teafiend Send Message

So I’ve been a vagrant, but I’ve settled back down state-side and bored out of my mind. Left home alone to my own devices, I’ve taken up to a new level of “tea drinking”. Which, mind you, is what my collegial buddies call my rising alcoholism.
Needless to say, this afternoon I partook in my normal beveraging. But today for the first time in a long while tea has factored in, due to a cold front on my normally lovely East Coast. So I figured I should tell you all. And the most important factor in this story is some lovely lemon flavored vodka.
Lemon flavored vodka in addition to a normally lemony flavored tea is wondrous and warming. I might even have added honey, a sugar I save for when I’ve forgotten to eat. So my friends, as colder night draw upon us, what particular concoctions do you generally prefer as a warming and buzz worthy create.

I really like pear flavored things. It seems that even the most artificial pear flavored things taste good anyways, like jelly beans and yogurt. So, when I got a sample tin of White Pear in the mail, I was terribly excited (mostly for free tea). I apparently had a cup over break, as the package is now one shy of full, but I have no recollection of drinking it. With a new cup in front of me, I don’t recall the previous sip.

Tasting it now, I initially get that its a white tea, but tones of pear. After a bit of searching, and I get a faint idea of it, but not the juicy richness I have come to expect from even the most pathetically pear-flavored things. It is most apparent when I swallow, and lingers briefly on the back of tongue. I’m thinking I might have under-steeped it (3mins) but after reading a few other notes on it I’m not as sure.

The base tea of this is nicely mellow and soothing, but I still want more from it.
Not to say this is a bad tea, its just uninteresting. A pleasant cup for a busy day or a low key change of pace from my usual fair of black tea.

Bottom line: If I’m mellowing out with a little jazz, but still need the focus of the caffeine, its a hit. If its a normal day of enjoying high stress I’d pass it over.

Long time no see…
So long, I’ve forgotten how to really think in tea…
So I drank this. It was good and warm and peachy. But I have no idea how to go about describing a oolong. A bit drying, astringent as it is. I like its slight bitterness, I may have over brewed it but I like it like that.
Hrummmm…I can’t listen to podcasts and type, and I ran out of tea to really dissect the taste when actually paying attention. $5 I’ll be slacking off more tomorrow, so I’ll make a better attempt at this.
On the absolutely generic level, I like it!

I really like this tea! I’m not a huge fan of greens, but this really is very nice. Smooth, and kinda buttery a bit. I’m getting a bit of smokiness at the tail end and a bit of astringency in the corners of my mouth. It has a heavier taste to it than most other greens I’ve had, a bit darker if you would. I feel like this should have a massive caffeine kick, which is exactly what I need.

I just heard something AWESOME. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies will be turned into a movie, starring Natalie Portman! Life will be amaaaaazing. Also! Today was my last day of classes, so I’ll be around and about more often. <3

So I’m getting a lot of marshmallow out of this tea today. V. strange, but still awesome and holiday-y. I’m so at odds as to whether or not I like that its decaf. I like to being able to drink it before bed, but I need a kick to study.
I’m wondering if adding actual green tea to this will distort the flavor more than I’m okay with.
On a side note:
SNOW! I FINALLY GOT SOME. I AM PUMPED. for the 1/2 cm thats in very small patches…but its snow!

The first time I heard about this tea was well before I really became a fiend. It was in a book, I’ve long since forgotten the name, that my friends had read and would joke about. I later read the book, cover to cover as I was crushing on the girl who lent it to me, and the description the main character had given was that the tea “smelt like water that a ham bone that had been boiled for a week.” Or something very similar.

I agree, it smells like jerky. But their are other elements to it. I can definitely smell and taste the pine, along with the smokey-ness its known for. It kind of tastes a bit like ham, but I haven’t eaten meat, ham especially, in ages so I might have forgotten. As it cools it almost like the resin of the pine is in my mouth. Very piney for me, a little smoky, and kinda meaty. As I don’t like any of these things, I don’t like this tea. But its not that the tea itself is bad, just not what I like.
I’m gonna go brush me teeth.

So school has been using me as a punching bag as of late, but only about a month left to go. I honestly feel bad about not updating here whenever I’ve had a new tea, so I’m taking a quick break to fill in this one gap at least.

That being said, this tea was worth the loss of the nap I was planning on taking. When I first opened the tin (ages ago) I smelt sour and cinnamon, but with something else that adds a bit of sweetness. The smells blend oddy well together and kind of overlap in my mind,but I’m not a fan. The leaves look un-uniform, with some rolled and downy silver and other open and blackish-brown. I did really enjoy the light yellow it brewed to, and in my glass mug I could see the little hairs from the leaves floating around. I tried not to think about that too much when I maned up and took a dainty sip.

The first taste was more spice than I expected. The cucumber aspect was definitly overwhelmed, but when I did isolate it was like woah. I felt a the same sensation when I’m eating cucumbers, sans crunch, that wetter than water feeling. It also tastes pretty much what I’d expect from a cucumber tea, cucumbery goodness, when ignoring the cinnamon.
One the second steep, the cinnamon was cut back and I enjoyed this cup more than the first. One the third steep I lost interest and left it to sit for about 6 hrs.

Does any know why Adagio added the cinnamon aspect? It doesn’t really detract from the tea, or help it, but I can’t figure out why it would be there. I’ve never thought cucumbers and spices. Pickles and spice, yes. But cukes? Not really.

So I did something awesome today. It was brewing this with eggnog. Massive success! Any and all eggnog fans much try.
Per usual the chocolate was a bit more subdued than I wanted, but it had a definite presence. While I over did it on the eggnog, I still got more of a tea taste than I normally do with this tea, odd. The spices in the chai works perfectly with the eggnog, although overall it came out a bit too sweet as store bought nog so often is.

So, I’ve stopped just logging my teas if I don’t have anything new to add to because then my log would get a bit out of hand. So don’t think I’m not drinking my tea, I’m just being lazy about posting it.

Anyways, this is getting special notice as I’m on vacation up in N, and forgot to bring this one with me. No worries I’ve got my Jakee Muntz, Valentines, chocolate chai, and some Candy Cane Lane to accompany me. But I missed my PG tips (for the whole day we were separated) so when my dad went to the tiny little market in backwater NH, I asked him to poke around to see if this happened to be there.

And it was! much to my surprise and delight. Some days I can’t even find it in the big chain market and I usually have to look in the international aisle. So, this little mountain town general store had a couple boxes, and now I know what I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving.
I had a nice mug with a bit of milk and settled in front of the fire with my family (and orgo book).