the quiet life

Another tea I’ve been neglecting! Mmmm the malty goodness! I love this tea!

The last couple of times I brewed it, I did it with tea filters, but I brewed it in my steeper mug today, and I got to see how the leaves turned from the dry, teeny tiny knots into HUGE leaves! It’s quite awesome to see the change.

For some reason, this is reminding me of Thomas Sampson today. No complaints about that. :P I think I did brew it a little bit stronger today, though. Perhaps that’s why! Or maybe my tastebuds just don’t work as well this early in the morning. :P Normally, I get a rich, malty taste with chocolatey notes, but today it tastes like Thomas Sampson. :shrug:

OM NOM NOM. This is what I think every time I open this tea up and smell it. It smells soooo good. If it were nom-able, I would totally just nom it.

I think they should make Tencha-Kuki Houjicha potato chips. They probably do make snacks that taste like this in Japan. Maybe that’s why I want to nom it so bad, lol.

I’m sooo hungry, and to prevent myself from going down to the vending machine and getting junk food, I decided to have some of this. It was a very tasty decision.

I did end up making this a bit stronger than I had it the last time, but that’s not a bad thing. And it hasn’t made it any better. It’s just as awesome as before. :)

And now I’m thinking I shoulda had this with the sushi I ate for lunch yesterday! It would have gone awesomely together. Oh well. Next time!! :)

I’ve been meaning to try this since I got it a week and a half ago!

The leaves look really nice and have a light, floral scent.

Brewed, it smells quite buttery, actually!

I only steeped it for 3 mins, ‘cuz the water here is kind of hot. I haven’t measured it, but I do think it’s above 180, which is what Adagio recommends. But also, 5 mins seems long to me for a tea this green.

In any case, it’s got a really light, slightly sweet flavor. It’s very very smooth, and there are definitely buttery notes that I quite enjoy! I’m a fan! :) When this sample’s done, I may just have to get more!

Thanks for the recommendation, Cofftea! :)

No notes yet.

Brought this tea to work with me, and it was calling me after lunch. I’m glad I chose it, because this is a tea I can relax with. It inspires good feelings. And for some reason, the office is ridiculously noisy today. Grr. But I can peacefully sip this tea and drown everyone out. (Normally, I would say something like, “Mwahaha” here, but this is not a tea that inspires evil laughter.)

It’s just so light and tasty! I’m really glad I invested in a full size of this. Mmmm.

Okay, so first of all, the steeper mug from Golden Moon is NOT good with rooibos/mate/other small-leaf things. Ewwww. Unfortunately, I don’t have any paper filters with me, so I will have to deal.

And my verdict is that this is tasty warm as well (though I could have brewed it stronger than I did). :) It’s got chocolate (though not very pronounced) and spiciness and nuttiness. Mmm. Not something I would want to have everyday, but it’s enjoyable! Muuuuuuuch more so than MateVana on its own, which was blech.

No notes yet.

Logging this from yesterday.

I got Rooibos Chai to blend with the MateVana I couldn’t stand drinking on its own. I was considering trying the Rooibos Chai on its own, but it smells a lot like Haute Chocolate, so I was like, “:shrug: I’ll just dump it in with the rest of my MateVana.” After combining it, the combo did smell quite good, I gotta say. (On its own, the MateVana smelled good, but I just couldn’t drink it alone. It fell flat, or something. I don’t even know. But I didn’t like it.)

So I tried this combo for the first time yesterday. Usually, I like drinking my teas hot with no additives, but I was working at the cafe yesterday, which gets pretty warm, so I prefer drinking iced. So I brewed this up reeeeally strong in hot water for 10 mins, then added some vanilla syrup and soy milk and poured it over ice. I probably should’ve let it cool off a bit before doing that, because I think it would have been a stronger base for adding soy milk, but it turned out pretty all right!

I like the spice and the depth that the chai adds to the MateVana. I think it’s that depth that the MateVana is missing, imo.

It would probably taste better with milk rather than soy, but milk and I aren’t very good friends. But next time, I’ll let the tea cool before pouring it over ice, and see how that works out. Even though I made it strong, I want to see how it works when it keeps that strength.

I also want to try it hot, which I think I will do right now… so I apologize in advance for the double log. :P

I decided to revisit Jackee this morning to see if I could achieve caramel bliss. But, I thought, even if I couldn’t, I could definitely use the wake-up kick I got last time! Getting up at 5:30am is so hard. :cries:

I used considerably less leaf than I did last time – about half the amount I usually use. (I couldn’t tell you exactly how much that is, because everything is just an estimation, haha.)

