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Working on finishing samples today! Thank you to whoever sent me this one! It’s called Apple Bliss but I can’t seem to find it. The asroma is very warm with apple cinnamon. The flavor reminds me of dried red delicious apples dusted with cinnamon. Quite enjoyable and one of the better apple teas I’ve tried.
So. I finally blended my own chai. I included pink peppercorns, crystallized ginger, whole cloves, whole cardamom (which I crack open with a mortar and pestle right before brewing), broken up cinnamon sticks, and rooibos (this is our nighttime treat). I scoop in a perfect teaspoon and a half per 8 oz of water, and serve it with vanilla infused honey and a splash of milk.
Wow! Maybe because the spices are glorious ones from Penzeys, or maybe because I used just enough to make things flavorful but not ultra spicy or bitey, but — I’m in love! My husband is in love, too! He requests it every night, and I have to cajole him to try another tisane at least one night a week!
I want to try it with black tea and I also have 2 packets of flavored rooibos and one of honeybush I want to give the chai treatment to. I hope that will allow us to have chai throughout the winter without purchasing more tea!
Preparation
This sounds wonderful. I am in complete agreement about the spices at Penzeys being glorious, too! Stay warm!
Another two resources are Savory Spice (online and in some cities) and happyluckys.com (they carry ‘true’ cinnamon chips not chassis and other herbs and spices in bulk for a good price…). I’ve said before that I keep a box of blending ingredients. Helps that I have 2 spice shops and happyluckys within 3miles of me though. Another thing people can add to tea is freeze dried fruit to get the natural flavors they’re looking for. Pineapple, blueberries etc.
Penzeys is awesome! We buy spices from them regularly. Can you recommend any favorites?
All of the ones I mentioned above are fantastic. Their powdered cinnamon “Penzeys Cinnamon” is so good too — perfect blend of I think 3 or 4 different cinnamons. I also love their powdered mustard and mustard seeds! I’ve been making my own mustard and it’s so easy and delicious. I also love the seeds in chutneys. The other thing I love is their mixes of spices to make your own salad dressings. I haven’t bought a bottle in ages. The French Vinaigrette is my favorite, and my husband loves when I make mayo and use the ranch spices to make a salad dressing.
But honestly — I haven’t had a single spice from them that I didn’t love. I also love their catalog. The stories in it are so heartwarming. I can’t believe I sit there and cry reading a spice catalog! I’m such a dork.
I agree that Penzeys never disappoints. My family loves: Vietnamese Extra Fancy Cinnamon, berbere, Southwest Seasoning and Sweet Curry Powder.
Never heard of Penzeys until y’all started dropping all these tantalizing hints. Merits some research, sounds like!
I went to Penzeys a month or so ago Andre quested help choosing some chai spices from a nice young man working there who is obsessed with chai! We came up with a very nice blend very similar to yours! I used an Assam as my base.
the look on my face right now… :o this sounds righteously delicious!!
JacquelineM,
Can You please Tell me How can I make zafrani Tea?
So I worked and worked and worked on my blend of earl grey, the Earl’s Garden (a berry earl grey from DAVIDsTEA), and vanilla tea. Each time, it felt like it needed more vanilla. So I finally got it tasting exactly how I thought it should taste this morning, and then realized – gosh this tastes an awful lot like Paris! That is wonderful — because I love Paris! But it’s also kinda funny because I have a half pound of Paris in my cupboard already (!). Now I have another 4 oz, more or less. OK!
Preparation
I made a Franken-blend from all of my random bits and bobs of unflavored black teas in an effort to consolidate my little tins, baggies, and whatnots. From memory, I know there is some Keemun, Yunnan, Assam, and other Indian teas in this melange.
Success! This is a bold, chocolatey tea that is best with milk and sugar. I wouldn’t go a touch over 4 minutes, and I’m glad I used a timer. I feel like I have a brand new tin of tea (I think I gathered together about 3 oz of leaves altogether!) without spending a penny. Some of the teas were 2 or 3 years in my cupboard, and the fresher additions really gave them a new life. I highly recommend Franken-blending to revitalize your neglected, leftover, or otherwise languishing teas!
Preparation
I’ve always wanted to try blending…I think I’ll go try it now! Any tips on how to get the best flavor?
Think of what you know about your teas — like I thought about how this Keemun is chocolatey and the particular Yunnan is caramel-y and the Indian tea is earthy and chocolatey — so I knew they had a good chance of going well together. If I had, say, a lemony Ceylon, I would not have used it in this blend. I knew one tea was kinda tired and I always had to double the amount I used for good flavor, so I knew that blending with my fresher, bolder teas would most likely result in a nice strength. Those are the little ideas I used. I don’t know if that’s how you’re supposed to do it, but :)
I also make another frankenblend of some vanilla tea, an earl grey, and a fruit tea — it wasn’t perfect so I added more vanilla tea — so don’t be afraid to tweak things if you are not pleased at first.
