it, I’m at the point where I may as well just make a run for the free shipping. This inevitably happened. So sure I would like it, and not wanting to have to bother re-ordering if it proved to be something I couldn’t live without and went through quickly I jumped in for a larger quantity.

My first impression was how little, quantity-wise, there seemed to be of it. David’s divides the order up into 50g bags, and I couldn’t believe how empty they all seemed. In placing one in the provided tin, it barely covered the bottom. The second disappointment seemed to be the lack of tea in the blend. Huge, imposing mulberries, sure, but not much tea to be found. I had even more trouble trying to balance my measurements, digging around the dismal offering for more leaves.

It has the smell and taste of some sort of liqueur to me. I think a mix between Bailey’s and Kahlua. I wouldn’t call it off-putting, just…different.

I was very disappointed, overall, at first. I think my high expectations, coupled with the long wait may have had something to do with that. However, on subsequent cups, I liked it well enough, but definitely wouldn’t be something I’d be clamoring for. It is always nice to have a low-caffeine blend for late evenings, but I think I would have been just as happy with one cup of it, especially for the price.

All in all, I wouldn’t reorder.

Backlogging a bit here:

First off thanks to aisling of tea whose review piqued my interest enough to pursue this tea! :)

The idea of a flavored matcha did boggle me at first. Accustomed to the lively, fresh vegetation taste of traditional matchas I was worried what flavoring might do to something already so close to perfection!

My concerns were unnecessary, it would appear because this stuff is delicious!! It’s still quality matcha at it’s base, so there’s no attempts at adding flavoring to mask an inferior tea here. It’s delicious!! And as I was unfamiliar with Madagascar Vanilla as well I’m going to have to borrow from aisling of tea here and agree that it does have a full, decadent richness about it similar to french vanilla. It’s easy to see such a succulent treat coming from the wild and windy, rainy island.

Even better still is Red Leaf’s system. Rarely in tea pursuits does the tea drinker have so much control over the cup they’re about to enjoy. Variation in blends and batches are bound to deeply affect the range of flavors from steep to steep. But fret no more! Red leaf puts the power back in your hands! You get to choose not only the flavor of the matcha itself, but from a selection of the base matcha’s quality, the flavor potency, and storage options. It’s your perfect matcha in your ideal world.

Try this delicious tea here:
http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/madagascar-vanilla-matcha.html

Or choose from pretty much any other flavor + matcha combination under the sun at their website.

All in all, a wonderful treat to start the day or to pick you up halfway through!!

I am ready to admit that I love coconut. I never thought I did but after slowly coming around to it in small doses in other blends, I was ready to take a leap with this latest installment from Steepster Select. This is amazing! It has a toasted flavor to it. It has a great bouquet of florals, and I’m really enjoying it!

This isn’t something I would have picked out on my own, but I am so glad that SS has better taste than I do.

WOW! This tea is amazing! I got my David’s order today (sans Gold Rush, regrettably), but was delighted with this gem. It’s scent took over the room with a potent cherry/floral combination. It smelled more like green tea at the start, followed by a punch of cherries. The flavor is complex, and follows suit with the scent. David’s has proved to me what a nice complement coconut is. I’m bewildered by the number of blends they add it into, and how different the flavor palette of each is from each other, and yet, it manages to work so nicely without overpowering the delicate blends. Even though this is predominately white with green tea, it has a robust flavor that is just divine! Usually teas with fruit flavor this big I think of as an iced tea (pom power), but this one has such a delicate balance that I can only picture it as a warm, delicious treat.

Pom Powerful! After smelling this tea at David’s on my last visit, and have been dreaming of it any since! I had to pick it up when I got the call that the long-awaited Perfect Tea Cups came in with the pattern I’d been waiting for. It was fruity and luscious. I was a little skeptical when it looked to have disproportionate amounts of fruit with very little tea. Fortunately, this was not the case. Although there was a predominately pomegranate flavor, it was well-mixed with the hibiscus, although the hibiscus was not prevailing. There was still enough tea to hold its own as well, thankfully. I’m not usually too keen on iced teas, but this makes me want to give them a chance. I’m longing for a spring thaw and this on ice :)

WOW! So moving on to the second in the wonderful bouquet that Angel at Teavivre has sent along, and I couldn’t be more excited to try this. This was one I was really looking forward to. So without further delay I’m gonna jump right in!

