The Spice & Tea Exchange

Currently drink this tea while I churn through my tasting note backlog!

It’s very much a grey day today, and I’m feeling rather bored at home. Maybe that’s a factor of why I felt like pulling this tea out? A bit of liquid escapism, perhaps? It’s certainly sunny tasting with a bright but not sweet note of fresh squeezed oranges. Definitely appropriate for its namesake, though I also enjoy that there’s an ever so slight pithy undertone and that the notes of timothy hay and honeysuckle from the white tea itself also still come through in taste.

Still slowly sipping my way through these coworker teas!

I’m… sort of on the fence about whether I liked this one or not? It’s got a strong orange note that’s closer to a very natural fresh squeezed orange juice flavour versus more of a candy or soda-type of flavour; but without any acidity at all. It’s sort of strange tasting something that has those fresh squeezed and “pure” orange notes but without that pop of juiciness that acidity would give it. It’s also kind of bright and kind of not? Like, the white tea is delicate and the flavour overall is also sort of delicate so it reads maybe a bit borderline like “flat” orange juice? But the taste is good. It just maybe feels unfinished because of the above reasons?

I don’t know. It left me very confused overall. Though, the one thing I do feel strongly is that the name is pretty on point. Can’t think of much else more Florida inspired than oranges – and the sun connection is pretty great too! Even steeped a pretty yellow colour, likely aided by the “turmeric sugar” in the mix.

Gut impression is that this would probably grow on me over time…

Last one tonight!

There’s something about this blend that really straddles the line between generic apple/hibiscus fruit medley (really “catalog” in style) and more clean and simple delivery of a quality flavour. It tastes a lot like elderberry, but not really like much else other than those two aforementioned base ingredients. I can’t decide how I feel about it. I personally like the taste of elderberry but I know it can be polarizing since it had some of that medicinal note that things like black currants also have. By using such a generic mix of supporting ingredients, you can’t hide from that. However, do you want to!?

Taste aside, this is clearly intended to be more of an Immunity and Cold/Defense play since elderberry is so popular right now for its functional benefits. I don’t know, it’s an interesting blend. One I think I’d like to taste again and reflect a bit more on…

I enjoyed this one a lot too, but found it a bit plain/straightforward. It mostly just tastes like a medium bodied with tea with a pure play passionfruit flavour. No acidity/tang, though. I know there’s pineapple flavouring too but it blends a lot into that generic tropical vibe and isn’t quite as distinct as the passionfruit to me.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, though – simple/straight forward and a little plain is OFTEN underwhelming on first taste but does tend to become a lot of people’s favourite teas with repetition. Predictability and flavours that aren’t too extreme for a broad spectrum of moods/situations are REALLY good cupcoard staples.

I really liked this tea, but it doesn’t really taste at all like what I’d expect a berry blend to be. Sure, there are a lot of berries in the blend but all the heavy lifting with the taste is being done by the flavouring and it’s plum/lychee – NOT berry. You can taste it too; this is like a less floral lychee white tea with a tinnyyyy bit more depth to it. The inclusion of berries contributes a little bit, but not as much as the average person thinks they do. Dehydrated fruits just don’t work like that. So, tasty as it may be, I find the composition to be sorta deceptive.

This tea smelled really good and it looked even better. Almost glossy looking dark black tea leaves with very bright and contrasting curls of orange peel, bold blue cornflower, and lots of purple lavender. The aroma was rich and creamy with strong notes of orange and lavender alongside that. Gave me a bit of an “Earl Grey Creamsicle” vibe but floral.

The taste wasn’t as great as the aroma. It was just sooo floral and lavender heavy. Arguably too fresh to the point where it read a bit like really heady perfume. But the orange, bergamot, and cream notes were solid – just drowned out!

A coworker just came back from a vacation to the states and brought with her a whole bunch of teas for us to try from stores she visited – so I’m gonna try and taste through them over the next week!

I feel like I’ve tried so many variations of this tea. Literally and figuratively. It sort of just tastes like your standard medium sorta quality green blending base with a light handed addition of strawberry flavouring. Sort artificial, and definitely leaning on the more floral and aromatic side. Not tart, juicy, or overly sweet. In a kind way, it’s the type of strawberry blend I would feel very comfortable serving to a grandparent. It just feels safe and, in that safeness, comfortable.

