The NecessiTeas

Steep Information:
Amount: 4 tsp
Additives: none
Water: 2 zarafina cups
Tool: Zarafina Strong-Loose Leaf-Herbal
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell:
MilitiaJim: It smells like root beer with a hint of overcarbonization.
AmazonV: Minty birch beer.
Steeped Tea Smell:
MilitiaJim: This tastes “funny,” And by “funny” I mean exactly like root beer. Except hot. And flat.
AmazonV: smells minty, birch beer, just like birch beer I tried to save too long and kept until it went flat and was warm…with mint.
Flavor: rootbeer, followed by mint
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: mint
Liquor: deep dark reddish-brown

I was skeptical of this tea. There have been many teas in the past that sounded good, maybe even sounded and smelled good but didn’t taste like I wanted.

So i purchased a sampler from the website. It holds about 6 tsp. I like that it comes in a nice ziplock bag.

I do not like that the website does not have ingredients listed. The sample bag does have them listed.

This tea is confusing….it’s hot root beer…it smells the part, and tastes the part perfectly. I think the float part is a bit of a stretch though.

We need to try this iced, and buy some more, it’s delicious!

Post-Steep Additives: lactose free milk, makes it creamier and hides the mint in the sips but not the after taste.

A touch of German rock sugar only makes it better.

images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/03/thenecessiteas-loose-leaf-rooibos-tea.html

I’m here listening to This American Life (episode 401: Parent Trap: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/401/parent-trap) and packaging up tea. So why not drink some tea.

Well, I won this tea through Leafbox Tea’s Giveaway, which is pretty awesome! Got this and Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, and both of them came in today. So I figured, this one is caffeine free, I’m sleepy-ish, and it’s here… why not?

Anyway, this one smells ridiculously like root beer. Not even kidding. When I opened up the box, I could just smell it coming from the tin! The rooibos here are a lot tinier than I usually see, really finely chopped.

So I steeped up a heaping teaspoon, watched the water turn ruby-red. I should mention at this point that I’m actually not the biggest fan of root beer! I will definitely drink it if offered, but I probably won’t reach for it by myself. It’s a pretty good flavor, but it tastes a lot like bubble gum to me. I’m more of a ginger beer sort of person.

That being said, the infusion smelled exactly like root beer. And I’m happy to report, the taste is pretty awesome as well. It’s not as thick and syrupy as I thought it’d be. It’s actually a lot easier and lighter to drink than real root beer. The rooibos isn’t really a star here; the flavoring is, and that’s perfectly okay, because the flavor is deliriously authentic.

Halfway through my mug, I decided to get a little frisky/creative/adventurous and add a bit of Very Vanilla Silk and a tiny pinch of sugar to the cup. This was actually better than the plain! It was creamier and silkier, with a nice milkiness that complemented the root beer flavors. Definitely something that was very sippable and comforting.

So yay to Pete at Leafbox Tea and TheNecessiTeas for having the giveaway. Still in shock that I won! And shocked that I liked this one as much as I did, because novelty teas are sometimes not my thing. GOOD tasting novelty teas, however… I’m ALL over that.

Another man’s trash is another man’s treasure! Zeitfliesst doesn’t care for this so he passed it on to me. I love both carameled and sour apples so I’m on an endless quest for teas flavored as such. The trick; however, is that I don’t care for black based flavored teas and they are more common than green or white based flavored teas. I definitely realize that everyone’s taste in tea is different, but there are a few (like Ricky’s cocomint/nail polish comparison LOL) that I just can’t fathom or understand… someone not liking this is another. Oh well, maybe I’ll understand by the end of my cuppa.

As soon as I opened the tin I can smell both the caramel and the apple… infact mom said she could smell it steeping from the other end of our house. Because of the flavorings I decided to measure this by volume (1 heaping tsp) instead of weight. Infact, it smells so good I decide to skip the steeping all together and just grab a spoon… lol! Kidding. It’s tempting, but I decide to steep it anyway. I didn’t have any steeping suggestions, so I just used the general “here, this is a green tea” suggestion. I’m further questioning what could possibly be wrong w/ this tea…

The liquor is kinda cloudy due to the flavorings and the aroma is almost as strong as the raw leaf.

Craaappp… So this is what he was talking about! Have you ever been so excited to try a tea that when it failed to meet your expectations you were almost brought to tears? This is one of them. This tea is bitter. But, and this is a 1st for me, it’s bitter and weak. Weird. Don’t get me wrong, the flavor ratio of green tea/apple/caramel is pretty decent, but it’s just very weak across the board. And bitter. I feel bad giving this tea such a low rating because, except for a little bitterness, the flavor that is there isn’t bad… there’s just not much there to be bad… Now what to make to cheer myself up?

