Featured & New Tasting Notes
This morning it is rich and smoky and malty and sweet and borderline chewy and all kinds of complex. And very good with half of an unadorned banana bread bagel (onion or garlic or salt is ordinarily about as far away from plain as I’m willing to go with bagels, but the BF bought these and the kids were going on about how great they were so I had one and they were right). And I just realized I’m still writing in the mode I used for my writing exercise of last night, with all the and and or connectors. LOL. Fortunately I haven’t been doing that in my emails for work.
I’m really tired. I didn’t sleep well and I think I was over-caffeinated, so today I’m going to make an effort to stop the caffeine by 4 p.m. or so and try to get to bed early. Daylight savings time. Ugh. It will put a crimp in my tea-drinking style, but I need the sleep.
Don’t read this part if you don’t like to read about medical ailments. ;-) Over the past week I’ve developed a rash of some kind on my foot. I have attempted self diagnosis via the internet and I believe it to be dyshidrosis, which can be brought on by stress, and apparently by inhaling dust if you’re allergic to dust. (And I did get a big whiff of dust during the weekend before last’s cleaning project.) Or nickel. (Does tea have nickel in it?) It looks awful, though it doesn’t feel that bad. I am not sure whether it’s going away. If it doesn’t go away by the end of the week, it’s medical appointment time. Great, just what I need.
Wow, I’m actually approaching a sip down on my 100 g tin of this. It’s a tea I would consider restocking, but I don’t feel compelled to break into the local DT to do it or anything. I also had it along with a breakfast shake this morning, which made me feel needlessly full of liquid and bloated, so you know how that goes. I like this tea because it needs minimal additions, and although I’ve got nothing against additions, it’s nice to have a few low maintenance teas hanging about. I do plan on attempting grape expectations after work again this afternoon, although I have to admit that the intense taste of grass really terrified me last night, although like I said, I think it had to have been me, because what I produced was so god awful that no one could even pretend to like it. Eww.
Sip down. Ech, I’m kind of glad, too. These last couple cups were rather dicey. I got the exact same scratchy feeling in the throat that others have mentioned.
I think the main reason why my first cup was pretty good was because it contained more orange slices in it (first cup = two slices, second = one, third = none). I think that gave this more oomph, and the orange was more harmonious with the creamy vanilla. Without the orange slice, this is a muted orange creamsicle with scratchy, peppery lapacho.So that said, no reordering for me. If only this orange creamsicle were combined with a different, delicate base, it would be a winner.
I’ve recommended this in the past, and maybe you already saw this recommendation, but the best orange creamsicle tea I’ve ever come across comes from Tumblewood Teas. A tiny, hardly known tea shop with an amazing orange creamsicle tea :)
Thanks for the recommendation. It looks great, but I see they don’t ship outside of the States. But it’s all good!
oh darn it, I forgot about that. I don’t currently have any on hand to share (just a small bit that I am hoarding) but if I get more, I can send you some :)
hmmm…. goes off to look
Cowboy Creamsicle?
Yeah, that looks like the one. And thanks for the offer, Shelley!
FWIW, the best orange creamsicle tea I’ve had so far comes from a local-esque store (Janet’s Special Teas), called Dolce Orange. I’ll need to get more since I only had a sample and it was really good. :)
…..and send some to MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
YOU KNOW IT, YO. I’ll need to bus up there and kick some Sidney ass. :D
I love music. All kind of music. I can start the day with The Black Keys and end it with Nina Simone. But my universe on Sunday morning usually gravitates torwards classical music. This morning, I chose Erik Satie. I love the odd atmosphere found in his pieces, Gnossienne no. 1, one of my favourite piano number ever. This slow movement version is the best in my opinion:
This tea has put a spell on me, I’ve been enamoured with it since I’ve tasted it for the first time. Sadly, I’m almost done with the year 2009 pouch I’ve ordered. But Garret also sent a generous sample of year 2013 to try so it will be interesting to compare the two.
I know I’ve reviewed it only 9 days ago, but it’s so special, I feel compelled to review it again.
This morning, what’s in my cup still reminds me of spring maple water and it’s even more appropriate with the bright sunny day we’re having so far. This beautiful tea helps me believe that spring might be on its way after all…As I look through the window, even the birds and the squirrels look happier today!
First sip and my mouth is invaded with sweetness and roundness that feel almost like pudding! But I’m immediately getting a faint woodsy earthiness, which reminds me I’m actually drinking pu’erh. Floral notes emerged today, more than I’ve tasted before, reminiscent of a light fragrant rose water. It’s very subtle though, I would never qualify this tea as being “floral”.
I like how this is complex but yet so accessible. I think any tea lover would enjoy this cup, whether they are white and pu’erh tea lovers or not.
Thank you Mandala for such a wonderful experience, it delivers time after time. I will have no choice but to restock on this :-)
Wonderful :-)
What a lovely review.
Great choice of music!
Thanks gals :-)
ah another tea to restock …:) how many do you have by now (I mean not sample teas) ?
Yay for classical music. :)
I like Satie pieces. Peaceful.
how lovely! the song is hauntingly beautiful. it sounds sweetly tragic yet contemplative. mysterious and delicate.
the tea sounds stunning too!
