Dr. Tea's Tea Garden

Friday Dec. 17, 2010
3rd Steep of the Day.
Made a great Pot of Dr’s Gingerbread Rooibos.
This was a Pot at a TEA PARTY we had.
It was Good enough to Get 2 Pots from the 1st Ball full
Keep on steepin

Wednesday Nov. 10 2010 My 2nd Steep for the Day
After Lunch I Wanted a Little Sweet Treat So Heres where I Went
Dr. Teas GingerBread a Standard 3.30 Steep.
Just the Sweet pick-up needed after Lunch.

Smells nice, had it with some sesame mochi.

Thank you to Lori for this sample! This is an individually wrapped teabag. When I opened it there was a refreshing and strong peppermint aroma. From this I really expected this tea to taste exactly like my plain peppermint herbal tea, but not so. As you drink this, the smell of peppermint is so relaxing but the green tea is definitely there when you drink. Nice balance of the flavors. This is a slightly astringent green, not a buttery one.

The vendor description mentioned cocoa powder….I just detected banana. But still wonderfully sweet and light.

Banana flavor still present in the second steep….

This is a delightful banana flavored tea. The banana flavor is natural and light . The oolong is mildly vegetative but not overly so. The tea ‘s has a lite flavor. And even better news: no sugar at at all is needed to bring out the banana flavors. The vendor claimed cocoa powder was added but I did not detect any chocolate flavor. Hmmm..maybe Dr.Tea’s mocha tea blended w/this one would be delicious.

I got on this Chocolate tea kick this week after French Vanilla asked me about Chocolat Au Charlott from D. Freres. Anyway,,,after trying several , this is still one of my favorites. Nice cocoa powder flavor comes thru w/slight , very slight vegetative ooolong in the background. The inside of the tin and the oolong itself is visibly coated w/cocoa powder.

I had this tea Last nite and Florence Wed. …..this one was the hands-down winner . This just has a full bodied cocoa flavor….

If you are a lover of semi-sweet chocolate- well more like a Lindt chocolate bar with 70% or maybe even 90% cocoa, then this is a tea for you. This vendor roasts his own oolongs like a coffee beans and then sprinkles the roasted oolong w/cocoa powder, to give this a bitter sweet chocolate flavor. Not sure if the chocolate flavor will remain present in multiple steepings but the first steep is wonderful.

This has been my go-to tea of late. I like the roasty ness in the foreground and the whisper of vegetal green in the background. And this tastes like coffee w/o the jittery effects.

What a delightful and unusual oolong. I have been into oolongs lately as they seem naturally sweet and can be resteeped many times.

This vendor, Dr. Tea , roasts his oolongs in a process similar to coffee beans and voila! with an addition of some vanilla and other flavorings- this really tastes like coffee. I am quite suprised that more folks here have not tried this vendor’s unique product!!!!

Inspired by TeaEqualsBliss yesterday, I did some experimenting and used half (1/2tsp) of this and half Tipu’s instant chai. Served clean.

Hm. Interesting. The flavor profile is layered. The chai rises to the top, the coffee sinks to the bottom and grounds the tea, while the caramel mixes between the two. The caramel isn’t as strong as I’d like it, but I think that’s just because I’ve been congested for 11 days and the other 2 flavors are easier to pick up on. A good cuppa!

Marshmellow turtle latTEA!
1TB leaf
1 cup water
1 cup smart balance milk
2TB marshmellow mocha creamer

Yummm! Smooth, very sweet, and creamy. Not enough chocolate though- I’d make this w/ chocolate milk:) Definitely helps keep me warm even though the winds have kinda died down. Gusts are only 35mph instead of 60 lol.

Made mom a 12oz cuppa this morning.

Ok, I wanna see just how caramely I can get this. Obviously gonna add caramel macchiato creamer to this. But instead of increasing steeping time to compensate for it, I think I’m gonna double the leaf. 2tsp tea/1TB creamer/6oz just below boiling water.

Whoa. Yep. CARE-A-MELL! It is almost exactly like I would imagine melting down a caramel hard candy and adding a tiny splash of creamer would taste like. By the time I got to the bottom of cup it was almost too sweet to handle. But that’s exactly how I wanted to get it tonite. Yum!

Infusion 2 from last nite. 1TB of leaves steeped in only 6oz of water. Then I added a tsp each of caramel coffee creamer and double mocha instant cappuccino mix. It tastes JUST like a tea latte from Starbucks. Unfortunately the mocha is just an after thought, but I added it mostly for the powdered milk and instant coffee anyway.

Decided to make this for me and mom for dessert. 1TB/16oz just below boiling water (I treat the coffee oolongs like black teas). I always round up to a TB when making 16oz of tea. It’s just easier than measuring 2 2/3tsp.

The liquor is a dark caramely color… not as dark as coffee. The aroma is equal parts coffee, tea, and caramel. Sweet, but not sickeningly sweet like most lattes.

Score! There’s a light (coffee like) roastyness to the oolong (these are the only roasty oolongs I like) and a smooth caramely finish. But… The name of this is Caramel LaTEA and… there’s no creamy/milky quality to this. Don’t get me wrong, this tastes almost exactly like a caramel flavored gourmet coffee, but not a caramel latte or even LaTEA- at least w/o adding milk to it. And I think a tea should live up to it’s name w/o additions. So, while a 100 is impossible, this is an amazing tea- and the perfect coffee substitute.

After previous iced tea success, I decided to use the rest of my tin as a cold brewed iced tea. It has been brewing since yesterday and it is pretty awesome. I think we are just going to decant as we drink since I’m just using a regular pitcher, but I’m really enjoying this. It is so good in fact that my husband wanted to know how much a pound or similar large amount would cost. I think I’m slowly turning him into a tea drinker after all.

I actually made this last night, but I just wanted to comment on the extremely forgiving nature of this tea. I set the tea to steep and completely forgot about it. I remembered at least 30 minutes later and the tea was actually very good. No strange tastes or bitterness were present. This would be a great tea to take in one of those travel mugs with a built in infuser because you could carry it around for quite awhile with leaves in the water without worrying about ruining the tea. Slight rating bump.

I’ve been finishing up a lot of my tea lately in preparation for some new stock. Unfortunately this means that I am out of black teas which I prefer in the morning. I have mate, but I like it with milk which I am out of. So white pineapple coconut it is. Pretty good, but I wish I had something with a bit more of a kick. Perhaps I will break down and have the mate without milk.

I brewed this up last night and let it chill. This is perhaps a better iced tea than hot.

I decided to have this tea iced today, or a version of iced. I just brewed the tea normally, threw it into a mug with a bit of honey, stirred, and popped it all in the freezer for about an hour. It isn’t iced tea cold, but it is on the cool side of things. Overall, this is very nice at the cooler temperature. The white tea base takes on a more floral quality, but not an in-your-face floral. I believe that the pineapple is the focus at this temperature, rather than the usual coconut but that is a good thing today. I may have to go brew some more and chill it so I will have some once my current mug is gone.

I think I will have to up the rating for this tea: I was actually craving this one. I’ve craved plenty of teas, but never a white. That is really saying something about this particular one. Amazing. I think that white teas seem to get better the longer they are steeped, but that may only be true with the ones I have had. This has an insanely strong coconut smell and taste backed by a light white tea fresh hay-like flavor. The fruit flavors are dominant, the hay-like flavor is barely there which makes it enjoyable.