The Coffee & Tea Exchange

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This is another tea sent by Youngest – many thanks!

A while back we had a tea called Watermelon Oolong from Frasier Tea. The watermelon flavor was KAPOW and we really liked it. Over time, the flavor diminished as we didn’t drink it down as fast as we thought we would, since we craved it in summer but also summer was too hot to drink it much. We should have made it iced!

We did drink this one hot, and mostly at breakfast time in late summer so it wasn’t so insufferably hot outside.

I really like the watermelon here. It is strong enough but not KAPOW, the scent being stronger than the flavor. There is a fresh coolness to it that reminds me of cucumber without tasting like cucumber, just a whisper of lightness that runs alongside the watermelon. You do taste the oolong, too. It isn’t buried in the flavoring.

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I received the rest of Youngest’s stash of this team which was most of it – many thanks!

It smelled so fruity and delicious and it is still so hot here, that I prepared it by the carafe as a sweet iced tea. I got lots of fruity flavor and not a ton of rose, but Ashman likes that better!

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This is a nice black tea with caramel notes. I drank it plain but it could handle milk and sugar if you like it. It is a tiny bit like Cookie by Lupicia in overall vibe, less nutty.

I added the tea to the database and forgot to add it to my cupboard, so once again my number goes up! This was in the more recent box sent by Youngest – many thanks!

I used to eat a lot of popcorn with the kettle corn seasoning they sell at the grocery store. It was especially good drizzled with melted butter and coconut oil before the seasoning was added. I loved the popcorn but was hesitant about how it might translate to tea.

The main flavors I got were the caramel and toffee type flavors, but the popcorn and salt kept it from being cloying without making it taste like salty tea, which was what I was worried about.

Tldr: delicious! Thank you, again, Youngest!

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This came out a bit sharpish this time, but not unpleasant. It was the first time Ashman has had it and he took a sip and said, “Wow, that’s distinctive.” I told him it was raspberry and lemonade and he said he never would have guessed those two flavors. He liked it well enough, though, and said he didn’t think it was bad, just distinctive. I think the sharpness really got his attention.

I think the tea itself has such a tart, lemony bent that it disguises the lemon flavoring. The raspberry wasn’t very berry to me, but raspberry is a rather tart berry flavor.

Another tea from my box from Youngest – many thanks!

This was my afternoon snack tea, although I readily confess that since I am off all day today that was probably just first snack and second snack might happen in around two hours.
It was paired with two squares of a Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt candy bar, so it wasn’t a terribly large snack. (Preparing my justification for second snack in advance.)

My expectations went back and forth on this one. The name made me think it would be heavy on the berry with some lemonade sweet/tartness. The aroma of the tea leaves made me think it was going to be an astringent grassy green tea with a hint of fruit flavor.

The truth is that it was a moderate strength green tea and not one of the blaring grassy sharp ones. The raspberry and lemon were more muted than I expected, but still good. I think I will probably also try it as a sweet iced tea and see if the fruit comes out more.

I have just crawled out of bed after getting my world absolutely rocked by a 1mg tablet of children’s melatonin. Adult dosages of 10-20mg maim me beyond utility for at least 24 hours after taking and leave me with an insatiable craving for a white, padded room, but apparently based on this dosage chart, I have the body chemistry of a 3-5 year-old, and the body chemistry of a 3-5 year-old has a very specific craving lately.

I used to love watermelon as a kid but over the years I’ve cooled off on it. Nowadays my preference for watermelon flavored things is surfacing (Wiley Wallaby’s watermelon licorice has got to be the hottest collab that watermelon has dropped to date). This watermelon oolong seemed like destiny, and that’s because it is.

The aroma is prominent: sweet and piquant with an almost savory first impression that reminds me of pickled peruvian pearls, but the taste is so brightly and sweetly watermelon and feels like it pole-vaults into your mouth, skipping 60% of your tongue and landing flawlessly at the back of the palate. Oolong is the supportive introverted friend tip-toeing in behind it and softly closing the door behind them.

My distractable brain decided I needed to simultaneously prepare one of every beverage option I possess today. Consequently, I didn’t get to taste much of this tea while it was still hot, but hours later, it is tasty and refreshing even if a bit chilly.

Admittedly, I am not much of a dragonfruit aficionado. The flavor is not evasive so much as unfamiliar but feels like it is fairly well matched to the rose in terms of intensity: neither seems to overshadow the other significantly. The pairing completes a crisp, zingy fruit taste that my uneducated palate would have probably labeled as nectarine.

Having just survived 5 hours of flight delays and a solid 1-2 more spent waiting to deplane, I have settled back in to my apartment from a July 4th trip to Chicago enough to investigate my treasures. Chicago is home to many wonders, but I found its strengths lie more in tea services and tearooms than in bulk shops. Though I regret that I did not have a chance to stop in to the Smashing Pumpkins-owned tearoom nor to visit the Russian Teatime restaurant to enjoy a samovar, I did get to swing by The Coffee and Tea Exchange and load my cargo pants pockets with samples like some sort of strangely gaited packhorse. And, in my typical fashion, I will test the waters with my least anticipated acquisition.

Ok. Well. The vision was to steep this for 3 minutes. Foolishly I responded to the call of nature right before the timer went off, and as we all know, nature loves to yap. So really we’re looking at a solid 6-7 minutes. Luckily this doesn’t seem to have been catastrophic for this tea. From the aroma I get a sweet, lemon-bar character of citrus on a muddled, mixed-berry bed. Tartly accented but not sour, this is a pretty balanced and fruity cup that sidesteps the raw aggression of an assertive lemonade. I think this tea could just as easily be billed as a “Fruit Tart” blend or a Berry Lemon Bar reflective of the warm and sugared fruit notes that impart a baked, jammy character to it that I just don’t anticipate from “Raspberry Lemonade”.

This is a delicious tea from a purveyor that I love to give business to. It’s not as complex and flavorful as some other Darjeelings, but it comes across as understated instead of weak. It is a solid black that I enjoy throughout the day as the lightness in flavor doesn’t relegate it to the overbearing realm of breakfast teas. This tea has become a staple in my pantry and I would like to highly recommend The Coffee & Tea Exchange as a great place to acquire exquisite teas at reasonable prices and if you have the pleasure of stopping in either of their beautiful locations make sure you shake Jinny’s hand and let her know what you think :-)

Strong, but not overpowering, with delicate fruity notes.

I pair one heaping teaspoon of Darjeeling with 1.5 teaspoons german rock sugar for a light sweet taste.

Makes a perfect afternoon tea, with or without milk, I prefer without.