Almond Biscotti

Holy heck Steepster’s been erratic for me lately. Sometimes a page will load super quick, and sometimes it will take ages. Mostly just ages, though.

How about some sample stash busting, eh? It feels good to check this one off the list and out of the stash after quite a while. I brewed this one short and cool because I’ve had lingering bitterness problems with it before. The scent of it really does remind me more of snickerdoodles than almond anything.

Nope, still got that bitter taste to it. Bleh, not too sad to see this one go.

I was interested to compare this one to the “new version” Amandine Rose, which isn’t really a new version of this tea but rather a pretty different tea altogether. I brewed this one a little cooler than I did last time because I had success with that temperature for the Amandine Rose, and last time there was a hint of bitterness to this.

The steeped tea smells really cinnamon-cookie-ish this time, kind of almost like a snickerdoodle, though there are some almond notes that are wafting around my office this morning as well. Surprisingly, I feel like this tea is more bitter than when I had it the first time. I mean, it’s not very bad, but it’s still there. The flavors aren’t as nice overall either; it’s less almondy, and what I’m getting is mainly the taste of bitter snickerdoodles. Whatever they did to the tea base for Amandine Rose, it works, because this one just isn’t as good. Perhaps it’s the addition of candied violets to the new blend, which does sweeten the tea a touch and perhaps covers up some light bitterness. Either way, I’m not sad that this one was replaced with Amandine Rose.

I’m excited to compare this with Brioche in the near future. I really enjoy this blend from Teavana. Sweet almonds and a great black tea base. Love it with just a splash of cream. No longer needing sugar to get a sweetness out of it. Bumping up a few poins due to this.

Having a big mug of this this morning, with a little cream, no sugar. Love the sweet nuttyness of this in the morning. Great tea all day for me. See previous notes for more details.

All right, last note of Geek Pride Day…gotta go out with a bang!

Character Name: Almond Biscotti
Class: Dessert Tea
Race: Black Tea
STR: 18 (yeah, forgot about it and brewed it too long)
CON: 12 (lots of stuff in it!)
DEX: 0 (it was able to perform exactly 0 backflips)
INT: 0 (It’s tea.)
WIS: 8 (tea —> asia —> asian stereotypes about wisdom….close enough!)
CHA: 18 (so delicious!)

At-Will Powers:
Sitting There: Almond Biscotti sits there until you drink it.
Cooling: Employing amazing powers of thermodynamics, Almond Biscotti decreases in temperature alongside use of At-Will Sitting There power.

Encounter Powers:
Scalding Your Throat: If drunk prior to having used the At-Will Sitting There power for (insert heat resistance modifier) hours, Almond Biscotti will scald the throat.

Daily Powers:
Being Consumed: Once drunk, Almond Biscotti will Be Consumed.

Appearance and Personality: Sweet, fragrant, delicious, forgiving

Background: While seemingly carefree on the outside, Almond Biscotti is, in fact, haunted by…A MYSTERIOUS, TRAGIC PAST. Almond Biscotti is in fact the half-elf, half-unicorn, half-dragon, half-vampire, half-mermaid, half-ent (why not?) child of Gandalf and Anita Blake (that’s right, it’s three separate people!). Sent forward, or possibly back, in time, it has joined the X-men in the hopes of finding clues about it’s unknown parentage. It also went to Hogwarts when it was young, interspersed with trips to Narnia. Also, it’s an Aes Sedai. And a member of the Bene Gesserit. It’s SEEN THINGS you people wouldn’t believe! Worlds resting atop elephents themselves standing on a giant ass turtle! Travels through time and space in a police box! Really unpleasant lepers! Series that go on for way too long and I no longer remember what happened in them! And you just want to DRINK IT?

Well yes, because it is gosh darn tasty :D

The more I drink this tea the more I begin to think it may be my favorite. I mean, yes, ok, yesterday’s caramel cream was delicious candy. And Florence is great too. And my 52teas are supper yummy as well (just a blanket statement there so I don’t have to choose :P) But this just strikes the perfect balance of tea flavor and uh flavor flavor.

It is great for keeping my blood pressure down while grading papers. “MITI is a member of Deng Xiaoping?!?! WHAT I DON’T EVEN- sip ahhhhhhh”

The perfect breakfast tea for when I do not need something to wake me up in a swift and firm manner. I love this stuff sooo much, I really need to try all the other almondy teas on here (especially almond cookie!) to see how they stack up.

I live!

