Numi Organic Tea

I spotted this in the grocery store around New Year’s and grabbed it on a whim (don’t we all browse the tea aisle even though we have a lifetime supply of tea waiting for us at home??). I’m not usually a big fan of Numi’s teas but like this one. I’ve been drinking it semi-regularly over the last couple months. It’s been reasonably forgiving of temperature and steep time mishaps. I’ve been making up a big travel mug of it to help me through the never-ending hours of hand embroidering a baby blanket for my latest niece (115+hrs into it, remind me why I thought this was a good idea). It takes about 4 teabags to get a decent strength brew in my 16oz mug but the tea is a nice light, sweet green. It did get bitter the time I forgot it was steeping and then realized the teabags were still in there a couple hours later but that’s kind of to be expected. Leaving it that long, it was the citrus that became bitter and overpowered flavor of the tea leaves. At that point it reminded me of a citrus tea I have that’s supposed to be like digestive bitters, one of the Traditional Medicinals ones, I think (Blood Orange?).
The one small thing I’m not crazy about with this tea is the smell of the used teabags. When I remember to, I try to collect my used tea leaves in a bucket and then they go out to the compost pile when I’ve accumulated enough to be worth the trip up the hill. Most other teas are fine if the leaves sit for a couple days before they get taken out but the Yuzu Bancha has a tendency to become rather stinky quickly. I’d blame it on the yuzu peel but I don’t have this problem with chenpi or other citrus teas.

Second tea from Devon handmade advent calendar. Thank you!

Well, my tummy is upset today, my back hurts… it seems I maybe caught something on the vacation. Hopefully it’s not Covid. But there was some fever in the train including gastric flu. Maybe that’s it… or I just jumped too hard back into work or it is something completely different.

As pu-erhs can be good for digestion, or at least it is sometimes claimed, I was happy to see it. I was ready for really robust, strong and full-flavoured tea.

However, it was somehow weak? I have steeped it for recommended 5 minutes but it was quite flat and not much chocolaty at all?

It was rooibos-y with hints of cinnamon for me. But alas, my senses are not up to par, so I won’t rate this one.

Day 12 of my Steepster homemade advent calendar from Kelmishka. This has a nice citrusy zing. I assume that’s the ginger, since I can’t taste it otherwise. It also has a licorice sweetness for which YMMV. There’s a nice little kick at the end of the sip, which lingers afterwards along with the licorice. There’s apparently rose in here but that doesn’t come through at all. Mostly I’m left wondering why the licorice is here – I would have preferred a turmeric/ginger blend without it. Presumably they added it for some sweetness to balance the spice, but licorice is such a love/hate flavor that it seems like an odd choice.

20 days since my last tasting note. I guess my life is too busy! I need to slow down and I need to take a little break from all the work stuff (even though I am home already), so I am writing this note.

Received from Amy, from tea swap elsewhere; and tea-mail is always a happy mail, so… decided to dig in, though I have so many other teas to drink / finish than opening single little packages.

But anyway, I have decided for this one. I recall seeing it when I was in Finland (oh, it was 6 years ago already. Or to be more precise 5 and half?). I don’t know why I haven’t tried it there, maybe the word “aged” scared me more than it should?

This is very fine EG with nice bergamot level when brewed. I did suggested steeping time (it was supposed to be 30 seconds shorter); and I got a very strong black tea base, quite robust IMO, and the bergamot level was just right with nice flavour and tends to be a bit more sour than I am used to. But it is fine and it was refreshing. And more importantly, it was natural and not artificial-flavouring like.

In conclusion: pretty much fine tea bag! I would kindly drink it if offered.

PS: I was waiting for today that Bruce Springsteen concert in Germany tickets were on sale from today. I already planned all the trip around Germany, booked the hotels and I feel that what should be planned in advance, that it is planned well. So, I have decided to buy the tickets, to find out it is indeed 15th July… but in 2023! I bought the tickets anyway, because the other dates aren’t that suitable. Yes, it was pricey, but I can’t wait already!

