teabird

I think this was the tea that convinced me Earl Grey’s could be tasty; it was certainly the first creamy one I had. It also made a tea convert of G. Having it with a bit of honey today as well as milk – which is totally cheating – but hey, I’m sick. And it is delicious. Also, as always for LoD, 100% organic.

Sweet, creamy vanilla and a mild black tea make a base for the tang of bergamot (and a dash of lavender). I already wish I’d bought more.

2.15 g to 8oz water, 2nd steep at 5:00 also good

I think I like Traditional Medicinals’ better, but this is a perfectly good herbal medicinal tea. Primary flavors are lemon and mint, with a bit of cinnamon spice. Not overly bitter, but I added honey anyway.

No notes yet.

This is the cinnamon tea that begat all cinnamon teas for me. With just cinnamon, cloves, apple and orange pieces and rooibos as ingredients, the taste is simple and clean but delightfully spicy. If you like Harney & Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice, or Celestial Seasonings’ Cinnamon Apple Spice, you should really try this. It’s easily sweet enough to drink plain, and caffeine-free, so makes me a nice bedtime tea.

At around $6/oz, it’s a more than I’d usually pay, and sadly not for everyday drinking (for me), but considering it’s
*fair trade
*locally blended by hand (local to my hometown in Michigan, that is ;)
*100% organic (and I’ve spoken with the owner and know just how careful she is about organic sourcing)
it’s money I’m happy to spend when I can.

I usually steep 1tsp/8oz water twice, the first steep 4-5 minutes, the second around 10.

No notes yet.

This is interesting, but not for me I think. I can smell the sandalwood, and there is an oddly sweet honey aftertaste, but it’s still too bitter in the mouth – too much like a Darjeeling – for me. Milk helps a little, but it still tastes kind of weak and bitter to me at the same time.

If I wanted a smooth honey-like black tea, I’d go for either GM’s Honey Pear or Life in Teacup’s Yunnan Golden Buds over this.

1.6g leaf
4oz boiling water
1st infusion: 3 minutes
2nd infusion: 5 minutes, noticeably weaker

I tried a dash of sugar in this today, and… it was TOO SWEET. I’m not sure I’ve ever had that happen with a black tea before. It turned into this weird sickly-sweet artificial flavor. Lesson learned :(

The second steep was still good though!

No notes yet.

Hoo, that brews up dark! (And I even used less leaf than recommended). Normal for puerh, I suppose, but the strongly minty smell makes for a disconcerting combination. The taste is very minty also. As in, I can taste the pu-erh, but barely – I have to hunt for it. There is a faint dash of cinnamon in there, but I’m not really getting the vanilla. I can’t taste the licorice either, but that’s a good thing.

Second steep (6 minutes) is still quite dark, and smells more cinnamony. I like it better than the first – the mint flavor blends in a bit instead of completely overpowering everything else.

Third steep (10 minutes-ish) is better still – I can actually taste the cinnamon now.
A fourth steep was also good, but getting weaker.

This is interesting, and hard to rate, because I loved the third steep, and liked the 2nd and 4th well enough, but the 1st was just overpoweringly minty. Unless I have someone on hand to drink that first, I won’t be reaching for this too often. Or I suppose I could rinse and dump? It seems wasteful, but might fix the balance issue for me.

1tsp (2.1g) leaf to 4oz water

Yay! My Rishi order just arrived. It’s mostly samples, but I got 4oz of this because I already knew I love it (and it’s an amazing price for organic, fair trade tea). It is delicious, sweet, and full-flavored. Taken with a bit of milk, it’s likely to be my breakfast staple for awhile now.

A second steep at ~6 minutes is just as aromatic and tasty.

2.25g leaf, 8oz water

A very nice, sweet, jasmine white. Fresh hay and flowers. A little chalky as it cools, but very good while hot. The silver needles are much better than Adagio’s base white tea. I used 2 grams for 4oz water, have steeped twice so far.

ETA: Lasted well through 4 steeps, increasing time by 1 minute for each. For $8/oz, that’s… starting to get reasonable, but only just.

Just finished my tin of this, and I definitely need to buy some more. For one thing, it’s a black tea that is smooth and sweet enough to drink plain. It never even occurs to me to add milk or sugar after taking a sip. The character changes on me a little every time I drink it; usually I get apples, sometimes berries, but today I’m getting a very creamy vanilla flavor and something tart, like tropical fruit.

I generally get a second steep that is weaker but still very much worth drinking. At $2.18/oz (for the large tin) this might need to be a staple in my cupboard.

Got a couple bags of this form Jaime (thanks!) and tried icing one today, since that’s how I usually prefer my fruity green teas. It’s kind of a reddish color, almost like blood orange juice. I can smell the mandarin, even iced, and I taste mandarin and honey while sipping. But, then it fades into this really strong ginseng flavor and aftertaste, which I find rather unfortunate. Aftertaste is important, and this one is much too herb-y.

