Wegmans

Backlogging.

Another tea from yesterday. I fully admit that I grabbed this tea out of desperation. Yesterday was a cold, rainy, dreary day, and all I wanted to do was eat butter cookies and play World of Warcraft. I totally blame my husband for this because I quit playing WoW years ago, but he bought me the expansion and boosted my character to 90. If you have no idea what I’m talking about that’s ok. If you do know what I’m talking about you know what a time suck WoW can be. Ugh. If only it weren’t so much fun to play!

I was strong though! Instead, I made myself a cup of this and cleaned my house. The tea has become one of my favorite dessert teas because it really does taste like an almond cookie (with the addition of cream and sugar). It’s super, super tasty and it literally kept my hand out of the cookie jar. I love the big slivers of almond mixed in with the tea leaves. I don’t know how much nutty flavor they give the drink, but they are very pretty.

So, I had a yummy tea, and today I’m sitting in a nice, clean house. Sometimes being responsible stinks, but it does have its moments. :)

Lots of sweet almond cookie flavor (milk and sugar added). This is great for when I want something sweet and don’t want to snack. I’m actually going to Wegman’s in a few minutes, and I’m tempted to pick up more of this. We shall see….

Much of my day was spent traveling, so I was happy to finally settle at my friend’s house (I’m house sitting at the moment) and relax. I was even happier that I had brought along a few of my teas. This one has such a great almond flavor, and with the addition of sugar and milk tastes very much like an almond cookie. Without additions the tea is still very nice, and the almond and bread notes are easily discernible, but I can’t say that I get a true cookie flavor. So, sugar and milk it is. No regrets.

This is a fun little tea. Lots of almond flavor, and some cookie-like notes as well. I add cream and sugar which takes this from a nice tea to a full blown treat. Happy me! :)

Yum. Lots of almond flavor with vanilla. It really does remind me of cookies. Great afternoon tea.

Ok, this is delicious. It actually taste like an almond sugar cookie. I added sugar and milk, and I have to say it’s one of the tastier dessert teas I’ve had in quite a while.

Yum.

Picked this out of the sample drawer. It’s a nice green with nice flavor. The jasmine is a bit light but I like that it’s not overpowering.

Something sweet and never sour. This blueberry tea is simply delicious. I wandered upon it into the loose tea section at Wegmans. I purchased it and was taken into a journey of delight. This tea was perfect, it was bright with berry flavor and didn;t need any added sugar or honey. I felt like I was drinking a cup of warm happiness. I highly recommend this for a morning tea. It will brighten your day.

A Wegman’s just opened up near me. Of course I headed straight for the tea aisle. Imagine my delight to find they sold bulk loose tea! Picked up some of this stuff.

The aroma hits you with a pungent, woodsy punch. The liquor is a rich brown, like fine Corinthian leather, or maybe medium-roast coffee. The flavor, a hint of smoke, pipe tobacco leaves, a little dark chocolate, a nip of bitterness but not too much. Actually, it kind of reminds me of Scotch. It’s both rough and refined at the same time. Feels nice going down and warms your insides. But unlike most English Breakfasts, I don’t get much malt at all. This is one I could see myself acquiring a taste for. And it’s cheap, too!

Thanks for the sample cookies!

I drank this one iced with my lunch today. The blueberry flavor is nice and pretty natural, and the green tea is mild and a little vegetal. I think this would be better with a little tartness to offset the sweetness. Just my opinion though! Not bad, not spectacular either :)

Malty …Bready ..Very typical Irish Breakfast tea here , just what you’d expect!

Oolong day continues with this Ti Guan Yin I picked up from the loose leaf section in my local Wegmans. I brewed 1.5tsp in 10oz at about 200degrees for 3 minutes. This tea is a bit confusing. To the eye it looks like a dark roast, with very tightly rolled dark balls that have a bit of a musty roasted scent. But once brewed the taste is much greener than the appearance of the leaves would suggest. It’s a bit mild and middle-of-the-road as far as oolongs go.