I received this from a friend who gave me a gift of some of her favorite tea bags. I always want to love roses. However, my allergies get triggered with most of their scents so I’ve not tried many rose teas.
Spring is here and I’m ignoring the fact that the meteorologists are threatening snow tomorrow. My allergies are already in full effect, so I broke out the tea. I heated the kettle to 175 and steeped as directed for 3ish minutes. The tea is definitely not overpowering. I like the light floral taste and while the tea bag had a strong rose scent while unwrapping, I don’t notice much of that while drinking. It’s not a bad little tea and I could see using it for a tea party with my daughter and her teddy bears.

Single bag from a tea box. This is such a clear, fresh peppermint. That’s the only ingredient in this bag, and it’s really refreshing and nice cold. I would totally drink this one again.

Here’s another tea bag I earthed up during peak congestion and stashed for later consumption. It’s from Numi’s “Nspire” series, and their website implies it’s intended for iced tea purposes (whoops).

It’s not super exciting: the jasmine is pretty strong, the green base is.. green and astringent (puckering mouth feel), but still kind of smooth. There’s something of the collard greens about it (slight bitter veg, but not unpleasantly so). Probably a twiggy base. There’s a hint of floral sweetness. It’s not something I’d run out to get, and doesn’t hold a candle to other jasmine teas I’ve had, but it’s drinkable!

I’ve tried all sorts and brands of green tea and Numi Gunpowder is still my favorite. Nothing beats that mellow, smokey essence. So relaxing.

Spice Quest Episode XII: A long time ago in a tasting note far away…

…a wizened-up, weary Jedi clerical worker was freezing in her hundred-year-old office, buried under a pile of second semester paperwork and 1099 proof forms, barely breathing out of only one nostril, and was delighted to dig through the rubble and find one tiny packet of Turmeric Amber Sun imported from the spice mines of the far West…

OK, enough. Sorry.

Courtesy of Michelle, this was a nice, warming afternoon change of pace, although I agree with previous reviews. It isn’t what you expect. It doesn’t lead with the heat, it’s significantly more savory than you’d think, and is much improved with the contents of a honey straw. However, it warmed the bones and opened the throat. Mission accomplished.

I found a bunch of neglected tea bags from various companies, and I’m hoping that one or more of them will satisfy my cravings for a strong, robust cup of tea. I decided to start with Numi because I’ve fond memories of this company from happy college cafeteria days (this is the brand UVic carried when I attended there; I always went for the Gunpowder or Mint though).

Even though my nose is super muted, I still can smell a touch of delicious, caffeine-filled black tea (bliss)! To taste, I still manged to get “sweet potato” and “malt” from this bright, bitter, slightly sweet tea – which is more than I hoped for (you can tell Numi includes Chinese black tea in this blend). It’s a lovely tea bag that’s as satisfying as turning rich, fine loam in the garden – but it’s possibly too lovely to add the planned honey and lemon.

Also, despite steeping the bag for 5 minutes in a tiny mug the astringency is more minimal than I was anticipating – something that only asserted itself after I finished my cup. But take that with a grain of salt; my head is currently cotton mush.

Classic, bit of warm spice to it.

So, since early spring 2020, I have been the only person consistently in the office. Which means I can spend days, sometimes even weeks, pretty much alone. As an introvert, this isn’t much of a problem other than I start to develop some very bad habits, such as cooking steaks in the breakroom’s toaster oven.

As I was dealing with the most recent crisis of the missing master key, I did a lot of searching in nooks and crannies of the office that I had never bothered to look through before.

(I actually spent a week on this futile task before someone finally approved a locksmith to come out and open the door. At which point I discovered that the missing key was not only inside that room, but it was also inside a locked fire proof safe. And I did not have a key to said safe and the locksmith couldn’t open it. Thus started the new quest to find the key to the safe. Wait a minute, has my life turned into an Adventure game?)

Among the interesting things I found was the cabinent where we keep our overflow of coffee beans and bagged teas that I usually ignore. But I was bored and frustrated and annoyed, so I just started looking through the offerings and there wasn’t much of a surprise in what I found. Primarily mint or green jasmine, a few other tisanes that I have no interest in. Mostly the usual office crap purchased from an offcie supply store by people who don’t actually drink tea but think they need to try to be inclusive to the tiny portion of weirdos who don’t worship at the shrine of the coffee bean.

