American Tea Room

Tea of the morning here. This is good with lots of soymilk and sugar, when you make it like a chai… see previous notes if interested.

I thought this tea was lost or stolen, but I found it in a tin labeled “Brioche”, evidently I was spacing out when I was putting my teas away.

Anyway I’m glad I found it so I decided to steep some up this afternoon. I’m a pretty big fan of cardamom and I was hoping I’d really love this tea. It doesn’t smell too cardamom-y in the tin. After steeping it up, I’d have to say the nilgiri/assam base is nice but I’m finding the cardamom flavor a little light. I guess this could be good or bad depending on your personal preference but I was somewhat disappointed. I guess I could always try adding a little bit of my own. This was good with some soymilk for a bit of extra creaminess.

Thank you, Sil, for making my morning!
I woke up groggy & I kind of feel like my body is fighting something off, but I have things to do, so I wanted something bold & rich, & here it is! I’ve enjoyed all of the teas that I’ve tried from American tea room.This one has a brightness to go with the earthiness, a nicely balanced tea that I would drink with breakfast any day! MOAR!!! I want Moar!

Husband’s show is tonight! Drank this to try to give myself some energy (up real late planning my Thanksgiving strategy next week), augh.

I’m assuming I got this as a sample from American Tea Room, because I have yet to order a tea with lavender in it. To me, lavender is something I inhale to enjoy. In a tea? Well… okay, I’ll try it. Had an surprising amount of lavender in it, and it smells strongly of potpourri out of the bag. Also, one sample bag = one liter of tea, or four cups.

Steeped, this smells of lavender mint – again, a bit concerning for me. Lots of tiny floaties as well. First sips tasted like little to me, so maybe they’re too hot still. The taste left in my mouth is… fuzzy. Burning. Flowery. Odd. It tastes like potpourri to me. I’m… going to dump this and try something else. Wanted to like it, be adventurous. I think I’ll just go with something I know I’ll love.

I decided I wanted a day of tasting yummy chocolate spicy teas today, and so I started with this one. Unfortunately, I think I missed somehow that this isn’t a spicy tea, but rather a quite mellow one. Nice, just mellow. Think coconutty creamy with a hint of spice at the end, and then some sweetness via a form of vanilla or maybe an added sweetener. It’s nice. It’s gentle. It’s loving.

I however, was looking for more of a wham, bam, thank you Ma’am kind of tea today.

Sipdown of the day!

I made this last night as a cold brew and it’s pretty good that way. I just wish this had more actual lemon flavor! In my opinion it’s very light on the lemon and I don’t think this will be a repurchase for me, although I have enjoyed trying it. I should try a few other of my rooibos blends as cold brews.

Ageless yoga was difficult for me! I still don’t have the full range of motion back in my shoulder and arm. the instructor was understanding and gave me some modifications to do. Well, at least I can take it easy for the rest of the day and focus on getting my final paper written for Wednesday’s class.

I thought I’d try this one iced today, I think this might be my first time trying a red rooibos this way. I made some yesterday and then stuck it in the fridge, hopefully I will drink it in the next few days and this is also a god way for me to start drinking down my stash. My biggest complaint about this tisane is I just wish it had more lemon in it, but overall it isn’t too bad.

I managed to get out for a long walk with the BF which was nice, probably the most exercise I’ve had since I busted my arm 3 weeks ago.

He picked this as our afternoon tea, after giving me the obligatory speech about how much tea I have already and how I don’t need to buy any more. hee hee! This is nice, the combo of lemongrass and rooibos. We also discovered my old tea kettle is full of rust so I guess I’ll be getting rid of that and using the variable temp kettle from here on out…

I bought this recently with my American Tea Room order. It’s the last tea from that purchase I need to try aside from the Cardamom Black which I simply cannot FIND. I can’t remember if I left it at work, in which case it might have disappeared along with the tea strainer that went missing. :(

Anyway on to this rooibos… I steeped this for about 7 minutes because I was trying to get my laundry out of the dryer. Tasting it now it’s like a double punch of lemon. This is seriously a lemony tea, like the cup is sitting near me and I feel like I’m smelling lemon pledge. ATR says the aroma is candy sweet but I’m getting mostly citrus.

