Design a Tea

Not too shabby. Still tasted like fuzzy peaches and perhaps some cream, but either I brewed it too strong or the base has developed some astringency, as there was a bit of a punch there. Surprisingly good flavour, though.

Thank you for sending some of this my way, Azzrian!

This is actually pretty tasty! Definitely peachy, and perhaps a bit creamy. I’ll have to pay a bit more attention next time I drink it, but I was quite impressed with this! Regretting having waited so long to try it, but at least I have enough left for another couple cups before it’s gone.

Another tea from Azzrian!
This is a nice dessert tea!
I have cold brews of the remainder of Angels Dreams, Fruit d’Alsace, & Maracuja going in the frig. I’m kind of new to cold brewing, so not quite sure how long to leave them.
So I only have one tea left, & then it will be a total SipDown of all the samples in the box! Thanks again, Azz, for being one of my first tea trades!

And speaking of trades, I know I’ve spoken to a few people here about trading, & I want you to know (if you’re reading this) that I haven’t forgotten you. I’ll get my act together shortly…

I didn’t even realize I did the Design a Tea thing until they came in the mail. Way to be on the ball, Amanda.

I put maple syrup and some milk in here and it really brought out the flavors. Before the rooibos was just too strong, as it easily tends to be, but now it isn’t bad. I probably wouldn’t actually buy any of this because there are so many other combinations I’d like to try.

But it’s decent, it’s a nice dessert tea with no caffeine. Definitely best while it’s still hot, I got distracted once again dropping and adding classes. But now I am done with that. I think.

Thank you Azzrian for adding this as a bonus in the swap!

I like this! It’s cream and almonds in a caffeine-free tea. Added a little rock sugar to sweeten the deal, but it really didn’t need it. :)

I got some samples from Design a Tea today! I thought I should try a staple first, though. All Earl Greys are different. On this blend, the bergamot definitely comes through strongly. It’s almost like a blend I have from another company (now out of business) called Grand Earl Grey. The bergamot and citrus notes are very strong. It smells heavenly. When cool, the astringency comes out a bit more, but still a less dry mouth feel than many black teas. This seems to be a good blend of Assam and Ceylon. This is a very nice blend.

I bought this from momo as another rooibos blend to try. Sometimes there is nothing better than a pot of rooibos tea, especially something sweet and almondy like marzipan. :)

This raw blend has large almond slices and what looks like apple chunks? The rooibos is fine as you would expect and it also has a few sunflower petals among the mixture.

It has a sweet, dry and nutty fragrance. Not quite marzipan yet but it has promise.

Once steeped this tea is golden brown in colour and has a thick, marzipan fragrance. There would be no mistaking it, it’s definitely pure marzipan.

Flavour is sweet and the rooibos is present but toned down. It smells more like marzipan than it tastes but if you take a large sniff before you sip it’s almost like your drinking liquidized marzipan. Almost.

Overall it’s a nice achievement, not too thick or too sweet, not too much rooibos and nothing offensive flavoured (sharp, bitter etc). Glad I gave this one a try.

I’ve had this sample from Design A Tea for a while, and finally got to it. I don’t know exactly what zabaglione is, but I have had strawberry zabaglione from 52teas. This smells a lot like a marzipan tea, and that’s basically the flavor. The roobios medicine taste is hidden pretty well under the marzipany flavor. I’m not sure if it actually tastes like zabaglione, but I do like the flavor! I accidentally let this steep for probably something like seven minutes and it’s still very good.

This came as a gift from Azzrian, I’m reasonably certain! (I hope?)

Anyway, in my sample sipdown, I tossed this into my pot. The peach is beautifully sweet, and there’s also a nice hint of the spice – not overwhelming, but a good base for it.

Subsequent steeps lose the peachy flavor, but I’ve had three steeps and the oolong is nice and roasty! Thanks Azz!

This was my creation for one of the Design a Tea sample. This tea was so drinkable, sweet and aromatic. The combination smelled to my like the jasmine flower – although neither the honey nor the hazenut where necessarily distinguishable. While personally I might look for a little bit more of identifiable flavors, the combination was very pleasant.

Sipdown!

I liked the idea of creating my own blend. I thought pear and mint might make for an interesting oolong, so here we are.

It seems a little weak, but it’s not too shabby. The pear is the strongest flavour, with hints of oolong at the end of the sip. I’m not really tasting much wintergreen.

I like it,but it needs some tweaking before I would buy any.

The teabag smells sweet and citrusy. After steeping for about 2 minutes at 175 the liquor is pale and yellow green and smells like the dry leaves. Citrus, very light cranberry flavor. Light mouth feel with a dry bite afterwards. Kinda tastes like a flavored Lipton green teabag. Just meh.

This was one of my Design a Tea samples I received in the mail today. The teabag has a strong vanilla scent to it, I don’t smell much wintergreen.

I followed Design a Tea’s direction and brewed this oolong for about three and a half minutes in boiling water. Result was a golden-orange liquor that smelled like vanilla.

I think I may have steeped this for too short of a time. Was kinda week tasting. From what I could taste I got hints of cocoa and vanilla. No wintergreen despite it being wintergreen vanilla. ;P It was decent for a $1 sample I guess.

