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Back to the land of good tea! Yay!

I was at a work conference last week at a beautiful, but remote, training center in West Virginia. The food service was pretty good, but I knew that, most likely, the tea available would be Lipton. I was right, but they did have some Tazo tea…a slight step up, but only slight, haha! I brought some of my bagged black teas with me, and even some 52teas marshmallow genmaicha with portable teabags. On the latter, my coworker resteeped the bag I steeped…I think she was desperate for some green tea! Haha! All they had was black and chamomile.

Anyway, I mostly enjoyed my Northwest Breakfast tea from Market Spice, but I did have a sample of this tea from one of the monthly newsletters. It’s kinda too bad I drank it there, because all that I remember was that it was better than most of the tea available, but that’s good, right? ;)

Glad to be back!

Wow! This has to be the best non-black dessert tea I’ve ever had! Yum!! I’ve been looking for one too, and I guess I just found it! Woohoo!

It reminds me of this amazing panettone that my mom used to get from Williams Sonoma, imported from Italy, that had roasted glazed chestnuts. It was amazing with butter! I loved having a nice thick slice of that panettone for breakfast. Unfortunately, they changed brands or something and it’s not the same. But now I have this tea!

All this tea needs is butter, and it would be perfect! I know, I’ll have it paired with buttered toast! That’ll do it! That would probably offset the sweetness of this tea a bit too, which would be a good thing, because I honestly think I’m on a sugar high from this tea! Whee!!

It has a great chestnut and caramel flavor…totally sugary. I think I need more of this tea in my cupboard!! I also have to say, I’ve been pretty impressed with the teas from Tealux. I’ll definitely be ordering from them again.

This tea is really interesting. Definitely not what I expected, but still good.

When I first smelled the dry leaf, I totally noticed the peppercorns, but it was a little butterscotchy. I thought, what a weird tea!

I steeped some up today. I actually resteeped it too.

The package recommended 194 degrees for 3-4 minutes, but that didn’t match up with how I thought a white tea should be brewed, so I did my first steep at 140 degrees for 2 minutes. This resulted in a slightly weak cup, with the dominant flavor being peppercorn. I could taste a little cinnamon too, but to me, it was like they were trying to make butterscotch flavor with a combination of other flavors and it didn’t quite make it. Not sure if they actual put butterscotch flavoring in, but it does say there is added flavoring.

The resteep was different. I decided to go with the package directions, and it resulted in stronger flavor, and a darker brew. What was interesting was I got a lot more cinnamon and the peppercorn was toned down somewhat.

Still not sure it is really butterscotch, although I may have messed up the flavoring with my first steeping. Overall, it’s pretty good, and warming. Good with a little sweetener to make it more dessert-like. I can imagine this being very cozy when the weather is cold, unlike today. Ha!

This is the saddest sipdown I’ve had so far! I really love this tea and now it’s gone. And unless Frank reblends it, I’ll never get to enjoy it again! Nooooo! I was thinking about hoarding the last cup, but I really wanted to enjoy it, so enjoy it, I did! Please reblend this, Frank!!

Man. I just can’t do it guys. I guess pu-erh is not for me.

I’m not having a great tea day either. I started the morning trying a new assam, but used my steeper which was heavily tainted with the scent of my huckleberry tea, so it infused a perfume-y huckleberry flavor into the assam. Gonna try that one again before I review it because I really wasn’t tasting the true flavor of that tea. Then I tried this tea, and ick! I hate to say that about any tea, but I just can’t stomach these pu-erhs. The last pu-erh I tried tasted like leather to me, and this one has that flavor. It’s a major turn-off to me. I tried to focus on the coconut and cocoa nib flavor, but couldn’t get past the leather. It also seemed to have like a peppercorn spiciness, which I also didn’t like. I admit, I dumped most of it.

I just don’t understand pu-erhs. I’ve had the Lupicia chocolate strawberry one, and it didn’t really taste much different to me than a black tea. And I LOVE the sTEApshoppe cinnamon swirl bread tea, but then again it is a blend with black tea, I guess. I feel like maybe I should stop trying since I could spend the money on stuff I am more likely to enjoy. I really wanted to like all forms of tea though. Humph!

After I opened and smelled all the little packages of tea I got in the mail last night, I couldn’t help but put some of this tea straight into an overnight cold brew. I picked this tea up even though I’m not really into herbal teas. The combination sounded good for iced tea and the name is adorable! This actually has rooibos in it, but the large pieces of fruit take over. I had to dig deep to come up with the rooibos at the bottom of the bag. I also had a bit of a tea steeping malfunction, as I spooned/dumped (can’t really spoon this tea with the big fruit pieces) into my infuser that goes with my glass steeper. After I did that, I realized it has rooibos, which doesn’t stay in that infuser since the holes are too big. So, I transferred the dry leaf into a paper filter, only to change my mind and decide to just steep the tea directly in the water with the intent to strain it after it steeped. I wanted to make sure that anything that might dissolve had the full opportunity!

