Our new Tea of the Week! 03.05.12 Buttered Cranberry Orange Scone Honeybush
I think this base has a multiple personality disorder LOL. Frank, come up w/ something REALLY FANTASTIC next week (this Sunday is my birthday).
you are saying this is not REALLY fantastic? LOL. I’ll see what I can do on the Birthday blend.
lol, personally not sold on the base. I’m just saying make every effort to out do yourself:) Hot Dog? LOL! Matcha would be nice… but I realize I gave you really short notice for that. Mayan Chocolate Cheesecake Chai? Oooh yes! I’m actually relatively low on my chai anyway….
I got the strawberry zabaglione on my birthday. :) It was yummy. But I’m still waiting on my Tomato, Basil and black pepper green tea.
And… Frank… I think this one sounds REALLY fantastic. I hope you still have some on Friday when I can place an order. (and yes… damn it, I am going to order three pouches so I can get a free one. BUT… please don’t send me something I won’t like. No Pu-erh. No peanut butter. Please. :)
Tomato, Basil and black pepper green tea might be a while in the making. I think we can avoid peanut butter and pu-erh. Maybe I will make up a blend that ONLY those who take advantage of the special will get. Hmmm.
Dang, if only the special had been active last weekend – I would have 4 pouches to dig into tonight! I may just have to cave again……just don’t tell my husband, lol.
Speaking of birthdays I won the weekly contest on my birthday – that was an awesome birthday present!
I caved. The new tea of the week sounds awesome and I’m craving Coconut cream pie after the sample Jillian sent me. I think that would be the perfect tea to christen the new tea maker I want to get in October. And I love the excitement of wondering what tea will be thrown in as a surprise!
The apricot fusion somehow sounds really really good. I’ve totally spend more than my personal monthly limit for tea…. but i may just have to get some!
I think the Apricot Fusion sounds yum. I like apricots and think the oolong/green/white tea blend sounds interesting.
I drank the Apricot Fusion all day today as an iced tea and it is DELICIOUS! The base tea tastes like an unbelievably good green tea with a really interesting mouth-feel, almost like something soft (mossy?) on your tongue. That probably sounds horrible, but it is very nice, very smooth and… soft. shrug And of course, the apricot goes beautifully with it. I refilled the jar (holds about 2oz) TWICE today. Customers were loving it too. Trust me, you guys are going to want to take advantage of the quantity price breaks and get a few pouches of this while we still have it.
P.S. Amandajo, one of our local customers posted her own review of the Apricot Fusion here: http://steepster.com/amandajo
Why do you always have to ask all the HARD questions, Cofftea? :)
In truth, I think you will have to do some experimenting. The fact is that we have a really unique set up at the shop. We have a machine that I am reluctant to name—I don’t want my competitors to get one. It’s a machine that was developed by a teahouse owner on the west coast. He modified an esspresso machine, changed the pressure and temperature settings, modified the portafilter so that the flow could be regulated, etc. Anyway, he started selling these machines to independent tea shops, but seems to have backed off of that and may be more interested now in selling to the chains (Starbucks, Java City, etc.), but I managed to get my hands on one, and essentially it does everything but matcha. This is going to sound anathema to everyone here, but it uses the same temperature (beyond boiling, under pressure) water for all of the teas. It gets away with this because the tea is not actually steeped in the water, it is leeched, so the tea is not in the water long enough to start breaking down (which is what happens when you oversteep—the water starts breaking down the woody tissue in the plant releasing tannins). Anyway, the machine allows me to make a tea in about 30 seconds (which is a good thing, since we sold about 200 teas in 4-5 hours last night), but it does not really yield much information when it comes to telling you how long you should steep the tea. Sorry.
Frank, I want one of these machines. I don’t know why. But I feel the need to play with it.
It’s amazing. Has a steam wand on it too, so we can make tea lattes. They run about $6k, but right now, you could probably have the whole tea bar for about $45k, with the Zoomdweebie’s name, clientele, furniture, fixtures and equipment, and I’ll even provide the tea on a wholesale basis!