I’ve had a jar of “junkyard tea” going for a while now; its personality changes often. Mostly used for iced tea—haven’t tried the latest iteration hot yet.
Yay for FrankenTea!
Gunpowder from Soma
This was one I basically picked up on a whim when I visited my friend in Bloomington. There was a coffee shop that sold loose leaf tea, so I got some of this and some Assam.
This is kinda nice. It’s got a grassy minty thing going on in a way that’s nice and cooling, not overpowering and antiseptic. An especially nice thing after having had fast food for dinner earlier, and Big Cheez-Its for a snack (the best junk snack in the world, but I always feel like I need to wash my mouth after I eat them.) This shall be my cleansing tea.
Bloomington? Indiana? Do you know the name of the coffee shop? That’s pretty close to my stomping grounds.
I want to say it’s Soma? Unfortunately I’m worthless with street names and intersections. When I heard they had loose leaf tea for sale, I was expecting them to have pre-packaged things ready to sell, but they wound up taking tea out of their stock, which made me feel a little guilty, but they were willing to do it and said they had a lot of it. I got a gunpowder and Assam relatively inexpensively. I also got an iced sencha tea that day that was quite tasty (maybe because it was so hot outside!)
It just occurred to me – unless I’m confusing it with something else, there may be two different versions of that shop. After leaving the one we went to, we walked a couple of blocks down to a place called Baked (which bakes cookies to order.)
Looked it up. You are correct, there are two shops. I’ll attempt to hit the other one – they have a parking lot. Being a college town full of little shops, I was sure there had to be some one with loose tea.
Gunpowder & Mate by Teapots & Treasures
Not the best morning. Bit stressed out, all the little things. Woke up from a creepy-ass nightmare a bit before 6 AM and never went back to sleep. Need the good stuff.
This green taste is cleansing and refreshing this morning. Already starting to feel a bit better. I never thought this would be a staple, but apparently it’s about to be.
Gunpowder & Mate by Teapots & Treasures
This is take two of this one. I was combing through old Steepster notes last night and found my review of this one; apparently I’d had it in November while watching Back to the Future: Part II, and while I wasn’t in love with the taste it was a nice burst of energy. To be honest, I’d just about forgotten I still had it, but it sounded like just the thing this morning when I was sluggish.
And you know what, it was! I drank about 2/3 to 3/4 of a cup at home as I dashed around getting ready, then took a thermos to work. The leaves are a mix of the rolled gunpowder leaves and more fine shreddings (the mate part?) The smell and taste are grassy-smoky, “dark green” like the color of the leaves. I wasn’t a fan of the flavor when I first tried it, but now I don’t mind it. It’s growing on me a little, in fact. If anything, the “green-ness” of the flavor is refreshing and kind of clean. And I drank it all day and didn’t have the mid-afternoon slump.
I’m glad to have a tea in my cupboard that has, so far, proven itself to be an extremely good energy boost and a nice alternative to my standard morning teas. Fresh, clean, and different from anything else I’ve got.
Gunpowder & Mate by Teapots & Treasures
Backlog from this afternoon. This is one I got on a curiosity-whim back when I visited this store in July while I was staying with my friend in Indy, and because I always want black tea, I haven’t done anything with it until this afternoon. Since I was feeling sleepy and wanted to simultaneously tidy up my room a bit and watch Back to the Future: Part 2, I decided to give it a shot.
I think it’s self-explanatory; it’s gunpowder green tea mixed with yerba mate. I have no experience with either, so I have no basis to go on for this tea. I was afraid I was going to roast it; the instructions said “almost boiling (180 degrees).” To me, 180 doesn’t count as “almost boiling,” and that kettle was definitely “almost boiling,” but I poured the water, let it steep a comparatively short time (1-2 minutes?), and hoped for the best.
It’s decent. Since it’s a backlog, not a whole lot to say, but it was quite smoky. Not really in a bad way. A twinge of grassiness, maybe a hint of spiciness but I can’t remember? The yerba mate definitely did its job, though; I was nice and awake for the rest of the afternoon! … Although there was, admittedly, more movie-watching than room cleaning.
Backlog from this morning and afternoon; this was another one from Teapots & Treasures; I think it was called Art Deco? It was a black tea with Assam and Keemun as well as some flavorings.
Not quite my cup of tea; nonetheless, I was very impressed! It was a satisfying black tea brew, and the flavor was a healthy mix of fruity (which is why it wasn’t quite my thing, I’m not a fruity tea person at all) and nutty. I don’t know if “complex” is the right word, but it was an interesting and quality flavor. I’d recommend it!
