Dylan Oxford

I posted my first review of this on the non ’Season’s Pick’ version of this tea. I don’t think there’s a difference, just a name change, but it’s still probably more appropriate that my review goes here.

And I’m going to cheat, and just copy the review, because I’m drinking it again, and not much has changed :)

Upon opening the bag, I get a powerful smell of lime. Now, my only other previous Earl Grey Creme expereince also reminded me of lime. I’m not sure if it’s just me, or maybe this is truly what the combination of Bergamot and Creme smells like. I’m not sure. I suppose the only real way to tell would be to take a standard EG, or possibly even a double bergamot EG, and add some cream. I may have to try this. For science, of course, not for my own personal enjoyment, heavens forbid!

Brewed, the SPEGCV gives off a delightful smell. All at once it is sweet, and vanilla, but also tart smelling. It really is a very, very lovely aroma. I think that’s part of my love with EGs in general; as polarizing as the aroma may be, it is very distinct.

The taste has a very similar profile to the smell. At first, the creamy, vanilla flavor sort of smoothly glides over your tongue, with the tangy citrus flavor in tow. The flavors are really smoothly mingled over a fairly subtle tea base. The tea is lost a little bit at first, but once the up front vanilla flavor fades a bit, the flavor finishes off as a fairly straightforward EG. The tea and bergamot just lolligagging at the end of the sip to remind you where this tea comes from.

This is sweet and dreamy. It reminds me of what I’ve always wanted key lime pie to taste like, but it’s never really lived up to. But in a tea. It’s really quite good. I am definitely going to enjoy drinking my way through this tea. And at the absurdly low price of $7 for 8 oz, it’s both supremely good and supremely cheap. Who could ask for more?

Not as fond of this one as I feel like I should be. Withholding rating for now. Will give the sample another chance in the future :)

One of my new samples from Upton!

This tea is pretty much everything it says it is… a black chai with a heavy cinnamon flavor. The cinnamon is more of the red-hot style cinnamon flavoring, which I am perfectly okay with. It isn’t as overwhelming as the cinnamon in MarketSpice, or probably any of the ‘hot’ cinnamon teas. It’s the same style of cinnamon, just not the same intensity, if that makes any sense whatsoever.

The other chai spices are an afternote, at best. The clove is really the only one that’s still readily noticeable in the flavor, everything else is just kind of lost in the tea.

So, to recap:

Big cinnamon.
Small clove.
Smooth ceylon.

Not too shabby, really. I think I might keep this one around, as it would go really, really well with just about anything else where I wanted to kick up the cinnamon. Missy mentioned mixing it with SerendipiTea’s Colonille Vanilla, and I think I agree that would make a delightful little brew. Unless you happen to dislike both Vanilla and Cinnamon :P

I’m not a big green tea drinker, or at least I never used to be. Black tea was always ‘tea’ in my head. Part of it just has to do with repetition. When you order black tea, you just ask for tea. If you want green tea, you typically have to specify. Or, taken a different way… if a restaurant only has iced tea, it will probably be iced black tea (or ‘sweet tea’).

Long story short, I don’t have a lot of green experience, and it’s all very new and a little weird. I had a somewhat disparaging experience with the Golden Moon Sencha, which served to entrench my belief in the dominance of black tea in a not-insignificant way.

So, bring in the samples from Teavivre! This one was sent to Missy actually (although, she told Angel that we’d both be drinking it… and I think they definitely upped the amount of tea they sent us because of that… so a big thank you to Angel and the Teavivre team!

Opening the bag on this tea… I was a little shocked. The leaves are huge, roughly four inches long (stop giggling). Depending on the size of your teapot and your infuser, you could really have trouble brewing this.

Then we brewed the tea. It smells a little vegetal, but the aroma isn’t strong or overwhelming. Just lightly like stewed plants.

The first sip… wow. There is a really noticeable sweetness to this green tea. It’s a very smooth, buttery, steamed vegetable flavor. It’s very pleasant, I’m not sure if it’s the sweetness or the complete lack of any bitter, seawater kind of flavor. It is a very, very good green tea.

More offerings like this could definitely make me a green tea drinker. Well, not as often as ‘real’ tea, but you know what I mean. For those of you that are really fond of green tea, I would definitely give this one a try.