So this was my second sample and it smells pretty dang good! Mostly it seems that “spice” is cinnamon. There seems to be something baked or buttery about this one judging by the smell. The black tea also seems to be a really heavy player in this blend when compared to my other one. This turned out to be a kind of whisky brown/amber color.
This tea was pretty good! It kind of reminded me of very subtle oatmeal raisin type baked goods. It had a small touch of rum, but nothing too in your face or artificial. Like the other tea that I sampled today I’d say that I’d probably add more leaf to my steeps if I wanted more flavor.
Overall I’d say that the Design a Tea idea was really, really fun. I think just for novelty alone it was a good experience and it resulted in pretty good teas. I really loved the $1 sample and I think that making your own blends is just something that is enjoyable. Great concept!

This arrived pretty quickly if I’m thinking correctly. I got a sample of this because it sounded like it’d be an interesting creation. The dry leaf smells a bit like the Adagio gingerbread black. The taste of the tea itself is also vaguely similar. I think that if I had more control of the amount of tea I would have added a bit more to get a bit more of a punch of flavor. It isn’t the maple I was really looking for, but it isn’t a bad tea at all. It may be a little off the mark from what I wanted it to taste like, but the nutty notes are there with a slight amount of spice. It is very subtle though. I thought that the base was also pretty complimentary to the flavors that I picked and wouldn’t change that at all.

Very good, not too strong, even when leaving tea in tumbler

Brian from Desgin a Tea sent me a few sample bags today.
This was one of them.
Thank you Brian of Design a Tea for this nice surprise!
This is a nice nutmeg and pumpkin blend.
The nutmeg does take the lead role in this tea (don’t let the angry pumpkin know this!!) but the pumpkin does come through nicely.
I especially love Brian’s fun descriptions for his teas!
I could totally sip on this on any cold evening cuddled up on the sofa.

I recently received my 2 free samples from Design a Tea and have been eager to brew them up. Custom tea is a pretty cool concept in itself, you pick a base, add your flavours, and then have your own monster creation to deal with, good or bad.

I decided to keep things simple, I like vanilla, so I opted for a black tea base with vanilla flavouring added. Doing so could potentially allow me to comment more accurately on the grade of the tea base, which is an added benefit to my choice.

Anyway, today was a long day of being tired so I decided it was a perfect opportunity to give this tea a shot. After opening the package I was immediately greeted with a kind of jungly smelling vanilla mixed with something reminiscent of black cherry. I brewed up the tea satchel in a warmed cup with boiling water, an amber maple colour immediately began to dance out.

Once the tea was brewed I picked up a more smooth vanilla scent from my cup, reminding me of rice crispy squares (yum). So I lifted the cup to my lips, expecting to taste delicious vanilla, instead receiving a root-like flavour. A few sips later and I could finally pick out a very light taste of vanilla. I kept tasting a familiar flavour that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, later realizing that it was the taste of pistachios. As I got further through the tea it seemed to become progressively more bitter, which eventually had me clenching my face, dissapointing me more.

This tea brings forth the image of a quirky friend who enjoys dressing up in fun outfits/costumes. They can be kind of bitter as they wear out but they are fun to talk to.

Overall I was dissapointed with the lack of vanilla, the quality of the black tea, and the increasing bitterness. This may have been masked if I had combined more flavours, but in my case I was not pleased. I enjoyed the process of designing my own tea, and hey it was free. I would reccommend you be more risky with the flavours than me if you are going custom and enjoy the process and anticipation of trying your “Cthulhu’s blood” or what have you.

This one is really weak. I brewed as instructed, one bag per cup, 4 minutes on. I can’t really taste anything, maybe a sweet tobacco taste, but definitely not rum OR spices. Or even tea. It has a sickly sweet smell, and this is definitely not one I’ll be ordering again. Yuck.

ETA: Added some sugar, and now I can barely taste the tea. It’s just a hint of an aftertaste.

I’ve taken to drinking bright, fruity, and floral teas in the afternoon as my way of combating the blahs I feel from it getting dark so early. It lifts my mood every time. I should probably add my green and oolong teas to the rotation, too. The rest of the day I’m all about heavy winter or dessert-y holiday teas, but four o’clock is reserved for lighter teas!

I haven’t had this tea in quite a while, but it doesn’t seem to have suffered any loss of flavor. The pear flavor is still really good with the floral notes following. I actually forgot what a nice pear tea this is. It also does an excellent job of bringing an iced wine flavor to tea.

I needed a bit of sunshine this morning, so I chose this tea. It’s light, floral, and fruity which is helping me combat the crazy cold weather we’re having. Every time I have this tea I tell myself to hunt down other good pear teas. I like the juicy feel the pear lends to the tea. Yum.

Taking a quick break from the family to say Happy Thanksgiving, Steepster! I hope where ever you are that your day has totally rocked and that you’ve had some amazing tea to drink.

I had a cup of this earlier today while I was trying to simultaneously cook and clean (it turns out that’s really hard to do!). Every time I drink this I’m impressed with how good it is. It’s a great take on iced wine. I’m still loving the pear flavor and the light floral note. Also, this tea smells great. I want my whole house to smell like that all the time.