Ok, this actually made me say WOO HOO! out loud (and quite loud, I might add) inspite of my being home alone. I agree w/ Frank- no milk. But I would suggest maybe trying a honey stick in it as my best friend will be pairing this w/ a honey stick for wedding favors. Or even a pinch of raw sugar. I don’t think any other sweetener would work well. Not gonna cave, patience is a virtue… Not gonna cave, patience is a virtue… Not gonna cave, patience is a virtue…
My wife and I just had big iced cups of this with our dinner. My wife got to drink about half of hers as our three year old kept asking, “Mommy, can I have ANOTHER drink of your tea?” It was amazing with a slice of pecan pie.
Too cute! What did you have for dinner? The only meal I can picture pairing this w/ is pork chops cuz pork chops and apple sauce are a common pair. Too bad I don’t like pork.
Glad I have some extra money this week. Ahem…Had extra money this week. I almost want two bags it sounds so awesome!
2 pouches sounds lovely! If you do cave, please let me know and incase I miss it please point your tasting note out so I can read it:)
I caved. I ordered it with the blueberry cream cheese danish as the reviews for that have been spectacular. I really enjoy white teas and spice teas, so I think this tea will be as wonderful as frank says it is. I’ll keep you posted when I review it.
It sounds neat but I can’t help but wonder if the chai spices will drown out the delicate white tea. There’s a reason big, bold Assams are often used as a chai base after all.
I think that’s why this one is going to be best without milk. Though, I haven’t tried it with milk yet, so who knows?
Jillian, while I’ve never had a white chai, I had the same reservations w/ green chai, but was REALLLY surprised how well they went together. I’m hoping that it’ll be as good as everyone says the Spiced Pear is, and that has a lighter base. Gosh… I may need to cave on that now! I’d never heard of shou mei before yesterday, so I did a little research and apparently it has a stronger flavor almost like an oolong. I’ve also personally had whites that were not wimpy- but then again I do use a lot of leaf, 1TB in some cases. While, honestly, a white that is compared to an oolong is not something I was anticipated, it would probably stand up to the spices better.
i caved, i can’t wait to play with time and temp and get a nommy chai
I will be caving… but not for another week or two. I have decided that I don’t like to order just 1 tea at a time from Frank, so I will have to wait to see what he has next week… and the week after that.
And yes… Frank, I know that I should just subscribe to your program thingy. But you need to create a LiberTEAS program. Here is how it would work. Pay a certain amount automatically each month (or prepay for 3 or 6 months or whatever) and then each month, I choose which 3 or 4 teas I want. I like the freedom to choose, which is why I haven’t yet caved on your subscriptions. Even though I usually DO buy every tea you create, I don’t want to feel like I’m obligated to buy every tea that you create. Know what I mean?
It’s not like you have to set this LiberTEAS program up for everyone. Just for me. Because I’m special. :)
Congrats Cofftea! A tea blended just for you. I look forward to hearing what you (and everyone else) think of it. I would have never thought to have put those flavors together.
Well it actually wasn’t created for me. That’s the flavor Frank blended for by best friend and her fiance’s wedding. I won’t be trying it til Dec, but I WILL be posting a tasting note! In the mean time I’m eager to read what others think of it.
Irina and Brock, right? I’m sure you turned them on to Frank and had some input on the blend. ;) Christmastime weddings are lovely.
LOL I pretty much asked if he could do it and he said yes lol. Irina and Brock actually don’t buy things from Frank. Irina’s up to her ears in student loans so I supply her matcha for her.:)
Incidentally, this blend, with the green hues of the tea, the gold of the ginger and the red from the pink peppercorn, LOOKS very Christmas-y. It was actually one of the first things I thought when I considered it’s appearance
Seriously, Frank? Brownies? You’re not helping my budget, you know that?
See? That’s better!
Would it help if I pointed out the fact that we are offering some multi-pouch discounts on this one?
Maaaay-be…is the deal mixed multi-pouches? Or multiple pouches of brownie goodness that I’m just gonna want to nom dry?
This sounds amazing, but I think I must wait…I want to buy the Breveille 1 touch tea maker friday! So no tea for a few weeks….unless more amazingness follows suit:)
I’m saving my Apricot Fusion to christen it with because I can experiment with time and temp most accurately with it. Since it’s a mixture of green, white and oolong I figured it would be a fun one to play with and drink all day! I can’t decide if I will go after work friday and try and find one or wait until I am in a bigger suburb on Wednesday the following week.
Ahhh… that’s actually an AMAZING idea. Although chocolate apricot would be a cool blend:)
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