ashmanra Send Message

May 21 Sipdown Challenge Prompt – International Tea Day!

Today I decided to drink as much tea as I want, as late as I want. I want to fully celebrate this day!

I began with this tea for first breakfast, a tortilla egg bake eaten on the covered part of the patio. To my surprise, Ashman came home to answer an SOS from Superanna, whose a/c had gone out, so we ended up sharing the pot together before he left for the hour trip to her house.

As he was leaving, I saw the lights in the house go out and heard a transformer blow. Thankfully we are on the hospital grid and only lost power for 12 minutes, which was good because I planned more tea drinking! I would have had to resort to just the cold steep in the fridge otherwise.

This tea was a gift from Superanna. I love both the green and the black versions. How can caramel, red fruits, and vanilla go wrong? The sencha base is very nice, not too grassy or sour. It was really nice and refreshing.

Sipdown

I like this one best full strength and not making a resteep and combining the two. You seem to get more rich chocolate that way. Some teas I don’t notice a big change in flavor doing the “two steeps and combine” method, but I do with this one.

I am not the world’s biggest fan of Earl Grey but I do like it on a Keemun or other base with deeper notes, and I also like it with orange, cream, or vanilla flavor added. The chocolate was good, too, and I shared a sample with a friend who adores almost all Earl Grey and she really loved it.

These were a Mother’s Day gift from Ashman. I have been out of jasmine pearls for a while and really only loved Teavivre’s but I told him I wanted to try these since they are a new offering. They have previously only been available in the Piccadilly location.

My complaint against Harney’s Dragon Pearls is that I don’t care for the base. The jasmine seems okay, but the green tea is harsh and sharp to me. The attraction of the Teavivre Premium Jasmine Dragon Pearls was that I love their jasmine teas pretty much across the board (they have many) and I liked the base a lot. It was calm in a cup.

I made three steeps of this. It was sipped beside my wall of jasmine vine on the patio from a tiny bamboo hat cup. The instructions call for boiling water and I wasn’t brave enough to do that on my first try with these. I used 175F, and for reference Teavivre calls for 185F for theirs. I steeped for three minutes.

I am so glad we got these! The base is just right for me. The jasmine is a little lighter than I expected and probably lighter than Teavivre’s, but it is possible that increasing the temp to what F&M calls for would bring out more jasmine. I am very happy with the base on all three steeps. The jasmine was almost all gone in the third steep but the green tea was nice.

I will try it again using their parameters now that I know I don’t have to tame a sharp green tea to enjoy it.

Sipdown

We started the day with a big pot of this tea for breakfast, sans additions. Afterwards we were sitting outside just enjoying the weather after all the rain and I made another big pot. It started getting rather cool before we finished it and we were running out of tea drinking steam. The cooler tea had a bit of an edge to it that wasn’t there hot, so I decided to add simple syrup to what remained and put it in the freezer to get cold in time to have it as a sweet tea for lunch.

The tea starting freezing at the sides of the mason jar much faster than I expected so I ended up having a tea slushy and it was so good that I plan to do again in the future!

This is nice and fruity and the ginger keeps it from being a “candy” tea. It was very fresh tasting hot and very refreshing and enjoyable cold.

May Sipdown Prompt – a hearty tea

Sipdown

A lovely pot of tea for breakfasting outside under shelter as the rain pelted down. This CAN take milk and sugar but it definitely doesn’t need it for me.

It is a little malty and has a slight creaminess. Resteeps very well.

Sipdown

A nicely flavored oolong with cinnamon foremost but not sharp or too strong, sweetness, and a tingle on the tongue. Good with food or on its own.

Sipdown

Another gift tea from the daughter who lives with us!

I had this a while back as a hot tea. I agree that it is very chai-like. I had expected just black tea with lemon from the name initially but there is a lot more going on.

Today I am having it as a sweet iced tea, steeped hot and allowed to chill in the refrigerator. Made this way, I am finding the ginger much more prevalent and the lemon less noticeable. It is smooth and lightly peppery – I have had three glasses just with lunch so it must be pretty good!

I do have a 12 ounce serving that I am cold steeping to drink unsweetened but it hasn’t been in long enough yet. Will report back on that one!

Edited to add: just drank the cold steep. Tastes much the same, but I feel like I get a vanilla note that I didn’t notice before and I don’t see vanilla listed as an ingredient. Maybe it is just a sweetness of the tea base itself. I added no sugar to the cold steep.

Sipdown

Mostly Ashman’s tea but I did have a small pot for breakfast one day. This is a very TEA tasting tea, perfectly serviceable and good and great for breakfast and midday sipping.

I bought this yesterday at The Fresh Market. It was a limited edition exclusive called All Day Earl Grey that came out in February along with four other teas – a decaf version of this, Strawberry Rhubarb Green Tea, Lemon Biscuit Black Tea, and Fig Whiskey Vanilla Black Tea, which was the tea I actually went there to buy. Guess which was sold out and not coming back? To soothe my wounded soul, I bought the other three flavors on sale. (The decaf version of this was also sold out.)

Since I have been feeling down lately, I decided to try the Orange Marmalade tea this morning since orange scent is supposed to be a big mood booster. As it is a new to me tea and I have had very few teas by this company, I also needed to experiment.

The instructions say to use one tea bag for six ounces of water. I used three for my Stump pot. I steeped once and poured a small amount of tea into my cup to taste full strength. Then I steeped again and added that to the first batch. It wasn’t looking good because the liquor was rather pale compared to the first steep and the scent was muted as well.

I am happy to say that the flavor of both cups was more than acceptable. The orange is STRONG. The tea seemed very sweet – so sweet that I got up and read the tin again to see if there is any sort of sweetener added, but there isn’t. Also, this tastes very orange creamsicle to me, so I am guessing the unnamed “other flavors” are vanilla.

I made enough to try it cold at lunch and will review it that way, too. It is a good choice for iced tea without sweetener, but alas, it is not coming back to the shelves. I bet it would make an awesome tea pop. Perhaps I can look at their usual offerings and put together an orange tea and a vanilla tea and get the same effect. I am not really perceiving the bergamot, so I guess it is a close match to the orange flavor used here.

Edited to add: The Fresh Market called these a store exclusive, but I see it is available on ROT website, as well as the Strawberry Rhubarb Green. It is available online only right now but should be in stores in July according to one reviewer there.

May 8 Sipdown Prompt – Red Cross Day: drink a wellness tea

I didn’t drink this because I am not well, but simply to fulfill the prompt; however, the grass pollen is exceedingly high and my ears might as well be stuffed with cotton. The tea might help and can’t hurt.

I haven’t had it in months. I don’t remember it having this slightly musty smell. Is that the mullein? It isn’t objectionable, though. It does not come across in the taste, either, just in the aroma.

One thing I dislike is when an herbal tea is weak and bland. This one has lots of flavor. It is just a tiny bit spicy like ginger spicy rather than hot pepper spicy which I suppose helps with opening up sinuses.

Not a bad cuppa to have with a chapter or two of a good mystery before bed.