1216 Tasting Notes

55
drank Pumping Pomegranate by T2
1216 tasting notes

Autumn Harvest! This is another of the ever-dwindling horde of T2 samplers I picked up from their mega-discount last January, when T2 was selling off old holiday stock cheap. I cold-steeped the whole two-serving sampler in 400ml of water overnight and strained the next morning to make a tall, cool glass of iced tea. Even in cool weather, I still prefer fruit teas like this iced, and especially find them a nice accompaniment with warm meals.

This is a very fruit punchy tea, and I do quite like those. It has that strong hibi-hip fruity, punchy base, but I find it hard to pick out a distinct flavor that I’d go, “Oh yes, that is definitely pomegranate!” To me it just sort of tastes like so many other tart and tangy red berry fruit teas I’ve had in the past, the sort that include cranberries and elderberries and have that really crisp and juicy fruity berry finish. But it doesn’t make me think of pomegranates. If I had to place any specific fruit the taste is reminding me of, I’d say cranberries is the most prominent flavor note coming through the fruit punchy base. And since pomegranate seems to be the angle of the tea, that makes me rather unimpressed, even though I’m perfectly fine with tart and tangy red berry fruit teas. But if I want one of those, I can always drink Red Berries by TeaSource, or Cranberry Apple by Metropolitan Tea Co. So, ya, my overall impression is underwhelmed. Even though it’s a perfectly servicable tea, if you want a tangy fruit tea, and aren’t specifically looking for something with a really defined pomegranate flavor.

Flavors: Berries, Cranberry, Fruit Punch, Fruity, Hibiscus, Tangy, Tart

Preparation
Iced 8 min or more 5 tsp 14 OZ / 400 ML
TreeGal

Oooh, I’m just happy to now be in the know to keep my eyes open for a January-ish sale! I’m new to these guys, but I’ve really liked the teas I’ve tried so far. And honestly, this sounds like a tea I’d enjoy iced a lot, but I definitely understand the “meh” factor.

Mastress Alita

Ya, last January, right after Christmas, they had sampler packs on sale after Christmas and I bought one of each for like, $5 a piece? And each one had ten teas in them. There was a Fruity, Herbal, Flavored Blacks, Blacks, and Greens one. I’ve been making my way through them all year! I think they were overstock from the holidays.

Cameron B.

I remember that sale, too! They also had some of their limited edition teas in boxes for $5 each. I totally spent like $60, entirely on $5 teas LOL!

Jessica Chambers

In that sale, I’ve spent $40//

Mastress Alita

I just checked my records, and I spent $40 during that sale as well!

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71
drank Pear Black by Simpson & Vail
1216 tasting notes

Autumn Harvest! This month I’ll be sampling teas out of my collection that feature flavors common of autumn harvestables like cranberries, pomegranates, pears, apples, pumpkins, grapes, sweet potatoes, beetroots, figs, dates, persimmons, nuts, and herbs, among others! This particular tea was a single-serving sample I got from the Here’s Hoping Teabox, so thank you so much to tea-sipper for organizing and all participants of the box!

Like the Plum Black which had a really tasty black base, this tea also has a very smooth base; it’s slightly malty with a lot of natural citrus notes. The pear flavor is very juicy and natural tasting, and on par with my favorite pear-flavored tea I’ve had yet, 52Teas Pear Chai (which I’d say I like just a bit more than this, just because I think the juicy pear flavor goes a bit better on a green base than a black base). I’m also getting a slightly honey/floral note right at the finish of the sip which is very pleasant. As a fruity black morning cuppa, this is nice and I’m glad I had a chance to try it.

Flavors: Citrus, Floral, Fruity, Honey, Malt, Pear, Smooth, Sweet

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 2 g 12 OZ / 350 ML

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Day #3 of my teacation was spent mostly at the San Francisco Tea Festival!

Hobee’s: Since my knowledge of the Bay Area is not ideal, I can’t recall if we ate at the Cupertino or the Palo Alto one on our way to San Francisco that morning, but I’m pretty sure it was one of those two. I love this place for breakfast and pretty much always want to go there at least once when I visit my friend, and I normally love their house tea on ice (it’s an orange cinnamon CTC black tea) and I even have some in my stash at home, but they had made it super strong this particular morning and the spice was killing me. I was dealing with some acid reflux and that was definitely not helping. I definitely don’t make it that strong when I brew it myself at home! I should’ve asked for a glass of water to try to cut it back a bit but didn’t think of it at the time. I don’t recall it ever being that spicy in the past. If I were to make it like this at home I’d have to add liquid sugar to even out the spice, but when I make this same tea iced at home, I don’t even need any sweeteners because it’s just right. They must use a massive amount of leaf… I wonder if that is how the average person prefers it, burning their mouth off?

