Herbal Infusions

Tried an affogato again. Still not the proper proportions as there was still a little more tea than ice cream and the tea that wasnt diluted tasted like lemon pledge again. My guess is it was also a bit over concentrated as I used 3 perfect teaspoons this time which is a fair bit for such a small amount of water volume. At least I got more than one mouthful this time so I am getting better at this.

Anyone ever had an affogato? Do you eat it? or drink it? I am confused how it works.

That confusion came through today when I attempted to use this tea to make a tea affogato. I thought the briskness of the earl grey would pair amazingly with the vanilla ice cream so I decided to give it a go. This is what I did:

1. Boiled the kettle
2. Put a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a DAVIDs tea Nordic mug
3. Put the mug in the freezer (and prayed it wouldn’t crack when I put the tea in)
4. Put 4 DAVIDs perfect teaspoons in the gravity steeper
5. Filled the steeper to just above the DAVIDs tea line
6. Steeped the tea
7. Poured it over the ice cream

The result: A mug that is still intact. One amazingly perfect spoonful of melty marshmallowy ice cream. Honestly, perfection – smooth, creamy, sweet, marshmallow, vanilla, and a refreshing citrus pop. And then the rest, not so great. Basically the ice cream melted away and left a layer of warm vanilla slush atop a much more bitter layer of significantly overleafed tea. Imagine trying to drink a can of pledge. Yeah, not so perfect anymore.

Where did I go wrong? Proportions. Not enough ice cream and too much tea. I think the strength of tea, had their been the right amount was perfect because when mixed with the ice cream it was strong enough to impart its own flavor without being bitter. Without the ice cream it was too much. So next time? Same amount of leaf but less water and more ice cream.

HELLO STASH! You have been missed greatly! It’s nice to be home.

Anyways, this tea is an old one. A VERY old one. Like 3ish years old. Alas, it hasn’t quite held up like some of my other teas. Tbh I haven’t had this straight in a while as this is mostly used for eggnog latte for which it works perfectly. Straight, however, all vanilla marshmallow goodness has faded away leaving behind an incredibly brisk earl grey. Like a punch of citrus rind to the face. At times, I get wisps of the sweet, creamy vanilla and sweet marshmallows but they are fleeting and the taste left behind is drying. Oh well.

Edit: Turns out I spoke too soon since this is now lukewarm and marshmallow perfection with just the perfect amount of blerg (which I think may be growing on me just a bit…so maybe I should stop calling it that lol)

Marshmallow goodness! Yum :)

This tea as an eggnog latte is pure marshmallowy perfection. So good!

Have you ever had a friend visit for a prolonged period of time and just found it a tad stressful and tiresome? Well, I have. I was happy a friend came to visit me from Montreal but for some reason, I just found that she was not a very easy house guest. She was just particularly demanding and at times it could be very frustrating. One thing she would do is decide at random times, no matter what we were doing, was she wanted tea. Obviously that’s not a problem in my house but I would be in the middle of doing something (i.e. feeding my super old/super sick dog who is diabetic and needs food at a specific time so he can get his insulin needle for diabetes) and she would start telling me to make her tea. I would say if she went and picked one, I would make it for her but she always wanted me to choose. Often times I would ask for her to at least narrow it down (i.e. caffeine or no caffeine and by tea type) and she would sort of groan or get a little frustrated with me and then when I did finally pick a tea, she would complain. It just made for a sour experience. I mean, when I have over 180 types of tea, it is a little difficult for me to just pick one out of a hat and have it be exactly what she wanted.

Well, this morning, she decided she wanted to try an eggnog latte (because my mom went grocery shopping last night and bought like 5 different eggnogs) and once again she told me to just pick one. So, I decided to brew this up for me and Nutmeg Cream up for her because I had those both as an eggnog latte a couple days back and thought both were amazing. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how much the eggnog itself could impact the cup so though I chose delicious teas, she once again complained it was too watery. In fairness to her, my cup had the same issue which led me to believe that Neilson’s Eggnog is just not very good and so both our cups and the rest of the eggnog got dumped. That hurt a bit because both teas are discontinued so it was hard to dump them out (especially because she also insisted on taking my favourite 16 oz Nordic mug) but they were just way too watery to be drinkable.

