wombatgirl

Well, I just dumped my first cup without giving it a full cup to judge.

I love artichokes. I like green tea. But for me? This tea is utter and total fail. FAIL!!!* The smell of the dry leaf was very artifical and the brew smelled and tasted like someone dumped old perfume in it. I tried to not dump it, I really did. Nope. I sat here and stared at it for a full 15 minutes, wanting to not dump it, but NOT wanting to drink.

Dumped.

*(originally read “FAIL!! FAILITY-FAIL-FAIL with a side of FAILsauce and pureed fail with fail butter.” But I decided that I should probably cut back on the hyperbole.)

I smelled this tea, and went straight from scent to purchase. It smells amazing. Like a sweet apple cider, with just the promise of a little something darker.

Unfortunately, I didn’t taste it prior to purchase. The taste does not live up to the scent. It’s a mild green tea flavor with a hint of apple and a smaller hint of spice after you swallow. Half a cup in, I taste the spice only when I don’t have tea in my mouth. (Which is just kinda odd to me, thankyouverymuch.)

I think that if it didn’t smell so good, I wouldn’t mind so much. Because it smells AMAZING, and it smells powerful. Then tastes like the tiniest mew of a kitten. Sigh.

I am going to keep working on this tea – maybe different steeping times or temps will help. But this is the second time I’ve tried it (I try not to write a negative review the first time I drink something, just in case I’ve messed something up) and I’m not holding out much hope.

Thank goodness for caffiene today. And thank goodness for oolong teas on days where nothing else goes right.

I like mint. I like a lot of mint. I think I like mint that may blow other people’s taste buds out.

I like this tea, but I was hoping for more mint, less rooibos. It’s got an earthy backnote to it, and the light, clean note of the peppermint. However, I am enjoying this cuppa, and will be quite happy to polish off this sample from Lena.

From two swaps, I managed to request samples of this tea.

Ooops. (Anyone want some? PM me to arrange a swap)

Well. Hrm. I don’t think the scent of the dry leaves are disgusting as others have commented. Odd, but not disgusting.

Initally my brewed leaves smelled exactly like cinnamon. An the liquor smells like it.

The taste… is confusing. I think it tastes a little like soap. But strangely, pleasantly so. I think the cucumber flavor, which is definitely there, reminds me very much of all the various cucumber scented lotions and soaps, while still tasting nice. Except.. well.. it still tastes like soap. Pleasant soap, but soap. Don’t get any cinnamon flavor. Although I’m getting a little soap flavor burn afterwards, which others might taste as cinnamon.

I don’t think I’m fond of this. I was hoping to be, as I like cucumbers a lot. Sigh. MEH! Low end of the meh scale. How sad.

So, I need to learn to NOT drink anything with caffiene after about 5pm. I thought about that last night as I watched the hours roll by. Sigh.

But I couldn’t stop drinking the oolong I had yesterday. (http://steepster.com/teas/red-blossom-tea-company/3148-silk-oolong-formosa) The sleeplessness was almost worth it. :) And then today, I decided to try another oolong.

I got this one while in Nashville. (One of the ones on sale for being in the wrong color bag. ) I’m liking it a lot. The leaf before steeping smells green – not necessarily like green tea, but like the color green. (Wierd, I know). As you steep it, the leaves are smelling progressively spicier. The tea brewed smells warm, and the flavor is just nice. No random tones, except a hint of floral. But overall, it’s just nice. :) I appear to be turning into an oolong fan. :)

Sigh.

Why does my pumpkin taste vaguely like banana?

Wow. I’m loving this tea.

I’m currently on my third infusion, and will likely get 1 or 2 more.

On first sniff of the dry leaf, you get cream and fruit tones. These continue throughout the steeping process. Each successive steep gets a little less fruity and a little more “green” but oh! is this a nice yummy tea. Definitely has a high tannic content, as it does leave a little of the dry mouth, but does it without any bitterness.

So far, my favorite oolong.

I am a sucker for good Japanese food. Or good Chinese food. And one of my favorite elements about it is the sesame – either as an oil, paste or seed. Needless to say, I was excited about this tea as soon as I read about it.

The fabulous Lena provided it to me in a swap (thank you!!), and I am really glad I’m getting to try it!

I see what others have mentioned with the leaves being “oily”. They look and smell for all the world like they’ve been coated in sesame oil. Yum. Sesame oil…. :)

Brewing up, it smells like I’m at my local sushi joint rather than lounging around the house in natty sweats. The brewed aroma is a meld of the sesame and the tea – I’d expected the sesame to be a little stronger than it was, but the two were evenly matched.

The taste is nice. I first taste tea, and then taste tahini as almost an afterthought. It also tastes warm, not as in temperature or spice, but like the feeling you get when you’re warming up after a day outside in the cold. Comfortable.

