Four O'Clock Organic

The word gingerbread comes with some real connotations. Some, like the snap of a cookie and the crunchy texture of it and thick frosting are not going to be replicable with tea. The taste however… one can try.
This tea smells and tastes far closer than I expect. While I will admit that I ate a candy cane not long before, and still have the taste of mint in my mouth, the scent of gingerbread is still coming through, and the taste pleasantly hints at the original.
Could it be stronger? Yes. But can I see how it lives up to its name, and be pleased by it? Also yes.

Ah, Herbal Infusion’s Vanilla Cacao is a much more accurate and authentic version of xocolatl than this. This is just… meh. I think someone bought this for me and thus I’ve got it in the house. Should probably donate it, as it’s just outside my taste bud preference.

I don’t even like banana teas but wow. This one is amazing. Especially for bagged. A must try.

I’ve had this floating around in my cupboard for a while, so I thought I’d finish it off.

It’s definitely the smelliest tea I have. Every time I make a cup, everyone around me perks up and leans in questioningly. I occasionally make it at Game for the same reaction. It stops roleplay for a solid five minutes as everyone squints in my direction.

For a bagged (but full-leaf) grocery tea, it’s not too shabby, and though I have no immediate plans to rebuy it, if it’s on sale or something I’ll probably end up picking it up again. Assuming I really have finished it off—I probably have a few more bags of this floating around in various backpacks.

You get berries, chocolate and bergamot in the smell, but only a faint bergamot and (stronger) chocolate in the taste. The chocolate’s a dry cocoa taste, and I’m mostly glad that the berries aren’t supplemented with hibiscus.

This smells super maple-y and wonderful, both dry and while steeping. The flavor’s pretty impressive too – the maple is assertive without becoming overwhelming, and it’s quite natural. I did let it steep for around five minutes, which resulted in a very strong, dark, malty base. There’s a bit of bitterness to it, but to me this is a nice foil for the sweetness of the maple. I’m really enjoying this – thanks so much for letting me try it out, Fuzzy_Peachkin!

I had this tea this morning with a pumpkin scone. It made a perfect fall breakfast!

I really like the subtle, natural maple flavor.

Backlog from this weekend

I went to the Windsor Fair in Maine this weekend and they had a whole shed dedicated to maple goods. So while licking a cone of maple ice cream I picked up this tea and a couple of other things.

The base to this is dark, malty and STRONG! It’s a good thing I didn’t steep it for the recommended time on the box. 5 minutes would have made it far too bitter. At a minute though it was great. The base played really well against the maple syrup-y flavoring. This will be a nice one to have in the winter!

It’s a bit different than hot tap water, I guess. Not buying again.

Thanks Faith for this one :)

I’m quite enjoying this tea. The cocoa is lovely and the chicory/licorice root (I’m guessing) adds a subtle almost-spiciness I wasn’t expecting. It more smells of cocoa than tastes of it. The backdrop is all peppermint. The ingredients work well together. The tea has a strong flavour, yet not one single ingredient overwhelms the rest.

This is one I’d consider having around to bring to work/school since it’s teabags and easier.

The resteep this morning is still quite flavourful. Yum.

I spent the evening sorting through my tea stash, & reorganizing the whole mess. I have a ridiculous amount of tea!

I also boxed up most of my cookbooks. I’m thinking I might sell them on Ebay. My cookbook collections is like the “who’s who”, of vegetarian, vegan, macrobiotic, & raw cuisine. I spent the majority of my adult life practicing one form of vegetarianism or another, & I adore cookbooks, but I’m not using them anymore. Might as well sell ’em.

Also, the shelves the books were on are now officially covered with my teapots, gaiwans, cups, etc. One more step towards being able to see the diningroom table!

This tea is not spectacular, but it doesn’t have caffeine in it. Unlike many of the people here, I like roasted chicory, & I really like ginger!
It’s my last cup of the day, & it’s the last teabag I had from the TTB “A”. I don’t plan to buy it, so this will probably be the last time I drink it!

I’m the last person to have Traveling Tea Box ‘A’ before it goes back to Momo. It’s been an interesting project to be part of, & although most of the teas in the box didn’t interest me much (to be honest), there were a few tasty blacks that I kept (& Momo is really going to enjoy the box when it gets back to her later this week!).

This tea did catch my eye. Why?
1. I absolutely LOVE ginger
2. I’ve been wanting to drink something without caffeine in the evening, as I’m a terrible night owl & maybe I’ll go to bed a little earlier…probably not…but it’s worth a try, right?
3. It contains chicory, which I actually like the taste of!
4. It doesn’t contain rooibos, which I’m not a huge fan of.

Some of us remember the good old days when more herbal teas had chicory in them, & I know some still do, but it seems like these days almost everything that is caffeine free is made with rooibos & honeybush. They don’t taste bad, but they tend to somehow get out of the filter/bag/strainer (even when I combine 2 methods of filtration) & end up in my cup. Then a piece attached itself to my tonsil, all it takes is one little piece, and ackckckck!

I’m pleased to say that this tea is quite tasty, in my opinion. It’s roasty & bold from the chicory root, a little heavy on the cinnamon, I can taste the licorice root (which I also love) & it’s nicely spiced like a chai of sorts. Little Terri & I absolutely adore Chai, so thank you to whoever added this to the box!

