Chance Combinations

2 Shoppers brand chai tea bags + half a packet rolo hot chocolate = Caramel Chocolate Chai. Um, yeah. It’s freaking amazing!

Today is not a fancy day. I have to work at 5. Silly evening shifts screwing up my Saturday night party (…not!)

This also works EXTREMELY well with homemade hot chocolate – throw in 2 chai tea bags and go to town. Really yummy. I add a dash of cayenne pepper with the regular hot chocolate, but this one will remain spicy-free and full caramel all the way!

On a search for a minty tea to add to my re-steep of Luscious Watermelon – I couldn’t find anything! Except … Wintergreen Woods (both by DavidsTea).

I was kind of wanting a watermelon mint julep kind of flavour… but wow. This was SO GOOD. So refreshing!~ It was 3 tsp LW to 2 large pinches of Wintergreen Woods. Wow. Sweet and minty with full watermelon flavour, almost like a real watermelon puree. With a splash of bourbon and lots of ice – I was surprised!

This is one of the first blends I have ever successfully tried. Freaking yummy. Something to remember when I blend a few teas for public consumption ;)

1 tsp Green Apple Matcha + .5 tsp Caramel Matcha + .5 tsp cheesecake matcha = Caramel Apple Cheesecake Matcha!

It was all I could do to not slurp up the whole bowl of perfectly frothed matcha while I waited for my milk to heat up to make a latte. It was worth the wait! YUMMEH!

I looked into my sample drawer today… um I can finally see the bottom! Yay! Time for more swaps :D I just need to get paid so I can afford to send out a package. VERY excited for my next swap with aisling of tea though. Just so you know ;)

With my stash drawer low I’m feeling almost frugal with my tea, so I didn’t want to waste the leaves of Razzmatazz and Sweet Strawberry from DT. I combined the 2 single steeped leaves into my pot and cold brewed overnight.

The brew is a bit watery, due to being the second steep of both leaves I’m sure, but it’s really nice and fruity! The lemongrass/rooibos flavour of Razz is gone and just the sweet raspberry & strawberry flavours remain. I like that! The white tea lends a nice body to it and the 2 flavours go very well together, despite the bases/blends being totally different!

Happy summer fruity tea, aahhh.

I need a kick in the butt this morning, so I added 1 pu-erh tuocha from Teavivre and 1 tsp Pheonix Pearl from Zen Tea. The brew is coffee dark, has a nice kick, but is oh so smooth and sweet. WIN!

This morning was my much needed attempt to recreate DavidsTea’s Love Tea #7 with what I had on hand. I needed a chocolate strawberry rose tea!

I’ve tried a combination of Dreidles&Donuts and Rose Congou before, but a 1:1 ratio was too much rose. This one worked perfectly though for my 45 oz pot!

3 perfect tsp Dreidles & Donuts: 1 perfect tsp Rose Congou.

It really is spot on! Well – at least enough to use up some of the tea I have on hand and satisfy my craving. It’s smooth and chocolately with a hint of strawberry and the perfect amount of rose scent. Love!

Can’t wait to ice the rest!

After developing a taste for iced coffees, I finally talked myself into having tea instead of coffee. I brewed up the last of my chocolate mint tea (that may or may not be from the actual chocolate mint plant) and added milk.

In the words of Takei, Oh my!

This is delicious! Lovely and minty and chocolatey. The milk brings out the mint and chocolate more and then it makes it creamy. Like mint chip ice cream! Decadent~!

I’m not sure if this is a tea blend or actual leaves from the chocolate mint plant, so I decided to put this tea in here. One of my old roomies sent me this tea and I brewed it up today.

The liquid is a dark brown. It is like I’m brewing up a black tea instead of an herbal, so I’m not sure what I’m getting. The scent is like a hint of cocoa. I’m not getting any mint in the taste, but it does remind me of a Hershey bar. It is really interesting and I have enough to brew another cup. I might try it with milk next time.

Harney & Sons Guayusa + DavidsTea Mulberry Magic = YUMMO!

Too busy lately to log, but I’ve been enjoying my H&S order and Verdant tea. November will be less crazy so I can really get to know the teas!

I had to document this though. Mulberry magic adds some nice sweetness and combined with the guayusa, its makes it a milky sweet flavour. Super delicious and very energizing! Just what I need! Drank with my mason jar and bombilla set up, 1 perfect teaspoon of each
Rating: 90

Now trying H&S guayusa + DT Blueberry jam:

Makes for a refreshing, less sweet version of Blueberry jam. Really nice, as sometimes I find the blueberry jam to be a bit sweet

Tea Desire Chai mix with Tea Desire Chocolate Christmas Loops black tea…

I added extra star anise, cloves, candied ginger, cinnamon sticks, cardamon, and peppercorns.
Made with almond milk (unsweetened) and 1 tsp of honey.