San Francisco Tea Festival: My first tea festival! First, I will get out of the way what I felt were some weak aspects of the festival. I was a bit shocked at the lack of space dedicated to the vendors versus the amount of people; I go to a lot of sci-fi/fantasy/anime/fandom type conventions, and there is always waaaaaaaay more space dedicated than there was here, even just within the dealer’s room and artist’s alleys and not counting panels/events/etc. So this felt really conjested. I also was really displeased they didn’t allow re-entry, which I think would’ve helped spread the conjestion a bit; because of my migraines my body really needs to “eat proper meals” on a schedule, and since I had to skip lunch at my normal lunchtime and go all the way to dinner, I developed a migraine that night, which reeeeeeally sucked. I think the organizers of the Tea Festival should be a bit more flexible to allowing people to pop out for a meal and come back to the convention floor if they have their paid ticket, especially because there were tons of restaurants just downstairs, as well as seating (my feet were killing me being on them all day, as I also have plantar fasciitis!) and they had also offered next to no seating for attendees within the festival space, too. So while the vendor selection was great and the vendors were very friendly, the actual organization of the festival/crowd control/their no re-entry policy really bothered me. Also, someone pilfered my souvenir tasting cup while I was being rung up at a pu-erh vendor. I’m still sour about that. * sad face *

Now, onto the more awesome stuff!

I started off with a panel on Japanese teaware. I did know about the types of teaware, but enjoyed getting some history/areas of Japan famous for its production and other additional facts thrown in, as I love anything/everything I can absorb about Japanese culture. My friend is really into that sort of thing, too. I really love looking at pictures of pretty Japanese teaware, too. If I had more space in my tiny apartment, I’m sure I’d have more than I do (currently just a simple clay shiboridashi and a lovely ceramic dobin, both of which get a lot of use, and a fairly cheap matcha starter set which I’ve yet to attempt to use).

Then my friend Todd and I met up with Steepster-user Derk to explore the vendor floor! Thank you for meeting with us Derk, it was super fun! (And thank you so much for the sample of Whispering Pines Alice!)

So, let’s see if I can remember some of the teas and vendors that really stood out to me. I’ve been down with a migraine today, so my memory may be more shoddy than normal, but I’ll do my best!

Nepal Tea – I really liked the tea at this booth. I remember I quite enjoyed a cold-brewed oolong, and there was a white tea that tasted remarkably like a green that I enjoyed. I bought a sampler set that had eleven tea sachets in it, featuring a wide variety of blacks, greens, whites, and a few blends, and it came in this gorgeous zipper pouch which I think I’ll use to pack my teas in when I go on vacation. I don’t have very many Nepalese teas in my collection so I’m interested in sampling these.

Tillerman Tea – Every single oolong I tried at this booth was amazing. I didn’t buy anything here but will defintiely be adding them to my bookmarks to be trying out their stuff later!

Waterfall Tea Company – While I don’t normally do instant teas, I’m not opposed to it, and I actually really like DeDe’s instant Thai tea… and the instant chais these guys make are really good! The masala was fine, but the ginger was great because it wasn’t just “GINGER BURNING!” and the lemongrass was amazing, it smelled like Frootloops and even had a slight Frootloops milk taste to it! I may have to pick up a bag of that sometime, especially with snowy cocoa weather approaching.

Jade Chocolates – OH MY GOD, these chocolates were so good! I bought a Genmaicha chocolate bar, and Derk bought me a Coconut Paradise Green Tea chocolate truffle. (Tea infused chocolate! GENIUS!) It was delicious!

TeaCrush – Oh man, I got a tea crush on TeaCrush hard, and now I have a tea broken heart, because they are only in the Bay Area. No shipping anywhere. I spent a small fortune shipping three glass bottles of this iced tea home to myself (that I picked up in a local grocery before my flight home), and once they are gone… I don’t want to think about it. There are three flavors, Matcha Pineapple Coconut, Turmeric Ginger Pear, and Ginger Lemon Cayenne. They are all good, my favorite is Turmeric Ginger Pear with Matcha Pineapple Coconut a very close second. I absolutely adore this stuff! Anyone in the Bay want to start a side business selling this stuff on Amazon? I’m serious.

Tsuru no Maru – Had the best darn sencha I’ve ever tried. A nice vegetal flavor but wasn’t overpowered with seaweedy flavors, some hints of butteriness… just so good. Except they apparently aren’t selling it yet, they were using the festival to see how it would go over on the American market. The blend isn’t even named yet! And the website is still being worked on for sales. Boo! I have one sampler bag of the stuff. I would easily purchase this sencha! Hopefully they’ll get the website open for commerce and make this available, it’s amazing!