Thanks again to Angel and the Teavivre team! This tea was delightful.

Dear Steepy:

Today I received my Upton Tea order. What joy! What excitement! I have to say, I think the amount of tea I ordered multiplied in the box. I surely couldn’t have ordered 18 different samples, plus a pound of tea? Something must have happened that I am completely free of blame from. Packing gnomes, or possibly a gemino curse.

So naturally, in order to combat the effects of the evil packing gnomes, I had to immediately begin drinking the tea. If I let it sit too long, who knows how many times the curse could multiply. I would quite literally be buried in tea. Obviously, I had to start with the biggest package, the 250g bag of the Season’s Pick Earl Grey Creme Vanilla.

Upon opening the bag, I get a powerful smell of lime. Now, my only other previous Earl Grey Creme expereince also reminded me of lime. I’m not sure if it’s just me, or maybe this is truly what the combination of Bergamot and Creme smells like. I’m not sure. I suppose the only real way to tell would be to take a standard EG, or possibly even a double bergamot EG, and add some cream. I may have to try this. For science, of course, not for my own personal enjoyment, heavens forbid!

Brewed, the SPEGCV gives off a delightful smell. All at once it is sweet, and vanilla, but also tart smelling. It really is a very, very lovely aroma. I think that’s part of my love with EGs in general; as polarizing as the aroma may be, it is very distinct.

The taste has a very similar profile to the smell. At first, the creamy, vanilla flavor sort of smoothly glides over your tongue, with the tangy citrus flavor in tow. The flavors are really smoothly mingled over a fairly subtle tea base. The tea is lost a little bit at first, but once the up front vanilla flavor fades a bit, the flavor finishes off as a fairly straightforward EG. The tea and bergamot just lolligagging at the end of the sip to remind you where this tea comes from.

This is sweet and dreamy. It reminds me of what I’ve always wanted key lime pie to taste like, but it’s never really lived up to. But in a tea. It’s really quite good. I am definitely going to enjoy drinking my way through this tea. And at the absurdly low price of $7 for 8 oz, it’s both supremely good and supremely cheap. Who could ask for more?

Sincerely Yours,

Buried in Tea

I’ve mentioned before that I have somewhat insane, uncontrollable shopping urges. It’s what Missy calls ‘bad dog’ moments. This tea was definitely a bad dog moment. I have a ‘medium’ Finum infuser basket, and it’s amazing and wonderful. So, for home use in our large teapot, we bought a ‘large’ Finum infuser basket from Amazon. It was a little less than $10. However, I had a $25 gift card.

And what do you do with extra money on a gift card? Buy a pound of tea. That you’ve never tried before. Bad dog.

I’ve actually known quite a few people who drink Zhena’s tea, and I know that I’ve had some before, it’s just been years and years. Maybe more. This is why I felt justified in sating my consumerist urges.

So, using the Finum basket in our standard teapot, today we have Zhena’s Gypsy King Chai.

The tea brewed to a nice, thick, caramelly color, and gives off a delicious scent. The clove and the cinnamon have the most definitive aroms coming from my cup… and it really is giving me high hopes.

The first sip (ooh, hot!, probably should have waited longer) comes across as clove and black pepper being the predominant flavors. It is a very smokey, spicy introduction to this tea. I think this tea could definitely be too peppery for folks who do not appreciate a little bite in their chai (but for those that do, woo hoo!).

Shortly after, the ginger and cinnamon take their place in the sip, which add a little bit of sweetness to the somewhat spicy profile. Behind that, the very smooth tea base starts to take form, but it is truly shadowed by the spices in the blend. Which… I kind of expect in most chais, really.

If you let the tea sit in your mouth for just a few moments, you can begin to taste a hint of the cardamom and orange rind. Neither flavor is really powerful enough to stand out on it’s own, but they definitely add to the finish of the tea. Maybe the tea would suffer without those, but I’m not sure. Not that it’s suffering with them in, obviously.