I’ve been away from the computer for the past week since I was having a last minute vacation prior to going to Japan and then, well, I went to Japan. I am staying in a tiny tiny room in a long-stay hotel for the duration, which has free internets (yay!) and AC and some bare necessities for cooking: microwave, hot plate, and, because it’s Japan, electric kettle! Thanks Japan! Not many places in the world would consider that a life necessity :D

Had some of my delish almond biscotti (I took that and Foxtrot with me and will otherwise rely on what I can get from the grocery stores here) last night while I tried to make it to 8m before falling asleep. My endeavor was nearly a success but I ended up pooping out at 7:30. Close enough! Ahh, it was so nice to have that touch of familiarity.

I managed to get three good infusions out of it (the tea mug they gave me is tiny!) although by the third one I confess that A. I was nearly unconscious and not really paying attention and B. I’m pretty sure it was just kind of almondy water. The first two, however were delicious as usual.

It has become harder and harder of late to pick which dessert-like tea I want to drink! I went with this last night, but only after debating really hard about how much I want more Florence/Coconut Cream Pie.

Mmm, almondy baked goods goodness.

…so what I’m trying to say is, I have no self-control.

Revenge of the (Extended) Weekend Backlog One Sentence Logs!

Had this with dinner, added too much water, the result was underwhelming, but I still love you, almond biscotti!

Hmmmm crazy day on the radio farm today. When we do a quarterly radiothon for a charitable organization…..that equals me running between studios like a headless turkey….oye! Pause. Brew. Share. Ok all is right with the world. As I am looking holy cow my bicentennial tasting note…woo hoo cue bells and whistles.

Re-steeped the reminents from last night in my pot and was still good this morning for a second steeping very tasty!

This will be the first in a short series of backlogs, I have been drinking tea, including new samples from Adagio and Ricky, but I cannot rate them on first taste.

I have been drinking a lot of tea in effort to reduce my cabinets, I have successfully cleaned out three of the large teavana tins, yay! Working on some more. See previous review for this tea, my rating has not changed.

I did however try this one hot with half and half, it made it creamier, a little thicker, but still delicious.

As I’ve rummaged through my tiny little tea drawer (that’s currently overflowing) lately I keep finding my tin of this that really only has a scant amount left in it. It’s SUPER old so every time I pull it out I have to think – should I throw it out?

It still smells so good, though! Even though smell and taste may not be the same, I went ahead and figured I’d make it today and if it tasted okay then I’d keep it, and if it didn’t – well, at least I’d know so it wouldn’t be staring me in the face EVERY TIME I reach for some tea to drink.

Also, decupboarding PROBABLY wouldn’t be a bad thing, considering I’ve got some Verdant on the way. (side note: should have ALREADY gotten here, stated as delievered yesterday by the USPS, but NOT in my mailbox and the apartment office isn’t open again til tomorrow. GRRR.)

I’m still amazed that this tastes really good! In fact, it’s almost like it’s gotten better with age. Definitely almond cookie, and even though I steeped it a while, with 1.5 tsp. leaf to 8 oz. water with a splash of milk, it is not astringent at all. Weird.

This is probably the last teavana tea I have in my cupboard, and since I’m not fond of going into their stores I wouldn’t buy it (or the newer iteration of it – I forget the name) again. But I have to say it has held up really well!

I get a weekly newsletter from Golden Moon tea (their sampler is on my list of things to buy once I clear out my cabinet a little more) and yesterday the topic was making tea infused hot cocoa (!!).

I died a little, and then pulled up my cupboard on Steepster to assess which tea would pair the best. I settled on almond biscotti because I felt like a nutty hot chocolate would be a great flavor combination.

Anyway, so – recipe!

2 tbsp. cocoa powder
2 tbsp. sugar (he recommended 3.5 but I’m not a fan of the super sweet, so I scaled back)
1 cup milk (I used whole, but 2% could work)
1 cup of prepared tea

Then you combine the milk, sugar, and cocoa powder until warm, add the tea until it simmers, whisk, pour into a cup, and serve.

This is AMAZING. Dark chocolate with nutty accents, just like I wanted it to be. I could see this working well with a coconut tea (mmmm, liquid almond joy) or even Hot cinnamon spice (for a spicy hot chocolate). And I will ration the remaining bit of this tea to be used in hot cocoa only – YUM!

3 tsp., 500 ml. water, in the Breville.

It’s been a rainy, cloudy day today and I’m studying for the slew of finals that will be coming my way in the next few weeks. I needed something to perk me up, and I wanted something sweet and desserty, so I went for the cookie in a black tea option this afternoon.

This one has been finicky with it’s parameters, mostly because the tea gets astringent as it cools. I’ve got it in a thermos to try and avoid that this time around, and I’ve also got some sugar in it to really bring out the cookie flavor.

