Culinary Teas

I keep telling myself I am going to make this over the stove-top, but I haven’t been able to! I have been so busy with work. Anyway, I had this before going to work yesterday. :) Delicious! I love the ginger bits in here.

I love this tea! This time I had milk, and I drank this happily! The spices are great and authentic. I love it!

This is a new favorite for me! I love the Ceylon black tea base here. I didn’t have any milk but added some sugar to this strong chai blend. I love this! The flavors are natural.

I made this tea hot, then served it from the fridge… I’m sure that the rating would be a lot lower if hot! The black tea base is strong and a little bitter, and would’ve overpowered the peach flavor without sweetener. However, iced, with about 1 packet of stevia per liter, it tasted great! The peach was obviously artificial, and you can tell that just by smelling the loose leaves… Bad if you’re expecting an authentic, juicy peach experience, but fine for the a tea. The cream flavor is pretty much nonexistent to me, but I didn’t really miss it. Especially at the low price, I’d buy it again for iced.

Back after a long, and quite frankly awful, absence. I’ve been sick for a week after having an allergic reaction to some antibiotics. Wasn’t able to have any of my tea! =(
The worst seems to have past. Now I’m just resting up so I can be back to my normal self.

This one came from TastyBrew!

The dry leaf smelled amazing. Very sweet and caramelly, with just a hint of the black tea base. Once brewed, this tea it picks up an even stronger, almost melted white chocolate/caramel aspect.

Unfortunately, I don’t seem to be a huge fan of caramel teas when it comes to taste. This one, like many of the others I’ve had, ends up tasting too artificial for me to really enjoy. The caramel flavor is there, but it’s got an odd taste and aftertaste. The black base is present, but slightly astringent.

I’m happy to have gotten the chance to taste this tea, but I wouldn’t buy it for myself. Oh well. If every tea were a favorite, I’d be in debt and seriously out of space. =)

Someone left some of this in the communal tea area at work so I decided to try it. Meh, its alright…nothing spectacular.

Oh dear god no. I overleafed AND oversteeped this because I got distracted chatting at work.

Kitchen sink, here I come.

I have been dreading drinking this everytime I look at the bag, so thankfully I ruined this cup and it wasn’t even on purpose.

One serving left, hopefully I don’t kill it.

Trying to get rid of this one.

Today it turned out bitter.
It certainly has potential to be a perfectly acceptable cup of tea, but I feel like I’ve had a Monk’s Blend from another company that I liked better.

Lowering my rating from 83… at this point I’m just ready for this one to reach sipdown status. I still consider it a “flavoured tea” – mysterious or not. I’m not so keen on these anymore.

I still like this. I know I said I’m apparently not a fan of fruity teas but I guess that doesn’t apply to this sort, the ones tempered with a creamy aspect in one way or another.

Maybe it’s more the citrusy teas I’m not a fan of. Because arguably H&S Paris is fruity-ish and it’s one of my faves.

I digress….

So this, I enjoy. It was a satisfying pre-dinner cup with a rich, hearty base. I added a splash of milk and it didn’t water it down…. Huzzah!

Someday down the road I will try more Monk’s Blends, as I like the two I’ve had so far!

I’m the first? Weird! Well unfortunately this isn’t going to be very groundbreaking!

This is the second Monk’s Blend I’ve tried, the first being from English Tea Store and received in a swap. This one came from Tastybrew after seeing how much I enjoyed the first.

This one was also very good! I ended up making some in my travel mug to take to see Evil Dead last night. I do that all the time. Last night my brother was there and he was all like “Is that TEA?!”

Uh, yeah…

“OMG you’re such an old lady!”

Whatever, I love it.

It seemed much fruitier than the ETS one. I can smell a big difference but my ETS is just a few remnants in a ziploc bag that has been sitting in a box with other baggies received in swaps so the smell isn’t very obvious at this point.

I will do a comparison tasting later!

Either way. I had no idea that Monk’s Blend existed until I found Steepster so just colour me happy to have a new yummy tea in my stash and in my heart!

Thank you Tastybrew for letting me adopt your unwanted Monk’s Blend! It’s right up my alley :)

(Boiling for about 3 min)

I bought this one and the plain vanilla black tea as 1oz samples ($2.20 – really good deal) and have been drinking them interchangeably without taking time to find out which one I prefer. Since I just had the plain vanilla I figured I’d have the vanilla cream and see if there is much of a difference. There actually is. The cream has the same yummy vanilla flavor, but (surprise surprise) is much creamier. Like having a vanilla tea with a little whipped cream in it. I think I prefer it. It’s a little smoother, doesn’t need much milk or honey. Both are good, but this is just a little better.

Needed a solid vanilla tea this morning after having a less than stellar one yesterday. Yum. Nothing too fancy about this. Just a good vanilla tea.

Uhm so, something very odd just happened. I had picked up a package of Queen Mary tea from The Secret Tea Room a while ago and decided to have a cup today. After reading the description of this particular tea, and the descriptions of several other Queen Mary teas, I was expecting a nice, malty tea with some floral notes. Ohhh, this tea was so not that. It had those little tiny granules of tea leaves with a whole bunch of large pieces of dried spices (cinnamon bark, maybe, and some other thing that I’ve seen before but can’t remember what it is, it looks like marshmallow root maybe?) I thought, well maybe this is just their adapted version of a Queen Mary blend. So I steeped it, and it was terrible. Alright, maybe not terrible, but just so not what I was expecting. I had anticipated sweet, warming maltiness and instead had some borderline bitter tea with a strange, icky spiciness to it. I am sad because, 1. I couldn’t even finish the tea; and 2. I feel like I can’t even really rate it because I don’t even know what tea it was. I think TSTR obviously mislabeled this one, and I will ask them the next time that I go in. It will drive me crazy until then, though! Has this ever happened to anyone else???

