Featured & New Tasting Notes

These leaves are so much fun to me. Dry, they look like little fuzzy caterpillars that just want hugs. Then once they’re steeped, the leaves smell and look like fresh cooked green beans.

This is such a buttery, tasty green tea! There’s no grassiness in flavor, or bitterness, or astringency. It’s all sweet steamed peas and some mild kelp notes. There’s also a delicious butteriness in flavor and feel. None of the flavors present are intensely strong, leaving this to be a slightly delicate cup with no overwhelming flavors. I like this a lot though.

I definitely get what other people are saying about cooling sensations as well, as I’m finding that feeling present in the back of my mouth. Definitely a late spring/summer order.

Hubby and I drank a whole lot of steeps of this tonight. A single teaspoon in my little glass pot and over a liter of water, and it just kept giving with each resteep. We are drinking this because we love it and also because middle daughter has caught a nasty cough and cold and this tea seems to help me stay well when I feel something coming on.

On a side note, my eldest daughter married her Irish fiancé Friday. We had the wedding dinner at the Pit in Raleigh, NC. I didn’t realize it had been featured on a television show as one of the best restaurants, and it was amazingly reasonably priced. But best of all, the food was unbelievably good. If you ever have a chance, go! My son’s girlfriend is vegetarian and had the barbecued tofu and loved it so much she wants to go back with her mom.

Superanna, my daughter, congrats to you! You have chosen a fine young man who is a great addition to the family.

This was one of my teas from this morning for out and about time with my other half. We decided to head out to the farmer’s market at the steam whistle brewery, which happens to be in downtown toronto, next door to the old heritage train museum. it’s a really interesting site to explore – lost of trains and neat architecture in the buildings right in the middle of condo land and the financial district. it was pretty small but gave us an excuse to buy some delicious cheese and get out of the house. nothing more awesome that walking around outside in the snow with my other half. and this tea was the perfect accompaniment :)

I’m are Tony’s & it’s snowing!!!! It’s really snowing!!!
I predict a full day of tea drinking, supernatural watching, pajama wearing, logs in the fire, & food!
Yesterday they were predicting up to a foot of snow, so I came well stocked with tea, in fact, as usual I brought more tea than I could possibly drink. I brought the BBBB, the Steepster select samples I still haven’t drank, & a few other random things. Silly me!
I’m starting off with this one, TastyBrew’s offering from the BBBBox. I love the name of it, I love it’s backstory. I want to love the tea, & although I don’t hate it & it’s far from boring, it’s not something I will ever love. It strikes me as a Darjeeling type. The leaf is more of a green color, the sip starts out kind of cream of wheat like, but then a spicy lemon takes over the back & sides of my tongue. There are floral elements to the taste, & it does have other layers in there as well. Definitely not a morning tea for me, as it hits my empty stomach with the queasy effect slightly. It might make a nice afternoon pick me up & palate cleanser though. Still glad to give it a try!

It’s my Steepster birthday! I’ve been hanging around here for a good 3 years now!

I had another hard night at work – our floor is full of such heavy acuity kids right now I feel like I’m running all night long. Luckily I’ve got a night to recuperate before signing on for 2 more. Plus, it is SO COLD outside. Supposed to flurry later tonight/tomorrow morning, even, though it would be better if it didn’t. Georgians simply don’t know what to do with snow or ice.

So I couldn’t just go off to sleep without getting a cup of tea to warm/relax me. I wanted a black tea, no added flavors but strong. This one I got from Stacy’s Black Friday sale, and since I know most of the flavor profiles of these teas separately, I was excited to see what happened when they blended together.

Followed the steep parameters recommended by Stacy, 3 tsp. leaf to 500 ml. water in the Breville.

This brews up a lighter brown color than I usually expect for a breakfast tea. It’s very smooth and doesn’t need any additives, either, which makes it seem even less of a breakfast tea to me.

Interesting…I think this tea has the lighter texture and mouthfeel of the Darjeeling, while maintaining the chocolate/malt/earthiness of the assam and keemun. It’s kind of throwing me for a loop, actually, that it has such a rich flavor without as much of a body to it.

