rosebudmelissa Send Message

Sipdown!

I mixed the last of this with some rose petals, since I’ve found that I really like Rooibos with floral flavors. It’s a good combination. This is a good rooibos to start with, too. It’s smooth with a pleasant woody flavor. The vanilla is present, but rather mild. It’s nice to drink on it’s own, but I like it even better for blending.

This works well with chamomile, too! It took a quick scrub with my bottle brush to get it clean, but there’s nothing floating in my tea, and it was much easier to clean than my teaballs. I’m definitely picking up a few more of these!

I just bought this on Amazon and used it for the first time. I’ve been looking for a finer filter since I drink mostly herbal teas, and the stainless steel teaballs I have leave grit in the bottom of my cup if I’m drinking rooibos or honeybush and are really hard to clean if I make chamomile. I made a cup of Adagio’s Honeybush Hazelnut and there was a bit of very fine dust in the bottom of my cup, but no grittiness. It rinsed out easily with water, and I gave it a quick scrub with a bottle brush to make sure it was clean. I am a bit concerned about flavor contamination with the plastic, I have a couple of similar filters that I use for iced tea and they have taken on a bit of the scent and flavor of the teas I brew in them. With the iced tea I’ve taken to using one to brew black tea and one to brew hibiscus tea. I think I’ll do something similar with these filters since they come in four different colors. I’ll probably use the black one for rooibos/honeybush/roasted barley/brewing cocoa, the blue one for floral teas, the red one for fruity teas, and the green one for minty and herbaceous teas. It means I’ll need to buy three more filters, but I think it will be worth it. I’ll probably try this one with chamomile just to make sure it works before I buy another, though.

Grr. Steepster ate my note.

This is a tea from the Numi Sampler collection I picked up a while ago. I drank it while playing World War IV with my husband and two of his brothers. It was only the second time we’ve played, and the first time we’ve finished. After playing for several hours over the course of two days the game ended in a draw. None of us were playing nearly aggressively enough. Now we know for next time, which will probably not be until we go on vacation this summer. It’s hard to find time to play such a long game with young kids.

This tea was a solid jasmine green, but pretty unremarkable. I added a couple splashes of cold water to the boiling water, and then added the teabag. The green tea was present and smooth, but doesn’t add anything special. The jasmine flavor is present, but not quite as strong as I prefer. I would definitely drink this if it was offered to me, but won’t go out of my way to buy it.

300th Tasting Note!
Sipdown!

I really enjoyed this tea and am a bit sad to see it go. I think this and rooibos chai are what I’ve been reaching for most often with this pregnancy. At the same time, since this is the only straight green rooibos I’ve tried, I’m looking forward to trying green rooibos from other companies. This tea is herbaceous, with a sweet fruitiness that I find really appealing. I’m not sure what fruit it reminds me of exactly. Maybe white grape juice, but not quite so sweet, and a hint of something tropical. I’m surprised that green rooibos isn’t used as a base for more fruity herbal teas, but it does seem to be steadily growing in popularity which pleases me. I would definitely be willing to buy more of this, but first I want to see how it compares to green rooibos from other companies.

I have liked several of the rose teas I’ve tried, but this was a bit disappointing. It was a little on the bland side, and I didn’t feel like the white tea they chose complemented the rose very well. Maybe it would work better cold brewed, but I don’t think it’s worth buying again to find out.

Sample from one of the tea boxes this year. I really need to keep my samples better organized.

I’m not really a green tea person, but I I like to try new varieties on occasion just for variety and in case I find something that strikes my fancy. Also black tea triggers my heartburn, but green and white don’t seem to. So I pulled this out. It tastes mostly like spinach to me, with a very slight touch of bitterness. Not bad, but not something I would buy. I’ll probably mix it with dried carrot pieces next time.

Happy New Year!

I think this came from the monthly TTB earlier this year. I thought I’d reviewed this when I first got it, but apparently not. I just finished what I had of it. I enjoyed it. It was a mild green that was buttery and sweet. It was hard to tell what flavors came from the tea itself and what came from the added flavoring. I would definitely drink this again.

Last night I finished it off by mixing it with some White Peony. It made it lighter and softer with a hint of flowers. It was an enjoyable way to finish this tea.

I made this in a 4 oz teacup with a splash of cold water, and the rest boiling. I brewed it for about three minutes. I ended up with a mild green tea with a barely discernible blueberry flavor. Certainly drinkable, but nothing special.

I just toasted rice for the first time! I used the long grain white rice that we had laying around. I threw a few tablespoons into a non-stick skillet, and toasted it just above medium (I started on low, but I have a ceramic stove-top that takes forever to heat up). I stirred it pretty often, and transferred the rice to a tin when it was golden brown. I let it cool a bit, then brewed a teaspoon of it in 8 oz of boiling water. It’s very lightly flavored, but tasty. The flavor reminds me of popcorn, actually. It brews up almost colorless, which is interesting. I don’t really like the Genmaicha I’ve had, but I think that’s because I’m not a big fan of green tea. I really liked Verdant’s Black Chocolate Genmaicha, which is sadly discontinued. I’ll try blending this with other herbals right now, and try it with black tea eventually, too. I’m pleased with the success of this experiment. I may need to try roasting other grains for tea. I already know I like roasted barley, so that would probably be worth roasting myself.