52teas

Sweet baby Jesus on a pogostick! I can’t even begin to describe the waking nightmare I had yesterday when I gave my notice to my soon-to-be ex-boss (and it’s continued into today via emails). I’ll leave it at that.

I’m not a chocolate fan, but after the horrendous 48 hours I needed something that felt like a treat (and that wasn’t alcoholic). And here’s my nummy Chocolate Mint tea to the rescue! The mint seems to be almost biting in its aroma today – it could be because my kettle went up to boiling (I’d meant for it to stay just under). And the bonus stress that’s been heaped onto everything else is probably warping my tea experiences again. But lordy, is this hitting the spot. NE

Again, sorry that I’ve been so sporradic in regarding to posting and reading/commenting. Let me assure you that I plan on getting back into the swing of things again — I just need to survive the next several weeks (at least that’s what I’m telling myself). I’ve truly enjoyed escaping into all your notes when I’ve had the time — it’s been a great way to decompress, so thank you all :)

My first 52teas order arrived yesterday — woohoo!!!!! I was too pooped from work and had so many other things to catch up on that I decided to wait until today to start steepin’ (but you can bet your sweet bippy that I opened them all last night and sniffed the leaves). Yummy!

So, I bet you’re looking at the tea that I’m rating and giving me the hairy eyeball. I know what y’all must be thinking: “but she goes on and on about how she doesn’t like chocolate, and yet she buys a big honkin’ 4 oz tin of this?!?! She cray-zay!” Yes, I am, as I think you’re thinking “cray-zay.” I actually really like Girl Scout Thin Mints — they’re sort of in their own realm of chocolate. But then again they’re not available year round, so that makes them more of a treat. I generally prefer my chocolate mixed with other things such as peanut butter, mint, cookies, caramel, etc (never chunky nuts — blech). But even then I can only do a little at a time and then I’m good for at least a month or more in regard to consuming chocolate. So, I think that my tin of this should last well over a year. Well, unless my Mom steals it from me.

This tea truly is like a liquid Thin Mint. It’s sort of like having a smooth black tea while eating a box of those cookies. Like you’ve just swallowed your cookie and then quickly taken a sip of tea. NOM!

This tea also helped me stop crying after a second mystery Samovar package showed up today. It turned out to be my original order that had been mis-handled. I thought that the original package would be sent to me — apparently not. This original box that I received today (2 days after sending out the Geek Prizes almost a week late) has the super-special prize for the Geek Pride grand prize winner placed in a nice gift box whereas the replacement shipment had everything thrown in and individually wrapped up in TONS of bubble wrap (you’ll eventually see Cait — again I apologize). The boxed item takes up about a third of the space of what I sent out to Cait. I was moved to angry tears because I was so very excited to place my first Samovar order and it has turned into such a nightmare. I don’t plan on ever repeating this nightmare ever again — I didn’t spend this much money to get so much grief. I’m awaiting a response from Samovar to see what on earth I’m supposed to do with this box that I don’t want and I’m angry that I have to deal with it. At least I wasn’t double-charged because I couldn’t afford that (my car payment would have bounced). If that had happened, then you would’ve seen Rabs really really mad.

Sorry for the venting, but it does come back around to my conclusion:

All of this frustration seemed to melt away once I sent off my email to Samovar and I was able to concentrate on this wonderful tea. I’m definitely tickled pink with Frank’s customer service and free shipping. The thought of spending my money (and knowing how much further it’ll go) at places like 52teas gives me hope in my tea future. TG

Last cup today. Goodbye Malted ChocoMate, I will miss you – although I will not miss you not coming up in search because I don’t know how to write e’s with accent marks above them.

I’ve got maybe one more serving to go after this one. I will miss you malted chocomate. I was thinking of getting more, but I have decided that life (and money) is too short to go around repeating teas unless they are a particularly delicious Earl Grey (:P) Considering that basically every time I receive the 52teas newsletter I want what’s in it…it’s time to seize the day! or the tea! That’s right! (are you ready for it?

it’s gonna be bad…

better mentally prepare now….

I’ll give you a few more seconds…

ok, time’s up!)

Carpe Tea-em!

Starting off my bday with a celebratory cup of malted chocomate! How is it different then my normal morning cup of malted chocomate…it’s not! MWAHAHAHAHA
Ah, malted chocomate, truly you are the best morning tea. I am going to be so sad when I run out of you in…oh…two days or so :(

Busy day full of apartment hunting yesterday so backlogging now!