Denong – Probably the second thing that will revoke my tea license… I’ve never really like pu-erhs. I continue to try to warm up to them (and I will continue to do so) but somehow they just always end up “tasting like dirt” to me. But I really liked the ones at this booth. Even the really earthy shou was quite good. And the sheng here was probably the first sheng I’ve ever had that I liked (I’ve had some bad sheng experiences… they always end up tasting like swamp marshes or really smoky to me). I bought a 2018 sheng here called Cherishing Destiny and 30g of a black tea that was so good (oh man was it good), 2016 Denong Black Tea (it’s in such a pretty sakura floral canister, too).

Harney & Sons – Shoutout to H&S for being the one vendor with paper cups so I could keep tasting teas after someone stole my tasting cup when I was being rung up at Denong! Also, their Victorian Earl Grey was so good! I’ll have to pick up some sometime! Love the vanilla/lavender notes, but then, vanilla/lavender EGs is sort of my thing.

Esteemed Tea Collective – I really liked the tea at this booth, too! I got to sample the Four Seasons Oolong and the Honey Black Oolong and really liked both! Will have to keep them in mind (or at least those tea types in mind!)

Soba SF – I have had Soba mixed with green tea and really like it, it’s like a sweeter genmaicha to me, this is my first time trying plain soba tea, and it tasted like peanuts! Pretty nice. I’m a little sad they don’t sell a bancha/soba mix on their website since they did have that available for sampling at the Tea Fes, and ordering that within the US would be cheaper than me restocking it from Yunomi. Suppose I could always get the soba from them and blend it myself with a green tea, though… but it was surprisingly nice plain, too!

Wize Monkey – Another tea I’ve wanted to try for a while, coffee leaf tea! It was also quite nutty, it didn’t have the strong coffee notes of say, roasted barley (mugicha), but had some slight roasty coffee-ish notes, and I found it a bit like hazelnuts. I really liked it!

Young Mountain Tea – They had a black tea, Nepali Golden Black, that was really great! My friend actually bought this one, and he doesn’t horde tea like we all do, so you know it’s good! I’m definitely adding that one to my list for when my collection isn’t so crazy, because I wouldn’t mind having some myself… honestly if I hadn’t just bought the Denong Black Tea, I probably would’ve.

And as we’ve established I love Japanese things, there was a beautiful book there, The Bilingual Book of Japanese Tea by Per Oscar Brekell, which I purchased and got signed by the author. I like collecting tea books, but my library of them is still quite small and growing. This is a really nice book because it goes into all the cultivars of the leaves, something I’ve been trying to find more information about! (And will prove incredibly useful when shopping on Yunomi, no doubt). I really love it~ It is super informative on all types of Japanese tea, not just the “typical” ones, and it gets into some of the science of how Japanese teas get their particular flavors and some other geeky stuff like that. Lots on growing/production regions, teaware, if you like Japanese tea it’s great!

Also got a goodie bag with lots of samplers in it, which I will certainly get to in due time.

Gott’s Roadside: Had dinner here with Todd and Derk after the Tea Festival, and just wanted to mention I got an Arnold Palmer that didn’t taste like crap, as they typically always do when I order them in a restaurant, all syrupy and weak like the Iced Tea Lipton and generic lemonade that come off a soda fountain. It tasted like proper lemonade and the iced tea wasn’t super watery like I’ve run into before, and the proportions were good. Nice and sweet too.

My Tea Festival haul was admittedly rather restrained (a book, some pu-erh, and a Nepalese tea sampler bag), with most of the tea I got this trip being some small bags of herbs/teas from the co-op where I could control the sizing, an ounce from DAVIDsTEA, and probably the least restraint shown at Lupicia where I picked up five bags. All things considered, I’ve done much worse on other vacations, hopefully it won’t kill the cupboards too horribly!

Todd

Oh yeah, gotta break out that Nepali Gold Black tea, mmm. And I also bought a pack of those Jade chocolates. I am eating some 62% Kuro Genmai chocolate now. I’m glad you enjoyed your teacation!

Daylon R Thomas

Thank you for sharing!

derk

The tea festival was nice but it really does need to be held in a more spacious location. It was way too hot under that glass ceiling and uncomfortably cramped during the peak. Getting pushed out of the way or doing the pushing is not conducive to a relaxing tea-sampling experience. Also, the lack of re-entry was a big disappointment. I often wanted to step outside to walk along the Embarcadero for a breather or get some food, but nope. And yes, give the people some seating! It’s like they did all they could to make the experience as rushed and uncomfortable as possible and it doesn’t help that everybody was hopped up on caffeine. Could you imagine the vibe of a coffee festival in that space?!

