Herbal Infusions

I am so confused as to why I loved this so much the first time, and am barely able to finish it this time around. It smells like many of HI’s and Della Terra’s chocolate blends, and it… just is bleh in the flavor department. Astringent, faint chocolate cookie, and black tea.

Methinks I need to put more leaf into my Timolino, as an aside, because most of my teas made it in seem to feel weak of late. Which is weird, considering I’ve measured it several times.

Also… yay for me… I’m down almost 60 teas today, due to three enormous packages and two smaller bags being sent out shortly. Finally under 400!!

Wow. This smells divine. Definitely like milk and cookies! Even steeped, the smell remains, and my office space smells lovely.

Hot, this is perfect. Like, I couldn’t imagine anything better. Creamy, buttery, and dark graham cookie – kind of perfection. Zero astringency or bitterness. I did make sure to overleaf slightly (1.25 tsp per cup) and had the water just below boiling for steeping. I did steep it WAY too long again though, and yet, still perfect.

Once cooled however, the tea gets bitter and astringent, in an icky way. Some sugar helps slightly (it was perfect as-is when hot), however it’s still really drying to the palate.

Note to self: only drink this hot. It’s excellent there, and less than excellent if I wait too long. Giving it a high rating for the taste when it’s excellent.

This is a weird tea. I think I’ve gotten used to Simpson & Vail’s amazing Candy Cane (rooibos) that I’m comparing all other candy cane -like teas to that one. This one? Uh… well it’s something other than candy cane.

Most of what I’m getting here is a musty licorice. Chamomile, perhaps? I normally like licorice, and lemongrass (which is definitely in here too). However I’m getting zero mint, zero creamy, just this really weird floral hollow taste after the licorice.

With this lovely review, would anyone else like to try it?

Hmmm. Still not crazy about this one. Maybe I over-steeped it? The base feels a bit off tonight.

On to my 9th Herbal Infusions tea!

Why I am so sleepy? This is my 7th tea with caffeine in it today. The base is really nice – I’m starting to identify this from some of the other blends.

The Chai isn’t as spicy as I thought Chai would be, but it’s nice.
Everything is nice.
I’m gonna grab some jelly beans now.

(I’m so sleepy. Maybe it’s because we’ve had people over for 11 hours and I have a Doctor Who episode to watch, and a Dean/Castiel fic I’m halfway through and I also wanted to see if there was anything on Boxing Day worth buying)

Hi guys!
/sleepy wave

ETA WHOOPS! I thought this was the Masala chai. I guess that’s why I didn’t get ANY chai spices from it and was confused. I do remember it being soft and minty. LOL. (dumbass)

Uhh, sipdown, and pour out.

So extremely astringent with a side of bitter. I even steeped at 185F.

Too bad because it smelled SO GOOD dry.

Now to find another tea to drink!

Whoops. Unlike last time, (oh gods, this note entry font is awful (I went back to web page fonts because I couldn’t see what was bold and what wasn’t in my work email)) I steeped at 3 minutes. And it’s all HELLO!BASE.

2 minutes is definitely better.

Had to add honey to drown out some of the base flavour.

Have I mentioned I don’t care for the base tea? Interestingly, the Marshmallow Snowflake is fine. None of the others have been. Hmm…

(2.5 tsp, 14 oz, 3 min)

Yeah. Overleafed, 185F for just over 2 minutes. Not too bitter, although I still don’t like the base tea.

Nice apple flavour. I need more apple teas without loads of cinnamon, please and thanks!

Yum! Apple cider tea!

So good with a bit of honey. It’s nice that it’s not loaded down with cinnamon, but I want more ginger. :) (I love ginger, though, so most teas that are “ginger” need more!)

It was so insanely cold today that I made this to help me keep warm.
It didn’t really taste that good in my timolino.

Damn.

Also, bringing teas for the office doesn’t help anything if you don’t bring anything to STEEP YOUR TEA. >:| The boss brought me a double double from Timmies so that was acceptable.

And here’s my 10th Herbal Infusion tea! Woooooo.

So yes. THIS is the Chai. Not this (http://steepster.com/cavocorax/posts/210728). It smells spicy like you would expect and I think maybe that there’s sandalwood or something in there to make it stand out? There’s something woodsy in here and I like it.

Now on to the first sip: O.M.G. what was that? There is something seriously spicy in there. Not spicy enough for my bf who took a sip of it and called me a wimp, but spicier than I expected in my tea. Interesting! I’m sure milk and sugar would tone it down but I like this.

This is definitely an interesting interpretation of Pumpkin Pie. This lacks the usual spices one would associate with a pumpkin pie tea. Instead this is fruity. The rooibos is present but there are other flavors such as dates maybe or figs perhaps. I really don’t know what is going on in this cup. It is not bad but I would never have guessed pumpkin pie.

Yep, another earl grey this morning.

