The /T/ea Blag

Creamy ceylon with little to no dust. Smelled like malt and chocolate and had hints of both of those in flavor. Extremely caffeinated. Pricey, but well worth it as I was reenacting LA’s 1994 earthquake by the time I was finished. Was steeped twice and tasted awesome with leftover Chinese food.

Full review here: http://theteablag.blogspot.com/2011/02/lolmatfgop1ftw.html

Got a whole box of this tea from an old roommate. Yay connections!

I knew once I opened the bag that what lay before me was a winding road of depression, anger, and a loooong healing process. The bag itself smelled like bitter gingerbread, which isn’t up my alley, but I can dig it. Both times I brewed this tea it came out extremely dusty. Sadly, I believe this dust is what led to the downfall of this “white” tea. This was not “delicate” nor “orange”…just “spice”. In fact, you could suck on cinnamon bark and get the same flavor profile that this tea expelled.

Much like any bad tea, though, you can make it better by setting it on fire!

Full review here: http://theteablag.blogspot.com/2011/02/i-think-i-just-got-tbagged.html

I hate to over-inflate ratings, but this tea is well-deserving. I originally ordered this tea on a whim about a year ago because it was pretty cheap for how much tea you received (think of it like a loose-leaf Arizona tea). The Tea Blag swears by this tea as if sweet baby /t/sus made it with his own two hands.

The tea looks like honey (there are pictures in the full review for proof). It has a great malty smell that kind of reminds me of a good brown ale or stout. And once you taste this stuff, you’ll realize it’s fairly smooth and has a lot of honey and nutty overtones. There’s rarely any dust as you continue to re-steep the tea.

Pro tip: we at The Tea Blag add a little honey to each new brew. That way, as the malty-ness of the tea disappears (after 5+ steeps, mwahaha), you’re left with a tea that’d do pretty well for deserts.

Full review here: http://theteablag.blogspot.com/2011/01/this-t-could-be-savior-of-middle-east.html

Opened the bag expecting brilliance (or as much as one can get from a bagged tea) and instead got a nose-full of Big Red. Funny…the smell didn’t translate over into the taste as this basically tasted like plain black tea. I mean, there is a sense that cinnamon might be present in the tea, but it really doesn’t show its face unless you keep the bag brewing throughout the drinking process (and it’s effing annoying to get teabagged everytime you take a sip). Also, there was a lot of dust from this bag, not a fan of that. At least it got me caffeinated enough to find a better tea.

Full review here: http://theteablag.blogspot.com/2011/01/between-devil-and-deep-black-tea.html

This is by far one of the best rooibos teas I’ve ever had the chance to enjoy. The smell and taste was reminiscent to blueberry pancakes. The tea uses REAL blueberries (apparently this is a pretty big deal now) and even though they’re dried they still have excellent flavor to them. The tea was on the thicker side, which made it almost syrup-y. I could see this tea replacing water in a recipe for blueberry-anything if I really wanted to. I tried resteeping this tea to see if anything would change, but the brew didn’t come out, so…sad day. Nonetheless, an amazing tea with an average price.

Full review here: http://theteablag.blogspot.com/2011/01/alterra-sould-stick-with-coffoh-my-god.html

For being a marketable brand dishing out teas, Alterra really missed it here. The tea smells great in the tin… but if you really want to enjoy it, keep it there. The moment it touches hot water, all hopes and dreams are crushed. One would expect the brilliance in its aroma to at least help in the taste department, but overall, it ended up being warm ginger water. Though I can see where the tin’s comments on the tea being “spicy and sweet to tart and fruity” can come in (see: smell), it most certainly didn’t make the transition to the taste department. Makes a great potpourri though…

Full review here: http://theteablag.blogspot.com/2011/01/soulless-t.html

Nothing jumps out except for the brand name.

Tasted pretty acidic and dry, but that would be your normal run of the mill breakfast blend.

Full review here: http://theteablag.blogspot.com/2011/01/when-in-rome-drink-with-irish.html

Sadly, this tea was average on the whole: average taste and bite, below average color, average aroma, etc. If I wanted, I could have just used Lipton or Tazo and some sugar and received the same result for a cheaper price. This really is a shame since Steep & Brew normally has some great loose leaf offerings (see: Jasmine, Darjeeling).

Full review here: http://theteablag.blogspot.com/2011/01/powerthirst.html

Blood-red tea with a taste similar to heavily watered-down crystal light. The longer the bag steeped, the more color there was in the tea. Flavor just didn’t want to come out of this bag. Maybe a little tang from the rooibos, but otherwise it was one miscellaneous flavor that many would forgot immediately after consumption. At least it smelled good… but I didn’t want to drink potpourri.

Full review here: http://theteablag.blogspot.com/2011/01/seriously-pomegranites-how-do-they-work.html

If you’re quitting smoking or miss summer bonfires, this might be your tea. It was very smooth and smokey. Pretty much gave me cottonmouth after the first couple sips, which then led me to drink more of this tea and repeat the cycle. Needless to say, I felt like I was drinking a campfire.

Full review here: http://theteablag.blogspot.com/2011/01/sconnie-land-and-its-chinese-girl.html

This is an example of how to get the most flavor out of a loose leaf tea. It’s naturally sweet and packed with citrus (though it was more lemon than orange in my opinion). I could tell from the first sip this was a solid green tea.

I was thrown off by the tea smelling a lot like Pine Sol. Appearance of the tea also threw me. This appeared to be more of a light black tea than a green. The color scheme might have been from one of the ingredients, no clue which one though.

It’s in the average price range for Rishi at about $4/oz. If you can get past the aesthetics, this is a solid tea that would probably be best iced, unsweetened.

Full review here: http://theteablag.blogspot.com/2011/01/its-trap.html

No notes yet.

Awake is like the Two-Buck Chuck of tea. Sure, it’s a staple in many households, but it isn’t all that special. You can buy a lot of of for a relatively low price and it gets the job done, caffeine-wise. There was still bitterness and acidity that lingered throughout the brew. It’s better than Lipton, but by no means is it a “great” alternative. We’d compare it to being some sort of middle-man: a great tea mixed with water from a dish rag.

Full review here: http://theteablag.blogspot.com/2010/12/once-you-go-black.html

On a scale from 1 to bad… this tea is worse than Lipton. Where was the pomegranate flavor? More than likely it was lost in the orange and banana flavorings this tea tried to pass off as “Pizzaz”. This is like drinking a bad, watered-down girlie drink. Ugh.

Full review here: http://theteablag.blogspot.com/2010/12/home-for-tea-holidays.html

Randomly saw this in my pantry and brewed some up. To me, the taste is very close to watered-down Throat Coat while chewing Double Mint gum. It’s not a “bad” taste profile…but I wouldn’t consider drinking it every night to go to sleep. Plus, the flavors only come out if you steep the bag more than 10 minutes. Not a big fan of this whole “waiting” thing.

Upside though: there’s a bear on the packaging.

Full review here: http://theteablag.blogspot.com/2010/12/boring-tea-is-boring.html

This black, spiced tea was more reminiscent to apple cider. It had a cinnamon finish and, with a little honey, tasted like Fall (sans brandy).

Full review here: http://theteablag.blogspot.com/2010/12/procrasteanating.html