I am a baaaaaad trumpet player right now! I’m practicing while drinking tea! And it’s not even a week before I’m leading an instrument care clinic at our store, which will probably include me mentioning that anything you’ve eaten or drank right before playing will go down the trumpet and build up on the inside! Welp, I am planning to get it chem cleaned within the near future. That’s my excuse.
Today’s tea is Guatemalan Black Tea by Teapots & Treasures, a little shop full of tea and knicknacks just off the main circle in downtown Indianapolis. Went there with my friend when I visited her in July; it’s a little bit of a cramped maze, but it has very sweet and personable associates. Also quite the range of medicinal teas… especially for women.
This is infusion #2 of this tea I’m doing today. The first one was okay; I don’t remember thinking a whole lot about it. I think it’s growing on me though. It’s almost malty or something, but there’s a fruity note and a sliver of astringency, possibly from me oversteeping. Not really bitter. Aftertaste is a bit odd. It reminds me of other black teas I’ve had, but I can’t remember which ones. Oh boy this is an eloquent review.
Probably not a restock, but a pleasant little morning cup. I’ve got a few ounces, so this should last me a while.
Ah, back to relaxing after a busy three days of running around. I did have some tea during that time, although I don’t know what it was. I was staying with a friend for Christmas Bird Count, and she made me some kind of strong black tea at our 4am wakeup. She’s married to an Englishman, so she makes tea that is designed for additions. Even though the plain tea was bitter, some milk made for a perfectly pleasant cup and certainly provided a jolt of energy.
Now today is Christmas part II… we spent actual Christmas at the BF’s parents, and now we’re having Christmas with my parents. A nice way to extend the holidays. :)
Sipdown, 143. From looking at other “Random Steepings” notes, I believe that this is Sil’s “grocery store puerh”, the tiny little foil-wrapped tuocha. Having bought tea myself in a Beijing grocery store, I know that there is a substantial difference between grocery store tea in China and that in the states. I brewed in my gongfu teapot but it probably was still too big for this tiny tuocha.
I gave this a few rinses because it smelled rather pungent at first (i.e., a bit fishy), but that washed away pretty well. I was left with a smooth, woody puerh that really wasn’t half bad. Granted that shu puerhs are generally not my thing, it was pretty decent. Mostly wood with a bit of earth, a somewhat creamy texture and a hint of sweetness.
Sipdown, 146. Here’s a true mystery tea… a gold-foil packet of black tea from China from Sil. At least I know approximately what it is! It looks and smells fairly similar to the Tan Yang I brought back from China myself, though with a few less golden tips.
Interestingly, this one smells more chocolatey than I would have imagined, close to Laoshan Black. Definite toasted grain notes, but no honey or caramel. It’s a little more charcoaly than I would prefer, but overall pretty good. I think I steeped it a little strong, which may be contributing to that sensation. Still, an enjoyable cup for the afternoon.
Preparation
So I found an deliciousssssss hard iced tea! I’ve been drinking it since halloween. The boyfriend came home with it as a surprise for me and I was in heaven! Beer and tea in one?! Its called Twisted Tea. Oh man its the typical original iced tea flavor I love it! Just thought this was a worth sharing:)
Oh and if you haven’t tried signing up for the Steepster Select subscription here’s a coupon for $10 off :)
( I love the tea that I get from Steepster Select. You can get $10 off when you click here to sign up!
http://steepster.com/select/refer/DQCOQDEo )
I have never tried hard iced tea! I’m intrigued! Also I’m mailing you something tomorrow!
Awww! I’m getting yours together (verdant blend club, steap shoppe and a few extras) tomorrow or Friday and sending it out by Saturday (I hope) :) I wasn’t expecting anything :O :D
It’s just a little something :)
How sweet!
So my tea of the morning was an interesting blend from ashleyef. It is part Butiki strawberry oolong, part David’s banana oolong, and part David’s vanilla orchid. I love oolongs. I was originally interested in a different oolong from her and have been dying to try vanilla orchid so she suggest this blend she combined. I have to say…it smells lovely. And the leaves are beautiful. I loved watching this steep. As it cools it gets better. The different oolong bases are amazing. Indescribable. You can taste the after notes of banana and the creaminess of the vanilla. There are slight floral notes from the orchid. The tart yet sweetness you usually find in a strawberry come at the very end. I have to say… BRAVO ashleyef good blend. I would have never guessed to put them all together. And thank you for sending me an exceptionally large amount of it:) I hope to share it with stephanie and others soon!
You’re welcome! I’m glad someone else could enjoy it. I only put them all together because none of them worked for me on their own, but they definitely work well together:)
They definitely did surprisingly!
Wow interesting!
I’ll have to send u some!
Butiki strawberry oolong was disappointing to me :\ Thanks for the idea on making use of it!
yeah, have to agree with yappaychappy….. i have these insanely high expectations of our Ms Lim, so when she’s merely ‘really good’ (by comparison to others) i find myself let down.
