American Tea Room

Agreed! A hundred percent! This one is divine. I first discovered chocolate and rooibos with Karma Blends chocolate strawberry tea!

Yummy!

Unimpressed with this tea tonight. I was craving this as a strong dessert tea but it tasted watered down tonight. Maybe it needed some sugar, maybe it got too much air and light. I gave it to my hubby to drink. At least he enjoyed the cinnamon spice in it. Off to brew another cup.

More geek pride teas to come in the near future. Life has been hectic and I haven’t been logging my teas.

This I’s my first cup today but my second actual. I just don’t always post every time I drink a tea. This looks like green tea with peachy yellow like specks. The tea smells like green tea and the other ingredients. I steeped a short time. The taste green tea with tartness from either the green tea or the passionfruitwith abit of peach,I don’t have much experience with passionfruit.
I think this I’s a good tasting tea. But I wan’t a really intense peach tea. I am not sure how to score this but this I’s good and worth a try.

join a tasting of this tea: http://walkerteareview.com/?p=2372

I don’t get much of the lavender but what I do get is a unique taste that is really wonderful. I always add milk, so that could be a huge contributor to this wonderfully creamy brew.

okay, so for some unknown reason i was prompted to try this tea. i tend to have an aversion to cinnamon, similar to my banana bias…. call me a masochist, but i wanted to know how the chilli pepper went with the cinnamon.

i don’t usually do spice, so erring on the side of caution i leafed following the instructions (so unlike me). it’s a good thing i did! this tea has got game! i got heat in a ring around my tonsils… which is weird seeing as i was born without any!

whew! predictably, i’m in a great mood now, lol. (spice causes endorphins to be released)… wonder what will happen if i do my usual leafing? heh heh.

i like this one. american tea company is an interesting vendor… creative combinations.

OKAY: there are actual chilli centers in this blend…. i doubled my leaf and my steeping time. HOLY HANNAH!!! (can’t imagine what it would be like if i weren’t complete chicken that put cream in it, lol!

NEVERMIND! as it cools it gains more teeth!!! even WITH cream. i don’t even taste cinnamon at this point and it’s a creative thing if i hiccup. i will be ordering this again…. it’ll reduce my hydro bills in the winter!!!!

sometimes in the hum drum of everyday life it can be easy to forget about the potential for people to surprise you. originally i had planned a somewhat scathing commentary on american tea rooms customer service while writing a favourable review of this tea… but plans have changed.

the whole reason i went to american tea room online to snoop was because of terri harp lady’s comments on a blend called brioche. i lived in france, i am courting an obsessive pursuance of baked goods flavoured teas these days (all i need now is to find a lychee danish tea!!!!!), brioche…. ah brioche. when my order arrived i was missing two of my samples: one their fault, the other mine. you guessed it: i forgot to order the brioche.

well, this being the electronic age and an era of telephones, cell phones and satellite phones i figured the problem was fairly easily remedied. or not? the man on the other end of the phone was non plussed at my call. i was interrupting him. he sounded like the stereotypical attitude affiliated with beverly hills and as though a lifetime of looking down his nose had compromised his adenoids. or maybe someone was actually holding his nose up in the air, pinching very hard…

he apologized for the error.
‘no worries, it happens,’ i replied. come on, we’re all human, i’ve worked in customer service for years… no one MEANS for this stuff to happen.

you know when someone apologizes, but at the same time it is absolutely transparent that they aren’t sincere? yeah, this was what i was hearing….

i did not have the heart to inquire about paying for the brioche sample and having it shipped up with the one they forgot. the man was annoying me…. i don’t annoy easily. every now and again we all encounter people we know for damn sure we wouldn’t look for at a party and he was one of them.

i opened my bag of formosa plum… was that pepper i smelled? pepper and plum? interesting. i wouldn’t have paired the two… the smell of the steep made me think of a plum jam. no, not that sweet…. a plum chutney maybe? with a heavy undertone on the tea side. my missing samples poked at me.