Lol, Ysaurella, I probably have around 70 samples in the cupboard, so that would put me in the range of 240 regular teas…I know, I know, it’s ridiculous!!! But thank god only a small % is restock material, it’s just that I’ve been having lots of great teas lately!!
Fjellrev & Gmatis, glad we agree on classical music. We must never forget that Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, etc… they were the fist real rockstars of all time!
Pyarkaalo, I think you described this piece to perfection, you really get it!
Satie’s music was also used as a sountrack for the movie The Painted Viel with Edward Norton and Naomie Watts. The movie was equally hauntingly beautiful, tragic yet contemplative. So kudos to you for such an accurate description :-)
I’m packaging some of this to send off to sil, and figured I might as well try it myself. I actually got this at the Balzac’s cafe (guffaw guffaw balzacs omg), and it came in the most adorable tin with a really tight lid and this vacuum sealed under-lid thing. Wow that was articulate.
Anyway, the dry leaf smells quite strongly of ginger and cloves, and you know instantly that it’s a fairly spicy tea. You’re encouraged to add milk and sugar to this, which I took liberties to do.
The spice profile definitely holds true for the taste as well. It’s a chai that’s heavier on the cloves and ginger, with sweet cinnamon and a hearty dose of pepper rounding out the sip and warming your throat. In fact, I can imagine this being a really good “sick” tea, because of the throat-warming effect and also the ginger. This is no delicate, sweet cinnamon chai, and as such, might not appeal to those who avoid spicy chais, but for chai-lovers, I think it should definitely be on the to-try list. And given that I don’t currently have a chai in my collection, I don’t feel at all bad adding what I consider to be generally a ‘winter’ tea to it.
Balzac’s cafe…that really sounds like a place you would find Mariage Frères teas!! You’re lucky to have a place where you can pick up any of their teas, no such luck in my neck of the woods!!
Yeah, I only discovered this because yyz posted in a thread on the boards. Also, they only have a few mf teas—I was also looking for French breakfast, and they said they’d put in a request, so perhaps i’ll get that—but they didn’t have marco polo or some of the other popular blacks. I did have a friend go to London though and she picked me up some other MF teas that I desperately need to try.
This is my favourite chai. :) How much are the tins there?
american breakfast>french breakfast wish id know you wanted french breakfast keychange..would have added some in…or maybe i did..now i can’t remember lol
Don’t worry about it at all, sil. You’re already far too generous as it is. and omgsrsly, I paid a bit more than eighteen dollars for the 100 g tin.
That is amazing. If I run out before Christmas, I might ask you to send me more. I have tins, so I’d just want the tea in baggies. :) I bought mine at Holt Renfrew for $24 a tin.
don’t worry, OMGsrsly, I’ll be your mad hookup for this tea. Mad.
As long as you don’t hulk out and drink ALL the tea (because as a tea hulk, I don’t really see smashing as an option)!
The one who drinks all the tea around here is ms. sil! lol
:D Too true!
haai! do nooooot… i leave the blergamot stuff…
Hmmm app automatically flags tea as recommended. Also, hate nt being able to caress my cupboard since I know what I drank but not the company.
Had a cup of this one and the other tea before leaving the house to pick up my other half for a nerd store trip. Gotta love a lazy weekend where I got a few thigs done but did NO WORK! That’s right….no work. Best weekend in a long time :)
Ow I’m busy trying to see if I can manage a short trip to Paris in April along with the other trips we need to take this year.PARIS? So jealous :D
We’ll see if we can swing it. Lots to do this year for friends weddings and such plus planning ours. But we’ll see…
Yay for a fabulous week end!!!
Caress your cupboard? I know people around here love their tea, but oh my. :-)
it sounds like a restock for mousse au chocolat ;)
kaylee – iphone autocorrect is the suck. apparently search = caress lol
But it got some laughs out of some of us, so I’d count “caressing your cupboard” as a win, Sil!
I don’t think caressing your cupboard is necessarily inappropriate. And I’m sooo jealous about Paris. I’ve only been once – year before last. I want to go back!
I realized tonight that I’m soon to be in a very unbalanced tea situation. I have way more true teas than I do herbals/fruit blends. At the rate I’m going, I predict I’ll run completely out of herbals/fruit blends in a month or six weeks. Maybe two months at the most. So it is looking like I will escape from lockdown (in part).
The problem is, there are decafs and herbals I want from a lot of places, but I also want teas from those places, too. I know that if I order from a place that has teas I want, like Harney & Sons, I’ll be tempted to justify the purchase because I’ll be over the limit for free shipping or whatever. Ugh. File under first world problems.
In any case, Teavana is one of the places that has a lot of selection in terms of herbals and fruit blends. I’m not really interested in any of their true teas at this point, so perhaps they’re a safe bet. I really like this as a peppermint, but I doubt it would be a reorder assuming they still offer it. I’ve decided that Tazo Refresh is my go to mint.
I’m also eyeing a lot of the herbals and rooibos blends at DAVIDSTea.
I would buy rooibos, provided that it sits in the background in the blend. Same with honeybush. I don’t like savory blends that much.
With that in mind, I thought I’d ask—what are your top three decaf or herbal or fruit blends that aren’t savory, aren’t overly tart or egregiously sweet, don’t have pronounced rooibos or honeybush flavors, aren’t lemon myrtle, and can be found at a place that has a healthy selection of decaf options? (Thanks in advance.)
