Steep City Teas

’Here’s Hoping’ Teabox Round #4 – Tea #22

I thought I’d finish this one, as it was just hanging out in a thin baggie for far too long in this teabox. I didn’t expect much because of that and because others described the flavor as “light”. Maybe using whatever remained made this a stronger cup. Lavender wafted from this deep dark mug. Flavorwise, it’s a bit astringent.. like raisins, so spicy it’s buzzy… but not actually hot spicy (like cayenne). I love that the blend has jasmine, but I didn’t taste any. I like it this chai.. like most blends I’ve tried from Steep City. I’m still planning on ordering from them at some point. I guess teas do last a while in thin baggies in this teabox (which I wish I would have learned before chucking a ton of teas that I’ve seen before… but I’d rather keep the teabox fresher anyway.)
Steep #1 // just boiled // 4 min steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // few min steep

Note to self: If you forget this is steeping and it goes 5+ minutes, it’s still drinkable. It just becomes potently herby citrus, and not necessarily in a bad way.

Phew on the forgiving cup front.

I’ve been drinking this while catching up on housework and binge watching the season of Top Chef that takes place in New Orleans.

It’s kind of appropriate, with all the mad vibrancy and color going throughout. I only regret not having some on Fat Tuesday!

There’s a wonderful herbaceous note running through the cup, which definitely tips this into a more savory tea category. The orange/lemongrass play second fiddle to the more grounded flavors of eucalyptus. The base is solid and non-obstrusive and does a good job of tying all of the strong flavors (that could easily miss the mark) together.

HHTTB

This tea is striking me as odd. I get only the faintest taste of spice, very muted. I can kind of imagine lavender, but I really have to think about it. It almost tastes like there is cacao in the aftertaste and the longer aftertaste turns a little bitter. I’m betting some sugar would help, but I’d be worried that adding milk would wipe out what little flavor there is.

Sipdown! 980. There was probably a bit more than I really needed left in the bag… but I used it all anyhow. The result is potentially a little strong (a little bitter, a bit drying, but nothing a bit of dilution wouldn’t fix), but enjoyable. Chocolatey, a bit minty, creamy, and a bit of chamomile just to add interest (I guess). I do prefer other chocolate mint teas, though, preferably without chamomile, so I’ll probably stick to those in the future :)

Thanks to Sil for yet another interesting tea! I was intrigued by the chamomile in this blend – seemed like a weird add-on to a mint chocolate blend, but I went with it (and used my metal infuser as a chamomile precaution!). Dry and steeped, it mostly smells like mint chocolate, as expected. The first infusion I had in my travel mug, and it was fairly decent – I could taste some chocolate, a bit of mint (along the lines of peppermint leaf, I think), and a touch of chamomile, which overall just made it taste a bit different from the usual mint chocolate blends. Not necessarily better or worse, just different. And of course, the cup was kind of murky due to the melted chips (yum!)

Second infusion: I assumed most of the chocolate would be gone, but apparently I was very wrong – it’s even murkier, and tastes even more cocoa-y. The chamomile is more apparent as well, and the mint is a bit lessened – more like chamomile chocolate (which reminds me of Verdant’s Chocolate Chamomile Curiousity Brew, not that it tastes like that as cinnamon was a prominent flavour there).

I’ll try another infusion but I don’t expect much. The only complaint I have here is that it would be great if the base tea was a bit richer and more obvious – I don’t believe I even detected it through the cocoa/chips/mint/chamomile. However, I don’t think I’ll have too many problems finishing this tea up in the next little while, as it’s quite perfectly seasonal right now.

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox Round #3 – Tea #17
I accidently oversteeped this one but it wasn’t ruined in the least. This is like the candy peach flavoring but I’ve had much worse. The peach tends to overpower the white tea flavor, even with the long steep time. The purple is just from the flowers but the flowers are pretty. I love a few of Steep City’s blends and I’m very sad I can’t order from all of the tea companies I wish to order from.. Steep City is on the list (maybe not this blend though). I’m sipping tea all day every day, doing my best. :D
Steep #1 // 30 min after boiling // 5+ min

From the Round 3 Here’s hoping TTB

Everything about this tea is soft… subtle. The peach flavor is consistently present but not in a knock your socks off kind of way. The flavor of the white tea is hay like and has a brightness to it. I didn’t even notice the base tea’s flavor at first, but as the tea cooled a touch it became much more apperent and blended with the peach flavor beautifully.

Glad I got to try this one. I’m not a huge white tea fan, but this one is nicely done.

From the Round 3 Here’s Hoping TTB

This is a middle of the road chai. The base tea is ok, and the spice blend is good, but it’s mild. Not a memorable chai, but it’s a nice enough cup.

I feel like I had tried this before but apparently if I had, I had not rated it. Maybe I was scared of the chocolate.

This was… interesting. It is definitely not a favorite tea, and one I would not be ordering again. The taste is very odd and hard for me to define. There is chocolate, yes, and something vaguely honey-ish, and definitely black tea. But it all melds together into something that while drinkable, is not something I exactly enjoy.

I’ll finish my pouch of it, but won’t be buying more.

