Two Guys' Tea

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox – Round #5 – Tea #48
I thought this was the same blend as the Fusion Peach oolong that I had a while ago… and it is! I like this blend. It’s a nice combination with peach but it seems more like a Darjeeling to me than an oolong. The peach is strong but tasty. I love seeing the jasmine, but I’m not sure it offers much to the flavor. A nice one to revisit!

The start and the end of the sip was nice, but somewhere in the middle it went a little flat for me. The walnut flavor is good, but seems a little weak. I’m going to chalk it up to not aging well in a traveling tea box and hope to try it again someday.

Not My Cup O’ Tea TTB

This was quite a nice green. I enjoyed how the walnut gave the tea a fuller flavour and mouth feel. It went well with the green base without either becoming bitter or astringent. I added a smidge of honey and it was brilliant. I’d give it another go someday.

I made this tea as a cold brew and forgot about it for TWO days. Hey, it was still good. What a miracle. Very nice peach flavor a bit of earthiness but I had sensed that when I had it previously. The earthiness does not interfer at all but it has less of an oolong taste than I would expect. Still a very lovely tea for the summer.

Matcha/Green TTB #5

I’m not done with these two guys!
Anyways, there is one big problem here everyone: You will never get to experience or see how hard I laughed at I drank this tea… for whatever reason this tasted like curry so I am not even going to rate it. I am pretty sure that once you read this and my other review you may dismiss me as someone who can evaluate tea, but I assure you that isn’t the case. Try this one for yourself!

Matcha/Green TTB #4

I cannot explain this salty fruit taste right now… so I will just make you all think I’m crazy (or high) again:
As I drink this down I realize that I am drinking a very rare fruit tea. This fruit is actually a parasite that lives on zebras. Surprisingly the fruit takes on the black and white color to fit in, but what is a delicacy of this fruit is how it feeds off of the perspiration of the zebra. Sometimes these fruits are obtained and then dehydrated before the flavor can be extracted for various usages. One of them being to flavor this tea. This fruit is very similar to papaya but has a salty taste to it…

That is enough enough… the only issue I have with this tea is the funky taste.

Backlog.

This tea tastes a lot like what I imagine a peach Bellini would taste like—very peachy, slightly effervescent, slightly tangy, almost bitter but not quite. I’m really enjoying it! I had mine unsweetened; hubby had his with honey. I snuck a sip of his before I brought it to him, just to see (shh, don’t tell), and I actually think I like it better without sweetening (I know, how crazy is that??). I will give it another go, just to be sure, but I’m not gonna experiment too much. If it ain’t broke… :)

Another tea from my swap with Anlina I am a fan! This is just the right balance of lime, mint and sort of cucumber taste. i had this hot but i can imagine this being super tasty in the summer as a cold beverage. i would pick this up again for sure!

another tea from Anlina that i had the other night. This one is a must try for coconut lovers. That being said, i’m not a HUGE fan of coconut as i find in tea blends that it goes rancid fairly quickly and sometimes the tastes is too intense. That being said, i can understand how folks who love coconut would enjoy this a bunch. It’s creamy and chocoaltey and very much like a dessert tea. Sadly the coconut is too much for me to really love it. It’s more personal preference than this being a bad tea. :)

HGTTB

I thought this one might be ok. I was wrong. there’s something in this one that just doesn’t work. In theory it sounds like a great idea but in practice – no thanks. Took one sip and refused to drink the rest lol. It’s just not a great blending of ingredients and there’s a weird note in it. Ah well, can’t love them all!

This is a good brew. I can’t taste any “tropics” though. I can mostly taste a flowery spring flavor. I can only hint at what I think to be pineapple. This is a great green tea; its refreshing and calm. I enjoy it, I believe this would fantstic if cold brewed in the spring.

Nope, Nope, Nope. This tea is very dusty and the color is off. The flavor is sour and pungent. I believe others would enjoy this but its definitely not my cup of tea.

Millions of peaches, peaches for me! Millions of peaches, peaches for free!! I’ve been a little excited to try this tea; I’ve been having very good luck with flavored Oolongs. The leaves smell of a floral peach with undertones of oak. Upon brewing, the aroma uplifts and maximizes. The peach tones become tangy and almost syrupy. the actual flavor of the tea is unlike the aroma. It has a dominant woodsy and herbaceous flavor. I can then hint at the peach only in the aftertaste. I especially enjoy the undertones of grass and lemon. I do enjoy this tea quite a bit, it would taste even better cold brewed!

I’m not getting many tropicals tasting notes but I am tasting a lot of honey. I almost can’t even taste the green base.