Hmm wow, this tea is certainly growing on me. After some experimenting, I could steep it to my liking and I’ve come to appreciate its taste a bit more. The cinnamon is quite present and might even be a little too much, but it’s still a good tea.

OK this time I didn’t add any milk like the first time, but added a few tsps of sugar. Steeped it for a bit longer than usual and it turns out that this tea isn’t that bad afterall.

The tea in the tin smelt pretty good, it actually did somewhat resemble a carrot cake. So far, I’ve tried this with different amounts of milk and some sugar and I’m not that impressed. I’ve used a tsp of tea for each cup, so I might have to use a little more next time because the taste was subtle and not enough for my liking.

Second try. I’ve used 2 tsps to bring out the flavor a bit more. I still don’t like the bubblegum smell, but this time I could actually taste the green tea which is much better than last time when it felt like drinking colored hot water.

This tea is not so good.
The tea leaves in the tin smelt very strong, but it wasn’t a pleasant one as it reminded me of cough syrup or some kind of medicine. When I steeped it, the scent remained the same but turned out a bit weaker, now reminding me of bubble gum. Well, I thought I could get pass the weird smell and at least enjoy what’s most important, the taste. It turned out that the flavor of the tea was overall very weak and I couldn’t really taste the caramel nor the apple. I might have expected too much, but this tea just didn’t work for me.

This is an excellent tea by TheNecessiTeas. The combination of a solid green tea, whole blueberries, and herbs lend themselves to a great infusion. The initial flavor of the blueberries and the creaminess of the herbs (licorice root I believe) create a wonderful medley of flavors very similar to enjoying the familiar desert. This has a lovely delicate sweetness accented well by the creamy flavor. Excellent desert tea. Very satisfying. Only minor flaw is a mild undertone created by the roots and herbs needed to give the tea a creamy flavor, however, one acquires a taste for these midcup.

Majorly over-infused but at least I sipped it down :)
See previous notes :)

I’ll never get tired of the wonderful aroma of this tea. The taste today is more shortcake than strawberry but still quite yummy! I thought I would revisit some older teas today! I will surely throw some new ones in the mix as well!

Personally, oversteeping this one is the way to go! The more I steep the more I enjoy!

nom nom nom…I wish I had the real thing today…but this tea will do instead…I really don’t want to repeat my morning…if that’s ok with everyone! LOL – On to a GREAT afternoon! C’Mon! Say it with me!!!! It’s going to be a GREAT afternoon!!!!!

A little on the light side for flavor/taste but is sure is pleasant and yummy. Smells nice. I’m enjoying this just fine. Thanks for this, LENA

This is one of the best dessert teas on the market. It is one that I truly cannot live without. It really does taste like the spice that you experience when nibbling on carrot cake. Delicious! Further, if you want to make it really decadent, then add a splash of cream. Or, better, a splash of sweetened condensed milk…YUM!

The tea smells and tastes exactly like Root Beer. I brewed it and let it steep for a good 7 minutes because I was feeding the cats but as the aroma suffused the room I could swear I heard the chords of “Hoe Down” from Aaron Copland’s ballet “Rodeo” with Gene Autry in the other room singing "I’ve Got Spurs (that jingle jangle jingle). I know that root beer is not especially “western” but this brew transformed me into the “Fanciulla del West”.
The taste is thorough root beer and I drank it up with gratitude that I could feel so “rooting-tooting” replete without a ton of calories.

I drank it sraight up, neat. I am sure that it would be just dandy with sugar and some milk. Indeed, the milk might give one more of a “float” feel.

But it was so excellent I wasn’t stopping for the dairy.
I am a person who is enamoured of dessert teas and I have to order this. I had it as a sample along with the rest of my NecessiTeas order. Isn’t that how the dope peddlars operate? They give you a sample and you belong to them for life?

Now I have to rush to have a second infusion…it really is that good and it has made me feel a bit silly and screw-ball-y. It’s a NecessiTea indeed.

The Final Sipdown: Day 20.1

I’m going to cheat, y’all. I can’t keep my eyes open and the snoring little dog next to me is making me further crave sleep.

I’ll be logging this tea tomorrow.

And, to further cheat, it’s getting decupboarded now.

BOOYAH.

ETA: Since this log is already all about The Cheating, I should say [and I have alluded to this, if not flat out said it before] that I am dumping entire samples into my strainer instead of separating them out into proportional bits per cup. The Final Sipdown would take MUCH TOO LONG otherwise, and seeing how far behind I am alREADY, well.

Strawberry Shortcake. This tea does not do well with a generous amount of leaf, it seems. It brings heaps of astringency to be lumped among the lighter, sweeter, tart, strawberry flavors. The shortcake, and the creamier aspects of this tea are still present, but much more difficult to find.