I would definitely agree with shortening the steeping time – I cut it down by about 30 seconds, and next time I’ll cut it down further. There’s a hint of bitter I think can be cut out.

Finally getting to sample some of the teas I got from Bethany (thank you!!).

First up is Monk’s Blend. My packet wasn’t as fragrant as I was expecting, based on past comments, but I could get the floral overtones. They got stronger as I brewed it up.

I can taste the grenadine, but it almost tastes a little mediciney to me. (And I typically like grenadine). I can taste the vanilla and the cup has a lovely smooth mouthfeel because of it.

Overall, this one really isn’t my thing, but I’m glad I got to try it. Thanks Bethany!

Do you like cinnamon? You will like this tea.

I almost feel like there’s one of those monster truck announcers in the back of my head screaming “ARE YOU READY FOR SOME CINN-NA-MON!!!!!!”

And the answer is, yes, yes I AM!!!

The tea is sweet (remember, I like sweetened teas, especially the blacks, and I have no urge to sweeten this at all), and very cinnamon. It smells great before and after steeping. Like cinnamon cookies or high-quality cinnamon gum.

I’ve been making my poor husband try all the teas I’ve been getting lately, and I’ve probably scarred him with some of the things we had this morning (a very vegital green steeped way too strongly, and an apple sencha that I think I messed something else up on – both of which I will rate later, because I don’t feel I’d do them justice at the moment).

But this tea I brewed up, gave him a cup and then went into another room to work on the computer. He just came in going “WOW! This one? This is a keeper!”

I wholeheartedly agree.

For a teabag, these are pretty nice teabags. lots of room, and the leaves inside are close to whole leaf.

This tea is a nice generic green. A little vegital, slightly grassy, no other notes.

My training class got out early today, so I got to go explore the environs. I made it down to Franklin, and found the other local tea shop (Franklin Tea) where they were having a 50% off sale because things were in the wrong color of bag. So I took it upon myself to help them out, and took some of the burden of their extra tea upon myself. Seriously, when I get home, I’m going to have so much tea, I won’t be able to see my front door.

What lovely problems to have!

Anyway, after shopping, and wandering around downtown, I ended up eating at a local restaurant called the Red Pony. Wow. If this was a food site, rather than a tea site, I’d try to channel Takgoti and wax eloquent about the food for pages. If this was another type of site, I’d wax poetic about the cute waiter who was almost, but not quite, flirting with me (sigh) probably with a giggle and a blush as I typed. Since this is our tea site, I’ll talk about the tea.

I tried my first non-flavored white tea just earlier this week (A silver needle from World Cup of Tea) and really liked it a lot. This one was also good, but not as good. This one didn’t have the hidden complexities or buttery aftertastes, but it did have a clean, crisp flavor and was just an all-around yummy tea.

Especially when the cute waiter* was talking to me about his time with tea in China as I sipped it. Double sigh. :)

*Cute waiter not included with tea. Cute waiter not necessary to enjoy tea experience, however this upgrade is strongly reccomended whenever possible.

I found the teas in the local caffeteria!

Today has been a tough day. Last night I went to World Cup of Tea and met the fabulous Lena in person – we had a tea swap and drank some yummy teas at the store. After a great time, I went back to my hotel (I’m traveling for some business training) with all these amazing smelling teas.

And I won’t let myself try them, because I don’t have any spoons, a decent mug, or a way to get hot water where I have a clue about the temperature. (The stuff the little coffee maker spits out is kinda scary looking). It’s been acceptable for the orange Tazo, but I don’t want to waste all this nice tea!

So close, and yet so very, very far!!!

On lunch break today however, I noticed that they had tea at the on-site caffeteria! Tazo teas. How could I have not seen this before??? I decided to try one, and went with Berryblossom White. It’s not bad. Nothing to write home about, but not bad. I think I oversteeped a little, because it was a little bitter. Got two steeps out of it though. Can’t taste the individual fruits, but I get a sense of fruit, and tea. It’s pretty much right in the middle of the meh scale.

But I can’t say enough how happy I am that there’s some better tea around!

I bought this tonight at the Publix because I wanted something non-caffienated in the hotel room and Tazo teas were on sale. Opening the tea bag, and smelling the liquor, it smelled like the name – a lovely sweet orange. The taste? Ew.

I think the lemongrass overpowers a lot of the tea, and then the orange essence, is well – not subtle. Like a large hammer to your knee is not subtle.

I did have this cup without sugar, so that may be biasing me. I will be drinking more of this tea, if for no other reason than I don’t have anything else decaf in the hotel room. Maybe a cup with sweetner will help??

(If it says anything, the Flavia “tea” from earlier today was better.)

Wow. That was lovely.

