Janet's Special Teas

For some reason, maybe these rainy cooler mornings we’ve been having, I’ve been craving warm and toasty chai lately. This one does not disappoint, though I’m not sure any chai would considering my appetite for it. This one in particular is light on the spice, but my last note reminded me that I enjoyed the second steep most so perhaps the flavor will be stronger there.

Second Steep
8 ounces water + 212 degrees + 10 minutes

This second cup is just as good as the first but it still isn’t spicy.

This tea smells wonderful and reminds me a lot of the coconut chai I already have from Satori Teas. There are large slivers of coconut, pieces of ginger, and whole cardamom pods and peppercorns. There are also pieces of what I think must be cinnamon bark. It just smells so spicy and warm, like a freshly baked loaf of spice cake. I love it.

I added honey and cream so it’s sweet and rich. The tea on its own is good but a little weaker than I normally like it so I think next time I’ll do six ounces of water instead of eight. I’ve been doing that with a lot of my teas lately, and I think I might enjoy this one prepared that way as well.

Second Steep
6 ounces water + 212 degrees + 8 minutes

This second cup is even better than the first. I used less water and steeped a bit longer and it’s just right. After 80 degree days this past week, the weekend has decided it wants to have one last fling with winter so this is nice and warming and perfect for a cooler afternoon. I just finished my second cup and I want another. I think that’s saying something.

Thanks so much to Amariel for letting me try this one!

Sample from Amariel – thank you!

This tea had a bit of an accident, in that it was involved in a water spill on my counter. I tried drying it out, but decided to steep it up ASAP just in case it was still damp.

It smells fruity and floral. Kind of generic fruity I think, and I can see jasmine blossoms in the dry leaves. Now, I just had some chocolate covered espresso beans, but the tea tastes fruity-floral. I’m not really getting any rhubarb out of it… maybe hints of rhubarb (What does rhubarb taste like other than itself?) but I’m not sure. And I think the reason it’s creamy is because I put cream in it and also the jasmine.

It’s nice, and definitely springy. But it doesn’t have that punch of rhubarb flavour that I was looking for. Not necessarily sour, but that fresh fruity creamy flavour you get in a pie filling.

I will have to pick up a sample of this for Sil when I go to Victoria. See what she thinks. :)

Thank you for the sample, Amarial!

This is pretty darn good, but unfortunately doesn’t hold a candle to even the smell of the raspberry tea I tried to make this morning.

The black tea almost overpowers the delicate raspberry and honey flavours. I was hoping for something with a bit more kick.

So while I’m enjoying this mug of tea, it’s not exactly what I was hoping for. Oh well! I can continue looking for a raspberry black tea, I don’t mind. :)

(PS. I’m at 212 again, plus I still have all of MissB’s teas and the samples Dexter shared. Umm.)

Umm, no. Almost tastes medicinal. The rooibos is too strong on this one for me.

Will have to try without out milk, but with it I got pretty much nothing in any sort of passionfruit way.

I had this tea last night, as the first of my new Janet’s samples to break in, partly because this was the first one she mentioned was new. Now, most people who now me know that I am not fond of rooibos, however, Bear With Me was kind enough to share some of his favourites, and he said they were better than DAVIDs’ rooibos. True enough, I liked the few he let me try, so I was game to try more. I love pear, so this one intrigued me.

By all rights, I should not like this tea. Not only is the dry leaf very rooisbos-y, but it is a stronger rooibos taste….but then, the crisp clean pear comes to the front and saves the day. This tea is a bit of a conundrum…I shouldn’t like it, but I do. I’ll have to have more to see whether I need more of this in my collection, like plum and rainbow rooibos.

I picked up a sample of this at the suggestion to try it from Bear With Me when we visited Janet yesterday. I have to be honest and say I am not the biggest raspberry fan, but the honey in this, at least the dry state, was WOW, and I thought it would probably mellow the parts of the raspberry I don’t like so much. And I was right. The honey is the dominant flavour of the tea, with the juicy raspberry underneath. Now, as I was on my way to work, I did add milk to this as I was unsure of the astringency of the base, however, I would like to try this without milk. I think the milk may have masked too much of the flavour. I also suspect that this would make an excellent cold brew, especially refreshing when the weather is warmer.

I’m grateful for the suggestion and am glad to have tried it.

This was a delicious dessert tea. I find it’s best when this tea is brewed strong with a bit of milk added. This tea has delicious, toasty caramel flavours, with a crisp apple finish. Reminds me of a fall day at the fair.

