Erin

YES! More cream cheese!

have you tried any teas that have a really strong cream cheese or cheesecake flavor?

Nope. Not one. :(

It’s the fat content that really makes the cheesecake and cream cheese as amazing as they are. You might consider adding some sweetened condensed milk to make it really creamy and rich.

I’d just prefer there be more cream cheese:)

You make this sound soo good! Thanks to you and Cofftea I think I may have to start trying more flavored teas.

@ Josh I agree Erin’s post had me looking for a sweet afternoon treat.

@Josh if you’re looking to try some flavored teas, stay away from Adagio’s flavored blacks. their flavored whites are really good (my favorite is their White Blueberry). everything i’ve had from 52teas has been good, plus they have free shipping!

Josh, as much as I respect Erin, her opinions, and her right to have her own tastes- I’d really suggest forming your own opinions of teas. I love trying teas that people say “Don’t try!”- a lot of the time I’m glad I did.

Second the whole stay away from Adagio’s flavored. I think it depends how strong you like your flavored teas. 52teas is a bit too light for me (light as in the flavors too weak). It definitely taste / smells like what it’s advertising, but I wish the flavor was a bit stronger. So you like Jasmine, so you can probably stand floral tea. Teavana perhaps? Or give Golden Moon’s sampler of 31 teas for $20 a try. They have a wide variety of flavored teas there.

Cofftea is right too. I mean you might end up liking Adagio’s flavored teas. They do have some decent ones.

Ricky, YES to the whole lighter thing (i.e. this one) w/ 52teas. And YES to the GM sampler which I’m still coveting. =D

Ahh, Cofftea and Ricky have made me see the error of my ways. Of course try everything; form your own opinions!

@52teas – I’ll try the sweetened milk idea. Thanks for the suggestion!

Josh, Adagio has some amazing jasmine teas.

No, no Erin. I’m totally with you. I tell people to stay away from Adaigo’s flavored black as well. The way I see it, there are some decent Adagio flavored teas, but you can get a lot better flavored teas for around the same price with another company.

Better is so flippin relevent though:) I personally don’t like flavored blacks (other than chai) so I haven’t tried a lot of them, but the ones I have tried have been good for me. So you can either take that as “She has no clue what she’s talking about” or “Wow! Even she likes this!”=D

Yes, in the end it really depends on the person =]

I second Ricky’s latest comment! And I agree with Cofftea on their jasmine.

Can I chime in with my two cents so late in the day? Josh, if you get a chance, try Harney’s flavored blacks – I recently re-discovered them and am loving them (Paris, Florence, etc).

Wow.. when I first saw this, I did a double-take. Cream Cheese Danish?! This sounds so interesting :)

Well, I think Erin is spot on with her description of Adagio’s flavored blacks, and it is completely acceptable and DESIRABLE that people on Steepster make recommendations about which teas to try (and conversely, which to avoid). Not sure why anyone would get in arms about that, especially on what is essentially a tea review site. There’s no reason why someone should have to freaking apologize for their comment about a tea they don’t like and wouldn’t recommend. Just my two cents.

@Erin Your description of this tea made me want raspberry cheesecake! Hmm…I wonder if the nearby grocery store has any…

@ Erin, Cofftea, Ricky, and Lauren
Thank you so much for the debate on flavored teas. When I think of drinking a flavored tea I really want it to pop, otherwise what would really be the point. I have been looking at 52 Teas website today for the first time and they have a few things that really stuck out to me. I also had a look at the Golden Moons Sampler but it doesn’t list what teas come with the extraordinary 31 flavor sampler. Is there a good variety of their flavored teas in that sampler? Also how many cups do you get from one of those samples?
I will most likely order some from both places just because I have never had tea from either one and just try them out for myself.

Josh, it doesn’t list what comes with it, because it’s their whole collection. They give you every single of the their teas they have to offer so browse their website or Steepster.

Isn’t that great though? All the teas from a company? =] Use coupon code Steepster to get free shipping.

Josh- Yeah 52teas’ blends are pretty amazing. EVERY one of their teas that they carry come w/ the sampler. That’s why everyone that has tried it loves it and everyone that hasn’t covets it!=D As for the size of the samples, they very- some as tiny as ~1.8g unfortunately. :(

They have plain teas and flavored ones. I think what’s great about the sampler is that it gives you a good variety / understanding of all their teas and the company. Each sampler gives you about one to two cups. Of course you can get multiple infusions from each one.