I will say that I went into this very hesitantly knowing the Keemun was in this blend – I was leery of the smoke. This Keemun is really not smoky at all (phew!) and that was the biggest thing I was worried about so this makes me very happy. I do think its more of an afternoon tea than a breakfast tea, and I also think the chocolate/raisin notes come out a LOT more as the tea itself cools.

Pretty good, but not my absolute favorite blend from Butiki. Still, it was great to try it!

I bought this on Black Friday but haven’t had a chance to try it yet. My bad.

This is really amazing. I was just sipping away at it distractedly while looking for daycares and I was just hit – whammmo! – with a burst of fresh lime. Wow. So refreshing. I can still taste the chamomile and the overall effect is quite soothing. Like floating on a cloud before sleep. Or some such nonsense.

Had to try this again tonight, for trying to (what seems like) kill JustJames from trying this one out last night. Really, if it was THAT spicy, I’d have given it a warning! Yikes. I feel badly. So today when I parsed some more of this out, I put right on the label: SPICY!

HAD to try it again though after last night. It’s still got a strong kick to it, which is mitigated by some sweetener. I love savory teas though, especially ones that attempt to ramp up your digestive fire and/or nature with zero caffeine. For me, this is only a 4 out of 10 on the spice-o-meter.. I must have a high tolerance or something.

This is more a, “get things moving” kinda tea for me. Meaning – I need to go for a run, or I have to finish a project late at night, or I need to get rid of some lingering junk in my chest or nasal passages. PLEASE though, if you’re sensitive to spices with heat, or have an easily upset tummy, take a pass on this one. :(

Okay, so you know how frustrating it can be if someone keeps calling you the wrong name or constantly mixes you up with your sibling, or something along those lines? Right.

Well, words have feelings, too.

Pallet

This is an image of a pallet: https://bit.ly/3emkvSz

Palette

This is an image of a palette: https://bit.ly/2NuuN7v

Palate

Yes. Mouthfeels.

I bet these three words feel like Amy Adams and Isla Fisher and some other tiny, strawberry blonde actress who gets mixed up with the other two all the time.

On to the tea. This smells vaguely of fruity black tea, but without any specific, discernible fruit character. ‘Random berry’, I’d say. Steeped, the scent continues to be subtle, a subtlety that carries through into the sip.

What I really like about this one, and that I feel I often complain about in other black berry (not blackberry) teas, is that it’s not tart or sour at all. The flavour is simply blackberry (with hints of blueberry, as per usual, as the two flavour profiles are really difficult for me to keep apart in dried/tea form) and a very natural-tasting, smooth one, at that.

I’m not a huge berry tea fan, and this one doesn’t have the complexity I usually go for, but I like it a whole lot nonetheless. It’s just one of those teas, I guess. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that it made me crave scones with berry jam and clotted cream (and the works, really) something crazy and there’s just no way that is happening anytime soon.

Thanks for sharing this, Ang!

[Sample from the EU Travelling Box, autumn 2013.]

Ahhh. It’s been one of those mornings. Had a lot of stupid nightmares last night—of the very stereotypical variety—someone is chasing you or finds you and they want to harm you and you can’t run or scream and then your own unintelligible pre-historic cries wake you up and then you a) are happy to be awake; and b) laugh at the stupid noises you actually just made out loud. Thank heavens for snuggly bed buddies, because there’s nothing quite like being cuddled after a stupid nightmare, especially one that sounds really ridiculous when you try to explain it.
“It was just really scary, ok? just trust me.”
“So who was chasing you again?”
“I don’t even know if I was being chased! there were just these bad people…and they were like everywhere and I couldn’t get away!”
ha.

Sorry. So then I fell back asleep again and fell back into the same stupid nightmare! so dumb. But towards the morning, I slept like a normal person again and it was lovely. Slept in until noon which felt amazing, and then had a breakfast of French toast and this delicious tea. I didn’t put nearly as much sugar in it because it’s fairly sweet on its own, plus I wanted it to be less sweet than the French toast I was eating. It tasted like a deliciously decadent hot blueberry latte, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be getting more when this runs out. You can even smell and taste the “crumble”, so it isn’t a straight up blueberry tea. Dellaterra knows what it’s doing in the pie/cake/crumble department, straight up, yo.