However, I did not personally love it.

One of my new favorite green tea blends, for some reason I love creme brulee green teas exclusively. I don’t like creme brulee in black or herbal blends. This blend is caramelly, sweet, and cakey. A perfect treat for a stressful day.

Evidence of trichomes on the inside of the package. With an interesting wine aroma. Like a Burgundy. With a very slight sweetness from a Visanto. Golden tips and curly tightly twisted leaves. The wet aroma is very nice. A mix of what was already mentioned but then it switches to heavily wooded notes. This is definitely a woodsy brew. Wood chest. Wood compost. Playground wood? Also creamy with a bit of astringency. Would go well with milk.

It seems utterly impossible to me that there is no note for this tea. It was a gift from a former student just a couple of weeks ago and we have already finished it. I drank the 1st cup hot right after I got it and it had lovely champagne flavor with a hint of berry. I was so sure I had posted a note.

Ever since Thursday, we have been drinking it as a flash chill tea. It makes an incredible amount of foam and even after you drain your glass the foam stays for a very long time. In fact I don’t think I have seen it break down yet .

Making this way, shaking the hot tea in a cocktail shaker with ice, the champagne flavor is very strong and the berry flavor is practically nonexistent. In fact, the three of us who tried it could only detect the berry flavor in the aftertaste and then we had to look for it. The champagne flavor is so good, however, that it is going to be very hard for me not to immediately re-order this one. It is an awesome summer flash chilled tea that tastes great with no sugar.

Sipdown – this was a Christmas present from my sister. We were doing local gifts. So this is local to Arizona (at least the shop).

Pretty good flavored tea with the flavoring lasting into the second steep. Juicy and melon flavored and the base is solid. It would sometimes get astringent when overleafed. I enjoyed it.

I’m still trolling for antidotes to the tartness in this one. Tonight’s alchemic experiment was a generous spoonful of Baked Apple Rooibos (English Tea Store). We may be onto something. The roo tones down the tart and pumps up the apple pretty nicely. Now it’s light and fruity—just the ticket after a day of feasting and snacking.

(P.S. U.S.-based or not, I’m thankful for such a lovely, eccentric, creative, well-read, eclectic, geeky, cultured bunch of tea friends. Good people, you are!)

This has been loitering around the house far too long simply because it’s far too tart for my liking. Mostly hibiscus without distinguishable cranberry or apple. So this evening for a nightcap, I added a bag of Vanilla Comoro to take off the razor-sharp edges. The result wasn’t stellar, but acceptable.

I don’t know why I let myself toss this one into the basket when we visited the Spice and Tea Exchange back in November. The dried fruit bits were just so pretty in the packet. If you like cranberry and tart, you’ll be fine with this one, although there’s not really anything else noticeable in the blend. I couldn’t find a whole lot of apple, either.

But I bought it, overpaid for it, so I am bound and determined to drink it. Tonight’s attempt was aided by additives—an extremely generous glug of vanilla syrup from a sample sized bottle, for which I have now lost the lid. I think I absentmindedly cut off the protective sleeve around the lid, then threw away the lid and left the sleeve in my hand. You haven’t ever done anything like that, have you? I didn’t think so.

This combination is a little weird, but I sort of enjoyed my first few sips. It’s fruity, but there’s also some warmth from the turmeric. After a while, the turmeric becomes a little harsh for me, and it’s a shame because the peach is so nice. Bleh the turmeric gets grosser the more I drink of it. It’s becoming so harsh and bitter boooo.

Delightful Earl Grey! Strong bergamot taste and round flavor.

Good morning. It was nice to wake up with the sun for a change instead of an hour before it. (That said, I hate time changes. By 6:00, husband and I will be ready to chuck it in!)

So since I have the grace of a little extra time this morning, I’m using it to enjoy my Spice and Tea Exchange splurge—I snagged a four ounce bag of Warm Bread Pudding to sweeten the winter months.

Nothing new to say about it; you can easily pick out the mild lemon and a distinctly raisin-y vibe, especially with a little milk. I suppose the vanilla is supposed to substitute for the bread—nothing tastes especially yeasty. But it’s a lovely, dessert-y rocking chair treat. (Some teas need a little back-and-forth motion to be fully appreciated.)

