Mahamosa Gourmet Teas, Spices & Herbs

My samples from Amanda came today, thanks so much to her. This is one of the ones that she gave me because she didn’t like it, and I have to say I’m glad about that because I think it’s great (though I can understand why some people might not like it). It’s definitely smokey and full bodied, with hints of chocolate and a little sweetness to round out the smokiness. I love it, thanks Amanda.

Sipdown! 167/365!

In honour(?) of being so far behind on sipdowns this month (I have 16 more to go in the next ten days), I’m only going to be sipping things down for the next ten days (I’m making an exception for iced tea because that’s kind of its own separate goal). This one, I’ve brewed up hot for the moment, but may stick in the fridge. Haven’t yet decided. I also don’t know if I have more of this or not. I either have another 1 ounce(?) bag, or this is it.

By some miracle, the coconut is just on the verge of going off, so it’s still okay enough for me to drink – plenty of delicious cherry goodness shining through. This does make such an excellent iced tea. I wish I had more.

In other news, putting this baby down for a nap is really fun. Sometimes I get it right, sometimes I get it wrong. The tiny, writhing, crying body on the monitor next to me tells me that I got it wrong today. Sigh.

Delicious, but I left it in my travel mug just a teensy bit long, and the fruit started to go off… so the rubber pieces are a bit smelly. Sigh. It’s not too bad though, thankfully. Anyhow, I’ve been cold-brewing this in my DT carry mug, since it has the mesh filter, and it works quite well. Aka I can probably justify to myself buying at least one more. Haha…

Cold-brewed this on Saturday to compare to DT’s Hard Candy, but didn’t really end up doing so, I just drank it and it was good. Still think they’re pretty much the same tea, though. Delicious sour cherry/cranberry tartness + coconutty creaminess and general sweetness. Very refreshing.

NOM NOM NOM. Iced this this morning, and had a sip a little while ago. Sooooooo good. The cherry really pops. I will admit that I used like 12g for 2 cups, which is totally unsustainable and really expensive, but oh well. It’s yummy.

(Oh, and this was a kinda sorta sipdown, in that I finished off one bag. Still have another 50g though :) )

Cold-brewed overnight. Ahhh-mazing! Thanks so much Amanda for picking me up more of this!

Also…. a side-by-side cold-brew of this and Caraway’s Two Fruits & a Nut reveals that they are extremely similar, if not the exact same tea. So an alternate source has been found!!

Cold-brewed the rest of my sample and confirmed that this tea definitely needs to be part of my iced tea collection for the summer if at all possible. The cherry tartness is so well-balanced by the other fruity flavours and like with Tropicalia, there’s nothing weird going on, so if artificial flavours were involved, they were cleverly done (and as long as I can’t taste artificial-ness, I don’t really care). Not as sweet as Tropicalia (but I think I used too much tea with that one, definitely making it a “juice tea”, in the words of Indigobloom.)

Thanks again Amanda for introducing me to this tea :)

Yum.

Thank you Amanda for this sample! I belatedly wanted to sample this after you had sent off the package – I was so pleased when it was a bonus sample you had sent along!

The dry tea smells fruity, creamy, and with a sour cherry tang. Steeped, it smells sweet and vaguely cherry-like… hope the fruity taste that I’m expecting is there!

Oh wow! THIS is what I wish Cherry Potion from DavidsTea tasted like! This is lovely! I can taste apple and cherry most prominently, but what I’m loving the most is the lack of strange artificial flavours, and the fact that this is caffeine-free. I really hope I can acquire some of this reasonably easily – I need this in my cupboard. NEED. This is seriously the perfect fruit tisane. I mean, I’ll have to try the rest of it in another cup, but I doubt it will change my mind.

I don’t know whether this is just a good night for me + teas, but I feel like I’m on a roll here :P (Good thing, I very literally have EIGHT full cups of tea sitting here to drink!)

When this one became available online I loaded up on half a pound. I’ve now used up two of the bags I think. I am still convinced I’ve only used up one but I find no proof of it anywhere. It’s that good I hope I have more.

I typically make it hot and then leave it sitting until it cools. This is probably not the best option right now because I’m sure it’s still a gram of sugar per cup max but that’s a lot of sugar right now. I should probably water down the rest since I have powered through it today.

Still as delicious as ever. And it’s going to have to keep me occupied since I have to wait until morning to get my Adagio order. ARGH MAILMAN WHAT DO YOU HAVE AGAINST PUTTING MY MAIL IN THE LOCKERS.

So of course this is the other one I had yesterday, like a quart of it. I actually kind of room temperature steeped it, and it worked out. I drank the green rooibos in the meantime and by the time I was ready for this one, it was almost just like how I normally steep it. This way probably makes me use less tea. I realized yesterday at max I can make 1 1/2 gallons of iced tea from 2 oz of this tea, so it’s kind of a pricey thing to use too often especially compared to how cheap one can get green rooibos.

I think though room temp or cold steeping is probably the best way to go so I don’t use as much. I also typically like to make this one so that it’s like juice. It works quite well too when not made so heavy handed.

I still have 3 more bags so hopefully that’ll last me through the summer.

This one is online now!!! So I used nearly all I had to make a pitcher earlier, and bought half a pound. My boyfriend was like good god that’s a lot, but seriously I think I use about an ounce of it to make a pitcher and then I drink it so quickly…I can’t stop.

