The DJBooth

Dr. Tea Lapsang to Josh is equal to calgon take me away to my wife. That is all.

If there is one tea that get me going anytime it’s the good doctor’s imperial nectar. Which is good cause to my dismay back to work today. It’s been a great couple of days chilling with the new Mr. Ezekiel Martin who was born Monday 8lbs 1.9 oz and 21inches long. So of course a toast is in order :)

Having this at the hospital. Seems to be a trend for this tea. I’m having the decaf version, I didn’t see a reason to create a new listing for this one. Don’t worry I’m not sick. I’m here with my wife getting ready to give birth. So while she’s sleeping waiting for the petocin to kick in I might as well write about some tea :) I have to tell you this is just a nice, smooth, no frills black bagged tea. I would say it’s rather delightful. I think this is better than the other option of lipton in the courtesy room. I like this one a lot…it could be a long day.

Picked this one up on my recent excursion to Wooster. The long straggly black leaves are enticing and I love a good Irish Breakfast…Tea and actual Irish Breakfast. A malty aroma eminates…and then. Eh I have to say this is a soft cookie Irish breakfast. There should be a lot brightness to it. It’s fairly smooth but have that subtle peppery bite that you would expect from Irish breakfast.

This is my first Milk Oolong type tea. Thanks to Teavivre for allowing me to sample this tea. I already love Oolongs for their nutty and buttery characteristic. So I was excited to try this one. I have a pouch of Verde au Lait that I acquired in a trade and it fell short of the goal. I made it at work and shared with my co-worker who I am making a tea lover as well. A pale yellow liquor typical with most green oolongs. I’ve been going nuts a bit with getting a week ahead on music logs since the baby will be here any day, and I’ve been re-inventing our broadcast clocks…tea is much needed. This is great! Milky? I am not really getting a milky flavor from this tea. Buttery? Absolutely! I feel like I’m in the theater enjoying a huge bucket of popcorn with double butter. For dinner last night I made garlic lime shrimp in a butter sauce. I think this would make a great butter substitute in cooking. Four tasty pots were made with the leaves.

Pardon my absence from the Steepsterverse. Work schedule has been kinda nutty as of late. Has a nice malty cocoa like flavor. Reminds me a lot of the Gonfu black from Teavivre. Very smooth. Somewhat grainy like whole wheat bread. Another great offering from Teavivre

Picked this one up at a natural food store while my wife was getting her hair done for a wedding I was DJing. Enjoying it this morning. Not bad for a dollar an ounce. Slightly smokey. Like gunpowder should be. Not bad

Picked this one up on a recent trip into the mall. I guess it’s part of the interesting dichotomy about Teavana is you switch a few ingredients…and you have a different Teavana tea. For instance take the Cha Yen Thai. Subtract the black tea and pineapple and add apple and voila Zinginber Ginger. However this is not a bad thing cause the Cha Yen is hands down one of my favorite teas. Enjoying it after father’s day lunch with my wife and daughter. MMMMM baby back ribs and tea. Yes a good day indeed.

I received my shipment from Teavivre the other day wickedly excited of course. As I am finding with other teas there are many degrees of the lapsang…like Kevin Bacon. Which reminds me of one of the most amazing sandwiches I had from Melt in Cleveland named the 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon(six kinds of bacon!). A great tie in to lapsang or Tea review ADD? You decide. I do love lapsang and I’m finding that I like the more subtle lapsangs as well. I’m starting to appreciate lapsangs that have a great black tea base as well as the smoke. This one is a little less smokey. Much like the Upton Black Dragon as opposed to the strong smokiness of Dr. Tea’s. There’s a little sweetness that comes through. I’m also detecting some nuttiness(almond) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qtEjJuGo_U As much as I love drinking lapsang I also love cooking with it. I combined this with Man tea’s Jalapeno black and made a turkey brine and then smoked the turkey. Another great lapsang

I picked this up hoping that it help clear up the last bit of bronchitis I’ve been battling. I’m happy to say that it’s been helping. It does really seem to help get the phlem moving out. I know that’s so appetizing but that’s what it’s suppose to do. Flavor…well I’m really sure if the flavor is the main concern with a medicinal tea. It’s fairly tasty. I like the sweetness of the licorice on the end of the sip like with a good licorice oolong. Reminds me of the halls commercial in the bath house…Breathe my friend!