Jade Chocolates is a dangerously close bus ride from my apartment! I’ve already eaten most of the five bars I purchased.

And I’m totally going to kindly pester the owner of Tillerman Tea when I move up his way in January.

Mastress Alita

Yes, all my complaints were about the venue itself, the vendors were all stand-up people and really friendly. There have been sci-fi/anime conventions I stopped going to because the venue was just bad and the organizers just would not move the con to a better location just to handle the traffic/flow better (YaoiCon and Gallifrey One being prime examples). Honestly, if they just allowed re-entry it wouldn’t even be so bad. I’ve never been to a convention that didn’t offer re-entry before.

I was so sad to see Jade Chocolates didn’t have a shipping option on their website either! :-(

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Day #2 of my teacation in the Bay Area was spent in Santa Cruz!

Om Gallery: Not a tea shop, but I did find a really beautiful mug in this gift shop. I have collected coffee cups for years, and I also collect mermaid things, so naturallly I’ve wanted a mermaid-themed coffee cup for some time. Finally I found one! It’s this really pretty cup that is a jade color in a solid glaze, with a mermaid handle, and it’s a larger size, while most of my mugs are a typical 10-12 oz. size. I don’t have many of the 16 oz. size so it’s a nice addition. (And I don’t care how “unclassy” it is that I prefer to drink my tea out of coffee mugs, it’s just what I tend to do most of the time. Not pretty British teacups, or little Asian gong fu sets. Plain ol’ coffee mugs. You can revoke my tea license now.)

Buttercup Cakes and Farmhouse Frosting: Had another Afternoon Tea! (Why would one be enough?) They have a small dessert Cream Tea or a larger Savory Tea option available. We both got the Savory Tea (and they did have several vegetarian/vegan options available for my friend). You get a scone or a crumpet at the beginning of the tea (they let my friend substitute with a vegan muffin they had in their bakery) and the scone they had that day was pumpkin spice so I opted for that, and you can pick three items to go with your tea off their savory menu. I picked the Itty Bitty BLT (candied bacon, butter lettuce, tomato, mayo on French bread), their hand pie of the day (it was a butternut squash and kale in seasonings, and one of the best things I’d ever tasted; I bought another from the bakery front on my way out!), and a bowl of their soup du jour, which was pumpkin and tomato bisque, which was divine!, and you get one of their speciality cupcakes from their huge cupcake menu (I picked the chocolate with hibiscus frosting, but I wanted to try so many that I bought several more from the bakery storefront on the way out: orange with earl grey frosting, carrot cake with spice ginger frosting, and horchata). Their tea menu wasn’t as expansive as Lovejoy’s, but they did serve their tea in the pot in bags, which I appreciated, as that meant I could remove the leaf after it was steeped, so I didn’t have a bitter pot late into the tea. I got a darjeeling tea that had a nice light body and decent muscatel notes. The food here was really amazing!

Hidden Peak Teahouse: One of my favorite tea shops! It offers Asian teas (blacks, greens, oolongs, pu-erhs) and you can order a full gong fu service, a gaiwan, or a small Asian teapot with a steeping basket inside. There are also tons of snacks on the menu (and they are all vegan friendly, which my friend appreciates). Some of the pu-erhs are ridiculous price-per-serving, but mostly everything is very reasonable. The teahouse is a tech-free zone and meant to be reflective and for visiting with friends. I got a gaiwan serving of the Lotus Brick (2000) shou pu-erh. I found the taste very earthy, a bit mineral, but there were lots of nutty notes.

Pacific Thai: Had some bubble tea here with my dinner. I got lychee flavor and it was great! Lots of flavor and boba, it was very nice! My friend got iced Thai tea made with coconut milk and was quite happy with that, as well.

Cameron B.

Wow, all of those food items at Buttercup do sound amazing… Now I’m hungry.

Tabby

Wait, we were supposed to be using fancy teaware? hides her Pokemon and Kylo Ren mugs

Todd

I already love Hidden Peak, though this was only my third time there. I’m glad I got to introduce my son and daughter in law to the place too. My new discovery was Buttercup Cakes and Farmhouse Frosting. Wow! I’ll definitely be going back.

As you saw, I drink tea at home from a big stein.