Honestly, where else can you get 31 teas for $20? That’s .65 cents a cup of tea. Free shipping too =]

Hey Josh! Golden Moons Sampler has all of them (31) – Coconut Pouchong, Vanilla Mint, French Breakfast, Nepalese Afternoon Tea, White Ginger Rose, White Tea, Imperial Formosa Oolong, Madagascar Vanilla, Lapsang Souchong, Sugar Caramel Oolong, White Licorice, Snow Sprout, Jasmine, Temple of Heaven Gunpowder, White Persian Melon, Sencha, Orchid Temple Oolong, Honey Pear, Jasmine Pearls, Kashmiri Chai, Tippy Earl Grey, Pu-erh Chai, Darjeeling, Moroccan Mint, Sinharaja, Organic Green Tea, Pu-erh, English Breakfast, Vanilla Jasmine, Irish Breakfast (Special Reserve), RoseTea. Also – just ONE serving. (just got mine this week!). I ordered from 52 Teas but haven’t received it yet :( good luck!

@Ricky, even cheaper if you resteep!=D

As for serving size, since there are mixed results. I just weighted two samplers I have laying around. So HMPH!

Pu-erh => 8.7g
Sugar Caramel Oolong => 9.8g

Anyways, a serving depends on the person. One serving to me is 12oz of water, two teaspoons of tea. I like my tea to be strong and bold. When I was talking about the samplers, I was saying you could make 1-2 6oz servings with them.

2.5g is generally a serving and that’s for 6oz of water. You can stretch that to 8oz of water if you want. I think most of us just wing it when it comes to loose leaves.

Well you guys have sold me on the Golden Moons sampler, that just seems like a deal that no one should pass up. Especially someone who is fairly new to the tea world and wants to know more and more. One to two cups per sample is perfect for me because I usually re-steep at least once and sometimes twice. I will have to take another gander at 52 Teas teas and see if anything there really grabs me.

For me the pu erh would make a ~8oz cup, but that’s a lot of leaf, so I’d get 4 2oz servings out of it. Except for pu erh and Japanese greens, a serving for me is 2.25g/6oz. Unlike Ricky, I don’t wing it. I’m very type A when it comes to my tea… which is strange cuz I’m not excessively type A in ANY other area of my life lol!

Haha, that’s why I wrote most because I knew you didn’t wing it, cofftea =]

Woaps, was it 2.25? I keep thinking it’s 2.5 for some reason. I guess it’s a rounder number.

Success! Josh will join the Golden Moon Sampler fun. Can’t wait to read those reviews.

Yeah, that pu-erh would make an 8oz cup. 1oz per g for pu-erh. Oh the complications of tea =P

Another GM sampler convert! YAY!

And that’d give you as many as 12 infusions per cup. That’d be just under 2 cents/infusion for me!=D

Ricky, yep it’s 2.25. An even 3g for an 8oz cup.

Yay! Keep the posts coming. This is going to be the most popular tea soon enough also the convert Josh to GM thread. Where’s teaplz now!?!?

How do you guys go about figuring out your g/oz ratio, or is it all just trial and error to your liking?

Erin is probably laughing at us because this did start out as a 52teas tealog!

I stick w/ the standard for teas that don’t have unique authentic steeping parameters (so far Japanese greens and pu erh are the only ones I know of that do). I’d suggest starting there for a reference point and then going up or down as need be.

Haha! Oh yeah Lauren! I forgot lol:)

Oh, that’s a general rule. I just do one heaping teaspoon for 8oz of water.

If you don’t know what to do, the rules are 2.25g (corrected by cofftea) for 6oz and pu-erh is a 1g to 1oz of water ratio.

@ Lauren
Yeah I thinking this should be a Discussion thread…

@ Cofftea
Cool, thanks.

Haha, what? I thought this was a Golden Moon tealog! So sorry Frank! We still love your teas, well some of them, drools pina colada

Shoot – sorry, I killed the buzz ….! mea culpa!

Nooooo! It’s so close from being the most popular tealog! Don’t let it die guys! Josh any further questions?

