American Tea Room

I wish I liked fig because I taste a lot of fig and toasted nuts. Figs have never interested me; they always remind me of “healthy” cookies my grandmother would make. This tea has helped confirm that. I think next time I will make sure there is no dry fig and see how that goes. Thanks moraiwe for the sample, I’m glad I got a chance to try this.

This is really, really strong in flavor… A yellow taste mid-back tongue, very floral rose and pink through the middle of the mouth both tongue and roof of mouth and rolling forward to the tip of the tongue.

Sweet on the very, very tip, too, and just on the inside edges of the lips. There is some blue, like a baby blue, taste inside the mouth against the front bottom teeth.

It pushes a little too far to a perfumey edge in the scent and flavor, so that makes me a bit ambivalent on the tea… But I think the larger list of positives means I like it. But not for an everyday tea… Just once in a while.

Full, round, rolling flavor and texture.

Long, long finish that stays intense.

I think this is my favorite rooibos tea ever, and it’s sipdown 94, I think.
Thanks Sil!

Well, today is my ATR day. Its my 3rd tea. i want to give Romanoff another chance, maybe its my taste buds or very very cold weather.
This tea is incredible but it wasnt love at first sight. Dry leaves smell like strong sweet liquor. i steeped it according to ATR suggestions. Hot it tastes weird. I LOVE pu, figs, sesame seeds but this combination was just wrong to me. some woodiness probably from pu wasnt working. I could taste sweet fennel but no coconuts. i was thinking that it was smart of me getting only sample until it cooled… then i tried it again. oak woodiness somehow disappeared. and I decided to add tiny less than 1/4 of tsp of maple syrup. its magic. I love it. its definite repurchase in a near future.

It’s day 12 of little terri’s Sipdown Extravaganza, but so far this is the only sipdown I’ve gotten in. I woke with a terrible photo-sensitivity headache, & my guts are telling me that I ingested something that I have an issue with, & my issues are legion. So I mostly need potent & comforting teas, & I started with this one, which definitely hits on the potency level. This is sipdown #80, from…who else? Sil, of course!

Sipdown…I almost saved this last bit for a cold brew, over the summer, but I opted to sipdown tonight instead.

It’s pretty tasty. That nice peachy apricot doesn’t seem too artificial, and the base is not too smoky or astringent either, so it is quite a pleasant steep. If I do get more of this, I am quite keen still, to see how it is cold steeped.

Amazing . I was so afraid that this tea is just a hype. It captures all the challah bread with orange bits and almonds. It’s as sweet as bread should be, rich in vanilla and marzipan, and cinnamon. I finished the cup wanting more but it’s enough for tonight. Easy 100

Here’s Hoping Tea Box

Sickly sweet- Seriously I can’t finish the cup. It kind of made me nauseaus. It’s a little disappointing since I’ve heard so many good things about this particular tea.

Sipdown! 103/365

Another sample from Sil that I’m finishing off :D Thanks!

This tea is not very good. There’s a hint of berry but almost every other berry tea I’ve had is tastier (on that note, I have been craving a 52teas blueberry tea like crazy all day. Another reason to have a tea spreadsheet/properly up-to-date cupboard – so I can tell if I have the sort of tea I’m looking for!) So basically, this tastes like a flavoured black, and not a particularly good one at that. Oh well, it’s gone now.

I thought I had heard really good things about this one… but I think I was mistaken. Either way, I was pretty unimpressed. I think this is the second time I’m trying it (doubt I logged the first time), and in neither case did I taste much of anything berry. In fact, you could almost convince me it was a straight tea. I don’t think it’s flavour-loss (since I’m pretty sure Tangier was from the same purchase), but oh well. I’ve encountered other berry blacks that I enjoy; it’s ok to have a dud. Thanks for letting me try this one though, Sil!

Sipdown! 100/365

Discovered a small cache of appealing-sounding and sipdownable teas today while I was sorting through a few things. (I was divvying some teas into three baskets – Quick Sipdowns [teas with single cups remaining], On Deck [teas I’m planning to drink in the near future], and Drink Soon [greens, coconut teas, badly stored teas that have all been sampled recently but need to go sooner rather than later].) This was one of them – black tea with apricot(!), although I had a vague memory of not liking it.

For an older tea, it’s actually not too bad. Pretty smooth, and I can clearly taste the apricot, although I initially misidentified it as peach. I don’t know what saffron tastes like, but am fairly sure it’s not really noticeable. Thanks for the share, Sil!

Thanks to Sil for some of this lovely tea. I quite enjoyed it; nothing special but quite a good example of a basic peachy black. Or at least, peach was the fruity flavour I was getting from it. Anyhow, fairly mild black base, no astringency, and nice juicy flavour. I bet this would make a tasty unsweetened iced tea.

ETA: Apricot, I see. That makes sense. I often confuse the two flavours! That might also explain why I found it tastier than peach teas I’ve tried.

