Janet's Special Teas

This tastes a lot like amaretto. I tend to steep this in the evening, forget about it by my bedside table, then drink it cold the next morning. It’s good that way.

Bear With Me recommended this to me ages ago, and it’s pretty tasty when I’m not drowning in rooibos apathy.

Citrus and spice rooibos meh. For whatever reason this didn’t work for me, and I’m too apathetic to write much about it.

I think it was the lemongrass; it was just a little too much of something. Not bad otherwise.

(Down to 33)

For years, when rummaging through my cupboard I kept passing this sample up. I guess I still haven’t recovered from my years of overexposure to cinnamon at David’s Tea (also it’s rooibos, which is synonymous for boring).

It’s too bad I skipped over this tea’s golden years of freshness because it’s actually well balanced (for a rooibos). The sweet-spice of cinnamon only plays as supporting role to the tangy orange peel . The flavour profile is up there for comfort, along with awesome things like mulled wine and hot apple cider.

I had this yesterday. I had no idea what I was tasting. as I’ll be honest and say I have not had this tea in a long time, and this was a sip down. I actually had I straight and it went down incredibly smooth. If I had had more, I might have maple latted this. Or just used a touch of organic cane sugar and milk. I really need to get back to Janet’s…been a long time since my last visit.

OMG.

Am I back?

I might be back.

Anyways, IDK what this tea is. Vanilla? Something else? No clue. But it’s pretty darn tasty with a spoonful of maple whipped cream.

Thank you, Bear with Me! I’ve had this FOREVER, but I swear I’m going to finish trying All The Teas™.

I posted the other day about this addiction that I developed for Hong-Kong style milk tea at Crimson Teas in town.

Since I cracked open a tin of evaporated milk yesterday when I made the turmeric golden milk tea, I thought that I’d play around with HK style milk tea with the rest of it.

This packet of leaf is past its prime. First, age, but more importantly because the pouch unhinged at the bottom early on—-pretty but useless pouches—and the leaf has been exposed to air for, well, probably since I purchased it.

Regardless, I thought there might be potential here. Vanilla black leaf. Vanilla bean honey. You get me?

Now, milk tea is strong, that is to say, intensely brewed, almost to the point of mistake. So I heaped up almost 2 teaspoons of leaf and let it steep for ooooh maybe 4 minutes, which for me it long.

After I made the milk tea with a huge glug of evaporated milk and at least a teaspoon and a half of vanilla infused honey, I googled the recipe for milk tea. Ayup, that’s how I roll—enthusiasm and action first, research later.

It turns out that HK style milk tea is made with English Breakfast, strongly steeped, and then all the other things.

My experiment, however, is still darn good though. Though, true enough, the base could be a bit friskier.

Also, these neighbours of mine—-whereever I go, there they are, yakking all at once, kids, adults, making noise. I move to another room and there they are again. Ugh!

Came across this one the other day while rummaging for tea choices. The bottom of my packet of this was slightly opened as in unglued, not enough to lose any tea, but perhaps enough to lose flavour while this was being stored.

Steeped, this tea was ok. I steeped quickly because I suspect that the base would get astringent if neglected. Mild vanilla scent and flavour. Certainly not as good as my favourite vanilla black. But then, I am incredibly biased already. And certainly, even more so as I’ve just had my favourite vanilla black the other day.

I’ll wait a bit and try again before rating.

The initial sip didn’t thrill me. The harsh orange lemon against the black tea caught in the throat and seemed mismatched somehow. After I added a spoon of honey, the flavours mellowed to caramel citrus fruit with a whisper of spices. Nice tea. Very happy to have pulled out the honey.

After a few days of lovely breezes and gentle sunny days, the humidity is creeping up from today to intolerable levels tomorrow: feels like 40C prediction. Kill me now.

The first steeping had the slightest bit of char while the second is becoming very floral. Looking forward to seeing what further flavours emerge.

Well then, now that my tastebuds have gotten used to the dark roast intensity of this particular oolong, as opposed to the light floral oolongs I have been drinking lately, I am very much enjoying the complexities of this one.