All in all I’m pretty happy with this purchase, and at sub-$20 for a pound, it could be a real cheap staple spicy chai. Though, I’m not sure that it’s a good summer tea, as I am now super, super warm. We’ll have to try it iced and see how it turns out. If nothing else, I’ll box it up and save it for the winter :)

This, iced, is quite possibly one of the most enjoyable things in the world, ever. It’s pretty much ruined all other iced tea for me. It is so good. So, so good.

Hrmm. This is my first real big disappointment from SerendipiTea.

The smell of this tea is FANTASTIC. Brewed, it has a very sweet dark chocolate taste. It a really hope-lifting chocolate taste, a very truly pleasant smell.

But the flavor doesn’t seem to hold up. There is a little bit of the chocolate taste, but the flavor of the oolong combined with the rooibos produces this really weird sour flavor that is… well… not good. It’s almost like a chocolate tea that was combined with a really cheap fake lemonade.

As much as I may hype of SerendipiTea… I would stay away from this one. I’ll finish this cup… but I’m not thinking that we’re going to finish the rest of this sample.

Thanks to Krystaleyn for the sample!

The scent of this tea is like steamed vegetables on a breezy summer day, there’s just a hint of floral in the aroma that doesn’t quite fit in with the veggies. It smells good, but it’s almost like you’re smelling two different things at once.

The flavor of this oolong is very earthy, with a deep almost roasted vegetable flavor. Definitely a little buttery, and if you swirl the tea around in your mouth a little bit, a light fruitiness starts to show through the buttery vegetables.

It’s a very interesting, flavorful tea that I’m glad to have experienced. It doesn’t quite fit what I want, but is easily the best oolong I’ve had so far. Quite tasty, actually.

Missy got her gaiwan for Mother’s day today, so we thought we would give this another try. Maybe our gringo brewing just didn’t do it justice?

Nope. Still not tasty. I’m going to go ahead and chalk this up as a ‘I don’t like Sencha’ party, and never try it again. At least, not anytime in the near future.

Oh. My. This is magnificent.

Thanks again to Krystaleyn for this sample. I may have forgotten to credit you for the last sample too. So… I’m crediting you twice on this one ;)

I kind of forgot about this tea whilst unwinding and playing video games on a breezy Friday night. So it’s cooled off quite considerably, so my review may be on how this might potentially taste iced!

The mint and the apple are the most predominant flavors, and it definitely tastes like more of a green apple flavor than say a red or golden apple. That gives it just a little bit of sourness to the flavor that really pairs with the mint nicely. The juniper flavor is hiding towards the end of the note, maybe skirting around with something that might remotely taste like raspberries. Not sure if I’m making that last part up or not. There’s definitely a little more fruitiness towards the end of the sip though.

This is an amazing tea, and probably my first from Davids that is a must have. But this is definitely, truly a must have.

So this is… interesting.

The apricot in this tea is definitely the foremost flavor that I can taste. Following that trails in just the wisps of pepper and clover, with ginger and a hint of fennel coming in at the end.

A unique and flavorful take on a chai blend. It isn’t my favorite by any means, but they definitely get two points for a bold take on new flavors. If you like fruitier teas, and a little less cinnamon in your chai… this could be for you.

I on the other hand, want cinnamonstrosity ;)

No notes yet.

Now this one I know is from Krystaleyn! For sure this time!

Mmm… cinnamon. This is a nice cinnamon tea. It tastes just like little red hots. There’s probably green tea under there… somewhere… but I’m not sure. I’m not really convinced, you know?

But there’s tasty candied cinnamon flavor. Having a deep love of all things cinnamon, this makes me very happy. I could keep this one around… if nothing else, just for it’s delicious cinnamonosity… maybe. It’s a little tamer than the cinnamon in say, MarketSpice. So I think I’d actually go for that if I had an overwhelming cinnamon jones. A Cinnamonstrosity. That should totally be the name of a tea. Like a roasted mate base, with cinnamon chips, cinnamon flavoring… and… uh… I don’t know. I’m probably good there. Cinnamonstrosity.

I’ll go now.

You know, I’m really not getting much of a lemon flavor…

Okay, I kid. This is very lemony. Although, the lemon is done very well, because it still has a… even keel to it. How to put this. There’s a lot of lemon in this here drink, but it doesn’t cause your face to implode due to unwarranted sourness. Nor do you get that twingey thing in the back of your jaw like you just flossed with an electric eel.

