3 Teas

So this morning i woke up a little early and decided to make a tea lemonade. I set the kettle to steep to 200F and went about my morning routine. I returned and considered steeping a fruit tea but that would take longer than a black tea so i explored my black teas and either the flavor didnt seem like it would go well with lemonade or my sample was too small so i explored my green tea, white tes, and oolong drawer only to pick something and realize the water was too hot. So i ended up with this tea which was an unopened package that came from either Sil or Evol. Thank you to whoever shared it!

Anyways, once I finally settled on this i realized i should have just gone with my fruit tea because i probably wasted more time searching for a tea.

Now that im drinking it, i also wished i went with the fruit tea because really there is a reason this package was unopened. I dont love bergamot and i dont love Lavender and here i have both and it tases quite soapy. Its cold and lemonade-y which is nice but the flavor isnt the best. Sometimes i convince myself something will taste better than i know it will and this is one of those times.

If you like these flavors, this might be the combo for you but for me its a big nope.

Also, sorry for the crappy spelling and grammar. Im writing this at work on my phone and the usual autocorrections that allow me to be lazy, i.e. capitalizing “I” and adding apostrophes, has decided to stop working.

You would think this would be a harsh taste pairing, but no, it is magnificent.

Another tasting for the tea festival.

A note here about labelling on packaging. Perhaps this is a fiddly thing, perhaps not.

On the packet, on the header 3 Teas is written thus, 3teas. The website is written like this: www.3-teas.com. And finally, at the end of the steeping instructions on the packet, we are informed that this tea is packaged by 3 Teas in Burlington, Ontario.

To make clear what I am on about here, the company is written 3teas, 3-teas, 3 Teas on one single packet.

Excuse me, not only does this drive me crazy but also it is challenging to log this tea on Steepster, or anywhere else with any accuracy, resulting in multiple listings for the same company/product here and there.

End rant.

That said, the freshly opened packet of dry leaf smells divine.

My steeped tea is still cooling. That’s all I’ve got for now. To be continued.

Steeped tea smells divine. It tastes pretty much like it smells. A bit sharp from the florals, but also beautifully blended. Not one false note. No hint of imitation anything.
That said, the flavours do not tend to fall into my list of preferences. I am enjoying this cup, but it is not something that I would often reach for.

Surprisingly, dark chocolate goes very nicely with this. Never would have imagined that combination, but it works. Really really well, even. And yet another pairing discovery—this tea and coconut. Works well, really well.

I bought this at the 2016 tea festival. Since then, I’ve cooked maybe half a dozen dishes with it. Mostly chicken. The stuff is potent! Only a third of the tin has been used up. Amazing value!! Mind you it doesn’t need much. Half a teaspoon is more than enough for a typical dish. I use it to accent, not as a main attraction :P
When I run out, I hope to buy the lemon green version (already bought it but gave it away as a gift! I’m not sure if they tried it out yet, but it smells heavenly).
The best part? Very little salt!! So if you want more salt, simply add it yourself. Seriously. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that aspect. Far too many rubs out there are salt heavy. That factor alone is why I hadn’t bought any rubs previously.

Today I made vegetable soup, and despite some people not liking smoked tea (or smoked anything) it was a big hit. I had a feeling it would pair really well with a beef base. I marinated the sauce in olive oil on my stove for a few… sauteed a bunch of veggies in the saucepan, and then added water/the base. Will be trying it again with a cream based soup of some kind. Also paired super well with the onions so I may make an onion sauce one of these days. Oh and I sprinkled in some chili flakes. Perfection.
I’m not a fan of stringy meat, but if you enjoy roast beef or brisket, I’m sure it would go really well that way!
And yes. Pulled pork is my nightmare haha

I’m drinking the last of three infusions now.
This is pretty good! A little sweeter than I was hoping for. Super sweet really. Somewhere between molasses and sugarcane. I’ve seen this type of sugary note before in Lapsang, although this is the strongest I’ve seen yet. Maybe I’ll try making some kind of dessert with it someday. Or whiskey cocktail.
Today… I wanted a more robust tea, since I bought it with the idea of mixing it with the pine tea I bought from Algonquin teas. Trying it solo first so that I can see what flavours come from where.
Not much change from one cup to the next, other than getting a bit lighter.
Second infusion I accidentally left for quite some time, and it didn’t get bitter at all. That was a bonus :)

noms. Farewell delicious tea…may we meet again since i DO love me a good creamsicle like tea…especially when it’s herbal!

Had this one the other night. Still enjoying the vanilla and orange combo but sad that i’m getting near the end of this. I don’t have a lot of fruit herbals in my cupbaord so i need to get drinking up some of the samples i have so that i can place a small order when the warmer weather hits!

NOMS….

that is all…time to go back to the daily grind.

My order from YS finally showed up…less than 3 months from time of order but more than 2. So now i have another 400g or so added to my cupboard. Time to get drinking! On the upside, one tea i picked up was one evol let me try so i’m glad that it arrived :) Had this one today…what a crazy day!

No sipdowns lately…super busy week. I had to condense 5 days in to 3…but that means TWO DAYS OFF BABY! (and then my regular weekend days too!). Super excited to have some free time to just relax, watch tv, have a nice evening in the hotel courtesy of work..paint the house…but mostly…relax! wheee!

