Deckan Coffee Co.

I love the tartness of the cranberry taste. Some how, it seems very different from the tartness in hibiscus (which I don’t like). It’s funny that it has hibiscus but not cranberry in the ingredients. It’s very refreshing. I needed a change from some of my other caffeine free teas. They all seemed to be focused on making me sleepy. (But that was obviously my poor choice; I mean if I choose Sleepytime Vanilla and Soothing Caramel Bedtime what do I think they are going to be like!) This tea has a bit of freshness and liveliness that I need in the middle of the afternoon. With some sweetener it tastes almost like a nice cranberry juice. In a good way. I have a feeling that this will be wonderful cold this summer. This tea reminds me of another tea, Warming Crimson Berry from Frontier Natural Products Co-op. Warming Crimson Berry had some peppercorn and red pepper flakes. It was a great cold weather tea. I think I could make this into a spicy winter treat. A tea for all seasons?
BTW, I really don’t like thievery limited pull down list for flavors and scents and that I can’t put in my own flavors and tastes.

I’m having some of this tea this morning, trying to clear my throat and head after allergy and asthma nastiness from cleaning yesterday. I’m also on a conference call, so that doesn’t help either. (I have nothing to add, nothing to gain from this call, but I had to be on it, because my boss might have been on it.)

This is an interesting tea, although I’m betting that it’s actually from last year and therefore old tea, but it still has a nice taste. The description on the company’s website says this is a clear tea. Mine is not. It’s pretty dusty and while it clears up pretty well when it sits, it’s not entirely clear.

It has a “fresh” flavor, even though I said I think it’s old. It is very “Green” tasting, grassy, but still light. There is nothing astringent about this tea at all. It’s quite nice. It tastes like I think spring should taste, if that makes sense.

I need to get moving, but I just don’t want to. I hate Monday mornings.

I just wanted something without caffeine tonight, warm and tasty. I decided to go with this one because tart sounded good. This one is really cranberry. Maybe not the best choice after all because my throat is a little scratchy right now. Oh well. I’m enjoying it.

Last night – didn’t get a chance to add the tea until this morning, and then I forgot to attach the picture. That’s how my day has been.

But last night…..I had this tea. I definitely taste the cranberry. It’s got that tartness from the cranberry that I love. Of course, I finished what I have of this at the house off. I never did get a chance to try this iced. I guess I’ll have to go to the store and get some more. At least it’s available locally.

This is the first pu-erh I’ve tried, and the second time I’ve tried it. The first (before I found steepster) I had Western style. It wasn’t bad.

This time, I tried it in my gaiwan. I enjoyed it much better this way. I wish I’d written down notes (I know to do this next time.) I started with a rinse, and then 20s, 30s, 45s, 1m, 1:30, 2m, 3m, 4m, 5:30 and 7m. I did this with my husband. He liked it best at about 4 and 5:30, but I liked it a lot starting at about 1-3min. I liked how I could taste the difference between the infusions. It was very earthy feeling in the first few infusions, which I liked, but I enjoyed it more as it mellowed but was still strong. Other flavors came through better then.

I was feeling nostalgic and I wanted a jasmine tea to finish my afternoon. Of course I didn’t have the one that I used to get locally that I quite liked. So I pulled out this one.

I don’t like it as much as I remember liking it. It seems really bitter. Sigh. Disappointing.

I have all this wonderful new tea, so why am I drinking this one? Sigh. My antibiotics seem to have impacted my tastebuds. (According to my pharmacist friends this is not common, but not unknown.) But it’s warm and I can smell it, so I’ll use this for a few days. Hopefully it doesn’t last long.

So I have had this cold steeping since Wednesday. Oops. It’s surprisingly still pretty good. My husband poured himself a glass and declared it tasty.

I had this one in my travel mug this morning. It’s disappointing that some of the leaf pieces seem to slip through the infuser basket. Too many broken leaves. Today, it actually wasn’t too bad, and mostly they stayed at the bottom and didn’t irritate me. (I didn’t get a chance to clean the basket out this morning, just a quick rinse, but it’s got several pieces stuck in it that I’ll have to work to get out tonight.)

