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Finally digging into the treasure trove of loose-leaf samples from my Foodzie box from LiberTEAS! I made beef bowls tonight, and they were delicious but very spicy and a little heavy. I was feeling a little blargh-y afterwards and wanted something light and refreshing… and really, what fits that better than eucalyptus? I’ve never had it in a tisane before but when I was young my mom would always mix eucalyptus oil and water on the stove and boil it all day long, so this is a very nostalgic ingredient for me.

This is a light, airy, refreshing blend—a nice mix of citrus and mint, but it’s lively and not at all a sleep-inducing blend which I was a little worried about. There’s a tiny hint of fruit, but not enough to make this a “fruity” tea. It’s got a great balance, and is the perfect tea for following up an over-indulgent dinner. I used to think that I didn’t really like herbal blends, but I think my issue was with mediocre bagged ones—so far, I’ve liked pretty much all of the loose-leaf ones I’ve tried!

I really got this tea to make iced, but up until today I’d only had it hot and it was so-so. The flavor is a bit weak so you need more leaf than usual, so I was definitely waiting for an opportunity to cold brew it. Of course I’ve been making Bangkok for the past week but it was time for a change!

This is definitely better cold, sweeter and creamier. It’s not so much a rhubarb tea as it is a strawberry rhubarb tea, which is not bad at all in my book. There are tons of strawberry chunks in the blend, so cold brewed this is a lovely shade of pink! Weirdly enough it’s not pink at all hot, but it’s very pretty iced. It’s also a lot more fruit than green, so much that it’s practically a tisane. I can see why this has mediocre ratings hot, but I’m really enjoying it this way and if I run through the bag this summer I’ll probably repurchase it.

I was so pleased when I opened the bag for this—it’s like POW lemon right in your face. Nothing subtle about the flavoring here! I like my lemon blends strong, so right off the bat this tea was off to a good start.

The lemon is really strong when brewed—bright and citrusy, I feel like this would be a great tea for those early mornings when you have to drag yourself out of bed. But the base is actually stronger, surprisingly! This tea starts lemony and finishes lemony, but in the middle it’s a delicious, grassy, ever-so-slightly smokey gunpowder. I am definitely going to try this iced with sugar, it’s already so refreshing hot and I’m sure those qualities would be even better cold. Urgh, I’m already regretting only getting two ounces of this! Good thing H&S is only a subway ride away~

So I was at Mitsuwa today browsing shelves and lo and behold, I found an unfiltered Coconut Lemongrass sake. It was fate I tell you, fate! Because I still have some cold-brewed Bangkok in the fridge. Naturally the two must meet, so as soon as I put in my shiny new AC I poured a splash of the sake into a glass of Bangkok along with some ginger ale. PERFECTION. It makes it even more coconutty, and really, you can never have enough coconut flavor… especially in this heat. I feel like I’m on a tropical vacation.

So I got my AMAZING Foodzie box from LiberTEAS today, but due to the insane heat and my lack of AC this afternoon it was pretty much the worst possible day to get it in the mail. But it was an absolute joy to go through, and took me a full hour to sort out. Very few things beat the happiness of having an entire living room table full of tea! I can’t wait to start digging into them, and I have to admit that I have already started planning out my “tea schedule” for the next week or so.

It’s cooled down quite a bit now and I finally have AC in the bedroom, so I thought I’d dip into one of the samples. However, it’s far too late for anything with caffeine, and I was about to just reach for some Sleepytime instead (because I’m lazy and wanted a bag) when this caught my eye. As a side note I have really bad insomnia (I fell asleep at 8 in the morning yesterday) so anything with the ability to make me tired is an instant win, which is probably why I’m rating this higher than everyone else!

As other people have said, this does taste a LOT like Sleepytime. In my book that’s a good thing though! There’s more citrus (lemon mostly) and a bit less mint, with the dominant flavor definitely being chamomile. It’s also a tiny bit tart from the hibiscus, but definitely not overwhelmingly so. It’s just a tiny bit at the front of your mouth, but it’s quickly covered by the awesome herb-y tastes. And, best of all, it’s definitely making me a bit drowzy! I’m not sure if I would add this to my permanent collection as Sleepytime is just so darn easy to get and I already have another loose-leaf bedtime blend, but if I place an order at Tea Forte I think I’d definitely throw this in just for a bit of variety. Do I need three teas that make me sleepy and taste similar? If I have room for them… the answer is probably yes.

