Celestial Seasonings

Brewed up one bag of Madagascar Vanilla Red plus one teaspoon of Cruising Cranberry in 8 oz boiling water, then decanted over a cup of ice and chilled in the fridge for a few a couple hours. My idea was that the teabag would add some body, depth, and vanilla to the berry-heavy CC, which I think it did. This was a refreshing iced tisane that needed no additives. I would probably make this again as a larger batch.

feeling anxious for no real reason, maybe this will calm me down…

Rooibos supposedly has a lot of antioxidants and is therefore good for your skin. shrug can’t hurt, right?

made a big mug with frothed milk on top. MMMmmm. Very soothing. A simple treat.

Big mug with milk. Red tea is my new best friend.

Smooth, well-balanced, but no “wow” factor.

I used 2 tea bags and 12 oz. water, next time I’m going to try 3 bags just for fun. I added a little agave nectar and cream—yummy! This tea has a lot of chai flavor but I could definitely taste hints of chocolate and caramel. I wish it wasn’t a caffeinated tea so I could drink it at night for dessert…it would be perfect for that.

Enjoying a nice cup of the 1990s before bed. Lazy, leave the bag in the cup raspberry sweetness…just a touch of honey. Pure nostalgia.

Oh, nostalgia! This tea tastes like the ’90s! My first creaky, crazy house – rented. I can picture the orange (!!!) formica countertops in the kitchen, and my green kettle. I must have drank about 50 boxes of this stuff. I still like it on late, lazy nights with the bag in the cup the whole time and a squeeze of honey.

I’ve been drinking this a lot lately since Green tea is a magic drug, and I’ve been having health issues. Green tea is supposed to be healthy, and whether or not this tea is, I’ve been drinking it. And I like it. Not very strong, but not very weak, this is a good middle of the ground type of green tea. Yes, it’s bagged, but whatever. That just means I can brew it up, let it set while I cook up whatever, and then drink it quick, or sip it slow. Either way, it’s not crazily caffeinated to the point where I might lose my mind, and it’s comfortable. Just don’t let the last little bit of tea in the mug go cold with the bag still in, or else it gets horribly bitter and you’ll wish you could’ve had something else that morning.

This tasted like a non-sweet peach when no sugar was added. So obviously, I added sugar. About two spoons of sugar this time which was just enough to make this taste more peachy. The smell of this tea bag was mostly peach and something I can’t identify. There was no string for the tea bag, so a spoon had to be used. I think this tea is flavorful enough to make a second cup, but beyond that I don’t think it will taste right. Nice, but kind of boring. Maybe as an iced tea (I haven’t tried it as an iced tea yet), but hot peaches? Kinda odd. Not really anything special unless you are a huge fan of peaches. I do like peaches, but it doesn’t taste of peach as I wanted it to be.

When I sat in church yesterday and noticed my eye twitching uncontrollably (this is a new thing for me), it occurred to me that I should probably switch to decaf for a little while. (I was paying attention to the service, honest.)

So this morning I broke out my herbal tea sampler. Now, I enjoy lemon. I’ve been known to eat them right off the rind. But I don’t necessarily want that bitterness in my tea. This may be salvaged by a bit of sugar, lemonade-style, but I’m certainly not adding sugar to my tea at 9:00 in the morning (or, well, ever).

I rather like this smell of this one, but the drinkability leaves something to be desired. (Hey, Firefox, why isn’t “drinkability” a word?) It’s tart on the way down and leaves a fuzzy taste on my tongue. Man, I need some good decaf options.

edit: I’m decreasing this rating because I couldn’t finish the cup. How disappointing.

Very light as usual, but today it’s so cold, it’s all about the HOT leaf juice, not its flavor.

Back, more or less, to the land of the living after four weeks of unplanned sick leave. As it is, there wouldn’t have been much for me to post - it’s been so torturously hot in our area the thought of a hot drink made me cringe. That and my beverages, out of necessity, were running toward IV fluid and Gatorade.

But now that I’m back at work with air conditioners running full blast, a nice morning cuppa is quite pleasant, such as good ol’ Celestial Seasonings, which I’ve reviewed at http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/1007/tea-review-celestial-seasonings-authentic-green-tea/.

Happy Wednesday.

A nice bagged alternative for the times when you just don’t want to fuss. The white tea erases a little of the green-veggie aftertaste you get in a lot of teabag greens. I’m thinking it will ice down well.

Can’t do it….don’t even want to talk about it…backlogging….eeeeeeeeeek

After a four-hour car trip with my mother, I put on a kettle of water. “Why are you making tea now?” she asked, at 11:00 at night.

Why not?

I went with this; it’s a good wind-down tea. It’s calming and spearminty. I don’t recall a whole lot more about it, since it was 11:00 at night and all, but it was a good selection for a late-night fix right before bed.

One of the first herbal teas I ever drank. Still one of the better ones too. Crisp, lively flavor.

The flavor is mild, similar to most white teas that I’ve tasted. As it cools a bit though, the peach flavor comes through very nicely with no over-steeped sensation. It smells great, and I like the blend of flavors very much, as I can imagine peach, pineapple, and floral notes. It just takes a while to get there; for the first few minutes it tastes like hot water.

Boring and bland. Rather have a rooibos before bed.

I cold-brewed this overnight on Saturday and the end result was surprisingly good. The resulted tea is, of course, bright pink due to the hibiscus but the tangerine stills manages to make its presence known on the end of the sip. It is delighfully floral which was a bit tart when the tea was hot, but luckily turned to just a light sweet taste when cold. My husband has been drinking the tea constantly, in fact, I only had one glass of it before he was able to finish off the gallon pitcher. Needless to say I will be making another gallon today. This one is receiving a slight ratings boost because it is MUCH better cold than hot.