Essencha

I love the vanilla flavor in this tea. Below that is the tastiest green rooibos and some lemongrass, maybe something fruity. This is just so refreshing and good. Huge fan.

Lemongrass is not my favourite thing, but added with vanilla and the other stuff in this blend and it’s pretty decent.

Thanks to Pia M for this sample.

My first genmaicha. It was a bit more nutty than I would have liked but still a very nice tea.

What a great tea. It is as dark green in person as in the picture. Sweet and slightly grassy. A special treat when you are able to get it. Highly recommend.

Beautiful tea. I was very excited to try a white tea from Ceylon and it didn’t disappoint. Smooth and floral, even though not as floral as Silver needle.

(Notes taken from my own comments after Cofftea’s tasting note on Den’s Teas Matcha Kaze, to which she added drinking chocolate):

Well, that was truly inspired, Ms. Cofftea!

I had to wing it on the amounts of chocolate and milk, lacking measuring implements here, but as a gesture of compensation, I did use my chasen, which survived just fine. :-)

One scoop of Essencha’s Jade Bliss Matcha plus 3 spoonfuls of Lake Champlain’s Aztec Hot Chocolate added to some amount of unsweetend vanilla almond milk heated just to the point of small bubbles forming on top.

Holy moly. This was nothing less than exquisite liquid truffle. I wish I could sigh and say that oh, I couldn’t possibly have something this rich more than once a week, but that would be a bald-faced lie. I’ll probably do it again before the day is done.

I’ll be playing close attention to any future tweaks you make to this, Ms. Cofftea. The only thing I’ll do differently next time myself is drink it while it’s hotter. I, too, only taste the matcha “in the very back”, and I like the way it works. Maybe I’ll try a different chocolate next time—I do have one that isn’t spicy but has notes of almond and orange in it. That could be brilliant, I think.

There really isn’t much oomph to either the chocolate or the mint here, and maybe that’s indicated by the “smooth” modifier. There’s nothing offensive about this one, no odd taste at any point, but it’s just not that interesting or exciting. I have a whole 8 ounces of it, though, and while I’ll certainly work my way through it quickly enough, I don’t think that I’ll be in a hurry to replace it.

For a chocolatey tea, I adore Teavana’s Haute Chocolate. No mint, but it’s got a little kick of pepper… if that kind of spicy is your thing (as it is mine), I’d check out that one.

(A steep time of 8 minutes or more means that I’ve made it in my Rhapsody… so it steeps as long as it takes me to drink it!)

(A steep time of 8 minutes or more means that I’ve made it in my Rhapsody… so it steeps as long as it takes me to drink it!)

(2nd steep is always as good as the first!)

This is totally one of my desert-island teas right now. I love, love, love chai and am sticking to rooibos or low-caffeine as much as I can during pregnancy. This one is perfectly delicious, with or without the agave nectar and rice milk I frequently add to it.

(A steep time of 8 minutes or more means that I’ve made it in my Rhapsody… so it steeps as long as it takes me to drink it!)

I have an order in with Essencha for this, my near-daily morning wake-up, and it’s on back order! Their web site assures that by the time something’s listed as backordered that it’s probably already on the way to their warehouse, but I’m not sure what I’d do without this in my cupboard.

(Oh, I know exactly what I’ll do: My white Ayurvedic chai from Teavana will be here Saturday and I’ll spoil myself for a little while…)

I wake up for this one! I’ve tried so many varieties of Moroccan Mint tea—“Berber whiskey”, as it’s known over there—and this one tastes more like what I grew to love in North Africa than any other. Sweeten it if you like—I sometimes use rock sugar—but it’s not necessary.