Its very lemony, but its sweet, and you can still just taste the grassiness in the background.

I am impressed with this tea for it’s lemony depths, it is quite good. I kind of want to mix this with some straight tea and have the most eye-widening Arnold Palmer ever.

Thank you to Sandy for this sample. It is delicious!

Another big thank you to Krystaleyn for all of the samples!

We may not have got to this tea in time to save it. See, while we were brewing this tea, the toilet mechanism downstairs magically broke. A trip to the store and a amateur home repair job later, and this tea is kind of a cold, bitter orange disaster. I kind of want to give this tea a second chance sometime (it’s orange and cinnamon, what’s not to love?). But today was not it’s day.

Another sample from Krystaleyn, thank you!

We really, really, really, really wanted to try this tea. I thought it was going to be a lot like MarketSpice, only tarted up a bit.

So let’s get to the important part. IT LOOKS LIKE AN AWESOME SWIRLING GALAXY IN MY TUMBLER. CALL CARL SAGAN!

What’s interesting is that the glitter… it’s like some sort of anti glitter. Shine a light on it, and it sort of fades into the tea (just making it look like your tea is dirty). But, without direct light on it, it totally sparkles. It’s awesome.

The scent just makes me think of a Christmas candle. It has this sweet clove candy smell that is just fantastic.

The flavor is… well, exactly how it smells. It’s a very clove, candy, vanilla taste to it. Sweet, but with an almost artificial flavor to it… like… Christmas lip gloss. It doesn’t really ruin the tea, it’s just a worthwhile point to mention.

I am a little saddened that I’m missing both the orange and the cinnamon in this blend. The cinnamon starts peeking through a little bit as it cools, and the glitter begins forming this patina over the bottom of my cup. So every time I take a drink, it forms this like… gold line.

This isn’t so much a tea as it is an experience. The flavors lend themselves to Christmas very well, and the presentation does too. I’m totally going to have a gallon of this unloaded on the pile of unsuspecting guests at my house this year. It will be awesome.

We got our box from Teavivre today, so a big thank you to Angel and the rest of the Teavivre team.

I should start this off with a bit of a disclaimer that I wouldn’t consider myself much of a white tea fan. They tend to be subtle and contemplative teas. Maybe more useful to someone with a more discerning palate than my own.

However – this is by far the best white tea I’ve ever had. The flavor itself is still a little subdued, but the heavier feel of this brew really took me for surprise (actually, I’ve felt that way about both of the Teavivre teas I’ve tried now… it’s probably a mark of quality).

There’s a little sweetness to this, and a very… fresh, spring, vegetation taste to it. A light tea with a grassy flavor, and… something, like cucumber skin, or maybe sprouts on the edge. Very very fresh tasting. At the end, there’s a spicier, maybe light peppery flavor to it, reminds me of that same somewhat leafy, peppery taste from a golden Yunnan tea. Not sure if that makes sense.

I don’t think this one is going to make it to the ‘keep’ list, but I’m glad that I tried it. Thanks again Angel!

Our first sample from the wonderful Krystaleyn. Thank you!

First off, I just have to point out that in our sample there was a big, fat half-walnut. I’m not sure if Krystaleyn did that intentionally, or there are just that many walnut pieces, but it was kind of awesome. Just sitting there, all non-chalant, giant walnut smothering some tea leaves, nothing to see here. It amused me.

This tea has a light fruit smell to it, but not overpoweringly fruity like many other flavored teas. It’s actually very pleasant.

(side note: Missy and I are passing this back and forth like a peace pipe as we discuss our reviews. It’s hilarious)

The most noticeable flavor to me is the pineapple, though it took most of the cup for it to start tasting like ‘pineapple’ and not ‘nondescript fruit essence’. The walnut pulls up in the flavoring after that and leaves a lasting, dark roasty, almost buttery flavor to the sip, eventually tapering off to a very, very light vegetal green tea flavor.

I’m thinking of this tea in my head as like a starter gen mai cha. A little more interesting, not as upfront with either the toastyness, and lacking the seaweed-y flavor of Japanese greens. Plus a little fruitiness to tie it all together.

