Capital Teas

Mm-hmm, I thought I smelled some Earl Grey cream in here. (I may or may not have ordered some from Zen Teas last night at 1 AM. Only a little obsessed, I swear.)

Dry leaves smell delicious, basically like EG Cream with a bit of rose. The pink little rose petals mixed with the tea leaves are charming.

This is good! I think in this case, something about the mix of the cream and the rose tip tip the aroma a little on the sweet side for me. The taste is a little milder, and it averages out. A little perfumey, which I don’t complain about, without being chemical-y. Nice bergamot, too. Yay royal weddings!

Thanks to Nicole for the sample! I’ve really been enjoying the Earl Grey batch!

Sip down! Thank you for this one nicole this is a clearly a yunnan tea and is another delicious tea from capital teas. This might be the last sample that I have from Nicole, though I’m not 100% sure since my tea stash is back home. Hanging out at the cottage means whatever teas I tossed in the box to bring up with me whenever I can spare a moment. The rain is coming down now so we’re hold up in the house, listening to music, playing board games while outside the food is cooking on the fire :)

This isn’t my favorite rooibos. The almond flavor tastes very subtle. It’s not unpleasant, but I wish the flavor is stronger. Maybe some cream would help? I did add in sugar but maybe more?

This is easily one of the best Earl Grey/EG blends I’ve tried. SO DELICIOUS. Surprisingly light for a black tea. The bergamot wasn’t overpowering, and the floral taste is so light that it acts as more of a garnish than an actual flavor. Lovely.

(Also, please please I hope Capital Teas keeps this one in stock for a while, even after royal wedding fever has died down. It’s delicious.)

I fell in love with the smell of this and had to have some. Steeped, the tea is pretty delicious. The blueberry taste is not as strong as the other blueberry rooibos I’ve tried (Teavana) but I really like this too. And with a spoonful of sugar, delicious, though it was also drinkable without.

This was the free sample today when I wandered into their Dupont Circle location this morning. It was nice but wasn’t something I’d normally drink. It was very herby, and tasted almost medicinal. I think it would have been better iced.

I might have steeped this for too long. It was very dark and had an acrid taste. Basically, it reminded me of a stronger version of the standard black teas I’ve had in the past that I haven’t liked. (I tried it with rock sugar first and added half-and-half later, but it didn’t taste good either time.) I didn’t bother resteeping the leaves and went straight to a different tea to cleanse my palate.

(Tea from silentrequiem. Thanks!)

sipdown! (211) mmmm another fine tea from nicole I think i accidentally over steeped this a little but i can still get the flavours in this tea. I really like this one, though if i didn’t mess up steeping this, it’s a little stringent for me. or…because it’s a cousin to darjeelinsg, that’s what i’m getting here. What i love about this tea are the under notes happening here. I cant quite place the taste but it’s somehow familiar to me. either that or lack of sleep has made me disfunctional..but at least i’m getting some stuff done..even if it’s as silly as sorting pictures…

sipdown! yes…from nicole again haha. I am really digging this one today! I think part of why this is so enjoyable is that it doesn’t taste like that artificial cherry taste that i’ve come to expect in most cherry teas. It also smells so yummy! I’m not great at picking out “fig” in anything but there is another taste that i’ll have to assume is the fig. The black base is mostly in the background of this tea, but that’s no issue for me because the flavours are so tasty! thanks nicole!

For a smoky tea it’s not very smoky. I love Lapsang Souchong because of the smoky taste so I was disappointed in this blend.

A good friend of mine has a really sweet daughter-in-law who lives near this shop, and sent her this because she knows how we love tea!

My friend was surprised that the color in the cup was so light and wondered if she should steep it longer. I opened the tin, and nary a tea leaf did I see. I looked at the label, as I hadn’t seen the name of it yet. Ah. No need to steep it longer, this is the right color. There is no tea in this!

She was surprised and I had to explain what it means when the tin says tisane, and how it must have camellia sinensis of some sort in there to be called “tea.” This is why it was classified as a tisane on the tin.

This had a very true, rich, chocolate aroma, as it consists of nothing but cacao shells. It is fairly light and we drank it without additions. We paired it fruit – blueberries and melon cubes.

I think real chocoholics would love this. This is not a rich, creamy, hot chocolate-y type of tisane so don’t think of things like Florence from Harney and Chocolate Cream by Tea Frog. This has lots of dry unsweetened cocoa flavor and a slight edge of bitterness that coffee lovers would enjoy. It was good, but I do prefer TEA!

Back in December, the Yelp elite event of the month was dinner at a pop-up restaurant followed by Totem. Cirque du Soleil, FOR FREE. I was all over that as I’ve never seen a Cirque show. It was Totem! So when Amy oh offered me this in a swap I had to have it.

This tea is nothing like Totem in my opinion. Then again I have no idea what the point of Totem was other than to make me feel inferior and useless as I will never ever be able to flip bowls on gigantic unicycles or roller skate around in a 1.5 meter wide platform.

Hot, this is not so great. It really has no flavor to it other than that it’s tart. I let it cool off and it was WAY better to have iced. It was still tart but it actually had flavors to it, mostly the papaya at this point.

I really am not a fan of green/mate blends and I’m glad this actually worked out with Capital Teas’ instructions.

Seems to be very high caffeine, felt the effects almost immediately. Nice flavor.

This tea is incredibly juicy! It has an astringency almost sourness that you might get drinking orange juice. I am finding that fruity tisanes are not really my favorite flavor. However, this tea is so full of fruity flavor and it smells incredible. I think I will try mixing it with some plain rooibos or black. For those who like fruit tisanes this might be a great choice.

If I had to trim the pantry down to a dozen or so essentials (ha! put two tea packets in a basket and leave them unattended, they mate and multiply!) I think this one would be in it. Just a nice, clean, not-too-astringent Ceylon that needs no fussing, no additions.

Trying to re-start the digestive system after an evening of oh-no- I can’t-get-sick nausea, this was a good start. Basic. Sturdy.

My appreciation to Nicole for introducing this one to me!

This is one of those nice nondescript black teas that are just flat good to drink; no one aspect asserts itself, but you look at your cup five minutes later and it’s gone. Just slips right past you comfortably.

Not a huge wake-up kick, but (for once) I didn’t need one … jet lag and intense schedule caught up with me and I slept from 9 pm to 7:15 this morning. Can’t tell you the last time I did that.

This is a fine and smooth Ceylon—great for breakfast, and thanks to Nicole!

Not rating it yet, because I’m not sure.

I was very excited about this one. It’s tied in cute little bows, so adorable! and it smells fantastically jasmine-y. The shop lady said it’s her favorite jasmine… along with H&S. Which, I’m not fond of.

I didn’t measure the amount of tea, take the water temperature, or time the brewing, and now I wish I had. It’s bitter. I’m on the second steep and it’s still bitter. It has a bitter aftertaste.

It still (even on the second steep) has a delightful jasmine smell, just a bitter taste. And the taste reminds me more of an oolong than a green, so I’m not sure what the base is (I have no ingredients list, either on the packaging or on the website).

The leaves, now that they’ve uncurled, remind me of a mu tan white, but the flavor isn’t that at all (thank goodness, because I really don’t like that). I don’t know what the base is at all.

I’m going to have to try this again under more controlled conditions and see if it’ll come out better. Right now it’s definitely not worth the expense.

The lavender is quite strong.