It cold-brewed for about 10 hours. It smells like that banana, orange juice you can buy at the grocery store, but it tastes a lot more delicate. I get banana, citrus, and coconut. Pretty nice, actually. Not getting a lot of rooibos, which is okay by me. It’s actually quite refreshing! I think I would definitely consider getting more of this tea. The only bad thing is that you don’t get a lot of tea for the weight of it, due to the huge fruit pieces.

BAM! Now THIS is what I call a chocolate tea!!!

Got my first Tealux order in the mail last night…super quick shipping, btw! I couldn’t believe how big the sample sizes were…probably almost 1 oz! I ordered more than a sample size of this tea, I think because the sample size wasn’t available, but I’m so glad I did! Now for some context, I’ve been struggling with chocolate flavored teas. They just never meet my expectations…most taste a bit chemical, or there’s hardly any flavor at all. Some chocolate teas use cocoa nibs, and I never really get chocolate flavor from those. Cocoa shells seem to be better. Overall, I’ve been disappointed.

This tea, however, is IMO the mother of all chocolate teas! Yes! That is what I said!!

I even brewed this at work in the stupid microwave and it was fantastic!

So, once i brewed it up, this tea smelled exactly like hot cocoa. My coworker confirmed this, so it’s not just me! It also tasted exactly like hot cocoa! Amazing!! I thought it was weird that it had yogurt bits in it, but they must do something to make this tea work, so I’m not complaining! I enjoyed this with milk and sugar, btw, because that’s how I do things!

I’m so happy with this tea. The search for a good chocolate tea can end now. Not gonna even waste my time with the ones I don’t like now, because I know there’s something better! I can’t wait to try my other Tealux teas, because if they’re as good as this one, I’m in for a treat!!

I picked some of this up in teabag form when I was in Washington a couple weekends ago, and I have to say it’s a pretty good standard black tea. Good for first thing in the morning. It’s a little better quality than your usual black tea in teabags…I think because there is more depth to the flavor, perhaps since it is a blend of black teas. I’ve had it a couple of times, and have enjoyed it. Leaving this one and the huckleberry tea at work, since bagged teas make life easier at work!

We had a fabulous day yesterday in Carmel and Monterey. We decided we would escape the heat and drive down to the coast for the day! It was so cool, like 64 degrees, which was a huge change from our previous day in Davis, where it was like walking through a furnace at 104 degrees. Anyway, we had a blast shopping around Carmel, and eating at some amazing places. We found our new favorite Italian restaurant in Carmel, called Little Napoli…food was amazing! I had a gnocchi dish and they were like little pillows with Gorgonzola cheese melted on top! Yum!!! I also picked up a cute new hat, kind of 1920s inspired!

I was also excited to stop by the Tea Rose shop, which was closed the last time we were in Carmel. I had read she carried Harney & Sons teas, and I knew she had some cute teaware, but she said she recently went to a tea expo, and picked up a bunch of stuff, and I found the Octavia Tea Company teas in her shop as well. Never heard of them before. Of course I had to try them out. I picked up a tin of this tea, since it sounded unique. I mean, I’ve seen English breakfast, and Irish breakfast, and even Scottish breakfast, but not French breakfast. Plus, I like the idea of a vanilla, caramel, rose black tea. The tins are a little funny though. Remind me of a deodorant stick in shape! Haha! It was a little pricey for 3oz., but I figured I was in Carmel (instant rate hike) and the tea is organic, so I went for it. I looked up the company online, and yes, she had hiked the price up by $2.50, but I suppose she needs to make some profit! It does seem like a lot though…like a 17% hike. I made a comment about checking them out online, and I don’t think she appreciated it…ha! You do save on shipping though, by getting it at her shop.

Of course I had to have a cup this morning. This tea did not disappoint! I was happy to see the tea was sealed up fresh in a foil pouch within the tin. When I opened it, the dry leaf smelled like vanilla and rose. Brewed up, it tastes like vanilla, caramel, and rose black tea! Perfect! I steeped it at 195 degrees for 3 minutes, since the instructions said something about letting boiling water cool a bit. This turned out to be a great cup, with no astringency…of course, I added soy milk and sugar too! So I’m super satisfied, and will probably be ordering sample sizes online to try more of this company!! ;)

This tea has totally become a “go to” morning tea for me. I think when it’s hot I’m more likely to go for a fruity tea, and this one combines fruit and pastry perfectly. I also really like this particular black tea base. Sadly, I’m down to one cup worth left in the little bag! I hope Frank reblends it!