Simple Loose Leaf

I quite like this tea. I think it’s really balanced and very tasty. I’m thinking about saving the rest of this for in TTBs I’ve got coming my way, since I need something good to be able to put in the box. I’m torn.

First note: I’m really glad I decided to get the Simple Loose Leaf subscription. These teas are great, and you get so much of them. Next month, I might just go ahead and get some of all 5. I haven’t decided yet.

Anyway this tea…I like how cranberry it is, although today I’m getting more of the cherry. It’s a nice tea for at night, but I could definitely see drinking this in afternoon well. (I need my caffeine the morning.)

Another one from last night.

This is a nice, fruity herbal. I quite liked it. When I added the dry tea (I can’t call it leaf, since it’s not leaf) to my infuser, I was worried it would be too tart just because of the amount of cranberries. My fears were set aside once I tasted this. Yes, it tasted like cranberry, but it was very well balanced with the cherry in that it wasn’t tart. It wasn’t too sweet, but it was nice and fruity. It was a nice, dark pinky rosy color.

I would like to try this one iced.

So I had this yesterday morning but my computer decided to no longer boot up, so I couldn’t add it. (I was having trouble trying to add teas on my tablet.)

This was in my Simple Loose Leaf April box. I normally don’t drink a lot of black teas, but I decided I wanted to get one this month with my subscription.

It’s got a great aroma when opening the pack. Deep and rich.

As I don’t drink a lot of blacks, I always forget how beautiful the liquor is. It’s a dark reddish color. I honestly don’t know how to describe the flavors. It tastes like black tea, but a nice one, not dusty like bagged black always taste to me.

I’m also really tired today, which is part of why I’m not totally remembering. It’s my first day back in the office in a week. I had furniture delivered on Monday, I was at home sick Tuesday and Wednesday, and still not allowed to be around people until late afternoon on Thursday when I went to robots for the rest of the weekend.

I should try this tea with milk and sugar, but with this horrible cough I’m dairy free until it clears up. I’ve got plenty, so I’ll do that later.

This is one I forgot to review. I picked it for my wife because it is decaf. She cannot tolerate caffeine. I figure she deserves way better than most of the grocery store decaf. This one dry smells like grain. I steeped it for 3 minutes in a Finum basket with microwave heated water. Not the best way IMHO but it turned out OK. This was a nice gentle tea, soothing and relaxing. Just what I needed this evening. Decaf is never going to taste as full as regular tea but this is still pretty good. What I got was slightly malty and earthy or wood. A solid decaf black.

Tea of the afternoon. This tastes like strawberry, not candy or Kool-Aid. At the same time it isn’t overpowering. Very nice.

Afternoon tea. When you sniff the wet leaf you can almost smell the green tops on the strawberries. Yum. The taste is lighter than the aroma. On one hand I kind of want more, on the other I realize it would be more like Kool-Aid or something if it were more strawberry. It is a fine line. As I continue to sip I decide this has been done correctly. I can taste tea, and the strawberry lingers nicely in the aftertaste. I keep thinking I’ll add ice but it keeps disappearing before I get the chance. Good choice today.

I pushed this sample to the front of my list to review after noticing Simple Loose Leaf is running a $1 first month promo. This tea is the last of the six month subscription given me by Simple Loose Leaf. Thank You!

Of the ones I tried, the cherry tea I was least crazy about. I loved the Winter White Chai (really really good) and the Casablanca Earl Grey Green (yum). The rest were solid teas that I found worthy of being in my cup.

This tea has pieces of strawberry in it. Dry it smells insane, mixed with the India black tea it takes on a strawberry dipped in chocolate malt aroma. Brewed it is strawberry. Maybe if I took a sip and smelled the dry leaf at the same time? lol.

This is strawberry but not in your face STRAWBERRY. It doesn’t shout but it isn’t a wall flower. The taste, though a touch lighter than I expected, seems very natural. I can easily detect the black tea base in the long lingering aftertaste. In fact the base stands out more the longer the aftertaste lingers. I have not tried yet but I can imagine sipping this one iced on a porch swing with a warm gentle breeze blowing.

We went from arctic winter to monsoon season. My backyard is completely underwater and my basement now has a stream in it. Come on summer. Planning to have our porch built this summer to fix the stream problem and so I can sip iced tea on the swing.

