Capital Teas

I’ve had this three times since I received Nicole’s package (thank you!) Am I just a sucker for mint/chocolate combinations? It must be the blends I end up drinking the most. This one is fantastic – cocoa shells!! Plenty of mint. A great black tea base. And some coconut for some reason, though it doesn’t impart too much flavor to the blend. But the mint and chocolate is well balanced. The black tea is slightly robust. Two teaspoons for this one works best. Love it!

Edited to add: the description mentions white chocolate and not coconut so maybe what I think is coconut is actually white chocolate? It also mentions vanilla! Yum!

A sample from Roswell Strange. I was really curious to try this one, as gingerbread teas are typically among my favourites. This one smells good to start with – just like a freshly baked gingerbread man. I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 5 minutes in boiling water. I added a splash of milk.

The flavour is spot-on wonderful! It’s sweet, but not overbearingly so, with a pleasant edge of ginger and a touch of almond. It’s definitely “gingerbread” more than “ginger” – it has that wonderful cake-like quality that’s so difficult to capture in a liquid (and equally hard to describe!) The ginger is sticky and sweet rather than strong and sharply spicy. I’m really enjoying this one — I only wish I had more!

The smell of this tea is very tropical; an image of an island in the South Pacific comes to mind.
The taste is very smooth, but I was missing tasting the amazing smells a bit, but I do confess I might have underestimated the volume of my mug. I’ll update next tasting.

There is something vaguely exotic about this tea. I would imagine this is the kind of tea Indiana Jones is drinking when he’s in a marketplace in Egypt or maybe Turkey. I mean when he’s not shooting bad guys or chasing after treasure, of course.

The figs and the nuts combine to give this tea a naturally sweet taste that does not need any sort of sweetener. The pistachios give the tea a depth of flavor and a little more complexity than I would expect and I love it.

The base green tea is just that. There’s nothing particularly special about it, but there’s nothing bad about it either. The one nice thing I will say about it is that I have steeped this tea using water too hot, too cold and for too long and the green tea never gets burnt in a way that is offensive to the tea. It is very durable that way.

The other thing I like about this tea is it works almost all the time. I like to drink a cup of flavored tea on the way to work in the morning, and my tastes change with the season. I wouldn’t want a pumpkin spice tea in the middle of the summer, for example. I have found this tea to be perfect for any kind of weather.

I have not tried this tea iced, but maybe it’s not such a bad idea.

Sipdown (124)!

First time I made this I was very underwhelmed. I cold brewed the last of it earlier in the week to drink during class and while I can’t say I was overwhelmed it was a big, big improvement. Maybe I was just ‘whelmed’.

The biggest change was that I tasted such a strong, orange citrus note. Each sip was practically bursting with it! I’m not entirely sure how that relates to ‘gingerbread’ but it was very pleasant. The taste of cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg was present too. Obviously ginger, as well. Then there’s this almost clove-like spicey note that, combined with the powerful, aromatic orange made me think of Pomander Christmas balls. You know, this kind of thing:

http://www.simplebites.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/untitled-1-820×380.jpg

When I was a part of the SCA they used to pass these around at the end of festivals/feasts and you’d have to pluck a clove out using your teeth. I didn’t realize until much later that was something of a Christmas tradition for many people, and I’m only just now realizing what a great way to get Mono that would be…

The final thing I’m tasting is the marzipan sweetness of the almonds. What a wonderful, strong improvement! Preparation method can make such a big difference in taste, it’s not even funny.

From Liquid Proust!

Made this one in my timolino; I thought it was very underwhelming. The watered down flavour of ginger and cardamom was pleasant over a rather mild rooibos base, so I’ll at least give credit that the base could have been worse. What I was hoping for was sweetness from the apple and orange, and some warming spice notes but this just felt like someone dashed some spice in hot water and stirred it around a little. No depth, no layers of flavour, no ‘bounce’.

Personally, I prefer the Gingerbread rooibos that DAVIDsTEA came out with around two years ago. In my head I kept mentally comparing the two, which perhaps wasn’t fair. Maybe it’s just not really the season for this blend. I still have enough leaf left to try it again, so I’m gonna do that at home, because maybe the timolino was to blame.

Holding back on rating this one, for now.

This one has a funny aroma. I’m not sure what it is, but there’s something odd going on in this cup. Maybe it’s one of the spices? The flavor is softly spiced orange. The base is pretty quiet. This needs a bit of Truvia to wake it up. Milk would squash the delicate flavors at play here so I left that out. I wish I could identify what that odd note is though. It’s really bugging me that I can’t. It’s not bad, just unknown to me.