It’s gotten a lot smoother this time. When it was still piping hot, the smokiness was still there with strength, but it’s fading a little bit as the tea cools, and I’m getting a little burnt sugar hint. I’m definitely closer to caramel with this cup, but still haven’t gotten it. Maybe my start temp isn’t high enough. I’ll have to try at home, where I actually have control over how hot the water gets. Or maybe I should heat my mug first, so I don’t lose water temperature when I fill it. Oh, the many many things I could try.

But I gotta say, smokiness is a good waking-up tool, so I’m happy about that. :)

I decided to go for another Golden Moon sample this morning, and the description of this one sounded good to me.

The leaves smell earthy, maaaaybe with a floral hint in there. But pretty much just your basic earthy smell.

Brewed, I smell maybe a nutty hint.

The taste is really nice! It’s smooth, which I always like. It’s definitely got some depth. Unfortunately, my tastes aren’t educated to the point where I could tell you what I’m tasting. All I can tell you is that I like it!

I am getting a tiny hint of bakeyness to it, to the point of it reminding me of Thomas Sampson, even though that’s an Assam, and this is a Ceylon. Hmm. Maybe I just don’t know what I’m talking about. :P

Now that it’s cooled a bit, though, I am getting that tiny hint of ripe berries that the description speaks of.

All in all, this really is a very tasty tea! :)

I’ve been wanting to revisit this one for a while now, but I’ve been too distracted by the New and Shiny. :P

Even after all the new teas I’ve tried lately, this is still one of my favorites. :) I love how smooth and creamy this tea is, and I like the vanilla in it, but nothing overpowers the bergamot. Yum! :)

Tried this one again today with a shorter steep time. 2 mins down from 3, since it was a bit too strong with 3. Unfortunately, it wasn’t strong enough with 2, so next time, I’ll have to try 2.5 mins. :P (Or more tea!) But it was still a tasty cup! :)

In other news, I’m wondering if this snow will ever stop. o_o

After a too-weak second steep attempt with Kashmiri Chai (I did 5 mins, but next time, I’ll do it longer, and hopefully that’ll work better), I thought I’d try this one! :)

The leaves just smell sooo yummy. Mmmm caramel. Still smells like caramel when brewed, but there’s definitely still some black tea scent in there.

And the taste? Smooth, black tea with a hint of caramel. It’s got a light sweetness to it that doesn’t overpower the tea. It’s yummy! I can’t complain. :)

I did knock the steeping time down to 3 mins from Adagio’s suggested 5 mins. That steeping time definitely seems to work, at least for me.

Hooray! This finally came in the mail yesterday! (I say “finally,” but it really didn’t take long to get here at all, haha. I’ve just been craving this tea since I had the sample that it seemed like a long time. :P) I even get to try out my new steeper mug to brew it! Yaaay!

It’s just as delicious as the last time! :D I could’ve done with less sugar this time, though. :P

The second of my Kusmi splurge. :)

The first time I smelled this, I definitely got a sense of the citrus, and vanilla, and spices (the clove comes out strongly). But then I had a revelation: This tea smells like Coca-Cola! So now all I smell is Coke. :P

Brewed, it smells more like black tea with clove. Mmmm.

It kind of tastes like Coke, too, but spicier (not overly spicy, though). It’s smooth and warm. Mmm. It has a little bit of sweetness to it too, but it’s not anything overpowering. It’s not overly anything, and the flavors just work really well together. I like! :)

Since my St. Petersburg turned out a bit strong this morning with a steep time of 3 mins, I thought I’d try this at 2 to see how that would be, and it works! Yay!

I was really excited to try this one! Kusmi’s blends all sound really unique and yummy. :) (I really wanted to get their Russians or Essentials samplers, but both are out of stock, and I’m impatient, so I bought this and Prince Vladimir, since these are the ones I wanted to try the most. :P)

The leaves smell reeeeally yummy. :) I definitely smell the bergamot, but the caramel also comes through really well. The vanilla and fruit are there too, but to a lesser degree.

Brewed, I smell black tea with a hint of caramel. Mmm.

Drinking it, I definitely taste the fruit. It’s nice! It’s not too overpowering. And I definitely taste the caramel, too. It brings some creaminess to the tea. It’s really smooth, anyway, but it just makes it even yummier. :) It did get a liiittle bit strong this time, though, so I’ll have to experiment for next time. :P But it’s great for this morning! :)

Bought this with my Tencha-Kuki Houjicha. I felt like I almost had to, haha. In the spirit of spring! We may not have many cherry blossom trees in New Jersey, but somehow my spring experience is incomplete without sakura something. I always found it amusing, though, how Japan has so many sakura-flavored things in the spring. I’ve had sakura-flavored Kit Kats… probably sakura-flavored Pocky, too.

