T-We Tea

Very light on the licorice root which I appreciate. Tingles the mouth a little but doesn’t coat your throat. It’s mostly light spearmint with floral. I enjoyed it a lot. It’s a nice departure from the usual green + mint (… But I’m a big fan of those too).

And it is done! I didn’t have quite enough of this for my two gallon dispenser of iced tea, so I added just a tad of Renegade from the same company. I guess maybe I added a little more sugar than usual, because this is some rockin’ iced tea. I think the Renegade, as little of it as there was, has added something special. We will see soon, because the next two gallon batch will be all Renegade. Sipdown.

Just okay for me, but summer is brutal here and we drink a lot of iced tea. This one is going fast as I make two gallons at a time. Sweet iced tea is a great way to use up things that don’t float your boat hot. Yep. Two gallons of tea and it will be gone in about six days.

Call it user error—the sample ashmanra kindly sent my way didn’t have any steeping instructions, so I guessed on proportions in my early morning wake-up mug (a big ’un).

As a result, it steeped up surprisingly light for such a rebellious name. What I ended up with was a Gentle Ben cup with hints of cinnamon instead of a Biker Dude cup wearing black leather. Not bad, just not beefy.

Smaller cup next time :)

Today’s lovely brekkie break was courtesy of an early awakening, sun enough to sit outside for the morning cuppa, and the tea sample graciously tucked into a card from the lovely ashmanra.

The tea itself is a funny and interesting mishmash of black teas that bounce all over your tongue. For a while, I wasn’t sure what I was tasting….finally landed on “the inside of a cedar chest.” And that’s not a bad thing. On a downy-chick feather to lead boot strength scale, I’d give it a “sturdy walking stick.” Good luck figuring that one out, you precise numerical rating people :)

I bought this a couple of years ago while I was at a conference in San Fran. I don’t know why, but it has remained in my tea drawer unopened for a couple of years. I finally gave it a try and it is really nice (the age didn’t seem to hurt it).

It is a very light tea since it is a white tea. The coconut is really pronounced and yummy. The cardamom is not very noticable to me but provides a little depth. The tea almost has a green tea flavor to it, like it is a little grassy. That might be from the coconut.

It’s really nice and I’ll finish the tin. Not sure I need to order it again though.

A sample from Miss B! I’ve not tried very many “herbal” chai blends before today, or at least, not that I can remember. I know I’ve tried at least a couple of rooibos vanilla chai blends, but that’s been about my limit in terms of exploration. This blend appears to be made up of a mixture of green and red rooibos, with, I think, pieces of ginger root, cinnamon bark, cacao nibs, and some tiny pink flowers that are amazingly pretty. There are doubtless other things, too, but it’s quite a fine blend and the components are tricky to spot.

I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 3.5 minutes in boiling water. It brews up to a beautiful sunset-orange, very vibrant! Based on taste alone, I’m not sure that I would have immediately identified this as a chai. The rooibos is very prominent, particularly the green rooibos, but after that I’m getting mostly chocolate and then a good, spicy kick of ginger. If I was tasting blind, I’d probably have said ginger-chocolate rather than chai. I actually don’t mind the flavour, but as a chai it’s not ticking many boxes for me.

The description of this one is pretty unique, too. I mean, I get that it’s a Twilight thing…but what’s it got to do with this tea?

This tea is inventive and different. I enjoy it very much. It’s a delicate white peony with lots of coconut that gives it some milkiness, and also cardamom pods. Cardamom, in my opinion, is a great spice that is drastically underutilized. It is spicy like cinnamon but refreshing like mint. I’m a fan.

We tried this tea on a night we had a huge spread on the balcony from City Barbeque. Pulled pork, brisket, green beans, cornbread, the works. This tea is great with food. I might go so far as to say it might be best with food. It is great as a complement to desserts as well. The cardamom accents so many flavors perfectly.

We found it to be good for three resteeps. At first I steeped at 176F because I like my whites steeped at low temperature, but I’ve found the cardamom really comes through a little higher, maybe 195F.

EDIT: Just had this one again. Drink it cold. 100%. Or iced. All the flavors are out and balanced when it’s cold. Really excellent. Cold and with food, seriously.

UPDATE:

I was just making myself a pot of this and as I was digging around in the bag with my teaspoon I uncovered an enormous vanilla bean pod. Must be why I missed the flavor the first time! I left the pod in the bag but even so this pot is veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery vanilla-y!

83! That little slider is hell to use on mobile. Close enough!

As you see from mom’s (ashmanra’s) review, I cleverly ordered this tea so as to be waiting for me when I got home from Mexico. It was a fun vacation but not a relaxing one. It’s the kind where you come home sunburned and mosquito bitten after climbing Mayan pyramids and riding bikes in the jungle.

And waiting for me it was! T-We is on top of their shipping, let me tell you. They even noted it was my third order since April. Lol. Uh oh.

Now we should know by now that I’m a huge fan of minty teas so putting two mints together on me wasn’t really fair. Coming off the airplane I was, in fact, a very grumpy dinosaur myself (memo: never fly through Cancun, if you can help it). It’s a nice tea, the sweet spearmint fills out the peppermint but I didn’t really get much vanilla. Maybe I can tweak my steep and pull it out more.