I thought this needed a bit of sugar and soymilk to mellow it out, and I do like it better this way. It seems VERY strong so next time I might try to steep it for a little less time. This would be a good one to try iced, I think.

A few people have compared it to Della Terra’s lemon chiffon. That is a nice blend but it also had dairy in it, which isn’t something I want to see in my tea. So, at least this is a vegan lemon-y rooibos. I might need to experiment with this a little bit… it might be good with some ceylon or a nilgiri mixed in too.

IMO, good but not wonderful

Oh boo. I think the feed is broken, again

Hmm, I think I was expecting more spice. I mean, come on. It’s called Red Hot.

There’s definitely a spicy, nipping element, and that does increase as the cup cools, but the sweet cinnamonyness of the cup wins out. In that way, it actually really does remind of the Red Hot candies, just once the biting spicy outside coating is all gone and leaves only the cinnamon candy.

Thanks TastyBrew!

A sipdown, only because I’m sending the last little bit off to someone whom I think will enjoy testing it out. Hopefully there’s enough left in there for a cup!

I still like Coco*Late a lot more, however this is a decent substitute when craving something decaf. The rooibos is way too present for me however to really enjoy it fully, and it’s missing a level of creaminess that I’ve come to expect with a chocolate tea.

This smells like dark chocolate bar in the bag, and like delicious, creamy hot chocolate all steeped up. Overleafed a bit based on prior notes from some of you other awesome Steepster-ers. 1.5 tsp/cup.

Oh, this is a tea that BEGS for cream, milk, something to fill it out a bit. It’s okay unsweetened, a bit bland, and thin… again back to that cream-needing thing. Some Truvia makes it taste like a sweet chocolate bar, minus any cream or cocoa butter. So, like a dark chocolate bar, yet sweeter. I’ll try it with milk some other time, I’m too lazy to get up right now. Plus, this is good just as-is.

Thanks ifjuly for this sample in our Fall Exchange! I was quite surprised by this tea. Upon opening it smelled very sweet and like dessert. Turns out to be a bit smoother than expected and does not need sweetener. It smells way sweeter dry than brewed, so don’t be scared. I didn’t expect the coconut to shine thru but it did! Not too much thou, just right. I’m tempted to try the Golden Moon that ifjuly mentions too.

If I was ordering from American I’d add some on this in.

Received my American Tea Room order exactly as anticipated, and only two business days after ordering. Impressive!

I grabbed a bunch of samples, and this was one of them. One liter of tea used up the entire sample, so this is a sipdown as well.

First smell impression was an actual macaron from some upscale French patisserie, along with a faint floral note. Steeped, it smells cocoa-y for the most part, with a bit of something else that eludes me.

The first sips confuzzle me a bit. Cocoa is smooth and very present, with something taming it down like vanilla or coconut. Floral notes have disappeared, and there’s a cakey sweetness left after the sip is finished. I can imagine this as a lovely latte, decadent and pastry-like. However all I want is a sweet fix right now before I try and sleep at, yes, 8:23am. Such is the life of a single parent whose most creative time (2am) coincides with her youngest’s late night coughing fits/snack requests/tv show watching attempts.

Sweetened with Truvia, I get the good kind of buttery flaky pastry and creamy coconut, while the cocoa turns a bit darker/bitter (like raw caocao, this is a good bitter). It’s decadent and delicious, and I think I’ll add this to my reserve order list.

Had a cup at a local coffee/tea shop. It was okay, but the tea seemed to be hiding behind the fruit.

I got this today in my American Tea Room order as a free sample along with 2OTHERS! Yay for being a steepster! I loved my mom homemade macaroons she use to make when I was a little girl. This dry leaf definitely smells of rooibos, however, steeps this definitely smells of fresh baked macaroons. That gooey coconutty goodness. I assume this is a take on chocolate dipped macaroons, hence the blend including cacao husks. It’s does also give it that baked toasty flavor as well. The coconut is present but not over powering. I’m really surprisingly enjoying this tea. A lot of people are comparing it to chocolate which I have yet to taste. Well I give this a two thumbs up. American Tea Room definitely did really good with my free samples!

Sipdown (176/178)!

