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Another from Krystaleyn! I got a ton of chais in our swap which has me all excited, since chai is pretty much my #1 tea love. I decided to start with a basic one and work my way up to fancy flavors. It’s a wet, cloudy day and I’m home alone, pretty much perfect for some warming & spicy tea.

I made this with honey and almond coconut milk, and oh my! This is an excellently balanced chai: there’s a little bit of everything going on, and no spice really takes over. Clove, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon and peppercorn are all there, playing nicely with the black base. This isn’t one of those POW spicy blends, but it’s not mild… I think it falls nicely between bland and overwhelming. Nothing fancy, but a solid and delicious basic chai.

Well I WAS originally planning on using the rest of my All The Raj sample for blending, but I thought there was probably at least one steep left in the first batch of “leaves” so I decided to just go for it tonight. So into my already-steeped herbal tea went some Jasmine Pearls from DAVIDsTEA (which I actually haven’t tried on their own yet) and a pinch of Tea Cozy’s Lavender Earl Grey. Might as well go all-out on the floral! Also, I have way too many samples and need a way to get rid of some of them.

Since there were so many different types of tea, this was really fun to watch brew—stuff floating all over the place! The pearls looked kind of like aliens as they opened though. I did just see Prometheus so that might be kind of warping my view… let’s hope nothing weird starts crawling out of me. Anyway, the tea! It’s floral heaven! Rose, lavender, jasmine, in wonderful harmony. I also put some honey in which I rarely do and that just makes it even better. As a lover of floral teas this gets a big thumbs-up from me… I’ll probably end up throwing my flower teas together more often.

I am finally able to dig into my samples from Krystaleyn! Took me long enough, and I feel a bit guilty for waiting, but I was separated from my stash this weekend and this is the first chance I’ve really had to drink any of my teas. This is also one I’ve been meaning to try for a long time—I opted for Three Wishes in my first DAVIDsTEA order over this one, but since that turned out to be not so floral I’ve had plans to pick some up. But the reviews seem…. well, awful, so I’m thrilled that I have the chance to try it out first.

Well, apparently I have odd taste in tea, because I LOVE this. It’s the most heavily rosy blend I’ve had, but I adore rose so that is definitely a huge plus. It’s mostly all rose: there’s a hint of sourness from the rosehips which balances out the perfumey notes well, and then the fennel and licorice kick in. It seems like licorice is a big nope for many people, but I like it… then again, black jelly beans are some of my favorite, so it’s no surprise that I like a hint of it in tea as well. This is so close to what I wanted Three Wishes to be—I think I might blend the last of my sample with some jasmine. Either way, this is definitely going to make it into my cupboard!

This tastes like a liquid thin mint. Lightly chocolatey, very minty, a hint of creaminess. Sugary-sweet too, since I added a ton! Hey, it’s a dessert tea. There’s not really a whole lot of “tea” going on thought… there’s that standard “tea” flavor in the background but no stand-out notes. However, I find myself liking ETS’ base black for blends like this. Some companies (I’m looking at you, Adagio) have ones that steep up bitter unless you get it just right. For something like chocolate mint tea I want something easy that I don’t have to fuss over or baby.

So I’m finally able to drink tea again after a week’s hiatus and I am separated from my stash! Right after a swap full of new goodies too. Ah well, at least my box from ETS arrived while I am away! Their samplers are BIG, given the price I thought they’d be teeny packets but they’re decently sized. 1-2 ounces of each, and the samples come out to well under $1 each.

This is an odd tea. It’s very strongly vanilla-y with some mellow spices. Not a bold chai by any means, it’s more like “lightly spiced vanilla” than “vanilla chai” but I like it. Lots of cinnamon, a bit of clove and ginger. It’s the vanilla that is at the forefront, and it’s almost creamy too. Very nice for late nights, minus the caffeine. The base is pretty innocuous, with a nice “tea” taste but nothing really to stand out.

The weird part is the sensation I get drinking this. You know that juicy feeling when you first bite into a slice of watermelon? It’s like that (minus the watermelon flavor)! Seriously, very strange. Kind of refreshing, actually, though this took some getting used to. So this is more like “Juicy Spiced Vanilla… with some tea.”

Whoo, this is the first time I’ve been able to write anything on Steepster in DAYS. I’m going through withdrawal. I’m backlogging this from 3 days ago or so, and my memory is a little fuzzy, but I remember liking it! This is sadly also the last tea I had. Yes, 3 days ago! The horror. I got food poisoning and then had some weird vitamin deficiency from the food poisoning and now… I don’t even know, but somehow I am still sick. My luck is the worst. ;~;

Anyway, this is another from the box from LiberTeas. I was jonesing for something comforting and familiar, and lavender earl grey is one of my absolute favorites. This is an excellent blend, not too floral and the lavender is well-balanced with the bergamot and the base, which is nice and mild. I actually ended up drinking the third steep first and it was still quite flavorful! (I got overly nervous that the milk was bad in the first cup, and the second I steeped for 5 minutes and it was ungodly bitter)

Another sample from my box from LiberTEAS! I’ve been wanting to try this one for a while so I was thrilled when I saw it in there. I have a sample of the flavored version of this in the mail because I wanted to try something extra milky, so it will be fun to compare it to this once it comes.