Ehhhh…. can’t really review this one properly, unfortunately. Opened up the well-sealed bag given to me by Sil – it smelled like vomit. Classic coconut rancidity, I’m quite sure. Anyhow, I gagged a bit and brewed some up anyways (when you know that it’s just rancid coconut, and you’re not brewing up chunks of puke, I can handle at least taking a sip). Brewed up, less barfy aroma, more like it’s supposed to smell… but there were still hints of upchuck. A sip revealed distinct flavours of cacao husk (yum), rooibos (meh… wasn’t great), and… well… rancid coconut. It was tough to taste past the coconut, but I don’t think this would be a blend I would enjoy anyhow – although I do like cacao, the rooibos adds an off-flavour that I’m not fond of.

Disclaimer: This tea has obviously gone off. The rating reflects my impression of the tea as I feel it would be without the rancidity; I’m not fond of rooibos.

I’ve removed most references to my kinky life on Steepster. While my interest in tea did evolve from an interest in tea as a service task, it has developed into much more than that, and it’s now a part of my everyday life.

The local BDSM community lost a wonderful person last week. She was involved in local and global tea organizations, and I had the great pleasure of meeting her and taking a tea service training class with her. Yesterday, those who wished to remember her had a cup of tea in her honor, and this is the tea I chose.

This sample was an unexpected surprise from Beorhthraefn. Thank you! This one definitely deserves its high rating. It is a perfect, indescribably delicious tea. This one would be perfect with one of those little fresh fruit tarts with custard.

Kinda sorta hate it when finding an ingredient list (like for this tea) is like finding my glasses in a Calgary snowbank. It’s mostly delicious, sweet apricot both in smell and taste – a wonderful twist and great surprise. It it however getting a bit dry and tart as it cools, in a not-so-hot way.

The dry leaf smelled very much of pineapple but steeped the coconut comes out. It has cooled a little but I am getting sweet pineapple and coconut. There is also a fairly thick mouth feel that I am not loving. It is not offensive in any way but also not that interesting either.

I finally got to taste this one, thanks to courtney! … on first sip, i got a strong taste of just black tea, but as I went on, it got sweeter, creamier, and more almondy… delicious!!! it was well worth the wait :)

For my 450th distinct tea represented in these-here notes (as opposed to the number of these-here notes), I thought I’d write about something I’ve been wanting to try for a long time.

This tea has gotten a lot of love on Steepster and I’ve had a sample of it (hermetically sealed) waiting for a special occasion. After tasting it, I have jumped on the love bandwagon.

When I sniffed the tea in the sample packet I thought I’d fallen into a vat of liquid almond croissants! The aroma is of the sweet, buttery, rich almond paste that’s used in pastries like croissants, bear claws, etc. I have not had a brioche (I don’t think I have anyway) but if they smell like this, I must make it a project to have one.

The steeped tea carries that aroma as well, in an amazingly rich, deep fragrance. I would have expected it to be much more dilute. The liquor is a clear chestnut color.

The taste is quite remarkable. I didn’t expect complexity. I expected it to taste like it smelled, more or less. And it does, but it’s not just almond paste. It’s that plus butter, brown sugar, baked goods. It really is a liquid dessert.

As an aside, I’ve started to categorize tea companies in my mind by what I think they do really well in terms of flavors. As examples, I think of Kusmi as great at berry flavors and caramel, but not at chocolate or vanilla. I think of Harney & Sons as great at chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon, and rose, among other things. Given my recent tastings of ATR teas, I was ready to conclude that ATR is great at fruit flavors. Now I have to include Brioche along with fruit flavors!

Also from last night’s Elementaryfest. I wanted to like this, love a good hojicha and the idea of adding a scrumptious vanilla element sounds promising, but it didn’t really deliver. It wasn’t bad tasting at all, but relatively weak in the roasty satisfying flavor department (Golden Moon’s is still my favorite), and the vanilla doesn’t integrate that smoothly with the hojicha profile. Kind of understandable though, as vanilla is often tricky to make mesh well, where it’s soft and warming and smoothly combined; I’ve tried a lot of teas where it’s just an oddly medicinal/numbing harsh element that sits distinct on top of the base unpleasantly. It isn’t quite that degree of offputting here, but it isn’t smooth or comforting either but oddly both weak and distinct. Ah well.

This tea smells just perfect in the bag. However, in the cup, all I could taste was bitter black tea. It had even some smoky aftertaste. Unfortunately, no roses or other flavors became apparent to me. I didn’t expect much rose to begin with, but I was definitely hoping for a more distinct vanilla. On the bag, the suggestion was to brew it for 4 minutes. I wouldn’t recommend that. It would make this pretty strong tea even more bitter. I’ll experiment, brewing it for 2 minutes and see what happens, but I don’t think it will become my rose/vanilla/bergamot combination.

OH my goodness. this is so delicious. so last night i had a long-overdue mugful of the Brioche Free, with cream (er, half-and half) and sugar, and holy cow it was delish. it SO hit the spot that all morning long i’ve been imagining i taste it and smell it all over the place. so FINALLY i assuage my craving with a hit of the Organic Brioche, just made up, milk (1%) and sugar included, and my itch, it is scratched. i can’t believe i’d forgotten i own this as well as the BF. BAD bad. NEVER again will i forget.