Fully Loaded Tea

Sipdown! I made this iced. I like it even better cold than I do hot! Berrylicious!

I was away at my friends place this weekend and this tea was one of the selections offered to me. I was pleasantly surprised. I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did. It’s a full bodied fruit tea with a strong berry flavour. It’s not bitter or acidic like some fruit teas tend to be. This one is a nice balance of being tart and sweet and the berry flavour is deep, just like the colour of the tea itself when steeped. I liked it so much that my friends gave me the rest of it to bring home. I happen to be drinking it right now as I sit here and type. An enjoyable tea to relax with during the evening.

Jeez this one requires a low temp. I steeped it for just 2 minutes and it’s bitter. Water temp was probably around 180, and it’s bitter and sad.

I went to take my trash outside to let this cool for a little bit and got talking to the one and only neighbor I actually have ever spoken to, only to find out he is moving back to Colorado . I wish I saw people around here more often, I guess it doesn’t help that I am gone all the time on weekends? But it was nice to talk to someone and waste time while I await UPS to bring my Adagio delivery and I can leave …for the weekend.

Anyway. thank you for this bag, TeaEqualsBliss! I just wish I used a lower temperature on it, because I like how there are some floral notes with the strawberry. And even after all the bitterness, I can feel the tartness of a berry on my tongue.

I have another bag from this company, can’t remember where I got it, but I may also give it a try while I’m waiting forever. I think it’s just a tisane though so I can’t mess it up!

the first cup was a bit different but it grows on you

Well. It would appear that my Kusmi package in Limbo is definitely lost for good. The danish post people have given up finding it (I filled out a form for them to search for it) and are now recommending that I contact Kusmi and have them start a search from that end. In spite of the fact that I explained very carefully how the package had been delivered to a package pick up place in Copenhagen by mistake and had become lost while being forwarded from Copenhagen to the place where I actually live. So I’m not sure what they think Kusmi will be able to do about it in France! Especially considering that the tracking number from their end says ‘Delivered’ as of the mis-delivery in Copenhagen by people who can’t apparently read numbers OR city names… (seriously, it’s not even close!!!)

At any rate, I think we can definitely say by now that that particular package is NOT going to show up. I shall notify Kusmi of all this, of course, and if they want to start a search from their or if they can’t help me otherwise, I don’t really care at this point. I’ve lost two packages at the same time this winter and it’s only a stroke of luck that one of them wasn’t the boyfriend’s christmas present. I’ve run out of patience with this now and I’ll just go and buy the things that I wanted that I can get at the shop I discovered recently where they have a big selection. They’ve got almost all of the things I had tried ordering from France. I’m NOT, however, saying I wouldn’t shop at Kusmi’s site again though. It’s not their fault the danish postal workers are apparently useless and careless.

Just… I’ll make those purchases next month, I think, seeing as I happened to find myself on amazon.co.uk yesterday and ACCIDENTALLY did Something Expensive…

Obviously this development (although not one that was at all unexpected) leaves me in some bad need of comfort, so I’m turning towards the third of the four things Jillian gifted me with for christmas. I’m actually combining two purposes here. One, of course, is to try out the tea that Jillian sent me, the other to see if green with strawberry is something I want to try from Kusmi when I stock up on that next month anyway. (I shall be doing Something Expensive!)

I rather like strawberry in tea, but I’ve only had it as blacks. It’s a little hard for me off the top of my head to imagine strawberry in green. Odd really, because I have no trouble with other fruits that I can think of at the moment. Just strawberry. I’ve seen Kusmi tins with strawberry green and I’ve cast them some long and pondering glances, but I’ve never actually given it a try. Somehow I’ve always lost my nerve, either because I had a difficult time imagining it, or because green wasn’t at all what I was looking for.

Jillian has now facilitated me with a solution to this problem. If I like this bag, I shall give Kusmi a chance. If I don’t like it, I can stop considering it. Simple. Jillian, it seems, can read my thoughts and guess my needs. That would be quite a feat even if she didn’t live on the opposite side of the planet.

So I’ve made me a cup of this now, and the aroma is a bit funny. It’s very fruity sweet and the green underneath is somehow only making it more so. It doesn’t give it any counter-points the way a black can do, or a dark oolong for that matter. (If any of those I shared it with still have something left of the raspberry oolong, go take a sniff at those leaves. I think you’ll see what I mean). This is just sweet on sweet which makes it smell rather a bit like strawberry flavoured sweeties. Or bubblegum. Just without being blatantly synthetic.

The flavour is very fruity! It’s easy to recognise strawberry here and there are lots of them. Maybe a bit of orange blossom as well, but nothing I would really want to put money on. The strawberries are especially coming out in the first few sips. As the tea cools a little more the green base seems to come out more. Not sure what sort of green it is, but to me it tastes a bit chinese. It’s got a yellow sort of flavour (not like yellow tea, which is something entirely different, but like the colour yellow) whereas japanese greens to me tend to be bit more like a darker green coloured flavour. This is kind pale green/yellow-ish in flavour. Somewhat buttery and a little bit grassy, but none of them overwhelming. It’s followed by that funny, almost minty aftertaste that I especially got in chinese greens too where the inside of my mouth actually feels a bit chilled.

