Peet's Coffee & Tea

Surprised this hasn’t been reviewed after all these years.

Now this is a good hibiscus blend. Two bags in a 20oz mug. I’m mostly getting the hibscus/rosehip combo and a good dash of sweet, non-spicy cinnamon but not tasting chamomile or lemongrass as their lighter flavors are easily overwhelmed with something as forward as hibiscus. Smooth and a little sweet, not bitingly acidic by any means.

Peet’s Coffee and Tea (a Berkeley company) acquired Mighty Leaf Tea (a San Francisco company) and stopped selling Peet’s branded line of teas when this happened several years ago. So once this Hibiscus C Blend is gone, it’s gone for good, unless I get a wild hair up my ass and go sleuthing to the levels of Mastress Alita to find the wholesaler.

Got this on the way out of town at Peet’s Coffee. The company is Mighty Leaf Tea but I’m reviewing it here since there are a lot more reviews here. It was actually listed as a green tea on their menu but is actually a white tea. I discovered this when lifting the tin down from the wall to read it. Unfortunately at Peet’s like many other coffee shops uses boiling water. So this was over steeped by the time it cooled down enough for me to drink. It was still drinkable and I would definitely like to try it again at the right temperature.

I haven’t tried many pu-erhs, but this one seems okay. It’s a little bitter for me, but is still earthy. It’s not my favorite, but I drink it from time to time. The earthy taste is comforting sometimes.

This was originally when I feel in love with very good tea. Peet’s Jasmine Downy Pearls was fabulous! Cup after cup, tin after tin. It was my everyday pot of tea and was still special year after year. Then when Peet’s transferred their teas over to Mighty Leaf, the jasmine pearls went up in price AND down in quality. Over processed, bitter not delicate, the flavor went downhill. It was really depressing. That started my now years long search for a good replacement.

(Gifted to me by my friend Jen D AKA “J-Law”) I’m a coffee drinker. I have generally found tea to be boring, and often the tannins in black tea and the ‘green-ness’ of green tea are unpleasant to my palate. Herbal teas have been a thing I use when I’m sick, liberally dosed with honey, lemon and whiskey— consumed for medicinal value of the herbs rather than for the flavor. This is the first tea I’d ever had that I actually enjoyed on its own merits. This is a really good blend, with a full, smooth & smokey flavor. Yep, this tea is a smoke-bomb! It is very strong, gives a boost as good as coffee, but does need cream and sugar to balance the smoke, just like they drink it in the Motherland. This stuff will wake you up with visions of being bundled up in a horse-drawn sled, being carried across the steppes, with a warming cup of this tea in your mittened hands, breathing the fireplace odor of Baba Yaga’s hut as it looms on the horizon. This is a tea for Adventures!

Very smokey and strong – was great on cold Winter days.

Wait, what? I’m done with this blend? Goodness, I hadn’t remembered I was so close to done. I thought I’d kill it this week, but its gone first thing Monday morning. How delightful!
Farewell, Holiday Breakfast Blend. I shall not be inviting you back, but not because I hated you. You just never inspired.
Sipdown!

You know, there is really something to be said about variety.
I find this tea largely inoffensive, but there is just so much of it, and its become boring. I find myself eager to be done with it, and bring more novel teas into the office to sip upon.
Well, that shall be good motivation and inspiration to sip it down!

The second cup of tea in a morning has an amazing ability to center and ground one. I am feeling much, much more human after consuming this cup. Suddenly the hours between me and the weekend do not seem like a chore, but rather something I can handle with ease and aplomb.
We’ll see if that lasts. If not, I shall apply more tea.

It feels like it should be Friday. Alas, it is not, and there is much to be done.
I get excited when, as I’m scooping out leaf, I get a glimpse of the bottom of the tin. I’ve still got quite a few cups of this to go, but its nearing the end of its time with us, and when its done I shall be done with it.
That said, it was a lovely jolt of caffine for me today. Yay tea to help with all the paperwork!

So my boss was out of the office yesterday, during all the grumpy people, and today when he came in we had our meeting, I explained what all had happened and everyones reactions, and he advised me to relax, because I’d done right, and he would handle it from there.
I love my boss. He’s great.
That said, I am still going to guzzle the tea. This week has given me a headache, and I intend to keep the flow of calming, life affirming tea going.

Its before noon, the High Tea Counsel won’t get me for drinking this!
I need all the black tea I can get today. Ahh.

More tea! Moar!
I am dragging this morning, and while I got a lot done, there is always more to do. So its time to drink tea!
I wouldn’t say this is growing on me, but I’m getting rather used to it. Its a perfect work morning tea to have in the office- I can steep it and drink it without too much thought, and that’s just how I like my work teas.
Its only Monday, isn’t it?

Whoops, I may have ordered a bunch of fruity black and oolong teas from Lupicia, which all arrived yesterday, and plumped up my cupboard numbers once more.
Whoops.
So, once more unto the breech with the sipping down of more wintery teas!
This has got a ways to go, before I can declare it a sipdown, but I am making nice progress.
Its never going to wow me, but its not the worst breakfast blend I’ve ever had. It does very, very well as a work tea, where I might get distracted and have to do other things

Ugh, its been a long day, and its not over yet. And I’ve got a headache, and I’m tired.
So, ray of sunshine that I am, I am medicating with tea, in the hopes that it will improve matters greatly.
Not particularly, in the case of this cup, but hey. I shall prevail!

I drank this while staring at the torrential, amazing downpour, hoping I would not have to drive home in it.
It seems to have stopped, but it could come back yet.
I think part of the problem with this tea is that is a bit elderly. My fault, obviously, but I don’t recall it being bursting with rich, layered flavor before, and now its sort of smoothed itself out into a slightly flatish cup.
Ah well.

The annoying thing about this blend is that its not labeled with whats in it. What am I tasting here? Something malty, anyway.
Its nice to drink with a lemon bar, in any case!

Too long has this languished at home, un drunk and not appreciated.
Its a perfectly basic, verging of boring breakfast blend. Its usually pretty mellow, comforting rather than zippy. And it was not getting drunk at home.
So, its the next tea to be brought into the office, where it will be drunk more regularly, and appreciated more, I hope!

I had this on Friday morning, as I thought it would be good for my stuffed up self. Strong, but not particularly a favorite, and bold enough to cut through the cold?
Well it tasted bitter on Friday, so I’m not quite sure what I did.
I can’t wait to get well, and be able to taste all the things I really love again. I shall have a subtle tasting tea festival!

I don’t know what it is about this week, but there hasn’t been a night where I have slept well, without a nightmare about work. Sheesh.
So I’ve been brewing strong tea, but also not anything that is particularly interesting. This may change tomorrow. Maybe I’ll brew up something lovely tomorrow instead of this, which is serviceable, but not special.

Have you ever had a tea day when you don’t want to drink anything particularly special? I just woke up with a case of the tea blahs, where I wanted tea, but nothing fancy, nothing that required too much focus or care.
Enter Holiday Breakfast, which could be summed up as “basic.” And it was exactly the right thing for a day when I don’t want anything special.