Picked this one up at the Toronto tea festival this past weekend and i’m happy that i did. As Kittenna pointed out, i have an obsession with all teas that are creamsicle like in nature. I have to say that this one is pretty decent. As a herbal, it’s nice to drink something that isn’t all about being “berry like” (al la red berry variety) while there is a citrus component to it, it just enhances the orange flavour. The vanilla brings out a little of the sweetness and turns it in to a creamy delight. My only complaint is that i wish it was a little more intense. That aside, super happy i decided to try this based on the smell and that it didn’t disappoint. Of course, now i wish i’d picked up more! haha

Final Count: 114

This tea won first place in the White tea category at the tea festival. I’m not really a lavender fan, in fact it can make me kinda ill in moderate quantities (literally spent the day in bed once because of it). Most lavender smells like a noxious chemical, to me.

Anyhow I’m telling you that for context, so that when I say it really is delicious, well, that is saying something. Very few lavender things can get past my picky nose!
The sample cup I tried was light and refreshing. I almost went back for more. Almost.

This tea is no longer carried by 3 Teas, but it’s a pretty nice black tea blend with a wonderful aroma. Glad I brought as much as I did as it’s a nice tea to relax with.

I’m nearing the end of my tin. There is about a third left. Maybe less. So not enough for me to justify buying another, but close enough that I’m concerned!! ack. I love this tea. And I don’t wanna be without it or something similar in my cupboard. The tea festival, where I bought this, is coming up in two weeks. sighs. looks like I won’t be replacing it there…

Yes I hate licorice in blends, esp the health/feel better types. But straight up? yeah that gets me. No idea why. I’d love to find a green tea version one day.
And yes, since this is a chai cousin in my eyes, I do add milk Sil :D

I bought this at the tea festival hoping to find a replacement for the Butiki licorice chai I love. Except after searching for so long(and thanks for all the licorice! sorry, couldn’t resist) of course it didn’t need to be chai, just licorice! I have a chai sugar that I can add to it when I want so I do have some options :)
Anyhow. Opening the tin, I didn’t find much of a scent. Vague herbally licorice followed by a basic black tea aroma. I wasn’t put off though, as I know how potent licorice is.
After steeping for three min, I added milk and maybe a third tsp of sugar.
The verdict? Yum. A great balance between the tea and licorice. I’m also loving that medicinal tingle on my tongue. Oh also, the licorice part does evolve as the cup cools. It has more of an anise and fennel influence when hot, and a straight licorice/fennel note as it cools. I’m really liking it.
Next time, I’ll try it with my chai sugar :)

Disclaimer: The lovely person who owns 3Teas was in a bunch of my tea classes. And you know what, I can honestly say that this review isn’t biased at all! it really is delish.

This one is also better cold-brewed. It’s still pretty much all hibiscus tartness… if anything, I’m getting even less of the peach scent than I did with the hot tea. But the tartness seems to work better as a cold drink. And the colour is pretty awesome. Now I want to try cold-brewing everything in my cupboard that has hibiscus in it. :)

Third one! It’s a herbal tea with hibiscus in the name, which doesn’t exactly bode well. The dry tea smells really good, actually – strongly peach-flavoured, maybe a bit more peach candy than fresh peaches. The brewed tea has the same peachy scent, as well as the classic pink-red hibiscus colour. It tastes… tart! Yeah, pretty strong hibiscus in there. Now it’s kind of reminding me of sour peach candies. :) I don’t hate it, but I think I’d like it better if the hibiscus weren’t overpowering the whole blend.

I cold steeped this one overnight, and I definitely like it better this way. It’s still mostly peppermint, and I have to really concentrate to taste the ginger and green tea, but it feels a little bit more balanced. And cold steeped, it’s more just pleasantly refreshing as opposed to overwhelmingly minty. I strained it through a small kitchen strainer into my glass, and there’s a bunch of little bits/debris that settled to the bottom, which is a bit annoying but mostly just means I’m not going to drink the last 20-30ml. Note to self: strain through something finer next time. Bumping up my rating a bit because it’s actually pretty pleasant this way, though I’m still not sure it’s substantially different from straight peppermint.

Well I like all the component parts of this tea, but not sure how I feel about putting them all together. Guess we’ll see! Dry leaf smells like peppermint. As it steeps, it still smells mostly like peppermint, though I can detect the ginger if I really focus. Tasting, peppermint is still the predominant flavour, though I can taste a bit of the green tea base in there. I’m not really getting much ginger at all (and there were definitely ginger pieces in the tea I steeped). Maybe at the lower temps needed for the green tea, the ginger flavours don’t really come out as much? Anyway, it’s fine, but if I wanted to drink something that tastes like peppermint tea, I would probably just make peppermint tea.

So the latest (and my last) Postal Teas box included teas from this company. I’m pretty puzzled, since black licorice is definitely one of those polarizing flavours that some people just always hate. So why would you include it in a subscription box? Unless you’re not trying to entice people to your brand so much as you’re trying to get rid of old stock that’s not selling.

Anyway. I’m one of those people who do like black licorice so this is something that might work for me, but the smell of the dry tea is… odd. And the smell of the steeped tea is… still odd. Definitely a bit licorice-y, but not a lot. The taste is… like, I can taste what I’m coming to think of as “generic cheap ceylon base tea”, and I can taste the licorice root (which doesn’t actually taste anything like black licorice), and there’s this sort of… old, musty, herbal tea kind of flavour. And there’s some astringency building up in my mouth. Nope, do not like.