If it weren’t for the ginseng I’d happily drink this again – it is nice and sweet without needing to add anything – but as is? :(

A very tasty strawberry black tea. I was disappointed by the weakness of the flavor compared to the scent (which is amazing), but that is somewhat normal for flavored teas. I get more of the flavor when exhaling after a sip than while actually drinking. I usually take my black tea plain, or with just milk, but this seems to taste best (i.e. the strawberry is strongest) with just a pinch of sugar. It is smooth enough to drink plain, though. I still need to try it iced sometime.

2nd steep (~6 minutes) is weaker, but drinkable.

2.5g, 8oz water

Mmm. I still don’t drink green tea every day, but this Den’s Tea sampler has me drinking it a lot more often. I’ve steeped twice so far, and it’s just this light, sweet green taste that’s been growing on me. Peculiarly satisfying. I may end up buying more of this, though I have another sencha from Den’s yet to try.

2g leaf, 4oz water

I’ve been having this pretty regularly in the evening, often stacked with the used leaves from whatever black tea I had earlier in the day. Today, that’s 52Teas Strawberry Zabaglione, and the hint of strawberry makes a lovely addition to the very creamy earl grey.

Ugh, I am so spoiled by loose leaf. I picked up a box of this because I like having chai at night, and it was on sale, so it was worth a try.

I steeped it for 20 minutes and it still tastes weak and watery. If you like ginger, though, you might like it just fine. The spice blend completely overwhelms any black tea flavor, and is dominated by ginger. Some cinnamon and clove are detectable, but I couldn’t find the cardamom. I’ll probably finish the box; it’s not bad just unremarkable and kind of artificially sweet from the ginger flavoring.

No notes yet.

Mmm, the dry leaves smell like coffee, and chocolate, and fall (that is, dry leaves :P). They’re big and pretty too, just like the picture. The flavor is more like an oolong than I expected – might try it with a shorter steep time, maybe even cooler water, because I’m getting a little tannic kick on the back end. It’s still quite smooth overall, though, roasty and warm; it almost tastes like a Darjeeling, actually, with that sharp roasted fruit flavor.

I used about a quarter of my 6g free sample (thanks Ginko!), so I’ll enjoy playing with this some more.

No notes yet.

I have a job! (happy dance) Or at least, I will, as soon as the background checks are finished. Since this is news worth celebrating, I decided to make the last bit of my Honu Chai on the stovetop.

It tastes like victory.

The second of my three samples from Life In Teacup. Oooh, the leaf here is VERY similar to Samovar’s Four Seasons – like, identical in scent and appearance. I’m using 2.5g, about 1/3 of the sample, in my little 4oz glass pot, which I think makes this a gongfu-light style steeping :P

The liqueur is quite pale, rather like a white tea. The scent is lighter than Four Seasons, but has similar notes: butter, gardenias (at least, I gather that’s the particular floral scent, from what others have said – I have trouble getting past “flowers”). The taste follows – buttery, floral, fresh. Like eating buttered bread in a garden.

This is lovely, rich, and not at all harsh. I’m pleased, though I’d like the flavor to be a little stronger, so I’ll make the next steeps longer.

One last thing: at $2.70/oz this is an absolute STEAL, assuming it lasts through several steeps. Compare to Four Seasons at $10/oz.

ETA: This is definitely better with hotter water – deeper color, richer and fuller flavor

Steep 1, 1 minute, 205˚F
Steep 2, 1 minute, 195˚F
Steep 3, 1:45, boiling
Steep 4, 1:45, boiling
Steep 5, 2:15, boiling
Steep 6, 2:15, boiling

Oh wow, this is making me nostalgic. I swear, this is the taste that introduced me to chai. It’s overly sweet, creamy, spicy but with no real kick, and there’s virtually no black tea flavor… but I LOVE it. If coffee shop chai lattes were your introduction to chai, you will probably love it too.

Thanks, Jaime!

Note: despite the company name, there is no actual chocolate involved here. Also, this gets rather gritty at the bottom since the black tea dust doesn’t actually dissolve.

This is almost drinkable plain, which I consider a coup for a bagged Earl Grey. That said, I get a tiny bit of raspberry on the nose, and hardly any from the taste. It’s this barely-there sense of fruit in the back of my mouth as I swallow. With milk and a pinch of sugar, this is actually quite mellow; the bergamot is strong, but I’ve had stronger. I can’t taste anything identifiable about the black tea base except that it’s there. Overall, this is fine and I’ll enjoy drinking it, but there are definitely better and more interesting EG’s out there.

Thanks to Jaime for the chance to try!