Steep City Teas

Back from the cruise! I packed just enough teas with only 2 servings leftover. With me drinking a small selection of mostly unflavored teas, coming home to my tea stash was overwhelming. What should I drink! So much tea!

Well, I went with Moroccan Berry Mint since the pretty tin is visible and at the front. Mmmm mint with a berry twist! I was missing a mint tea – I even had to drink a bagged one on the ship that tasted like paper. I got so bloated from eating so much food on the ship. I ate way too much! I wish the cruise was longer as I might of spazzed less to try everything. Next time!
I’m pretty sure I gained some weight and I’ll get my butt kicked in jiujitsu tonight.

(see previous notes for review of this tea)

I prefer to do a full proper review right away, but I just could not resist giving this tea a sample. Steep City was really cool to let me have a sample. I was torn between buying this or the Citrus Sunrise oolong, but I went with the oolong as I figure I’d prefer it more.

Anyways, I made a big bottle iced to take to dinner at the in laws. I watched my husband eat 3 plates of pasta, rolls, 4 muffin sized quiches and a giant slice of pie. He’s a slim guy, so he looks preggers with all that food in him! I ate barely half of that, but I also had lots of tea in me. Now I can’t sleep. So I’m awake, back logging about this tea and buying yarn on flash sale. Yay for late night, not totally thought out spending!

Moroccan Berry Mint. First impressions – very fresh, great balance of mint. Very berry with a nice bite of citrus. The green tea seems light but the smokey gunpowder comes though. Quite a bit going on, with the combination of flavors tasting great! The mint was nicely refreshing, making my meal less heavy feeling. However, I found this tea slightly similar to their Agua di Jamaica but with mint but less (huge) berries.

Per: http://www.steepcityteas.com/collections/black-tea/products/pom-pom-tea:
“A very nicely balanced blend of fresh, juicy pomegranate splashed with cranberry. Not too tart, not too sweet, just right. It’s simply a splendid black tea with an after-taste that makes you feel rejuvenated. Makes a terrific iced tea and it’s a perfect alternative for the kids.”

Perparation: Amount: 1 teaspoon per 8 oz for hot tea. Steep at: 212 degrees for 3-4 minutes.

“Ingredients: Black tea, rose hips, sea buckthorn berries, corn flowers, natural flavors, goji berries, and guarana seeds.

Intro: I was curious to try this tea because I like black tea and have read that pomegranates are high in anti-oxidants.

Technique: Tea mug with Finum brew basket. 8-oz water with total dissolved solids (TDS) of 26 ppm, heated to 212*F. 1 tsp. (2.5 grams – My Weigh Durascale D2 660). No sweeteners, milk or cream were added.

Fragrance: Strong fruity
Dry leaf: dark brown twisted leaves + other ingredients – see above.
Liquor: Light amber
Aroma: Very fruity

3-min.: A very pleasing flavor with surprising body for a fruit-flavored tea. “Not too tart, not too sweet, just right.” Accurately describes this tea. There is a mild drying effect on the finish that becomes astringency towards the bottom of the cup.

4-min Re-steep @ 195F*: Same flavor & character as the first cup and still somewhat astringent.

Impression: A refreshing enjoyable afternoon tea. For those who may not like astringency, a lower temperature may help.

Thanks to David Palmerola of Steep City for kindly providing this generous free sample.

1.5 tbsp for 375 ml

Smooth overall flavour. A little twinge of strong astringency. The full savoury aroma does not translate well into the flavour. Flavouring very faint.

Thanks to Sil for sharing this with me.

Many, many thanks to gmathis for this tea!!!!

First off, this is a very pretty tea. Lots of blue cornflowers, citrus peel, and other herbaceous beauties! It made me really excited to try it as one of my Earl Grey Alternatives.

It’s really nice once brewed. Citrus-y but there is something else — I thought it was chamomile. I was convinced it was chamomile. I was expecting my head to hit my desk at work at any moment until I read the description and saw that the herb-y flavor was eucalyptus! Phew! I am so relieved as I am one of those people who can talk themselves into falling asleep with chamomile. :) It’s interesting that I taste herb-y but not menthol-y as I would expect with the eucalyptus, though!

