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Wow.

Just wow.

And not a good wow.

I’ve sweetened this tea, and it’s still bitter and sour. It’s a hibiscus party. It’s just, well… nasty. The rest of the flavors sound lovely, and they smell lovely, and it’s a beautiful red, but the other flavors? They’re just completely overpowered by that hibiscus.

The hibiscus does calm down a little as the tea cools, but it’s still icky. I try not to rate teas on the first unsuccessful cup, but I don’t want to try any more of this. It’s just icky. I think I’ll go dump this now.

Blea.

Mmm.. this is extra Jasmine-y this morning. Perfect. Delicate, warm, green, jasmine. Not bad for a work-day, because it supports other activity rather than taking away from it.

I came to work hoping that the mess of last week would be over, and it would start fresh this week and be smooth sailing.

Well, let’s just say it’s a good thing I brought some of this hot cinnamon tea in today – the in-your-face flavor is helping to keep me awake and possibly keeping me from being too grumpy. This is such a good tea…

So, I’ve been a little afraid of Pu-erh teas – what with the stories of finding fingernails and cigarette butts in the cakes, etc. Also, some of the descriptions I’ve read here of people saying their pu-erh smelled like fish really didn’t give me lots of incentive to want to try some.

But I figured I should. And I found some on sale. (I’m a total sucker for things on sale.)

The package didn’t have anything about how to prepare the tea other than boiling water, so I ran back,and checked out Wikipedia after I got the water on the cute little nest. It reminded me that you should wash your pu-erhs, so I ran to the kitchen (more running than I’ve done in weeks) and dumped out the water and put more on to heat.

Which was probably good, because what I was smelling? Smelled like fish.

Then, more water heated, I put it on, and the ever helpful quote from Wikipedia "Steeping times last from 12–30 seconds in the first few infusions, up to 2–10 minutes in the last infusions. " I decided to go until it looked right. How’s that for scientific? This time I also used almost boiling water rather than boiling water

It smelled so much nicer, still a hint of something oceanic, or like nice dirt but not just like fish. And the color was AWESOME. A beautiful red-brown. I expected the tea to be kick-you-in-the-head strong, but it wasn’t. It’s very mild, not particularly tannic, and not bitter.

I’m enjoying this a lot.

So, I didn’t read the full description of the tea before I had some.

This tea is cinnamon.. very, very cinnamon, but unlike the other tea I have that is alpha-cinnamon, this one has a number of other spices in it that make the cinnamon a more complex apartment-dwelling creature rather than a hermit at the edge of town.

Apparently, according to the description, this tea was developed for latte usage. Which, half a cup in totally makes sense. It’s very spicy, to the point of almost being over the top. I can see where mixed with milk it would be amazing. I’ll have to try that. As it is, it’s good. I can taste the pepper and the various other spices. (I love that they used pepper!) It’s got a POW.

And what this would make that would be just AMAZING – ice cream. Heat the milk and steep the tea in the hot milk over the stove for a while, then turn into ice cream. I can see that being lick-the-bowl-out amazing.

Mmmmm… yum.

For me, I needed the cream and sugar (or technically, the splenda and 2%) but once I had that – OH! The mouthfeel was much more creamy than the tiny splash of 2% could account for and the bergamont overtones were perfect.

One troublesome thing for me – since joining steepster I’ve been trying to enjoy more of the whole tea experience. Smells and visuals all add to our overall enjoyment of the tea. This smells great, but the color – it’s a little odd. It’s a greeny brown rather than a nice warm brown. I found the color a little off-putting. If you care about such things – I’d recommend an opaque pot and glass. :)

Fruit candy. Fruit salad. High end fruit cocktail. Extra fruity!

The, um… So, what is the official term for the unbrewed tea bits in a tisane? They aren’t leaves, it’s not actual tea It’s not coffee, so they’re not grounds. This has so much fruit you could almost call it chunks, but that just sounds bad. I’ll go with bits for now – but really, I need a better word for this.

The bits, they smell amazing. Another one of those teas where you want to strap the bag on your face and just walk around all day smelling it.

The beetroot bits give it a lovely pink color as it brews, and since I was using my ingenuiTea, it was fun to watch the bottom of the cup turn bright red while the top stayed fairly light. (Side note, my ingenuiTea is driving me nuts – the dang filter keeps deciding to float out while I’m trying to brew tea. Grrr!)

I expected a sweeter flavor with the candied fruit bits, but it wasn’t overly sweet (at least not to me – and remember I do like sweet teas). To me, no one fruit flavor stands out, they just blend and make a lovely flavor.

I like this a lot. (And considering I got it on 75% off sale on line earlier this week, my wallet likes it too!)

Ah – a lovely, slightly orange flavored green tea – perfect for this afternoon.

And it always amazes me how huge the leaves get the instant the hot water hits them. Like those expanding sponge toys. :)

This tea is growing on me.

My first few tastes I was thinking it was too tannic, too bitter, too just something for my tastes. But the addition of a little sweetner and repeated applications and I’m starting to like it. Actually, I’m starting to quite like it. I can taste the hint of chocolate and sweet that weren’t there earlier. And there is definitely that bake-y taste.

Yum.

Yay.
Oh yay.

I ordered this on a whim after reading the other glowing reviews. I like pears, and I LOVE caramel. Rooibos – not so much. I’m not into the wood flavor.

Opening this bag, I actually swore out loud in joy – it SMELLED SO GOOD. So totally pear like. So yummy. When I walked it by a co-worker this morning, she said it smelled like pear skin and honey.

Brewing, it’s a beautiful brown-red. And then the flavor was amazing. When I first tried it, I wasn’t as excited as I was once I added a tiny bit of sweetner. I do like my teas sweeter. And for me, adding the half pack of splenda made it sing. The pear jumped out, and the caramel was extra creamy then.

I like this tea. I like this tea a LOT. Yum!