I want to start by saying that I actually don’t like licorice, I got the sample of the tea and thought I’d give it a try. The tea smells very much like chamomile to me. It doesn’t actually have a licorice taste, but every time you take a sip there is like a 2 second distinct “feel” of licorice. You don’t so much taste or smell it, you just kinda feel it. Better experienced than explained. One thing that does turn me off quite a bit is the splenda aftertaste, it’s lingering for a good 30sec after a sip.

An ok tea. Not really rewarding when you resteep, unfortunately, and there’s more raspberry than creme. All in all ok.

A lovely bagged tea with a strong, comforting fragrance. Tastes quite good upon resteeping, though a third resteep isn’t really rewarding.

I wasn’t sure I’d like a banana-based tea, but this one was a nice combination of a hint of the sweet flavor of bananas and the spiciness of cinnamon. Great for warming up with after spending time in the snow :)

So, I was at a PhD defense earlier this week, and picking up a titbit to munch on when the teas caught my eye. There were the usual Higgins & Burke teabags, and mixed in amongst them were some “Four O’Clock” teas! Not a company I was familiar with at all. And to top it off, they had a bagged straight white tea! So of course, I nabbed a bag and took it home with me (I of course had three partial thermoses of tea on the go then, so wasn’t planning to brew anything else up to watch the seminar).

Decided tonight/this morning was the time to brew this up before I forgot about it, so I did. Went with usual-ish white tea parameters as I really had no idea…. of course, it only just occurred to me to look on the packet for instructions, and there we go, I was good on time but a little high on temp (they recommend 85C). Ah well.

Now, I haven’t had many straight white teas, so that will make this a bit difficult (i.e. I won’t be able to tell what’s different between this bagged tea and a loose version of the same). Except… I just realized that bai mu dan is actually one white I have had straight! Hmm.

Anyhow, the flavour of this tea is rather familiar. I don’t know if it’s the same as the BMD I had previously, but that’s certainly a possibility. It’s vegetal, but not in that juicy/beany/chewy sort of way. More… grassy, almost, except that’s not accurate either. It’s a bit astringent, but I must say… it’s actually not bad at all! It certainly doesn’t taste “high quality”, but to me, it doesn’t taste bagged either – I’m getting a nice lingering “tea flavour” at the end of the sip which is not something that I’d expect with a bagged tea, though that said, I think I’ve really only drank bagged blacks before, and I don’t get “tea flavour” from blacks whether loose or bagged.

Anyhow, I’d probably pick this out again if that basket of teas reappears at the next thesis defence (which sadly, won’t be mine, although… sooooonnnnnn…….)

Apologies for this rather confusing log – my sleep schedule is impossibly out of whack, and I’m a little crazy right now…

Tea bag time!

As with all teabags, the aroma is very faint. There are hints of freshness, as the ingredients read natural fruit and vegetable pieces, but you mainly find the lemongrass dominating.

Steeping gives you a more fruitful aroma, with the lemongrass not too far behind. I think the apple pieces are dominating, which lends to it’s sweetness.

The brew is a deep and cloudy green, with a mixture of rouge tones, possibly from the orange peel and rose hips.

As I had suspected, it is quite a blend, with the rose hips and lemongrass seemingly fighting for dominance over the fruit. It is appropriately sweet, but there is a darkness to it, with the lemongrass brightening slightly.

Notice I haven’t mentioned cucumbers once, as it is nowhere to be found in aroma or flavor. It’s quite disappointing considering I bought it mainly because of the cucumber, but if I had read the ingredients beforehand, I would have suspected this would not be a cucumber flavored green tea, with just too many other flavors in the mix.

Nonetheless, it is an acceptable bagged green tea.

I used this as the base of a chai. Wow, it was delicious. I opened up 3 teabags and added 1 C of water and 1.5 C of vanilla almond milk. I added 2 tsp of cane sugar and steeped for 10 min on the stove. It was better than hot chocolate. The spice is mild, but it is there.

I haven’t tried this straight yet, and seeing how good it was as a chai, I probably won’t. It would likely be a bit weak as a straight tea.

Adding milk and a bit of honey seems to soften the taste of the chicory root a little bit and now it does come across a bit more like gingerbread. Still not my favorite, though it isn’t terrible or anything.

The teabags themselves are annoying the heck out of me because they break open so easily and it’s a pain to have to pour the tea through a strainer after I steep it to get all the bits out. :/

The dry teabag smells more like cinnamon candy hearts than gingerbread I’ve gotta say. It’s better flavour-wise though it doesn’t quite hit the mark. It’s the chicory root that partially to blame I think as that seems to come out most prominently. It’s actually a fairly nice blend of flavours in my opinion but they should have called it ‘Holiday Spice’ or something, rather than trying and failing to get their customers to believe that the tea is supposed to taste like gingerbread.

Loved this te, very chocolately and very good.

I am not a huge chai fan but for a free sample I can’t complain. I actually liked this tea. It wasn’t anything special, mostly just easy drinking, not too overpowering, but nothing too memorable either. Wouldn’t buy it for sure, would I drink it again if offered – probably. I’ve had worse chai teas :P

Steep it for a while in very hot water, then add a bit of coffee mate! Yummy replacement to a chai latte!