This definitely fulfilled my “something different” wish. I don’t think I’d go searching it out (I like herb-y more during the night) but I am happy to have tried it! I may combine my remaining bit with my Earl’s Garden to tone down the herb-y for work drinking.

Sample package label:
“Earl Grey de la Cream
Time: 3 minutes / Temp: 212*”

Thanks to David Palmerola founder of Steep City for the additional recommended brewing instructions: “Usually 1 tsp per 8 oz, but I like my teas stronger so maybe a bit more on the bold teas… Especially EG!”

Introduction: Steep City’s recently released Earl Grey de la Cream is the first EG Cream I’m aware of that uses vanilla beans (as opposed to just flavoring). It also uses an Assam/Ceylon blend. Most EG teas have a 100% Shi Lankan (Ceylon) base. Having the addition of an Assam black tea, was another significant reason for wanting to sample this EG tea. Our current EG has a Ceylon base and I can’t get past the astringency. My wife also loves EG.

This tea has a strong vanilla fragrance. Neither my wife nor I could smell the classic oil of bergamot fragrance.

April 18: 1 rounded to heaping tsp. / 8-oz. / 212*F / 3 min / No sweeteners, milk, or cream added

I brewed a cup of Earl Grey de la Crème for my wife – a life-long EG Lover. She noted a strong vanilla flavor, no discernible lemony oil of Bergamot flavor, and another flavor that she could not identify that detracted from the taste of this EG. She then looked at the Steep City website and specifically wanted to know about the vanilla and bergamot flavors.

My first impression of this tea (based only on a few stolen sips) was that it was full-bodied & very, very smooth w/o any bitterness or astringency – well done! The addition of vanilla beans was a great idea! However, as an EG tea, my wife was correct that the vanilla completely overshadowed the EG flavor.

Afterwards, I sent an e-mail to David asking about the vanilla and bergamot flavors. David told us that they use natural oil of Bergamot. “On the cream side, we are using natural flavors with some artificial flavors combined with the natural vanilla beans.”

April 21: 2.5 tsps. (All that remained in the sample) / 16-oz. / 212*F / 3 min. / No sweeteners, milk, or cream added (A cup for each of us)

3-min Infusion: A strong vanilla flavor, no discernible oil of Bergamot flavor, light- to medium-bodied, with zero hint of tartness, bitterness or astringency.
4-min: Improving
5-min: A strong vanilla flavor, no discernible oil of Bergamot flavor, strong hints of cinnamon, medium-bodied, with zero hint of tartness, bitterness or astringency.

In my experience, the tartness of citrus bergamia is a common characteristic of most Earl Grey tea. The addition of vanilla & vanilla beans definitely smoothed out the tartness.

In retrospect, as far as the full-bodied flavor on 4/18 and medium-bodied flavor on 4/21: I probably should have only brewed one cup with the remaining tea sample.

Impression: This tea is for creamy vanilla lovers.

For those who prefer a classic lemony Oil of Bergamot fragrance & flavor:
“It’s complicated.” The additional natural ingredients that give this Earl Grey its rich creamy vanilla taste are much stronger than the classic Oil of Bergamot EG flavor. Achieving just the right balance must be quite a challenge as the number of ingredients increases.

Suggestion: For those like my wife who love the classic EG fragrance & flavor, Steep City may wish to consider refining the balance between the vanilla beans / vanilla flavoring and the Oil of Bergamot so that these two key ingredients can be qually appreciated & enjoyed. Another consideration might be to eliminate the artificial vanilla flavor.

Thanks to David Palmerola founder of Steep City for providing this free sample.

Finished off my sample of this from a long time ago. I think I enjoyed it more the first time, but my tastebuds have changed a lot since then. Now it’s a little too maple syrupy, but I still enjoyed it. On to the next sample…

Found a winner! This is definitely nutty, but not in an overwhelming way. Kind of like nuts and honey or something. Really enjoying this sample from Alphakitty. I’ll have to add Steep City to my list of places to order from!