What you described there is pretty much everything I like! :) Zen Tea has a decent selection of fruity teas. The prices are good, they frequently have sales, I don’t really dislike anything they have. Although, the strawberry cream fruit isn’t as good as the goji chokecherry strawberry or juicy blueberry, and the ginger rooibos doesn’t have enough ginger.
Thanks so much! I will look into Zen Teas. I have to ask, when you said what I described was what you liked did you mean my list of nots (savory, too tart, too sweet etc.) were all things you also didn’t like or all things you liked? I am tired and my brain is muddled so I’m not sure. ;-)
Your nots are all things I like! But Zen Tea seems to have a good balance. The Northern Berry rooibos is VERY fruity, leans towards sweet but isn’t too sweet. I love the Cranberry Acai, but it might be too savoury for you due to the nettle. Juicy Blueberry is a surprising fruit tea with hibiscus. Not too tart at all (I guess unless you hate hibiscus) and the Goji Chockcherry has no hibiscus. It’s light and fruity and really really neat.
Ah, got it. These all sound very tempting, thanks so much!
Depending on what you’re into, I was just able to do an herbal binge shop at Camellia Sinensis (http://camellia-sinensis.com/en/tea/herbal-tea) while telling myself I’m waiting for all the new 2014 greens and green oolongs that will come in over the next few months. Bit of a mental trick, but it mostly worked. And I haven’t received them yet, but those herbals look crazy good.
Forever Nuts at David’s Tea is a good one. I have some other fav decaf herbal blends but they don’t fit into what you’re looking for.
I second OMGsrsly for Zen Tea, and their herbals are really on the wellness side. I liked Bamboo Integrity a lot.
Although I haven’t been a fan of their teas in a little while, DAVIDsTEA new spring collection seems to be a hit this time, my sister in law is gushing over Grape Expectations, Blue Lagoon and Cool Cucumber!
Thanks everyone for the suggestions! I have a good head start now. I will check all these out and I’ll probably take a look at some of the Della Terra herbals as well as those seem to have some fans here. TF, the gushing was what made me put DAVID’s on the list, that and the fact that I’ve wanted to try Forever Nuts for … Forever. If/when I order from Zen, I’m gonna have to try that Earl Grey Crème.
Oh, you remembered! Of course Lady Bergamot, you of all people MUST try their Earl Grey Cream :-)
But I think you should add a new one on your list, their Vanilla Black. Did not review it yet and I’m not even a real fan of vanilla tea, but this is different, like pure vanilla bean, so good!
mmmmm i like this tea a bunch, though i’ve found picking the flowers out makes it a more enjoyable cup. It’s not that it’s a floral tea persay, but something about the blossoms adds just a little of something i dont enjoy AS much. Over all though, this is a lovely tea and i’m glad winners had it when they had their fauchon teas. I did swing by the other day and their shelves were nearly BARE of coffee and tea…so i’m hoping that means more will be coming in soon….i hope lol
Dang I love this one so much…
This is in the BBBB, right? I need to pull it out & give it a try
uh… 98% certain i sent this along for you to try “fancy french teas” at christmas
OH…maybe I already drank it then, hahaha
nope, just checked, I’ve never reviewed it, but I AM pretty sure I have a bag of it, so I guess I’d better get on it!
i have enough to send you another small bit if you didn’t get any
I just looked, & it IS in the BBBB! So I got plenty! :)
perfect!
Sipdown (195/197)!
My laptop was reset to default settings when I got it back today (new hard drive), and that stupid “tap to click” function is enabled and I can’t figure out how to turn it off, so I just lost a long and detailed tasting note because I accidentally tapped near the “X” button and cancelled out of my own tasting note. I’ve also been inadvertently highlighting and deleting paragraphs all day. ERGH!
Tre brought me back a single bag of this from Regina (he got back today) – and I kind of didn’t want it, so I just got the sipdown out of the way. I feel bad when he gets me tea because he tries really hard, but often is really egotistical about it/pretends to know way more than he does or he just gets things completely outside of my personal taste – and if he payed attention to what I say about my tea he wouldn’t have either of those issues.
Take this one for example: he gave it to me and was really trying to play up the tea brand, and I just totally shut him down with what I know about Tazo (which he was mispronouncing horribly, and I was quick to point out). I don’t really drink Tazo not because I ’don’t know it exists’ but because I’ve been less than impressed with the few teas I’ve tried from them.
This isn’t an exception: it’s pretty weak in flavour and is underlying bitter – though there is a subtle fruitiness to it which I’ll admit tastes natural (a win), albeit also kinda generic. Personally, I don’t think I’d drink it again though and I sort of feel like I’ve wasted a bit of my time in trying it. Sorry Tre.
Also, speaking of mispronouncing things it really amuses me how much the three isolated potential houseguests are butchering the contestants names. I mean, they don’t know any better – but it is a little amusing. My favourite is the pronounciation of “Adel”. It’s supposed to be like the singer “Adele” but they’re saying it like “Ladle” without the L. With a hard A. Heh.
There should be an option in Control Panel → Mouse. Or Touchpad. :) I’m on a desktop so I can’t be more specific than that!