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I have just returned from the San Francisco Bay Area in California where my best friend lives (he’s in San Jose) where I spent some time in San Francisco/San Jose/Santa Cruz over three days doing tea shopping and going to cafes, as well as attending the San Francisco Tea Festival. I’m having my haul shipped back to me and it should arrive today or tomorrow, but I figured I’d try to jot from (my admittedly abysmal) memory some thoughts/impressions of some of the places I visited.

Day #1 was mainly spent in San Francisco, with a few shopping excursions in Palo Alto and San Jose.

DAVIDsTEA: Since I’ve been coming down with a cold and my insomnia problems keep persisting, making fighting it off even harder, I was really hankering for some warm ginger or licorice root tea that morning, and I also really wanted to restock the Oh Canada! tea I’d sampled recently in my collection. So we stopped at the Palo Alto location on the way to San Francisco. I was heartbroken to be told that Oh Canada! tea was discontinued by the person who worked there?! I mean, I checked their website before I left and it was listed, and… it’s still on their website. But they didn’t have it in store. SIGH. It was like, the one thing I wanted. So I bought an ounce of that Cardamom French Toast everyone talks about instead (I’ve never tried it… hope it lives up to the hype). I also got a cup of Throat Rescue to go, since I really wanted that hot licorice root (cue the groans of 99% of Steepsterites here) for my throat. The fennel was a very dominant flavor, and quite tasty, with the licorice root having a strong finish. It was pretty much what I was craving that morning.

Lovejoy’s Tea Room: Went here for a High Tea lunch. I splurged on the Queen’s Tea because I wanted all the foods (and I ate them all, too!) while my Vegan friend got the Healthy Tea because… well, he’s Vegan and can therefore Have No Fun™. My tea came with two sandwich choices (I got ham and English mustard, of which I discovered that English mustard will put some friggin’ hair on your chest, that stuff is hot! and their daily special which was a delicious cranberry, nut, and turkey sweet sammy), a coleslaw style salad made with cabbage in a caraway cream, an organic spring green salad that had a lot of fresh leafy spinach and tangerines that was really nice, a selection of fresh fruits, and for desserts there was a scone with jam, a crumpet with really tasty lemon curd, a tea biscuit, and you got to select a petit four off a large dessert tray (I got a chocolate filled with a chocolate mousse that was delicious!) The tea is served “traditional English style” (not my favorite since the leaves go bitter in the pot since you can’t remove them from the water and I’m not typically a “milk and sugar” person, so I did have to add milk and sugar to later cups) but I got a black Lavender Vanilla tea that is a house blend and it was very tasty, a nice mix of lavender and vanilla flavor. Again, I wasn’t too crazy about how bitter/astringent it gets later into the tea from the leaves sitting in the pot, but that’s just my personal preference, making me sort of wish I’d selected an herbal, but those first few cups were wonderful!

Rainbow Grocery: I went shopping at this co-op thanks to a tip from derk, thank you derk! The bulk tea and herb section here is fantastic, and I got sooo many teas and herbs for a pittance (I think I paid around $16 total?) I can’t remember exactly what I bought since I shipped my haul from my trip home, but I remember I got some peppermint leaf, hibiscus leaf, ginger, rose petal, some pu-erh tuos, an oolong, and a chocolate-mint rose tea, at least (possibly some others?) I like using the plain herbals to mix into other teas as well as to crush and infuse into cocoas, and I recently ran out of a favorite hibicus/ginger tea and figured I’d just get hibiscus and ginger and steep them together for way cheaper than restocking that particular blend. I really wish I had something like this locally, since buying online always means having to get huge amounts of herbs/teas when I typically just need a few scoops like you can get here. I also loved that they clearly labeled their sources on everything, something that teashops don’t even do, leaving me having to Nancy Drew out the wholesale source that most teashops are relabeling their teas from.

KitTea Cat Cafe: This delightful cat cafe offers four unlimited green teas during your session to enjoy relaxing tea with your kitty session. During my session there was genmaicha, houjicha, kukicha, and a green oolong available. I tried kukicha for the first time and really liked it, I’ll have to get some for my home collection sometime! It was such a sweet, clean, smooth green tea. I also really liked the oolong they had. The cats were having naptime during our 4pm visit which was actually great for me, as I find sleepy kitties super relaxing; it makes pretty much all the cats really accessible to just go up to them, plop down, and pet their sleepy bodies and it’s just really calming. The mix of petting the cats and drinking tea was about to lull me into naptime! There was one kitten asleep under a table that Todd and I were petting that kept rolling over, belly up, like, “Here please! Belly access!” and the more we pet it, the louder his little purrs became. It was sooooo cute! Loved my time here!