I noted your general-rule-of-thumb for my own edification, too! Thanks!

Well since this is a 52 Teas log, what would you guys recommend for some good 52 Teas to try? Some that aren’t too wild but just overall great teas.

Pina Colada (Flavored Honeybush)
Buttered Cinnamon Toast (Must get me some!) (Flavored Black)
Malted Chocomate (Flavored mate)

=] Well these are the ones I’d consider repurchasing.

I was thinking the Apple Pie a la Mode, Razzleberry Green, Pomegranate Honeybush (maybe,) Banana Peach Green, and the Banana Split sounds pretty crazy.

Josh, send me a PM, I’ll send you some 52teas.

Just ordered (7 days ago!) Cucumber Melon Green Tea, Pomegranate Green Tea, Pomegranate White Tea, Razzleberry Green Tea but have NOT gotten it yet.

Josh, back to the “how do you get your general rule?” statement… I know it doesn’t have anything to do w/ flavored teas (well only in small part), but here are great places to start for the different Japanese teas:
http://www.denstea.com/index.php?main_page=perfect_brewing

Really! Wow, best day ever.

Welcome to Steepster ;) We’re here to help =]

Dens is amazing.

Oh I have that website bookmarked from one of your other posts containing it :)

@ Lauren
Hopefully you get those soon, they sound pretty good. I should be getting my Four Seasons Oolong from Samovar on Saturday, I’m super excited.

@ Cofftea
Thanks for the link.

I forgot to mention that flavored pu erh is exempt from my 1g/1oz rule, I don’t rinse it either- I treat it as a black tea (at least the one I’ve tried so far) Oh I should mention that my “general rule” for measuring teas also does not apply to chais. For that I use one heaping teaspoon per 6oz. For my absolute favorite chia EVER which just happens to be 52teas’ Mayan Chocolate Chai, that’s 4g/6oz water or milk or a combo of both.

I ordered from Samovar, too – I wonder when I will get it? Love that teeny-tiny teapot!

oops chai, not chia:)

Can’t talk about Chai’s – am utter failure at chai’s so far.

The only chai I’ve made was a Masala Chai and I used 2 heaping teaspoons of the chai in 16oz water then while that was brewing I added 16oz of soy milk. It was mighty tasty. Although maybe next time I will use more chai…

I’d personally at least double it, anywhere from 4-5 1/2 tsp (I prefer 5 1/2 tsp)- especially if you’re adding milk.

Wow. I thought it was an error that this log had this many replies. Either that or I was in trouble for something and people were upset about it. :)

I shouldn’t say this, because all of our teas are great, but since the question was asked, I’ll tell you some of MY favorites of our blends. I do, however, have to preface the list by saying that while this may sound blasphemous, I am largely an iced tea drinker. I grew up in the deep south, and I drink iced tea year round. I’m now in Wichita, KS and we get our share of cold, but I’m still an iced tea drinker whether it’s 110-degrees out or -20-degrees. So, for some really spectacular ICED teas, I highly recommend:

Pina Colada Honeybush
Banana Peach Green Tea
Black Currant White Tea
Shamrock Blend
ANY of our Pomegranate blends (I know pomegranate is kind of ho hum and not as exciting as some of our other offerings, but I personally think our pomegranate blends are three times better than any of our competitors. We use REAL freeze dried pomegranate arils in each of them (and they are not cheap, but I think it really makes a big difference)).

Anyway, those are some of my favorites.

Yes, those Pomegranate teas are very tempting indeed. I’ve never had a Pomegranate tea before but I am a fan of the Pomegranate fruit so when I go to get some stuff from your site I will definitely be looking really closely at those blends! :)

okay WHOA! i went away to put on my PJs, take off my makeup, and brush my teeth and i come back and steepster says i have 42 new notices. and they were all for this tasting note! i nearly died laughing! I’m not even going to try to respond on all the topics that have been covered here, but I’ll respond to the latest topic – 52teas. I have only recently started getting into them with a lot of help from Ricky, but so far my favorite has been Malted ChocoMate.

Also, this was my 100th tasting note! Way to make it a huge deal!!! Hahahaha!

