Brooke Birch Tea Shoppe

Well, shoot. I’m starting to feel a bit run down. Besides elderberry and a multivitamin, I’m also doing plenty of tea. Sunshine in a cup sure but also tastes like “kick whatever this is in the pants” in a cup as well. Plenty of lemongrass and a mix of happy.

Just brewed another 2 grams today afternoon after work. Those days after vacation are just terrible.
And when your co-worker is yelling on you, it’s no fun. I am all alone doing so many things, none were my business before and I am still learning; the priorities aren’t well set, it’s just tiring and very exhausing.
As of this week, I already have 4.5 hours overtime, that’s half of the workday! And no, tomorrow it won’t be better. Actually I plan to go earlier to the office to get work done before others wake up and start to distrub me.

Taste wise it was same as last time and I was drowsy again, but this time maybe because I haven’t slept well (woke up at 3am) and worked overtime again today.

This was my tea yesterday in the office. I had a rehab in the morning before work; morning exercises aren’t for me at all!
And overall, when I came to the office I felt not relaxed, but rather a bit tense, perplexed and overall just feeling weird. I need a vacation or change a job. Or both.

Anyway, I had a very small tin since I joined the first TTB there; somehow forgotten, somehow just neglected. But decided to brew it yesterday, because… what can go wrong? No St. John’s wort, that’s good. I can’t have that herb in any form.

Okay, this tea made me so drowsy. I assume I even felt asleep in the chair for a little while. So, yes, I guess it is a good for relaxing.
Taste-wise it is a nice herbal with some bitter and salty finish, like a dandelion root? But overall it was fine. Just maybe drinking it at work isn’t the best.

Last tea to try from the sampler my coworker bought me back in May? If you come across this, Gary, thanks again for your generosity :)

Edited to make this a simpler note than the comparison I had written up yesterday to a tea in the same vein: Frontier’s Warming Crimson Berry https://steepster.com/teas/frontier-natural-products-co-op/17906-warming-crimson-berry-tea While I used to appreciate Warming Crimson Berry, Chili Brew is world’s better!

Chili Brew contains Ceylon black tea, hibiscus, dried blackberries, New Mexico chiles, orange peel and chrysanthemum. The fresh, warming bite of chili pepper hits the senses first followed by the full and juicy mouthfeel provided by hibiscus. Every ingredient comes together to produce a cohesive profile that is not excessively sour or acrid like so many hibiscus blends can be (no sugar needed!). Fruity and iron/earthy, juicy, definitely warming, fortifying. Not much caffeinating since the black tea is not in high proportion to the rest of the ingredients, none of which are flavorings. Good for one solid steep that can be brewed for well over the recommended 3-5 minutes.

I’d recommend this to people who can tolerate a solid dash of regular hot sauce on their food, and I don’t mean Taco Bell hot sauce. A little spicier than Crystal, not as much as Tabasco.

Glad I saved this fortifying brew for the rainy season. On a cold-ass, time-change morning when my hormones are rebelling, it’s helping me hate my body less :P

A tisane so well blended that nothing stands out which makes it a great cup before bed. Nutty and herbal with a tangy, tingly-clean finish. Lightly cooling.

It’s been miserably hot lately. This is the closest I can get to a proper cool-down on the nights the fog doesn’t roll in from the Pacific.

My preference definitely lies with peppermint. Spearmint rubs me wrong but I do find this simple blend balanced and refreshing , even as my warm nighttime cup. The sweetness from the spearmint tempers the bracing cool bite of the peppermint. I steep it for howeverlong – 15 minutes? – and it doesn’t taste like a stewed wet rag in the slightest. That means it’s good mint.

Citronella candle.

Blergh. Lemony herbs steeped as a beverage will never be my liquid sunshine.

Hopefully the pitcher of cold-brew I made for Kiki goes over well with her. If not, like this cup of hot I made, the pitcher will go to watering the garden.

The smell of this tisane is like that bug-bitten honey note in true teas — this is some really high quality red clover!

Sweetness from the red clover, some of that creamy oat mouthfeel, a little earthiness and tang from the raspberry leaf, nutritious taste from the nettle, a barely there chill from the peppermint. I like this a lot. It has a very well balanced taste that matches its name.

Had a cup hot at work, and since I’m neither a lover of Ceylon black teas nor lavender, this was just meh. (A positive — the lavender wasn’t perfumey or soapy.)

However, with those once-steeped leaves cold-brewed overnight, I could appreciate this tea’s cooling, floral nature. The rest of this sample will be utilized as iced tea once the summer heat comes :)

A simple blend of rose, cinnamon and ginger.

Cosy Rosy went particularly well with the chillier evenings early this week. Fresh, floral and fragrant with that perfect level of spice that warms but doesn’t burn. I like how these 3 ingredients work together but often the cinnamon (woody, not Red Hots) has a tendency to overpower. Ginger isn’t very noticeable in taste, moreso in feel.

Kiki rates this ‘a solid 9.’

Certainly one of the most beautiful blends I’ve seen, the colors pop like a spring garden. Easy to steep and sip, fresh, aromatic, especially so with the spearmint and rose. I like how the lemon balm and chamomile are unexpectedly mellow and supportive.

Didn’t know Brooke Birch Tea Shoppe is Bay-area based until a few weekends ago. I didn’t see their booth at the festivities, but a friend who spotted them surprised me with an 8-tea sampler when I showed up to work the Butter & Egg Days parade. Thank you, Gary :)

2021 Homemade Advent Calendar Swap – Day 8
From Skysamurai.

This is a really nice minty herbal blend. I’m glad I saved it for bed because it’s making me feel so relaxed right now. Must be that chamomile! Love that it has lemon balm too. I’d definitely drink this one again.

You’ve eaten a ton of pizza and now you’re dragging. Grab some peppermint tea to put some pep back into your step. Granted this varies depending on the pizza you consume. While I generally do not pick a peppermint tea I thought tonight was a good night to give it a go. This is a lovely one as far as peppermint goes. Though I still find the spearmint to be just a bit too much. I love mint but I prefer regular mint to spearmint.

Dry leaf: medium sized leaf and twigs. Not quite ctc like a tea bag but no full leaf either. A fair amount of Lavender buds sprinkled amongst the tea.
Initial aroma: calming Lavender mixed in the dark woods
The first taste is full of Lavender. And the next and the next. It is too sparkling and fully of Lavender for the base to really have any say. In fact, the base is kind of tasteless. Or at least it was when the liquid was fairly hot. As it cools down the woody flavors start to come out more but the Lavender is still the main character. Almost to the point of being a bully.

Summer is a busy but beautiful time for those of us who garden. After learning all I have about tea harvesting and processing it has made this year’s work that much more meaningful. It also gives an interesting perspective to each cup I drink. I need to say thank you firstly though for the samples you sent me along with what I ordered. It was so kind. This calming, up uplifting blend, is great for morning and afternoon. The amazing aroma of the freshly harvested lavender unifies nicely with the earthiness of the black tea. The flavor is the perfect mix of briskness with the calming lavender in the after-taste.