The result is a delicious, sweet cinnamon/clove/cardamon/chocolate brew that’s perfect for the morning!

Chai Spice (Verdant) + Big Red Robe (Teavivre)

Delicious.
I can taste the mineral rock quality of the BRR, intermixed with the lovely chai spice blend of Verdants… really really lovely

Red Velvet Cake by Davids tea plus Harney Guayusa….
WAKE ME UP!
I’ve decided to mix the two in hopes that I get a deliciously sweet cake-like tea with a punch of caffeine.
The flavour is there, lets see if the caffeine kicks in soon!
Wish me luck…I need it =|

Earl Grey Supreme (Harney)
Youthberry Wild Orange Blossom Tea Blend (Teavana)

made as Frugal Fanny iced tea (3 tbs tea, 3 cups water steeped 4 minutes (pinch of baking soda for clarity!), then a resteep of the leaves consisting of 1.5 c water for 5 minutes, added to the pitcher where the already brewed tea is cooling. 3 tbs sugar.)

#$#)$#)$_ you, Teavana. You turned my already lovely favorite Earl Grey Supreme iced tea into a spectacular passion fruity, orangey, refreshing amazement! Seriously, some of the most delicious iced tea I’ve ever made.

I hate you!!!!

:)

Oh boy, I did it. I placed an order at Teavana.

They sent me a sample of a Youthberry/Wild Orange Blossom/German Rock Sugar concoction, and being a Caffeine Fiend (and this very low in caffeine) I was wondering how I would use it. Then I had An Idea – if it’s orangey, I can mix it with some Earl Grey! I love a little sugar with Earl Grey as a treat, and an orangey flavor can make an Earl go into Lady Grey territory. I sniffed at the tea, and it’s uber fruity, but nothing that would hurt an Earl Grey tea base.

I threw my sample ounce into a tin with my Harney Earl Grey Supreme and Bingo! This is delicious. Orangey and pineappley Earl Grey. Fruity, but you’d never doubt this was black tea. The little bit of sugar is complimenting the tea, but it’s not overly sweet. Lovely! I’m glad I was reckless and threw the whole sample in my tin!

1 tsp Honeybush Vanilla, Teavana

1 tsp Monkey Colada (which is half Pina Colada Honey Bush, and half Monkey, ummmm you know (it’s a banana rooibos) 52 Teas

I love the Monkey Colada blend as it is, but with some of the creamy Vanilla Honeybush? Mmmmmmm! Even more pina colada action! The vanilla just seems to bring out all of the various flavors of coconut, pineapple, and banana even more. I’m not sure why or how, but ooooh I like!

When I had the Vanilla Honeybush by itself, I liked it very much, but what I really like to use it for is blending! I am systematically trying it with ALL of my roobois blends, and seeing what happens. So far, the whole is winding up to be greater than the sum of its parts!

1 heaping teaspoon Firefly Chai, Mountain Rose Herbs (a rooibos)
1 heaping teaspoon Honeybush Vanilla, Teavana

My husband wound up going to Trader Joe’s for our groceries instead of Wegman’s, so no replacing of Zhena’s Vanilla Chai. This is my attempt to make something like it…

…and it worked! Not only did it work, but I think it’s even better! the cardamom, cinnamon, etc in the Mountain Rose Herbs chai are so fresh and top notch that it brings this Chai up a level. I mention the cardamom specifically because I think it is that together with the vanilla which gives it that nutty flavor that you don’t get with chai alone. Fantastic with a little honey and a splash of milk.

I’m so glad I tried this, because it is not only delicious but actually much more cost effective – I have 7 oz of loose tea for about $10, and Zhena’s is $6 for 22 bags which only weigh 2.33 oz!

It’s been a beautiful Spring day in St. Louis, but unfortunately with the beautiful spring weather, we have tree pollen. Allergies always make me feel irritable & overly sensitive: physically, mentally, emotionally. Today I’m feeling sensitive to tastes, light, colors, pretty much everything! Add to that, I spent a few hours working on my taxes, & although I’ve made progress, I still have plenty to do before they are done. That’s enough to make anyone grumpy, right?

