The DJBooth

So I brought this to work with me. We bought a box and my wife decided she was not a fan. I’m giving it another chance. Now that I am overcoming my aversion to white because I think it was operator error. The dry leaf is not terrible in aroma. Steeped it for a minute. It’s a little bit better this time however the lemongrass seems to rule supreme of this cup. So I guess I’m going from blech to meh on this one. Still not as tasty as the blueberry pomegranate white from Lipton.

A reason to drink today! As of today I have been blessed to be a father of my little angel for 5 years today. Since I can’t “drink” on the job this will do nicely. Still a good brew but “nutterbutters” I steeped it too long and it’s orange. I have found that’s a sure fire way to know you have steeped green tea for too long. It turns orange. Still pretty good though. Cheers.

So Shawndra from Praise Tea stopped by the station today to talk to one of our sales reps. It was wonderful to meet her and she brought this iced. Wow! is this good. So of course as I have been finding the hibiscus hits my palette first because well that’s what hibiscus seems to do to me. Then the creamy peach come through. It has a nice balance of the tang from the hibiscus and the peach. After tasting this I felt like I just had a cup of Koolaid without the sugar though. The peach is so good in this one it’s almost like flavor from lipton peach ice tea, minus the artificial peach flavor. I would almost compare this to like a good non-alcoholic peach wine. I’m definitely going to have to look more into offerings from Praise.

Having a cup of this before hitting the “news cave”. One of my fellow co-wokers is razzing the person two cubicles down who happens to be a Steelers fan. My response….yep I Tebowed. So much for a case of the Mondays in the city that rocks. :)

No notes yet.

I bought a cup to try if I liked it in my last visit. They gave me 2 ounces free because they are getting ready for a new flush. I have to tell you this is a fabulously good tea. The dry leaves are partially golden the liquor a mellow golden color. This reminds me quite a bit of a Yunnan Golden Tips or a Gongfu Black. The flavor has that antiqueness to it. A bad descriptive I know but that’s how I can best describe it. I am enjoying this quite a bit. I don’t know however if I would pay the 18 dollars that it normally is.

Did you know drinking tea is associated with being a pirate? Watching Disney with the kiddo. A song from Jake and the Neverland Pirates goes " swim away, crocodile, drink your tea…a pirates life for me" I am happy to have this one back in the cupboard. So delicious. Not too long ago my wife and ate at Stir Crazy they serve a Thai Iced Tea…..the flavor is weak compared to how tasty this is. Arrrrr it’s a pirate’s life for me.

Having this one today in the french press. Yum. Yum. Yum. I do love good mint tea. The last time I had this it reminded me of another tea. Today in the grocery I nailed it. Bigelow’s Plantation mint….except take the flavor and quality up quite a bit. We had this tea in the house a lot growing up. I started drinking tea with my mom probably since I was a freshman in high school or before. Usually it was mint tea with milk and sugar. Of course now I drink my tea straight most of the time. So I have graduated a bit. Man is this good. I’m thinking if Frank did this one again….I am on it.

So this came with an online order. Smells pretty good. I looked at the sample and thought it seems like a lot of leaf for 16oz as it says on the instructions. As I’m finding though you seem to need more stuff when you are steeping the fruit. So again we have hibiscus here, and sigh this is reminding me of Tazo passion. However with the ginormous citrus presence. Yes I know used an overused word like “shared sacrifice”. The sample says it has german rock sugar in it……but there’s no sweetness here. Just citrusy goodness. Grapefruit, Orange, Pineapple, I saw the apple there too. Reminds me of when I used to sell citrus fruit in band as a high school-er. I was never that great of a salesman so we bought most the citrus and you could smell the aroma in the garage. This one time at band camp we were stretching and I split my shorts. I’m glad football excluded me from band camp in the later years. You know one of my favorite songs at the time was a classic from Weezer http://youtu.be/LHQqqM5sr7g Touché TeaEqualsBliss

I may have stated before but, my previous experiences with white tea have been lack luster. I am fairly certain that this is my first White Peony(Bai MuDan) as well. However the offerings that I have sampled from Teavivre have changed my outlook on white tea. I am liking more so than I like straight up green tea. I’m beginning to think maybe my previous attempts at white tea were fumbles at the goal line. The dry leaf is fuzzy like a peach with some buds mixed in. Pale yellow liquor. Much like the white silver needles the flavor is a little nutty, slightly vegetal. There were some floral notes too on a couple of sips as it cooled. At one point I thought that I caught a cinnamon note and cocoa note. I might be crazy on those but I’m also a tad congested lately. I am very much in like with the white teas that I have sampled from Teavivre. I may have to explore some more white teas now.

Brewed this up at work. Freaked out my co-workers :) Not a bad tea. French Pressed it. It’s just ok to me.

Thank You oOTeaOo for this sampling. This is my first offering from Rishi. There are some tea companies that I have not tried because I usually find a sale from another company that side tracks me(Tea ADD). Or I the fact that sometimes I’m cheap and don’t want to pay ten dollars for shipping. So I’m excited try this one. Now if you have read my tasting notes than you may know that I love Pu-Erh teas. The earthier the better in my opinion. I switched up the way I brew for this one. Normally I am not one to rinse Pu-Erh. Some may say that is wrong but normally I don’t. I did however rinse this one for 30 seconds. There is a benefit I have found for rinsing. I also usually brew for 3-4 minutes. However I found that in the 30 second rinse it prepares the tuocha for steeps to come, and I have up to 4 steeps so far at 2 minutes per steep. Each as dark and smooth as the first. So I may have to experiment more into shorter steeps with this. Of course I have been enjoying it in my Yixing cup that I have dedicated to unflavored Pu-Erhs. This is a fabulous tuocha. Had left overs for lunch today and they have been sitting heavy since. So this has definitely been helping. This one is very dark smooth and lovely. Very much like my favorite Imperial Pu-Erh or other tuocha’s

There is reason breakfast teas are called such. Bright. Strong. Smooth. Still has to be one of my favorite English Breakfast teas.