No other fruit tea will ever compare to this one. I have no need to sweeten it, because it’s perfectly sweet and tart as is. And most importantly, Mahamosa donates to charity, so I feel even better about being obsessed with drinking this iced even if it’s somewhat cool outside.

btw if anyone is interested, I set up a Facebook page for Black Bear Laboratory (https://www.facebook.com/BlackBearLaboratory) which should have some new stuff soon, as I get a new round of supplies tomorrow…eeeee

And of course I probably will immediately make a ton of stuff tomorrow, while drinking the remaining half of this pitcher.

I am so so so so glad that Mahamosa was able to find me two more pouches of this tea (and I said if any more come out of the woodwork, let me know, I’ll buy them ALL) so now I don’t feel like I have to hoard as I essentially have two ounces of it once again.

This has to be my favorite fruit tea in the world and that is why it’s so depressing that it seems to have vanished from being carried. It requires no sweetening, it’s just marvelous as is.

I like to boil water, pour it over the fruit and then just leave it to cool off while still steeping. So much cherry flavor, and not the least bit of a fake, medicinal kind. It’s tart without being difficult to drink.

I almost want to find a way to recreate it myself if it’s gone for good. It’s way too good!

Ok one last thing, Steepster. Since nowhere else on the internet has anyone helped me, I really want to cut my hair like this: http://www.allure.com/hair-ideas/2012/32-hair-ideas-for-2012#slide=3 (but less bangs in the front) and my boyfriend thinks it’d look good, but my mom is trying to say my hair is too thick for it. Since I know the boyfriend doesn’t know the first thing about it, I can’t ask him and nobody else has answered me, does that even possibly matter? I’ve had layers before. That page even says more along the lines of it not being good for super fine hair. I reaaaaally want to cut my hair but I’m so particular and I want this so much, augh. Now back to your regularly scheduled tea-related dashboard.

I just want to drink this forever. Oh my goodness.

I smelled it and knew I had to have it for iced tea. While there looks like a lot of apple, it only adds sweetness I think. The kiwi and cherry are definitely prominent. I love the sour cherry followed by the sweetness of kiwi and the apple. And it’s all rounded out with the coconut.

I’d go make a pitcher, but while waiting for a cup of this to cool off, the bulb in my kitchen light burned out! :( I had to use a flashlight because I’m not in the mood to move a lamp into the kitchen. Blah. Kind of ruins a night of tea drinking.

They never put their Darjeelings out on the cart. I feel like knowing there is probably a Darjeeling if I ask, it’s like I’m getting a secret drug deal done in the middle of the mall. Maybe that’s just me.

This one is actually on their website, I wish though they put just a bit more information on it. There’s a boatload on the Gopaldhara Estate, but nothing more about the tea. It’s definitely a second flush though.

I’ve never had a Darjeeling that so very much embodies that muscatel taste. This does. The astringency is mouth drying, which is one of the things I love most about Darjeelings. It’s nice and sweet, and even has a nice mix of a malty and baked taste to it.

I like it but at a regular price of $8 an ounce, right now I will not be asking for super secret Darjeelings without a discount site’s help as usual. Especially since lurking around the internet a lot of places have teas from this estate for less.

I really don’t know why I got this, I guess I was just fascinated by it. But I think I will stick with green gunpowder tea.

It’s pretty bold, which I don’t mind, but the smoky flavor is just really off putting. It’s not like full on smoky but at the same time it’s not just subtle. Those would be okay. But right in the middle just ugh. I might see about steeping it a shorter time and see if that helps.

I can’t pass up a chocolate flavored rooibos, and this smelled great so I had to get it.

I didn’t realize it had coconut in it, but the coconut gives it that creamy, trufflelike taste rather than imparting a coconut flavor. I could use a bit more chocolate, because it’s more of an aftertaste than I’d like, but it’s still a good blend. Sweet, creamy, and making my crappy afternoon a whole lot better.

Today this tea tasted really peppery! It’s not one of my favorite Darjeelings now that I’ve had far more, I rather like second flushes instead of anything else. I’d even put autumnals below first flushes.

Pepper, honey, and a little orange. Not a bad combination, but not my favorite.

I just got the video from Jaguar of my 0-60-0 run…I got to 88mph! https://www.facebook.com/kimisicecream/posts/398137203600120 You can skip a lot of the beginning, it’s me talking like a nervous idiot because I was freaking out.

So there’s a new tea company here in Atlanta, and there was a LivingSocial deal for them a couple days ago, and nothing says try out this tea like spending* $10 to get $20. They have a website with far more tea than their little mall cart shop, and I guess if there’s something I like that’s on there, they can get it there so I wouldn’t have to ship it or anything since they are based here.

*Like you really stop at $20. I was actually at $20.07 and of course I couldn’t stop.

Anyway this was the first one I picked because I like Darjeeling, but I’ve only had 2 and nobody has been specific about it just like “Darjeeling” or maybe saying what flush it is. Of course, this tea is not even on their website for me to pull up all the other information but at least we’ve got all the letters.

And actually my bag is wrong because it says this is an Assam even though it’s definitely a Darjeeling. They are new so I’m sure there are kinks to work out. I wasn’t feeling good because I was hungry and I wanted to go home and the poor guy at the cart really wanted to keep me there hahaha.

Anyway this tea is good. I love the astringency of Darjeeling because I’m weird. There’s this nice floral note, and it’s kind of citrusy. I kept thinking honey at first but I have some honey that’s infused with lime oil so that’s probably where I’m getting that.

I am going to steep it a second time later and then move on to a couple others! Also if you want to check them out their website is teabar.com, they have A LOT of stuff and you can buy .5 oz of stuff which is always great.