Lupicia: Did some shopping at the Lupicia store in the San Jose Mitsuwa grocery after getting back to San Jose, where my friend Todd lives. I’ve always wanted to visit there! Since I’m shipping back my tea haul my memory might be shaky, but I believe I picked up the Imo Kuri Kabo (Halloween seasonal), Chocolate Earl Grey, Genmaicha Soybean Matcha, Rose Royale, and Caramel Rum. I also picked up a Houjicha Latte Mix from the Mitsuwa grocery section.

Cameron B.

I love kukicha too, it’s great when you want a milder and sweeter green tea!

Kawaii433

The KitTea Cat Cafe sounds very cool. I love cats. I had seen on the news years ago of some places doing that, but I have never been able to visit one. San Francisco is a wonderful city. It’s been far too long since I’ve visited. If I ever do, I’m going to make sure to go there. Great post..

Lexie Aleah

Sounds like an amazing trip! and Kukicha is so good!

Todd

I also tried kukicha for the first time, very nice and clean. Stems are delicious! I filled up on houjicha though. I think Marcus was the kitten who couldn’t get enough belly pets.

Rainbow Grocery is pretty amazing. I’ll have to keep it in mind. Thanks, derk!

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73

I’ve been having terrible insomnia for nearly a week now; I’ve been extremely exhausted, passing out well before my bedtime, but when I go to bed, I lay there and can’t fall asleep. When I finally do, I wake hours later and can’t fall back asleep, so my exhaustion has just been piling up as I get a mere 3-4 hours of sleep a night. I finally think I’ve figured it out; I started taking B-Complex vitamins, and since I take a pharmacy’s worth of medications before bed, for consistency so I won’t forget anything, I take my vitamins then, too. Fairly sure that is doing it. Hopefully if I switch that to the morning (or just discontinue it) maybe my sleep will even back out. Until then, I’ve been getting by on black tea fumes.

I won’t be starting my Autumn Harvest November theme until I return from vacation, so I’m brewing up this single bag of Kandy, a blend of three Ceylon estate teas from Steven Smith Teamaker that I picked up from Ost’s cupboard sale (thank you Ost!) It smells so much like that baked bread scent I always associated as being the “tea smell” that I remember from my grandma’s house when I was a child, so it’s a bit nostalgic… I guess her English/Irish breakfast blends must have been heavily Ceylon in leaf.

This is a black tea that is a bit more heady/strong than is typically to my tastes… but since I’m so dead tired today, I really am not minding it so much. It is very malty/bready but there is a slight wet autumn leaf quality as well, and I’m picking up a pleasant cinnamon spiciness toward the finish. It has a stronger astringency than I recall from their British Brunch (formerly known as Brahmin) but it doesn’t reach into unpleasant territory. It’s quite full bodied and feels rather thick in the mouth. I’m rather enjoying it, and blacks like this usually don’t do it for me. I really think my palate is just acclimating more and more to these types of teas the more I drink them. It’s definitely hitting the spot this morning. I hope I get a few steeps out of the teabag.

Flavors: Astringent, Autumn Leaf Pile, Bread, Cinnamon, Malt, Thick

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 350 ML

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74

Trick or Treat! So I’ve been sipping on this soda-inspired tea in my water bottle the last few days at work, which I picked up this last summer from Lupicia. It was their only summer seasonal I was really interested in, since I love Ramune soda (which is extremely hard to get in my area; living in podunk Idaho means “foreign” food items are extremely rare and hard to come by).

I wanted to drink this tea iced; I normally cold brew my green teas, but since this had some flavored crystals in it that I worried wouldn’t dissolve properly with a cold brew, I opted to steep my tea warm, then I set the tea in the fridge to chill overnight.

The tea has a mellow lemon-lime flavor, but it isn’t strong in either flavor. I can see where they were trying to emulate Ramune, though to me, Ramune has a slight bubblegum flavor to it and is so sweet, and since I don’t sweeten my teas typically, without sweetener I don’t really see much of a resemblence. I think next time I make this I may just have to add some liquid sugar just to see if I can bring more of that “soda” essense to it. There is a very mild natural sweetness to the tea, just nothing on par with actual Ramune, and that slight sweetness does make it a very nice iced tea which I’ve enjoyed sipping on during work. I have enjoyed having a milder lemon-lime flavor that isn’t so strongly citrus, especially since many citrus teas I’ve tried overdue it so strongly they come off tasting like cleaner to me, and this definitely does not have that sort of taste. I can also still taste a slight refreshing grassiness from the green tea which is also nice, and often gets lost in so many flavored green teas. It’s very refreshing and does remind me very much of a limon soda, only more mellow and less sweet, and it fits an iced tea quite nicely.

