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I steeped this for way too long. It’s not fair for me to rate it in its current state. It tastes burnt (not in the way actual tea gets burnt but like it tastes like an ashtray smells…. ew) and just blech. I will try again when I have more time but for now I’ll have to dump this out.

I’ve never had a guayusa before. In fact I’ve only ever heard of it in passing. So I decided to research a little bit about it before making this tea.

I read a little about it one these sites:
http://www.runa.org/enjoyment/healthbenefits.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilex_guayusa
And found that it’s one of three caffeinated holly trees known in the world, and that out of the three it has the highest amount of caffeine (for those like me who have never heard of this strange plant). I also found that it has more antioxidants than green tea, so it’s pretty good for you.

Anywho, on to the tea. I brewed it with boiling water for 4 minutes and it is now a very strange (and slightly unappealing) brown-ish green-ish color. It looks a little bit like dirty water (as in actual dirt in water). The dry leaf smelled like Earl Grey, but the wet leaf and the tea itself smells strangely like tortilla chips…. Like a lot like them. I surveyed the tea with the rest of my family and they agreed: there’s a definite tortilla chip smell. I added a little bit of sugar (half a teaspoon) because I was worried that it would taste like it would smell.

Surprisingly, it doesn’t. At all. In fact, it tastes a lot like traditional Earl Grey. It’s slightly sweeter with the citrus aspect (it may have helped that I added some sugar), and the guayusa tastes slightly earthy, which plays with the bergamont’s sweetness.

Pretty nice. I wouldn’t repurchase this if Frank does a reblend, but it is pretty nice.

drumroll please………
I WENT SKIING FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS SEASON TODAY!!!!! I love to ski but I haven’t been able to go as I had hernia surgery at the beginning of February and that sort of wiped out my options of skiing because I didn’t go in January. But I got to go and it was nice and powdery and lovely and I am so sore right now but it was worth it.

Anyways, I’ve noticed that when I’m sore I have a craving for Earl Grey. That sounds really awkward but it’s true-after I work out (something else that’s been put on hold :( ) or run or anything that makes me sore, I crave Earl Grey. So I dug this out from the samples that Bonnie sent me and brewed it up.

It’s honestly a sip down. Not because I’m in a hurry but because it’s so easy to drink. I’m not picky about my Earl Grey’s-as long as I can definitely taste that there’s bergamont in there, I don’t care. And this is pretty good. I added milk and sugar (pretty much the only way I drink black Earl’s) and it’s now almost gone. Not amazing, but not at all bad.

Thank you Bonnie!

Backlog from last night….

I don’t think it’s fair for me to rate this. To start off with my mom had a lot of this, and by the time I could get to it it was at the bottom of the cup and it was cold and slightly bitter. I had some of it while it was warm and it was pretty good. To top off the cold bitterness, however, my mother added a full pack of stevia because she likes her teas horribly sweetened and so I couldn’t really detect all the flavors. For now it gets a rating from what I tasted, but when I get a chance to make more, I will definitely re-review the tea.

Yet another tea from LiberTEAS box.

This is a very nice black! It’s pretty strong and has a definite astringency that lingers in your mouth with a nice tart flavor. It’s pretty full in your mouth, and has a definite tartness in the foreground that I can’t place my finger on. It’s almost like a dry tartness, like a champagne type flavor. When it was hot it had more of a woody and almost smokey flavor, but as it cools that disappears and the tartness and astringency becomes a lot more pronounced.

Another sample from LiberTEAS box (I’m running on her samples and Bonnie’s samples until more of my tea orders arrive).

I don’t think I prepared this correctly. It tastes pretty light and I’m getting a floral hint, with a bit of an after taste of citrus. I read the other notes before writing this and mine isn’t that strong or exaggerated. Mine’s a little vegetal too, and I haven’t seen anyone say that… I’ll have to play around with my preparation method for this, but for right now I’m going to rate it based on this.

I was in the mood for something citrus-y again (after drinking Paris) and so I grabbed this out of the selection that LiberTEAS sent me.

This smells.
So.
Very.
Very.
Very.
VERY.
Good.
I can’t even describe to you how much I love the scent, there aren’t enough words. It smells very bright and citrus-y from the bergamont and the floral scent pops through and adds a wonderful lightness to it. Oh my gosh I can’t even contain how good it smells. It’s also BEAUTIFUL. There’s so many flower petals all throughout the forest-green leaves. Oh my gosh. I have to stop I could go on forever.

Anyways, I steeped with boiling water (as par LiberTEAS directions, though I think I might let it cool a little bit next time) and steeped for 3 and half minutes (again by the directions on the baggy, though I think I’ll go a little shorter next time, maybe 2 and a half or just 3 minutes). I’m surprised at how much the leaves opened up. They literally look like leaves from a tree inside the infuser basket. I think that’s a result of the boiling water. The resulting brew is pretttty dark. Like if I didn’t know better I would say that there wasn’t any green tea in it, but rather a lighter black tea. The aroma is a lot more floral than the leaves. In fact it’s mostly floral, and I can’t detect any citrus.

