Cornelia Bean

GCTTB

I loved how this one looked dry but when I brewed it up it was just too much hibiscus for me. Maybe someone who loves hibiscus would enjoy this one. I just couldn’t get past the heavy hibiscus taste.

Cooking TTB #18

Sometimes I try a tea that just makes me think I’m broken. I thought I was tasting something mango-like and didn’t at all associate it with rose until I read the description….what the heck? Those two things are soooo not the same. I don’t know what’s wrong with me sometimes. This was good, but not my favorite (of either mango or rose flavored blacks).

Just the right amount of smoke when I’m in the mood for a smokey tea but not quite as smokey as straight up lapsang souchong.

My sweetie had Cornelia Bean custom blend this one, after we had a tea mishap the other day and ended up dumping their whole tin of Russian Caravan from the Tea Emporium/Seven Sisters on the stove and floor.

Nicely balanced and smokey, very similar to other Russian Caravan blends I’ve had. A good start to the morning.

Cooking TTB #2

Get ready for a backlog bonanza…

This was surprising! It smells divine and exactly like a creamy lemon cupcake or something. The only thing I was a touch disappointed by was the fact that the creaminess only comes out in flavor and not in mouthfeel. I was also happy that this wasn’t too green-tasting. I would definitely pick some of this up if I were placing an order!

This was a lovely introduction to Cornelia Bean teas :)

This mornings cup. Steeped for 3:30 and it was malty, bold and delicious.

Oh my, this is delicious. If you like really bold and very malty, this is it.

This tea doesn’t appear anywhere in Cornelia Bean’s site or even the samples that are out for smelling, but I expressed interest in Yunnan Golden Rain and malty blacks in general, and this was suggested. It’s a house blend that’s the daily cup for the family that owns Cornelia Bean.

This is a blend of Assam CTC and whole leaf Dian Hong. I was a bit afraid that the CTC would steep up much faster than the Dian Hong, but they assured me that they is a nice cup, and they were right.

I did a three minute steep, which I think is the upper limit of what you’d want to do, unless you plan to add lots of milk and sugar. Three minutes yielded a thick, bold cup with lots of flavour and just a bit of bitterness and astringency.

The liquor is dark brown and smells of baked bread, sweet potato and malt. So much malt. The sip is malty and slightly bitter, and then towards the end, there’s a burst of creamy sweetness that is very mouthfilling. Sweet potato lingers on the finish.

This is a perfect breakfast tea. Lots of flavour, lots of caffeine (I’m assuming – it feels like there is), thick and mouth filling. I’m enjoying this straight, but I also will try it with milk and sugar at some point.

I’m also very tempted to make up a cup of Irish Breakfast to compare, since that’s my usual go to tea if I need something really bold.

This is another Cornelia Bean tisane that I’m not sure why they called it “chai”. It definitely has some chai spices in it, but it’s really quite light and doesn’t say chai to me. It is, however, delicious.

The dominant smell of the dry leaf is ginger, lots of really sweet ginger, with some cinnamon, cardamom, and I want to say raisin (pretty sure there’s no raisin in this.)

Taste wise, it’s quite light. Up front is ginger and lemongrass, and then the coconut, cinnamon, cardamom and clove pop up. This is quite naturally sweet. It has a slightly cookie-ish quality to it – more in the smell than the taste.

Super easy to drink and a really enjoyable combination of flavours.

Sampled in store.

I think we all had the opportunity to sample about a thousand different but similar pumpkin teas this fall, and I kind of had my fill. I rolled my eyes a bit at seeing another pumpkin tea in the holiday line up, but it both looked and smelled different from any of the others I’ve had, and it is.

I’m not sure why this is called a chai, because it’s almost all fruit and is pretty light on spices. The dry tisane smelled slightly fruity and sweet, but mellow, and a bit squash-like.

Steeped this was a gorgeous bright pink – thankfully from beet, not hibiscus! Flavour-wise, this is light and fruity and unlike any other pumpkin tea I’ve had. A bit sweet, a hint tart, and with a really lovely earthy note from the pumpkin and beets.

