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I received this is this month’s Hapa-tite tea swap from my paired swap-buddy KittyLovesTea thanks Kayleigh! I actually received the package probably a week ago, and have tried several of the teas included but have been too busy to review any. I also have to send mine off (sorry, Kayleigh) which should be done today. I mentioned in my last post that life is kinda hectic at the moment, and annoyingly it still is. I have to write 2000 words by Monday, and then another 2000 by the next day, as I totally forgot I’m going away for a week and won’t be back until the essay deadline! So yeah, panic mode. I’m making a little time to write this up, though, because A) I wanted to thank Kayleigh for my package (which was totally amazing – so many wishlist teas I can now tick off!! Thank you!!) and B) as it was a sipdown which I actually had yesterday, and I don’t want to leave it so long I forget what it was like.

When opening the package, this really intrigued me, as I’ve never seen anything like it before. For some reason I had it in my head that it would be sort of sour, or salty almost, so I decided to have it as my wake-up tea. This turned out to be a complete misjudgement, as the tea is in fact thick, with a little touch of sweetness, and very very buttery. A little too rich for my not-quite-awake-yet stomach, but my tastebuds sure did appreciate it. The dry mix smells sweet, which should have been my first clue, and the liquor, which I expected to come out a dark brown (I seriously have no idea where I got any of this from) actually came out at a creamy light browny yellow – pretty much like a standard British cuppa with a lot of milk added. I drank this plain, and it was sweet enough as is to not need sugar, and so thick that I think adding milk to it would be as bizarre a thing to do as adding it to a green tea.

Other than what I’ve already said, I can’t seem to find the words to explain the taste. It is so very unlike anything I’ve had before that the only thing which I can find to say is that it’s buttery, which goes without saying! The other flavours and notes are new to me, and I am very glad to have had the chance to try such an unusual yet tasty tea. Who knows – perhaps at some point in time I may find myself purchasing some of this. If I came across it in a shop, I would definitely be more likely to pick some up now I know what it’s like.

A very enjoyable, if surprising, cup. Thanks again, KittyLovesTea!

Hmm…
I will write a proper tasting note for this one from my swap with variaTEA when I can do it justice. For now, it was poor and totally my fault as I fudged it up.

It smelled very strongly of apples in the packet, with a creamy hint which I suppose came from the vanilla. Almost like Adagio/Cara’s Ten blend (Doctor Who) only without the coconut. Brewed, the peachiness came through more than the apples and it smelled very juicy. HOWEVER I got distracted and alas, totally forgot about it for over half an hour, with the leaves still steeping in the cup in my little brew basket. I was so annoyed with myself when I remembered, as I was so looking forward to this!! It also turns out I underleafed, so the flavour was weak as well as bitter. I am planning on using the rest of the sample to very carefully prepare a cup exactly as it should be, as I want to enjoy it as it should be enjoyed.

Although it was bitter, I didn’t have to dump the cup – I added a teaspoon of sugar which mellowed it out a little, and was able to enjoy the fruity flavours in the aftertaste, after each bitter sip. The bitterness was just bearable enough, thankfully! Near the end of the cup, I added a touch of almond milk, out of curiousity, which didn’t turn out anywhere near as good as it sounded in my head. It kind of curdled a little, and the flavours seemed to remain separate in my mouth, too – first bitterness, followed by fruits, followed by a faint almond hint which ruined the overall aftertaste in my opinion. I think it would be good without sugar, too, but wasn’t able to tell this time due to the bitterness. My rating reflects the way I drank it with sugar before adding the almond milk as it was the most enjoyable, but I am sure the rating will increase massively when I manage to brew it properly without breaking it.

I am so angry with myself for overbrewing. I may have to find a way to acquire more (read: place a Nina’s order) as punishment. Yep. That’s what I’ll do.

I have not posted a tasting note for TEN DAYS! :O
I am so ashamed. I apologize profusely, even though I’m sure most of you don’t care. Life has been just crazy lately (and will continue to be for the next month or so) and I just haven’t been able to find the time for Steepster, which is so sad. I have been drinking a lot of teas, I just haven’t had time to blog about it what with uni work and all, followed by my internet giving up on me for like 4 days (which was hell) followed by yet more uni work which I am now panicking about! I am definitely going to make an effort to post on Steepster if and when I get any free time, though, as I’ve missed it so much! Plus I really don’t want to lose touch with what’s going on.