This tea doesn’t quite go with a chicken stir fry but on its own it’s quite good. It does, however, go quite well with a cinnamon sugar bagel. I’m quite amazed at how much the flavors are battling for dominance. The rooibos tries it’s hardest but the rose always comes out on top. The smell too is overtaken with rose. I’ve tried it hot and cold and while i think its slightly better warm, it doesn’t make the rose flavor any less immense. This is tea 1 from the traveling tea box.

I added milk to this today and it just made it super creamy and rich and hazelnutty.

I’m also totally skipping work today bc our bear is sick (AGAIN) and I was going to work from home but she got me sick and now she’s watching Despicable Me 2 and crawling into a blanket fort and I’m sipping tea and using two laptops at the same time so I can scroll the tumblrs, and watch SPN and keep up on Steepster but my brain can’t handle it all.

Time for another cup.

I’m at 210 teas!!!!

This smells really nice and caramel like, but 4 minutes was too long of a steep and the cup went bitter. Still, with enough sugar I drank the whole cup.
Note to self: try 3 minutes next time!

Backlog:

This is from my fifth installment of the customized subscription service that I had from Simple Loose Leaf. I have since switched it up to the New Selection Club … and I LOVE this new club. It’s awesome.

I really like this tea too. Creme Brulee is my favorite dessert, and so when I see a tea that is creme brulee, I want to try it. Not all teas manage to capture the thing that makes a custard creme brulee though – that yummy caramelized sugar topping. This one DOES.

It has a sweet, custard-y, vanilla flavor that melds nicely with the robust black tea, and then the flavor of the caramelized sugar sort of weaves its way in and out of the sip.

Strong, malty, and yummy!

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/02/11/creme-brulee-black-tea-simple-loose-leaf/

This tea was part of the March Selection Club This tea has only a hint of raspberry, but it mingles with the vanilla and mint for a beautifully balanced cup of tea. It’s not the type of blend I would have normally ordered for myself even though I love green tea, I’m just not a huge fan of raspberries unless they are fresh off the vine, but I really enjoyed this. The vanilla lends a somewhat creamy flavor, smoothing out the more tart notes of the raspberry and the mint sits on your tongue long after your cup of tea is gone. While I really enjoyed trying this tea hot, it truly excels as an iced tea and makes me look forward to the hot days of summer that are just around the corner.

For the full review of the March Box you can visit my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2014/3/25/tuesday-tea-march-selection-club-simple-loose-leaf.html

Simple Loose Leaf has provided me with one free month of their Selection Club

This tea was part of the March Selection Club I feel that part of the fun in signing up for a tea club is the chance to discover something new so when I selecting my teas for the March Selection Club, I decided to break out of the box a little so to speak, I selected two teas that wouldn’t normally appeal to me. I’ve never really been a fan of gunpowder green tea, oftentimes it is either heavily smoky or astringent and those types of flavors have never appealed to me. Up until now I haven’t found one that I would consider finishing a full cup of, but this tea was different, there was only a subtle smoky flavor that I found pleasant, rather than overwhelming. Even though this is a tea I wouldn’t order again, I’m not really a fan of smoky teas no matter how subtle, I would highly recommend it to those of you who do enjoy them. The quality of this tea is wonderful and it’s organic to boot. I’m really glad I selected this tea for my March box, it gives me hope that one day I may enjoy a small handful of smoky teas.

For the full review of the March Box you can visit my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2014/3/25/tuesday-tea-march-selection-club-simple-loose-leaf.html

Simple Loose Leaf has provided me with one free month of their Selection Club

Yes, it’s good, and yes, I ‘d restock it, and yes I wish this wasn’t a sipdown (216).

It’s just light and creamy and minty (but not too minty) and the cream is wrapped around a subtle amount of raspberry that makes me keep reaching for it…

Thank you Sil!

I think if Simple Loose Leaf does open up to Canadian subscribers (like they are considering) I will sign up immediately!

Mmmm. This is a nice creamy sweet vanilla black. The mint mixes well with it, while the raspberry sorta lingers around the edges. Why are you so shy? Come on out?

But this is tasty. And this is the second tea I’ve enjoyed from Simple Loose Leaf!
Too bad you can’t really get them in Canada as I’m curious about more of their teas!