I didn’t pick any up because I’m just not allowed, but if I wasn’t on tea buying hiatus I would definitely pick some up.

Sampled this in store today and it was alright but not enough maple flavour to make it really stand out.

Cooking TTB #17

Up to this point, all of the chocolate mint teas I’ve tried have had a rooibos base. I like this one so much better! It smells like you just melted Andes Candies into your cup and brews up to a beautiful deep chocolatey brown. The base is very smooth and provides a nice foundation for the sweet mint and chocolate flavors. My only complaint is that the mint flavor overwhelms the chocolate for me. I want to try this one with milk and see if that brings out the creaminess of the chocolate a bit more. Another keeper!

Cooking TTB #15

A good lemon tea is hard to find! I’ve had way too many that were like drinking a cup of Pledge. This one was a pleasant surprise…very smooth and creamy with a nice natural-tasting lemon flavor. There is just a bit of a tart bite at the end of the sip. A very refreshing tea!

Cooking TTB #13

This tea looks just like grass clippings, which scared me a bit! But Anlina had given it such a great review, I had to try it out. I’m so glad I did! This is quite possibly the best green tea I have ever had: smooth and buttery with lots of rich nutty flavor. I could drink this stuff all day…

Cooking TTB #8

Not quite sure what the flavoring is supposed to be on this one, but I got a strong rose scent and a flavor that was floral but also slightly fruity…it reminded me of peaches. This was a delicious start to my day!

Cooking TTB #7

Mmm, this is nice! It has a very rich, creamy mouth feel that really does remind me of eggnog. The flavor is mostly vanilla, with a little bit of coconut and just a hint of pineapple. Another keeper!

I’ve been curious to try this one since Anlina reviewed it a few weeks ago and she was kind enough to include a sample for me in the Cooking TTB. I haven’t had many dessert teas with a white base before, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. This is lovely! It is light and smooth, but still very flavorful…lots of caramel/toffee and just a hint of hay from the base. So glad I got to try this! Looking forward to sampling more teas from this brand.

Sipdown (125)!

Despite consistent sipdowns it feels like my cupboard is jumping up quite a bit again; thankfully I packed a few things for my trip to work on sipping down, and I have several more sipdowns to write about that are buried in my queue.

The bus is very quiet right now; for a while there was a kid crying but they’ve fallen asleep now. You can sort of just here the faint clicking of the keys on my laptop keyboard being struck as I write. I hope I’m not pissing people off. I did sit in the back away from everyone else though. If need be I can placate the masses by feeding them the strawberry Pocky I packed for nourishment.

To finish this tea off I had it hot. It was rather unremarkable and not so worthy of a long winded tasting note; plenty of hay notes and something a touch vegetal, but light – and then a sweet, toffee flavour. Cold brew is better. If you have this one do it cold brewed or iced.

My butt is falling asleep from sitting in the same position for an extended period of time. Darn. In between tasting notes I’m sort of just doing random quizzes. This is one I thought was pretty interesting/well done. It’s Canadian slang words. I’m curious how Americans, Europeans, or even Canadians (or people from other areas of the world) would do on it. My score was 16/20. So obviously I’m not a perfect Canadian after all.

http://www.playbuzz.com/debbiemorgan10/how-many-canadian-slang-words-do-you-know?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=prom-hotstuff&utm_campaign=how-many-canadian-slang-words-do-you-know&utm_term=FB_lookalike_fb_shares_ca

So in addition to my Teapot Calendar that hangs on the wall, I’ve decided that I also wanted to use a Box Calendar this year. For those who don’t know already, this was my second year working at a Calendar Store over the Christmas season, so if there’s such thing as a Calendar Snob I suppose you could say I am one.