We spent hours today looking it up, and where the touchpad SHOULD show up, it instead says I have a mouse installed and no touchpad. Which is very inaccurate; I don’t have/use a mouse for my laptop and never have. I can switch the settings for “the mouse” which do nothing, but apparently there’s no record of my laptop ever having a trackpad. I’m thinking it’s something to do with the new hard drive (my Dad bought it for me as a birthday present), which I know nothing about. It’s very frustrating.
Oh no! That is so weird. The computer should recognize the touchpad as a separate entity. Have you gone to the manufacturer website and seen if there are driver updates to install? I had to do that for my work laptop. Windows doesn’t always get the drivers right.
If you use Chrome, there’s an add-on called “lazarus” that automatically saves anything typed into a blank form for two weeks or so, so if something like that happens, you can pull it “back from the dead”. It has saved my butt numerous times.
ok, a quick question, how do you pronounce Tazo, so I don’t come across as a total idiot when talking with others. I assumed it was ta as in tap and zo with a long o sound.
Like “Tah-zo”.
Holy sweet licorice batman! I doubt I could drink this all the time, but if I was craving a super sweet licorice tea, I might go for this one.
Flavors: Licorice
Preparation
I picked all the licorice out of mine. :)
by the by…. would you like me to send my ‘evening lights’ by zen to you? =0)
Love the intro to your description!
Heh, I reference Batman a lot. :)
Not a bad idea to pick out the licorice, although, I do like licorice… more so the black salty licorice though than anything.
JustJames: I’m always happy to have more Zen, although I’ll have a LOT of it coming my way soon enough. Stay tuned for that news.
should i reference batman in this conversation/comment/text/email etc?
…
the only right answer is always YES.
I just can’t deal with licorice root in tea. :) I’ll try it, but chances are it’ll end up getting poured out.
What an interesting flavour. The scent and flavour profile is simultaneously intriguing me and making me feel ill. I have a weird relationship with berries. I love them individually, but any sort of berry mixture in tea never goes over well. The cinnamon here seems to create the pie effect, at least in my cold shaken milk, and I think that’s what is allowing this flavour to work for me. Perhaps a warm latte would work better?
Blueberry cinnamon pie would be amazing right about now. :) Honestly, I think flavours and spices depend on the taste of the person making it. Like, we never put cinnamon in our strawberry or rhubarb pies, but according to the internet, that’s a thing.
I know what you mean. I could do any berry with cinnamon I think. But more than one berry and I just can’t. It makes my stomach turn. But gah, blueberry cinnamon pie sounds amazing. I’ve also only had strawberry rhubarb together in a pie, never separate haha!
Yeah, and apparently strawberry-rhubarb pie is a thing too! I’ve never had it. :)
Strawberry Pie is pretty decent ;)
**Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Oh bummer :/ I am sorry it makes you feel ill…
That’s okay! They can’t all be winners. I’m glad I tried it for sure.
Well, if you decide you wanna trade, just let me know :)
Sometimes just because you CAN do something, doesn’t mean you SHOULD . For instance, just because you CAN eat four Krispy Kreme donuts in one car ride does not mean you should eat them. Or just because you CAN chug two bottles of water in under a minute, does not mean you should. I, of course, am speaking in the hypothetical here however should you decide to do those things and just happen to feel quite nauseous, you may want to drink a mint tea. Perhaps one like this tea. Just a thought.
Omg I miss Krispy Kreme doughnuts. They had them here in Canada for like five minutes once upon a time, and I could blow through a box no problem. Could have, I mean. I never did that, obviously. I meant it hypothetically.
Of course, all hypothetical here :P. And should you hypothetically be in search of more, last I heard there was Krispy Kreme downtown by the Eatons Center.
Are you serious?!?! that’s such good news…hypothetically speaking. Really good news for those people (unlike me) who enjoy sugar. Yup, good for those people.
We still have one in Mississauga, but you don’t find them anywhere else here anymore. They attempted to expand to fast, and crashed and burned.
Apparently there are two downtown Toronto: http://www.krispykreme.com/select-your-store
Are they a lot better than Tim Horton’s doughnuts? I only ever had their original glazed once and didn’t care for it. There used to be one in Calgary but it apparently only lasted a few years.
I have an insane sweet tooth so I love them but most people find them disgusting. It is hard to compare them to Tim’s though just because they are so different (as in they are all coated in sugar whereas Tim’s aren’t :P)
I only like them when fresh and hot. I find the cold glaze ones greasy and well gross. I think that’s why their attempt at selling them at other stores failed. They have some interesting flavours of filled donuts though, some of which are pretty good.
The only place I’ve encountered them is at fundraisers, and… how old are those donuts? :O
(that didn’t stop me from buying a box… OMG)
I prefer cake donuts, which is good because there are no delicious light fluffy sugary melt-in-your-mouth gluten free donuts. There is a Krispy Kreme here, and my boss sometimes brings in a box. So tempting, so dangerous.
Mmm donuts
Oh, this is really good! And it’s perfect in my whales cup! Whaaaaaales!
http://oi61.tinypic.com/2096nop.jpg
It’s all melon! Honeydew melon! And I get something that makes me think of cucumber in it. It’s quite light and refreshing, even though I steeped it for 7 minutes – I may have got distracted taking pictures of my pretty whales. :D I took the leaves and popped it in the fridge with my other nordic mug so I can compare the cold-steeped version later!
