wombatgirl

Yum.. happy afternoon tea!

Ack! I’m out! I’ll need to arrange for a trip to their shop soon. Yum…

Yum. Something mellow for the morning. It’s a wonderful tea. I should probably have something a little more caffeniated, since I’m still kinda out of it, but I couldn’t resist the orange-y yumminess.

I’m being silly – I have a personal rule of never drinking caffeinated tea after 5pm. But my new A&D order came in, and darn it! This means I have to break the rules.

So, even though I read the description of the tea, I for some reason thought this was a flavored tea. So, on opening the tin (with the most awesomeist at-ats ever!!!) i was a little surprised for it to be a blend of black teas rather than black tea with the seasonal spices.

So, flavor-wise. I would not be surprised to find out this is heavily yunnan. It’s very similar to Tiger. Which is a good thing! I’m out of Tiger and I liked Tiger. But, I’m not really thinking it’s very holiday. It’s a brighter blend, and I do taste the small amount of bitterness, almost cranberriness that the other tasters noted.

I tried 2 cups of this – straight and sweetened with cream. The above notes were for the straight tea. Sweetened and with milk? Wow. I love this tea. I can see sitting under the tree with cookies and this tea and being in holiday bliss. Yum. Love it.

Goodbye, oh lovely tea. My packet is now empty. (I’m not officially copying the sip-down of others, but I am trying to empty out the tea cupboard)
Cocoa-y, toasty, and warm.. such a lovely tea. Yum.

Nom. I liked this one a bit. For me it had all the earthy, dark, heavy flavors that I want from a pu-erh, and none of the scary fishtank or aquarium flavors that I really don’t want. I’m on my second western-style steep, and it’s still very flavorful and amazingly dark. Thanks Angrboda!

Needed caffiene this morning. Finishing off my sample of this tea. It’s helping. And I shortened the steep time to two mintues – which helped with the tannic level. And I added sweetener, which made this a really nice cuppa this morning.

Interesting tea. From the smell, I expected a darker and richer flavor. It’s surprisingly green. BUT, it’s really good. The coconut is not artificial, but just smooth and rich. Yum.

Interesting. I want more orange flavor out of this. It’s a very nice pu-erh, and it’s got some nice background fruit flavors, but nothing currently that is a strong orange blood flavor. Which I was really hoping for, as I love blood oranges.

It’s a good tea. I was just hoping for more orange.

I am really beginning to like this tea a lot. What a turn around. From initially thinking it was like Orange Pledge to being something I crave. It’s not a sweet tea, it’s lightly bitter and I think that’s what I like about it. The same thing that draws me into drinking tonic water plain; its got a little bite to it.

The trick with this one is hotter water and SHORT steeps. And I need to get back to Shang Tea to buy more of this.

I’ve tried 4 cups of this in the last 2 days.

I’ve tried using their 6-8 rings per cup idea at higher temps and lower temps. I’ve tried more rings and higher and lower temps.

With 6-8 rings per cup at lower temps, it’s so pale that you can barely tell that tea was steeped. The flavor was VERY delicate. To the point where this un-subtle tea drinker kept eyeballing the glass as if it was kidding.

At higher temps, it was a little stronger, but still very subtle, more astringency.

With more leaf, the astringency was stronger and the flavor was still delicate.

This is just not my cuppa. If any of you would like to swap for it, send me a PM, and we can work something out.

The leaves on this are really pretty.. the little rings are CUTE. However, I’m having a touch of an issue getting it to brew right. The steeping instructions on the site say 6-8 rings per cup with water “a little under boiling”.

Which sounded a little off, so I used that amount, and water at 175. That brew was almost clear and fairly flavorless. So, I’m off to try it at like a 190. We’ll see how that works.

Note to the world – Reddi-Whip is not a good substitution for cream or half and half.

I’m having a bit of Earl Grey fail today. I like my EG with a bit of milk and sugar. My first cup got tossed because I hadn’t noticed the milk was off and there were strange white floaty bits it in.

So, 2nd try, there was nothing in the fridge other than Reddi-Whip. Fine. I’ll try that. Yeah, that wasn’t the best. But it was better than off floaty-bit milk.

Having some of this today, as it’s COLD here in Kansas. I love the red-hots flavor of this tea. YUM. Sweet, spicy and smooth.

Today, I found out definitively this tea is the same as Harney & Sons Hot Cinnamon. I had suspected, but it’s good to know for certain. We went to the shop today for some more, and they were out of loose leaf, but had some H&S boxed sachets. As the husband was seriously craving cinnamon tea, we picked it up, and yes-it’s the same tea. Mystery solved!

This smells AMAZING. Another tea I just want to carry around all day and huff. Oh, it’s wonderful. Flavor wise, it’s not bad either. : ) The almonds are smooth, the peppercorns add a little bit of heat at the finish, and the entire nose reminds me vaguely of marachino cherries. Which I like. Yum.

A nice, easy going tea, perfect for a Sunday morning. I really need to learn more about green pu-erhs, because every one of them that I’ve had has been really good.

needed something yummy on a cold and dreary day. Thought this might be refreshing while not overwhelming.

Needed something to wake me up this morning, and this fit the bill. Unfortunately, it means my sample is gone, but it’s gone to a better place, namely – ME. :)

Meh. Kinda like drinking vaguely tea flavored charcoal briquettes.

I am having tea fail with this tea. My first steep was so light to be almost untaste-able, and the other I over-reacted and oversteeped the other direction so the jasmine is trying to kill me.

It’s all my fault, I didn’t steep correctly. And it was a sample size – so I’ll have to go get more to try it again. SIGH.

Oh! This is what is Pai Mu Tan is supposed to taste like. Got it.

Thanks Angrboda

It’s an orange day today. Maybe I should follow this up with that Pu-erh Orange… anyway, this – as always – is tart and a wake-up call to my tastebuds. Mmmm.

This is a lovely way to start a morning. Mellow, smooth, and orange-y. Yum.