This is one of the prettiest loose black teas I think I’ve ever seen. All the goodies look like confetti. And the scent…mmmmmm!

It steeps into a coppery-colored cup of sweet citrus flavor. Lots and lots of orange; yep, there’s the lemongrass; the eucalyptus in this particular cup is faint, if existent. But I’ll blame that on small-sample ingredient inequity.

Anyway, this is fresh, tasty, citrusy, and a little celebratory, and I’m grateful to Steep City for the taste!

This is definitely an herbal blend for chai lovers—lots of the same ingredients, leading loudly with cardamom. I’m catching the orange and ginger, and the chamomile is visibly present in the dry blend, but it’s overpowered by the spices.

A really creative change of pace from typical nighttime chamomile blends. Thanks, Steep City, for the chance to try it!

I felt like having iced tea today. Iced tea! It was 65 when I had it, so it was worthwhile. I had the windows open, and Sebastian communicated with a sparrow.

This is super fruity, and I love that they used green rooibos so that it’s the perfect iced tea. Papaya is the strongest fruit flavor I can taste.

I will definitely be cold brewing this one once it stays warm. I love fruity iced teas and I’ve been missing green rooibos. Nothing beats it as an iced tea for me.

This is still hot in my travel mug 5 hours later! Awesome. I have been savoring it because it’s a tasty, fruity blend.

This does have hints of pomegranate to it, along with the cranberry. It’s not super strongly flavored, which I like. The fruit is tart and just a bit sweet. It’s pretty awesome that it provides a nice balance to the black tea base.

This will be a good one to try iced, but not today.There’s a little weather statement about the wind chill getting down to possibly even the single digits so no iced tea here haha.

I love coconut white teas. I’m super psyched about this one because the white coconut creme tends to be the one everywhere, and while good, I’m loving the idea of a rose coconut tea even more!

This is so good. I love that I can taste the white tea so much. The other usual coconut white can almost make me feel like coconut shreds are in the tea with its powerful coconut-ness. This one perfectly melds the white tea with the coconut. It’s sweet, a little creamy, and just all around awesome.

I don’t get too much rose, but it does taste like there might be just a little bit of a floral note.

Love this for a coconut tea that’s just a bit more delicate tasting, I can’t wait to try more of what I ordered from Steep City now!

Been drinking this over the past few days….nice thing about cold brews is its a good way to finish up larger quantities of teas you don’t love!

I have a pitcher of this one in the frige so I can drink it cold brew over the next few days…this is basically a sip down once I get through the pitcher so yay for that. As a cold brew, this is much preferred. Nt sure if ill reorder since I didn’t love the crap out of it, but I wouldn’t turn it down. :)

THIS is so much better than i remember! Cold brew for the win! With a teeeeeny tiny bit of sweetner this is a pretty delicious cup of ice tea. It makes my happy as well since this is one of my older teas that i need to get to drinking down. I’m trying to do a multitude of things with my cupboard these days – sipdown 52 teas; get to 150; finish off my small sizes of things; try everything in my cupboard that i have yet tried…. you get the drift. :) At least it makes for a bit of fun, organising and re-organising things haha

While i wouldn’t call this an overly “mango” blend, it is pretty fruity and tasty in cold brew form. not too sweet and not to tart..and totally not hibiscus-y :)

I pulled this one out of the cupboard today to give it another try. I have to say, i’m not sure if it’s the age or just what i was in the mood for but it’s tastier than i remember it being. I think i’d like to try this cold at some point as well so see how it fares as an iced tea since i do like fruity iced teas. Even though there are a few flowers in here, it’s not enough to make the blend floral….which is a HUGE plus for me.

