Glitter & Gold

Thank you to DaisyChubb for making this your tea selection for Day 5 – it’s one I’ve wanted to try!

But before I get in to the tea, I wanted to express my adoration for the packaging – so lovely! I can totally understand why you chose this tea for 5 golden rings!

This is really nice. It reminds me a bit of the Cinnamon Crackle tea that was Day 2 in the Della Terra Teas box, except that this doesn’t have the pop rocks in it, but then, I didn’t even see any pop rocks in my sample of Cinnamon Crackle. The flavor is very similar though. Sweet and cinnamon-y, I like that the cinnamon here isn’t that red hot kind of cinnamon taste (although I do like that too). It has certain attributes of the red hot kind of cinnamon, but it doesn’t quite push it over the HOT level.

Yummy!

I thought I would love this one!! cinnamon and black tea, that sparkles! (and not like a cheesy vamp. ha!)
Well, there must be some floral element in here that my allergy sensors dislike so it made me quite nauseous. The website states the ingredients as"Chinese black tea, sugar crystals, gold nonpareils, cinnamon, orange peel, cloves, and flavouring". I’m betting it’s that last, mysteriously nondescript item that set everything off. No way to know for sure… I wish I’d taken it without milk so I could have gotten a better sense of which part was bothering my ick threshold.
Well, I won’t be doing that again… too bad, if it weren’t for the queasiness this one would have had a chance at my perm collection

I had this yesterday morning for the first time in quite a long time. It’s one of my favourites but I think I overdid it on chais and spice based teas for a while, and kind of drank myself sick of them. That, and I used to brew every black tea I owned at boiling for 5min. Ummm…no. 5min is much too much for a lot of black teas, flavoured or otherwise. So needless to say I’d often end up with a cup of bitter, overly flavoured, sorely oversteeped tea, which I blamed on the tea itself rather than my bad steeping parameters. I think this blend was a victim of that.

So at a 3.5 minute steep, I’m enjoying this a lot more! The vanilla and orange notes come out, whereas before I was just getting straight up sweet cinnamon. I’m almost finished my tin but I might have to get a bit more to play around with. Made a tasty, warming cup.

This is a sample from Shmiracles (thanks!)

My first thought was, ’I’m actually really surprised how thoroughly the nonpareils dissolved while steeping’.

But once steeped, this produces a cakey, sugary, vanillay smelling cup. That sparkles. Honestly, I was pretty much looking forward to the sparkles the most.

I’m not really getting hugely spicy, or even citrus from this cup. The flavors are vanilla, sugar and cinnamon, and an eensy bit of clove — in that order. It’s a well-balanced tea, though, and no one flavor is overpowering. The base also comes through and is decent in its own right.

I’m a little excited that something so gimmicky (it’s a tea galaxy, I swear!) turned out to be a pretty tasty tea too.

I realize that I have a lot of tea that I tried ( or bought ) in my very early tea drinking days ( ie. 6 months ago ) that I may not have really tested out…..because, there was so much tea in the world and I was a bit overwhelmed, and tried so many things so quickly…..

So, found a package of glitter and gold i had purchased a while ago, and brewed a couple of cups in the breville. I like this one….I bet I will drink it a lot around the Christmas holidays….the black base is smooth, mildly spicy, I taste the cinnamon and a bit of orange…..very nice, the flavors blend well……I will re-buy this at some point……with a bit of half and half and a tiny bit of rock sugar …. Nice treat, but not too sweet…..

It is cool and gray in vancouver…..I had the heat on, how can that be when it is almost June? Well, this is a good cool day tea……I am trying to make “doings chores” more enjoyable by sipping tea as I go……burning a nice “s’mores” candle …. It feels like fall! This is a nice tea!

I have declared today Sampler Sunday. So I’m only drinking teas from my samples and swaps box! I have WAY too many in there and need to cut down. to make some room for the new Upton samples arriving next week. :)

This was first on the to try list. I got this one from the 12 Days of Christmas swap. DaisyChubb was sweet enough to send it as Day 5 – Five Golden Rings. I find this tea to be a nice wake me up tea. Brisk and bold…with a little shimmer thrown in for good measure! Seriously my cup is sparkling (in a good way)! This is super yummy and the clove is a nice touch and not at all overpowering. Yum!

Thanks so much Azzrain for this sample. First this is the most beautiful tea I’ve ever seen . I didn’t even think reading the name, I looked down at my tea somepoint and was like wow!!! Its so pretty. Tastes very nice light spicy tea. If that makes any sense its spicy but not overly in your face spice. I’m spending thanks giving with my dad he tried it and was like oh interesting I want one. I know something I can get him for christmas now. Thanks Azz :)

Got this one as a to-go today since I was picking up a cup for a friend while on lunch. Today’s brew was a little lighter on flavour than usual, which surprised me. It had all the notes just . . . less of them. And I left the bag in, too! It was still as sparkly as ever though, and a much needed lift on a not-so-awesome work day.

And for the early Christmas tea… the only David’s Tea I care much for. :) I am such a sucker for the glitter in the cup. Not overly sweet, but definitely sugar sweet cinnamon here. Tea base is really nondescript – it could be anything. The sweet cinnamon is the star here, not the tea itself, IMO.

I finally took a video of the sparkle in action: http://tinyurl.com/o829k8v

And here is the still: http://tinyurl.com/q3c2wah

I admit it – I was entranced by the idea of gold sugar balls and sparkly tea. I couldn’t help myself!

My brewed tea isn’t sparkly but it does taste nice. I think it tastes like maple syrup and only a leeeeetle like a Yankee Candle! I was thinking it was going to taste like Hot Cinnamon Spice but it does not in the least. This is a sweet, completely different treat but one that I will likely not repurchase. That veering toward Yankee Candle territory is troublesome and will make me only drink this every now and again until it is gone.