Mmmm, delicious morning ChocoMate. I love you so. Is this in the permanent collection yet?

Oh breakfast cup of malted chocomate, TOO LONG have we been separated! The days without your roasted chocolateyness waking me up have felt like years!

But alas, I regret to say that you are not first in my mind at this wonderful moment. That, sadly, is reserved for my Ingenuitea. Oh IngenuiTea, you are SO CONVENIENT. I have missed you!

I feel you all should know that the best part of waking (best being a relative term of course) is malted chocomate in my cup.

Back to this for my morning tea. mmm, delicious chocolatey morning wake up call.

Particularly chocolatey spoonful today apparently! Perfect start to a morning dedicated to finishing a paper due at noon!

Tried this with a short steep time today to see what it was like. Looks like I like it most with the shortest and the longest steeping time! It’s a little weird because a lot of the other people said 7 was the sweet spot and I totally didn’t get that at all. Maybe I’m just doing it to be contrary.

Hmm I just noticed that 52teas (Frank? I guess it’s Frank, but I feel weird calling him that. That’s just me though. After two years I still haven’t started calling my thesis adviser by her first name.) was raving about this in latte form, so clearly I should try that as well.

You know, when I joined Steepster I was all like “BAH TO SWEETENER AND MILK IN TEA,” and it seems like these days I’m just like “what? add milk? sure!” On the other hand, as far as plain black tea goes, I still don’t add milk or sweetener. I just like to experiment with nifty teas! If someone wrote “holy shit this tastes so awesome when you add Dr. Pepper to it” I would probably try that as well :P Well not really, I hate Dr. Pepper.

First, I would just like to say that it amuses me greatly that I must search for this tea by just writing “malted chocomat” because if I put an e without the accent mark it doesn’t come up? I am not sure why this amuses me but it does.

Tried this with a longer steep time today. Think I like it better than 7 minutes, although it does mean that the cocoa receded a lot. It was a very pleasant morning tea though – definitely good for tiding me over until I can get some more breakfast blend in. Yay!

My other 52teas purchase (yes! I limited myself to only 2. Why do you think I then had to avoid steepster until the sale was over?) I had been extremely interested in this for my original 52teas purpose in the hopes that it would be able to replace my matevana-toffee rooibos blend from Teavana (they no longer make the toffee rooibos). Unfortunately, they were out of it at the time, but have (obviously) since restocked (yay!).

Interestingly, I do not get the overridingly chocolatey scent that other people have reported from my batch. Mostly I get a roasted smell – almost like burning wood, as well as a light kind of dusty cocoa smell. Very interesting.

For my first cup I decided to just go with it completely plain, going with 7 minute steep time after reading the other notes on this. After seven minutes, the tea’s color was a fairly midrange brown, and the scent of the cocoa had come out more but the roasted/malted scent was still dominating.

The taste is…quite complex. There’s spiciness, which has since resolved itself into more of a cocoa flavor as the tea has cooled. The malty taste is also there. And SOMETHING is combining to produce this almost minty taste. Perhaps that’s the mate itself? I confess to not having had a lot of plain mate, although the taste I associate with it is also there, so…dunno!

When hot, it was all spicy, malty roasty good lord this is heavy. As it cools the chocolate is coming out a LOT more – which makes me think (for some reason) that the addition of milk would bring it out even further. That will definitely be trial number two. The spiciness is also receding as the temperature decreases, which is good because we are not quite past the time in the morning when my belly rebels against spiciness of all kinds. Oh yes, I am definitely getting the liquid chocolate vibe a lot more, although the malty taste is still providing a fascinating backing to it.

Aside! So last night I dreamt that I went to a big gourmet tea place which for some reason also sold chocolate malt balls (and was haunted, but that’s not as relevant. Besides with the aid of some kids and their lovable dog I was able to discover that it was just the groundskeeper trying to scare off customers). Anyway, I didn’t get a chance to try this last night when it actually came in and between that and worrying about my tea frog order possibly being stuck in customs, (I didn’t get tracking on my order so I have no idea what it’s actual status is but Morgana mentioned that her package appears to be stuck at the border, so…. Are they just confused about what it is? or…are they DRINKING MY TEA THE BASTARDS) I guess I have tea on the brain. (End Aside)

Anyway, so I was thinking of using this as my morning tea but I think it’s a tad to heavy for that – although we’ll see what adding milk to it does. I’m still quite pleased with it, though – a very nice addition to my tea cupboard. I’d noticed lately that it was getting a little black tea heavy, so I’m definitely glad to introduce a little variation into it.