I really like this though. It’s light on tea, and heavier on fruit so it might be expensive if you want a lot of black leaf in it, but I don’t mind that either. This way I can share with the toddler and not worry about it. I do get a spearminty after-taste too, although I don’t know if there is mint in it or not. Maybe in the added flavours?
I’d want to rate this 90 and go out and buy a tin, but I know that’s just new-tea-fever! I’ve got a 25g pouch so I’ll rate it after I try it again.
Preparation
This might be enough to make me reconsider cucumber tea. Heh.
I wouldn’t have thought that cucumber and melon belong in black tea, but I’m seeing this get a lot of love. My interest is piqued!
So cute!
Yes yes yes! I must try this asap!
DavidsTea confirmed spearmint!
I want to try this now!
Sneaky!!!
OH, ETA: This is REALLY good iced. I cold-steeped my used leaves for 6 hours and it was delicious.
Sipdown no. 116 of the year 2014. Just enough left for me and the BF this morning.
An enjoyable sipdown. I hope for more like this, where I’m not dreading having to make the tea go away (and arranging it so the BF’s cup is much bigger than mine each time I steep it).
I should find/drink more orange flavored tea that I like. I’m sure I have some in the stash somewhere. I really do like orange flavor. I have an orange from our tree in my refrigerator at the moment. I didn’t even know we had an orange tree until the BF and kids came in with three huge oranges. I think what happened was: we had a crazy neighbor who we couldn’t work with on a fence repair so the deer had been eating the little trees and the fruit. The crazy neighbor died, and a couple with kids bought her house and completely gutted it and made it look very nice. They also, of course, worked with us to put in a new fence. I think the tree has recovered! I’m pretty sure we have a tiny lemon tree out there somewhere too.
Lest you think it is weird that I don’t even know what sort of trees I have in the backyard, our house is on a hill, and it’s a pretty steep slope. The backyard is terraced but not very easy to get to and not overly usable, so we don’t go down there a lot. I’d like to change that—would really like to completely redo it and make it kid play friendly but landscaping is so incredibly expensive.
Time to buy a megabucks ticket.
Ironically, & purely by coincidence (although there are no coincidences), I drank this one the last time I woke up ridiculously early. Anyway, this one is, without a doubt, my favorite black tea from Garret! It is absolutely delicious, & deliciously complex, with a rich sweet dark chocolate quality that so many of us love.
Agreed! Just dug this one out this morning too after a bit of a night out. It brought me back from the dead.
I am so happy that you enjoy this tea. I attempt to turn many people on to it here at the shop. We now have a few coffeehouses/tea shops that we source to and they are doing very well with it. It’s a winner. Different and wonderful. Thanks for writing your thoughts about it!!
:)
The flavor profile on this tea sounds like a breakfast by itself!
I decided to do short steeps of this lovely tea and I’m still drinking it. 11 steeps afterwards though it’s now lost its lovely fruitiness it still is full of flavour with malt mixed with a lovely sweetness. I have no idea what harvest this is from as this was a nice surprise in a giveaway from CrowKettle, but this one steeped in the fashion I steeped it is really fruity. It really tastes like a flavoured tea without actually having flavouring. The flavour notes I got were strawberry, banana, burnt caramel or sugar, a hint of waffle or other baked good, cinnamon and malt for the most part. Really good. This is on my shopping list!
10s after rinse. Scent fruit, strawberry, banana like, malt, hint of floral.
Taste fruit, strawberry, banana,malt, waffle, caramelized sugar undertone.
Really fruity with the malt and astringency creating a sense of density.
15s strawberry, malt
Higher malt, waffle tone, caramelised sugar, strawberries, less astringent and richer in taste and body quite sweet.
20s. Colour light maple scent similar to above
Taste same but texture is both denser and silkier than previous steep except for faint floral note.
20s similar scent
Taste higher malt, hint of floral and touch of cinnamon, waffle note, sweet syrupynote, strawberry . Texture slightly rougher body.
25s. Same
Same fruity malty taste with an aftertaste of sweetness followed by darker burnt sugar and very smooth.
25s. Scent and Tate more malty, less sweet but still quite fruity.
30s spice, biscuit, fruit, malt
Heavy floral/fruity sweet tone over malt with thicker baked good referencing texture.
35s malt with hints of fruit and a sweet aftertaste.
45s. Same as above.
60s malt, still indistinct sweet notes.
120s same as above.
courtney both rocks my world and may have ruined LB for me for a little while. heh. She sent along some cacao for me since HI is annoying me in their lack of consistency with their service…so that i could try her receipe of adding this to LB.
So this morning i did a 1-1 ratio of this + LB in my travel mug for work…fogot about it…and sometime this afternoon took my first sip. dear.god. SOOOOO good! it enhances the deliciousness of LB and makes it a totally decadent treat tea… I may need to keep this in my back pocket for when i’m having a really bad day…though i’d have to get lots more cacao tea.
thanks a bunch courtney!
Cripes, that must be fantastic. Double damn.
it’s REALLY delicious. She sent me cacao specifically so i could try this…so good.
What is LB?
Mwuahaha!
LB = laoshan black from verdant :)
i am so trying this—i was bummed that when i restocked LB it wasn’t as chocolatey as i remembered it being. thanks for the tip!
it’s aaalllll courtney!
I’m so glad you liked it. :)
OOH, I might try mixing the last of mine in with LB.
