Josie Jade Send Message

This dry tea smells wonderfully of sweet plum, and the tea’s aroma is rich and earthy. The first sip is of a nice, tart plum. Then out of nowhere comes this nasty artificial aftertaste, yuck! There’s very little oolong noticeable, the flavor is mainly of plum. Everything leading up is wonderful, but I can’t get over that aftertaste. I actually didn’t even finish the cup. Sad!

-Dry blend has large black tea leaves with pieces of dried fruit.
-Dry leaves smell lightly of sweet plum. Tea liquor aroma is of rich and earthy plum.
-Tea liquor is a clear medium reddish purple color.
-Tart plum flavor and finish. Strong artificial aftertaste.
-Best with sweetener.
-Poor tea. Tart plum flavor with an unfortunately strong artificial aftertaste.

Today is going to be a good day! I’m meeting two of my best friends in Raleigh for dinner tonight, and doing a little tea shopping beforehand! I’m also skipping my one class today. We can only miss three days, so I’ve decided today is a good day to start my Easter a little early. :)

This tea smells so strongly of sweet blueberries. When I first got this tea from Angelina’s I had it sitting in the kitchen in it’s little package. Everyone who came through our kitchen thought that I was baking blueberry muffins, that’s how strong the aroma is. This is very simple in that it has one flavor – blueberry. It’s not an artificial blueberry, it’s a fresh, juicy, sweet blueberry that is light and perfect in this green tea.

-Dry blend has large rolled green tea leaves with small blue petals.
-Dry leaves smell strongly of sweet blueberries. Tea liquor aroma is of blueberries.
-Tea liquor is a clear medium yellow color.
-Light fresh blueberry flavor and finish.
-Best with sweetener.
-Very good tea. Juicy blueberry flavor. A light and refreshing cup.

Last cup of the day. This is the third tea that I purchased at Carytown Teas. I was a little hesitant about this tea since it has rose hips in it, and for some reason I always associate those with hibiscus. But I like the rose petals, lavender, raisins and dried berries that are in this tea. And I’ve been liking rooibos more, so I figured I would try it. The dry leaves smell like rooibos and sweet berries; and the tea’s aroma is fruity. This tea is a lot more mellow than I was expecting – there is a subdued fruity flavor with a lavender finish. I’m getting a light floral and berry aftertaste with a hint of rooibos, but not too bad. I added sweetener and a little milk and the tea is very good with both, especially for a cup right before bed. I’ve literally drank my whole cup in just a few minutes while trying to figure out the flavors in this tea – there’s a lot going on! It’s not my favorite, but it’s different in a good way from what I was expecting from this tea.

-Dry blend has red rooibos with pieces of dried fruits and lavender and rose petals.
-Dry blend smells like rooibos and sweet berries. Tea liquor aroma is fruity.
-Tea liquor is a clear medium reddish orange color.
-Mellow fruity flavor with a lavender finish. Light floral and berry aftertaste with a hint of rooibos.
-Best with sweetener. Milk optional.
-Good tea. Sweet and fruity with a hint of lavender. A good bedtime tea.

Another tea from Angelina’s. I gave some of this to my mom and she has told me three times how good it is, so I figured it was time for me to try it. The dry blend is really pretty and fluffy, with large pieces of dried fig and a lot of blue and yellow petals. There seems to be more petals than tea, but it is very nice to look at. The dry leaves smell strongly of sweet fig. It’s almost to the point of smelling like cough syrup, I think because it’s so much sweet fruit smell in the little bag. The tea itself has a sweet grapey aroma, and the tea is a brownish-purple color. The flavor is a little earthy, with a hint of sweet fig. The aftertaste is a rich, candy-like grape flavor. I mean, this tea tastes just like a grape popsicle. It’s pretty good. Grape isn’t my most favorite flavor, but I’ve never tasted a tea like this; very unique!

-Dry blend has large black tea leaves with large pieces of dried fig and a lot of blue and yellow petals.
-Dry leaves smell overwhelmingly of sweet fig. Tea liquor aroma is of grapes.
-Tea liquor is a cloudy medium brown purple color.
-Earthy, rich and sweet fig flavor and finish. Strong candy grape aftertaste that lingers.
-Best with sweetener. Milk optional.
-Very good tea. Uniquely sweet flavor. Reminiscent of grape candy.

