Sanctuary T

sprinkled over 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream =)

On a whim, I sprinkled just a little bit of this on a bowl of Caribbean Coconut gelato (Talenti brand). Wow! So far it’s the best pairing I’ve found for this flavor (I haven’t experimented with it much on chicken & fish like I should.) I bet it would be good on vanilla ice cream, tropical flavored gelatos or sorbets, etc. too!

backlogging: this really brightened up some sauteed asparagus last night. Between the salt, pepper, olive oil and butter I can’t say I could pick out all the flavors of this dust, but it did make the food taste “brighter” and fresher and with more depth/nuance of flavor.

Thanks to the lovely QuiltGuppy I was able to give this one a try…and it is a new cupboard essential! I love the flavors in the chai! It’s spicy but also sweet, without sweetener. It may actually beat Teavana’s chai (which is quite a feat but would be a welcome change since Teavana is…well Teavana.). The black tea is strong and bold, perfect for an AM cup. I love the vanilla flavoring too – it’s strong as well. Pepper, cardamom and I taste a little bit of clove too. Delish! Thank you so much for sharing, QG! I’m hooked!

Here’s another BYOTea from Sanctuary T. I’m having a lot of fun making up these little tea bags. So, today was Soho Chai. It smells nice, but faint, not robust as I’d expect a chai to smell. I’m not a huge fan of chais, but this one came with the set, so I’ll try them all.

boiling/4 min. Now, I can smell the tea some more. It has cardamom, which I adore. It’s pleasant, but I’m finding that there’s a distinct squash-like (perhaps pumpkin) flavor to the tea. It creates a smoothness to the flavor, although I think I would prefer spiciness with a chai. It’s pleasant.

Another one of my little BYOTea packets. This one, however, surprised me. It has to be one of the messiest teas to try to get pinches into the little bags. I’m not convinced that this is the best tea for this system, not only for that reason, but also because the bags themselves don’t seem to allow the matcha to dissipate completely into the tea. Since I love genmaicha regardless, the absence of the matcha doesn’t disappoint me all too much. The genmaicha is really good. It tastes very nutty and savory. It’s slightly vegetal tasting, but not too much. I boiled the water and let it cool about five minutes or so, then put the bag in. It steeped for about four minutes. The result was pretty good overall.

I have this one in the BYOTea set. It’s the first one I’ve tried, even though I ordered the set a few months ago. If you haven’t seen it, it’s pretty neat for people on the go who like loose tea, but may not have the equipment with them. (Think vacation, work, commuting, etc.) It comes with 10 biodegradable tea pouches to put 3-4 pinches of tea in. I found that four works best for my travel mug. The tea is kept in these plastic folded pouches that remind me of a clutch handbag. When it’s folded up, the plastic seals shut and the tea is kept safely inside. Ingenious, actually.

I’m in class right now, so I warmed the teapot almost to boiling. I’ve burned myself so many times, that I’ve been working on guesstimating the temperature of the water and stopping it before it boils. I’ve got it down to sound, however, since I’m not all that certain of temperature, I’ve left it off. I did let it steep for about three minutes.

The tea smells fresh and fruity, both before and after steeping. The taste is refreshing. The green tea is somewhat grassy, but not like a really green, green tea. It complements the tropical fruit nicely. The passion fruit provides a fullness to the flavor. It’s not a weak taste, nor is is sickly sweet. I’d say it’s rather realistic. I also taste pineapple, although it could be my tropical imagination getting the better of me. I’m really thrilled with the convenience of these little packets of tea.

This was a lovely gift sent to me by Sanctuary T (“Thank You!”) and I have found it a delicious addition to pastas, omlettes and much more. It give the dish an added depth and character. Just a dash does it all. Enjoying it in some lightly seasoned Greek style noodles with feta and pimento stuffed green olives. Delicious!

I am not a green tea fan, but this blend is really good. light and very drinkable.
I drank two pots tonight, considered a third, but one look at the time and I stopped for the day. How many infusions have you guys gotten out of this one?

From my review at It’s All About the Leaf, found at: http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/1702/tea-review-sanctuary-t-geisha-beauty/

I’ve been working on this review for a month.

Or more specifically, I’ve been trying to start writing this review for over a month, but never get as far as getting anything written down. I’ll open the tin, smell the tea, get my brewing tools ready, and be excited to drink. This excitement will last until I actually start sipping the tea. Then I keep delaying in writing, because I keep thinking that this boring brew can’t be right. So I tinker with the parameters, and try again, or get bored and wander off. Either way, the review isn’t getting written.

The leaf has an awesome scent; peaches blending perfectly with the black and green tea. Brewed, its got a good color, and a nice aroma. But I keep sipping, and when I do, part of my brain is still waiting for yum to come. I tried longer and shorter steeps, a variety of water temperatures and sweetening the liquor. Even still, I wanted more fruit, more flavor and more oomph from this tea. Those with more delicate palates may apprecaite this tea more than I. I’ll be keeping my eyes open for a more robust drink.