Frank, Thanks so much for the recommendations for iced and for me getting my 52Teas order in today! It’s just starting to warm up here in Texas and I was thinking about what teas I could start making Iced so this post came in a timely manner for me.

Josh, also check out www.zoomdweebies.com and www.manteas.com (co companies of 52teas).

ahaha, congrats on the 100th note. Glad we could assist in the huge deal! You missed out on quite a bit in those couple hours you were gone.

Back from packing tea! This is Steepster’s most popular tea log now. Success!

http://steepster.com/popular/all

Erin, you should totally chime back in:)

I wish there was a quick way to find that link like there used to be… :(

@Cofftea. Thanks for the links. I’m so embarrassed by zoomdweebies.com right now. We are working on a major overhaul of the site. Right now it is buggy and just not the site I would like for it to be, but soon….

And the manteas.com site almost requires a warning. It’s a bit colorful and edgy. It’s all done tongue in cheek and intended to be completely satirical, but I have had a few people tell me they were deeply offended by some of the content there. But yes, 52teas and ManTeas are both brands of Zoomdweebie’s, LLC

AWESOME! Hooray for the most popular note ever! And to think it all happened while I was getting ready for bed.

I’m aiming for 100 comments to honor your 100th post.

52teas, just consider this a multi-authored comment/suggestion form for your teas LOL=D

Hahaha that’d be really cool. But it’s kind of like cheating if we just keep posting about how this is getting really long [that’s what she said?]. I say we actually talk about tea here, to make it legit.

Absolutely- and since you missed out on 3hrs worth, that’s a lot of catching up to do=D Jason, the 2 manteas I’ve tried were smoky bacon and beer- both are amazing

One more thing, the [that’s what she said?] joke was absolutely amazing! I actually lol’ed when I read that. :)

Erin okay I’ll bite. I got in my first 52Teas order in today which consists of Malted chocomate and Buttered Raisin Bread. I can’t wait for morning so I can try them !

Josh – Thanks. I’ve been told I’m a master. [you know what to say here]

We’re working on t-shirts with the manteas.com logo. They are going to say, “Real men drink bacon tea” on the front and have our new ManTeas logo on the back. I’ve already got a few people clamoring for them.

Chelsea actually wants one in a ladies cut tee.

SoccerMom – I also got my first order today! It had the Raisin Toast (which I haven’t tried yet but I am so excited for) and the now infamous Raspberry Cream Cheese Danish. Although I’ve tried the Malted ChocoMate from Ricky and it’s one of my top favorites!

I’m gonna laugh my butt off if a 52teas/manteas/zoomdweebies tea is the SS item for tomorrow.

@52teas, How about a shirt that says “My man’s man enough to drink tea!”?

Yeah! If that ever happens I might not be able to resist!

@Cofftea – This kind of goes along with the thread about how men are now starting to drink more tea, but I never really thought of tea as being a girly drink. I know lots of guys from back home in Princeton that drink tea.

@Cofftea, no SS tomorrow. Jason is waiting on some pictures from me. We could totally do the “My man” thing too. Have you guys seen our new logo? It’s really ridiculous. I think it’s hysterical, tho again, some have been offended. It’s on the website: http://www.manteas.com

@cofftea, could you imagine if they made your saying on a pink tee shirt! hee hee

When are you restocking those matchas?

@52teas – HAHAHAHA! I just looked at your new logo! It’s brilliant! I can see how some people would be offended by it, but you can’t please everyone. I literally LOL-ed at that one!

@ Erin, I never really saw drinking tea as a girly thing either, but I do understand where it comes from. I mean little girls growing up were always having their tea parties with invisible tea…

@ 52teas, I think that manteas logo is brilliant! If you made a shirt with that logo on it I would definitely have to get one.

@52teas, you know how many times I’ve been on your site (daily) and I just now got your logo… facepalm…

SoccerMom, eh wouldn’t be too off the wall since it would be a woman wearing the shirt and not a man- well unless it was a man in a homosexual relationship.

@Ricky, some way too honest for my own good truth: I only have maybe a couple of pounds of matcha left right now, and I have an open invoice with my supplier I have to take care of before I can get some more. LOL. (I’m sick today guys, so forgive me if I’m stupid). Anyway, I was trying to decide whether to reblend the Mandarin Matcha (which would also require more freeze dried orange sections I don’t have) or create a new matcha blend. I’ve finally settled on the latter, and we got some freeze-dried strawberry powder. (Literally, it is powder). We are going to make a strawberry matcha next. I should have it on the site in the next week or so.