Anyway, to the tea.
I received this a few days back in a package from VariaTEA which contained the Celestial Seasonings tea she so kindly sent me, as well as a bunch of samples, of which this was one. I meant to come on here and thank her right away, but as I said, life got in the way. The whole package smelled of apples and cinnamon, so I searched for the source (this) which smelled so heavenly I had to brew it up. It reminded me of an apple pie slice, and brewed smells exactly like apple strudel. I had high hopes for it, but still didn’t believe that the taste could live up to the smell. I am pleased to report, however, that it did, and has earned its place amongst my absolute favourite teas. I wish I had more of this, as the sample was only enough for two cups, but I’m sure I can use this as an excuse to place an order with Della Terra in the future!

Sweet enough to not need any additives – I added half a teaspoon of sugar after a few mouthfuls and regretted it. Definitely best plain. This tea is delicate and juicy and ridiculously tasty, with the spices and sweetness perfectly matching with the apple flavour so much that I would basically kill for a slice of hot apple strudel right now. I bet this would be great iced in the summer, and may have to try that if I manage to get my hands on any more of it.

So so yummy.

This is my first time trying a genmaicha, and I am very much looking forward to trying and comparing Kittylovestea ’s genmaicha from the Traveling Tea Box when it gets to me! (:

At first, I did not care for this at all. It both smelled and tasted exactly like a toasted rice cereal (I can’t think why…) from my childhood, which I absolutely hated. The smell was bugging me because it reminded me so much of something that I couldn’t place, and as soon as I first sipped it I figured it out. Blech. Only the reason I didn’t like the cereal was that it was just toasted rice, with no additional flavours and no sweetness. It was just so bland. This tea is different, though – grassy, deep green tea flavour with the toasted rice background adding a lovely warmth to it, and an almost floral aftertaste which I can detect, too. I don’t think it was the flavour of the toasted rice in itself that I didn’t like, because I like it just fine in this.

If anything, I would have preferred a little more green tea, as it wasn’t too strong a flavour and in the bag, there was roughly a 50/50 split between tea and rice.

Overall, I enjoyed this as a pleasant lunchtime tea, although I could tell it was rice rather than corn, and wouldn’t market it as ‘popcorn’ tea as I think it is a little misleading, and doesn’t actually taste much like popcorn. It grew on me throughout the cup, and by the end I was wishing I had a couple more bags. I can’t wait for the TTB to try the version Kitty has made!

Sipdown. Kind of. My local teashop sells single bags of teapigs tea, as they have a Café upstairs which you can buy them from. I bought just one of these to try, as I had previously had Yerba maté a grand total of once (in Bluebird’s Morning Kick blend) and I’m not so sure I could taste it at all in that. So out of curiosity, and the need of energy, I brewed it up this morning. As frequently happens, I forgot about my cup and let it brew for about 20 minutes. I don’t know if it was a product of this oversteeping, but I found this tea incredibly astringent, which I was not expecting from a blend without black or green tea in it. It was also very earthy, and reminded me of a pu’erh.

The flavour changed up as the cup cooled, getting less earthy and a little more perfume-y, although not in a floral way. The astringency didn’t let up at all, but it wasn’t too bad with the overall flavour, considering I’m not a fan of astringency at all, and prefer a smooth cup.

This wasn’t exciting enough to drink on it’s own, and not too pleasant although not awful either. I don’t dislike it enough to avoid blends which use it, but I wouldn’t choose to drink it plain again.

Yummy bedtime sipdown. My daddy works away a lot, and one time brought me back several sachets of tea he snuck out of his hotel room, this being one of them. The envelope just says ‘cranberry and raspberry’ but I’m pretty sure I can both smell and taste elderflower in there. The cranberry is very present in the smell, but I cannot taste it at all. I made Frank taste it too as he is more versed in cranberry than I am, but he couldn’t taste it either. I’m not complaining, though, as I’m not a huge fan of cranberry if I remember righty, although this would be disappointing for a cranberry fan. Instead, it has a mainly ‘red berries and elderflower’ taste, which is quite delicious, and the raspberry taste can be picked out pretty easily. Not too tart, either, making it easy to sip on.

I enjoyed this, and would have liked a couple more sachets, but not enough to buy an entire pack. Sipdown.

In my last tasting note on this, I said it wouldn’t be a chore to finish the remaining teabags. I have changed my mind. It’s not that the tea has gotten worse – it’s still an average, basic rooibos which is inoffensive to the tastebuds – it’s just that my tea collection has expanded ridiculously over the last couple of weeks (thanks to Hapatite and MissB mainly, as well as a slight indiscretion on my part in a tea shop yesterday) and I want to drink all of those instead of these.