I have yet to try the tea warm yet; I think a Southern-style “sweet tea” iced brew will be next on the agenda, then a warm cup.

Flavors: Citrus Zest, Grass, Lemon, Lime, Sweet

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 0 sec 5 g 32 OZ / 946 ML
Lexie Aleah

I don’t drink soda anymore but Ramune sodas are SO good! Especially the Melon and Strawberry flavors.

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76
drank Tea and Scones by 52teas
1216 tasting notes

Trick or Treat! I decided to switch things up for my Doctor Who episode viewing today and instead of making English Breakfast, make something else that was decidedly a bit British, but also fit with my October dessert theme… Afternoon Tea in a tea, Tea & Scones!

The dry leaf smells incredibly sweet and fruity, with a very strong raisin aroma and a little honey sweet. I steeped 3.5g of tea leaf (removing the raisins and orange peel from the weight and adding them back in afterwards) for three minutes in 16 oz. of 205F water. I nursed my little teapot throughout the episode while munching on McVities biscuits… mmm!

The brewed tea was a nice reddish hue, and had a strong grapey aroma from the raisins, very sweet and fruity like the dry leaf. This was a very sweet tea! It had a strong flavor of raisins, very juicy and a honeyed sort of sweet, with a grape note that was more natural that I typically find in teas (whenever I taste grape it is always that “Kool-Aid” sort of grape flavor rather than actual grapes). There was a very subtle raisin bread/oat note to the base of the tea, which reminded me a lot more of grapenuts cereal than scones, since I didn’t really pick up on any buttery notes. There was a very subtle hint of citrus right at the finish, which I think may have had a lot more to do with the base leaf than the added orange, since there wasn’t much of a distinct orange flavor; the sweet raisin flavor was very dominant. The tea also brewed quite smooth; the sweetness meant there was no room for any bitterness from the black base and I didn’t notice much, if any, astringency lingering after the sip.

It was nice, but definitely a very sweet cuppa. I think this may be the sweetest tea I’ve tried for my Treat or Treat October that wasn’t a chocolate tea!

Flavors: Bread, Citrus, Fruity, Grapes, Honey, Oats, Raisins, Smooth, Sweet

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 3 g 16 OZ / 470 ML

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88

Trick or Treat! This sampler is over a year old now, but the leaf still has a nice aroma that reminds me a bit of a Nestle Crunch Bar only with a sharper cocoa aroma rather than milk chocolate, and also some hints of nuttiness. It’s very pleasant. I really like the Roasted Pumpkin Mate blend by Fusion teas, and have been meaning to get around to trying some of the other mate blends from my sampler pack.

The flavor is nice, though the chocolate isn’t the rich fudgy sort of taste of the chocolate tea I had yesterday; it’s more of a cocoa flavor with some subtle bittersweet notes, and reminds me a lot of the taste of pure cocoa shells. The tea does have notes a strong roasted nuts note coming through from the roasted mate/toasted rice/almond combo, and a subtle coffee note from the barley/chicory, and both of these flavors compliment the cocoa taste nicely. The tea is overall quite sweet, and I believe that’s because some rooibos is added to the blend, because the sweetness tastes a bit honey or caramel like.

Overall, a really good mate blend, and those can be hard to find!

Flavors: Caramel, Cocoa, Coffee, Dark Bittersweet, Honey, Nutty, Roasted Nuts, Sweet

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 5 min, 0 sec 4 g 12 OZ / 350 ML

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80

Trick or Treat! This is a tea I picked up from a trip I took to San Diego back in fall of 2017 now, where I had High Tea at a quaint little shop that also sold tea and British collectibles and food called Shakespeare’s Corner Shoppe. Most of their tea blends were wholesaled, but they had a handfull that were unique blends they created that were named after famous British royalty, characters, or pop icons, and this is one of the ones I picked up.

This is probably one of the most chocolately teas I own, so it fits in nicely with my dessert tea theme this month! It’s a Ceylon black base, but they’ve added both milk and white chocolate, cocoa nibs, maple syrup (there is a certain maple sweetness mixed with the strong chocolate flavoring of the tea from the aroma), blueberries (because Willy Wonka!), vanilla, orange peel and lemon balm for a touch of citrus, and safflower and cornflower petals. It sounds like a lot going on, but the flavor comes out as chocolate blueberries! Which probably still sounds very odd, but somehow works, if you are in the mood for a very sweet, quirky dessert tea.

