Sandy Send Message

I got a new puppy yesterday and I am crate training. So after a night of howling and a morning of cleaning messes, I needed a strong tea. The dry leaves look like mostly CTC with a few longer leaves, as well. Dried it smelled kind of typical malty breakfast teas. I tried it without milk and sugar first and it was strong with some astringency. Since it says it was made for milk and sugar I tried it with even though i don’t usually take my tea that way. There was no further astringency and had a berry flavor that I couldn’t detect without it. Very sneaky and very yummy.

This is the second time I have made this tea but the first time I have rated. I found this in a fun little what-not store next to the wax museum in Barcelona. It is kind of a gray day on the coast today and this tea does seem like sunshine to me, maybe it can help burn away the gray.

The tea dry and prepared smells like a blend of mint and citrus. I am not sophisticated enough to separate out the orange and the quince flavors/scents from each other. The strong flavors of the tea do hide the green tea base. There is no bitterness or astringency. The first flavor I get in the sip is the mint and then the citrus flavors linger longer on the palate. It does taste like summer to me and is a very enjoyable tea.

I found tea shop when I was recently on vacation in beautiful Valencia. It is a great store, if you want to see pictures you can check out their site http://www.pekoe.com.es/soinsdethe/index2.php

I asked the shopkeeper which one was his favorite and this tea was one of them. The apricot is very fragrant in this tea with some floral notes from the cornflowers and sunflowers both dried and once brewed. My kitchen smells great just walking in and there is only a cup left in the pot and the leaves sitting in the basket.

I brewed it with boiling water and steeped for 2 min and 45 sec. It is a dark caramel color once brewed and tastes mostly of apricot but does have a nice tea base. It is very smooth and I liked it hot and at room temp. I haven’t actually tried it iced, yet.

I found this tea shop at the base of the Spanish steps in Rome. The dry tea looks like a mix of black teas including some assam. The dry leaves smell a bit fruity and like sun-warmed tobacco. The wt leaves still smell fruity and like buttered squash? The brew is an orangy/caramel color. The flavor is similar a little fruity, a little buttery, a bit vegetal. It is a very tea overall.

I can’t believe I haven’t logged this tea before. I am such a slacker. I made my final pot of this tea today (sob) to christen my new teapot (yay!). I have had a rather itinerant lifestyle for the last few months and it has wreaked havoc on my ceramic with several breakages. I am trying a stainless steel pot until things settle out plus it has the biggest infusion basket I have ever seen.

So back to the tea. It has large pieces of cinnamon, whole start anise, cardamom pods, cloves and black pepper. It smells like a heavenly combination of all those spices dry. I brewed for 5 min with boiling water. The wet leaves smell similar to the dry. The tea smells similar. The tea has a very good base. I don’t really taste bubblegum but I do have a nice mix of cinnamon, anise and clove. Adding milk and honey makes it more smooth & sweet but I think it is just as good without.

I went shopping in Chapel Hill with Ashmanra and we got several new teas. This morning we are trying some of them. The first was this tea with a cherry vanilla bagel from Panera. The can of tea smells like cinnamon, ginger and coconut to me. It is a bagged tea. The brewed tea smells the same to me though not as intense. I drank the first cup black and it tasted like most chai — cinnamon, ginger & cardamom with a hint of creaminess that I took to be the coconut. I added milk and sugar in the second cup and while it added to the smoothness it really didn’t change the flavor profile for me. It is a very nice chai.

Ashmanra got a sample from Teavivre today and shared a pot with me. Yay! I didn’t see the dry leaves but the wet leaves are good size and smell a bit sweet & kind of like molasses. It brews a medium brown. It tastes toasty, vegetal and has a lingering sweet afternote. It is similar to Teavanna’s Golden Monkey and Southern Season’s Zhen Quo Super China Black.

Another cuppa with Ashmanra. This one smells like chocolate macaroons to me but dry and brewed. Black the tea is dark chocolate and coconut taste. Adding milk and sugar it tastes even more like chocolate macaroons to me.

I am taking tea with Ruth (ashmanra), again, today and this was one of our selections. It is a very nice chocolate tea. It brews up a medium brown and both dried and brewed smells deliciously chocolatey. It is more of a bitter-sweet and nutty chocolate to me when tasted without milk. Adding a bit of milk blunted some of the nuttiness to me but did bring out more of the chocolate. Adding a bit of sugar makes it a sweet chocolate treat.