Really? OMG. I wish I had more cacao to try that with!
Giggles you know Laoshan Black was what I 1st thought of when I saw the initials LB.
cavo..yes..sadly it’s enough to make me want to place an order with HI…though i may see if they’re downtown on sunday….
Another long ago 52teas purchase that was never opened. I’m breaking this one out in anticipation of St. Patrick’s Day. I’m only just the tiniest bit Irish, but hey it’s an excuse. I can see the St. Patrick’s Day menu now. This, Irish Breakfast, some green tea later in the day. Maybe some corned beefy lapsang, or something with a potato note. Who knows what else I might have in my stash that’s appropriate. Heh.
The packet has a creamy vanilla fragrance with a darker undertone, and this also comes through in the aroma of the steeped tea. It has a reddish-maple colored liquor.
There’s something dark-ish about the cream flavor in the tea that’s almost got a chocolate tone to it. Not so much a whisky flavor, but I “get it.” It’s a nice approximation of an Irish Cream like Bailey’s in tea form. The BF said he “got it” right away, too.
It gets high marks for flavor replication and pretty high marks so far for drinking pleasure. I don’t think I’ll have a “food tea” problem with this, but the flavor is a bit heavier than some of the other 52teas blacks I’ve had recently so it may not be something I can drink easily every day. We’ll see.
Flavors: Cream
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This is a flavour I approve of in just about every form they can put the flavour into. Heck, one of my favourite cocktails (yes it’s a cocktail) is Baileys and milk.
(I wanted to order it at a bar in LA, and my date was like “are you seriously going to make me order this?” and then apparently the bar had no milk, which is super weird, and I think they thought I was creepy. I settled on an amaretto sour. It was $14 and it was fine, I guess.)
I feel like I need to investigate this, though, because dude. Good flavour is good.
Baileys on the rocks is better…
This sounds far more appealing than the creme brûlée flavours I’ve seen around!
“beefy lapsang”…haha! i’ve got you covered on the potato note- just look for Echinacea Plus by Traditional Medicinals & you’ll get raw potato (with the skin still on) dunked in water prior to boiling. soon after, it is followed by mint <—— green!
also, this tea just sounds yummy.
I just checked and it’s out of stock, but I bet if enough people clicked on “please reblend” they’d do it for St. Paddy’s day!
I suddenly found myself in the mood for a chai.
I’d like to publicly thank the Devotea for setting me straight on chai making.
I poured some vanilla almond milk into a pot, turned in on low, added probably way more tea than would be recommended (basically, the rest of the contents of the envelope), & just let it sit there for awhile, checking to stir occasionally. You can disregard any lame reviews I’ve written about this chai in the past, because what I’m drinking now is f*@}!&g awesome!
And it’s a sipdown…uh…326, I think.
So what is the “correct” way to make chai? I was always told to make it with water and add about 2 oz of milk to a 10oz of strongly brewed tea….
now you’re making me want to pick up a sample of this to try it again terri…
I put 16 oz of vanilla almond milk in a pan on low, added a bunch of chai (like 4T, LOL), & just left it there for about 30 minute, stirring occasionally. Near the end I raised the heat a little until it was nice & hot, but not boiling. The only problem with using almond milk (or possibly other milks) is you can’t pour it through a finnum, it takes too long. I have a looser strainer that I poured it through instead, but it filtered it good enough.
Oh, & maybe add some sweetener at the end.
Now part of me wants to try using this method with campfire blend & also laoshan chocolate genmaicha…just to see how they come out…
I’m drinking this tea out of my new birthday mug, and it’s been poured from my new birthday teapot. I have named the latter Freddie, after the character Freddie Miles in The Talented Mr. Ripley, because it’s fat-yet-elegant, showy and has weird colouring. Birthdays aren’t very gifty to me, unlike Christmas – I’d rather get together with friends and chosen family for activities and Symbolic Things. I prefer getting myself birthday gifts – small things I don’t really need, but that make me happy. So on Monday I was out all day on a magpie spree with my special sweetface Em. When I got this, they offered to deliver it for me. I mean. It’s a tiny teapot. It was hilarious. When it had been settled that it did, in fact, fit quite easily into my bag, they knocked €2 off. It really cracked me up.
My friend T. inspired me to pick this up (Hey T. – good news, I have enough to share!) She’s been ogling it for a while and I figured I’d do us both a service and act as a test subject. I wanted something fit for spring – complex, floral, but yet light and not too overwhelming. Mariage Frères definitely delivered on all accounts. First of all, this is a beautiful tea. Long, thin, needly leaves in various dark shades of green, the occasional light leaf breaking it up nicely, and an absolute abundance of lovely petals.
Scent wise, it excites me a lot, because to me, this is the spring counterpart of Marco Polo Vert – and that, to me, is the ultimate green tea for autumn, with its thick fruity ripeness. This has the same boozy character, but it’s a light, floral booziness. A perfect spring tea party tea – when I close my eyes I see tiers and tiers of dainty sandwiches and cakes.
I’m sometimes frustrated by teas that have no discernible, individual flavours, but in this case the multifaceted florality present in each sip is like a lovely, delicate veil of tea. It’s perfectly achieved, and I’m very pleased with this one. Like most Mariage Frères teas in my collection, it has a very clearly defined personality that grows on me with each sip.
