Alphakitty Send Message

I still have a ton of the cold-brewed Bangkok in the fridge, so today I mixed it with ginger ale. SO GOOD. I wonder if you could carbonate iced tea with one of those soda stream things…

It’s 3 in the morning and I am mildly lactose intolerant, so I have no clue why I am drinking something with both milk and caffeine. Well, I do know—I saw it in the fridge, realized I hadn’t opened it yet, and some part of my brain though “oh awesome, let’s have this instead of water!” Thanks, brain.

This is one of my guilty pleasures. Yes, it’s not “real” chai by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s so delicious! You can taste the spices for sure, though the tea taste is a little lost under all that sugar. But hey, who cares! It’s tasty, and I really consider this more of a “specialty drink” than actual tea.

Creme Brulee is a wonderful dessert, and if it’s on the menu when I go out to eat you can bet that I’ll order it no matter what else they’re offering. My favorite Japanese place has a black sesame creme brulee that is heaven on earth… urgh, just thinking about it is torture, I want some right now! I really wasn’t expecting this tea to live up to the magical taste of creme brulee though, even though I know custard and burnt sugar are flavorings that you can definitely capture in tea-form since I’ve had them before. But I read the reviews, so my hopes weren’t too high.

I think this smells better than it tastes—sniffing the cup is awesome, you get the custard, caramel, even the burnt sugar! However, most of it is lost when you drink this. There’s a strong caramel taste and maybe a hint of creaminess (I added milk before tasting it so I’m not sure how much of that is the tea) but absolutely none of that crunchy topping goodness. I have about 2 servings left in my sample, so I think I’ll try to just make some burnt sugar and put some in when it brews.

I really dislike rooibos—or rather, red rooibos, this is my first experience with green and I liked it. Mostly because I couldn’t really taste it, it’s very innocuous in this blend. Maybe a tiny note of herbiness, but no icky medicinal aftertaste. All in all this is a decent dessert tea, but I don’t know if I’ll be purchasing it on its own.

I am almost done tasting all my new teas (excluding samples) and the 4 I have left from Little Red Cup have been sitting on my kitchen table taunting me for some time. After a rather awful experience with the first tea of theirs that I tried, I was hesitant to dip into another. But this is about as far as spinachy bitter green as you can get (plus I need the space these are taking up!).

The dry leaves smell like smoke and hay—I actually like both of these in tea if they’re not overpowering. Brewed it’s still smokey but there’s also a hint of fruit—peach or grape maybe? This is a brisk, bold cup, and really exceeded my expectations for sure. It’s also my first experience with a Chinese black straight-up, and it definitely doesn’t need milk. A little astringent but not bitter at all.

I try to get as many steeps as possible out of my leaves so I don’t feel like I am somehow “wasting” them. This mentality seems to fall by the wayside late at night, when I am totally fine with tossing leaves in the trash after one or two steeps. But this tea? No way I am wasting a limited edition blend by tossing perfectly good leaves! So I threw them in the fridge last night and decided to experiment today.

The first steep (third technically) was pretty simple—half the water, pour over ice, voila! Iced tea! This was really good iced. I usual ice genmaicha all summer as I find it to be the most refreshing tea and it’s also one of the few iced teas I don’t feel the need to put sugar in. The cherry flavor definitely pops even more this way, though the creaminess is a bit in the background. It’s more of a fruity genmaicha than a cheesecake-y one, but I don’t really know if that’s a flavor that would be good cold. Who knows? I’ll probably try cold brewing this now to get out that cheesy flavor a bit more.

The second (fourth!) steep I went a little crazy with. Yes, I committed a cardinal tea sin and am going to tea hell. If you are squeamish, avert your eyes! I…. put milk in it. I know, I know! No milk in greens, ever! But the creamy flavor was kind of lacking in this steep and I wanted more of it. It was just a teeny tiny splash, I swear! And I hate to admit this, but it was SO GOOD. Creamy, tart, still full of that awesome genmaicha flavor. I… might even do it again. I know it’s shameful, but it was delicious! I bumped up the score a bit now that I know this tea is so versatile, and getting 4 good steeps out of it is a definite bonus.

Disclaimer: Bangkok is my favorite tea. I’m honestly not even sure why! Objectively it’s not the best tea: the flavors are fantastic but it’s a little lacking on the ginger, and I think the green base could be a little stronger/butterier. But hey, it’s my favorite anyway. Coconut + lemongrass = love to me. It was also one of the first teas I fell for. I saw the pretty pink tin at Starbucks years ago and couldn’t resist! This tea can also take a beating: I used to brew this with boiling and leave the bag in for 10+ minutes (which makes me cringe thinking about!) but it never got bitter. Magic?

