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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.