So far, so good – the aroma is like cookies hot out of the oven, and the taste is pleasantly cinnamon and almond, with the black tea flavor sneaking in at the end of the sip. If I manage to avoid the astringence toward the end of this cup, I’m thinking I’ll stick with these parameters for the last few cups I’ve got left.

Backlogging two cups from last night, in hot chocolate form.

This really is amazing as hot chocolate; it kind of reminds me of nutella if I’m honest – nutty dark chocolate. I shouldn’t have had it mostly because it had a lot of dairy and I’m fighting a cold (dairy and colds don’t mix!), but oh, at the time it was SO. WORTH. IT.

A lazy Saturday and I’m by myself for the weekend – it means lots of time to peruse teas online and of course, make some that I already have.
The smell of this brewed tea is so…cookie-ish. I love it.
I added some honey to this and that seems to compliment the almond taste really well – there is still a nice taste of tea, but it is not the primary flavor….I get that yummy sweet almond cookie dessert taste first and foremost.
A perfect tea for relaxing in solitude.

(Edit: I’m upping this rating – I can’t not- it suddenly very much reminds me of Celestial Seasonings Almond Sunset tea, which was discontinued and left me very heartbroken and without a substitute. I’m so excited that I will now have a loose leaf version of it!!)

3 tsp. leaf, 16 oz. water, steeped at below parameters in my Breville.

I’m sort of glad that caffeine (with the exception of mate blends) doesn’t affect me too much – it means I can pretty much indulge in black teas whenever. Which is good, because this is a black tea I would not really want to have except as an afternoon snack/after dinner tea.

Tonight the smell of this one brewed was amazing – almond and cinnamon and fresh baked cookies. I oversweetened the cup on accident (even when melted, rock sugar sinks to the bottom and you have stir it – won’t forget that lesson for a while) so it really tasted like a sugar cookie, too.

I do have to note that I’m detracting a few points from my overall rating though, and that has to do with the black tea base. It is just super astringent when hot, and I think the only reason I lost the bitterness at all the second go around was because of the overwhelming sweet flavor. I will go down another 30 seconds on the steep time when I do make this again, because I really don’t like that aftertaste on my tongue – it’s such a shame to have that ruin the nutty cinnamon taste that I get at the beginning of the sip. Hopefully reducing the steep time will take care of it for good!

It’s a snow morning! This winter has been especially warm for whatever reason. This is my first cuppa of the day and I’m glad it’s black! For my Steepster friends: I started a new blog! It’s been pretty fun. :p (http://postscriptforfinales.tumblr.com) if anyone wants to read the ramblings of a crazy girl! :p
This tea is one of the best smelling teas in my collection. I think that one of the secrets to getting this cup right is the steep time. I enjoy this tea more at a shorter steep time.
The flavor of the tea has some very obvious cinnamon notes; but the reason they stand out is because it is warm without being spicy. As much as I love my chai-style teas strong this tea stands out by being more subdued.
The sad thing about this tea is it seems to no longer being stocked. It was replaced by the Amandine rose tea. I haven’t read any reviews on this new tea and I’ve been wondering how it compares to this one. I’ll have to ration mine!

I have been really trying to hold back on finishing this tea. I’m getting so low now! I haven’t had the heart to purchase the amandine rose version of this tea because, to be frank, I just don’t want rose in my tea! I really have started to dislike rose flavored teas. I’m looking at you black lychee tea from Davids! I’ve been lead astray and don’t want that again. I am also upset that this got turned into a “upgraded” blend and therefore also got a price increase.
I love this tea. It has this biscuit, cinnamon, graham cracker feel that makes it perfect. I accidentally brewed it for about one min. longer than usual, but it still smells perfect. The cinnamon in this is more sugary than hot and really compliments the overall flavor of the tea. It reminds me of making snickerdoodles! I would recommend this one if anyone can get samples, but unfortunately, the time for purchasing has passed…

I actually am upping my rating on this tea. It really is good! I think that this is my most generally liked tea in my stash among friends and hubby. Everyone wants to smell it. The best part for me is the graham-ness of the flavor. I am thinking of making a second cup of this with milk (something I never do). Just to try it out. I’m really bummed that this one is not technically made anymore.

I’m having a large and wonderful pot of this with my husband. He loves the smell and just had his first sip. Conclusion: “mmmmm.” :)
I really love this tea and I hope that its replacement is decent because at some point I’m going to run out of this tea.

Happy Holidays Steepster buddies! I hope that everything is going well. :) This is one of the only cups I’ve had all week as I’ve had a terrible cold.
This smells wonderful today. I’m still a little stuffed up but I can smell a very distinct cinnamon tint to the liquor this time around. I think that this blend would be fabulous with chocolate. I really love sipping this on cold days. It is a great dessert blend.