JustJames Send Message

okay, this is my second review…. my unhurried, long technique, ANNOYED review.

Pros: great big chunks of ingredients, tons of vanilla seeds, simple intructions, handy storage.

CONS: simple instructions THAT ARE NOT SIMPLE FOR SOMEONE WHO IS DISABLED. my kitchen is covered in milk and a tea cup wound up filled with the chai i had to filter after the simple technique was completed. oh yes. NO CHOCOLATE.

this was my first cup of tea of the day… i have a mess to clean up. i’m annoyed….. i generally don’t like it when my tea annoys.

this time the blend gets numbers and i’m not in the mood to be kind =0|

1) don’t mislead me WHILE
2) inconveniencing me WHILE
3) telling me that if i make a ghastly mess of my kitchen it will all taste better.

i am cross enough i may just call the company on monday. GRRRRRRRRRRR.

MissB must have a JustJames algorithm predictor! this herbal was bang on for me! i’m not a big fan of herbals that pussy foot, i prefer ones with intrigue!

the carrot and apple are beautiful baselines for the blend, sweet, but not imposing, adding depth but no tang…. which is ideal! the rest of the components hold all the kick: the lime, the ginger, even the bamboo holds a bit of an edge.

charming! habit forming.

i think i read that it carries a fairly significant whallop per 100g— honestly i say it’s worth it.

i am confused.

this is supposed to be a teen wolf, tiger’s eye, with cacao nibs added for extra punch tea? adagio…. are you sure?

i smell a non alcoholic poire william. caramelized pear…. the homemade gooey kind of caramel that you have to scrape off, and even when you don’t see it anymore you still leave sticky fingerprints all over, that kind of caramel. and i find the pear to be highly specific as opposed to ‘strange i don’t get that’… a beautifully golden ripe anjou. really not random. also really not teen wolf.

taste: as always no caramel, but it smells lovely! the smell is strong enough that it contributes to the taste, and true enough that it doesn’t smell fake. always nice to have veracity over excessiveness!!

nice and smooth, tasty with xylitol and a bit of cream….. i get no cacao and no dog though….?

thanks MissB!

this was a lovely surprise from one MissB.

okay…. i may have cheated a tad while i was opening the package. it referred to a ‘cake coconut’ flavour. really. honestly, i’ve heard claims like that before but i’ve never found one. i wouldn’t say that the vendor is necessarily trying to be deceitful… but everyone has a different palate and if you’re selling something then hope can get mixed in with flavouring.

truly that was NOT the case this time! it was a light, sweet, very mildly floral coconut cake flavour! the only better i’ve tasted is the blend stacy at butiki made for me personally!

another remarkable element of the tea is that it steeps up to such a brilliantly light colour….. many shades lighter than apple juice. lovely, light, pale, sweet yet somehow complicated cake coconut!

thanks so much to Sil for this one!

red leaf really is a wonder…. i have no clue how they accomplish the nuance of flavours in their matcha without preservatives or sugar.

honestly, this flavour is not my favourite…. the madegascar vanilla has been my favourite so far, but the components of this were very clear! easily a moana loa nut praline! i am hugely impressed.

i wouldn’t buy it…. but red leaf, you have my full attention. this is what i drank on the day of my last exam… the one i sleep walked through? the one i barely remember? somehow, with a fever and sick as a dog i got through with a B+. as far as i’m concerned that’s a 3 way effort: mine, Sil’s and yours, red leaf. because i have no other explanation.

still enjoying these matcha powders with cold milk….

this is an addendum to my review yesterday. ‘james, how many rules can you break with one blend?’ answer: ‘lots!’

1) doubled the leaf
2) doubled the steeping time
3) added some xylitol
4) added some cream

‘but why james? why can’t you just follow instructions?’
‘meh, instructions are overrated…..especially when i want my tea to taste the way it smells!!!’

GOT IT!!

vanilla/mallow blueberry/blackberry black tea. very nice. NOW it gets numbers =0)

http://steepster.com/discuss/6555-dear-steepster-team-dot-dot-dot-happy-holidays-and-thank-you RIGHT OFF THE BAT I THOUGHT I’D LIST A LINK TO A ‘THANK YOU STEEPSTER TEAM’ THREAD. they work unbelievably hard on our behalf for a place that all of us love— tis the season to say a hearty thank you!

it has been MONTHS since my awesome swap with Ysaurella…. you know, the one that changed my whole tea persona? well, THIS blend has been a holdout this whole time. Ysau wrote very clearly on the bag 95 degrees, SHORT STEEP. i did short steeps! several times! i think the problem was not the time, but the temperature. it’s a black tea that wants to be treated as though it’s an oolong!

aha! homo sapien brain succeeds over tea…. wow, that really shouldn’t read as victorious as it does, lol.

very nice feather in the mariage freres cap. this is a jasmined black, but the bend of the two creates a new hybridized tea element. (momentary distraction as i ponder the concept of a periodic table of tea elements….)i taste less jasmine and more pepper, alternating with thyme and mint. quite striking! the base blend doesn’t taste like a back or a green either! instead it’s entirely new.

not happy steeped as a black though, lol. has to be steeped as an oolong. but maybe that’s just in my kitchen… could be a different story in yours.

http://steepster.com/discuss/6555-dear-steepster-team-dot-dot-dot-happy-holidays-and-thank-you RIGHT OFF THE BAT I THOUGHT I’D LIST A LINK TO A ‘THANK YOU STEEPSTER TEAM’ THREAD. they work unbelievably hard on our behalf for a place that all of us love— tis the season to say a hearty thank you!

on to the tea! i have mixed feelings about peaches in tea. WHEN i like them, it’s this way…. always realistically as opposed to fake flavouring… i just prefer a more robust fruit presence. i equate nina’s with carefully balanced red fruit teas or clever citrus sneakiness. this blend just isn’t me.

very smooth. makes me think of the smell of very ripe peaches while someone is smoking something distantly with a sweet wood. clever, just not quite me. =0)

hello, who are you? certainly neither mr. darcy nor elizabeth bennet…. not that that matters, i will strive to evaluate sensibly and without prejudice (just too many opportunities, sorry, well kinda).

Cavocorax has sent me a mystery! dry scent: a blue hued black tea with notes of mallow. twisty mallow though…! very cool. jane austen would be horrified…. i have images of booberry cereal floating through my brain!

i like this! i want a longer steep, and i want to try it with cream…. then i will will add numbers.

i really do get blueberry marshmallow….. let’s see what happens when i break some rules….. =0)

interesting. many years ago i had a recipe for rosemary peach chicken. the first time i made it i scoffed, certain i wouldn’t like it. i was wrong.

for me this is a savoury tea written on a subtly sweet base; unassumptive, unimposing….. almost hard to detect at times.

imagine the sweetest peach steeped with a simple syrup and fresh thyme….. original, quite unique.

thank you MissB!