Overall, a very pleasant tea. At the moment, I don’t think it’s a tea I want to stock up on… but we’ll see. I think if i put in an order when it starts getting cold again, I may have to think about picking some of this up. Maybe ;)

Thanks again Krystaleyn!

Tried this one with a little longer steep time today, bumped it up to four minutes (we usually do our blacks at about 2-3). It made this one a little more heady, and definitely a lot more malty. Upped the astringency notably as well, but that is to be expected. Still quite a good little black tea from Golden Moon. Quite enjoyed this one from the black sampler.

If you should find yourself looking for the black tea sampler from Golden Moon though… stop. Don’t do it. You can buy all four of the teas in the same 1 oz packages for about $6 cheaper than buying the sampler itself. Granted, if you do that you’ll be able to stop and go “Why the heck am I paying $9/oz for tea?”. I think they really just want to discourage people from getting samples. For $42, you can get one ounce each of four black teas. For $52, you can get four ounces each of those same four black teas, in handy little tins. The math just doesn’t work out.

I do not think this Guayusa thing is for me. It has a sweet, grassy taste that, while not altogether unpleasant… just isn’t something I strive for in a drink.

The smell and taste are very reminiscent of a fresh cut grass clippings, from that first cut in the spring where you’ve never really had enough days in a row for the grass to get dry. So you kind of struggle through the clumping, wet grass, so that you can get a handle on the lawn. That’s what this reminds me of, wet clumpy grass.

The second batch of this sample that we brewed, we included some Ssssspicy from SerendipiTea, and it did improve the flavor some (which means to say that the spices drowned out some of the grassy flavor).

So yeah. Not my cup of tea-like-herbal-beverage, but I kind of guessed that going in, so I don’t think it’s quite fair to give it a lower rating. If I did rate it though, it would probably be… 60s or so. Like I said, it isn’t offensive, it just is far from desirable.

It kind of seems like I’m having a straight-black-tea-a-thon lately, doesn’t it?

We received our black sampler from Adagio today, from the sneakpeeq deal with the IngenuiTea… so a big thank you to whomever posted that on the forums! I’d go look it up… but… no.

This is a very smooth tea with a dark, coppery color in the pot. The smell is… well… about what you expect from a straight black. The beverage itself has a somewhat medium weight to it, it isn’t thin by any means, but it doesn’t have that mealy thickness that some teas get. Not that mealy thickness is a bad thing, by any means.

There is a malty, light grainy flavor to the tea, with a somewhat noticeable honey flavor in the aftertaste. It’s a fairly solid tea, and I could see it being kept around. I would compare this to the tarantulas from Teavana that I have made a few times before (really, my only straight Yunnan comparison). I think the tarantulas were a slightly higher quality and richer flavored Yunnan than this one. Though, this isn’t a discontinued product… so it should probably* get a couple points for that.

*it doesn’t.

We’re slowly making progress through all these samples, woo!

For a straight black tea, this is very, very light and sweet. There is some honey flavor to it, but nowhere near the flavor that I associate with the Sinharaja from Golden Moon. This one is much… well… less of everything. Less flavor, less sweet, less worth buying again, methinks.

It’s not bad, really. It’s just not… striking. And it is a bit spendy for a middle of the road tea.

Caesar gives thumbs down.

It’s late, and I’m slowly turning into a pumpkin, so I’m going to give this a much quicker and less detailed review than it truly deserves. I’d backlog it in the morning… but… no. That probably wouldn’t do a lot of justice for any kind of masala beverage anyway, let alone a kangaroo.

The most noticeable flavor at first is the clove. While the clove does definitely take the center stage, it isn’t an overwhelming level of clove, present, but not domineering. The cardamom comes next, with a hint of ginger and pepper at the end, rounding off into the natural woodsy-ness of the kangaroo base. The clove flavor lingers quite a bit, and really blends in nicely with that lingering bush flavor that always seems to stick in my throat with a kangaroo blend.

This blend claims to have cinnamon in it… but I seem to be losing it in the clove somewhere. Or, I may have waited too long, as this is quite cool by now.

Overall, a very strong kangaroo chai, and we’ll be keeping this one around. I would want more cinnamon, but that is always, ALWAYS the case. Missy has threatened to sweeten any tea I drink with Hot Tamales before.