I stopped by World Cup of Tea, and looked over their selection. Since I’d never had it before, I decided to try a cup of Silver Needle. (I got it to go because I wanted to go explore the area, and also because I forgot to bring in a book and was by myself. )

The tea was a lovely, light yellow color. I didn’t get much aroma from it, but then the cup was not the best for sniffing. But the flavor was great. Very light, very subtle, but the buttery notes they mention were definitely there.

I’m very glad I tried it, and can’t wait to go back and try more of their tea!

So, I’m in Nashville for the week at a training session. Are you familiar with the Kuerig coffee makers? The facility I’m at has a Flavia drink dispenser thingie. It’s similar, but with little plastic bags of “coffee” rather than little plastic cups of “coffee”.

I’ve been drinking their English Breakfast tea this afternoon. I’m rating it fairly low, because well, I’ve had tea that’s SO much better. However, for probably being more of a “tea flavored product” rather than actual tea, it’s actually not too bad. I’m much happier drinking this than their coffee, or plain water all day. And the scent is actually pretty nice.

However, after class today, I’m definitely running to a local tea shop to see what types of real tea I can find. (http://www.worldcupoftea.com/)

I love Genmaichas in general. The rice adds a lovely note to the tea.

So I was really excited to try this tea. I was hoping it would be extra-lovely. It’s good, but I may have worked myself up a little too much. It’s good, and I’m going to enjoy drinking this package of tea, but think I was hoping for more.

I do like it tho. It’s got a rich rice flavor.

Just opening this package was heavenly – it smells just like lemon cake, complete with frosting. I had a hard time getting my face out of the container to make up the tea! It brews up a lovely brown-ish red, and carries it’s heavenly scent over to the steeped tea.

Drinking it, it made me really happy. Lemon and sweet and a little earthy. I brewed this up because I wanted more tea, but no more caffeine, since I’ve had more than my share today. I wasn’t actually looking forward to this one much before I opened the package, but now I’m glad I got it.

YUM!!!

Wow. Opening this package was a treat. It smelled fruity and dark and almost sexy. Yum! No one note stood out to me, but the blend of aromas was a treat.

The dark and the sexy left when it was brewed up, but the fruity remained now coupled with a high sweet note.

I was surprised by the color. It contains hibiscus and beetroot – but it wasn’t as deep red as I thought I’d see. Just a pretty light red shade.

Taste-wise, it’s very pleasant. Light and fruity. The apple and plum blend together well, and personally I can barely taste the hibiscus. I think this may be a little wussy for an iced tea, but I’m enjoying it hot.

Very subtle, very mild. Tiny tiny fruit hints at the beginning of a sip, with a nice green finish. I like this a lot. Which is funny since I tend to prefer the more bold flavors.

After reading everyone’s rave reviews, there was no way I could not order this tea when I put in an order with SpecialTeas.

But my first experience with the tea was not the most positive. I brewed up a cup last night, and while the scent of the tea was LOVELY, the cup itself? It was bitter. I could taste the nutty cinnamon cookie goodness that everyone raved about, but it was overshadowed with the bitter bite of overbrewed tea. I’d even timed it this time (I admit, I usually forget and just wing it on steeping times).

So, before coming out here and writing a meh review, I tried it again this morning. Much better. I steeped it a much shorter time (2.5 rather than 3 minutes) and added a little less tea to my brew.

Much better. I understand now the extreme NOM factor previously stated. I’m glad I went ahead and actually ordered a full 1/4 lb of this one rather than just a sample.

It’s a pretty liquor once brewed. And it has a nice scent to it, althought I wouldn’t have come up with “overtones of pear” without reading the company description.

I can’t come up with many descriptive terms around the black teas yet – I’m still learning about them. I know I like this. I know I’m going to enjoy drinking the sample I got. It may be complex, I’m not sure. It is however, yummy, and that’s pretty much what I’ve got to go with – right? :)

My father got me a gift certificate to SpecialTeas for Christmas, and I got myself a TON of teas. (Two sampler packs, 6 samples, and a few other 1/4 lb packages). (I warn you now, I’ll be rating a lot of SpecialTea over the next few days. )

This tea is one I picked because aside from Candy Cane Lane, my current favorite ever tea is Strawberry Lemonade from Teavana. So I thought, hey, let’s try something similar from SpecialTeas.

The tea is yummy. Really yummy. The aroma is subtle, and I’d prefer a little more in that arena, but the taste makes up for it. You can definitely taste the lemon-lime-y-ness of it. I can see myself making pitchers of this in the summer, iced with a bit of sweetener and having it be the savior of a hot, sticky, nasty day.

I still prefer the Strawberry Lemonade Teavana flavor, but that’s because it’s a hint sweeter. However, I really like this, and can see having both of these teas around for a long time.