Anyway, I have been meaning to experiment with cold brewing for a while. This seemed like the perfect tea to start with, since 1) I know I love it and 2) it’s cheap (1.50/oz plus a 10% discount in store) so I wouldn’t have to worry about messing it up. I honestly had no idea how much leaf to use and dumped like… 1/2 an ounce into cold filtered water along with some simple syrup (hey, I like my iced tea sweet!). Let it sit for 13 hours and then filtered it, and bam—iced tea! It is DIVINE. The coconut and lemongrass are as prominent as always, but the cold brewing brings out a lot more of the tangy ginger. The base is stronger too, with that nice “tea” taste. This is heaven in a cup, and I will be making this often. Summer gets HOT in ny, and this is just what I need to cool down.

Four teas in one day?! Technically 5, really, as I have some Bangkok cold brewing in the fridge. This is what happens when I am left to my own devices, tea overload!

I must have tried this tea before as it was in my cupboard, but I think I just mixed a pinch in my Den’s genmaicha to brighten up a 5th infusion. I don’t remember how it tasted though, so apparently it didn’t make much of an impression. Probably because I only brewed it for 30 seconds, not really enough time to bring out the flavors added to this blend. Brewed at 2 minutes, it’s heaven! The cherry is tart and not at all artificial, there’s a hint of creamy tanginess from the cheesecake, and the toasted rice mimics the crust quite nicely! All these flavors don’t overpower the base at all, there’s a buttery smoothness from the green. This is just the perfect tea if you want something sweet but not overpowering: it’s very dessert-y but also light and airy. I’m pleasantly surprised that this is such a delicate tea! I wish they’d add this to the permanent collection, because it’s something I’d like to indulge in often but I find myself hoarding my stash.

I’ve realized that if I drink 3 teas a day I might be able to finish all the teas that I own before I die. Maybe. So, 3rd tea of the day… night, really. I shouldn’t drink blacks this late, but to hell with it! I am spending my first night EVER in an empty apartment (which seems kind of odd, 23 and no nights spent in an empty house). The bf has a doctor’s appointment and has to go go philly, which means I am all alone for nearly 24 hours. Not exactly a big dramatic problem, but I was in the mood for comfort food. Pie! I actually have pie (blueberry) but I wanted something starchy so I am drinking this tea while eating rice pudding.

It’s kind of scary to realize that I placed my Adagio order a month ago and it was relatively small (maybe medium-sized, my tea perspective on “small” is terrible) and I still have one untouched pouch and 2 samples to try! Argh! Well, this is the last full-sized one that I bought… I have regretted some of my decisions so far (1.5 oz of White Cucumber but only a sample of White Blueberry? WHY?), so I was hoping Sweet Potato Pie wouldn’t be an instant regret.

Well, it kind of smells like pie—toasty and starchy. I’m not getting the signature sweet and earthy aspect of sweet potatoes though, it’s kind of just… potato. There’s a toasty hint of something (marshmallow? crust?) and a nice roundness to the black base. I did brew it at a slightly lower temperature though and there’s still a hint of bitterness—I am not a big fan of Adagio’s Ceylon base, it’s not very forgiving and is surprisingly overpowering for a Ceylon. I’m also getting a tiny hint of cinnamon (but that might be from the rice pudding!). I do like this tea though: it gives off a definite pie vibe. Just not, you know, sweet potato pie.

This is one of those teas you’re not really “supposed” to love. Not only is it bagged tea, it’s bagged tea you can find in pretty much any supermarket. Not even in a fancy pyramid bag! But my stomach is killing me tonight, and to be honest no other tea soothes an upset stomach or a sore throat (both of which are ailing me) like this. It’s just… lemon and ginger! If I’m feeling a bit less under the weather I’ll cut up some fresh ginger root and boil it with lemon… but really, this tastes almost identical with a dollop of honey. Plus it actually resteeps well: I leave the bag in and just refill my cup 2-3 times with boiling water. Also, no bitterness from the ginger even if the bag sits in water for 15+ minutes! This is really the ideal low-maintenance tea for me.

Finally getting to the last tea from my NMTC order (the pu’erh doesn’t count until my gaiwan arrives!). This was an impulse buy, and when I opened them all up to smell them this one seemed the least appealing—I love the taste of fresh plums, but this seemed… artificial. On somewhat of a whim today I decided to brew this up along with some chai spices, sugar plum style!

The earthy oolong and fruity plum flavors balance well, but they’re not overly exciting by themselves, and I think the chai gave them a much-needed kick in the butt. With the spices this is a pretty tasty cup, though more holiday-themed than the current weather really calls for. The plum is a bit on the artificial side, and isn’t really… plum-tasting. It’s more of a generic, juicy fruit taste. It’s not bad, but I was hoping that it would taste like a freshly cut plum. The oolong base is innocuous enough: I like greener oolongs more than their darker counterparts, but the earthy tones definitely work better with the flavoring here. I think I am going to be using this mostly for blending, as on its own nothing really stands out or makes me think “oh, I want more of that!”