American Tea Room

Wow, I do like this one. It’s been a few days since I had a white and I’ve missed them. This one hot is lovely, with the fruit notes coming out to blend well with the tea flavours, making it a tea I drank quickly. The second cup (not second infusion) I drank slower, and this one got cold by the time I was done. Cold the tea isn’t as lovely, the notes that make it sparkle are lost and it is more a generic white tea. But hot? Wow this one is a star. I wish I could afford to get more, but dang is it costly. Thanks to Indigobloom for sharing this one with me!

Thanks to American Tea Room for this sample! I am getting to it a little late, but I am happy I got to it now! This is my first tea from American Tea Room.

I loved the little sample packet! Only flaw was that it wasn’t resealable. This is one of the reasons that it has taken me so long to get around to opening it, I didn’t have anywhere to store the leftovers! I was weary of how Christmasy this tea could be, since I relate Christmas directly to sugar and spice!

Once I opened the pack, the scent that greeted me was entirely Christmasy! In fact, it reminded me of the red scented candles that are generic Christmas scent. I asked everyone around me at that moment and everyone agreed that it smelled like Christmas. Wow! I would have never guessed Christmas tea could be managed without thick spiciness! It looked very pretty with large pieces of cranberry and pomegranate. The red and green in the dry tea made me wish it was Christmas time again.

I brewed it according to the suggested parameters. The resulting brew was baby pink, as far as I can remember, the pinkest tea I have seen so far! The smell continued to be very christmasy, with a hint of cranberry.

The taste unsweetened, was nothing spectacular. Sweetened, the cranberry stood out followed by a faint cinnamon aftertaste. I really enjoyed this cup of tea! I stand corrected! Christmas tea does not depend only on the mix of spices!

After this, I am going to have to get around to placing an order from American Tea Room!

Thanks so much to QueenofTarts for this sample I’ve been wanting to try…

This stuff is so weird looking, I mean it’s full of husks! There isn’t as much rooibos at all in this blend. Perhaps that is a blessing in disguise, I don’t know.

I used about 1 tsb in my small $4 Daiso teapot. This definitely needed 5 minutes of steeping time and I think I should have used more of the sample because it was kind of thin. But this is a little teapot that makes only about 8 oz. of tea. It really does smell exactly like chocolate! The taste is… well it’s interesting. It’s certainly palatable but I don’t think I am in love with it. It reminds me of a chocolate liquor or something of that nature. I can’t help but wonder if this would be better with something added to it. In any case I will certainly try a resteep soon using more of what I’ve got!

Tastes Like Butter! Didn’t like this, One Leaf(i mean bit)!

When I tried this, it was the first time I had tried loose Tea! Earl Grey is one of my favorite teas ever! So naturally, I tried this one. Great Flavor. Smooth. Love it.

Backlogging (so, based almost entirely on my notes)

Experience buying from American Tea Room: < More later, but positive overall >

Age of leaf: This is what I believe is called a fruit tea, and seems to have been blended at the end of 2011.

Packaging: I got this sample for free by ‘liking’ their post of this tea on Facebook (thank you American Tea Room!). The one ounce sample came in a very professional-looking package: colorfully labeled with lots of useful information about the tea displayed on it.

Appearance and aroma of dry leaf: A beautiful potpourri of different colors and shapes; unbelievably aromatic: reminds me of a flavor of bubble-gum when I was a child.

Brewing guidelines: In ceramic 16 oz cup, covered with a ceramic lid while steeping. Tea in metal steeping basket. Stevia added.
……….1st: Just off the boil (cup mildly warmed); 2’
……….2nd: Boiling (cup warmed); 5’

Color and aroma of tea liquor: Light peach color; smells fruity and like licorice.

Flavor of tea liquor: fun fruit flavors, and sweet, but it has an odd finish (even at room temp): possibly too much orange for my tastes (it reminds me somewhat of the taste of children’s aspirin. Anyone remember that stuff? blech).

Appearance and aroma of wet leaf: lots of great looking bits of fruits and spices.

Value: Currently on sale: $10 for 3.5 OZ.

Overall: This seems to be a classic case of the tea wow-ING me in appearance and aroma, then disappointing me with flavor. Lots of potential here, but I suggest going back to the drawing board with this one.

Sipdown, 233. I am using this opportunity (sickness) to drink down some old samples that I wasn’t super into. My abilities to smell are in and out, so I don’t want to sample any of my good teas (which unfortunately no Verdant reserve club sampling this weekend), but it’s a perfect time to sample others.

This is kind of an odd combination, being spicy and tart at the same time. This might go over better with some added sugar because the hibiscus is quite tart and a bit drying. Otherwise it’s got a berry flavor and then more traditional Christmas spices. Pretty decent but not something I would seek out.

Thanks to the American Tea Room for sending me a sample of this to try! Since I don’t usually drink tisanes at work I waited until I had some time this weekend to brew this one up. Like some others I was impressed by the huge whole ingredients in the blend: a whole star anise, a big hunk of cinnamon stick, lots of halved cranberries.

