Steepers

Since I have chronic migraine, a nausea tea blend is a staple around my house. I picked up this one when I was on vacation at Steepers, a tea shop in Campbell, California, and the nice British lady that runs the shop said it was her personal blend. It includes peppermint, ginger, orange peel, and cinnamon, and it hasn’t done me wrong yet!

The tea tastes really, really minty! It is hard to tell there is anything else in the tea at all. If you savor it really slowly, you might just be able to pick out some subtle gingery notes beneath the mint, but you’d really have to be looking for it to notice it. As far as herbal health brews go, if you can handle mint teas, this is a pretty easy one to get down; I actually have a hard time with heavily-ginger-flavored teas, because of the heat it packs (especially when my stomach is feeling upset!), so while I’m not the biggest fan of a plain mint tea, I certainly prefer that over a tea with a more gingery-flavor when my stomach is nauseous. It’s like the mint creates a nice cooling shield for the ginger I know I need, which I actually appreciate. It’s a very settling tea and a good choice for an upset tummy, if perhaps not the most exciting in the taste department.

Full Review: https://teatimetuesdayreviews.wordpress.com/2018/01/30/tea57/

A coworker of mine gave me a bunch of teas from Steepers, but only this one had not gone rancid or stale. It’s still old, but drinkable.

This tea brews up strong like all mates, and of course has a very herbaceous taste with a strong roasted/smoky flavor. I don’t drink mate/guayusa teas very often because of the caffeine, but my husband is not sensitive to caffeine and he loves this tea. He’ll probably get to drink up most of it ;)

This is a wonderful creamy evening brew. Feels very wintery, but I’ve happily had it during these hot California late summer days.

It reminds me of custard, but with a smoky, roasted quality to it. Coffee and creme, maybe? White chocolate mocha? Faintly, if so. It’s not rich enough to compare it to creme brûlée, but at the same time, that’s my thought.

Refreshing, but not overpowering. Great iced and mixed with lemonade.

Tasty dessert substitute, good for evenings.

I finally went to my local tea shop- Steeper’s! (See my profile for my review of the shop). They didn’t have too many greens I was interested in, but this was an exception- I believe it’s supposed to be an earl grey green. I wish the package had a weight on it and a full ingredients list. I did weight the bag and it says 99 grams, but of course that doesn’t take into account the weight of the bag. The bag I bought came to $13.25; it seems quite expensive to me but then again it’s a local shop and it seems to be a higher quality tea (on the bag it says it’s “pekoe gunpowder”: can anyone explain that to me?).

When I smelled the leaves dry they smelled quite like bergamot and vanilla-. I brewed the tea up about 2.5 min (5 grams of tea and about 650 ml- 2 cups worth for my husband and I) in 175 degree F water. The brewed tea tastes strongly of vanilla from the bergamot, and I can see how it almost tastes chocolately as well. I am getting a little bit of a drying out affect as an aftertaste from the green tea, but that may have been me overleafing the tea.

Overall Steeper’s did a great job with this flavoured green- it definitely reminds me of Irish cream. I wanted an early grey green tea and this most certainly does the job.

Nice strong breakfast tea. I could drink this every morning

Delicious iced, not overly sweet.

There is such a luxury to spend an afternoon with a tea and tinker around in the kitchen.

So this is my first encounter with a milk oolong so take my review as not expert but a beginner I suppose.

My first steeping is at 3 minutes and I foolishly forgot to rinse the oolong first oh well.

Scent when brewed: Oolong orchid scent with delicious evaporated milk note very butter but underneath all of that is warm cereal with butter think cream of wheat. There is just a hint of sweet greenness though, think angelica. I am also reminded of creamed honey probably due to the floral note.
Taste: Delicate, texture is incredibly silky and full. Sweetness then butter and grain finish. The cooler the tea gets the more milk quality comes out. Just the tiniest hint of astringency.

Second steep (4 minutes)
Scent: The greenness of the oolong is far more present. The milk and butter note even more prominent the orchid quality really comes out.
Flavor: The green edge of the oolong really shows through. The hot cereal quality coming through even more, but less silky texture. A hint of astringency coming through.

Third Steeping (6 minutes)
Scent: Whoa the orchid is in full bloom. The milk is now definitely the supporting character.
Flavor: Oh, the sweetness has come out. The milk once again becoming more supportive. Really sweet long finish but not overpowering. The roasting of the oolong also really showing. No astringency. The creamy mouth feel returns.

Perhaps the most orchid tea I have had yet! Some roast grains and spiciness in scent but mainly lovely orchid with a hint of creamy lemon. Incredible lingering finish.

From the GCTTB 2.

I added this one to the database. I hope this is the right tea.

As most of you know, I love the Earl. However, I am a bit unsure about his Lady. Some blends I like, some blends I don’t.

This one is definitely very lemoney. There is a peppery lemon rind taste. Very minimal bergamot which is a bit disappointing.

This is a very light blend, smooth with a slight kick from the lemon rind.

Tried this one again but it’s not quite what I was hoping for from a maple cream tea. I’m not sure if it was just overly contaminated by the travelling teabox but there are so many other teas that are more mapley and creamy than this one.

Travelling tea box!

So I’m going to let this one air out a bit before I try it again because there’s a bit of a smokiness to it that I think likely came from one of the other teas in the tea box. First impression though, is that this has the potential to be a good little tea. Holding out on rating it though until I get a chance to let it air for a bit.

What a day! I had to go shopping for my packaging for the 12 days of xmas swap and ended up in Michael’s Crafts for TWO hours! I am no Martha Stewart, it was crazy in there! I had to step around women sitting on the floor pawing through things to make wedding favours and dodge women fighting to get the xmas stuff they were just putting out. Apparently there was a 40% off coupon.
Then I stopped by Steepers to buy a gaiwan. . . to have the person behind the counter say they had never heard of it! So I was there for an hour looking through some catalogs and showing him videos online. It was actually fun.
So I get home and brew up a cup of Maple cream and start building my tea packets. BoxerPapa wants to go out for lunch, I decline and tell him he’s welcome to take my car though since it’s much more fuel efficient. An hour later I am done and the phone rings. . . It’s BoxerPapa he says my car is DEAD.
Not that my battery is dead, my car is dead. The timing belt is gone. If it can be fixed he will fix it, but someone has to go get him so he can get his jeep to tow it.
So here I am waiting for them to tow my baby, the ten year old Tiburon. I hope he can fix her.
But, this cup is easing my anxiety slightly. I smooth and creamy. The peppermint is bold and there might be a hint of caramel!

YUM! Minor parenting crisis distracted me while I was steeping this one. I could hear my timer wailing but couldn’t get to it for 2 extra minutes! Made the best cup of this tea I have ever had. The sweet cherry came out more than the rose flavour. Very well enjoyed… and the crisis was managed!

My first resteep! This time it came out sweet, even better than the first cup.

Oh father of all things holy, this is AMAZING!!!! I could seriously spend the rest of my life alone with a hot cup of this tea and I would be content.
It’s so smooth and flavourful, but not bold and not light. It is a perfect cup. I need some time alone with it now.