Finished out the New Year festivities with this one. My fruit tea and tisane consumption tends to be sparse. It’s not that I don’t like the fruit teas. I just prefer straight teas. The problem with teas like this is that I have a hard time not eating the dried fruit :) This one is not bad reminds me of strawberry lemonade or Tazo passion tea. Sorry but when you put hibiscus in a tea it’s going to have the Tazo quality for me. It’s pretty good a little the pineapple is very predominant it this tea. The only qualms I have with this tisane is the 3-4 teaspoons per cup and steeping it for ten minutes to really get the flavor. I guess that’s one of the properties when you are steeping all fruits. I think this would be great iced.

Let the festivities continue. There seems to be a pattern. Teavivre seems to be the tea of choice for the evening. Other flowering teas that I have sampled have been jasmine flavored. So this is a new experience for me. The green tea is not a very strong scent. The liquor is a little darker yellow. Slightly nutty not bitter. However it took a second steep for the flower to really open up. It’s a decent green and a good one to share with friends over for New Years Eve. I kinda like having a flowering tea that’s not all jasmine. However the flower itself blooming is not as dynamic and just seemed to not want to open up.

New Years Eve consisted of tea, friends, and good food. This is where my drinking for the night started. I have not been a huge fan of white tea. It’s been week. Done something to my stomach. Having this with kielbasa with kraut, pigs in a blanket, and homemade mashed potatoes…..with heavy whipping cream. Yum. A light yellow liquor. A little smell and taste of hay. As I’m continuing to enjoy this tea a little more like like almonds. Raw almonds. Un-roasted. I think this is the best white tea that I have tried so far. This one would make me add more white tea to the cupboard.

Have to be at the station this morning and have to take the kiddo back to her mother’s after having a full week with her. DOUBLE GRRRR! Mmmm Tea roasty, chocolatey….back to work and stopping my whining.

Thank You Garrett for sending this one. Hmmm where’s the beef?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnikaebsSAA&feature=related Except in this case where’s the smoke? I love a good lapsang. Whether it’s been smoking a pack a day or trying to quit and switched to ultra lights. I love cooking with lapsang. Marinating beef for chili or throwing a little bit in the crock with pot roast. Kinda like in So I Married an Axe Murderer if it’s not Scottish it’s crap and if it’s crap it’s not Scottish. Any lapsang would make me happy but it has to have a the smoke! I am disappointed because I have enjoyed everything that I have sampled from Adagio. It’s a decent black tea at base. Much like the Gong Fu black from Teavivre or another Chinese black from the Fujian province….sadly as far as lapsangs go this just doesn’t cut it.

Thank you to oOTeaOo for this one. I have to be honest and say I haven’t had to many teas that have spearmint in them. Peppermint….for sure. This is quite good. There are lot of bagged mint blends that have the mints intertwined, but I like the spearmint standing alone here. For some reason “the cheese stands alone” starts playing in my head. I found that the spearmint seems to be a little more creamy than peppermint. It blends well with this black tea.

Brewed a pot for myself and my father-in-law after dinner at our house. I switched up the recipe a bit. I took the base S’mores Tea and powdered it with cocoa. Yum! This is quite delicious. Reminds me just a bit more of actual S’mores.

Ran late this morning barely got in to do morning news on time. Mix this with JavaVana Mate from Teavana…bring on the morning!

Another offering from Angel at Teavivre. A start to a short week so that already makes for happiness. I’m finding it true in what Jim Marks said in another review that there is a point where it gets tough to differentiate between Chinese greens. However there is a large difference in the actual dry leaf. This one’s fuzzy. Reminds me a bit of the Monkey Picked White that I have sampled from Dr. Tea. Brewed there’s not a whole lot of difference either. Very light and pale liquor. Vegetal and slightly nutty. It’s held up to 3 good steeps. It even reminds me a bit of a yellow tea like a Hou Shan Huang.

Here is another sample from the lovely cornucopia sent to me from Teavivre. This reminds me of the Yunnan Emerald buds that I sampled from Teavana. Definitely different leaves from the the Dragon Well. The dry leaves are tightly rolled and have a slightly smoky aroma like charcoal. First steep a pale yellow liquor. Slightly smokey and slightly bitter. The wet leaf kinda reminds me of cooked greens and one of my favorite Christmas songs from Run DMC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR07r0ZMFb8 The second steep is where it gets interesting. The the liquor this time is a bright orange hue. Definitely smokier and more bitter. Reminds me a lot of green pu-erh. I have not been a fan of green pu-erh so far but this is not as bad as my previous experience with the green pu-erh. Decent cup though.

I received this one from Tamm I have no idea why I thought it was a black tea when I got it. My mind must have been thinking Yunnan=black, but not the case. Needless to say I let this one steep for longer than you should let a green steep for. Preparing for a massive dose of bitterness that I thought I would be dumping down the sink… surprisingly not bitter at all. I like the hint of smokiness in this one. It almost has an almondy oolong finish to it. I have not been much of a green man myself. I mostly like black and oolongs, but I’m starting to think my tea pallet might be expanding. Not bad at all.