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~1tsp / 12oz + sugar

Had a cup of this to go with my super healthy dinner of buttered noodles! I need to find some better alternatives to lazy dinners. For a while I was doing cheese and tortillas, but I ran out of tortillas. D:

Anyway! Gosh I’m STILL looking for that sweet spot to get the actual cinnamon roll taste. I hit it once so I KNOW IT’S THERE SOMEWHERE. I just don’t know how to get it consistently.

This cup was the usual creamy consistency, it was close to being a cinnamon roll, but I could of used a little more “dough” if that makes sense. I really wish this tea came with some recommended steeping instructions.

Hmmmmm… I don’t know what it is about this tea because back in January I LOVED IT. Seriously, I got some of it to try from starberry and immediately went to the store to pick some up. Only to find out that this particular flavor has been discontinued, or at least I couldn’t find it on Liptons website, the internet in general, or any nearby store. BUT, it was at Starberry’s walmart so she picked up a couple boxes for me.

I brought it to work because I haven’t been drinking my bagged tea at home a lot; I just have so much loose leaf now! I figured this would be a great way to get through the neglected teas in my cupboard. Yesterday, I cracked into this stuff and was surprised at how.. grainy? it was. You definitely get that melon taste at the end, but the first sip is bitter. I thought that maybe I just oversteeped it yesterday since its a green tea and I might as well have just left the bag in my mug with how long I steeped it. Today though, I steeped no more than 4 minutes with the same result.

I DON’T KNOW! Maybe after drinking so much better quality teas I’ve just become a prude, haha.

Anyway, the mediocre work tea list ever expands!

My 3rd and final sample from Zen Tea. I had to get this as a sample. Not only was it a fruit tea, but the name was just so cute. Grandma’s Garden, aawww.

I had this while I making breakfast (at 3). When I opened the packaged I was smacked in the face with so many deep berry flavors I simply couldn’t wait to try it out!

It steeped into a mauve color and smelled just as great as the leaves did. This is tea has a more prominent dark berry taste than it does sweet berries, but you can definitely taste a bit of everything in there. This is a tea that would probably be really great with some honey or agave.

This is from last night. This tea resteeped wonderfully. I ended up steeping it a lot longer than I had planned. My dog just got his first kong, and I was making him do his “be sneaky” trick to get it. He was being a bit stubborn with the trick though, and therefore by the time I got him to do it correctly I had way oversteeped the tea.

HOWEVER, that didn’t matter. The cup was still great. SO glad I grabbed this as a sample.

Another Zen Tea sample. I broke into this as something I wanted for dessert. The last cup of tea for the night! When I opened it I got a burst of berry… chocolate? Definitely smelled like chocolate which is really off-putting for me because, call me crazy, I don’t care for chocolate that much.

When I went to pour the leaves into the infuser I was not impressed by the look of the leaves either, it didn’t do much to calm my nerves. I saw a lot of dark leaves, and the strawberries looked dark too. At this point I’m wondering if I should have gone with a different tea that I’m comfortable with and saved being adventurous for another day.

I followed the recommended instructions, put the boiling water to the leaves for 3 minutes, then added some sugar and milk when it got in my cup. It smells a lot more like strawberry cream now, which is good.

Took a sip and yeah, this is strawberry cream alright. Unfortunately though, something just feels missing to me. It’s a really subdued mild flavor when I guess I was wanting something a bit more tart. Less cream, more strawberry. Next time I try this I’ll hold off on the milk and sugar and see what I get. For now I’m just a bit underwhelmed.

I had a cup of this when I got home from work yesterday. TGIF!! I accidentally steeped this at 175 instead of 195, and it really changed the flavors a lot.

This time around the cinnamon smell wasn’t as strong and it had an almost tartness about it. I made a second cup afterwards with the 195 temp and I got that great creamy taste I’m used to. This is turning into a real hit or miss tea for me. Definitely not the most forgiving, as far as my experiences thus far have gone, especially if you’re aiming for that cinnamon roll taste.

This was my first tea I broke into from my Zen Tea sampling! When I took my first sip of this my initial thought was, “Wow this is silky and smooth!” I’m still not used to getting smooth from my teas, but it’s definitely something that I like!

While I was steeping this I did not get much of a scent out of it at all, granted my sense of smell isn’t the greatest either. When I drained it into my cup though I got a definite light and invigorating scent from it.

Picking out what this tastes like is a bit hard for me, because like the description says, the taste is complex and layered. In fact I only have a sip left and I’m still not sure what is exactly that I’m tasting. Definitely getting some floral and almost.. grassy taste from it. The grassy-ness kicks in in the after taste I think.

Overall, I think this was really enjoyable and calming. I’m excited to see how this handles a second steeping.