I’ve been very forgetful about my tea while it’s steeping. Sometimes it’s because of a poopy diaper and other times it’s because it took longer for me to get to the end of a chapter then I expected. Needless to say I did it with this one. Think this had about 7 mins of steeping time. Luckily it’s not bitter… just more spicy. Which I don’t entirely mind. I like spicy chai. Though I’m not getting many hints of vanilla too be honest. It’s there just very subtle.

Let me try some Almond milk.

Ooo not bad! It maintains the spiciness of the chai but adds a nice flavor and kinda brings out the vanilla a bit more!

If you like the flavor of peach you need to try this. The peach is a total overwhemler. Oolong? Not so much. It’s there, very subtly. This oolong reminds me more of a black tea because of it’s earthyness. There is also a slight bitterness that I’m not too fond of.

This is one of the few teas that I will not drink without milk…it’s just too spicy for me! With milk, it’s an enjoyable chai with a strong spicy kick from the ginger and clove. The vanilla is present, but definitely takes a backseat to the spices.

Sipdown number three for the week!! Cold steeped in the fridge while at work for 12 hours today… sigh!! But at least I had this tasty treat waiting for me upon my return! I really wish this tea had more peach in it… although there are a couple of decent chunks of dried fruit in my sample the tea has a real mild peach taste. The tea isn’t bad, in fact its quite refreshing and delicate however I was kinda hoping this would be a punch you in the face with peach flavor, cant live without you in summer iced tea blend for me… alas, I must keep looking… Thanks Inkling for the share!!

Finally, a coconut tea that actually tastes like coconut! It’s a little bit oily, but there’s a solid chocolate background that balances it out rather well, especially with the black tea in the mix.

Sipdown of this very generous sample that Inking sent me in our recent swap. Since the weather is back up in the mid 70s today I decided that the best way to drink this would be iced. The tea itself is full of huge chunks of dried fruit, I definitely spy some succulent looking pieces of strawberry and apple but the kiwi seems to be AWOL…. Maybe it’s just my sample. I brewed this up using my perfect tea maker and upon sipping noticed a decent punch of hibiscus however the sweetness of the strawberry seemed to balance the tartness well so I didn’t need to add any sugar (although I’m sure a touch of sugar would make this delicious) however I didnt get any kiwi… This would be super refreshing during summer and I’m sure I’ll pick some up once the weather gets into the 90s here (which I’m starting to think is going to be much sooner than I’m ready for!) so I can sip it round the pool… Thanks Inkling for sharing!

So with the Overboard TTB potentially making its way to me sometime in the next week I decided it was time to start sipping down some of my swaps and random samples to make room in preparation for the apparent monstrosity box!! I’m not usually a chai person and generally much prefer oolongs, blacks and greens but wanted to give this tea a go since it’s an unusually cool and rainy day here in SoCal.

So for someone who really isn’t a fan of chai this is almost the perfect balance of warm spice with some definite cinnamon, ginger and cardamom notes and a decent splash of milk helps to bring out the vanilla and add a touch creaminess. The spice is not overpowering and still lets the tea shine through which makes me happy on this winters day! Thanks to Inkling for sharing in our recent swap!

Cooking TTB #3

Another delicious sounding tea but with only a small amount of remaining leaves… Since this sounded so amazingly summery and cocktail like I decided that even with the small amount of available leaves that I just absolutely had to make this iced. Opening the bag I was immediately hit by the the scent of cucumber and mint, throwing it in the basket to steep I could hardly wait for my first sip!! A cocktail inspired tea at work… oooh, it seems so wrong but oh so right!!! Tasting it, the scent was spot on! Cucumber… mint… this would be amazing with a couple of springs of fresh mint… or even better, at home around the pool with a sneaky shot of white rum in the middle of summer…. mmmmm… summer!! Will definitely be picking up some of this once the weather starts to warm up!!! Delicious!!!

Inkling was super sweet and added this as a bonus in our swap and though I am not a lover of chai teas, I am happy to try anything that people are kind enough to share. You never know unless you try, right? Right. So I brewed this up as a latte.

As I sip, I am finding the addition of vanilla pleasant but not a strong enough element to cover up the chai spices that are just not my favorite. The ginger is quite strong in this blend which I think is what is competing with the vanilla most. Also, as the sip ends, their is a spicy kick from the cloves that is interesting though I don’t know if it is a positive interesting or a negative one. On the whole, it was an alright cup but not something I will seek out again now that its done. Still, I am grateful to Inkling for the opportunity to not only try a new tea but also a new tea company. 184.