Yes please! Prepared with milk. Would be even tastier with sugar.

Pretty tastey! You can def tell what its suppose to taste like. Tastes very much like tiramisu. Yum.

Well, I just had to try this. It just sounded so unique and with the free shipping with no minimum order I decided to take the leap.

I found the rose was more noticeable than the other ingredients, which is not a bad thing. Well after the steep I get the fruit notes which definitely linger. It is light, slightly earthy. Not in a grassy vegetal way but rather a rough dirt kind of way. The earthiness is a consistent during the entire experience. The most interesting part is how well the natural floral and fruit sweetness finish off the cup. It is delightful.

I am the first one to log this! I’m surprised. I got this tea spice for Christmas and decided to test it out last night. I made stir fried broccoli spiced with this and I put it over rice prepared in green tea. I am not sure how much I could taste all the green tea that was in the meal but it sure was yummy!

SIPDOWN #5 for the day!

It’s been 9 months since my last confession (to this tea)

I really wish it was SPRING and not FALL here…that means Winter is right around the corner. I hate winter. Oh well.

This tea is tasty tho! See my other notes :)

FULL REVIEW
http://sororiteasisters.com/2011/02/17/spring-harvest-from-sanctuary-t/

Thanks LiberTEAs for this one!!!!

a nice fruity green…slightly tropical minus the stereotypical coconut tropical flavor. YUMMY!

Absolute perfection! This is sweet, nutty, with a hint of coffee aftertaste. It really does taste like tiramisu. It could substitute as dessert, and that is a huge compliment coming from me. Prepared with stevia.

Mom picked up some fresh naan bread from Walmart last night… really wanted to use it for an Indian taco, but we had no hamburger made. Plan B was an Indian pizza. Spinach Artichoke Hummus as the “sauce”, pepper jack cheese, and banana peppers. Really could have used a bit of their black tea dust, but oh well. Once I got that figured out I was briefly at a loss as to what to pair it w/. I don’t have any unflavored black teas (because I don’t like them… I don’t like chai w/ milk served w/ a meal… and I didn’t want something thick like Tipu’s Instant Chai. So that left neat chai and I decided to go w/ this. It’s a wonderful and smooth blend that goes perfectly w/ a meal. If you have it on hand, just a pinch of lapsang souchong would be a nice touch. GREAT MEAL!

Another tea from LiberTEAs! Thanks Girl!
:)

I LOVE apricots! Ever since I was a toddler! I actually bought some dried apricots today at the herb store! Nom Nom. I think almonds go well with Rooibos! So we already have 2 PLUSes here!

This smells incredible…both of apricot and almonds! When I saw that there were HUGE WHOLE Almonds I was VERY impressed!

This infuses a little darker than most Rooibos(es)…I’m excited about that as well!

There is a hint of floral aroma coming thru too! VERY interesting!

This is REALLY good! Just when I think I can taste more almond than apricot – I then taste more apricot than almond. They seem to flip-flop as I continue to sip! How FUN!!!

Juicy. Sweet. Slightly floral. LOVELY group of flavors! Yes…this exceeds my expectations! YUM!

Thanks LiberTEAs!

When I saw the dry mix of ingredients I really freaked! I mean…that’s a whole-lotta-cardamom! BUT…I’ll still try it!

I’m glad this doesn’t have cinnamon in it! I’m looking forward to that aspect of this blend!

The aroma isn’t very intense…mostly nutmeg and black tea. I’m ok with that!

The color is a nice medium brown.

The taste…
The Cardamom and Cloves are just about neck and neck taste-wise and the nutmeg is LOVELY! For me…I think this NOT having Cinnamon and the nutmeg really shining is what I LOVE about it!

This one surprised me and in a good way! YUP! Nutmeg was perfect for this! So glad I could taste it with the rest of the ingredients that were present!

I find myself reaching for this tea more and more. The blend of black, green and peach are perfectly balanced, you will be hard pressed to find a better black/green blend.

Smells very spicy (that would be the peppercorn, cumin, and coriander) and a little nutty/sweet. The taste oddly both watery and full. I can identify black tea on the front, kind of bitter really, but then the aftertaste is sweet and spicy and lovely. I prefer my tea unsweetened, but this could do with a bit of sugar or honey.

A dash of milk improves it enormously: fuller body, less harshness, more caramel flavors.
I steeped 1tsp in 8oz boiling water for 2:15 (recommendation is 2-3 minutes); a longer steep or more leaf would be better. A second steep at 4 minutes was about as good as the first. And, impressively, two subsequent steeps (6 and 8 minutes) were also good.

Points for uniqueness and resteepability.