This would likely do well as a dessert tea in anyone’s repertoire who enjoys the namesake, but the ratio seems to be important. It could be fussy, it could not be; I’ve only tried it two ways. All I can say is that this time it was radically different from the first go and that my dumping an entire sample in for one cup isn’t exactly a fair way to compare two trials of tea.

Anyhow, astringency aside, this tea was still good. Not good enough to keep the rating as high as I left it though, I’m afraid, but I can see it wriggling its way back into my heart down the road. And so, with a small bumpdown, I bid farewell to Strawberry Shortcake.

Teas Downed: 31

I just spent a couple of hours wrapping presents in front of a fire and drinking tea, so I’m riding on a post-holiday-activity high right now and need to SIMMA DOWN NAH before I trot off to bed. I figure that cranking out a few more teas from my backlog notes is just a good of a wind down activity as any, so here we go!

Lena and I swapped teas recently [well, she sent me teas in a timely manner; mine just got put in the mail yesterday, sorry Lena!] and this is the first one that I tried because it smelled so good and I thought strawberry shortcake sounded appetizing. Halfway through steeping, I thought to read her log, and I became a little scared that I wasn’t going to like this.

I found myself surprised in a very good way. The strawberries were definitely present in my cup. Distinctly strawberry, too, not unidentified-slightly-tart-fruit-taste which usually indicates the presence of hibiscus. And even more surprisingly, I could taste the little sponge cake, too, specifically the little yellow cups you can buy in a grocery store that come in a cellophane package on a plastic tray. Yes, it’s that specific to me. And even more surprisingly, I got a little hint of cream in the taste.

As a small disclaimer, this did not happen as blatantly as I am making it sound. It is a light, subtle kind of tea, but just strong enough for me to be able to pick out all the flavors. Drinking it quickly would not help with this tea because I mainly was able to get the flavors when I held it in my mouth and swished it around a bit. The strawberries lingered in the aftertaste with that kind of sweet tartness they tend to leave. Also, it is very possible I hit a sweet spot with the water temperature and steep time. I am going to have to try this again to see if I can duplicate the experience.

The tea was also so light that I didn’t go for a second steep. I might experiment later on, but something tells me it wouldn’t hold up well.

Really, this tea was firing on all cylinders. Afterward, I felt like I had just downed a very light, but very good strawberry shortcake. I’m not sure that I’ve ever had a tea that’s supposed to taste like a food item ever replicate it so closely. So thanks, Lena! This made for a very nice cup indeed.

Carrot Cake is a sumptuous and spicy dessert tea. It’s got a thickly pleasing cakey and nutty taste and aftertaste. I love me a great full-bodied dessert tea and I also like lots of variety in my pantry. The NecessiTeas has blended a truly distinctive mix. It’s not derivative of any other tea I have sampled thus far—and if you drink dessert teas you know that many of them are rather “same-ish” and the differences do not trumpet themselves forth.

While this tea is nicely spicy, it’s careful not to allow the spice to overwhelm the natural sweetness of a carrot cake.

One test I apply to a tea is asking myself this question: Must I have it in stock at all times in case of a craving?

There are many teas which I don’t need to have at my fingertips, although I like them. There are other teas which I would reorder in the fullness of time. There are teas I could cheerfully live without and there are teas that I will carefully avoid. This is a tea that I will reorder when my supply is running low-ish.

Silky Sencha, very good blending of the lemon and raspberry, no chemical whiff – an issue with me. Didn’t expect to like it as well as I did.

2.25g/6oz. Since I’m flavoring everything (namely matcha) lately I decided to flavor this. 1 teaspoon of spiced rum creamer added. The creamer does not cover the strawberry, although it does cover up the white tea taste quite a bit. It tastes like a steamer now. Allbeit a LOVELY steamer. There’s a wonderful, slightly syrupy, strawberry texture and the creamer brings out the shortcake component of this tea. The only thing I don’t like about this tea is that the leaves look like they’ve been put thru a spice mill which not only lead me to believe that the quality isn’t very good, but the leaves get caught in the cover of my teapot when I pour it.

infusion 5, 9 min. Liquor and aroma not much, if at all, lighter than infusion 4. Now THIS is the white tea I wanted! No strawberry or cakey flavor, but it is still sweet. A good white tea flavor. I’ll keep resteeping it. I actually like that by infusion 5 the strawberry is gone because it tastes like a completely different tea w/o steeping something different.

infusion 4, 8 min. Liquor and aroma are lighter. Can’t speak for the flavor again though- this one was mom’s.

3rd infusion… The liquor is just more like the 1st steep. The aroma is slightly lighter, still sweet but no cakey aroma. Really no cake flavor either although the strawberry flavor is still very much there. Because of that I’ll steep at least one more time.