It smells a bit creamy but I’m not getting cream in the flavor. It is smooth and gentle. This is not a wake-you-up-in-the-morning assertive blend. This is a calm, sweet tea to be enjoyed in front of the fire on a cold night. I’m definitely enjoying this but it’s not what I expected. No real cookie aspects to be found. I’d probably rename it “Orange Candlelight” or something to that effect. That’s what it reminds me of; it’s soft like candlelight. Thank you to TeaBrat for sharing this sample with me!

Sipdown (135)!

From Liquid Proust.

Last tea of the night; it was nice to have a herbal option conveniently on hand in my sample drawer. I definitely get a kind of citrusy/lemony apple vibe from this with a sort of ‘fruit punch’ kind of note. The hibiscus isn’t nearly as strong as I was expecting; actually the whole thing kind of came out rather watered down despite like a ten minute long steep. From the description I can see the intention here is strawberry lemon; at least one of those flavours landed.

Made a decent cup of tea before bed; probably will work out to be relatively forgettable in the long run though – I’ve tried so many similar tisanes at this point that it takes a lot for something like this to jump out at me.

Another resounding thank you to Liquid Proust!

I’ve had Jin Xuan without flavoring from Teavivre and Mandala, and the full Milk Oolong from Mandala. I’m going to be comparing it to the latter one for the majority of my review.

I get a little bit of orchid, but cream perfectly reenacted in this oolong. I also get some notes of vanilla. The texture is soft and silky like a lilac, but does not quite have that note (SCRATCH THAT: it’s cooled down, and I totally taste the lilac, especially in steep #2). Mandala’s Milk is more buttery, and a tad bit thicker whereas this is light, medium, and creamy. Like milk itself, this is the vanilla 2% milk version of a milk oolong to me, whereas Mandala’s is whole milk. Mandala’s is almost fattier compared to this one, while this is a lighter vanilla dessert.

Both are really good for those reasons: if I were to pick, it would honestly depend on my mood. This one is lighter in a refreshing way. This one is also more like cream to me than Mandala’s, but Mandala’s is a little more like toffee. The final decider is really price to me, in which Mandala has the upper hand. I’m so glad that I got a sample, and it is sooo good.

And now, I’ve had way too much tea. I was originally going to save it for school, but seeing how quickly some of my green oolongs are starting to come closer to their shelf life’s end, and how drastically the humidity has changed in my house (curse Michigan whether!), I’ve been paranoid and downing all of them before they go bad. I’ll be more conservative tomorrow, and aiming for the other Liquid Proust Co. samples. Yet currently, I need the L-theanine and caffeine to keep me awake and painting a certain phoenix I commissioned for my sister.

As I went about packaging this up for a swap, I remembered that I haven’t even drank it… so I brewed it up :)

This. Tea. Is. Epic.
Not only is the milk oolong taste present on each taste, there is a fruity note that lingers as an after taste. I’m not sure how this was done but I really enjoy it. Such wonderful tea, smooth and buttery while having that natural cream within the oolong itself.

Wow! What an amazing Jasmine tea. Thanks Liquid Proust for adding a sample in our swap.

I brewed this gongfu. Currently am on steep 3 – or is it 4? I lost track. It’s soooo good. I have always loved a good jasmine green with a fairly strong floral taste and aroma. The one I used to enjoy years ago (way before I got into fine teas) had an artificial flavor to make it that strong. Trying many different jasmine teas over the years I came to the conclusion that infusing the tea naturally with the flowers could just not give such a strong jasmine scent and flavor to it. Well I was wrong.

This tea is jasmine and a bit buttery. Very delicate but at the same time very strong. I’m surprised this is listed as a green tea. When I checked it out on Capital Teas website it is made with first flush peony silver needles. Sounds like a white tea to me. It is tied in such delicate bows. I can imagine that definitely adds to it’s high price because of the labour to make those little bows.

I just can’t help it but would love more of this tea. It would be nice to stock a tiny tiny amount of the bows but to find this tea without the bows to have more often. I wonder if Capital Teas has it without the bows?

:(
This tea makes me sad in an odd way: This has been one of the more pricey teas that I’ve owned, but it has been just chilling in my cabinet until tonight. Jasmine sounded like a nice nighttime drink so I got this one out as I was very curious about it for awhile (mainly because of it’s cost).
This is amazing. Just… amazing.
The smoothness, the flavor, the aroma… this is a delicate tea.
When I finish these off I will be buying some of David’s Tea’s version to see if it compares because this tea is just too pricey. If anyone has 4g of David’s version let me know and I’ll swap :)

Sweet, spicy, and warming. Purchased it on a rainy day in Dupont circle, wandering around to escape the sudden pre-summer chill after work… I loved it so much I took some home with me! Delish – strong taste of cinnamon and ginger, but with a mild sweetness that remains with you long after you finish your cup.