Continuing with my pumpkin day, I had this as a latte, and it was pretty good. I still like Plum the best, but I am content with this one as long as it is milky. :)

This assam is a lot more sweet-honey-malt than the last. Practically no bitterness, although I put milk in it again. What can I say, but that I like my teas with milk!

I agree with Sil that it’s juicy. Perhaps a bit of spice lingering at the end of a sniff as well.

I really like this one. In fact, I think my mom would really like it as well so I’m going to save most of the rest of the package for her!

Had this. Tea good.

It powered me (well, plus cereal and frozen blueberries with a side of sweet potato fries) through a whole lot of sewing this evening. Leggings, stretchy skirt for work, and the comfiest yet most unflattering jogging pants ever.

Mmm, this is pretty good. I swear I’ve had it before, but there’s no note from me.

I added some milk, as usual. It’s a little fruity, and bitter. Really strong, even though I only steeped for 2:30.

Still – yay tea! I didn’t have any tea yesterday and that was sad. And now I’m lazing about in my PJs instead of heading to my volunteer gig for the weekend, because my neck is borked and I have a migraine from the muscle spasms. I’ll probably head out for a bit after I’ve been tea’d and fooded. Wearing my, uhh, retro tshirt I won at one of the clubs.

Slept til nearly 2pm, but still exhausted. Ugh, mental health issues suuuccckkkk…

I received a little bottle of homemade irish cream just after Christmas, and with the way I feel today I figure it’s time to open it.

Irish cream + irish breakfast = perfect pair.

Janet’s irish breakfast is a CTC black blend that is nice and bold, but still smooth.

3 Tbsp leaf to approx 600ml water and 100ml irish cream in my DAVIDs latte mug. 4min steep got me a good strong brew that stands up to the irish cream without overpowering.

Nap time after I finish sipping.

not sure how i feel about this one….may need to have another cup. Admittedly i was distracted tonight, but it was sort of a nonn descript rooibos fruity sort of thing. bear with me sent this one my way and i’m happy for the new tea experience!

another from bear with me Sadly this one fell short for me. There’s something about the raspberry/strawberry that just doesn’t work. It had a slightly articificial taste to me as well, that i couldn’t get past. It might be tastier as a latte though since the milk would make it creamier. thanks for the share BWM!

omgsrsly sent me a little more of this one. today i’m just not feeling it. It’s ok but not nearly as delicious as i want it to be…and let’s be honest, after the amount of ice wine that i’ve consumed recently, this is NOTHING like actual ice wine hahaha

this one was another from bear with me and one that i had side by side with the boysenberry. The other tea is better haha but this one wasn’t bad. I’ve had a few ice wine blends now, and i’m generally not a fan. this one wasn’t overly grape-y….it was grapes but not as intensely as other versions that i’ve had. Again, i really think teh base that janet uses, is what really sells it. It’s still tea….but flavoured. (if that makes sense) Hopefully ill get a chance to check her store out in person in 2015 heh.

this is a great berry tea! bear with me sent this my way and pulled it out today to see how it would fare on a day when i was sure to drink part of it hot and then get distracted with work and drink it cold lol This relaly is a boysenberry tea. The base is delicious…i wish other companies could use ceylon bases like this. It blends really well with the flavours and doesn’t have that weird bitter taste. Thanks for sharing this one BWM! this is really tasty!

pretty sure this one was from bear with me Funnily enough, given the ingredients i actually expected that i’d really like this one. But something about the way the flavours merged together was off putting for me tonight. I was still able to drink it (ie. it wasn’t undrinkable) but i was suprised that i didn’t love it more. and that ladies and germs, is why i’ll try everything….even things i really don’t usually like haha

another from bear with me this one, if it does in fact have mint in it – doesn’t really taste minty at all. Instead it’s like a nutty coconut blend. There’s a hint of something else there, that i can’t place my finger on. Over all, another nice blend from janet. Thanks again for letting me try so many of these BWM!

i’ve decided that i don’t like goji berries. they interfere with things that are good. bah. This roooibos was another from yesterday from bear with me. This one was one that i had high hopes for because of the smell, but brewed it was a weird sort of fruity, creamy rooibos with that distinctly goji berry taste, CURSE YOU GOJI! lol thanks for the decidely different tea BWM! still fun to have.

Final Count of 2014: 85 (goal was 75 so i’m giving myself until the end of the weekend to get there…) 2014 was the year where i tried 818 new teas, bringing my total up to 2216 teas tried (roughly) since i joined steepster.

Another tea from bear with me and yesterday….this tea has a really nice black base. This tea is NOT maple syrup…it’s more like maple cream..HA. sorry. uh..little foggy on the rest of the details but it was quite an enjoyable cup yesterday :) thanks BWM!