ONCE upon a time i had a very bad experience with a rishi chocolate chai. some of you may remember…. i was distinctly cross. quick recap: no chocolate, impossible methodology for a disabled person to follow through with, wound up all over my kitchen, my wife wound up cleaning it up and i was ticked!

i took a day. was still cross. took another…. still cross because i resented my stress relieving practice getting in my face about having this illness. by hook or by crook i decided i’d waited long enough and called rishi HQ.

ME: may i speak with a manager please.
Service rep: may i ask what this is regarding?
me: i have a serious gripe about one of your products and as a rule i prefer to dish out temper on management who are paid to take it.

silence. tick. tick. tock.

service rep: i think i know the person who can best assist you, sir, one moment please.

i broke it down for the manager fairly, i think. the good and the bad. she was truly appalled at how much trouble had come from the recommended method, and further distressed that there was genuinely no chocolate to be seen or tasted in my tea (once she determined i wasn’t looking for refined chocolate and was accustomed to cacao nibs). this woman really listened, genuinely. and while i saved her name somewhere in microsoft word, it’s eluding at this exact moment, she is worth her weight in gold to rishi.

the manager sent me two huge bags of tea in apology; their original chai (which we problem solved a method that would work for me… see? gold=weight) and she picked up on one of my favourite aspects of their failed chocolate chai: huge chunks of vanilla bean and millions of vanilla seeds. the manager inquired as to whether i might like to try their vanilla black.

this tea is as purist as butiki’s lychee oolong. very simple and exactly what it says. fat chunks of vanilla bean and black tea. simple. very purist, absolutely lovely.

smooth black base, warm, strong, genuine vanilla presence. the vanilla lends an air of sweetness so not much is needed in terms of sweetener. a dot of cream turns it into the undoing of starbucks everywhere! lol.

very nice. quite lovely. i plan to experiment with a hot steep and then a cold overnight. i have no doubt it will be brilliant.

rishi… you are forgiven. don’t ever let that customer service manager go— she represents your interests well.

MMMMmmmmmm this is a great tea. Thanks Sil
I’ve been drinking this for most of the evening, and it’s really nice. Nice gentle strawberry. Nice black base – is that a hint of malty chocolate way in the back from the base – maybe, or it’s wishful thinking – either way I like this.
It’s not fake in your face flavors, it’s just nice and subtle but no question it’s strawberry. I really like this with a hint of sweetener and a dash of milk. It makes me happy.

I’m drinking this today basically because cats are jerks. Mine woke me up 5 times this morning by meowing in the hallway. Every time I came out she ran into our room for purrs and cuddles, and then an hour later she was at it again.

So I picked this tea. I bet Tigers are jerks too.

This is my tea of choice for work today. Thanks Sil for sending this my way.
I’ve decided that Taiwan blacks aren’t normally my favorite. I usually find them too mild and slightly astringent. Not this one. This works for me. As always I’m not really sure what it is that I like about it, but it doesn’t have much/anything that I don’t like. It’s just a nice smooth, flavorful, black tea. I’ve enjoyed my time with it at work today

The more I sample David’s Tea products, the weirder their overall profile seems to me; they’re very much like Teavana in that way. It’s basically a concept/execution issue, as the ideas are often excellent, but the end results can range from unfathomably poor, I mean really, truly what were you thinking poor, to quite tasty. But for me, it never really gets beyond that ‘quite tasty, but…’ with either Teavana or DT.

This tea, albeit double-bagged, had taken over most of the swap box when it reached me – not in a permanent way, it just needed some airing out, but the fact remains: this is a very strongly scented tea. It’s also a hot mess in every possible way. Every sip offers a new flavour combination, every whiff makes you flinch in confusion and sensory overload. This tea makes no sense.