HHTTB Round 3

This is so lovely and subtle. Such a nice light peach and slightly floral white tea. I am finding I like white teas more and more these days. This one does sort of smell like a candle… but luckily it does not taste like a candle, which is the important part. =)

Thank you BrewTEAlly Sweet for a bit of this one in your sale a while back. I LOVED the Steep City samples that they sent a while back, but the last couple I’ve tried I haven’t had much luck with. This one is back to deliciousness. The fragrance of the dry leaves coming from the white tea smells a bit like suntan lotion but the flavor combination really works… a candy coconut with something like buttery sweet cake or cookie ingredients. I can’t tell what exactly but this sure seems like a dessert tea. No roses in my blend though. White teas always make for nice pairings with dessert type flavors… I just realized. The second cup still had plenty of coconut flavor. I’ll enjoy the few teaspoons I have left!
Steep #1 // 30 min after boiling // 3 min
Steep #2 // 28 min after boiling // 3 min

Sipdown (163/169)!

Finished this one from VariaTEA off in my timolino with a little milk added in to it; pretty good if I do say so myself! Actually, it was a significant step up from the nail polish remover/cotton ball incident the first time around.

If I had to describe this experience I think I’d use words like “Nectar” or “Ambrosia” because it really was creamy, silky honey notes with very faint rooibos taste and a milky chocolate. Yeah, milk and no nail polish remover is the way to go with this one. I’ll raise my rating a bit! But I wont seek this out again, most likely.

Oh God.

So currently I’m drinking two cups of tea and watching Firefly while painting my nails (neon blue and orange) – and apparently I’m trying to do way too much stuff because I just took a huge swig of this only to taste chemical and find a cotton ball in my mouth.

I was using nail polish remover soaked cotton balls to take off the old polish and I tossed ‘em all onto the same table as my tea as I was done with them. Apparently I inadvertently “scored a basket” or some nonsense like that and one of them landed in my tea. No no no! So yeah, even though I spat it all back out I probably just drank some nail polish remover. I don’t think that’s a good thing.

But anyway, sample comes from VariaTEA and thankfully I have enough left for one more cup. Before this little incident, I was tasting primarily light chocolate and maybe a bit of honey drizzle sweetness? Where does the berry part come into play? It’s not in the ingredients, and I’m not tasting berries regardless of ingredient accuracy so what was the thought there?

Anyway – I though this was decent but not exceptional or memorable, up until the cotton ball thing that is…

An excellent iced tea! Flirt With me is a green rooibos with mango, papaya, passion fruit and rose petals. The flavor is mostly the tropical fruits – the mango papaya blend nicely together, and there is quite a bit of passion fruit flavor (if iced).
The green rooibos is in the background, but has a nice brothy green earthyness to it. The blend is a little watery, but that seems to happen with rooibos blends, but is countered if prepared iced and heavier on the tea.

Pretty good – the price is right ($4.50 for 2oz) and makes a tasty iced tea. I’ll be drinking this all summer!

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/flirt-steep-city-teas-oolong-owl-tea-review/

Very nice…light and delicate. I like this one as a white…love the peach flavor!

Drinking this from a swap with AwkwardSoul. I really like this tea! It is delicate tasting, and the peach flavor is NOT overpowering. I read the review on this tea as I was drinking it, and it does taste like a white peach, not like a regular peach. The tea base is just right…a black tea would not have done this tea justice.

Fruity and a bit floral…this tea is a very good start-to-the-week tea.

I think I’ll be icing the rest of this, and not because it’s a bad tea. It just tastes so, so much like the lychee juice I pick up in the Asian grocer that it’s super weird to drink warm.

Incredibly juicy, and even a little thick on the tongue. Pretty much lychee perfection.

Mmmm, peach white tea. This one tastes amazing of course! More focused on the white base, a bai mu dan/white peony, so lots of juicy, delicate, crisp, floral flavor in there. The peach flavor is white peach, which matches quite well with the base.
Purple peach makes a really good refreshing iced tea!

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/purple-peach-white-tea-steep-city-teas-oolong-owl-tea-review/
Purple Moonkin, Tea Owls and tea pots!

Thank you BrewTEAlly Sweet for selling a bit of this one! I thought I’d really like this one… some of those Steep City blends are REAL good. I know this has rooibos in it, but somehow it tastes like complete rooibos. With black tea? And two big chocolate chips in the infuser? Yep. I’m not sure how that happened. I don’t really taste chocolate. And I used one of my teabags so the rooibos shouldn’t have fallen into the cup. No berry. No honey either. I poured the water RIGHT after boiling, so if anything was going to melt, it should have melted. The description says it is supposed to be berry, but I think it’s just berry flavoring… that I can’t find. Whatever happened with this blend? I’ll try it again at some point but I think I’m missing what everyone else is tasting. I’m planning on buying the favorites I know I love at some point….

Sipping on this now, I feel like I expected much more than I am getting. All the reviews seem so overwhelmingly positive that I thought this would be a mindblowing taste experience. Tbh, it is not. Don’t get me wrong, the tea is good but it is not something I NEED to have stocked. It mostly tastes of a black tea with a hint of honey sweetness and a few chocolatey notes here and there. Good, but not as special as I had hoped. Oh well.

Thank you BrewTEAlly Sweet for sending this my way. I got so excited to try this tea that I immediately brewed up a cup. However, I never got a chance to try it hot because right when I sat down to enjoy it my sister called to see all the new clothes I bought today and it took me probably over an hour to try everything on. So trying it now, it tastes a lot like 52 teas black base with a hint of milk chocolate, which is not a good sign. I will hold off on rating until I try it properly but if this is any indication of what this tastes likes, I will be really disappointed.

Finishing off my sample of this. This tea is SUPER nutty. I’m getting a lot of walnut this time. Just read my previous note and taste the port I noted then. I added a little sugar, but it doesn’t seem to improve it. I keep trying to add cream and sugar to my teas, but it doesn’t make them better the way it used to. My taste buds must be morphing on me. Mutiny!