There are those days when simplicity is what is just what the doctor ordered. I have mentioned it before but a good jasmine green is truly a delight. Warms the soul and calms the spirit. Especially since I’ve been battling getting rid of bronchitis. The lungs are purring like a kitty and not in a good way. I love this tea. Reminds me of Summer Breeze by Seals of Crofts. I can’t believe I have not reviewed this yet!

Found this tea at Marc’s for about 2.50 a box. It’s not too shabby for a bagged tea. I’m not sure if I’ve been on the receiving end of a bigger energy boost because of the saffron, but still a tasty tea. The Assam is pretty good and I can tell that it is a darker oolong. I like that semi roasted oolong flavor to this tea. In a pinch it’s a good quick work pick me up.

Otea is the name of the loose leaf tea brand at the local asian market. I have tried to find more info on the company but to no avail. I have to say though that they just really have some great quality tea and it’s very modestly priced. I needed get some more dynasty peanut satay sauce. It is amazing if you like spice and flavor…which is also what I’m finding with this tea. I have had other ginger peach combinations and they just aren’t up to snuff. They smell great but once brewed don’t equal the pre-steep excitement. The dry leaf smells like candy! It’s purely intoxicating. On personal note I’m not a huge fan of darjeelings. However the mix on this one is just right. Usually the ginger overpowers the other flavors in the tea. I like this one because you can pick up the subtle sweetness of the peach. I gave the hairbrush to the peach…cause he’s got hair(Veggietales anyone). For $2 dollars an ounce this one is definitely going into the permanent collection.

Thank you to Emilie for this one. My apologies steepster friends for not posting for a while. My work schedule changed up again, for the better. This is one is not too bad. A decent black mint blend with vanilla hints. However I noticed the flavoring was a little bit chemical. There was elements that I would compare to a minty black and mild. It’s a good tea but has a strange flavor to it at the same time. I would drink it again but I’m not sure if I would put this one on the shopping list.

Another offering from Tommy and thus cashing all my swaps with her. I think that the Menghai pu-erh tea is some the best quality pu-erh that I have tried. This is another great offering like the 2006 V8. It really has the same nose and smoothness that the v8 has but just makes a little bit less cups. I would say one ball makes about 16oz of steepage. So it’s perfect for the cup that I’ve had going on 11years I think. It has some fame to it because when I couldn’t find it for a while my former roommate said “you can’t find the holy grail?” I used to drink my coffee from it everyday when we lived together. Luckily it was found and I’ve been enjoying this tea in it. Again 6 good steeps so far. Thanks again Tommy.

Picked up a box of the bagged for 2.50 at Big Lots…thought I would give it a whirl. It’s nice malty, sturdy, everything you would expect from a Scottish breakfast. I think they’re tea bags are very cool because you have to pull the string to expand the string. A little nerdy yes.

According to Jim this is an amazing tea….and after trying it I have to agree with him. My first Lapsang was the good Dr’s, which I would say has a good hardy smoke to it. This one is more subtle. At first I didn’t like it. I didn’t think it had enough smoke. Now that I am tasting it again, which it is good that I am doing my tasting note in the afternoon since my first was a morning steep, I am noticing a really good Chinese black tea with a lighter smoke to it. You can taste that good grainy, starchy, potato like flavor synonymous with a good black and yes a touch of sweetness like the description says. This makes me think I might have to revisit the Adagio sample I have that I thought was terrible. Definitely a comfort tea. Lapsang is always welcome in my book thank you Jim for good swap.