I opted to try this one cold before hot since i had a suspicion this would be a much more enjoyable cold brew. I totally didn’t register that this had hibiscus in it. So i’ll give steep city total props for that! This isn’t a tart hibiscus brew that so often happens when i cold brew blends with hibiscus in them. This is somewhere between mango and peach but as a cold brew i quite like it. Holding off rating it until i get a chance to also try it hot but it’s about an 80 at the moment.

This is a belated review of the last of my Steep City samples from a few months ago. I think this is also my favorite of the samples. I like green rooibos a lot, and I’m always interested in trying blends that use it as a base.

This blend is very fruity – the fruit flavoring is definitely dominant. I can still taste the rooibos, but only barely. Fruit-wise, nothing particular is jumping out at me. Looking at the ingredients, though, papaya and (dried) mango sound about right. I don’t taste any rose (no great loss to me) or passion fruit (more disappointing, since passion fruit is one of my favorite flavors). The blend is also quite sweet. I’m drinking it hot, but I’m sure it would be nice iced as well.

On the whole, the flavor profile is not dissimilar to those of a few other fruity green rooibos blends I can think of (Jardin Sauvage from Lupicia and Sweet Nectar from Sullivan Street Tea and Spice). I won’t be purchasing this at the moment since I’ve got quite a bit of both of those others in stock, but I’ll definitely consider doing so in the future when my supply needs replenishing. Thanks to Steep City Teas for this sample!

Coconut and rose? This could be love! Typically I’m not crazy about white teas, so we’ll see. While briefly researching this tea I discovered that it is named after Coconut Grove in Miami, so that ups the points in my book, haha, since I love Miami! The dry leaves are pretty, with big green tea leaves, rose buds and petite blue flowers. The tea itself smells floral, with just a little hint of coconut. The flavor is very light, with not much rose noticeable, just a light floral taste up front. The coconut in this tea is very authentic, probably the most real tasting coconut tea that I’ve had. It reminds me of the way a fresh coconut tastes. I don’t love this tea, but I don’t hate it either. I wouldn’t decline a cup if offered one, but I probably won’t seek it out either. It is a nice ode to Coconut Grove, though! Thank you to Alphakitty for this sample!

-Dry blend has large green tea leaves, large rose buds, small blue flowers and coconut slivers.
-Dry leaves smell faintly of coconut. Tea liquor aroma is sweetly floral with a hint of coconut.
-Tea liquor is a clear medium yellow color.
-Grassy and floral flavor with a wispy nutty finish. Light fresh coconut aftertaste.
-Best with sweetener.
-Fair tea. Lightly flavored with a very fresh coconut taste.

Thanks Sil! I’ll admit that I only wanted to try this tea because of the name. Vanilla Sky just sounds pretty :] The flavor is ok but it’s not the best vanilla tea I’ve had. It has a nice smooth, sweet vanilla flavor. It’s sweeter than other vanilla teas I’ve noticed. Glad I got to try this one. Thanks again Sil!

This is decent, but certainly not my new favourite vanilla tea. I’m mostly tasting the vanilla in the aftertaste not the actual sip. Kinda disappointing since Steep City Teas are usually really pretty good.

And work is horrible and I’m going to die of boredom.

Full review later today on http://sororiteasisters.com/ but here are snippets:

Cinnamon Apple Crunch from Steep City Teas is a nice departure from the norm. It has a light summer time apple flavor with just a light enough floral undertone to make you feel like laying back in the green summer grass and catching some rays!

While this could surely be a lovely holiday time drink, with its apple pie flavor and sweetness, I actually prefer it more in the summer as an iced tea. The sencha base adds a wonderful buttery flavor and mouthfeel which absolutely support the flavors in this blend. I feel that it adds to that “crunch” flavor. It reminds me of that crumble on top of an apple strudel.

I share a bit of this tea with my roommate, who’s health has been not so great and had chemo this morning. The nurses have been telling him to drink more tea too! I’ve been giving him some of my older teas, and trying to plan an order too.

See my previous notes / blog entry for review of this tea – he steeped it for like 30 minutes because that’s how he rolls! My roommate was very impressed with the flavor and “it has the perfect amount of lavender”.