Cornelia Bean

omgsrsly sent this one my way and i was super excited because i do love me some lime flavoured type teas and having the sage there sounded interesting. Sadly even after letting this brew FOREVER, it’s still just kind of a limey creamy sort of tea. It’s nice, but not what i was expecting of hoping for, if that makes sense. Still though, a nice cup to end the day on given my meat coma at the moment from dinner at Copa Cabana (brazillian restaurant where the meat keeps coming….).

Final Count: 182 (3 days left until steepsterversary!)

*omgsrsly*sent this one my way and i have to agree! this one is quite deliciously orange and full of bouncy, fluffy fun! :) sadly uh i drank this a while back and don’t have much to say besides…all the sipdowns today and i’m still right where i started i think lol

thanks for sending this my way VariaTEA another one i haven’t tried. As far as teas go, this one is alright. I’d be hard pressed to call this rhubarb though. it’s more a generic green fruity tea to me…still nice enough but not really rhubarb or meringue.

Great Canadian Traveling Tea Box – Round 3

This is awesome, but what was less awesome was spilling hot tea all over myself as I was reading through tasting notes on Steepster. Thankfully 1) It wasn’t quite boiling by the time this happened and 2) It was only about a 1/4 of my cup till I realized the hot liquid was coming from the mug… anywho. Apparently, my brain is a little foggy. Oh and there’s a number 3! It turns out to be delicious and I will be keeping the rest of it.

Sipdown (155/160)!

Man, this one still has me totally confused by what it’s trying to be and what it actually is. Tonight it still tastes like lemon but in a more Pledge like way (ugh!) with a very seperate creaminess to it and then a stronger hazlenut kinda thing going on.

What the fuck!?

At least this is the last cup of this strange and confusing tea, so my mind can rest a little and be at peace once more.

Unrelated but very exciting; the cast has been announced for Big Brother Season 16 in the US! Yay more Big Brother! I’m a die hard Big Brother fan (been watching since I was twelve) and I’m sure some people remember me freaking the fuck out over the Canadian BB this year. Well, prepare to have that all over again!

Sadly I can’t watch the live feeds this time around because they’re not offered to Canadian viewers which is disheartening, but I’m sure it’ll still be awesome regardless! Any other Steepsterites gonna be watching? I’d love to have someone to gush to/with.

This is the cast list: http://www.globaltv.com/bigbrother/cast/index.html?n=zach+rance

I just finished skimming profiles and I have to say no one stands out to me right now as super super awesome – although a few stand out in a negative way to me; namely Amber, Hayden, and Nicole… Ugh vain people!

But yeah; squeals of excitement!

Steeped up tonight as a caffeine free blend to enjoy while painting my nails (matte “Barney” Purple and Gold) and watching Death Note since they just added that to Netflix! I was going to start season two of GoT but I couldn’t pass up Death Note since I’ve been telling my friend Robyn I’d watch it for years now. I’m on episode 3 right now; it’s decent. I’ll finish it (and Tyrell and Tre will complain I’m putting off GoT) that’s for sure. I don’t have any character(s) I feel really attached to yet, though.

So this tea is in The Box, but I already happened to have a sample of it from VariaTEA so I just used leaf from that sample instead of the box sample. It seemed much more logical. I really had no clue what to expect from this one; there’s no ingredients list or product description here on Steepster and I haven’t seen many reviews for it from people – and the picture is even kinda fuzzy. So I was totally going in blind. When I measured it out I was pretty surprised to see lots of fruit; I was actually thinking the bits in the picture were little caramel cubes.

Taste wise; this is definitely fruity in a citrus heavy way. I felt like I was drinking a woody lemon tea similar to Della Terra’s Lemon Chiffon but without the cream element. There are other flavours here too; but they’re hard to put my finger on. Rose or something else floral? And then I want to say a nutty quality. But it’s weird!

SWAZILAND WHAT ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO BE!?

I still have one more cup of this left to try and I’ll leave it rating less until I’ve had it because right now I’m just sorta straight up confused!

Another sample from the lovely Dexter! Ohmygawd peachy goodness <3

I’m pleasantly surprised by the base green. I kind of thought it might be quick to turn bitter, but it’s actually really forgiving.

The peach is a bit soft, almost like slightly over ripe, or maybe canned peaches. The green base has a bite to it, without being bitter, which rounds it out quite nicely.

As it cools, the peach becomes more prominent, but there’s a slight bitter note to the base.

I’m actually really impressed with this one! One step closer to finding that perfect peach tea, yay! Thanks again Dexter!!!!!