So my buddy at work who I usually share a daily cuppa with told me about Grandpa’s Cheese Barn, and that his wife picked this one up when they visited and didn’t like it. So he brought this one in to share. So of course I asked how she had brewed it since in my own experience white tea can go awry if you don’t pay attention to the time and temp. The dry leaf smells really good. Almost like Engelskuss (Angel’s Kiss) by Cafe-Contor that mercuryhime shared with me which my daughter claimed to be cotton candy tea. It’s really good it has a nice berry-ish flavor. The tea base itself is nice and light. So of course I want to check this place out since it’s maybe an hour drive.

Thanks to Ian for sending me this one. First I am a big of roasted mate…..okay I’m a fan of Frank too :) It has a nice minty aroma coming from the dry leaf. I couldn’t really detect vanilla. I like it. I couldn’t really get the vanilla out of this one. I guess I was hoping the vanilla would make it a little more creamier. More like a wintergreen than spearmint. However I was sitting at my desk conversing with a record label rep with my nose inside the cup. I happen to do this quite a bit. I like to take in all of that the tea has to offer. More that simply just sipping it. I noticed something. There is this marvelous aroma arising from inside the cup. It’s like a nice a Cavendish or a high quality cigar. I’m talking Cohiba or Artuo Fuente. Whew refreshing like walking into a humidor.

I’ve been sitting on this one for a while after a swap with Tommy I’ve been steeping it for the past 4 days. After having it and other Touchas, in the future when buying Pu-Erh I will probably say I could have had a V8. All I have to say is holy cow! Eight! Eight lovely dark Pu-Erh pots from one toucha. Notice I didn’t say cups. It’s very smooth. Dark like coffee. Unfortunately I think the stash is all gone cause I can not find it on the website any more. Sadness. This is a very good offering though.

Brewing this up before bedtime thanks to Garret I’ve had this a while just haven’t got to the tasting notes. I haven’t tried too many green rooibos or green rooibos blends. I can make out the combination of citrus and peach the most. It’s good.

Thanks to Ian for sending me this one. Sometimes you need put all formality aside and just say DUDE! I have to be honest I’ve been giddy about getting to try this one. I have had pure Hawaiian kona and it is one of my favorite treats to have in the coffee world. I love my coffee just as much as I love my tea. So my expectations are high knowing the quality that comes from the Island state. Not to mention an American tea that can stack up to teas that have been produced for thousands of years in other countries. The dry leaf is intriguing. There is a sweet aroma emanates almost like caramelized sugar. The tea reminds me a lot of of Dawn(Arunachal Pradesh) from The Simple Leaf. This is a fabulous tea. Second steep with dinner of Salmon and Boxty(Irish potato pancakes). Great

There are days where you just need to visit the old friends in your cupboard. I don’t think I need to expand on this one any more than I already have. So relaxing. Great today even though it’s sunny 60 in Clevealand.

Thanks to Lindsay for this one. My first Orchid Oolong. Now I’ve seen Orchid’s, Licorice, Ginseng oolong, and King’s oolongs and they seem to be synonymous with each other. Or so I thought. Check out the package no coating on the dry leaf really like you might see on some licorice oolongs(that candy coated like shell). Brew up the first cup. Eh kinda of a semi roasty nutty flavor to it. I didn’t get that sweetness though till the end of the cup. I didn’t really enjoy the first steep. However, in consecutive steeps afterward this tea really begins to unfold like an orchid. In the second steep is where I’m starting to detect the orchid. It reminds me of jasmine scented teas, but you can definitely tell that it is orchid and not jasmine. Then you have that sweetness at the end of the sip. This I enjoy quite a bit. I might be wrong but there has to be a little bit of ginseng in there or licorice root to produce that sweetness. If I am wrong…fabulous. I am thoroughly enjoying this tea. So with steep 3 and 4 I combined it with a sample of Teavana’s Dokudami Umami. The combination with licorice root in the umami was fantastic. I can’t wait to finish the rest of this, and try more to come!