However, I really like when things make sense, so the scenario I would like to propose is the following:

It’s a quiet day at the tea factory, all quotas are met, Dario the Junior Tea Blender is just messing about, playing little drum solos on the ingredient tins.

BUT ALAS!

OH NO!

FLORP!

The unfathomable has happened. The shelf containing the jars for hibiscus, apple, raisins, rooibos, candied pineapple, candied papaya, orange peel, coconut chips, rosehips, elderberry, mallow blossoms, peach, almonds and cinnamon COLLAPSED from Dario’s musical pounding. David the Senior Tea Blender is NOT going to like this.

Dario must make haste to sort this out before David returns! He secures the shelf, returns the tins, and is in the process of scooping the fragrant mess on the workbench into an empty jar, when…

David the Senior Tea Blender enters the room! All hope is lost!

Mamma mia! Dario exclaims, freezing in place.

Cocking an eyebrow, David the Senior Tea Blender leans over the offending tin. His skeptical expression turns to one of delight as he roars, ‘Dario! This is brilliant! You even got the name just right!’

(As usual, thanks for sharing, whoever put this in!)

[Sample from the EU Travelling Box, autumn 2013.]

Noël à Venise!

I liked the DF advent calendar but I felt that all the other teas were a bit samey after a while. Orange, chocolate, cloves, or caramel. This one technically is toffee but all I get is buttery vanilla and meyer lemon – quite a difference to the other teas in the box. It was the only one from the calendar that I considered a must order. (which just meant I got to order some new to me teas and hope for the best – so, silver linings!)

I’m not sure what it is about this tea, but it feels specifically designed for my palate. I was that girl who sucked on lemon wedges just because and I like vanilla and cream anything over chocolate, any day.

I was nervous about the transition from tea bag to loose leaf, though. Mostly I was worried about the teaspoon/gram amount. I solved this by weighing one of their sachets (2.4 grams) and just weighing out the dry leaf in a strainer. I don’t know why I was so nervous, I think it was because I’d had such a perfect first experience and didn’t know how subsequent ones would measure up.

It’s like I’ve forgotten Tea Lessons 101: loose leaf is always better.

Dry leaf – still sweet/tart lemon with a heavy cream undertone. The boyfriend, who rolled his eyes at me having to go outside the country to support my tea habit, did grudgingly admit it smelled good – a pastry tart, was his description. To me it’s also strongly reminiscent of Earl Grey Cream, but lemon and not bergamot.

The taste is just as perfect as I remember, too – great without additives, warm and comforting but not super heavy since the lemon is such a bright counterpoint. It is just fantastic, and the fact that I was able to replicate the experience is what is nudging it up to the 100.

Welcome home, Noël à Venise. You will always be a staple in my cupboard.

This is admittedly not going to be so much a specific tasting note as an exclamation about this whole deal and my surprise at it.

sunshine5150 helpfully mentioned Teabox (formerly darjeelingteaxpress) was having a half off sale on most of their big sampler kits about a week ago. I was really not in the mood to order more tea given my Black Friday sales hangover (har) but I looove me some darjeeling, this is the time of year I crave it most, and when I saw what the darj kit entailed my eyes figuratively popped out of my sockets—over 70 (75 actually, as they threw in 3 extra freebie samples) 10g samples, with a bajillion different estates and styles and seasons represented (I did a breakdown and you get the survey experience of first, second, and/or autumn flushes—and sometimes extra grades of each—for a number of estates/regions, among them Jungpana, Giddahapar, Goomtee, Thurbo, Margaret’s Hope, Avongrove, Sourenee, and Himalayan, along with stuff from Namring, Castleton, Puttabong, Arya, etc., some unusual twists on darjeeling in the form of green teas, whites, oolongs, blends represenative of each flush period, and unusual extra grades or especially muscatel stuff), for $56 with shipping included. Ain’t a pittance granted, but for what you get, the size and scope of the thing, if you’re a darjeeling lover it’s pretty irresistable (I worked it out and it’s like less than 15 cents a cup and less than $2.16 per ounce, which for samples as opposed to bulk ordering is very good).