And then I ran across a box of this in the back corner. I almost ignored it. While I love almost all of the usual masala chai ingredients, I really do not like clove. And most masala chai style teas contain massive amounts of clove. Blech. But, I was bored and frustrated and decided I would rather look at bagged teas over searching for a key that I suspected was inside the locked room.

And, much to my surprise, NO CLOVE!!!!!!!!
So today I decided to give it a try. (Man, what is it with me and long stories lately.)

And I can taste and smell cinnamon and cardomon and ginger. Not sure on the anise. I expected it to be stronger, but I don’t necessarily find that a bad thing. And there’s no clove! (Queue hysterical laughter)

The down side is that the spices really over power the base tea. I wish it stood out a little more, but its not a major deal breaker. And hey, it looks like you can buy this in loose leaf in units of, holy moly, one pound! I could drink nothing but this for a year and still not be able to go through an entire pound of it.

I can stick with bags. I don’t see this as a staple so much as something I will be drawn to when the rains come and the winds are wet and cold. Oh man I am so ready for the rains to come back. Seattle shouldn’t be as dry as a tender box.

Oh, and I stole the box of tea and put it into my desk drawer with all of my other teas. :D

Another tea from Madeline I let in my cupboard for an year or so. I had to find out, if it has got weird crayon taste or it was just her. Thank you anyway! At least a new tea bag in my collection, which I have been sorting yesterday and it is not done yet. And it won’t be.

Anyway, I have tried it and honestly, something was weird with this tea. It brewed strong green tea taste, very thick feeling. The jasmine was there, but not much present, rather geneal florality, athough based on the smell, it was clearly jasmine. I can notice that wax note if I was searching for it and certainly I had better jasmine greens. It was, even with the jasmine, weirdly thick and uncommon for jasmine tea which I usually associate with lighter taste.

It wasn’t my cup of tea. That heavy thick feeling is off-putting it for me.

Day 8 of Devon’s Advent calendar.

I am not fan of gunpowder at all, it tends to be usually mineral, stone-like, sometimes bitter and smokey and this one is no exception.

I am glad I did only 2 minutes steep with even colder water than I usually have for greens.
It turned out indeed quite mineral with smoky notes however with some sweet notes that were fine, and it was somehow smooth and mouth-coating, but without long effect.
Fine, but nothing to necessary re-try.

I received this one year ago or so from Madeline, so take note how to not take care about cupboard. Thank you, if you ever read this.

I am sleepy today, although I slept fairly well and better than last days. I woke up as usual at 4 am, but I felt back asleep quickly. But still tired…

This tea I have prepared mostly because I wanted a caffeine boost and without fuzz. Honestly, the tea bag delivers both.

I had about 76°C water prepared in glass mug when I have added the tea bag. After short, two minute steep, I got a cup of nice grassy and full-bodied tea, but somehow flat. I guess it is because it is plain green tea and tea bag.

I haven’t noticed any smoke as many others, it was rather similar to oolong with mineral notes.

I found another bag while cleaning up my desk and thought… matcha toasted rice… so, like genmaicha but with matcha instead of sencha? No, it uses sencha. So… poorly-labeled genmaicha, lol.

This has a very roasted toasty flavor, with hints of popcorn. The sencha flavor is either a bit weak, overpowered by the toasted rice, or both. I’d prefer a more balanced flavor, but if you like your genmaicha heavy on the toasted rice flavor, you’d probably like this one.

My go-to loose leaf breakfast tea

Tea box sample. The main flavor here is chocolate. It’s mild and pleasant. I don’t really notice any puerh flavor. The chocolate isn’t the richest or tastiest, but it’s nice with milk. I feel like I taste a few spices in there as well. Really, it all goes together pretty well and has a bit of depth I wasn’t expecting. The resteep was decent as well. Before this, I didn’t realize Numi made loose leaf.