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Pretty good standard chai tea. I would have liked a bit more of tea flavor, but they got the spice just right. I’ll try steeping this for a bit longer next time. I had a muffin with it and it was good. Bought a dozen for $5 at Safeway (gotta love those Friday sales).

This is a blend of Assam and Kenyan teas which come in a round tea bag, but don’t let this fool you into believing that they will taste like Tetley’s (no offence to the Tetley drinkers, I once heavily enjoyed their green tea!). This tea really surprised me. When I drank the Yorkshire Tea from ToH, I remember saying that it was the smoothest I have drank. Well London Cuppa resepctfully disagrees with that statement. Not only is it velvety, it is also slightly creamier than other teas I have drank. I have to try it without sugar next time, but I think I’m sensing some notes of honey, and that might be part of what makes this tea so full bodied and rich in texture. Also it has less of that wood/straw characteristic that the Yorkshire Tea has, but has a slight touch of briskness to it.

The Mr.Coffee Mug Warmer I ordered from J&R arrived today in the mail despite the Canada Post rotating strike going on nowadays. I saw in the news yesterday that the government passed a back-to-work legislation that will force the union postal workers to return to their jobs by next week or so. Not sure how I feel about this though because there are people saying that these workers are overpaid with much too generous benefits, pensions, vacations, etc. (Canada Post is a crown corporation BTW for those unaware), but I’m sure that this would be untrue for most of the hardworking people there that would surely deserve what they are getting. Anyways… the mug warmer seems to be working great, except that it’s barely doing anything for this mug I have that has a bottom with its edges protruding out. I tried one with a flat bottom and the tea remained quite warm and even hot near the end of the cup.

I bought this tea quite a while ago, and I was surprised to find that I didn’t log this one. Compared to the recently logged Irish Breakfast, I think it has a much cleaner taste although still maintaining a bold, robust profile. It has a light body with not much astringency, and has subtle notes of malt and wood(I read oak somewhere in a review of an anonymous Scottish Breakfast).

It has been quite a while since I’ve been away from Steepster. It is not that I have completely lost interest in teas and noting down my feelings about them, but it is perhaps my laziness kicking in plus all the studying I had to keep up with from school. Now that I am enjoying my summer break, I seem to have more time to relax and enjoy the passing of time.
Something to note for myself is that in the recent months, I have now completely moved away from green tea and acquired a heavy preference for black teas. This could be due to being “burned” by the bad order I made quite a while ago from Specialteas (which is now out of business BTW). I had to throw away nearly 10oz of it due to it getting old without anyone in the family willing to drink it. Anyways, I am not quite sure if I will come back to trying other green teas in the future but as it stands I am now predominantly a black tea drinker.

This is the first Irish breakfast tea that I have tried, and also my first order from Upton Teas Imports. From what I have read, it is supposed to have a very robust, bold, and strong character that gives you a jolt in the morning just like coffee does, but perhaps to a lesser degree. And from what I’ve tasted, it is quite exactly that. The liquor is nearly full-bodied, and it lacks the astringency that I would have expected and is therefore capable of some over brewing. Since Irish breakfast teas are mainly blended with Assams, I thought it would have a very malty taste but instead the malt was more towards being in the background while the warm toasty taste was what hit my palate most of the time. Overall, a very good C.T.C. tea that I will see myself buying again in the future.

This tea is spicy as hell. After trying Bigelow’s Vanilla Chai sampler and being absolutely delighted with it, I chose to get this chai tea because I couldn’t find Bigelow at my local supermarket. This tea denied all the expectations I had, as I hoped for a toasty mellow tea with just enough spice to add a new dimension to it. What I tasted was a tea that was very heavy on the spice (particularly ginger?), and in this case more was definitely not better. I even felt that the spices tasted like some artificial chemical, and I couldn’t take that off my mind throughout the cup. Also, the tea flavor was definitely lacking, just like the other Stash tea I tried.

EDIT: No wonder I found this tea spicy. I bought the double spice instead of the normal one!!!

I was kind of dissapointed with this one. Thank god this was only a sample.
The scent of the tea is just too bubble gum-like for my liking. This seems to be the trend for the flavored green teas I’ve tried so far. The taste itself isn’t great either. Not much tea flavor at all and definitely not much of mangosteen or matcha, just a dull brown concoction.

I bought this at a gift shop while I was in Banff. After I noticed that there was a tea collection at this shop, I just had to take a look at what they had. They were mostly ice wine and maple teas, so I had a hard time choosing which one to buy, but I ended up buying this one. It is a Ceylon tea that has a sweet maple scent which isn’t strong or weak, perhaps just right. The flavor though was a bit weaker than what I had expected, so I added some maple syrup to bring it to life and it sort of worked. It is somewhere between medium to heavy bodied, but feels light in terms of caffeine content.

So this morning, I woke up 3 times, first at 5am and then at 6:30 and finally at 7:40 when I realized that I was going to be really late for my lab today unless I took the bus that came in like 15 minutes. So I just dressed in whatever was in sight and picked up my bag and headed out the door in less than 10 minutes from waking up. It was an awful way to wake up. When I got to school, I was desperate for something to drink so I picked this up at the cafe. It was brisk, light, and slightly lemony. It isn’t something I would enjoy in a daily basis though, but hey it had me awake by the time I reached my lab, so it did its job.

This tea is somewhere in between light and medium bodied. I did put in a bit more milk than usual, but still, it definitely lacks the kick I usually find in English Breakfast teas. This kind of shows in the color of the liquor as well, since it was a clear copper color and lighter than most breakfast teas. Has a subtle taste with slight notes of fruit maybe, which is barely noticeable though. Overall, this was OK, although I will definitely try it without milk next time.

Yum.
One thing I’ve noticed right away after my first sip is that it is one of the smoothest and cleanest teas I’ve had so far. This tea is great as a pick-me-up as it is full-bodied and strong, so it has now taken the place of PG Tips as my no.1 choice for breakfast tea when I’m only half awake. Certainly can’t get any better than this with tea bags.