This week has been wonderful so far . . . I found out on Monday that I have been accepted to nursing school and will start in the fall! I wasn’t expecting to find out for quite a while, so it was a very pleasant surprise! Tomorrow I’m going to dinner with two of my best friends, and Friday my mom and I are having an afternoon tea. And Sunday is Easter, which is one of the best holidays ever in my opinion. :)

I’m starting today off with this Russian Earl Grey from Angelina’s Teas. The dry leaves smell like really tart lemon and orange, and the tea smells the same except it has a hint of sweet orange. The flavor is tart and citrusy, but there’s a mellowness to it. The aftertaste is of really bitter lemon, but adding milk and sweetener helps with this. With milk and sweetener it becomes a cup with more of a black tea flavor with just a little hint of citrusy sweetness. It’s different than a regular Earl Grey because it has more of an authentic, sour lemon flavor and less of the overwhelming bergamot taste. I like this one, it’s nice and soothing. A gentle cup to wake up with.

-Dry blend has large greenish black tea leaves and pieces of lemon grass with large pieces of lemon and orange peel and blue flowers.
-Dry leaves smell like tart lemon and orange. Tea liquor aroma is of tart and sweet citrus fruit.
-Tea liquor is a clear medium golden brown color.
-Mellow and tart citrus flavor and finish. Bitter lemony aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Very good tea. A sweet and mellow lemony cup.

I picked up this blend at Angelina’s without really knowing what it is. Now that I know, I like the sound of it – cinnamon, mango and passionfruit! The dry leaves smell entirely of mango and sweet passionfruit. The tea itself has a tropical, fruity aroma. The flavor is fruity with a strong malty mango finish. There’s a light tart and fruity aftertaste. I’m really not tasting any cinnamon in this tea. The difference between this tea without milk and sweetener and with is like night and day. Without, the flavors are all sharp and far apart, but with it becomes a really smooth, flowy cup full of soft and sweet fruitiness. And I can detect a very faint touch of cinnamon, or more like the warm, dull spiciness from the cinnamon. The milk and sweetener saved this tea for me!

-Dry blend has medium black and green tea leaves with pieces of dried fruit, cinnamon bark and yellow petals.
-Dry leaves smell like mango and passionfruit. Tea liquor aroma is of sweet tropical fruit with a hint of cinnamon.
-Tea liquor is a clear medium orange brown color.
-Fruity flavor with a malty mango finish. Light tart fruity aftertaste with a faint warmness of cinnamon.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Good tea. A smooth and sweet fruit flavored cup.

Ugh, this weather. I suppose I shouldn’t complain since so many Steepsters to the North are still getting snowed in, but this cold weather is just so abnormal for the South at this point in the year. When we went out to dinner last night I saw some older lady in shorts and a tank top and she looked so crazy (and cold)! Now, to her credit, it was in the almost-70’s last week and I think she was just really confused, like the rest of us, bless her heart.

Since we are having such a dreary, wet, cold day I’m having a cup of a little something tropical to warm me up. My tea doesn’t look exactly like the picture, because my coconut pieces are a really bright green color!? I imagine it’s just from being mixed in with the green tea and am hoping it doesn’t kill me :) The tea has that really fresh coconut aroma. The flavor and finish are mostly of green tea and the coconut comes in afterwards. It’s a creamy coconut taste that is more of fresh coconut than sweetened coconut. I tried adding a little sweetener to see if that would bring out the coconut more and it didn’t really help. This tea is alright. I think that I just love coconut a lot, so I like for it to really stand out in a tea. If the flavor of this tea had more of the creamy coconut in it, rather than just the very end aftertaste I think it would be perfect!

-Dry blend has large flat green tea leaves and twigs with small pieces of dried coconut.
-Dry leaves smell like green tea with a hint of coconut. Tea liquor aroma is of fresh coconut.
-Tea liquor is a cloudy bright medium yellow color.
-Vegetal green tea flavor and finish. Light creamy coconut aftertaste.
-Best with sweetener.
-Fair tea. Very subtle fresh coconut flavor.