Most of the flavored teas I like don’t taste as good to me today.
I wanted something natural.
This is a combination of 2 teas, both Black dragon Pearls:
One is from Mandala – Thanks to Azzrian
The other is From Praise Tea – from our dear Ms Bonnie!
I didn’t have enough left of either one to make a cup, but combined together they are doing the trick!
Plus I get to claim a Double Sipdown!!

While I was at the college today I needed to refill my 16 oz tea thingy, & looking through my purse, I had 1 of each of several things. I’ve been carrying around ‘chocolate hazelnut decaf’ (stash), which was a free sample they were handing out at the last Bridal show I played at (I should have took more than 1, right?). I had Numi’s ‘Breakfast Blend’, Harrod’s ‘Earl Grey’, Mighty Leaf ‘Earl Grey’, & Numi Magnolia Puer. The first 2 won out. I felt like they were probably compatible, so into the cup they went with a little stevia. Not bad! The chocolate hazelnut is probably pretty tasty on it’s own, & it’s flavors held up nicely. Now I’m home…hmmm….what to drink next?

I did this last night and again today with good results

1 part loose chamomile
1 part loose peppermint
2 parts DavidsTea Creme Brulee

The result is a creamy, relaxing, caramelly, slightly minty tea!
And again, I’m chilling out, crocheting a blanket, watching Boys Over Flowers. Occasionally squealing “OPPA!” to my confused husband.

I had to do it. Melon Fruit Salad tea?

Lupicia’s Melon White, with Butiki’s Watermelon Xylophone and Cantaloupe & Cream, equal parts. It was hard to figure out a steep time and such, so I winged it.

Taste? VERY strong melon flavor. I think the Watermelon comes out the most. Oddly, it tastes very melon rindy, like eating a watermelon and that white part. The tea is quite silky with a creamy aftertaste. Overall, very juicy and fun!

Would I do it again? Maybe just the watermelon and honeydew teas, not sure the creamy thrown in there made it straight up fruit salady. Pretty fun though!

I was threatening to do this tea concoction for awhile now. I wanted something to wake me up more, but also a treat so I don’t eat the last butter tart in the fridge.

52 Teas Cherry Cheesecake Genmaicha + Red Leaf Teas’ Cheesecake matcha (1/4tsp)

Steeped, it looks like a murky green tea. Smells like the RLT Cheesecake with toasty rice!

Taste… WHOA!!! Cheesecake smoothness, with a bit of cherry sweet above the base of toasty rice taste, green tea and matcha combined. I’m getting a bit of dry throatyness after my sip is complete, so maybe I need to tweak steeping times and temperatures, but overall really good!

My issue with the 52 Teas Cherry Cheesecake genmaicha is it isn’t much cheesecake flavor, but the cheesecake matcha covered it! Yum! Tea peeps, if you have these teas, totally try them together!

Probably my most crazy post weight lifting smoothie creations:

1/2tsp Red Leaf Tea Cheesecake Matcha + 1 cup of soy milk + 1 scoop of protein powder + 1/3cup of cottage cheese + 2tsp of Dulce de leche. Long time on the blender to make all the chunks disappear.

the result: thick cheesecakey batter with a Dulce de leche caramel taste! I have leftover Dulce de leche from my wedding, pure will powder I haven’t eaten it all straight out of the can! I added cottage cheese as I found the kraft brand I have tastes more cheesey than I’m used to.

Totally a treat, but I figure I’d celebrate since I just hit my personal record on squats! I remember when I was new at lifting weights, I lifted 100lb less and it was hard!

ARgggggg! I just finish making 4 pies (pumpkin, strawberry lattice top, apple and apple crumble) as well as 2 dozen butter tarts and a batch of nanamio bars for the wedding. Before that happened, I discovered the pipe under the sink broke, so I had to wait until the FIL could fix it before I could start baking.
So, about 6 hours of baking today. After that I needed tea.

Red Leaf Matcha Strawberry + Cheesecake = very tasty. However, I slammed it back so fast I didn’t notice it too much. Pretty much sat there at the dinner table, covered in steaming pies, chugging matcha. Think I need another round of tea.

It was simply a matter of time before I would make this:

Sifted cheesecake green matcha + raspberry white matcha (both Red Leaf Teas) + soy milk + sweetener + ice + blender bottle = lazy and amazingly good!
It’s liquid raspberry sauce cheesecake! Creamy, cheesecake tarty and raspberry sweet. No freaky white matcha astringency.

Good amount of froth produced, despite the white matcha anti frothness thanks to the milk and blender bottle. If you have a blender bottle totally try using it for cold matcha drinks!

I’ve been sick for days, but today it is starting to clear up.