I had trepidation thinking maybe the reason it was such a good deal is the teas, especially first flush ones, are old/stale, and maybe they skimp on quality and packaging, but no. Arrived in well under a week via FedEx and I am very impressed with the sample packaging—the bags block light completely, not just on one side, are resealable, and include lots of info individually labeled about steep time, date, source, etc. All of the teas I’ve tried so far at random (3 or 4 today) have been from 2013. And I realize I’m some kind of underleafer sometimes (it never feels like it though…I use an accurate measuring teaspoon and round the top of it to start) but I’m getting 4 solid cups (sometimes with a bit leftover even) of tea every time. Awesome!

With SO MANY darjs to try with similar but not quite exactly the same details (I’ve done this kind of “by estate and season survey” sample thing before with other spots, Upton comes to mind, manually) it gets really overwhelming, and since it’s constantly changing a while back I just decided to roll with it and enjoy darj samples each year without worrying too much about specifics, you know, a sort of “just going along for the ride” attitude. That said, so far these Teabox samples are much, much better than Upton’s were—better packaging, fresher, better tasting. And cheaper, man! Steepster makes my life better all the time, I tell ya.

BTW, I painstakingly added all 75 Teabox teas from this package to the DB this afternoon (yes I am that OCD), but I can’t for the life of me find URLs for the tea images that play nice with Steepster’s pic grabber. If anyone knows how to add those pics, let me know or feel free of course to add the images…sad without pictures!

Oh, holy horror.

So my friend K is a sweetheart in every possible way. We were talking about tea at some point in December and she said she had this amazing tea I had to try, which, in fact, was Italian. And I was delighted, because hey – some Italian looseleaf company I had yet to hear of, awesome.

And then she brought me a bag of this.

I obviously felt like the biggest tea snob, but it was like someone telling you you had to taste the most delicious meat dish on earth, and then they drop an unskinned, smelly polecat in your lap.

So.

Hibiscus tea.

Bagged hibiscus tea.

All accompanied by this ‘Oh, this is the best thing ever!’ bounciness. It was hilarious.

But of course I decided to try it! K is awesome, if she loved it, it couldn’t be all that bad, I figured.

First of all, this is the most potent tea dye I have ever seen. I don’t know if I’ll dare look in the mirror after my first sip, for I fear my teeth will turn a deep crimson. This tea bag bleeds in the most unsavoury way possible. I swear I could paint a wall with it.

Steeped, it smells of… absolutely nothing. But it’s very, very red.

Oh man.

This is the worst tea I have had in my life. It tastes like sour blood. There’s this vile, metallic tone to it, which is disturbingly meaty, and the sourness is completely out of hand.

I am laughing so hard right now, but I have to take one more sip for science.

Okay.

Yes, still equally bad, if not worse – it tastes like sour, juiceleaky meat wrapped in paper.

What have I learned from this?

a) Tea snobbery can save lives.

b) I love my friends, maybe especially when they’re trying to kill me.

[Assassination attempt by K, Rome 2013.]

I am drinking this because I was up until 4 to watch the new Sherlock ep (the only chance I had) and now my eyes are heavy all day and I need this to help wake me up. I added milk and maple agave as a treat.

I’m rewatching the Empty Hearse right now because I missed some of the dialogue and that’s a shame because the entire episode was brilliant.

Just brilliant. I am fan-girling SO HARD!!!

While it’s well known that i’m not a huge fan of oolongs, this is one that i like a bunch. The strawberry cuts the oolongy taste out of the picture and makes it a refreshingly delicious cup of tea. It’s never something i’ll want all the time, but i for sure want this in my cupboard every now and then. I love that the strawberry isn’t overwhelmingly present and it’s not the least bit artificial. great tea teavivre!

every new tea vendor brings with them a new romance. sometimes it takes awhile for a meeting of the minds…. this blend represents that compromise between fauchon and i. we’ve had a touch and go seduction, me often wondering if i was a bit mad because everyone loved fauchon and i was just kindof… there. however, no longer.

mint, maybe rosemary essence? mallow root or something soft like it. the blend itself had little tufts in it, like snow, bits of lightness.

very light, very fresh, an overall elixir no defined winter punch screaming ‘spearming’, ‘peppermint’, ‘white chocolate’, an overall picture of winter skaters on the rideau canal, shivering forms at the top of the tour eiffel…

what’s this is see behind my review page… this is a white tea? i had hoped this would happen, but was losing hope.

i am very impressed.

thanks MissB!