Overall recommended for us minty types. If you want something more serious try their Madame Morocco.

I used boiling water, 2 tsp per 6oz, 5 minutes steep. Sliders. Mobile.

But seriously don’t fly through Cancun. It’s a zoo. I haven’t seen that many people teeming for customs since Hong Kong.

My eldest daughter took my youngest daughter to the Yucatan for a little adventure and I stayed home and kept the pup and the hedgehog. Today when I went to leave the animals and get my child back, this box was waiting on the doorstep! No, I didn’t open it! Never would I do such! But when they got home from the airport, eldest made a pot of it. She is a huge fan of mint and mint teas.

I am not a huge fan of mint or mint tea. I don’t hate, it just doesn’t appeal to me strongly, thought cool mint on a hot day can be very refreshing. So this was enjoyable, but not something I desperately have to have myself. I prefer spearmint to peppermint in Moraccan Mint tea, so the emphasis on spearmint in to pleased me, though the is peppermint as well. Alas, I didn’t pick up on vanilla very much. Perhaps if I had let the cup cool a bit I would have tasted it more. All in all a good cup, and if you love mint you can give it a try.

Another of my Mother’s Day teas. I can’t explain it, but I definitely felt like a renegade drinking it. I have always said that I badly want to be a “runs with scissors” but I am undeniably a diehard “plays well with others.”

I had this at breakfast and I felt…like a bad seed. Like a biker chick. Like someone with some sass. Don’t know how it works, but it works. So it might be a good tea for you if you need a little help in the mornings to get up and going, and have a “can do” attitude to boot.

As promised, we tried it iced today, and sweetened. Youngest really thought it was the worst hot, and said it was okay cold. Just okay. Hubby tried it and said, “It isn’t terrible. It’s pretty good.”

I thought it tasted okay, not the worst by a long shot but if you don’t like anise, this isn’t a good tea for you. Once it is cold and sweetened it reminds me of those blends that have licorice root in them for sweetness. I like those, so this is okay to me, and certainly not “The Worst.” I will definitely drink it all cold this summer.

I think my daughter bought this for me because she was intrigued by the name. The verdict: eldest and youngest daughters say it is The Worst! LOL Son-in-law and I say it isn’t bad. Smells interesting. Tastes okay, and I am really, really eager to try it iced because I think it just might be fantastic. I will let you know.

I agree with their description. This is a polarizing tea. You might hate it. If you don’t like anise or black licorice you won’t like it. But otherwise, you just might crave it.

A long while back I discovered through a Facebook feed that the son of a family that we once went to church with had opened a tea shop – you know, the “your friend of this other friend liked this other friend’s post.” I told my eldest daughter about it because they were in youth group together. She and youngest surprised me with teas from his shop for Mother’s Day!

This one was everyone’s favorite. The cardamom is so good… I love the light, lemony flavor of cardamom. The coconut adds a creamy sweetness. And it resteeps super well. That is a huge bonus!i can’t wait to share this was my bestie, who loves white tea and coconut, and is about to fall in love with cardamom, whether she knows it or not.

Thanks for sharing this one omgsrsly. I thought this one would be too much for me, but brewed it’s a fairly subdued version of an earl grey. Not intensely blergamot, nor is there really a floral component to this one. Nothing I need to repurchase, given I’m not a fan of earl grey, but this one is pretty laid back and gentle :)

minty, vanilla goodness. nothing super special about this one beyond the name… for those of you that know helen, she’s still made because she doesn’t have a new crown, but she’s making up for it by wearing a helmet now. special helmet for a special dino. enjoyed this tea courtesy of missB :)

Final Count: 143

tried this one today..not sure if it’s the age of the tea or how i brewed it but it was largely flavourless with a hint of coconut. Sad really. I’ll hold off rating just in case, as the combination to me sounded like something that could be super tasty.

another from missB through omgsrsly and another fail for me. There’s something in this one that just doesn’t work for me, though it’s not unpleasant to drink.

omgsrsly likes to torment me with things i despise. :) this is another one of those teas. Lavender. blech. i also don’t need more in the boob department haha. I don’t really like this one – it’s just not anything delicious and the lavender is just too much.

Tea of the afternoon from the T-We shop in the Crocker Galleria. I went in looking for a rooibos blend but decided to try this instead. It’s a blend of white tea, coconut and cardamom.

I happen to love cardamom and this smelled really good in the shop. I wanted something with low caffeine so hopefully this doesn’t keep me awake later on. I’d say the cardamom is very strong in this blend and overpowers the other ingredients a bit. The coconut is present in the background as a bit of a milky/creamy taste. It’s a bit difficult to pick out the flavor that the white tea is contributing to this. Overall this is a really nice blend if you like cardamom. I tried mine plain but I think it would be good with a touch of sweetener and would be VERY good with coconut milk or coconut sugar. hmmm.

Did you know that cardamom is supposedly an anti-depressant? there’s something about it that is making me happy. ;)