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This is a backlog from a few days ago.

I steeped this at a much lower temperature than I usually would at the recommendation of others. For some reason this stripped it of all flavor but the spices. The boyfriend smelled it and said “when did you get a new chai blend?” And he’s right. It tastes like chai. Which was all well and good, but I wanted french toast, dangit!

Alright – back to the drawing board…

Made this iced, per package directions, + 3 tbsp. sugar.

I got this for my boyfriend, as I don’t really like raspberry. I keep trying to entice him with flavored teas but he is just not biting. I shouldn’t be too surprised, though – he likes plain anything (ice cream, cheesecake, etc) over fun flavors.

I gave this a shot but it wasn’t to my tastes. He gave it a shot and it wasn’t to his either. But really, we are outliers and our opinions shouldn’t have any weight on the rating of this tea, so I’m not going to give it a number. It was quite raspberry so if that’s your thing, you should go for it!

I will say that the base was great, the perfect strength and balance of flavoring. And steeping instructions were perfect…. definitely follow them for the best iced tea, just sweeten to taste and you’re golden. Luckily I still have the rainbow sherbet iced tea to try – I have a feeling that I will be pretty happy with that one. :)

An old favorite. And also a backlog from…. lots of days ago.

I just worked 5 12 hour shifts in the last 6 days, so I’m catching up on my tea reviews. This one I’ve expanded on many many time but the cliff notes version is: creamy, coconut, absolutely flawless as a dessert tea. The best coconut tea I’ve found. :)

Hmmm…

I steeped this at the below parameters, about 1.5 tsp. to 10 oz. water. No milk on hand, but I did add sugar.

This smelled like bananas + maple, and then I got cinnamon, but nothing that overtly screamed french toast/bread.

The steeped tea was pretty much just notes of maple syrup and cinnamon. It took me awhile with pancake breakfast to get the right flavors out of it, though, so maybe this will be the same way? It wasn’t bad, just not quite french toast, yet.

I am so excited for all the iced tea that is in my future. This one, however, is in my present because I don’t have enough peach tea in my life and it smelled DIVINE dry – a very authentic peach note, with black tea lurking beneath.

I brewed this hot, added 3 tbsp. of sugar to 1/2 gallon of tea and steeped 15 g. of the leaf at the below parameters. It reminded me a bit of the Crystal Light peach tea, but minus this artificial powdery aftertaste. In other words, just the good bits! This is the first of the 4 iced tea samples I got from Upton, and I’m off to a good start I think!

Just so you know, if you put say, 1 tsp. of this matcha (sifted) with some sugar in 2 oz. of water, and then top it up with 8 oz. cold milk then magic things happen.

Guess I know what I’ll be drinking for dessert this summer. Cold matcha lattes for the win!

Alright – this is a sipdown to start getting me back in the right direction. I’ll be down to 80 teas after this.

As another bonus, this was a seasonal tea so I can’t buy more. Even though when I went on the website to check for sure it was out of stock, I found a watermelon black tea. WATERMELON. BLACK. I’ve only just this year realized I can eat watermelon. Up until now I have been unable to stomach it..it used to taste absolutely foul. Cantaloupe still tastes that way – one bite and it’s like this rancid bomb explodes all over my tongue. So gross.

Anyway, so I had this hot with milk and sugar and am currently enjoying the balance of marshmallow and black tea in my cup. I’m bummed though – I started making this before i pulled up my last tasting note and I had wanted to try blending with the Laoshan chocolate genmaicha. Grrr. That really would have been awesome. Ah well. I guess I’ll just have to hold out until the winter when it comes back and give it a try then! (And put a note somewhere so I can remember to do it for real!)

Hmm.. liked this better when I thought I oversteeped it, actually… maybe I underleafed this time? I did one level tsp. per cup. This has a wonderful balance between bergamot and vanilla in smell and taste, though – my favorite of all the earl grey cream teas I’ve tried so far.

Hmm.. liked this better when I thought I oversteeped it, actually… maybe I underleafed this time? I did one level tsp. per cup. This has a wonderful balance between bergamot and vanilla in smell and taste, though – my favorite of all the earl grey cream teas I’ve tried so far.And I just ordered enough to teas to break my “75 teas or less” rule. Sigh. I’ll be at 81, when my new Upton and 52teas order comes in. So…guess that means I need to do six sipdowns by the end of the week? Better start now!

I ordered 4 oz. of this tea based on a sample that was AMAZING, but my first cup of the new batch brewed western style was kind of disappointing.

I think it must have aged a bit though because when I made this today (1 tbsp. leaf, below parameters, no addivites) it was beautiful! Chocolate biscotti is what it smelled like brewed…I couldn’t get my nose far enough into the cup. The taste was smooth, unsweetened cacao powder layered over malty black tea. Just like that elusive sampling I tried a while back!

Second steep, at six minutes, was cinnamon brownie. Both steeps didn’t need a thing added, which makes me very happy..and glad that I have a healthy amount of this to get through. It won’t take me long, I bet!

Hello June!

I love summer – and I love that I have at least 5 more days off. To celebrate I’m considering placing a tea order….that french toast black from 52 teas looks to die for!

It’s been a while since I’ve had this and I’m holding steady with my rating for it – it does have strawberry and it does have that brittle/cake sweetness but it’s lacking any kind of complexity. It’s also lacking consistency – sometimes this blows me away, and other times it’s just okay. Today, it’s just okay.

It’s a good thing it’s not a must-have though, since DAVID’s apparently doesn’t stock it anymore… a couple of cups of this and then it will be gone for good.