I was in the grocery store the other day debating over what milk substitute to get. I’m mildly lactose intolerant, so for days where I drink a lot of tea with milk I need some sort of replacement. I really like soy milk but I wanted to try coconut or almond to see what it would be like with tea. Coconut or almond, coconut or almond… then magically, I found a carton tucked in the corner—coconut milk AND almond milk! Perfect! It’s too hot today for any warm tea and my air conditioners don’t get here till tomorrow (damn you, Memorial Day!), so it was time for something creamy and iced. I only drink a few teas iced with milk, and chai is my favorite for later in the evening, so chai it was!

This is pretty much my go-to chai for mixing. I’ve made concentrate from it (which is what I used for the iced latte), I blend it with other teas, I cook with it, etc. I don’t really use it on its own so I feel weird giving it an actual rating… the way I use it it’s a clear 100 but as a base I’m just unsure what to do. So, no rating, but I do love it! It was SO good with the coconut almond milk and tasted (unsurprisingly) like coconut almond chai! Refreshing, creamy, nutty, spicy, cooling, delicious. Next I think I am going to make some chai caramels with the almond coconut milk instead of heavy cream…

It seems like everyone is making fancy iced tea today, and I have some fresh fruit in the fridge so I thought I’d experiment! Cut up a huge strawberry, macerated it in sugar and lime juice while the tea was brewing, poured it over ice and added a ton of sugar and a splash of pineapple juice. Fruity, minty, sweet, a little tart, and SO refreshing. It’s already brutally hot outside (thanks, NY weather), so I think I’ll be adding this to the regular iced-tea lineup: good thing limes are 10 for a buck!

It is far too hot to make any tea, and I’ve been drinking the same iced tea for about a week now, so I thought I’d do a backlogged review of this instead of adding yet another tasting note to Bangkok. This is also the first loose-leaf tea I made iced, so it seemed fitting!

When I made this hot for the first time my reaction was basically, “what the hell?!” It’s supposed to be a jasmine/rose blend, yet it tasted way more fruity than floral. Hot, it was not something I liked at all, but instead of leaving the bag to languish in my cupboard I made it iced. And suddenly, it was a whole different tea! The jasmine popped a lot more, and while the rose was still subdued there was a wonderful fruity mango taste. I don’t like hot fruit teas at all really, but iced is a different story—and mango is my favorite fruit, so really this worked out for the best. Now it’s one of the first teas I reach for when I need something cool, so even while it wasn’t what I expected/wanted I think it was actually a pretty fortunate accident.

I kind of forgot that I got the oolong sampler from Adagio, but rummaging through my samples today I realized that I have two left to try! I think I was a bit offput by the Darjeeling, which just wasn’t that great. But I had such an awesome experience with the Dancong I decided to dip into this tea today.

The leaves were really broken up, and didn’t look at all like an oolong. In fact it kind of reminded me of bagged tea—I don’t think it was squished during shipping, as my other 3 in the sampler have nice big leaves that open beautifully when brewed. Not really a great first impression, and it went downhill from there: this brewed up so dark and smelled like a mediocre black. It didn’t taste much better, and was missing the nuances of flavor I was hoping for. It was mostly woodsy, with a kind of unpleasant earthiness/ashiness. There’s a hint of that raisin flavor they say it’s supposed to have, but it was way too weak to really pick up on. I’m not sure why, but this brewed up really watery despite using two teaspoons for 8 ounces of water. If I didn’t know this was an oolong I would have guessed it was a low-quality Ceylon.

When it’s cooled the flavors are a bit better and you get a soft floral note, it’s actually not bad all! I’ll bump up the rating a bit for that, but it’s unfortunate that this tea is so unappetizing when hot.

Today is one of those days where I have no idea what kind of tea I want to drink. I’m also a little grumpy—apparently there are 3 boxes full of tea waiting for me at the post office, but instead of trying to deliver them they just left a slip in my box. They don’t like walking up to my apartment (4th floor, no elevator) so they fake-deliver all the time. It’s quite annoying.

Anyway, I was digging through my sample box to see if anything struck my fancy and I remembered that I had this in my Around the World sampler. I adore David’s Coffee Pu’erh (so much that I have to ration it out or I’d drink a cup every day), so I thought this might be similar. I’ve never had mate before, but I’d never tasted pu’erh before the Coffee Pu’erh so hey, why not try it out today? It’s hot, muggy, and I need to try some tea before I go crazy trying to guess what boxes are being held hostage.

The ingredient list sounds a little odd—white chocolate? I actually hate white chocolate, but I couldn’t see any in my little tin. It also smelled kind of weird, bitter and not at all like coffee. Then it brewed so clear I would have guessed it was a white-based blend. Not great signs, but I drank it anyway of course. And wow, it’s delicious! A little bitter from the coffee, a bit woodsy from the mate, but rich like a latte with undertones of chocolate and almond. With milk and sugar it’s like a lower-calorie, lighter version of a fancy coffee drink.