127 Tasting Notes
So, caffienated tea at night is bad. I was up way too late last night. BUT, my order from SBS Teas arrived, so this morning I rushed through my typical wakeup coffee to try new stuff.
Well, this is… interesting.
The gingerbread flavor is there, as well as the typical chai spice flavor, and the creaminess, and the sweet… all of the flavors I expect… but they just don’t really blend together well.
It certainly was easy to make though.
Preparation
We’ve been drinking this particular blend a lot, so I thought I would just add it as a custom blend.
Preparation Details:
Zarafina Tea Maker: Black, Loose, Strong, 2 cups water, 2 scoop English Breakfast, 1 scoop Lemon Youkou (Teavana)
Sweetened with 1/2 cup sugar, then iced and water added to make 1qt tea.
I love it. It’s a perfect blend of black tea with just a hint of lemon/fruitiness.
Don’t hate me for putting this here!
This is “old reliable” for me. When I’m too tired or too lazy to actually brew tea, I dump one of these into a mason jar filled with ice and water and stir. I don’t like plain water, so this is often what I’m drinking instead.
The taste is sweet and tangy. I can’t help it, I like this stuff. I order it by the case from Amazon.
If I haven’t logged any real tea in a few days, this is what I’ve been drinking. There, my secret is out!
hey, it’s cool to like what you like!
There is no shame here. We’re all about pleasure, however you find it. At least those of us who haven’t taken the Deep, Mysterious, Ancient Vow of Tea Purity are fine with drinking for pleasure.
What is it exactly? It looks like the powdered lemonade that you mix with water. Is that it? Some sort of sugared instant tea?
Okay, I went and grabbed a box from downstairs so I could add the ingredients to the description.
I was thinking that it was just powdered flavor, but it actually has tea in it! It’s just like those packets of lemonade or whatnot that you add to water bottles.
Don’t worry! Nobody is judging you here! Why would we? That’s ridiculous. A person can enjoy both a fillet mignon and a cheap hamburger from a fast food place. :)
(drinking the bagged version of this tea)
One of my favorite oolongs. It has a good fruit flavor, not overpoweringly mango, but just right.
Sweetened with a dash of splenda.
Preparation
I don’t like mangos and I don’t care for fruity teas, but I love mango green tea- go figure. And I ABSOLUTELY LOVE flavored oolongs, so I gotta try this one.
Lupicia has a sale today for Cyber Monday – 10-30% off, depending on how much you spend. The promotion code is CAROL.
I’m not an enabler, nope, not me.
Haha, no you aren’t. At least not for me. Because there’s no way I can afford anything right now after buying my matcha set.
Ha! Some other time then. :-)
But my matcha set is gonna be SO worth missing out on this:)
Mayorga is a coffee chain in DC, but I’ve never sampled their drinks before.
I was at National Harbor with my family to see ICE (carved ice sculptures). We ate lunch at our favorite Mexican place (Rose Mexicana). I wanted something sweet, but not food, and I remembered seeing the coffee shop between where we parked and the resturaunt, so while the rest of the family went to look at the man in the sand, my husband and I left for a coffee run.
This location is weird – half a coffee shop and half a sports bar. They had signs in the window for “Spice Cake Chai” (it’s not on their menu, so apparently it’s a seasonal item) and I thought that sounded good. The husband and the rest of the family had assorted coffees.
The drink hits you like spice cake… just like drinking spice cake. WOW, yummy! It was excellent. The mix of spices was just right.
As I got further down into the bottom of the cup, the taste changed. Perhaps because it was cooling, or perhaps because some of the flavor syrup sat at the bottom? I’m not sure. I began to get an aftertaste of……. bubblegum? It was weird. The initial taste was still spice cake, but bubblegum lingered in my mouth.
I would drink it again, but probably get a smaller cup and make sure to drink it before it cools. The bubblegum thing was weird.
2009-11-25 noon
Preparation: Teavana Easy Tea Steeper, sweetened with a dash of splenda
The first taste is black tea, and the aftertaste is a bit of chestnuts – it lingers in my mouth. It also has a somewhat starchy, dry feel in my mouth. Not really pleased with this one.
ETA: After 2 hours I haven’t even finished it… off to make something else, then.
Preparation
2009-11-24 4:30 pm
Preparation notes: Teavana’s Easy Tea Steeper with a dash of splenda
I figured out one reason that I dislike using the tea steeper – it’s much larger than my mug and when draining I can’t see how full my mug is to know if I need to pull the steeper off.
For this mug of tea I could have added more water (and probably should have, it’s pretty strong), but it’s guesswork. Perhaps I’ll just bring in a larger mug from home.
The leaves smell like cranberry, but the tea doesn’t. There’s a hint of fruit, but it’s not really identifable as cranberry to me. Maybe I just made the tea too strong so the tea flavor is overwhelming the cranberry flavor?
Not impressed. Teavana’s cranberry actually tastes like cranberry.