This is a delicious tea. Just the right notes of sweet lemon and vanilla to make it taste like the real dessert instead of like chai with a comforting name slapped on it.

This is also a pricey tea, so I’ve been milking the last bits of my ounce with multiple steeps and stretches. This morning, I took second steep leaves, added some Tao of Tea Assam, and came up with a pleasant, albeit not especially strong, treat to pour into my work tumbler.

Second steep. I managed to wring a second cup out of the leaves with a very long steep and a little milk. The rock sugar was spent with the first cup, but there was still adequate cinnamon, lemon, and raisin to make it believable. I won’t hoard the rest of the packet (just picked up a 1 ounce sample), but the rest needs to be saved until there’s plenty of time to savor it.

We are not Black Friday shoppers. However, I incorrectly assumed that Rangeline (our main drag) would be clear of the crazies by this afternoon, and made a run to Goodwill to drop off some surplus. The traffic was absolutely bananas, and it’s good to be back in the burg. (Remember the story of the city mouse and country mouse? Oh, wait…you’re
too young for Captain Kangaroo. I’m the country mouse.)

I’m celebrating my survival home with an afternoon tea splurge. The Spice & Tea Exchange is a fun but pricey stop on the Branson Landing (online as well), but I succumbed to the seasonal bait they had at the front of the shop…and glad I did. This couldn’t make a nicer post-Thanksgiving treat. We’ve got creamy vanilla. We’ve got fresh cinnamon. We’ve got a teeny bit of lemon. We’ve even got a little bit of raisin-i-ness; that must be a contribution from the black tea base.

Paired with a leftover slab of pumpkin pie dump cake and a scoop of carrot cake ice cream—-taste so good it makes my toes wiggle!

This one grew on me. Caramel, pumpkin, chocolate anise, tannin, nuts, and smoke this morning. Really easy to drink in fall weather. Most teas taste better in Michigan’s colder weather anyway. I still think it’s overpriced, but it’s a very good black tea.

Sip down!

Backlog and present note reflection.

I took a vacation to tour the historic Saint Augustine Florida and visit my father. I thought about taking my teas with me, but decided not to because I know my dad doesn’t have a filter and drinks tap water. I planned on going through my Hugo Bagged Earl Grey and Jasmine Bai Hao because I know those teas can usually withstand okay bottled water while retaining their flavor, and I wouldn’t lose out on the flavors of my more expensive leaf.

Then I had a hair up my butt, and decided to get some Coconut Pouchong and this one from the Spice and Tea exchange and see how they held up. This Golden Money is the tea that begins to convert regular drinkers to higher end fancier black teas-a stepping stone drug if you will. I know I’ve had this one years ago and didn’t think much of it, so I decided to go at it again by pure impulse.

Opening the bag and 10 dollars spent later, the tea’s earthy but distinctly spicy, smelling like pepper, ginger, anise seed, and distinctly, licorice root and chocolate. Spice and Tea I’m not sure if it’s because the tea sits in a spice store soaking up the other flavors, or if its the tea itself since some black teas can have an edge to them. Brewing it western at my dad’s house with bottle water, I only got some flavors. The Spice and Exchange undersold the description making the tea savory, which is accurate. Dense malt, honey hints, muddled chocolate, and earth licorice root. Solid, okay. Quaity water is needed, and less humidity that is not Florida weather.

Back in Michigan on a hot day with only ten percent less humidity, the dry tea smells incredible. Spicy more so with qualities of the golden monkey that I know I like. Gong fu, and I got the flavors I described about and thick layers. Chocolate, honey, yams are more prominent yet still equal with the licorice and malt. Some people say tobacco for it, and I can see it more now in the malt. I’m getting mega peanut butter vibes in steep one and two.

I like this one’s profile, but $10 is a lot for it. So far, I never go beyond 3 steeps with it before the tea loses flavor, and I’ve gotten better quality for the same price and cheaper.

I don’t really like this one. The flavor is a bit fake and weird. It’s not too tart, but its tartness also doesn’t hit in a very pleasant way. It doesn’t really have any notes that make me think smoothie, only sour orange. Milk made it taste a little better. I think I’d have it again that way, but it’s definitely not tasty enough to purchase.