Veronica select Send Message

Dear Veronica,

The next time you get a fruity tea craving at ten o’clock at night please refrain from drinking a tea with the word ‘jolt’ in its name and the word ‘energizer’ printed in large block letters on the bag (even if that tea is in fact very tasty and full of passion fruit and raspberry notes). While the tea might be delicious, being wide awake at three in the morning is not. Of course, being awake at that hour does give you lots of time to reflect on some of the less than brilliant decisions you’ve made in your life. For example, drinking a tea called Passion Berry JOLT right before bed….

XOXO,
Me

Tea of the morning. This was the first unflavored black I laid my hands on when I went to my cupboard, so this is what went in my cup. I do like this tea. There was nice malt and chocolate notes. It’s a medium body tea, and I did wish there was a bit more of a kick to it for my first cup of the day, but it was tasty nonetheless.

Warning: Depressing tea note to follow. If you just want to read about the tea skip to the last paragraph.

I’m behind on my tea notes, so I’m going to start with what I’m drinking now and work backwards from there.

Oh guys, it has been a rough past few days. My daughter’s boyfriend’s father passed away unexpectedly late last week, so this week has been filled with helping young teenagers try to understand the unexplainable. The funeral was yesterday, and it was hard and so, so sad. My daughter and I both came home and slept for hours because we were emotionally drained, and then today I woke her up, made her tea, and watched her walk to the bus stop because life goes on. I’m sure there will be more tears and many more questions, but there will also be more smiles and more joy in the coming days.

Since one of my joys (and comforts) is tea I have been taking my time and enjoying the process of making each cup. This tea has beautiful tea leaves that have a bright jade color while steeping. The flavor is also beautiful. It’s a mix of vegetal and nutty with a bit of dryness at the finish. The nut flavor is a bit like chestnut, but there is another note in there as well that I can’t quite pinpoint. The tea is smooth, slightly creamy, and hints at sweetness. The resteeps are consistent with the first cup but with an even creamier note. Delicious.

To life and the simple joys that make that life beautiful. Cheers.

I think I would have liked this one more if the clove wasn’t so strong. There was a definite pumpkin flavor, which I like, but it was hard to pick out at times because of the clove. I think if the other spices (cinnamon, cardamom, and black peppercorn) held the same weight as the clove this would be an absolute winner for me. As it is, this is just ok.

I needed something high octane to get me moving this morning, so I grabbed my little canister of East Frisian, and I’m thinking it was a wise (and tasty) decision. Even though the dry leaves don’t look like much – broken Asssam leaves and CTC tea – it steeps into a thick malty tea with honey notes and a light lemon-like finish. I decided I wanted a nice builder’s tea today, so I added cream and sugar, and all of the flavors were still noticeable with the additions. Nice.

Last tea of the day. I was in a Darjeeling mood, and this one sounded nice. There is a dry hay note that carries a faint spiciness to it at the beginning of the sip. Then there is the lovely muscadine flavor that I like so much in this tea as well as a light honeysuckle note. A slight dryness comes at the end of the sip.

It’s not a perfect Darjeeling, but it is a very comfortable and comforting one.

Oh, this is nice. It’s grassy and sweet with a strong mineral note right at the end. There’s a hint of a seaweed note, but it is soft and just barely noticeable. The sweetness of the tea is nice. It’s sweet the way spring grass or new hay is sweet. It’s a soft but lingering taste, and I really enjoy it.

The resteeps of this are even smoother than the first cup. Very, very nice.

There is a strong artificial taste to the blueberry, and while I can sometimes handle artificial flavors this one is just too much. There’s also a bitter/tart aftertaste, and I actually had to eat a couple of crackers to make the taste go away.

Nope.

Thank you TeaBrat for sending me this sample! I am very curious about flavored pu-erh, and I have enjoyed the teas I’ve sampled from Nature’s Tea Leaf in the past, so I’m looking forward to giving this tea a try.

Well, this tea pulls no punches. I get the earthy taste of pu-erh and a burst of orange flavor. I’m not getting any other notes. Earth and orange. It works, and I’m enjoying my cup. I really like citrus flavored teas, but I also like how the deep earth note of the pu-erh keeps the orange from being too much. As the tea cools I keep trying to find a chocolate note in here even though there isn’t one. My mind is trying to pin this tea down as something it recognizes, but these flavor combinations are new to me in a good and interesting way. I’m grateful that TeaBrat gave me such a generous sample because I want to try this tea again.

My daughter chose this as her after school tea, and she asked me to share a pot of it with her. I love sitting and talking to her about her day over cups of tea. This tea is sweet and fully of juicy strawberry notes. There is also a good bit of vanilla which adds a creaminess to the tea and a nice rich flavor. It’s a really nice tea and one I’ll continue ordering from Zen Tea for as long as they have it in stock.