Ditto Ricky’s comment! Or better yet, new ones! Art of tea has a ginger matcha and there’s a Canadian company coming out w/ a bunch of flavored matchas as well.

Strawberry matcha? I am sold! Save one for me!

HOLY FRICKIN CRAP! Thank you for picking one I’d like! I wasn’t too thrilled about the idea of a banana matcha. How about an orange strawberry blend?

Strawberry Matcha?? Yes! :D

Maybe after we get the t-shirts in, I can get Jason to run them as a SS item. LOL

Strawberry matcha! I want some of that. The orange strawberry sounds like it may be a good blend as well.

You should help them make some Steepster swag while you are at it =]

You know what this whole epic tasting note thing has made me realize? Steepster should have a chat feature! PMing is great, but you can’t converse with more than one person easily.

Yay Erin for 100th!!!

Okay, so I just lost my little online poker tournament (non-cash) I was playing while keeping up with this, and now I am going to take my sick and weary behind to bed. Goodnight all.

Erin, that was suggested a long time ago and I totally ditto that!=D

I just finished packing a few tea packages so I’m out as well. Erin weren’t you getting ready for bed an hour ago? Haha =P

Goodnight Frank!

HOLY FRICKIN CRAP! Steepster Select item is perfect for my type A tea self! One of the few times I will be caving.

Good Night!

Ricky, ready for and ready to go to are 2 different things:)

@Ricky – Yep! Haha I’m all ready now, but now my mind is full of 52teas thoughts and cheesy TWSS jokes. Oh well.

@Cofftea – I would, but I don’t have an iPod or iPhone!

@ Cofftea – have you checked out the Teavana app? It was free on itunes/app store.

Haha, I would aside for the fact that my darn iPhone is too slow! I use this for my mac.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/calculate_convert/minutes.html

Comes in handy at work =]

Ah crap! I didn’t read the iPhone/iPod part… great… now I’m extremely pissed and depressed :-,t have do buy it in the next 24 hrs…

No mac but use google timer app on my laptop and have teavana timer on ipod.

I like Teavanas app, it just sits on my phone and it doesn’t do a thing =]

So we went from 52teas to Adagio to Golden Moon to 52teas to Teavana?

W/ mentions of pu erh (hello Bana Tea Co sampler!) and Den’s!=D

Ricky, I use that one too!

Yes, but it has pretty pictures! LOL

Ha, I was thinking of bringing Bana Tea’s pu-erh to work tomorrow and have my co-workers help me finish one off. That means I’ll have to jot down some notes so I can write a tea log later in the evening.

I have so much tea, yet also so little! I don’t know how this strange dynamic works.

If I stay here any longer I will end up sleeping at 4am, uhoh. Going to get ready for bed as well.

G’Night ALL!

Yeah, I’m going to leave now. Bye!

Night everyone, it was nice hearing all of your great recommendations for flavored tea.

Ricky’s such a party pooper! ;)

Well you said you were getting ready for, not going to bed… you are a little strange for talking in 3rd person though… hehe;)

What the crap happened here?!?! 130 comments…that’s awesome! That has to be some sort of record. Congrats, Erin!

Well we were trying to set a new Steepster World Record. Personally, I wanted to hit that 150 mark after we made it to the 100 ;)

Haha, I was getting tired Cofftea =P

Haha Jason- I actually laughed out loud when I read your comment.

@52teas, Frank PLEASE make sure you change your steeping suggestions on the packaging for your strawberry matcha (and changing the packaging to get rid of the clear would be great too), everyone knows you do not steep matcha for 3 min. That really bothered me to see that…

Awesome threads here guys, love all the comments about flavors to try of 52teas as I really want to place another order with them, but looks like I may be holding out for the strawberry flavored matcha drool! That sounds so fantastic! Great job Erin for the largest comment section ever and happy 100th tasting note!

And the post lives! I hope Frank makes an extra large batch of that matcha!=D

wow is this happening again? haha

Tonight we are trying to hit 200?

Erin, Congrats on your 100th tasting note!