I flash-iced two bags of this last night as I was incredibly thirst and needed something to gulp. Also my tea habit means that tea is the only available drink in the house. Two teabags in 1/3 of a mug of boiling water for around 5 minutes, topped up with water as cold as I could run. The smell is amazingly honey-like, but unfortunately this is not reflected in the taste, which is a one-note woodsy flavour. A good choice to drink iced quickly when you can’t really taste what you’re drinking much, as I wouldn’t want to waste my good tea this way! I was also curious to try an iced rooibos, and it was better than expected.

Still have better teas by a long margin, and am now quite bored of this. Not going to mark it down, though, as my ratings are based on the best experience and this was definitely not it.

I am currently enjoying my first ever matcha(ccino) courtesy of my mystery box from MissB! I’d first like to say that she was brilliant with it, and very generous and I’m sure she must have scrolled through my wishlist to pick out all of the teas I wanted, including this one, when I didn’t even ask her to. So thanks, MissB!

I’d secondly like to say that this is completely delicious and where has it been all my life?! I made it up this morning as soon as I was dressed (after having hopped out of bed half an hour earlier than I usually manage at the thought of trying this) using 250ml of cold milk and 14g of matcha powder, which I whisked in a jug and then poured into a glass. I underleafed and overmilked (?) ever so slightly, because I had a feeling that I would love it and even an extra mouthful would be appreciated. Which it was. The caramelly taste is lovely, and just sweet enough that you don’t need added sugar – MissB added a note saying that this is pre-sweetened, and for me, they’ve got it just right. There is a slight grassy undertone which i can detect at the end of the sip if I really think about it, but as I’ve never had matcha before I don’t quite know what I’m looking for.

I have enough matcha left to make one more drink before it’s gone, and on one hand I really want to try this as a hot latte, but on the other, it’s so good as it is that I don’t want to risk it! So torn.

A great way to start my day, particularly when I can’t stomach eating so early on, and also need a caffeine hit to wake me up. I can’t believe that a) this is actually healthy, and b) that I wasn’t drinking a really expensive smoothie! Thanks so much for sending me some of this, MissB, it looks like I’ll be ordering from Red Leaf pretty shortly!

I drank this with the last of my cream, and it was heavenly. Smooth, thick, creamy chocolate like the best hot chocolate in the world. A real chilli kick behind it too, along with the spices, especially the ginger, to remind you that it’s a chai and not just a common hot chocolate. This was truly decadent, and the best way to drink this tea so far. The spices play around and seem to change up a bit, tasting slightly different in each mouthful. The chocolate taste is somehow more ‘real’ and present than in a lot of chocolate teas I’ve tried, and the chilli kick is also a lot more powerful than I was expecting. I did have one bad mouthful – somewhere around the half-way point of my mug, I got a mouthful which was very strongly cardamom, a flavour I don’t really like. This was a shock, as although it is present in a lot of chais, it usually just complement the other flavours. This was like a full on cardamom whack to the face, and took me a minute or two to steel myself enough to drink any more (which thankfully did not have the same strong cardamom punch). My favourite way to drink this chai so far, although I’m now thinking I should do it as a latte.

Apologies for the probably incoherent and definitely rambling tasting note – I wrote the first couple of lines hours ago, and it’s now almost 3AM and I’m super tired but can’t sleep. I hate it when my brain does that.

A side note – my mystery box from MissB arrived today! I didn’t expect to see it yet so was happily surprised, and then even more so when I saw the contents (which basically consisted of all wishlist items). Bonny has put so much thought into it I was really touched, and seriously felt like a kid at Christmas opening all my new teas and inspecting and sniffing each one. I’ve already tried a few of the teas I received, and will review some tomorrow hopefully. I was planning to today, but I’m too tired to do it justice.

I got this in my recent swap with Hapatite

I made this as I wanted something sweet , and also wanted to not break my diet. Looking at the ingredients, this seemed to fit the bill – nice and fruity, with liquorice root which I hoped would make it sweet enough not to require sugar.

Dry, it smells… Nice. Not of too much, just nice. Vaguely fruity but I’m not sure I can pick out the pomegranate just yet. It could just be that it’s been a while since I had pomegranate. Steeping, the fruity smell is wonderful, and I can definitely pick out the pomegranate now.

The pomegranate is initially lost again in the sip – I taste fruits, maybe like a berry and apple drink, but no pomegranate. If I concentrate, I can tell the pomegranate is there, but it doesn’t shine through as the dominant flavour. I might actually make a comparison between the initial flavour and the filling of an apple and blackberry pie. It’s also a little tart, which is okay, but not as sweet as I’d expected with the liquorice root. The pomegranate taste does come through in the aftertaste, though, which is purely pomegranate.

I’m glad I got to try this, but my curiosity is now satisfied and I’m not sure I like it enough to buy more. If it was on offer at, say, a meeting, I wouldn’t turn it down. Sipdown.