I can still make out just a hint of the black tea base, and it probably would be a hint bitter with some astringency if this tea wasn’t so darn sweet, but since I don’t like harsh, bitter Assams/Ceylons, I’m fine with that. This isn’t a subtle chocolate tea; it’s very rich, sweet, and fudgy in flavor, and the sweetness does have a maple note to it which I really like. About midsip and then lingering on the finish is a really sweet blueberry flavor, that mixed with that touch of maple really reminds me of blueberry pancake syrup, a really syrupy sweet blueberry note. I’m not really getting any citrus, though I wonder if they are helping bring the black tea base to the forefront a bit more, since Ceylons tend to be a bit citrusy.

Black teas aren’t the sort of thing I indulge in late at night when I tend to want a sweet-tooth hit, so I think my place for something like this is for those Fridays when I know it isn’t donut day at work… like today.

Flavors: Blueberry, Chocolate, Malt, Maple, Pancake Syrup, Sweet

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec 3 g 14 OZ / 400 ML
Lexie Aleah

Sounds delicious! (:

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Bio

Hi! I’m Sara, a middle-aged librarian living in southern Idaho, USA. I’m a big ol’ sci-fi/fantasy/anime geek that loves fandom conventions, coloring books, simulation computer games, Japanese culture, and cats. Proud genderqueer asexual (she/they) and supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. I’m also a chronic migraineur. As a surprise to no one, I’m a helpless tea addict with a tea collecting and hoarding problem! (It still baffles me how much tea I can cram into my little condo!) I enjoy trying all sorts of teas… for me tea is a neverending journey!

Favorite Flavors:

I love sampling a wide variety of teas! For me the variety is what makes the hobby of tea sampling so fun! While I enjoy trying all different types of teas (pure teas, blends, tisanes), these are some flavors/ingredients I enjoy:
-Dessert/chocolate/vanilla/caramel/cream/toffee/maple
-Sweet/licorice root/stevia
-Vegetal/grassy
-Floral/lavender/rose
-Spices/chais
-Fruity
-Tropical/pineapple/coconut
-Bergamot (in moderation)
-Roasted/nutty
-Tart/tangy/hibiscus/rosehip

Disliked Flavors:

There are not many flavors or ingredients that I don’t like. These include:
-Bananas/banana flavoring
-Hemp/CBD teas
-Smoke-scented teas/heavy smoke flavors (migraine trigger)
-Perfumey teas/extremely heavy floral aromas (migraine trigger)
-Gingko biloba (migraine trigger)
-Chamomile (used in blends as a background note/paired with stronger flavors is okay)
-Extremely spicy/heated teas
-Medicinal flavors/Ginseng
-Metallic flavors
-Overly strong artificial flavorings

With the exception of bananas and migraine triggers, I’ll pretty much try any tea at least once!

Steeping Parameters:

I drink tea in a variety of ways! For hot brews, I mostly drink my teas brewed in the western style without additions, and for iced tea, I drink teas mostly brewed in the cold brew style without additions. Occassionally I’ll change that up. I use the https://octea.ndim.space/#/ app for water-to-tea ratios and use steep times to my preferences.

My Rating Scale:

90-100 – Top tier tea! These teas are among my personal favorites, and typically I like to keep them stocked in my cupboards at all times, if possible!

70-89 – These are teas that I personally found very enjoyable, but I may or may not feel inclined to keep them in stock.

50-69 – Teas that fall in this range I enjoyed, but found either average, lacking in some way, or I’ve had a similar tea that “did it better.”

21-49 – Teas in this range I didn’t enjoy, for one reason or another. I may or may not finish them off, depending on their ranking, and feel no inclination to restock them.

20-1 – Blech! My Tea Hall of Shame. These are the teas that most likely saw the bottom of my garbage can, because I’d feel guilty to pass them onto someone else.

Note that I only journal a tea once, not every time I drink a cup of it. If my opinion of a tea drastically changes since my original review, I will journal the tea again with an updated opinion and change my rating. Occassionally I revisit a tea I’ve reviewed before after a year or more has passed.

Inventory:

My Cupboard on Steepster reflects teas that I have sampled and logged for review, and is not used as an inventory for teas I currently own at the present moment. An accurate and up-to-date listing of my current tea inventory can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/xjt9ptx3 . I am open to tea trades (within the United States only!) at this time. Note that I will not trade teas that I currently have in a quantity less than 50g (samplers, 1oz packages, etc.) or any teas that are currently still sealed/unopened in my cupboard.

Contact Info:

Feel free to send me a Steepster PM, or alternatively, check the website URL section below; it goes to a contact form that will reach my personal e-mail.

Location

Idaho, United States

Website

https://teatimetuesdayreviews...

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