Yes, a flavour can too have a colour. No, not all flavours have one, but some do.

The initial impression given by the aroma wasn’t really all that trust inducing, but I’ve found that it actually works a lot better in flavour than in aroma. I should have liked to see it in a good japanese sencha, but we can’t have everything. As it is, it’s actually really very nice, and yes, I am going to try the one from Kusmi.

I got this as part of a swap from Jaime. I’m drawn to disturbingly unique blends, and this one was no exception. It combines one of the things I hate (cucumbers) to one of the things I adore (white tea). Other ingredients include carrot pieces (yet another loathing), safflowers, calendula flowers, and some unnamed natural flavor.

Like the artichoke tea I tried a couple of weeks ago, this one surprised me quite a bit. It tasted like – well – white tea with a carroty aftertaste. I’ve never had a problem with the taste of carrots, just the texture. As for cucumber? Couldn’t detect that, unless it was part of the whole vegetal component in the initial mouth-swish. I approved.

I upped the steeping time by a minute and I can taste that the fruit flavour is stronger – though it’s still more of an orange-strawberry flavour than just straight-up strawberry. However, there’s also a note of bitterness creeping in – not surprising since 4 minutes is a lot even for a hardy green tea. Maybe I’ll reduce the water temperature next time.

The teabag smells quite fruity, though oddly enough the dominant scent seems to be citrus rather than strawberry. A look at the ingredients reveal that there are orange blossoms in the mix, though I’m rather surprised at how strong they taste.

The taste is fresh, smooth and ‘green’ with the fruity flavours coming at the back of each sip. Oddly enough I’m still getting a lot of citrus and not much strawberry. I’ll have to adjust the steeping time and see what I get before I rate this tea. :)

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea to try!

It smells yummy! My first sip – before any additions are made – it was a little weak in taste. But I found that a tiny drizzle of agave nectar really perked the flavor right up. The strawberry and orange make a delightful combination. I can even taste notes of jasmine in there. Delightful. One of the nicest strawberry teas I’ve encountered! I like this one very much!

A smooth fruit tea with a hint of vanilla. Zero tartness, even when brewed at 10 minutes. The hibiscus here is very mild, and is more of a background note than anything.

Sweetly fruity. No hint of tart at all. It’s a very smooth, light tea. I can taste the rosehips, hibiscus, and the goji the most. I’ll probably brew it for 10 minutes next time to see if the flavors are more pronounced.

I’ve been at work less than two hours, and things are insane. Thank goodness it’s Friday, because I don’t think I could survive more than one day of this.

Then again, Monday looms on the horizon already.

Drinking my last bag of this today for (hopefully) a gentle, calming caffeine boost.

I raise my cup to you, and wish you a Happy Friday!

Am I the only one who, whilst on vacation, goes to the local grocery store to see what brands of tea they have? I found this one in South Carolina, and it came home with me in a rather large bag of new teas…

This one has a great flavor. The green tea is more prominent than the strawberry, but it’s flowery and has a slight buttery taste. Strawberry is the last flavor to appear. Not too strong, but not too weak either.

I absolutely adore this tea. Surprisingly sweet, strongly flavored, and dark for a white tea (I suspect the carrot colors it a bit). It’ll probably be my last caffeinated cup of the day…even though my eyelids have been drooping ever since they popped open this morning.

Today’s acting like a Monday. And I’ve not had enough caffeine to deal with that yet.

I love this tea, and it’s getting close to being gone. Perhaps it’s time for a journey to Whole Foods…

Scent is lovely; light cucumber with a hint of carrot. This brews up darker than all the other white teas I’ve had. It’s more similar to a dark oolong than to a white tea.

I was expecting it to taste more savory than sweet, ans was surprised at how crisp and sweet it actually is. There’s more of a carrot taste than cucumber. Has a lot more depth than many flavored white teas I’ve had.

A fun one from Jillian! Thanks girl!

Dry – this sort of smells like Strawberry Licorice

Wet – smells like strawberries and green tea! SURPRISE! LOL j/k

It tastes like green tea with strawberry and as a slight peppered-buttered veggies after taste mixed with strawberry.I can pick up the floral notes fading in and out thru-out the sip, too!

This isn’t very strong green tea wise or flavoring wise but it tastes pretty good regardless!

Tried it with two bags in an effort to give it a second chance and finish the box, and it just doesn’t work for me. Again, it makes a spicy tea with little other flavor besides weak tomato. There is one more bag left, and I will likely save it for a tea and cheese tasting event, paired with basil havarti.

It certainly does have whole tomato pieces, and while the brew isn’t as luscious as the box picture suggests, it does make a slightly spicy tea. The problem is that it has little flavor otherwise. I normally take my black tea with milk and sugar, and this tea makes that experience more like a supercheap cup of tomato soup. I won’t buy it again, but it wasn’t bad to try at $1.99 at Grocery Outlet.