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I’m taking it easy today, updating various playlists (new music!), and drinking this treat of a tea. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.

I have to be the mood for Genmaicha or I just don’t enjoy it like I should. When I am in the mood for it, though, nothing else will do. The fact that this one taste a lot like a rice krispy treat makes it even better.

Tea of the morning. A few cups of this delicious chai and then I’m off to play outside. It looks like we are finally going to have a sunny, mostly warm day here, and I plan to do as much outside as possible! I think I might even take my third steep of this outside and sit on my porch. Yay spring!!!

If you haven’t tried this tea yet you need to! This is such a yummy chai. Well balanced and full of flavor. Don’t be afraid of the smoke if you aren’t a big smokey tea fan. It really is added with care and a light hand so that it enhances rather than overpowers the great chai flavors.

It’s been a while since I’ve declared my love for this tea. It’s still one of my all time favorites and is in my cup several times during the week. Such a wonderful mix of bergamot and vanilla. Love, love, love!

So this tasting note was from a tea I had on Sunday, but I’ve been sick and way too tired to type up notes. However, I’ve been drinking mugs full of tea as often as possible. Nothing soothes a sore throat like a hot cuppa!

On Sunday I helped to host a baby shower for one of my good friends. It’s her first baby, and she had a lot of family coming in from out of town for the event. The one request to mother-to-be made was for a caramel cake. The week before the shower everything that could go wrong did, and it looked like the cake wasn’t going to happen until one of the other hostesses and her amazing husband said they could make salted caramel cupcakes instead. These sweet people were already making cream puffs and madeleines, so baking cupcakes for 50+ people was a lot to take on. If you can’t tell I’m still incredibly grateful for their baking skills!

Not only did they make them, but they were the most amazing cupcakes ever. They were even more amazing paired with this tea. It was seriously the best tea/food pairing I’ve ever had. The sweet and salty cake next to the rich vanilla tea was so delicious! I had several ladies ask me what the tea was, and when I told them, and that it was decaf, they thought I had read the tin wrong. I actually went into the kitchen and got the tin to show two of the ladies because they wanted to order some. Success! I can’t say it was the highlight of the shower (baby clothes are sooo cute!!!), but it was one of the little moments that made the shower special which is exactly what we wanted for the guest of honor.

After the shower was over I came home and made myself one more cup of this vanilla goodness as a pat on the back for a job well done. The added benefit was that I also got to fall into bed and sleep.

I cold brewed this one last night. I’m not a huge green tea person, but I love this sencha. I love it best cold because it’s an amazing thirst quencher. There is a smooth buttery note from the green tea, and a floral note that is strong but not overwhelming. Yum. I’m going to have to pick up some more of this one. I think it is going to be one of my go-to iced teas again this summer.

Tea of the morning. Lately I’ve been craving plain blacks for my morning tea, but today I thought vanilla sounded good. This one is as nice as ever. Decent vanilla flavor with a good tea base. My daughter was more than happy to grab an extra cup to drink while waiting for the bus. She also asked if I was going to resteep the leaves to make a cold tea for later today. When I told her yes she claimed a cup for after school. And here I thought I was the big tea drinker in the family! :)

This is the second tea I decided to give another go. One of the advantages of being up before the sun is having extra time for the kettle to cool so the water for my white tea is at the correct temperature. I think I rushed this the first time around.

So, after letting the kettle come to a boil and then cool for 25 minutes I steeped the tea, and even while it was steeping I knew I would like it more this time. There was a nice strong coconut scent and a very floral note that smelled fantastic. [Note to self: Try other lychee teas!!] The tea in my cup was darker than I expected (Maybe I under leafed and/or steeped last time?) but the taste was sweet and fruity with the coconut flavor most present at the end of the sip. Nice! Very summer-y, and a tea I can see being fantastic iced.

Thanks VariaTEA for this sample. I’m glad I gave it another try. Bumped up my rating to reflect my current thoughts.

I’ve been awake since 4:30 for what I thought was just a sore muscle in my back, but now I’m wondering if I’m getting a bad cold because I also have a headache and the chills. Not fun.

Since i was awake and in need of something warm to drink I thought I’d play with a couple of teas that I initially didn’t think highly of but thought might be better if I babied them. When I first had this tea I thought I would love it, but it fell flat. I thought I’d give it another go and see if I could eek some more flavor out of it.

Unfortunately, this tea continues to miss the mark. It taste like any generic black peach flavored tea. The Oolong flavor is missing completely. I’m not even sure how that’s possible, but it is. There is also no tropical like flavors to be found. So while this one is entirely drinkable it fails to deliver anything resembling its namesake. Sad sigh.

Another tea gone from my cupboard. This was such a delightfully spicy yet smooth tea. I really enjoyed the depth of the vanilla in contrast with the bright citrus notes. I’m so glad I choose it for my afternoon tea. It was wonderful down to the last sip.

I’m drinking the last of this herbal as a cold brew, and it is very nice. I like the whole sweet/tart mix of flavors. This tea certainly shows off its best side when cold brewed. Something I’ll have to remember if I reorder at a future date.