Been kinda worried because it was a sinus cold and my sense of taste became bitter for everything! ARGG! So I stopped drinking tea and began crazy creations (straight grated ginger and chili pepper). Today, my sense of taste is returning, but my sense of adventure is still there.

I drank all of my uji genmaicha earlier, so I was thinking of making my own.. if that works.
So… a basic Genmaicha + light dusting of Red Leaf Teas “Raspberry matcha, white matcha” = nutty rice, with a tart bit of raspberry, with a slight astringency from the white matcha. Fun! I think this would of turned out better with a green matcha, but I wanted raspberry.
I suggest others to give this a shot with a flavored matcha!

My next plot: 52 teas Cherry Cheesecake genmaicha + Red Leaf’s “Cheesecake Matcha”

I’ve been down with a cold for most of a week now, on the upswing (I think), so tonight we’re going from tea to hot toddies. This one started with a cup of Harney’s Decaf Hot Cinnamon Spice, then got a spoonful of honey, a dash of Apple Pie liqueur, and a large splash of apple cider. Good for soothing the throat and clearing the sinuses!

A backlog from my lovely Memorial Day dinner! It’s the same mix as last time (Sencha Jade Reserve from Teavana, Fresh Green Mate from Mate Factor, and Fusion Tea Room’s Orange Grapefruit). I used 1.5-1.5-1 in terms of measurement (respectively) and then I poured it over ice.

Yumm! So tart and then there’s the grassy flavor of the sencha that provides a nice contrast. Yummy!

In other news, this three day weekend was quite rough. Saturday was very busy in a not-so-pleasant way (between marching in a parade in a full suit in 90 degree weather to then rushing to an improv show to then going home and doing chores in the hot weather) and then on Sunday, we had to put my poor kitty down :( Well, not really a kitty, as she was older than me, but still! I’ve come to terms with it now, but it is a weird adjustment because I’ve literally had her my whole life and it’s weird that she just isn’t here anymore. However, it was her time and she was in pain so I’m glad we were able to put her down and send her to a better place without any misery on her part!

For those looking for a visual, here’s one from quite a few years ago, though she doesn’t/didn’t look any different (she was quite……. large to say the least :P): http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/215913_1021623156092_1690618482_40422_2489514_n.jpg. This was the only image I could find :( It’s not very good but that black one is our other cat who is now larger but still a kitty

I decided to try again this morning with the same combination of teas I used yesterday

This time I modified it to 1 teaspoon of the sencha, 1 teaspoon of the orange grapefruit, and then half a teaspoon of the mate. Oh. My. God. This was heaven. I just can’t even contain myself adklfjdklzxjfkljs. If this was a blend that was actually made-I would buy 5 pounds of it, not kidding. It was pretty fruity and a little tart (but not excessively) and then there was that sweet grassy flavor of the sencha that peaked through just to say hello. I couldn’t taste the mate, but it did its job in a slight caffeine rush. Oh my goodness. This was so good, and I really want to try it iced now. I will be making more of this, and I think I might just devote whatever I have left of each of these teas/tisanes and just mix them together in one big tin. This was heaven.

Again with the lost tasting notes! Ugh, second time today.

1 sachet of Earl Grey Mallows, 1 sachet of Pomegranate Rose, both Impra Tea

I had a quite a greasy dinner tonight, plus a big beer, so now I’m feeling a bit bleh. Not good since I wanted to get some work done tonight. I thought some tea would help (though I don’t honestly think I’ll be getting anything done! :P)

Because these teas don’t seem eager to oversteep I thought I would try them both at the same time in the same amount of water. I like berry-bergamot blends and rose-bergamot blends, so I definitely like the idea of a berry(ish fruit)-rose-bergamot blend. It turned out pretty well… the bright bergamot cuts through some of the sweetness of the pomegranate. I wish there was more rose, of course. With double the leaf this tea is finally showing signs of being too strong for my tastes as the cup cools, but it’s not too bad.

1.5tsp Passion Fruit Black by thepuriTea, 0.5tsp Organic Chocolate “O” by The Tea Spot

A while ago there was a thread in the discussions about interesting flavor combinations we wanted to see in teas, and someone mentioned passion fruit and chocolate. I knew I had to try it! And now I am finally getting around to a first go at it. I use a perfect teaspoon to measure my tea (1.5 actual tsp), but I have a 12oz cup so I usually measure out one perfect teaspoon, then somewhere around a half a perfect teaspoon to approximate 2tsp of actual tea. For blends, then, it’s difficult to do an even fifty-fifty, and so I had to decide whether I wanted more chocolate, or more passion fruit? In the end I went for more passion fruit, like eating a passion fruit tart with a drizzle of chocolate on top. My favorite chocolate tea was a no-brainer for this, as was this passion fruit black from thepuriTea, which is the best passion fruit black I’ve tried.

