sherapop select Send Message

I was really hungry this evening for some reason, so I ate some cookies, including a dark chocolate and peppermint coated graham-cracker type construction. It probably sounds gross, but tasted good.

Naturally my complementary tea was: peppermint! As usual, the sachet version of this Harney & Sons simple peppermint leaf was tasty. Because the Harney & Sons sachets always contain a generous amount of leaves, I decided to try a second infusion, though I am not at all sure that herbs are supposed to re-infuse.

What was really interesting about this little experiment was that the first infusion was dark brown, and the side-by-side second infusion was bright yellow. I let it brew for a long time, and after a while, it, too, eventually turned brown, albeit a slightly lighter shade.

After my bath, I tasted the second infusion brew to find that it was too weak. That’s easy to remedy though, since I happen to have some culinary grade peppermint essential oil on hand. I intended to add two drops but accidentally put three, so it was quite powerful, to the point of providing a major blast of peppermint fumes off the surface of the infusion.

One might think that the way to go for a hot peppermint beverage is simply to throw some drops of essential oil into hot water. However, it’s trickier than it sounds because the oil, being less dense, just sits on top of the water, and can actually be too concentrated, in little pools, to the point of irritating the lips when one goes to take a sip. That is why I prefer peppermint leaves.

This Earl Grey Creme is one of the few true teas in my recent post-holiday haul from Teavana. It brews up lighter than I was expecting but still smells and tastes relatively creamy. I added light cream, as I usually do to Earl Grey.

I don’t know whether the marigold is adding any flavor, but the vanilla and bergamot flavoring are both fairly light. My dried blend contains no cornflowers (as depicted above). The brewed black tea base has a certain roughness to it, scratching the back of my throat a bit, but this blend is not bad.

I won’t buy this Earl Grey again (I still have about 1000 others to try!), but I’ll definitely brew up and drink the rest of this ounce, which came divided in two attractive metallic bronze-colored envelopes as a part of the 12 Holidays of Tea collection in a huge purple and bronze foil-decorated box with pull-out drawers. I’d have liked the gorgeous set much more if there were more tea included.

I made a pot of this Norbu Xi Hu Long Jing Spring Harvest 2013 after lunch today. The liquor was pale greenish yellow and the flavor slightly vegetable, though I wasn’t really sure which vegetable it was reminding me of.

Smooth and refreshing.

second infusion: same color; same taste. The vegetable in question may be lima beans…

third infusion: same color; very faint taste.

chamomile : bedtime :: sencha : lunchtime

A pot of Norbu Tea Ya Bao was my after-dinner selection this evening. Once again I did a quick hot rinse, but this time I added a bit more of the dried tea to the pot (a cast iron Tetsubin-type), and the brew was slightly darker but still pale. The taste was very much the same, and I continue to struggle with an accurate description.

Others identify this taste as pine or cedar, but it evokes memories from childhood of dandelions—not that I ever ate any of them. There is definitely something weedy about this unique tea… There is just a touch of astringency to it.

Perhaps it simply tastes like Ya Bao! Actually, that would be a pretty funny tasting note to mention in a wine review, come to think of it:
Obscurius per obscurum!

second infusion: this was just as good as the first.

third infusion: I oversteeped this time and found the brew too bitter and less pleasant, so I tossed it.

I brewed up my first pot ever of Mao Feng today, this one being Huang Shan Mao Feng from Teavivre. The dried leaves look wiry and and smell vegetal. The liquour was extremely pale yellow and the flavor so light that I concluded that I underleafed this pot. I’ll try again with twice as much…

second infusion: I tried this with half the water volume of the first infusion and found that while the liquour was quite a bit darker—albeit pale golden yellow—the taste was still extremely faint. I’ll try again soon… The spent leaves smell a bit like green beans.

I now have the beautiful Palace Gardens tin of this Harney & Sons sachet-format chamomile. The little buds interspersed with finer grains brew up fairly vibrant yellow. Best of all, it’s chamomile, all and only chamomile.

I found a filter bag of Tazo Refresh in my chest of random assorted “maybe I’ll drink this some day” individually wrapped tea bags. It’s in the dark green envelope, so it’s obviously a bit old, since the latest crop of Tazo filter bags come in light envelopes. I decided to give it a try now that I regularly imbibe the sachet version of Refresh at Starbucks as a follow-up (and free refill) to my coffee.

The filter bag is perfectly potable, but, predictably, not as good as the sachet. One immediately noticeable difference, as the blend steeps, is that the scent of the filter bag is nowhere near as strong and—I dare say—aromatherapeutic as the sachet. I seriously walk around sniffing the Refresh fumes through the little hole in the top of my Starbucks cup. People in the street who see me probably think that I’m a real weirdo. Oh well, at least I’m not talking to myself. Or am I? One never knows these days with all of the newfangled gadgets available. In the post-Y2K world of Twitter and selfies, when people walk around incoherently babbling to themselves, everyone just thinks that they’re using a Bluetooth.

Now back to Refresh. I definitely did not notice so much the scent of the Refresh filter bag while drinking it. Yes, it smelled like a somewhat standard spearmint-heavy tisane, but it did not have the same “come hither, flaring nostrils” quality at all.

The filter bag is okay. I won’t buy it, though, so long as the sachet remains available. The dried powder blend in the filter bag does not rehydrate to the same degree as the shredded herbs (spearmint, peppermint and, most importantly, tarragon) in the sachets do.

This is by far the best of the Teavana 12 Holiday “Tea” set so far. Basically, Zingiber Ginger Coconut is a ginger blend with a strong, vibrant hit of ginger and also of black pepper. So rather than a weirdly watery pseudo-dessert beverage, this one strikes me as a bona fide infusion.

Ginger brews of many kinds are beloved to me, and this variant, with a smattering of coconut, and also some cardamom and almond, offers an interesting variation on the piquant ginger theme. The ginger and strong black pepper note completely overwhelm the base rooibos, which is perfectly fine with me!

To maximize the flavor, I ground the chunks of stuff in a coffee grinder before infusing. It was strong enough, and there would be no point in adding adulterants to this brisk tonic. I’ll definitely finish up the rest of this ounce.

Another trip to Starbucks began with a grande latte—long shots, whole milk, extra foam, extra hot—and predictably culminated in a take-away grande Refresh.

I’ve been reading some complaints about spearmint of late, and I do understand what those reviewers are talking about… However, in this case, tarragon saves the day!