Well, this final cup was the best one I’ve made thus far but it looks like the final tallies are in and, well, this just isn’t the blend for me.

I seriously do get the flavour notes I see others messaging, and in this cup in particular I really did get the sweet breadiness of it – but that amazing “Wow Factor” doesn’t translate and this falls short of the expectations I had built up for it.

On the somewhat “plus” side of things, I think I’ve figured out what it reminds me of, though; Candied Almond from Cuppa’T Specialty Teas (which I have an unopened 50g bag of in my closet). The main difference though (and why I recall liking Candied Almond more) is that CA is sweeter, and more marzipan like. I think that, all in all, makes it seem more ‘full’, flavour wise.

But so much thanks to Courtney for the sample; trying a Steepster favourite was a worthwhile experience, even if I didn’t love it.

Ok, apparently I lied last night – when I went to measure out what I thought would be a sipdown it turned out I still had enough leaf left for one more cup, so I’ll finish this one off tomorrow most likely, for realsies.

Anyway, while this is certainly a step up from last night’s botched disaster – I still feel like this is kind of a let down for me. I mean, I get most of the tasting notes others are describing; spices like cinnamon, baked bread or pastry, a nuttiness, maybe a touch of butter – but regardless of that, this just seems a little bland. For my tastes, I think I’d like it better if it was richer. And all that said, there’s still something alarmingly familiar about it; I swear I’ve had another tea practically identical to this (but I want to say better, even though I can’t place what I’m reminded of).

It always sucks when you don’t love a Steepster favourite.

Oh well, like I said I still have one more cup so maybe that cup will really surprise me and turn my opinion around!

Well, I made this in my timolino for work – but then when I got home I fell asleep for a straight seven hours (just like I did yesterday), so when I cracked the timolino open to try this highly raved about tea, it was stone cold…

I’m not really getting a ton of flavour from this now that it’s cold; maybe some cinnamon in the mid sip, and a little more of a baked bread kind of vibe in the aftertaste. It’s really disappointing, actually – I feel like I’m totally missing out on something that’s supposed to be so good!

I have enough leaf left from the sample that Courtney gave me to give this one more try tomorrow; fingers crossed I don’t fuck it up!

For now – leaving this ratingless…

I have a lot of this and decided I would brew some up today and have it iced. This was a really good decision, I think I prefer it cold and if you pour it over ice the tartness is diluted somewhat and it becomes more refreshing. I will have to try giving this the cold brew treatment soon. I’m glad I discovered it’s good cold because I might actually finish it someday. ;-)

Tea of the mid morning here. It’s a nice sunny day in San Francisco and I wanted something on the light and refreshing side of the spectrum. This is a good citrusy blend, but today I feel like I’m getting nothing but grapefruit. Due to the tartness I prefer this with a touch of sweetener. Not really destined to be a favorite of mine but it’s good for the warm weather!

I’m not normally such a big fan of white teas but I bought a large size of this anyway in my ATR order, thinking that I would really like it.

This is a VERY citrusy blend, notes of lemon, grapefruit and orange are all very strong. The white tea seems to just be in the background providing a slightly sweet note. I don’t get a lot of jasmine, which is good because I’m not really a fan of jasmine!

I am finding this really refreshing but thinking it might be more of a summer tea. Anyway I can see I will need to try cold brewing this in the near future. It’s pretty nice if you’re into citrus flavors. I drank mine plain but this would also be good with a touch of sweetener. This is reminiscent of peach blossom by Rishi which I also enjoyed. It definitely has a bit more tartness due to the grapefruit. It’s good to have at least one white tea blend I like. ;)

This one is lovely. So very very lovely.

I brewed up a mug of this after finally getting my latest package from ATR, no thanks to FedEx who employs a driver who doesn’t actually want to deliver packages, CS reps who will BS me lies in order to get me off the phone, and being told conflicting things by different FedEx folks about just when I can pick up my package from the FedEx store after the driver “attempted” (HA!) three times. (TL;DR: FedEx SUCKS.)

Anyway, blueberry rooibos. So yummy. It smells exactly like blueberries, and was delicious. I added some sugar to bring the flavor out. A very nice tea to unwind at night with while watching the latest episode of Arrow.