The dry leaves are a lovely green and smell so creamy, and they open beautifully—tons of whole, undamaged leaves unfurled! This tea is also a water hog, and the first steep sucked up nearly half of the water I put in there. I was a bit conflicted on what temp I should brew it at, some instructions say boiling but my sample said 170 so that’s what I did for the first steep! It was creamy, silky heaven—floral, sweet, and buttery. It’s a bit apricoty but not really fruity at all if that makes sense, and it’s floral without having a specific flower taste. Very mildly floral, but it’s there. There’s also a bit of grassiness going on, which I love! It’s not milky in an overt sense, but there’s a distinct smoothness here that I associate with milk oolongs. I think the milk part is more mouthfeel than taste.

For the second steep I tried hotter water (190) which I don’t think is ideal for this tea. There was no bitterness or astringency, but the creamy flavors fell away and the grassiness was pushed to the forefront. I liked it, but it didn’t seem much like a milk oolong—in fact this steep read as more of a green (i.e. less complex).

Steep 3 at 170 again was back to creamy goodness, with a more pronounced and distinct floral note than the first steep. It’s similar to the Mermaid’s Kiss, so it’s maybe magnolia? So far this is the most refreshing steep, and the grassy-milky-creamy-floral-apricoty notes seem the most balanced.

For the 4th steep I decided to get a bit crazy—you might have guessed from some of my previous notes that I like to experiment with my tea, and I certainly did something a bit risky with this cup! I wanted a bit more milky flavor, and I have these chewy milk candies from Japan sitting on my counter, so I chopped half of one up and put it in my IngenuiTEA as it brewed. It certainly looks milky now, and tastes more… well, milky! And sweet too, since there’s sugar in it now. It’s surprisingly natural tasting, probably because they are pretty small candies and I only used half of one.

I’m sure there are more steeps left in this so I’ll probably play around with it later tonight. Either way, given the reasonable pricing and how tasty this is I’ll definitely be adding it to the next order I place at Teavivre!

I am in need of a light, citrus-y blend today. I’m making short ribs which, while delicious, have the downside of taking all day to make. Sure, most of it is just time in the oven, but chopping the veggies, prepping the seasonings, searing the meat, and caramelizing the onions takes a good 2 hours of work. Plus having the oven on for 5 hours isn’t that pleasant. So, a light tea it is! I was looking for one in my sample bin since I REALLY need to cut down on the overflow, and this caught my eye: not because of the citrus, really (though that’s why I ended up picking it) but because of the name on the label. Upton lets you put a name on your tea under “Packaged for.” I suppose it’s so you can gift them to people, but I decided to be delightfully immature so all my tea from them is for Batman.

I’ve been looking for the perfect grapefruit tea: I adore grapefruit juice but the flavor doesn’t seem to transfer completely in blends. I’ve tried quite a few and so far the vanilla grapefruit from H&S is my favorite, but it’s still not quite tart enough for me. The dry leaves of this smell SO grapefruity, so my hopes were pretty high. Sadly, I think the base is way too assertive here: it’s very powerful and even a little smokey which I find odd. The grapefruit is there, but only really in the aftertaste, and the juniper is muted as well. However, it’s more pure grapefruit than any other tea I’ve tried so I am not giving up hope! I have enough left in the sample to try some other brewing methods to see if it will bring out the flavor better: I’m thinking the water was too hot, even though they recommend boiling.

I’m afraid to admit it, but I’m in love with a discontinued tea that I only have a sample of. ;~; Since I don’t have a ton I saved the leaves from yesterday in the fridge and brewed them up again tonight—I guess without thinking really, since I found this blend so wakeful the other day and 4 in the morning is NOT the time to be drinking an early-morning tea. I guess I just thought “herbal” and decided to go with it… my brain is fuzzy tonight.

Anyway, I added a bit too much sugar (I’m using one of my smaller mugs but added sugar like it was a bigger one—my brain is not cooperating at all!). It was a pleasant mistake, as with sugar (and perhaps it has something to do with being a second steep?) this tea is making me sleepy! I don’t know what kind of sorcery makes the same blend wakeful one day and sleep-inducing the next, but it’s definitely magic of some sort. It also tastes fantastic for day-old second-steeped leaves, especially for an herbal which usually just has a so-so second steep. In fact, the eucalyptus is even more prominent now and I can taste more of that signature tingling sensation. Upping the rating, though I do it with a heavy heart as I only have 2 cups left of this.

I have two pumpkin teas from Culinary Teas—the Sleepy Hollow Chai isn’t really pumpkin-y enough for me but is very spiced and the Pumpkin Cream isn’t spiced enough but has tons of pumpkin flavor. The solution is, of course, to put them together. OH. MY. GOD. It’s pumpkin pie in a cup. Silky, smooth, sweet, creamy, full of ginger, clove and cinnamon, and oh-so pumpkin-y. I think I might just throw my two bags together into a tin cause really now, when am I ever going to drink them separately?