Anyway, one of the Symbolic Things I did yesterday was to dye my hair for the first time in… well, forever. I have never altered my hair colour, ever, in any manner whatsoever, during my 34 years. We went with chocolate, tobacco and a dash of gold. In other words, just like my own hair, only without the greys that emerged overnight some time in late November. http://tinyurl.com/qe7jd58
I love my pervy old uncle Rick.
[Purchased at Dagnino in Rome, March 2014.]
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YAY birthday mugs and teapot!
also..HOLY CRAP your hair is gorgeous…
Happy birthday and I agree with Sil. Your hair looks amazing! Great color, but even greater curl!
(Not but. And. And even greater curl.)
Thanks, guys. <3 I think we went through a whole bottle of wine just doing those curls, haha.
i could stare at that pic alllll day long…
You can touch it if you wanna.
For a second I thought everyone was commenting on your pervy uncle’s picture. I’m sure you look fabulous! and tell me mooore about your birthday mug!
Oh my goodness, your hair is beautiful!! And, happy birthday!
Oh, uncle Rick is way prettier than me, I’m definitely not posting a picture with both of us in it.
I got my birthday mug at a somewhat unexpected place – Benetton! They’re currently doing a line of mugs with graphic prints that I really like.
The shape is simple, straight-up cylindrical with a simple handle. The base/background is white, and the pattern consists of circular shapes in a light turquoise. They resemble stylized daisies, with the white background showing through in the centre, and between the ‘petals’. They’re distributed symmetrically across the mug, and the ‘daisies’ in the vertical rows are kept together by very thin lines. I like how the pattern doesn’t go all the way up/down to the top/bottom of the mug, but that there’s white space along the edges.
…and here’s a picture for the sighted: http://tinyurl.com/mkxfpes
That’s a great description. The mug sounds lovely…and glad there’s a pic for the visually advantaged!
haha i love that keychange… visually advantaged. :)
Happy birthday, liberated Rapunzel! I love your hair way too much than is decent :D
You can also touch it if you wanna.
I’m happy you love Montagne de Jade because it didn’t work at all for me but I recognize it as a very high quality tea.
and of course you look like a princess with such hair !
It can sometimes be particularly frustrating when you find one of those teas you know are really exquisite and of the highest quality, and then you still don’t like them.
And nooo, not a princess – I look like a ninja assassin!
you’re a Ninja Princess ;)
Aaahhhhhh!!
The damage:
-one spring tea sampler set
-one matte white Nordic mug with shellfish and pale green interior.
-I can’t believe that was all. I just can’t. I saw and fell in love with the lime green timolino, and think it will be mine very very soon, just not yet.
I also saw their new travel mug, which is said to be leak-proof. It seemed nice, although for some reason I wasn’t crazy about its esthetics, or maybe it was just the way it felt in my hand. It’s a rubberized textured type of metal, and it just feels wide and clunky, and I’m not sure how I feel about the handle on the lid yet.
But yeah, this tea, sorry!
I got it to go as a soy latte with agave. This tastes pretty comparable to what a peaches and cream flavoured oatmeal tastes like, minus the grainy taste of oats. The peach is a soft, rounded peach as opposed to the fresh juicy variety, and is not even remotely tart or tangy, although this could be due to the vanilla, which gives more of a cream note than a distinctly vanilla one. I also didn’t get any apple at all, which whatever, fine by me.
This is a solid tea, and makes a fine latte. I’m pretty excited to play around with the sample I have!
Wizard. I love peachy oatmeal tea!
Yay for new tea and teaware!!! althought I must admit I’m a little disappointed you behaved so well, lol, would have loved to hear more!
I, too, am disappointed with the show of restraint. I expected actual damage, darn it!
I haven’t opened my computer in hours, and scrolling through my feed now, I see lots of David’s purchases haha. Nice choice!
Yay new tea stuff! :)
Haha guys I still spent like sixty dollars!! It really is a wild wild world out there. And, um, I think I’m going back tomorrow. Because whales. Whales!
WHALES! :D I’ll probably get whales on Friday.
waaa waa waaa me too!
Ahh thanks for the review on the new mug I saw it online, Im sure ill purchase that lime timolino…omg did u see that lime steeper?! And might push it for the mason jar…lol
Oh, I nearly lost it over the timolino-glad you want it too! and I own and love love love the mason jar. Amazing and wonderful and perfect. And omg yes the steeper! but it’s massive.
I hope they come out with more colours in the smaller steeper. :) That would be PERFECT.
I too showed restraint lol only 2 mugs, the glass octopus and color changing lobster, and both with my bf in mind!! The octopus one is Def for him and I might test the lobster one, I think I will be returning for the shell bubble cups and teapot though haha :D and I also got 8 teas lol so still a fair amount
Sounds like you had fun shopping today. I love reading about all the excitement about the new teas and tea ware.
Whales!!! I’m getting the color-change mug next week. I tried really hard for this week but only got cleared for $20 because, ya know, responsibilities and bills. Blegh! Doesn’t my mortgage company know the Spring Collection is out? How dare they?
Sounds like a good shopping experience! :)
It was awesome!
This smells amazing. The steeped scent is (mint?) all cucumber melon. The flavours are light here and don’t come through too strongly. But the base also isn’t overwhelming. Overall a light tea. The scent is definitely what makes this tea amazing. Every time I bring it for a sip, the smell is just delicious.