I do enjoy the flavor of this one. It’s a nice floral jasmine, very well balanced with the green tea.

I like this tea, but it’s really not the best jasmine on the market. The base tea is only so-so, although the jasmine itself is quite nice. It is fair trade, so that’s cool.

Hot, gets me moving.

I had this one cold steeped with my lunch today. I should have pulled it out of the fridge sooner. I’m not too happy with the flavor this time. I put some more in the fridge to try again, only I’m only going to let it go for a few hours this time.

I love this tea in the afternoon. Nice, delicate, complex, delicious. Easy to drink. I only got a chance to have the original steeping of this one because we then spent quite a while sheltering in place in the hallway on our floor because we were tornado warned. Fun fun. Better than working, because I just wasn’t feeling that today. (I just wanted to get home to my packages. I was stuck at work almost 45 minutes longer than I wanted, and then because everyone was leaving at once, I was stuck in horrible traffic. Sigh.)

Because I was a little rushed this morning, I totally forgot to bring any of my teas from the TTBCr2 with me to the office today. My bad. That is the downfall to iced matcha latte, because it takes more actual effort than just throwing some tea in my mug and letting it steep for however long it’s supposed to, because steeping can happen while I’m pilling the cat. Iced lattes cannot just make themselves while I pill the cat.

So the new teas were forgotten at home.

Fortunately, I have teas at work. And this one sounded good. I do quite like it and its simplicity but complexity.

And it can be resteeped, which is an added bonus!!

And a slight whine here while I finish my lunch. I’m obviously distracted today. I went to the salad bar at the place down the street (amazeballs salad bar!) and grabbed the little container for my dressing when I started. I never put dressing in the container. I did put the empty container in the little box with my (beautiful, incredibly colorful) salad, though.

But at least naked salad goes well enough with this tea.

This is one of my go-to teas. It’s just delicate and nice. I find it comforting.

It’s been a long week, and a long day. I just need something to get me through. I’m having a hard time concentrating on what I should be doing.

I really like this tea. A lot. I’ve moved to this for the afternoon and hopefully these leaves will get me through. I get multiple infusions from this one, and that makes me very happy.

I quite like this one. Light, delicate flavor, but complex, especially on later infusions.

I’m drinking at work where I really don’t know the water temps. I put cold water from the tap (just a little bit) in my mug and then add hot from the coffee maker. This one I count to about 14 in my head for the cold water – the faucet has very little flow due to a flow restricter in the faucet.

This one is better this time than the last, but it’s still not outstanding. I think it needs honey, which I don’t have in the house.

{ETA} Yes, I have decided that this would be much better with honey. It’s actually tasting like a floral honey to me, just missing the sweetness. Ah well.

I hope this one grows on me more. I wound up getting distracted and oversteeped this. I hope that’s what it is. It’s not bad, but it’s not as good as I hoped it would be. It was just kinda okay. It bloomed beautifully as soon as water touched it, both on my nose and in the infuser. It overflowed the infuser on me, actually.

I wanted something without caffeine mid afternoon. Yes, I was dragging, but I also figured that too much caffeine might not be i my best interest.

I’m really starting to enjoy the flavors on this one. It got me through my conference call and the end of the work day.

At first, I thought this wasn’t going to help my stomach. Acid reflux was pretty bad. And then all of a sudden, it was so much better.

I love the color of this tea,

My stomach was bothering me this morning, so I thought this sounded like a good one to have of what I have at work. I really like the balance of the chamomile, mint and citrusy flavors. None seems to overwhelm the others. After drinking, my stomach was settled down and I was much better able to concentrate on work.

I love the color of this one. It’s just rosy. A little bit minty, a little bit citrusy, a little bit floral, but not too much of any one. Nice and relaxing. I need to try this one iced.

Just enough pearls left for one more mug here at work. Hmmmmm…comforting.