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I absolutely adore the Premium Jasmine Dragon Pearls and the Silver Needle Jasmine White tea from Teavivre. I can not afford to drink them all the time and still buy ridiculous amounts of new tea, too, so I bought this as an economical drinker to go with meals.

When served with food, this has that perfect level of jasmine flavor that I find I all of their offerings. I love that it only has to steep about one minute, because when I walk in the door with the takeout boxes I already to eat!

Because hubby is now enjoying tea with our takeout, I give this one steep, pour that into my huge tetsubin and put it on the warmer, and make a second steep right away and pour it in. That way there is enough for both of us to have all we want with the meal. No more being polite about who gets the last bit, or who will go resteep the leaves! LOL! And because it resteeps well, that makes it even more economical.

I got two bags of this so we should be good to go for a while!

For drinking without a meal, Pearls are still my number one, but with a meal these are quite delicious.

I want to thank Bonnie over and over again for saying she puts her puerh leaves in the fridge to cold steep after she has had some hot steeps of it. I did that two days ago and just let it sit in a big pitcher. I am finally drinking it today and I have to say it is one of the most refreshing things you could possibly imagine.

I posted a link to the recipe for Ent Draught last week, but to me, THIS is what Ent Draught would taste like. It is so perfectly light, refreshing, and clean, clean, clean, while at the same time tasting of purest earth. I think I could actually gulp down the whole pitcher in a very short time, and it is so cooling and uplifting. There is not even a tad of sugar in it. It doesn’t need it.

Ent Draught is supposed to be clear, thus the distilling process, but this is the taste it should have! The color of the cold brew puerh is gorgeous – so orange and clear. It looks like really good Southern sweet tea. I would much rather have this, though.

I am almost looking forward to our sticky summer weather just so I can drink gallons of this!

This sample from Nature’s Tea Leaf was the first tea I served at tea party yesterday. It is a black tea but is oh so so sweet and mellow. The primary taste is sweet potato, and the mouthfeel borders on thick. It pairs well with sweets. It is fantastic to drink by itself. For me, it needs no additions whatsoever and would even suffer in my opinion if sugar or sweetening were added since it is so sweet and delectable all by itself.

This is one of the teas that should be a cupboard staple. This isn’t peppery, spicy Yunnan, this is sweet and smooth and creamy to the taste! Thank you, NTL, for letting me try this one!

Sip down! Wow, this feels like a landmark for me, because this very tin is the first oolong I ever bought.

Grace Rare Tea Company does not disappoint. They don’t have a huge catalog because they chose to specialize and committed themselves to finding the best they could of a few types of tea. They have done that very well.

My weekly tea guest who started out as a lover of black tea is very fond of this one. I will most likely restock it one day, but for now I am removing it from my cupboard simply because I have so much tea. I really have reached a point where my own tea collection is a little overwhelming to me, partly because I feel like there are so many things I need to be drinking, but I am always wanting to try something new.

I have given away one box and one bag of teas just to try to gain control of the stash but more needs to be done. I think a weekend long sample sip down is in order, too!

Formosa Oolong – au revoir! Until we meet again!

Today was tea party day, postponed to Thursday this week! And this is why I really bought this tea in the first place. My friend who comes loves blueberries more than anything, and has them need breakfast oatmeal practically every day. I was hoping she would really like this, especially since she used to have a very strong preference for black tea.

She really loved it! The aroma captures you. The taste is much softer than the aroma, which is great because you don’t want to drink grape Kool-Aid with double sugar, do you? That is what this can smell like! But the taste is really smooth and sweet, and this is a great resteeper. My friend mentioned that she found it very floral, and I showed her the beautiful blue cornflowers in this blend.

That is just one more reason why Mike Harney needs to give this to us in loose leaf form! It is a BEAUTIFUL tea that I would display with pride in my leaf holders prior to serving!

I am on my doctor’s naughty list, and I just saw him for the first time yesterday. I had said I would get my triglycerides down and at first, I did drop them 100 points, but they need to come down more and haven’t. My biggest vice is an almost nightly chocolate shake. I am trying to replace that with matcha lattes or smoothies. Much healthier, much lower in sugar.

I have Sil to thank for planting the seed that I should be drinking these. I had thought of it but it didn’t sound that good until she mentioned adding the flavored matcha. YES! I have been experimenting a lot and today was definitely a success.

I used a scoop of Greek yogurt, milk, honey, a banana, and three strawberries – just three because they were HUGE. I sifted in one teaspoon of black cherry matcha and I have to say this was so so sweet and fruity! I have had smoothies without the matcha and I tell you this really perked it up. So now I want more fruit flavors for when I want it super fruity, and plenty of creamy flavors for when I want more creamy and milkshake-y.

Looking forward to some positive changes in my weight, health, outlook, and energy levels!

Here is where to get it! http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/black-cherry-matcha.html

My matcha latte experiments continue! I have had several plain and two flavored, caramel and almond. I prefer caramel as a hot drink, and almond is pretty unbelievable in a milkshake even if you put mostly milk and not a lot of ice cream! As a matcha latte they were good, but I was sure there was another flavor that was going to be perfect for this use.

Last night, the cartoon lightbulb went on over my head. Bavarian Cream! I was just sure it would be the super yummiest as a latte, and guess what? I was right!

I am ashamed to say that I finished my tiny jar of honey making so many lattes over the past three days. Hey, it was a TINY jar! So this time I used White Gold raw honey from Williams Sonoma. I bet I should have decreased the amount since it has the water spun out of it. I am assuming now that makes it more concentrated because this is really sweet, but I am loving it! I added about one cup cold water, sifted the matcha into it, added the honey, whooshed it with the aerolatte, added some crushed ice and about a cup of milk, and VOILA! A fantastic treat!

The Bavarian Cream flavor is so creamy and light in this, with a hint of lemon-y freshness. I think this is one of the best flavors for a latte of this sort. This is yet another flavor of Red Leaf matcha I do not want to run out of!

Yep, had another one today. Yums.

I drank one steep of my Southern Season puerh and then put the leaves in the fridge to cold brew a pitcher of iced tea. I was feeling unsatisfied, puerh-wise, so I decided to treat myself to several steeps of Purple Rhyme.

I love the box it came in, the careful wrapping of the paper with such beautiful, uniform folds, the stamp that holds the paper tight. I love the care used to present this product to me.

The tea is really dark, because I love strong, smooth puerh and I let it steep longer than most people do. The taste is fresh and so clean.