This is the cover of my Teapot Calendar:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/91nxfgaVhVL.jpg

I’m very excitably waiting for February since the “theme” of the month is Jasperware Wedgewoods – and I happen to own one! This month’s tea is “Oolong” as a tea type. They always have a spot that talks about the featured teapot and then another for some other aspect of what’s in the picture. Past additional things (from last year’s calendar) have been Breakfast Teas, Tea Tins, adding sugar to tea, tea biscuits, and others. The featured teapot is a “Mythical Tea Pot” by John Rose Coalport with a half dragon half hedgehog creature on it. And yes, I immediately thought of you Anna.

But anyway; my box calendar this year is a “Word a Day” Calendar. And, today’s word is “Plethora” – An excess or over abundance; a bodily condition characterized by an excess of blood circulation, swelling, and a reddish complexion. So far I’m about 50/50 on words that are new to me and ones I already knew. For this one, I knew the first definition but not the second. So Steepster Users, my challenge for you all is to use Plethora (either of the definitions) in conversation today. I’m certainly going to try to!

Ok; now the actual tasting note…

I cold brewed this: visually it was a very cloudy/foggy light brown which actually excited me because it meant that to at least some degree the caramels in the leaf had actually dissolve despite not being exposed to hot temperatures at all.

Taste wise, I picked up on notes of sweet toffee, brown sugar, and butter. Lots of butter, actually. And then, the base was a mild hay flavour. Also, cream notes – not sure whether that was a base thing or a flavouring thing. Both, possibly. Probably flavouring though.

I only have a little of this left and I’m definitely doing it hot because I can’t remember if I’ve had this one hot before. I’m thinking not, though. Thanks again Anlina for sending this one my way!

Cold Brew!

This is the last tea in Anlina’s Secret Pumpkin package for me to try/review; the package was so full that I put it in my tea closet instead of the sample drawer, which is why I got to it last – not because I was disinterested or anything like that.

It definitely smells very rich/decadent, but steeped up it was a little milder than I was anticipating. It had nice notes of toffee, brown sugar and malt that I think were from the flavouring, and then the tea itself had some hay notes to it which were nice.

As far as “dessert” cold brews go, this wasn’t as impressive as I was anticipating but it was still good, and I think it’ll be even better hot so we’ll do that next.

Sipdown (104)!

Ok, this is the first time I’ve ever been REALLY SURE that Steepster is eating notes because I know that I did this one as a cold brew and I thought as a hot cup too, but there’s no evidence of that…

I mean, I have been crazy busy lately but I was SURE I wrote notes out for that, so darn you Steepster!

But yes, thanks Anlina for the sample in our secret pumpkin swap! This is one of my all time favourite flavour combos – ALL TIME.

Since my notes have vanished I’ll try to recap my missing notes: cold brew, which I know I did was good; I remember more pineapple than coconut and the black base wasn’t nearly as smooth as Rio’s (Camellia Sinensis) which is my favourite Pineapple/Coconut tea – but this held its own. I’m not 100% sure if I actually did a hot cup, but I thought I had? If I did, I’m sure it had the same balance of notes as the cold brew.

This one was treated a little different; instead of milk or creamer like I originally thought’d be interesting I added a Pina Colada drink mix. It definitely changed the flavours; the pineapple was much sharper/distinct and had more if a “zippyness” to it, and a candied/artificial sweetness (but not bad artificial). The black base seemed smoother, and the coconut for sure more masked (still present though).

Thanks Anlina for the sample! I enjoyed trying it a few different ways, even though Steepster IS BEING A DINK a wont reflect that.

#Missingtastingnotes
#Teaaddictproblems

This is one of the many teas that came out of the Great Canadian Travelling Teabox when it made its stop at my house. It’s currently miserably cold outside – 27 celcius with the windchill (that’s about -17 for you Americans) so I wanted to try something warming and spicy.

It certainly smells spicy, though the flavours I taste are mostly orange and sweet cinnamon. It’s not bad for a red rooibos and I find the base actually works fairly well with those two flavours in particular. I wouldn’t pay money for it but that’s just my personal preferences as I’m not a huge red rooibos fan.

This commercial interruption has been brought to you by the lovely Anlina and Cornelia Bean.

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