Thank you so much for this one a while back Dexter3657… but I guess it’s just Dexter now. :D I haven’t seen any rooibos and roasted yerba mate blends before, but it sounds like it would be a good combination. Add those little caramel cubes and a HINT of marzipan flavor, and it’s pretty magical. I see there should be cocoa nibs in the blend, but I didn’t see them or taste them. I think it would do better without anyway. It’s a fully thought-out blend. The caramel balances the rooibos and the rooibos with the roasted yerba mate is like a rustic autumn cup. Perfect outside reading with the cooler weather today. A good one! I’ll enjoy the last few teaspoons!
Steep #1 // a few minutes after boiling // 5 min
Steep #2 // just boilied // 4 min

Because Dexter3657 is beyond amazing, I received a whole package of additions to the Project Peach sample collection. I’m known as the insane tea person here (The cleaning staff allegedly talked about my tea cupboard for about three months before someone finally worked up the nerve to ask, ‘Is that really all tea, and WHY?’) so when I picked up my mail, one of the cleaners side-eyed me and said, ‘More tea, huh?’ It did smell insanely good in my cubby, so it could also have been that.

My favourite yoga DVD is ridiculous in many ways – it’s from the mid-nineties, and Bryan Kest has long, curly hair, wears yoga jeans (?!) and is very touchy-feely while topless. Combined with his random life advice and thickly slurred lilt, it’s definitely an acquired taste… but a wonderful programme, nonetheless. It’s on YouTube, but beware of any drinking games based on him touching the curly-haired lady, or using the word ‘release’ – you will thank me in the morning.

But I digress – what I meant to say was that Kest was the first teacher who really made me work hard to get to that fluid stage, where each movement is precise and measured, but still flows into the next seamlessly. That’s the first thing I thought about when I tasted this tea. It’s like a shapeshifting scene, where the two faces exist simultaneously – there is absolutely no way I could distinguish the passion fruit from the peach in this tea, but they’re still both undeniably there – I’ve never really tasted that before, and I love it.

So yeah – the two fruit flavours work very well together, and the end result is a smooth, juicy rooibos. There is a slight tartness to the aftertaste that I haven’t decided how I feel about yet, but other than that, this adds up to a very well-balanced sip. I will definitely enjoy finishing the rest of this sample – thanks, Dex!

[Sample sent from Dexter3657 to Rome, June 2014.]

Sipdown (168/174)!

Almost done the backlog…

So, I made this hot in my timolino yesterday and it used up the whole sample from VariaTEA. Unfortunately, I was a neglectful tea drinker and I ended up sipping on it while doing closing cash counts, and I was so focused on my numbers that I hardly remember what this tasted like at all.

I vaguely recollect thinking “man, that’s strong rooibos” after my first sip, but then nothing. At least that means it probably wasn’t so bad, right? At first, my computer auto corrected my misspelling of “vaguely” to “vaginally”, which would make for a very different tasting note. And I don’t even know if the rooibos was strong because that’s what this tea is like or if it’s because I grossly oversteeped this (nine minutes) to begin with.

Welp, I guess I wont rate it.

Sipdown (168/174)!

I’ve been a lazy teablogger, and I feel bad about it. So, time to work through some backlog, because I’ve had several interesting teas over the last two days which I’ve yet to log, and I really want to explore the updates to the flavours list some more!

This was an easy sample sipdown from VariaTEA and a tea I had for breakfast in the morning. I think it says a lot in a probably bad way that this is my third Sea Buckthorn tea and I still haven’t got a clue what Sea Buckthorn tastes like! It makes my head hurt.

Basically this was a very smooth and creamy rooibos with maybe the faintest hint of generic, borderline “dry/tart” fruit? I really should have logged it after I had it while the flavour notes were still fresh in my memory. It was good; just subtley flavoured. I’d drink it again if presented the chance, but I wont seek it out either.

Sea Buckthorn what do you taste like!? Why is your flavour so elusive!?

I really like Cornelia Bean’s tisanes. This one is really good too. It’s more goji than strawberry, but cold steeped with a little white tea makes for a really nice iced tea. This makes me happy.

I couldn’t find steeping directions on Steepster so I went with my normal green steeping parameters of wait five minutes for water to cool, and steep 2 minutes.

This is a nice green tea, but I’m really not getting much rhubarb. The base is nice, so that’s a plus. There is a creaminess to it, though that could just be the base itself. After Fru P’s Rhubarb Green, this one is not overly impressive.

Thanks for sharing Roswell Strange!

Thank you VariaTEA! I don’t drink many green teas, but I enjoyed this one last night. It was a nice creamy rhubarb with a pleasant green base and the cup didn’t last long enough for me to properly review it!

That and our massive combined Lupicia order was distracting me. :/

:) I’m happy I was able to try this though! I should drink more greens.