So, after that mess, I am really in need of a tea that is exactly what it says it is. I’m trying this Prince of Wales blend that TeaRunner sent out for our “The American Heiress” book club. She even sent along a little printout about the tea from the Culinary Tea’s website, which is so helpful! This tea is a pretty blend of medium black tea leaves and those cute little rolled gunpowder balls. There’s also some little blue and orange flower petals. The dry leaves smell like fruity black currant, while there is a lovely black tea and sweet fruit aroma from the tea itself. This is a really nice tea with a thick, malty flavor. The finish is very robust, and almost bitter, but good. The black currant comes out very lightly in the aftertaste, but it’s there. This one sort of reminds me of Harney and Son’s Black Currant, but I think theirs is just a little more smooth and rounded. I do appreciate that this one is so flavorful, though. It would be a great tea to get you going in the morning! Thank you TeaRunner for this one!

-Dry blend has medium black tea leaves and twigs and dark green rolled gunpowder tea with small blue and orange petals.
-Dry leaves smell lightly of fruity black currant. Tea liquor aroma is of black tea and sweet fruit.
-Tea liquor is a clear dark orange brown color.
-Thick malty flavor with a very robust and almost bitter finish. Light currant aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Very good tea. Really flavorful with a light black currant note.

I just received my shipment of “Pure Green Matcha – Everyday Drinking Tea” from Tealux today. It tasted a little stronger and more full bodied than the Japanese green tea you get served when having sushi. It had a subtle bitterness to it because it was the cheapest of the Matcha teas so it isn’t as sweet as some higher grades of Matcha. I will be ordering a higher grade soon for making lattes! I want to attempt to make green tea ice cream now too!! :D

Overall, average tea but exactly what I expected. :)

Sipdown tea #8! I got this in my first swap with momo and had just enough for a cups worth.
I could have sworn I’ve already done a note for this one… Buut anyways.. The aroma of this tea is soo juicy. It has a nice apple\pear scent to it. The flavor is pretty juicy too. Lots of lovely pear and apple flavors. The rooibos makes a nice base for this. Adds a bit of an earthy\woodsy note to it. Only wish I had more!

I had this back when I was sick last week and had lost my ability to taste anything. It was ok, but not great. I wanted to give this fair shot so I tried it again this afternoon. It was pretty good. Nice smooth caramel flavor. But I didn’t taste the burnt sugar I want from creme brulee. Its definitely good caramel tea. But I won’t be re-ordering as I prefer the salted caramel from david’s.

Sipdown tea #3! Thanks to momo for sending me this sample. The aroma of this tea is lovely, smooth and chocolatey. The flavor came out a bit bitter but it’s still drinkable. I can taste the black tea base and creamy notes of white chocolate. I liked this one. Thanks again!

I wasn’t crazy about it, to be honest. The first thing I noticed when I opened the bag was a medicinal smell, like cherry cough syrup. That was followed up with a medicinal taste when I brewed it. It didn’t remind me of chocolate-covered cherries at all. Maraschino cherries don’t taste like Tylenol. I tasted a little chocolatiness, but it wasn’t very pleasant when combined with that fake cherry flavor.

I’m glad I only bought a sample and not a 4 oz. bag. I wasn’t impressed. If I want to taste a cherry cordial, I’ll eat one. This tea doesn’t measure up.

I’m not sure what I expected from this, but it’s not really doing anything for me, good or bad. Just an ok cup of tea. I won’t dump it out or anything, but I probably won’t make it again, prefer something with a little more going on.

All the talk about maple teas on the discussion boards had me wanting to try this one which I just brought to work last week. I haven’t tried it before but it does have an appetizing maple smell – it’s a bit more Aunt Jemima than maple syrup (if you’re Canadian you will probably understand) but it is definitely appealing.

Steeped, the liquor is quite brown, and has a smell that puts me in mind of boxed pancakes and Aunt Jemima. Again, yummy but not quite the real deal. There is some sweetness that comes off as maple syrup and the tea is very prominent beneath that. They are pretty well balanced with each other but the tea does have a hint of bitterness. I wonder what the base tea is, cuz I think I steeped this appropriately but the bitterness is a bit disappointing.

I would like a smidge more maple in here but it is a very old sample so I may have just lost some flavour over time. A drop of syrup or honey in here would do wonders (if I had any here at work). All in all, very nice.

EDIT to add – this reminds me of a couple Monk’s Blends that I have had. Interesting!

At first sip maybe a little too strong, I will have to decrease the steep time next time, and maybe have the water be below boiling.

It’s a pretty powerful Earl Grey, it reminds me of Russian Earl Grey, only more floral. Very citrus, I can still taste the bergamot but I can also taste lemon and I think orange rind. It is a good blend.

This is pretty mild, and I do taste the butterscotch as well as the caramel but it isn’t strongly flavored. It’s a good black tea base so it’s easy to drink even if the sweetness that I hoped for isn’t there. Of all the teas I’ve tasted from the huge order I have in my house from Culinary Teas, this is one of my favorites so far. I wouldn’t reorder it, there are teas I like far more, but since there are 3oz lying in a box in my house, I will drink it.

I actually really didn’t mind this tea. Living in Vermont and having Maple as the official state flavor (who knew that even existed?) I have high maple standards. This is not in your face sweet, though I was kind of hoping for that. This is very mild, with a caramel type flavor that didn’t get bitter. It was a nice cup of tea, I would like to blend it with something else, maybe a vanilla and a fruit flavored tea. That’s something I like about this tea, I think it would be a great one to blend.