When I went into work yesterday and this was sitting on my desk:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bcvzs1sBY4w/?taken-by=dex3657
I love my work experience trainee. She is just an amazing young woman – insanely intelligent – learns quick – nice, friendly – works hard. She is studying at the university here on a student visa from China. Her mother sent her some tea, she would rather drink coffee – so I ended up with a care package. We won’t be able to keep her as an employee – she will continue her studies, improve her English and probably go on to cure cancer, or CEO a fortune 500 company. I just think she’s awesome.
But I digress…..
Tonight I’m drinking the tea labelled “black”. I thought this was just going to be some generic Chinese black until I opened the package. This looks beautiful, it has some really nice golden tips to it. Hmmmm maybe I should treat this with a little more respect. I put away my mug and pulled out a proper tea pot and steeped it as modified gong fu. About 30 seconds first steep. That wasn’t quite enough, it was a little flat. I added another package to the pot and did about a minute. This is awesome. It’s not starchy/yamish like I would expect from a Yunnan black or a Dian Hong. This is more like a Bailin – it deep and dark, with just a little bit of chocolate notes, there are some fruity notes but really is just a great black tea. I’m really happy with this – her mom has great taste in tea.
This makes me happy. This is totally a Chinese mom thing: pack your child up to a foreign land with tea to drink and tea to give as tea gifts. I have been blessed to have been given such tea gifts and it is just lovely, especially when you know enough to appreciate what you are getting.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BEXBH2BOEy7/?taken-by=dex3657
Having issues entering a tea on my tablet, so this is just getting posted here.
http://www.imperialtea.com/Aged-Wild-Tree-Puerh-p/loose-leaf%20puerh001.htm
I’m in San Fransisco and spent a frusterating day trying to buy tea in China Town. On the way back to the hotel I stopped at Imperial Tea Court and finally got some real tea, served correctly, from polite knowledgeable staff.
I spent a pleasant hour drinking an aged wild tree shou. Pretty earthy, some fermentation, but all in all a decent shou. Ended up buying an oz of several blacks.
I was in several tea stores today and this was by the the best experience. If in SF, worth a visit.
Western Steeped Jin Jun Mei + American Honey (Wild Turkey Bourbon) is making Dex a very happy girl tonight. (who knew honey bourbon was a thing? this is something I really need in my life…..)
Honey Bourbon is a good thing!
I need to try a different brand – this is too harsh for me to drink straight….. it’s really sweet and almost fruity in the black tea – it’s been suggested to me to try it in iced tea – will need to do that soon.
You can always stir in a little more honey. I think being warm can push the Bourbon hit to the front a bit more. My fave is Meyers Dark rum with a couple of cinnamon sticks and honey stirred and just warm.
Sorry that might not have been clear – this brand of honey bourbon is too harsh to drink as straight bourbon….. it’s fine in the tea – there is a sweet fruity note that’s unexpected and interesting. Awesome hot toddy.
Cinnamon and dark rum is interesting….
I got you. Wild Turkey brand. And yes rum and the evil concoctions are good on cold winter nights.
This is like my biggest weakness of the past meets my biggest weakness of the present. If only I had known they could be combined.
O’Connor’s cream with jamieson and honey was really good when I had it. Basically, tea and booze. A++. ;)
OMGsrsly sent me a couple Black Pearl tea balls (she got them from from MissB) – thank you ladies. These are the larges black pearls I’ve ever seen. They are tied like a flowering cone and the leaves are just beautiful. The tea is nice and malty. This is one of the better pearls I’ve had. Really like it. Thank you so much for sharing.
Honey Black Tea Premium Small Yellow Tips – shrug, dunno but sounds good – so I ordered some. It was REALLY cheap.
OMG!!!! and it’s REALLY GOOD!!! Yep honey, sweet, black tea. Not your typical cocoa – malty Chinese black. This is a little lighter, but it’s a fantastic black tea with a hint of honey. Western Steeped – just off boil for about 2.5 minutes. Soooooo yummy. Can’t wait to try this one gong fu….
ETA: Ok there is some chocolate/cocoa notes here as it cools. It deepens – get bolder as it cools. This is a great tea!!!
Couldn’t find it in the data base…
2011 Organic Premium Yunnan Aged Tree Pu’erh Streetshop88
Fricken Fantastic!!!!
https://instagram.com/p/8zHsOwuEzJ/?taken-by=dex3657
https://instagram.com/p/8zHzwHOEzX/?taken-by=dex3657
GCTTB
Monoucha GenMaiCha – Kashima Tea Garden
Considering I don’t drink much green tea, I’m a pretty big fan of genmaicha. This is a really good one. Nice roasty flavor from the rice, just a hint of vegetal in the back. It’s a bit sweet, not at all bitter, and there’s lots of flavor. I reaaly like this.