Uhm so, something very odd just happened. I had picked up a package of Queen Mary tea from The Secret Tea Room a while ago and decided to have a cup today. After reading the description of this particular tea, and the descriptions of several other Queen Mary teas, I was expecting a nice, malty tea with some floral notes. Ohhh, this tea was so not that. It had those little tiny granules of tea leaves with a whole bunch of large pieces of dried spices (cinnamon bark, maybe, and some other thing that I’ve seen before but can’t remember what it is, it looks like marshmallow root maybe?) I thought, well maybe this is just their adapted version of a Queen Mary blend. So I steeped it, and it was terrible. Alright, maybe not terrible, but just so not what I was expecting. I had anticipated sweet, warming maltiness and instead had some borderline bitter tea with a strange, icky spiciness to it. I am sad because, 1. I couldn’t even finish the tea; and 2. I feel like I can’t even really rate it because I don’t even know what tea it was. I think TSTR obviously mislabeled this one, and I will ask them the next time that I go in. It will drive me crazy until then, though! Has this ever happened to anyone else???

So, after that mess, I am really in need of a tea that is exactly what it says it is. I’m trying this Prince of Wales blend that TeaRunner sent out for our “The American Heiress” book club. She even sent along a little printout about the tea from the Culinary Tea’s website, which is so helpful! This tea is a pretty blend of medium black tea leaves and those cute little rolled gunpowder balls. There’s also some little blue and orange flower petals. The dry leaves smell like fruity black currant, while there is a lovely black tea and sweet fruit aroma from the tea itself. This is a really nice tea with a thick, malty flavor. The finish is very robust, and almost bitter, but good. The black currant comes out very lightly in the aftertaste, but it’s there. This one sort of reminds me of Harney and Son’s Black Currant, but I think theirs is just a little more smooth and rounded. I do appreciate that this one is so flavorful, though. It would be a great tea to get you going in the morning! Thank you TeaRunner for this one!

-Dry blend has medium black tea leaves and twigs and dark green rolled gunpowder tea with small blue and orange petals.
-Dry leaves smell lightly of fruity black currant. Tea liquor aroma is of black tea and sweet fruit.
-Tea liquor is a clear dark orange brown color.
-Thick malty flavor with a very robust and almost bitter finish. Light currant aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Very good tea. Really flavorful with a light black currant note.

We went out to dinner tonight, so I decided mint tea would be just the thing right now. This tea is probably a little older, I can’t remember exactly when I got it but it has to have been a while, since we don’t have a Spice & Tea Exchange in our town. I was surprised to see when I was making this tea that it has gunpowder green tea and mint in it – not just mint. It smells really strongly of fresh mint, but the tea itself has a nice green tea and mint aroma. This is a nice balance of flavors. It’s not too overwhelmingly mint, and it’s a heavier sort of tea. There is a nice little cooling mint aftertaste, but again, it’s not in-your-face mintiness. The label says that it’s great as an iced tea too, and I can believe it. I think it would also be good to have on hand for when you’re not feeling well. It’s a nicely refreshing cup.

-Dry blend has a mixture of small pieces of green tea and mint leaves.
-Dry leaves smell strongly of fresh mint. Tea liquor aroma is of green tea and mint.
-Tea liquor is a clear dark yellow color.
-Heavy vegetal and mint flavor and finish. Light cooling mint aftertaste.
-Best with sweetener.
-Very good tea. A nice refreshing balance of mint and green tea.

I’ve enjoyed this tea many times at The Secret Tea Room, and this is the first time that I am making some at home. I don’t know why, but I just really love this tea. Maybe it’s because I’m enthralled with the show of the same name, or maybe it’s because it reminds me of cold, snowy days and having lunch at TSTR with a pot of this to warm us up; I don’t know. The dry leaves smell pretty plain, just very lightly of an ordinary black tea. The tea itself, however, smells warmly of wonderful, fruity jam. This is a very robust black tea that is almost a little bitter, but it’s not quite there. The best part is the sweet and malty fruity aftertaste. I like this tea best with milk and sweetener. At TSTR, I’ve always had this tea with white sugar and milk. At home I always use Stevia and I was a little worried that I wouldn’t love this tea as much without the white sugar. No worries there – it is just as good with stevia! This tea is everything that I like in a black tea – strong, malty and a little bit of a sweet fruit flavor that can stand up to milk. Perfect!

-Dry blend has small black tea leaves and twigs.
-Dry leaves smell lightly of black tea. Tea liquor aroma is of fruity jam.
-Tea liquor is a clear deep reddish brown color.
-Robust and almost bitter black tea flavor and finish. Lightly sweet malty and fruity aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Excellent tea. Perfect black tea with a hint of fruity jam.