Oh well, what’s done is done and no sense crying over spilled milk….or in this case, spilled eggnog.

Yet another eggnog latte and the result was a creamy cup of fluffy, fluffy marshmallow goodness!!

I have had 100g of this sealed and tucked away since January but after Fjellrev’s review last night, I decided I wanted to have a cup and since I am not getting my cupboard under control anytime soon, I figured why not. I am glad I did too because I really love this tea and I missed it a lot. Sometimes it’s just nice to revisit an old friend, especially one as sweet and marshmallowy as this tasty tea.

Mmmmm…marshmallowy deliciousness.

Most of the day I have spent focusing on sipdowns but among all those teas, I decided it was time to indulge in a favorite. This is creamy and marshmallowy sweet with just the right amount of bergamot to mellow it out.

TASTING NOTE 450!

Usually I write tasting notes and only after the fact realize I hit a milestone number so last night I saw I had written 449 tasting notes and decided I would celebrate 450 with a special tasty cup.

I was initially hoarding this but then I was able to pick up more when HI reblended it so I am breaking it out to have a delicious treat! I think that was definitely the right choice because this is hitting the spot for sure. Even though it was the end of my first bag and the leaves were a little broken, I still get the awesome marshmallow earl grey flavor that is so amazing. If they actually made marshmallows that had this taste to them, I would be in serious danger of losing my weight loss progress because I would be eating them until I fell into a sugar coma. And then I would dream about them.

Anyways, this is certainly the perfect cup to celebrate my many tasting notes on steepster. I am so glad to have found this community and am honored to be apart of it. It is amazing how generous and kind you all are and you have improved my tea drinking experience immensely! Cheers to great tea and great friends :)

I am definitely going through this fast. It is just soo good. Luckily my sister preferred Nutcracker Sweet so that left the cup of this for me to enjoy. Even cooled it is delicious :)

MMmmmmm this is more like it. No need to add anything. Just steep for the perfect cup of tea each time :)

This is both my favorite Herbal Infusions tea AND my favorite Earl Grey. It is sooooo tasty and I am getting through my bag FAST! This is the one tea I am very happy to have a duplicate of because I really do love it. The marshmallow combined with the bergamot is perfect as they balance each other out while still making for a flavorful cup. Yum…

I am having this yet again because it is SOOO good. It smells like a delicious toasted marshmallow and the sweetness comes through in the cup, mellowing out the earl grey so it is not in-your-face bergamot.

This is a very tasty Earl Grey. The marshmallow adds a delicious marshmallow-y sweetness to the cup. Also, it is a creamy tea. Delicious!

ETA: This resteeps quite nicely :)

So today I shortened the steeping time to a mere two minutes and used only 1 tsp. That has helped improve the taste as it has gotten rid of any astringency and bitterness that previous cups have had. The result is a thick and slightly creamy black tea that lends itself to the notion of a cookie. Not an overly sweet cookie and there is a slight lack of flavor. Next time I think I will stick to a two minute steep but return to using 1.5 tsps. This is still not my favorite but I will continue to search for the sweet spot as it smells too amazing to give up on.

This tea smells SO amazing but the taste falls a bit short. However, when milk is added the black tea base is toned down and there is definitely a cookie taste. Not a super sweet cookie but rather a slightly burnt spiced cookie. Not bad but I have two bags of it (since Herbal Infusions sent me a duplicate order) and so I will probably put one up for swap if anyone is interested.

Merry Christmas to those celebrating :)

I started my day off with some Santa’s Milk and Cookies. This tea actually smells like cookies in a cup. Yum!! Also it has cute little maple leaf sprinkles in the mix. However, brewed I think the base is a bit bitter and strong but I imagine changing the brewing parameters will fix that problem in no time. If I can get pass the base there is a sweet baked good flavor although I don’t pick up on any milk.

No sugar added, although I didn’t fuss too much about removing all the sprinkles. No milky stuff added, either. :( Yes, I have a very sad face. I love additives in my teas! Makes them so much more comforting.

Oh well.

I steeped with cooler water this time, and although I can tell it’s going to get bitter as it cools, it’s much better to start with. A little boozy, I’m definitely getting the nutmeg-custard taste and smell. The tea base is somewhat sharp… maybe an even cooler temperature would work better. It definitely needs a shorter steep.