When it’s not straight EG, I’m finding them quite delightful right now. Wisps of memories, rather than POW :)

So yeah. I enjoyed this tea this morning. Not something I’ll be sad to sipdown, but enjoyable enough.

~ahem. BANDERSNATCH BUMBLEYSOCKS! It’s *&^%$%& snowing! And I have to go to work to rescue some bacteria. I was supposed to do a whole lot of science, but I won’t be able to spend 3-4 hours there without getting stuck.

ARGH.

Anyways. This tea is delightful. Not too much ‘blergamot’ as Sil says. It’s nice and sweet with that marshmallow flavour. This is definitely an earl grey I can get behind!

I actually forgot how much I like this one, especially compared to other teas of theirs where the ickiness of the base really shows through. (Sorry guys. I really don’t like your base tea!)

Ahh! There are snowflakes in my tea!

I went out today to have brunch, open presents, and watch the Hobbit with some friends. It was all great, but I kind of dreaded coming home. I have a furry barnacle who is either at my side or looking for his buddy. Last night he kept on pushing me off my pillow, and I’d wake up and it felt like it took forever to figure out why I was so uncomfortable!

Now that I’m home, it’s time to sit down with a book, drink ALL the tea, and cuddle with the cat.

This is what I started with, because I saw a couple reviews in my feed. It’s a decent Earl Grey! They’re still not my favourite, but I’m glad I have a couple very different ones to choose from. This one has a lingering sweetness, even though the single snowflake sprinkle didn’t manage to fully dissolve. I’m drinking it with milk (my dad would be horrified), and thoroughly enjoying it. I don’t think I’ll be sad when it’s gone, but I will happily drink it all up. Soon, I hope. I have to get through some of these teas!

And here’s this one again. Is this a sencha?

I don’t even know if I’ve had a sencha so I’m not sure where I’m getting this idea from, but it makes me think of sencha and cherry. And it’s sweet but also just a little salt. I sear I’m picking that up. It’s intersting, but not my favourite blend.

Just looking at reviews earlier and I’m reminded I will need MOAR moose tracks!

I’m on 8/12! Well maybe I have hope for getting through all of these.

(Probably not!)

The cherry in this is interesting. It’s like the cherries using in baking – very strong and sweet. I think I may have used too hot of water for the green tea as it’s almost… salty? But when I rescue my variable kettle from tea jail tomorrow or the next day I can do it again properly!

Still my favorite of the cacao teas, and even more so when it’s slightly sweetened and steeped ridiculously long. Had a cup last night that I fully enjoyed, and am now re-steeping another cup for later. Yum!

When I want a Mexican Hot Chocolate, this is what I drink instead now. So delicious, knowing that’s exactly what this is (or, originated from), although the label – while authentic and correct, technically – is misleading. Had a lovely cup last night, and the smell alone lifted my spirits.

Again, this tea needs renaming, and I’m putting it forward to the gent over at Herbal Infusions with my suggestion. For those wanting “vanilla”, you’ll fail to find it. If however you’re looking for a true cacao like you’d get in Mexico, replete with history (look at my last tasting note for those details), this is definitely a go-to. More mild spice cacao than anything, and still utterly delicious.

Mexican hot chocolate (I’ve mentally changed your name now), you rock my world.

This is very unusual, and yet, I love it — although I should note this is very little vanilla, to me. If I was going by just the name, I’d be very upset. I actually had zero idea what this was when I first sipped it (yep, that kinda holiday here!) and I immediately thought, “WOW. What do I have in my house that would taste exactly like the best xocolatl I’ve ever tasted?”

Then I realized I’d cracked this open, and that answered my question.

I’m going to strongly suggest to Herbal Infusions to change the name of this tea to xocolatl, or something along those lines. This is decadent, yummy tea, and yet it’s bang on for the spices that I’ve dreamt about for years (and have had trouble re-creating): touch of heat, cinnamon, nutmeg, creamy chocolate. I actually enjoyed this more with zero sweetener.

So, poorly named, and still an excellent, satisfying, unusual tea.

EDIT: Had to look up Rosita as an ingredient, which was a bit tricky. When I found it, I laughed – this is why I’m getting xocolatl. In Spanish, this ingredient is literally called, “Flower of Cacao”, even though it has zero relation to the actual cacao plant. Even more fascinating, for me, is that it’s related to the baobab plant (something I studied for ridiculous amounts of time in Grade 3 with a teacher who loved Le Petit Prince), and is only really grown in the same part of the world that brought us Salvia and psilocybe mushrooms.

EDIT again: One more interesting tidbit! This tea has a strong similarity to the drink Montezuma drank as an aphrodisiac (and had up to 50 cups a day of it!) Another reason to rename this tea, I’d say!

The apple-ginger is an interesting mix. It’s very much apple cider with a little bit of a kick. I feel like I’m going to fall asleep right now on the computer – too much dinner and cookies? Probably. Not a bad day though! Our little bear got a lot of great toys and we had a good time visiting people.

7/12