The tea smells mostly like passion fruit, perhaps with a particularly chocolatey black tea base. That’s really what I get most out of the taste as well… really it tastes like delicious passion fruit tea, and then maybe a hint of chocolate but it’s faint enough that it seems like an aspect of the base instead of an actual flavor. Pretty tasty, but I want more chocolate in this! The flavor combination is nice enough but not necessarily something I will seek out in the future. Maybe if the blend was a little more even, I guess.

This morning I decided to take a stab at matcha blending. I wanted to combine two matchas from Red Leaf Tea: Black Currant (flavor level: robust) and Almond (flavor level: “There’s matcha in there?!”), but they are both extremely powerful in the flavoring department and I feared it would be too much to drink them just like that. Fortunately I still have some plain matcha left over from the Red Leaf taste test, so I did 1:1:1 of each of those three matchas, and turned it into a latte. It turned out great! The combination of fruit and almond is French to me for some reason, and I felt like I was drinking a matcha version of a Dammann Fréres tea. The extra plain matcha slightly toned down the strong flavors but everything was still very curranty and almondy. I’ll definitely be making this combo again.

It’s time for another sample-busting, stash-cleaning cold brewed iced tea. I was looking through samples for one that would be good iced and that was almost empty, and came across the Coconut Vanilla White from TeaFrog, which I did not enjoy hot but found to be delicious iced. There wasn’t quite enough for my usual cold brewed formula, so I threw in a bit of Vanilla Jasmine from Golden Moon. In the end the blend was about 3.5 tsp Coconut Vanilla White and 1.5 tsp Vanilla Jasmine. It turned out pretty tasty, unsurpisingly. I wondered if the black tea-based Vanilla Jasmine would overwhelm the white even in a small quantity, but there’s still plenty of coconutty white in the flavor.

‘Monterey Berry Blend’: 1.75tsp each blackberry, black currant and raspberry black teas from Monterey Bay Spice Company.

This cold steep was surprisingly really tasty! I worried that it wouldn’t be because the Monterey Bay black teas have generally tasted low quality to me, and sometimes that can result in nasty cold steeps. But this seems to indicate that the flavorings are of decent quality, it’s just the black tea base that’s not so great. Cold steeping tends to smooth over ills in tea bases, and so it has here. This one is definitely very berry flavored; they all mesh together very well, but I can also pull them out individually. The blackberry, which was kind of odd hot, here provides a nice earthy, berries-from-the-bush note that is very pleasant. Glad to know that these cold steep well, and I’m looking forward to playing with blending these!

So I had a little bit of Earl’s Garden from DavidsTea left; not enough for a 12oz cup, but about a perfect teaspoon (i.e., 1.5 actual tsp). I didn’t have great success with it hot anyway, so I decided a cold brew incorporating it would be good. I usually put 4 perfect teaspoons in my 16oz cup, so this time I put in one scoop of Earl’s Garden, one of The Earl Grey from teapod, one of China Rose (black) from ESP Emporium, and one of Chung Hao Jasmine (green) from Upton. Kind of like Rosy Earl Grey, but with the added berry from the Earl’s Garden. Turned out great! Fruity with lots of berries and bergamot, floral with strong rose and jasmine. Really quite a delicious cup of tea, and one I might recreate by doing the last three I mentioned above with the fourth scoop being Black Currant or Red Fruits black tea.

1.5 tsp Raspberry Black by Monterey Bay Spice Company + 0.5 tsp China Rose from ESP Emporium

Originally I was going to have a cup of just China Rose this morning because I haven’t had a straight up rose black in a long time. But then I kinda needed to try some of this raspberry tea, so I decided to make a Raspberry Rose instead.

It’s a good blend! Rose blacks are often so strong that only a bit is needed to get a rosey flavor, and that’s true here. The tea smells and tastes of roses and sweet, juicy raspberries. This is really a great blend of flavors! Honestly I think rose goes well with lots of different fruits. Adding a bit of this rose congou, which has a nice, tasty base, to the MBSC fruit black gave it a little something more interesting (I have, in the past, found MBSC fruit blacks to be a bit underwhelming in the flavor of the base… not bad, but not interesting). Anyway, it’s a good combo that I might have to keep around.