Art of Tea

A note of continued appreciation for this one. It has been one of my summer go-to teas. Even though my office is air conditioned, I am still craving lighter, fruitier teas to sip during my work day. This one is soooooooo good. Grapey, a little sweet (sans additions!) a little floral, but not wimpy in any respect.

I want to make a special iced tea for my birthday (it’s not until mid-July, but planning is half the fun!) and I can’t make up my mind between this one, Golden Monkey, or Earl Grey. I’m planning to make a cheese plate, some kind of nice bread, and chicken Waldorf salad for our meal (followed by home made vanilla ice cream on a chocolate brownie home made waffle as my “cake”). What would you choose? I was thinking this might be nice because the salad has grapes in it too, but maybe the Golden Monkey for the neutral tea flavor (or maybe the Earl Grey because it’s so refreshing and the citrus would contrast with the salad?).

Magnificent concoction indeed! White tea, Darjeeling tea, Ceylon tea all together – who knew this would be so delicious?! I think this might be my favorite new-ish tea I’ve tried in awhile. It makes me want to pirouette and shout “Spring! Spring! Spring!” in a field of …tulips. Or something!

I’ll be lazy and repeat what I wrote on twitter about this tea:

Rosy and wine-like and where is my chaise lounge?

Now Original Steepster Content:

Fans of Rosy Earl Grey – I think you would really enjoy this. It is in the same spirit (lightly rosy and makes you feel like a very elegant millionaire) but different too (no jasmine). The white tea is REALLY good in this one. Blends with the Darjeeling like no one’s business. Brings a softness and yes, a champagne quality. Rosé Brut Champagne, actually (no bubbles, and hot, but… oooh there’s an idea. In the summer, brew this strong-ish and mix with seltzer!).

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that this is fantastic and I love it!

Art of Tea, you are blowing my mind this week!

This tea is very delicious, green, sage-y, and wonderous, especially with my new Perfect Teaspoon!

I have some sad news, though. I noticed my desk was wet and … why was my brewer cup making water beads all over it, and … hmmm, there’s a puddle around my cup and… this is so weird! and… imagine this going on for THREE HOURS!!!! and then I finally figured out my cup is cracked! I remember bashing it when I washed it but didn’t see any cracks at the time. Silly, silly me.

I think I’m going to use it as a planter.

Wahhhhh!

Mmmmmmmmmmmm. Loving this in the strange sultry March (!!!) heat we are having. I think this tea could be my gateway drug into green teas. I absolutely love the herbaceous ALIVE flavor of this one.

Wow. Wow, wow, wow!

I treated myself to two ounces of what feels like “springtime in a pouch” to me :) I was searching for the finest example of a first flush Darjeeling that I could sleuth out, and this one called to me because I had one other Margaret’s Hope that i just loved.

Wow. Have I said wow yet? :)

This is so smooth and … I don’t know how to describe it except for … fruity but herbaceous rose petals? There is something very familiar about it that has to do with the garden but I can’t put my finger on it. Bright but definitely something(s) herbaceous grounding it and making it very complex. This is a tea that I could go all wine snob on and say something like “wet granite with a stone fruit finish and blah blah blah” if I had more time but right now I’ll just say “Wow, wow, wow!”

This is a HUGE treat and although it was a pretty penny, worth every one of them.

Exquisite!

My last puff! I so very enjoyed this tea. The molasses-y, rich flavor is outstanding, and I love that I can steep it again and again.

I’ve been trying to do some Cupboard Sanity Measures so I’m not going to replace this just yet even though I adore it. I’m trying to not do a tea order until my cupboard reaches 40 items (it’s at 54). Wish me will power!

I have so few of these puffs left :( They are so molasses-y and excellent resteepers. It’s very interesting picking out the nuances in the teas that I love – they all share a similar flavor profile, but those little differences! Molasses instead of honey. Cocoa instead of chocolate. Thick instead of thin. Amber instead of golden (yes, those are flavors ;) My kinda fun.

Oh, you delicious bundle of dark, smooth, molasses-y tea! I will admit it – I am hoarding these puffs. I have 6 left. I’m getting nervous. They’re so so so good!

One of the things I like most about this tea is that it resteeps so beautifully. One puff has me drinking all day. I’m on the ridiculously rich second steep right now and I’m pretty much in heaven. Mmmmmm!

I was a huge fan of Harney’s Golden Mudan, but it is no longer offered :( I saw these at the Art of Tea and thought they looked similar, so I popped them into my cart for a recent order.

I brewed up my first puff this morning! I am finding that Black Peony is darker and molasses-y-er than GM. GM is honey :) I’m on my second steep, and as with most teas made into a ball, it’s even better than the first. Really smooth and rich. Heavy on the tongue almost like a syrup. Amazing. I am so glad I sprung for them! I would order these again and again (and again). I gave half of them to my husband, and I have a feeling that we are going to drink them so quickly!

Really, really, nice! It’s a light black tea with a flavor I’d call “golden.” Not smoky or bitter, just warm and slightly dark with the smallest bit of brown-sugar sweet at the end of each sip. This was a sample from one of my tea-storm-rescuers, and I am grateful!

(After years of receiving Christmas ornaments from friends and co-workers—the usual annual token gift—I finally started putting names and dates on them. I hereby resolve to do the same with swaps and samples so I can thank the appropriate people as I go.)

I am TERRIFIED to try this one. I love pumpkin pie more than should be natural, but upon opening the bag of tea and taking a whiff, my only thought is cough syrup. I really want to like this tea, but the cough syrup smell is making me nervous.

I have a lot of tea to get through right now, so I shall log about this when I get to it, I guess!

(Please tell me it tastes better than it smells! PLEASE!)

Another blend from Meghann M. thank you. I could mainly taste the banana the chamomile and the coconut. Suprizingly the banana was not over the top and for me that does not like coconut it was bearable in this and the chamomile was strong may of oversteeped. This was a fairly good blend but not dessert to me and I added some sugar.

I tried velvet by this company but sadly did not like it at all.

Thank you meghann M for sending this and a few other blends to try. Thank you very much. Luckily the roobios is not extremely strong which makes me happy and I can taste the currant and abit of hibiscue to with alittle vanilla and mabe abit of white chocolate. I believe that this blend is fairly good but on the almost too tart side with the hibiscus. Meaning this is good but would not become a favorite. Thanks for giving me the chance to try this.