I added some sugar to it as I do with most of the Earl Grey’s I drink (a bad habit, I know), and it really helps out. I can taste the bergamont’s tart-sweetness and a really nice floral taste is left in my mouth afterwards. Not something I would reach out and buy again, but it’s pretty good! Earl Grey is my dad’s favorite kind of tea (though he usually drinks Bigelow and other bagged varieties) and I think I might brew him a cup when he gets home from work and see what he thinks….

On another side note, I have a feeling that my next batch of samples from Teavivre are going to come today. I don’t know why, but I always get a certain feeling when I know that my teas are going to come in the mail…. It’s like my sixth sense :P. I could tell with my last batch of samples that they were going to come and, believe it or not, when I got home they were in my mailbox! I really hope they do come! I’m getting some black teas this time and I’m so excited to try those. I’m also getting their Milk Oolong, which I heard was amazing and I’m getting some of their pu-erh touchas. I’m so excited!

To wrap this post up, I like this tea a lot, but I’m more of a fan of original Earl Grey’s. Many thanks again to LiberTEAS for including this in my sample package!

I had the other sachet that Bonnie sent me and it was equally as delicious. I just love it so much. So much that I’ve upped the rating. And so much that I’m seriously considering right now buying the 1 lb (well 16 oz as they say on the website, but it’s the same) bag of this and having it forever. It’s just that good.

On another Harney & Son’s note, I recently heard of a person from Canada doing a challenge or quest or whatever you want to call it where he tried every tea from DAVIDsTEA. I’m actually really considering doing this with Harney & Son’s. Like…. a lot. They’re the company that I’ve had the most experience with and all of their teas that I’ve tried have been phenomenal. I mean, obviously there will be some I don’t like, but I really want to do this just to see. It seems like so much fun to me.

Fair warning: This post is long and mostly not about this tea (Steepster should make a journal function so we can keep these personal posts away from our tasting notes)

I am a very happy person right now. I’m on break from school so I have nothing to stress over. I simply get to sit at home all day and relax.

I’m getting really into tea lately, and that makes me happy too. I mean it also makes me really sad sometimes because I have zero money to spend on it, but I’m starting a tea savings account and I can’t wait until I’m able to buy tea without my parents helping out. That being said, my wishlist is long. I mean really long. Like “I typed it up on a word document and it’s on to three pages and I’m not finished yet” long. On one hand that’s good because I can keep track of everything easily and easily add/change it. But on another hand that’s bad because (again) I have absolutely no money to buy any of those things so it’s a constant reminder of my financial backings (or lack-thereof).

I’m taking AP Art History through an excellent online course program called Virtual High School, and I absolutely love the program. Next year I plan on taking AP Psychology through it (it will be my third class, after this and the Latin 1 class I took last year). A few things I don’t love though:
1.) Everything is due on Tuesday nights at 11:59 and there are not set due dates along the way (like there are in traditional classes) so it really pushes the procrastinator in me to the extreme.
2.) There are no breaks like there are from traditional school so I have to do it all. Today. While I’m on break. I’m trying to start it earlier today so that way I can relax tonight and not have to worry about it, but as I said above I spend all my time looking at tea instead of being productive (at least in the “outside world” ‘s sense of the term. I think looking at tea I want is very productive [I’m wrong])
Other than that, though, I’m content!

So back to the tea world. I am continuing to work through the box that I bought from LiberTEAS online shop. Previous to today I would look through reviews here on Steepster to see what I want to try. But, no more! I’m trying to just reach for a tea in the variety I want (I finally organized it this morning) and I just brew it up. I have no idea what it will taste like and so I can properly judge it. That’s what I have done with this tea and I will continue to do. I think this will help propel my knowledge and taste of different teas.

So, we are finally at the point where I actually review the tea!

The dry leaves smell slightly salty and vegetal, a property I usually associate with a green tea even though this is a black. I brewed in my Noble mug with boiling water for four minutes. The resulting brew is a semi-dark amber color that smells malty and slightly sweet.

The tea tastes nice! It tastes a lot like it smells, though the mixture is a bit different (I realize that makes almost no sense, but I’m not so good yet as to putting exactly what I taste in words). It’s slightly sweet and fruity with a nice, strong malty backing. I like it a lot!

I realize that the review for this tea was very small compared to my rant, but I hope you enjoyed!

I had this tea last night.

Let me start off by saying that I actually like medicinal teas. Not like the teas that taste like cough syrup, but the ones that are herbal and medicinal. I know that sounds really weird, but I love them. A lot.

And this one was pretty medicinal. It was pretty lemony and slightly sweet and it was very nice. And it was pretty relaxing. As the name suggests.

Also, my mother (who is very unwilling to try most teas) LOVED this tea, so it might actually be a repurchase! Thank you LiberTEAS for including this in the box of samples you sent me!