P.S. I’m not supposed to tell you guys, but apparently Coconut Oolong is making a reappearance in April. They said it has lemongrass this time around.
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Eee!!!!! The whales are SO CUTE!
Is this tea really minty? They say a “hint” of mint, but I don’t see mint in the ingredients.
I thought that upon first smell, but the more I sip away, the more what I thought was mint just becomes cucumber melon to be honest.
Would you say the flavours are weak though? so sad because I bet the smell would lead me on so much!
omg omg must get to dT! three hours to go now!
Yep keychange. The smell is much stronger.
Thanks. :)
Ahh I think I am going to my store tonight, I looked at all the teaware and am freaking out, I want ALL of it. Haha I think I’ve narrowed it to 2 for myself, 2 for the bf lol..and I really want to try all the new teas!! This one looks so refreshing!
Alrighty. Still so excited to check it out!
The new whales mug is SOOOO cute. The last thing I need is another mug though, LOL
Yay! We’re almost matching whale mug buddies! I chose the noric style bc I like the grip better, although I envy that yours has a whale in the inside…
Stephanie I didn’t either, whoops!
Cavo I contemplated the Nordic mug, because my Spock mug has a similar shape, but I love the inner lime green and little whale too much.
Ha, I was wondering if this would smell like late 90s cucumber melon lotion.
And I sure hope there isn’t lemongrass in the coconut oolong!
I agree about the coconut oolong Fjellrev.
Don’t call it coconut oolong then, damnit. :)
OOooo I love lemongrass! Maybe I will try that one. I remember Bath and Body Works had a Cucumber Melon scent in the ’90’s…that wouldn’t happen to be the one ya’ll are talking about, would it? That was my favorite for the longest time.
We’ll have to wait and see in April. That’s all word of mouth, so I could be wrong!
Hah! The cucumber melon scent is amazing.
Yeah, I’m curious to see if it’s just rumour or if it’ll be like the original! Oh, that blasted telephone game.
mmm perfect mid morning tea to go along with getting tons of work done at home today. I really needed this day to just relax and focus on catching up with work. Hopefully by the time the weekend rolls around i’ll be ready for daylight savings, and being back in to the full swing of things with work :)
Grumble grumble. I forgot about daylight savings time. I hate springing forward and getting one less hour of sleep.
yep… i struggle with it too…
Really? I LOVE spring forward – the extra hour of evening daylight really makes me happy.
Don’t like the fall back – it just means the start of a long, dark, cold winter. I would be perfectly happy to stay on daylight saving time all year.
Hope you guys have an easy adjustment….
That’s a good point, Dexter. I do like more daylight in the evening. But anything that takes sleep away makes me grumble. ;-)
yeah i only hate it for the missing sleep lol
Thank you for reminding me about daylight savings! They run it at different times in the UK, so I’d be attempting to skype the folks back in Canada at entirely the wrong time this weekend :p (Oh, and I’m not looking forward to the inevitable jetlag that comes with the clock change, either…)
Spring Forward Already? Meh. Just makes me wish that the snow would disappear that much faster.
Oh wow! exam tomorrow…. how do i do this quickly?
gong show week.
nevermind, gong show semester.
bought some zen teas because i’ve had to drop my caffeine… tried a chamomile blend? baaaaaaaaad call!
but they threw this is as a sample.
it’s amazing.
if my exam is half as amazing i’ll be very very happy!
BYE!
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Good luck!
xoxo thank you!!!! =0)
Fingers crossed!
what would i do without you guys?
Go out on the street and wait for… umm, politely demand people to wish you luck, duh. ;)
LOL
just wait til i’m at liberty to tell you about the nonsense that’s gone on this semester; suffice to say it provides incentive to NEVER let myself fall under the management of a person like this. double doctorate all the way— even if i lose my mind doing it.
you won’t believe my story…
:)
Good luck
Good luck James!!! I kind of cringe for you. Please make sure that you are taking care of yourself. Glad your heading towards the end of the semester.
thank you!!! me too, yyz. sadly, i can’t wait until this semester is over =0(. truly… can someone hit fast forward?
Good luck!
Hopefully the rash will go away quickly!
Thanks, caile!
feel better. BTW shu at night and i sleep like a baby(probably tea drank)
Maybe it wasn’t the shu that kept me up, then. I was ready to blame it.
Really, I had sleep prob before but since I started drinking shu 3-5 steep just before bed it knocks me out. Do you want me to send you some samples( it’s not swap I need nothing in return)
Aw, thanks. But I really do have a ton here already. :-)
Admirable;)
I get a similar rash issue on my index fingers (random) triggered by hot weather. It’s annoying as heck, but eventually goes away on its own. I’ve yet to find any treatments that speed its disappearance besides avoiding situations that trigger it, which can be nearly impossible, depending on the cause. I’m probably not helping! Just mostly wanted you to know that you’re totally not alone.
Thank you, Sami. Are yours little tiny blisters? That’s what I have.
If it’s itchy hydrocortisone usually helps. Calamine is another good one.
Not really itchy, which is weird. You’d think it would be…
Yep, that’s what I get too, Morgana. It’s been okay for the past few months, but I’m not looking forward to summer. Especially when the blisters start to weep.