In the first and second steeps, plum and prune notes emerge with the slightest bit of ashiness and depth. Lovely.

I am so grateful for the brightness and breeze today and so far, lack of humidity. Glorious, glorious.

It’s going to be a slow day, hopefully slowly and gently accomplishing one or two, or a few even, postponed tasks.

Raising my rating to illustrate my newfound tea joy .

Ouf! Strong oolong, especially so after all the light and easy floral milk oolongs I’ve been drinking lately. In the first steep, the flavour is almost black tea saved by the hint of oolong in the aftertaste.

Kind of works for me on this day though. Had an intensely flavoured meal in Korean town on this lovely sunny summer day, if you ignore the earlier humidity. A frisky tea is a good way to follow up.

To be continued tomorrow.

Super chocolatey fab from the first sip. The second steep is somewhat astringent, so more experimentation needed. A lovely lovely cup.

This was a tea suggestion from Bear With Me. Unlike Sil, I enjoy my citruses and florals. Mm, delicious florals.

I viewed this a more cutting kind of earl grey, and I had a good time with it. The jasmine nor the bergamot curdled the milk with their liveliness, which is always nice. Definitely a sharp, bright wake-me-up tea though. I’d add it to the mental spa category of teas.

I love mango fruits and desserts but I have yet to encounter a a mango tea that I’ve fallen in love with. While this isn’t a bad fruity rooibos it didn’t do it for me either.

There is a good dose of mango and papaya present. Pineapple is a listed ingredient but I didn’t pick up on that as much. Not bad, but moving on.

Yummy with milk.

Had my last class of the semester today, and now I have to finish my paper!

Gotta reread all the articles from class, and mark sections that will be useful, then do more research, and then somehow manage to fit it all into 10-12 pages. Ha!

This one is definitely better with milk. Sadness. I’ll probably try to finish the travel mug of this today for hydration, but the rooibos is really coming out and it does need to be softened with some cream IMO.

one from omgsrsly that is pretty decent. My other half did come to find me while i was waiting for the water to boil… “uh hun…whatever’s in the red basket smells like vomit…” “no love, that’s blueberry.” “maybe that’s why i don’t love blueberries.”

:)

another from omgsrsly this one is more woodsy rooibos than i like though i can detect a little chocolate and cherry…just not enough to make this a happy place for me. Glad to try it though…

Final Count: 170 gah!

sample from omgsrsly thankfully i have a bunch of herbal samples from people. This one isn’t half bad. It’s not terribly “woodsy” in the rooibos department, and there’s enough of a sweetness to this one to let the fruit notes sort of come through . no floral notes here either, in spite of the rose petals :)

I cold brewed a sample of this in 1 L of water.

I see where Fjellrev get Rockets from. :) It’s sweet-tart, almost fake berry. It’s worked well in this application, but there are other berry fruit teas that I like better.

I picked up a sample of this a while back at a tea meetup (WOO!), and for some reason (perhaps my general tea apathy) I hadn’t tried it yet. The sample was 3 tsp so I did the whole thing in my mug.

I quite like it! The leaves are really big, the chocolate is NOT fake at all, and the caramel is a nice accompaniment. It is a little watery, even overleafed, but I think that’s because I expect something that tastes like cocoa to be thicker.

I would definitely get more of this. I’m very happy with it. (Sorry Sil, none left for you. :( )

This was pretty good, but I’m not sure I’d call it “black forest”. At least, it’s not chocolate and cherries.

Still, Janet has a good taste for rooibos and this was pretty mild, and not too woody at all.

I picked this up, with encouragement from Plunkybug, ages ago with the Victoria group meet. I think I came away with more than sixty new teas from that event, and I haven’t even started digging through that stash in a meaningful way…

This one is smooth, maybe even watery, with a good Caramilk vibe. I’ve been in a “decadent” dessert mood lately, so it hits the spot right now. I’m going to need to wean myself back on tea after over a month without!