This is so beautiful my oh my oh my.

This first steep brews up a lovely champagne color and is primarily a sweet green oolong with highlights of jasmine.

The second steep (4:00) is where there really opens into a beautiful bouquet. The color becomes slightly warmer and deeper. The rose becomes the dominant flavor, but the other’ still play in the background. It’s lovely and immersive without being perfumey or artificial, and it manages to be strongly flavored while still being delicate.

The third steep (5:00) smells more of lavender and tastes more of it too. While the rose is still a dominant flavor, the lavender matches it in presence. There’s a really gentle jasmine flutter at the tail of the sip.

This tea is elevating me to a place of calm, and zen, where things are all teddy bears puppies and butterflies. I just want to get lost in this cup forever.

Thank you Short Sorceress!

i love cleaning up things! since we’re both sick today, we’re having a relaxing day of watching tv, cleaning up little messes around the house, playing games, napping etc… it also means i get to putter about drinking teas that spring to mind like this one. days off are the best!

This is more of a tasting note for me to rant and complain, so feel free to skip on by if you don’t want to read about it.

So I do not get at all why companies think that when you are sick you want yellow dye # whatever and massive doses of sugar to help you feel better. I would figure the all natural route would be the way to go. By the way, all you “all natural ingredients” companies, any type of colour dye # whatever is not a natural ingredient. Just saying.

I made basic noodle soup (powder and noodles from a packet), full of dye and sugar. I don’t think neon yellow soup broth is why I want to eat this right now. Same with the neocitron I rarely drink but am giving a chance today, I don’t need my mouth to pucker from the amount of sugar in it. Let’s be clear, no one drinks this because it tastes good. Anyway, jeez!!!

So I am drinking a cup of neocitron at the same time I am drinking this tea. The lemon flavoured aftertaste of the neocitron actually tastes pretty good with the oolong. I may have to try to add some lemon next time I brew this tea. I am finding the oolong to be not too bold, there is just a slight orange blossom flavour. Not too chemical tasting which I find some orange blossom teas taste so that is a plus today.

Happy New Year, everyone!
This morning, I was in pretty rough shape. Doing a little better now. Woke up completely stuffed up (the heater has been working overtime lately since it is super cold out and that has been angering my allergies). I’m also half tired, a little hung over, and my brain just doesn’t want to function properly. I decided I wanted to start off with a gentle tea and opted for this one. The honey notes are so soothing. Normally, I would go with a strong breakfast tea but I wanted a lot of flavor and complexity and a gentle alertness. I’m slowly starting to recover. I had such a wonderful night last night. Normally, we do huge parties at our house but since both my husband and I had been super busy lately we didn’t want the added stress of hosting a big party. Instead, we ended up visiting my best friend in Philly and had a small gathering of just 6. We played games, drank, and then went to the roof of a nearby building to watch fireworks. It was really nice. Here is a pic of me & the hubby on the roof (2 hoodies and a snowboarding jacket and of course, I was still cold): https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1428774404024535&set=a.1402962459939063.1073741830.100006759666084&type=1&theater

I have to go in to work today but I’m currently debating whether or not to visit a friend. They are hosting a Winter Classic party. It would be really nice to catch up with some friends and see the Winter Classic but they do have 2 newborn babies which I’m not sure if I can handle right now. I’m pretty content just chilling here in my jammies, catching up on the internet, and playing my new crystal singing bowl. My husband had ordered a singing bowl for me on behalf of his parents for Christmas but it didn’t make it here until yesterday. I have a singing bowl collection and this is my first crystal bowl. I love this bowl! There is just something magical about singing bowls.