(This post brought to you by: parentheses (yay!))

I’m not sure why I reached for this tonight, but, I’m glad I did, because it’s so good. Even better than I’m remembering from the last time I had it. I guess if I were to change anything about it, I’d want more chocolate… perhaps? But then, I always want more chocolate. haha!

The cheesecake flavor offers a nice smoothness to the spice. Very high on the YUM factor tonight! I think I might even give it a couple more points on the rating!

Decided to start my day with a chai latte and I reached for this one!

Serving it latte greatly improves the creamy cheesecake-y flavor of this chai. Yum.

I decided to make this one a latte today – so I clumsily worked the frother (not easy to do with my right hand)

This is incredibly yummy as a latte. It brings out the more chocolate cheesecake notes. :)

My Order arrived today! I was shocked at how quickly it arrived… I hadn’t expected to receive this until sometime next week, because I figured his orders from Memorial Day were probably CRAZY…

I was about to get the frother out and go latte with this, but I tried it first, and found that I really like it the way it is! It has a nice, creamy flavor going on with the cheesecake essence. The chocolate adds some sweetness to it – yummy, rich chocolate! Together with the cheesecake, this chai becomes seriously indulgent.

But it IS a chai. The peppery kick from the ginger stands out most to me. The spices really give this a delightful depth of flavor. YUM!

Last mug from the pot! Very ginger-y.

Also! For Your Edification:(1)
Real Conversation I Had With My Brother Re: 52teas Awesome Special This Week(2)
(1)not really
(2)note: some knowledge of comics is required to have any idea what we are talking about.

Me: URGH 52teas has a buy 3 pouches get 1 free deal
Brother: POUCHES!? is he ROB LIEFELD IN DISGUISE
Me: …oh man, IF ONLY all of Rob Liefeld’s pouches were full of tea
(pause)
Me: (It would have to be MAN TEA though…holy shit he IS Rob Liefeld!)

the end

reference: Pouches: The Pouchening. Now with MORE POUCHES: http://i.somethingawful.com/fashion/comicSWAT/12.jpg

Giant pot of chai! Weeeeeeeewt!
I was a little worried about this, actually, since 52teas base black tea tends to be pretty non-amenable to long steeping, but it’s worked out really well so far. I think the milk helped.

Hey so…is anybody else not seeing Steepster Selects? Did we stop doing those while I wasn’t paying attention? What’s going oooooooooooooooon?

Got back from visiting my adorable niece over the holiday weekend to find that California is, for once, COLDER than Oregon. WTF. Clearly, this is a job for…copious amounts of tea!

Brewed this up on the stovetop using almond milk. Delicious and creamy as usual, a great tea to start with after being stuck under my brother’s Tea Purist Iron Thumb for a couple of days. Didn’t get as much cheesecake as I usually do, but then I also slurped it right up, so perhaps I wasn’t paying enough attention.

Tried this with my new almond milk tonight and it was quite tasty! No weird clumpy almond milk and no weird aftertaste. This almond milk gets an A plus from me! (it’s Silk almond milk) I think it’s thicker as well, which is interesting. The only gripe I have is that the cheesecake taste was a little overpowered by the vanilla, but that just means I need to put less in.

Didn’t have any milk to go with this, but the pull was too strong and I drank it anyway. Also I needed more black tea to stay awake. It’s actually a lot better milk-less than I recall. Probably because I do not have the immediate memory of it with milk to fall back on anymore.

Nooooooo, epic chai fail!

I had a hankering for some stovetop chai today so I was making it (with almond milk) AND not only did I get almond milk clumpy fail, I also got extremely weird taste fail! I think I left it on the stove for too long and the almond milk curdled (which I didn’t even know could happen) or burnt or SOMETHING.

Sadface!

On the other hand, the question now is. If almond milk can curdle, why is there no almond milk cheese?

Edit: my use of epic fail has reminded me. I saw this phrase on my exams a lot and wasn’t sure what to do with it. It’s like, well YES, the Great Leap Forward kind of WAS epic fail, but that just seems to lack proper gravitas, you know?

Tried this just plain. You don’t really get the shiny cheesecakeyness as much like this, although it’s still plenty tasty. It’s just that the spices are much more dominant. On the other hand, it is hardly surprising that a chai would be better with milk so…YOU WIN THIS ONE CHEESECAKE CHAI.