Honestly I find this a bit odd. It tastes like a typical green oolong with heavy flowery notes and nice sweetness just as you would expect. But then the roastyness comes in. It’s not bad tasting, I just can’t seem to get the two together in my mind. I’m used to oolongs that sit at the far ends of the spectrum and this is confusing my palate.

I’m pretty sure this is Rishi’s Iron Goddess of Mercy

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox Round #3 – Tea #24
We have some Wegman’s around here, so it’s nice to see kind of a “local” tea. This is actually very nice for a grocery store tea! White and green teas mixed with plenty of blueberries. There was around ten in the infuser. I think they also add blueberry flavoring since I doubt there would be that much blueberry flavoring even with all those blueberries. I only saw a few pieces of white tea, so this is mostly green tea here. I like it!
Steep #1 // 25 min after boiling // 2-3min
Steep #2 // half mug // 20 min after boiling // 2-3 min

Oh, this is definitely not for me. Ugh, it’s actually kind of awful. Tastes like sweet roasted dirt, no thanks. Down the drain it goes.
Sipdown 12/75

I’m so disappointed that I passed over this tea for so long. I generally prefer Irish Breakfasts as I find English Breakfasts too weak so I didn’t even give this one a chance. Last week they were out of Irish so I picked this one up to tide me over until I could re-stock. And I’m happy to say it is absolutely lovely. I have to admit I think it’s mislabeled (in my store it is only labeled English Breakfast) as it really should be called Chinese Breakfast in my opinion. It’s chock full of sweet caramely slightly malty Yunnan goodness, but without any of the briskness I usually associate with English Breakfast blends. I heartily recommend this one if you are looking for a delicious Yunnan, not so much if you’re in the market for an English breakfast blend.

I believe this is Rishi’s China/Yunnan Breakfast.

Backlog from last night.

This was a sample that Jude sent me in a swap a few months ago, and there was just enough in the little packet for a full 24 oz pot of tea. Perfect for sipping down!

Tastewise, this reminds me a lot of David’s Teas Saigon Chai. I didn’t taste much chocolate or even much coconut, but I did sense cinnamon, and for some reason, I also sensed ginger, even though I don’t think that’s on the ingredient list.

Anyways, this was nice, but I doubt it would be a tea I would seek out to restock. Thanks again to Jude for the sample!

Flavor is light and refreshing. A good tea when brewed normally. But AMAZING as iced tea with a tiny bit of sweetener.

Lovely and light. If you prefer heavier scented teas this may not be for you. However, I find strong jasmine too perfume-y so this one is perfect for me. Very floral at first which quickly changes to a very honey like sweetness. It tastes much like fresh honeysuckle. It is such a beautiful sweet flavor, I can’t get enough of this tea. It’s especially lovely chilled during these unbearably hot summer days.
Steeped for 3 minutes the first time around with no bitterness whatsoever. Takes multiple steeps very well.

I cold brewed this, and I thought I would love it, but I don’t. Apparently my taste are changing/have changed over time. I have tried several teas lately that I know I would have loved a year or so ago, but now they’re just… meh. That’s not a bad thing. Heaven knows there are a lot of teas I’m enjoying right now, and exploring new teas is too much fun to get too stuck on one set of teas!

Anyway, this tea… the jasmine overpowers both the mint and the green tea. I don’t get a Moroccan Mint flavor in any way. This is jasmine tea from start to finish.

I don’t know if the tea was old, or maybe someone didn’t place the tin lid on properly (happens sometimes with help-yourelf bulk tins), but this tea is pretty awful. Ginger is my favorite flavoring so even though I’m not much of a pu-erh aficionado I had to pick up a bit of this. Sadly there is no discernible ginger in this mix, and no orange either. It just tastes like stale tea somebody tossed fish food into. Would definitely not recommend to anyone.