i’d dealt with mr. better-than-you once, i was sure i could handle him again if necessary. to my delight a woman picked up this time. she sounded busy, but not snobby. if i had to guess i would say a manager/owner. she apologized again and i inquired about whether it would be possible to pay for the sample i’d missed and could they include it in the shipment? (seriously, well balanced pepper and plum? i wanted to see what they did with the brioche!).

she seemed surprised. and said ‘certainly, which one did you want to pay for?’ i told her and she replied ’don’t worry about it… well throw it in for free.’

i protested ‘you don’t have to do that!’
‘no worries, you can make it up in your future orders with us…’ (definitely a manager, lol)

after call number one i never would have given them my money again. but call number two goes to show how good customer service (one might even call it strategic in this case, heh heh heh) can pull a situation out of the fire for your business.

THE TEA: pepper first, tempered by the sweetness of plum. spices, but in the background and lightly complimentary, not a palate easily broken down.as it cools it am getting more plum than pepper. the tea itself has no caffeine stick, is robust but smooth.

the dry blend is a confetti of shapes, sizes and colours varying from light to dark brown, what look like berries to curls of fruit.

this was very nice! not a plum pudding, not a summer plum, makes me think of wine, the smell of asian cooking in the kitchen with a million recipes on the go…. there’s a light smell of something charred, but not smoke and you don’t taste charring.

this is a complicated tea, but not unpleasantly so. i would not classify it as any part of a dessert tea. asian cooking, a fruit salsa, a plum chutney… all these could be connected.

and…. they will get my business again, especially demonstrating this skill level, but also because of banana two, not banana one.

Another sample sipdown. I was in the mood for a pastry this morning, but I (thankfully) don’t have any in my pantry, and I’m not willing to walk to the bakery today. This tea, with its bready note and almond and cinnamon flavors, will fill in nicely… for now.

I have a lot of samples that I really need to use before they lose their flavor. I started with this one since I’ve had a couple of people send it to me and I’ve been saving it for a lazy Saturday. Today seemed like the perfect day to enjoy the cinnamon-y, bread-y, nutty wonerfulness that is this tea. I really enjoyed sitting down with my tea pot and cup and saucer. It was relaxing and delicious.

The very kind Ost sent me this amazing tea inside the cutest Christmas card. Thank you!!!

Mmmm… I forgot how good this one is. There is a wonderful pastry flavor along with cinnamon, nuts, and vanilla. Yum. This would make an outstanding tea for a holiday party with all of its spice and nut flavors. I haven’t had too many teas from American Tea Room, but this one is a winner.

This is from the traveling tea box. I still have a lot of samples from the box I need to try. If they’re all as tasty as this one I’ll be set for a while!

This tea was a delight. It immediately reminded me of this amazing baked French toast a friend of mine makes. Delicious! There were so many flavors mingling together – bread, cinnamon, almond, and butter. Then there was a sweetness that reminded me of melted powdered sugar on top of a warm beignet. So. Very. Good.

Random sample I pulled out. Thanks TastyBrew! I was expecting more of a spicy flavor with this tea but it’s pretty sweet. It reminds me of a chai with some sugar (note that I didn’t add any to this cup). It does have a fair amount of spice but the sweeter note is stronger. I like it but I don’t think I would buy it.

A perfect dessert tea without calories. I get the milky creamy essence of this amazing Ti Quan Yin. I am bathing my face in this steamy goodness. Thank you Kyle for sharing this tea with me.

I have been wanting to try this tea for so long! I decided to treat myself to a cup this morning since I have a long day of homework ahead of me. The best thing about this tea is the aroma – it just smells like a cup of comfort! The dry leaves smell heavily of almonds and baked bread with just a hint of cinnamon. The tea liquor aroma is of warm cinnamon bread. The flavor has a lot going on, but it’s very well balanced. Initially, there is an almond and cinnamon flavor with a baked bread finish. The aftertaste is malty and nutty. Adding sweetener brings out a little more of the cinnamon flavors, but adding milk kind of dulls the flavors a little too much. The milk does make it more creamy, though. Our local co op has the big, flaky almond croissants and this tea reminds me of the way those taste. Thank you, Shelley_Lorraine, for a sample of this tea!