Visually this tea is unlike anything I’ve seen. The long, golden tips are incredible! And the look, scent and feel are all so much more fresher than can be believed. I already know I’m in for a treat. The scent is fragrant and complex. The taste is absolutely divine! It’s balanced nicely with lots of flavor without being astringent. It just might be the perfect black tea. It produces a deep golden color liquid, and was delicious through multiple infusions. I am in love with this. Unreal.

First off a HUGE THANK YOU to Angel at Teavivre for sending me such generous samples!!!! It makes me very grateful to this community where we can connect with one another across continents and around the globe in pursuit of great tea, and in celebration of it.

That being said I was excited to try all these amazing teas! I didn’t know where to start, but decided this would make a lovely post-dinner treat. It’s been a while since I’ve had this type of tea, and after I took one whiff of these I knew I was in for a treat! First infusion was steeped for just under the 2 minute limit. The result was a harmonious blend that was very floral-forward jasmine on the nose, but then tapered off to a pleasant, lightly-sweet finish. I think I’ll use this as an introduction to jasmine teas for those who are reluctant to try them, or for people who are looking to drink more green tea, as it’s irresistible!!

The next few infusions followed suit, this is a truly amazing tea. Thanks again Teavivre!

The scent of this is not to be believed. It’s complex and has a sugary sweetness about it. I was apprehensive about the coconut element, since I have a complicated relationship with coconut. Not being a huge fan of it’s flavoring, I do like subtle hints of it in things, but only when it’s really coconut, and not an artificial taste.

The coconut in this complemented the tea perfectly. It added a warm element to it, which balanced out the sweeter aspects. Surprisingly potent for its ingredients, it is a real treat. I had considered getting this the last time I was at David’s, but had reconsidered after smelling it. But I had it with my sister this evening, and I know it’s only a matter of time before I’ll be running back to David’s to buy it for myself!

For some reason the vanilla notes remind me of The Royal Wedding Tea by Harney & Sons.

Just made this into a latte, and it is divine! Something about it makes me think of a gingerbread latte. It is delicious!!

With his book referenced in the description above being among my favorites, and one of my own personal tea-bibles I had high hopes to say the least. And when I found out it was an alluring blend of Keemun and Assam, I knew I had to have this tea. I was not disappointed.

I wasn’t expecting anything revolutionary or mind-blowing, just a new improvement to my morning routine. I found that in this delightful breakfast blend. My first cup of the day is generally the only one to which I add some almond milk and sweetener, but it needs to be a strong enough tea to hold its own, wake me up, and get me going in the AM. This not only fulfills these requirements, it exceeds them.

All in all this tea isn’t anything crazy. It’s not ostentatious, or gimmicky. But, true to the spirit of it’s namesake’s book, it IS one decent cup of tea.

David’s has done it again! So on my third trip there this week I was disappointed to find out that they still hadn’t gotten in the Tea of the Month for January, Splash! However, incapable of leaving empty-handed I had to pick up a few more things (if I didn’t know I had a problem before, after this week, I can be sure…). I had LOVED the sample I’d previously gotten of this tea, and just knew I needed more ASAP. Where to start? It’s chocolately, it’s got just the right amount of fruity flavor to it. I definitely get the chocolate-covered strawberry analogy. It’s comfort in a cup. It was the perfect thing to bring with me to work on this very snowy day. David’s to the rescue once again!

Wow! This may just be my favorite green tea yet!! (excluding matcha of course). One of my many new years resolutions was to drink more green tea, and I don’t think I’ll have any problem with that if it’s Tokyo blend! A million thanks to ScottTeaMan for the recommendation, it’s right up my alley! Subtle, grassy sweetness, with the complexity of the sesame seeds to give it enough character, this is a treat.

I recently converted my sister (a longtime exclusively coffee-drinker) to tea. As I have a habit of forcing things I love upon my friends and family I have been thrilled with this feat , and taken it upon myself to introduce her to as many different teas that I thought she’d like as possible. She started calling me her tea mentor, so I thought I owed it to her to take her on a round of tea shopping this past Saturday. We stopped at the David’s tea on Bleecker, Porto Rico Importing and Harney’s Soho store, of course. All were insanely busy but I’d have to mark it as a success as we were both encumbered with large packages by the time we made it to the bar to watch my 49ers’ magnificent victory!

Now that I’ve rambled off the backstory at length, this was one of the many purchases made that day. I was indecisive and looking for something different, and when I had one whiff of this I knew it’d be perfect! It’s sweet florals are the perfect cure to this rainy/snowy day!