ETA I accidentally logged this as strawberry meringue. Thanks, VariaTEA for pointing that out!

Sipdown (185/190)!

Gotta keep things short because my bus’ll be here any minute now – but cold brewed this sample from VariaTEA because I know that Tea Desire’s Prickly Pear (which is nearly identical in ingredients) is very good that way.

And I’m not surprised this is too! It’s phenomenal; kiwi, pear, melon, a little bit of a floral aspect, and just a touch tangy/sour really does equal a yummy treat! Sad to see this one go, but I still have the TD version so I’m not that broken up about it.

They really are practically the same!

Sipdown (174/178)!

Wow, look at that sipdown progress! I’m starting feel less fearful about my Red Leaf/52Teas orders arriving and any incoming swaps!

Thanks a bunch VariaTEA for the sample of this! It’s the second green from your giant package of them that has really surprised me with how good it is. For the prep I, of course, cold brewed last night while I slept. So, it cold brewed for a pretty good nine or so hours – potentially closer to eight.

Basically it’s a light green that leans towards a more buttery kind of quality – with a very creamy but somewhat generic fruitiness to it. And the fruitiness is strong and potent – just not abundantly “rhubarb”. I would maybe venture to call it somewhat more strawberry like. It’s very good though and I’m quite happy and content drinking it.

I don’t know if I’d want to buy this in any sort of quantity for myself – but I wouldn’t pass it up if offered in a swap or just served to me in general. I’m actually pretty curious how it would fair hot…

Thank you for sending this my way VariaTEA. It’s interesting to get a tea from a local company, from someone else. I really do appreciate it, because this is not one I would choose for myself.
I actually liked this. It’s sweet and caramelly with just a hint of floral in the back. I don’t normally do well with floral, but this is just a bit and seems to go well with the sweetness of the fig and caramel. Thank you for this interesting experience. I really liked it!!

Sipdown (192/196)!

This was an easy enough sipdown to take with a cold brew so that’s exactly what I did with the sample from VariaTEA since this totally just screamed cold brew.

When I opened it up to set up the cold brew the smell was intoxicating and intense and smelled so strongly of sweet, borderline overripe strawberries. I knew in an instant that I would love this tea and I was so sad to be parted with it already. The colour of the cold brew threw me off a little though; it’s was really light and pale.

Taste wise: like a strawberry bomb went off in my mouth. It really was a sensory overload in the best way ever and now I’m crushed that this is gone. So, so sad. However, that makes two Cornelia Bean blends that I’d order in an instant which is actually 2/2 tried. That’s promising, and I have lots of other Cornelia Bean samples to try out so if there are a couple more I fall in love with then who knows – there might very well be a CB order in my near future!

My browser crashed and I lost my note. Sad panda. :(

This tea is really interesting. The ingredients really made me do a double take… I mean, caramel, rose, and rosemary? What?

But the tea is pretty good! A little floral for me because I ended up with a whole rose bud in my steeping basket, but a really interesting combination of flavours.

Thank you for suggesting this one, VariaTEA! Or did I suggest it? I don’t remember anymore. :)

Looking at the ingredients, I am not surprised to find rose hips and hibiscus in this. Is it ever tart! I cold brewed some and I like a tart iced tea, but even I am trying to work out if this is a good tart or a bad tart. I want to say that the dominant flavour is cranberries, but there does not appear to be any actual cranberry in the leaf, so I take it I am tasting the tartness from the hibiscus and attributing it to cranberry. The apple is present, under the berry, but really, it is the tart hibiscus/berry you are tasting. Overall, the flavours don’t clash, but the whole blend tart, bordering on downright sour.

I am glad I brewed some of this up, and I think it is a well blended tea, but I am not sure if it is the berry blend I am looking for.

Hmm. AKA Rooibos Cream.

Yeah, IDK, VariaTEA. It’s not quite rooibos, but the rooibos is very very present. Of course, it’s screaming hot at the moment, so it might change as it cools down. Too bad I need to go sleep now. I might update in the morning (if I remember), how the tea changes when cold.

:)

Better tasting note later, for sure though.

Love it – not just nutty – this is walnut. You can actually taste the little bit of bitter that walnut skin has.
If you like walnuts, you will like this.

A big ol shoutout to VariaTEA for sending this my way!
I just finished off the rest tonight :)

A lovely tea, a lovely rooibos! I haven’t had rooibos in so long, and I actually brewed it the normal way to see if my taste has changed, but nooope. I still like my rooibos in the hottest water ever steeping in 15+ minutes. I steep it for as long as I can!

In other news, my roommate tripped and fell down the stairs this morning sooooo it’s a party at our place and my roommates and I are in her room watching Netflix and drinking tea :))