The Art of Tea

I made a pot of this for my two sweet older English guests this afternoon and we all enjoyed it, hoorah! I drank it straight this afternoon and found it just fine, so I suppose it all depends on how I’m feeling at the time as to how I prefer it.

The more I drink this, the more I enjoy it.

Ohhhhhh actually this is pretty delicious with around a half teaspoon of sugar per 12oz and a bit of milk! Milk and sugar strikes again! There’s enough of a difference of taste with the lemon myrtle for this to be interesting, and hopefully enough caffeine to assist in restoring me today. Bumping up the rating a bit because this is a nice black tea.

By some accident I ended up with only this at work today—I’d had a few more options in my backpack but due to the current sipdown challenge I’d whittled away at them enough and forgotten to take more options this week. It was fine. It didn’t blow my mind but I enjoyed it enough. It was originally a gift from work so I guess it makes sense to be smashing through it at work.

Trust me to find the ideal way to drink Toasty Nougat just as I finish this stock off. Seriously, one scoop of each has made me feel so much more enthusiastic about BOTH blends—I’m almost inclined to rush out and restock the nudi… but for the sake of the sipdown, I shan’t.

I don’t know. The more I drink this, the more I don’t particularly care for it. I tried to spruce it up with some ginger and lavender this evening. Am I mad?

Ooh chald this is pretty darn good. I picked it up for a swap with ashleyelizabeth and figured it made sense to keep some for myself—boy am I glad I did! Freshly brewed this is very rich and chocolatey without tasting sweetened or fake at all. Yum.

This is a really lovely tea, simply black.

I made my partner a cup last night and made another for my morning cuppa for work today for myself. He was blown away by it, which for someone who only a few months ago wouldn’t even try green tea is pretty amazing. He really likes it, especially the vanilla part. He’s happy that he has a lower caffeine option that is perfectly vanilla-y to have at night instead of his Vanilla (black).

And my cup this morning was lovely too!

This is a new one from The Art of Tea, I immediately picked it from all the others as being new when we were setting up the market on Saturday (http://mymissingfactor.wordpress.com/2013/09/01/a-day-in-paradise/). So obviously it had to come home with me.

The vanilla! Wow! Its so creamy and sweet, but in a good way. In the way that only proper real vanilla can give to a cup. It complements the sencha perfectly, adding some creamy sweetness to the light green base. Ah! A new favourite, methinks. I can’t wait to have this iced as the warms up!

Steep conditions – around 5 mins. An accident, damn work getting in the way of my tea testing!
Temperature – I’m guessing it was around 75-80oC, but I forgot to take my thermometer to the kitchen, so its a guess.

I’ll fix this one up with a photo later…

I’ve been slowly working my way through my box of this one, and after the cup I brewed up for breakfast this morning, I’m down to the last cup of that box. Unfortunately for my attempts to sort out my cupboard/teashelves/swap box craziness, I work for the company that makes this one so getting more is all too easy (practically and on the hip pocket!).

I brewed up a cup to have this morning before breakfast, my first black in about 5 days. I had a headache that lingered with my tummy bug and headaches and caffeine do not mix well in me. Just beautiful. The other half started doing his blacks at 95oC-ish instead of 100oC to wean himself off adding in sweetners as a necessity, and its a good trick! This comes out unbelievably smooth at 95, full of the bergamot flavouring and not a hint of bitterness. Beautiful.

I can’t believe I haven’t added or review this before! Shocking.

This is a lovely tea. The jasmine and earl grey flavours are perfectly balanced without overpowering the black. My prefered steeping method for this is on the short side to ensure the black is still lovely and soft.

Would make an excellent afternoon tea, but its perking me up this morning. Very easily sipped.

And, more importantly, I posted my first blog post about tea this morning: http://mymissingfactor.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/mugful-of-happiness/

This came in my sample box from Tassie Tea Girl!

Smooth buttery sencha, with hints of rose and cornflower. It’s delicate and light but smooth, and the additions don’t overpower the tea. Lovely!

This came in my swap box from TassieTeaGirl! Everything she sent me is so unique – I never really thought about American flavors v. Australian flavors. It’s delicious. I love how it’s a Christmas tea that isn’t especially spicy. Instead, it’s really warm and almondy. The black tea is smooth. I didn’t try it with milk or sugar, but I think it would be really creamy and desserty that way! Resteeps well.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Thank you TassieTeaGirl for sending me this! This is SO delicious!
Now I love it hot but I can totally see why TassieTeaGirl likes it cold because it is SO yummy that way too! A real winner! A lovely sencha base makes it perfect.

Another of the bf’s faves. He’s had 2 100g boxes in about 3 months, and I haven’t had a chance to taste it myself yet! But this is a match made in tea heaven for him. Being both a fan of vanilla and caffeine sensitive, its one of his favourite night time teas. Hopefully I’ll actually get a sample out of the next box and I can let you all know what I think. It smells pretty good anyway!

A perfect spot to end the backlogging…