Has a very nice fruity and floral smell, but ultimately it doesn’t have a whole lot of flavor. But if you’re up for something mild, it does a nice job. I like the second steeping better than the first.

Being that is is May, I wouldn’t pick this tea out and drink it… also, it’s rooibos which isn’t as appealing during spring unless it is fruity and cold steeped. However, someone came to pick up their YUNOMI box last night and said they wanted to drink non caffeinated tea and this was their choice. I actually enjoyed drinking it because it wasn’t straight rooibos with pumpkin, the creaminess mixes with a pleasant woodsy note within the tea. Surprisingly a decent tea, but I’m still searching for a GREAT pumpkin tea. I bet this tea would mix very well with some warm cider :)

My mom wanted something fruity so I opened up my container of this and got to open a fresh sealed bag of tea :)
The first smell of fruit teas after they have been sealed shut is fantastic.
This tea didn’t provide 100% satisfaction for me, but I can say that the taste is cleaner than Tea Xotics goji green tea which was nice to have another tea to compare it to. I believe this would be wonderful cold which is what I will do with it next. While it’s not the best cup of tea, it looks wonderful and smells good- as for the taste it could improve.

I needed a pick me up at work and this was one of three that I chose. This was the most disappointing out of the three. The leaf quality looks very nice. The dry leaf includes long tendrils of black and gold. They carry a dry smoky scent. I brewed up a cup, and it was bland. The only flavor I could taste was wood. This wasn’t a nice wood either. It tasted like I was gnawing on tree bark in backyard. The taste then went south and bitter after a few minutes. This batch might have just had a rough trip being transported, or maybe it has been bagged too long.

A very good black tea. A nice, lush scent with a slightly sweet note. Smooth flavor, bold yet definitely not as harsh as a typical assam. However, the finish is a bit bitter.

At $3.25/oz for loose leaf (as of this writing, per the website), this is easily worth twice the price. If you’re a fan of “straight” black teas, don’t hesitate to grab some.

I bought a cup of this tea (hot) at the Capital Teas stand in the Mall in Columbia. I don’t know how they steeped it, sorry.

’Here’s Hoping’ Teabox Round #4 – Tea #18

A delicious standard assam but possibly a little lighter for an assam than I’d expect. That’s okay… it means less astringency. A little fruitier and sweeter instead of dark. Not as baked rye bread as some assam can be.
Steep #1 // just boiled // 3 min

’Here’s Hoping’ Teabox Round #4 – Tea #10

Parceling this one out, I got mostly toasted rice in my teaspoon, so the green tea was a little scarce. Tasty anyway! The green tea was actually larger and longer than I usually see in genmaicha, so the flavor wasn’t as light as I thought it would be. (Though that doesn’t make sense – I thought tiny leaves mean stronger taste.) I always love a roasty toasty genmaicha!

Bought this the other day at the tea festival. It is a nice full bodied tea. It is malty, somewhat sweet and somewhat astringent. It is one of the better breakfast teas I have tried.

I brewed this once in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 min.

Bought this yesterday at the expo. It is both sweet and a little bit sour from the blood oranges. It is very tasty. There is an earthy character from the puerh but you don’t notice it too much because of the blood orange flavoring.

Brewed this once in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 1 min.

Follow up after a bunch more drinking:

This may indeed become a favorite. Still frustrating how much is needed to make a cup, but I’m finding it much more resteepable thoat first day of drinking it. So very expensive but a highly enjoyable flavor. Still, so very pie crust and sweet fruit behind it.

Not any kind of intense sweet, as said it’s rather like pie: that first flavor in a sip is flakey crust and then that fruity sweet mildly.

I’ve been drinking this and other teas at the same time, switching between due to steeping times and temps and my need to get a ton of fluid in each day.

I’d now definitely describe it as “nummy”.

Just grabbed at the NYC Coffee&Tea Festival and liked the sample enough to pay the large amount. Worth it.

Yup, worth it. Like other tisanes it doesn’t rebrew a ton of times and more than tha is suggested for the water amount. I learned on first brew to added more, but the taste when it does is delicious cookie or pie with the almond and fruit.

Very yummy when I’m not one who really goes much for these sorts of things. The almond make a clear pie crust flavor to me, the apple is in the front fruit flavor and that’s how it balances – first the almond makes a brittle and crumby and sweet sort of taste forming a crust, then the fruit comes in second like a bite of pie would.

Great stuff!