Steeped, it is the promised pink color, really a dusty rose, and it smells pleasantly of spices with orange and cranberry notes. My boyfriend said, “it smells like Christmas.” (He also said, “That actually smells good!” … he is not a tea drinker, heh). I get a strong orange note from the flavor, followed by a tart burst of cranberry, and then a warm mix of spices. The star anise leaves a light anise flavor in my mouth, which has the unexpected result of making this tea seem even more like Christmas to me. My mom always makes Springerle cookies for Christmas because they’re my dad’s favorite cookie, and those are anise flavored. So this tea kind of makes me think I’ve been eating a springerle at Christmas.

There’s something about fruit infusions that always makes me want them to be sweet. This is very nice plain, but I think I will sweeten it a touch next time because my palate wants that. Overall a nice blend for the holidays!

Since I didn’t like the star anise, I tried brewing up this tea without it. Not really an improvement, unfortunately; the liquorice-esque taste I disliked is gone, but now the liquor tastes much simpler. It’s mostly cranberry in taste, with a bit of cinnamon and orange. Maybe cranberry fans would like this more?

This is a nice little blend, sweet but tart. It might not be a traditional approach to Christmas, but the combination of spices nonetheless provides a nice warmth in the cold of winter. Weirdly, even though there’s nothing resembling caramel in here, that’s one thing it makes me think of — I wish I had some caramel tea so I could try out the combo!

Unfortunately, there’s also a weird, bitter undertone, kind of like licorice jelly beans that REALLY kills the taste for me unless I try very hard to ignore it. I suspect it’s the star anise, so I’m going to see if taking that out will improve the flavor. If not, I guess this isn’t right for me — but I’m sure there are others to whom that would appeal, and to them I recommend this tisane wholeheartedly.

Try as hard as I may to not touch this tea since it was nearly finished. I decided to have my last cup of this most amazing tea.

I brew almost all teas for no less than three minutes and closest to five minutes and it is excellent. The aroma is of a floral bouquet and this scent fills the air. Since it is so very hot, I find I must sip tea very slowly…burning the tongue and what comes through in the flavors right away is the orange peel, cranberries and pomegranate. The cinnamon does not appear until tea is nearly cooling. And so begins my second infusion and third infusion as with the first infused one is met with orange peel with the cranberries merging as one almost.

As I have been sipping this for most of the day; I did not add the usual green tea bag to re-liven the flavors but opted to put one of my London Cuppa round teabags and I can attest that they blended quite nicely to a malty like floral drink. A sharper wine cooler, only served hot and brimming.

Thank you American Tea Room for sending this sampler my way. Pink Christmas is truly a delight. Now I am sad since I am thinking pink slip. Oh well. Kudos to good tea.

This is an herbal tea sampler that I received from The American Tea room; a specially holiday blend of tea contriving of cranberries, pomegranate arils, cinnamon sticks, star anise, linden blossoms, orange peel and peony petals.

I brewed this tea as instructed; 200 degrees Fahrenheit and left to steep for five minutes. The aromas from when I opened the bag are a true delight to the nose and palette.

Teas’ color: when steeped for the assigned minutes are a vibrant pink; favoring the color of a pomegranate. I take pleasure in smelling the orange peels and how that matches and stands up to the cinnamon sticks, anise and linden blossoms.

This tea is naturally sweet and does not need anything else mixing with it. It is sweet as it is tart with hints of spice through and through.

I was able to get three infusions per one teaspoon in the cup. I like this herbal tea; it is sweetly contrived to infuse the crushed petals.

I made this in my 3-4 cup tea pitcher and it sat on my desk all day. YUM! It was a great tea to have by my side at work tasted great hot, warm, and room temperature. Fruit and green tea is nicely balanced.

Got this as a sample with my previous order – my entire house seems wonderful and then tea is simply amazing. The flavor is very complex and seasonal. I just love this tea and will have to stock up before the end of the holiday season so that I have enough for the entire year.

My sample came today. So naturally I had to try it out. I wasn’t impressed with the packaging only because I had to find something to keep it in. I wish they had a zip locked sample bag. But that was a small problem. On to the tea. When I opened the package it smelled very sweet which I loved. I loved seeing huge fruit pieces and even a whole star anise in my sample! Seeing what you are about to steep is always awesome in my book – sometimes you just can’t tell.

The taste is an interesting mix of tart and sweet that works for this tea. I also get some vanilla undertones on the finish. This adds an interesting mix to the flavor, but not a bad one at all. My husband thought it smelled like a really sweet bubble gum flavor and I can taste a hint of that. But like I said, not bad. I think this would be neat to try iced with a splash of ginger ale. I could be horribly wrong, but I’m going to try it anyway!

As the name might imply, it’s not your typical spicy, winter herbal infusion. It’s got a red berry sweet/tart kick, a bit of citrus, and a smooth vanilla overtone that I really enjoyed. Being an herbal, you can adjust it to be as strong or as subtle as you like. I got two cups out of my serving and it was enough to inspire me to try it in other ways – in recipes, adding it to seltzer or ginger ale. It doesn’t leave your mouth puckering from elements that are overdone – not too much citrus or berry that it overpowers, just enough spice from the star anise that it tastes festive, but not like you’re drinking another version of a chai.
More pics and thoughts (recipe additions I’m thinking of trying out) on my blog review: http://bit.ly/tuNKvd