Anyway, back to the tea! The leaves smell really, really nice! A liiiiittle bit like candy, but really it’s more like a light sweetness. This is definitely not what one would consider “cherry flavor,” but then again, “sakura” doesn’t mean “cherry” in the fruit sense. It means “cherry blossom” or “cherry tree.” (“Sakuranbou” is the fruit.) Definitely still smells like sencha underneath, though!

The package says to use a higher temp for a more fruity flavor, and a lower temp for more of a sencha flavor, and I used a bit of a low temp, thus resulting in mostly a sencha flavor. There’s a tiiiny bit of sweetness on the end, though. It’s yummy, but I’m looking forward to trying it with a higher temp, too. :) I want to try to recreate the scent of the leaves.

I should mention, too, that as the tea cools, a bit more of the flavoring comes forward in the aftertaste. It’s like floraly sweet.

Made this at work today, with our non-boiling water from the cooler/heater/whatever-it’s-called. It’s not quite as good this way. Not as flavorful. But still enjoyable. :)

Perhaps I should invest in an electric kettle…

I was really excited to try this tea. It sounded really good! So I made sure to order some when I made my real, non-sampler order from Den’s. :)

This tea smells delightfully sweet-roasty-earthy. Not too much of any of those things. It just smells downright good!

It has a light, sweet, honey-like taste. I’m definitely a fan! :D

I was definitely in the mood for a black tea this morning, so I thought I’d give this one a go!

Like others have said before, it really does taste like cookies! But it also still tastes like black tea. :P I really like it!!

It does have a little bit of bitterness to it, and I think next time I’ll try steeping for less time. But it’s not too much, and it adds a bit of an interesting kick.

It’s the perfect tea for this morning! :)

Wanted something light this morning, so I chose this one!

The leaves smell fresh with a little hint of melon.

The tea itself smells sweeter, sugarier, and more melony.

The taste is really yummy! I mean, you’ve gotta like honeydew and cantaloupe, I think. But yum! It’s not too heavy on the melon, which I appreciate.

Hits the spot! :)

I wasn’t expecting to like this one, and I’m not a huge fan of jasmine. (What’s with me drinking teas with flavors I’m not crazy about today? :P) My only experience with it so far had been in Teavana’s Body + Mind, where it completely overpowered any other flavor the tea might contain. But I wanted to give it another shot, and the combination with vanilla intrigued me.

The leaves smelled predictably like a combo of vanilla and jasmine, with vanilla on the front end and jasmine lingering afterwards. An interesting scent.

The tea itself smells much like the leaves did, but I feel like there’s a bit more combination of the scents, whereas the scents were coming off the leaves separately.

The taste? Mmmmmm. Lightly jasmine with sweet vanilla. I’m pleasantly surprised! :) The black tea in this does come into play a bit, too, but it really fits very well with the vanilla and jasmine. I like this!

I have to start by saying that I’m not a huge coconut fan. I don’t hate it, but I also don’t love it. It’s not something I search for, but I do enjoy it from time to time. I do, however, hate coconut scented things (body lotion, shampoos, etc.), since they just smell fake and nasty to me. :(

But I figured this would be a good tea to go with my Thai leftovers, so I decided to do this one today.

Now, this is an award-winning tea, and I had high hopes for it, even despite my not-loving-coconut-ness. When I opened the packet, a heavenly toasted coconut scent came wafting out, making me really hope that this scent would come across in the tea itself. A bit of the scent, however, did resemble the fakey coconut scent I dislike, but the toasted coconut scent was primary.

Brewed, it smells a bit more like fakey coconut. :( However, the taste is sweet and creamy, with an underlying hint of earthiness that tempers the coconut flavor. I honestly can’t help but like it! It tastes kind of buttery actually.

I’m a bit perplexed on how to rate this. I like it, but I don’t think I love it, and I don’t think it’s something I could have all the time, but it’s still very yummy. Hmm.

I opened the packet of this, and it just smelled amazing! The cinnamon came out on top, combined with a sweetness. Brewed, it smells like cinnamon and clove. It reminds me of pumpkin pie, since those are two of the main spices. (Then again, chai has always reminded me of pumpkin pie! :P But I think this one does more so because of the sweetness I smell.)

I brewed this just like a normal tea, but I would really love to try doing the simmering-with-milk thing. Perhaps I’ll have to buy it just to do so. :P

The taste is definitely strongly cinnamon. Mmm. Tastes kind of bakey too. After a few sips, I decided to add some sugar, and I NEVER add sugar to my hot tea. But sugar in this just tastes incredible!!! I’m getting a warm and spicy taste with the tea, and an aftertaste of sweetness from the sugar, with bakey. The lingering taste is like the last bite of pumpkin pie crust. It really just leaves me wanting more!

I really may need to own this… ♥