-Dry blend has medium black tea leaves with sliced almonds, pieces of cinnamon bark and small orange petals.
-Dry leaves smell heavily of almond and baked bread with a hint of cinnamon. Tea liquor aroma is of warm cinnamon bread.
-Tea liquor is a cloudy medium golden brown color.
-Almond and cinnamon flavor with a bready finish. Malty and nutty aftertaste.
-Best with sweetener. Milk optional.
-Very good tea. Lightly flavored. Reminiscent of baked croissants with a hint of nuts and spicy cinnamon. Flavors are well balanced.

Tea Tally: 363

Hello Steepsterites! No, I hadn’t fallen off the face of the earth so much as I went on a wonderful vacation with Fiance. And I finially got to see Book of Mormon (totally worth it)! And got him to see Wicked (which was still amazing and totally worth it).

My mom was nice enough to grab my mail when she was over here to feed my birds while we were gone, so I did come home to a couple of tea packages on my counter, which was an awesome surprise too!

But yes! I’m back now with review 100!

Right off the bat, I want to thank TastyBrew for this one. I was a little hesitant because smokey isn’t my thing, but the dry leaf smelled so fresh-peeled-citrus and there wasn’t a hint of smoke.

The post steeped leaves have a hint of smoke, and the citrus doesn’t blow me away quite like the dry. There’s also a bit of generic sweet smell.

The taste is orange with a robust base. I associate it more with holiday candied orange peel than fresh orange. It’s not bitter or marmalade-y at all. The base has some real depth and darkness and I would think it would be a fantastic stand alone cup even. Then the smoke doesn’t peak until the swallow and then in the aftertaste. It’s definitely a lightly smoked tea and I find myself really enjoying those notes.

The second steep was fair, but the first really shined more.

This would be such a perfect morning tea in the fall and winter. It’s brisk and full and oh so very good.

Bonus Pic of Skitter and Gandalf this morning!

http://bit.ly/11hZBuP

Sipdown! I decided that an insanely early Sunday morning (thanks, cat) deserved such a tasty tea. I only had about 1-1/2tsp left, so I tried to balance that with the water in my mug and I think I hit the spot. Not too intense, nor too watery.

It’s just as sweet as I remembered, with a slightly maple syrup component which has inspired me to make up pancakes this morning.

This was a surprise sample in my swap from Moraiwe – Thank you! One sip and I was transported back to this delightful little patisserie my in-laws took me to last time I was in Portland, OR. This tastes like that little shop smelled – so rich and sweet, full of buttery scents that wafted around the room. As I happen to find my in-laws endlessly entertaining (I’m a nerd who married into a family of nerds!) it was a fantastic moment to revisit.

While it is a little syrupy, I can completely understand why some other Steepsterites mentioned that this tasted a little like an almond croissant. Actually, this has left me with a near overwhelming desire for the real thing! For the sake of my waistline, I think I may need to save this for special occasions – where I can justify the odd croissant!

hmmm
well, this one was not a hit on my tasting adventure with my sis on sunday.
i think it might require some finesse to brew well.
thanks moraiwe for letting me attempt it!

Thanks Moraiwe! It has a nice aroma. Kind of floral and citrusy. It has a sweet orange flavor that works well with the green base. This is such a beautiful tea! Thanks again!

TastyBrew’s Personally recommended blend from her mystery swap box.

It’s not half bad. The flavors are very well balanced and there’s no unpleasant aftertaste. I’m not super thrilled about almond flavor in my teas, but I wouldn’t say no to a second cup of this.