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No work for me today, yippee! It’s my birthday tomorrow, so I fancied turning this weekend into a slightly longer one and booked today off. I’m heading to the T2 shop tomorrow, so figured it was about time I went through my stash of samples to see if there are any I want to purchase more of. I have both the Famous Fruits and Hero Herbals sample boxes, and this is from the Fruits.

First off, I get a strong taste of grapefruit. It’s citrusy and rather tart, but super refreshing. I made this hot and it’s nice, I enjoyed it, but I do think I would much prefer this iced. It’s possibly a bit too tart to warrant a permanent place in my tea cupboard, so I won’t be purchashing more of this.

Okay, so this is my second cup of this tea today. The first being at 7:45 this morning, and right now as I sip on it, it’s 20:40. As a rule, I don’t drink anything with caffeine in it past seven PM, but this tea, oh my GOSH, this tea, I have been thinking about it all day at work and genuinely needed to taste it again.

I’ll let you into a secret, until this morning I’d never tasted Genmaicha. Not knowingly, anyway. I’ve been reading (and viewing on YouTube) such amazing things about it though, and when I placed my order with Yumchaa the other day, I chucked in an 80g bag of their Genmaicha just to see what all the fuss is about.

Oh my goodness, Steepster! This is amazing! Having never tasted Genmaicha before, I have nothing to compare it to, so I can only go on what I’m tasting right now, but this is just heaven. From my morning’s steep, I went to work happily feeling it didn’t matter that I’d skipped breakfast because OHMYGOSH I’d literally just drank a mug of Rice Krispies. I sat at my desk this morning and absolutely raved about this tea to my Boss (and also good friend) sat opposite me, until I felt quite embarrassed about it all.

Now, being unfamiliar with Genmaicha, I can only describe what I’m drinking straight as it comes to me. It’s a green tea, obviously, and that’s apparent. I brewed this at the recommended 80 degrees and steeped for 3 minutes. I can taste a lovely, light, green base with a sugary, toasted rice supplement. All day I’ve been thinking it tasted of Rice Krispies. Only now, drinking it again this evening, I asked my partner (Darren) to sip it and he was all. “OMG! This tastes like Sugar Puffs!!” Well, gold star you, Daz, because YES… this is absolute Sugar Puffs! He’s nailed it!

Seriously, (I type this as I’m steeping a third cup!), I don’t know if I’ve been missing out in general having never tried Genmaicha and there are way better blends than this, or if I’ve just struck gold with Yumchaa! Whatever, once I am even halfway out of this I will have reordered! I can’t remember the last time I drank the same tea twice in a day, let alone three times!!

Hooray, my order from Yumchaa arrived yesterday! I had it delivered to work and had to walk home with a gimassive cardboard box full of tea under my arm. Why do I not think these things through when I order things to arrive at work?! At least it wasn’t heavy though. I ordered thirteen 80g bags of varying blends (black, green, rooibos and fruit), plus a 40g bag of a white tea blend. Exciting times!

So, Orange Marmalade. I couldn’t resist ordering this one; the description sounded wonderful. I’m sipping on this now, at 9.40pm, and it’s yummy! There’s a powerful taste of citrus, with a little tartness from the hibiscus, and the ginger adding a fiery aftertaste. It’s super tangy and fruity and would be excellent iced. So far so good with my big box of goodies!

Varietea Subscription Box (October) – 2/30

This was the tea of choice from my Varietea Box when I got home today. To be honest, I’m not sure what I made of it. It tasted predominantly like an English Breakfast tea, but the heather gave it a vague floral essence, lightening the blend somewhat. I think I’d like to try it again sometime, though it’s not a tea I will probably remember much about come tomorrow.

I made this before I left for work today. It was pretty good. Exactly as you would expect from the ingredients, with the bergamot and cherry both prominent, and the almonds giving it a slight marzipan-ish taste. There’s a bit of an artificial zip from the cherries, but it does manage to still taste quite fruity. Not bad!

This was my bedtime drink of choice yesterday. Looking at the ingredients, it’s a blend I really shouldn’t love, given I’m not a huge fan of floral teas. But for some reason, this just works for me.

It’s such a pretty tea, with the rose petals and chamomile giving it an almost dreamy appearance and the scent of the lavender creating an instant calm. It does taste floral, there’s no getting away from that; mostly chamomile, with a sizeable dose of rose and then lavender drifting in.

Every time I take a sip, I get these childhood memories of attempting to make my own perfume (mashing up flowers from my gran’s garden in a bucket of water! Please tell me I’m not the only 8-year-old that did that?) In fact, there’s a lot about this tea that reminds me of being a little girl. Those little pouches of potpourri my gran would put in my bedroom when I slept over. Maybe that’s why I find this tea so calming. It takes me back to when life was carefree and the only thing I had to worry about before I went to sleep, was if mum had remembered to stock up on Coco-Pops for the morning. I always sleep so well after drinking this tea. It’s one I will always make sure is in my cupboard.

One of my favourite teas from T2. This, to me, is perfect for drinking after dinner. It’s uncanny how it manages to capture that home-baked, yummy dessert taste. It’s fruity, cosy, delicious and just perfect after a meal. This really does manage to taste like home baked apple goodness.

I’m actually planning on popping into T2 this weekend, and this is definitely on my stocking up list!

Varietea Subscription Box (October) 1/30

So, I signed up to another tea subscription box last week, this time from Varietea. It’s a UK based, family run business and they send thirty different teabags each month. My first box arrived on Saturday, and after spending the last few days gazing adoringly at all the colourful little sachets, pouring over each different company’s website and basically just umming and ahhing over which teabag to brew first… I finally decided to pop Sparkling White from Hoogly into my mug.

I fully intended to sip this slowly, while I relaxed in a bath full of lovely bubbles this evening. But this went down so smoothly and quickly, the bath hadn’t even finished running by the time I’d finished it. Floral tasting teas are one of my least favourite, and considering this smelled heavily of elderflower as I carried it upstairs, I wasn’t expecting me and Sparkling White to become friends. Upon tasting though, I got more apple than elderflower and the floral-ness was completely toned down. This tasted elegant. It was light, refreshing and I just couldn’t put the mug down. I can see myself drinking this, hot or cold, out in my back garden on a warm, summer’s evening.

I love the fact that my Varietea box contained teabgas from companies I hadn’t even heard of, let alone ordered from. I’ll definitely be checking out the rest of Hoogly’s range and I’m excited to try the other samples in my box, especially the ones from companies that are new to me.

Work was pretty hectic today. There were only two of us in the office and it was a busy, but very productive day. I ended up leaving fifteen minutes late and collapsed at my dining room table with a mug of this tea while I flicked though my emails (and, shhh, placed an order for more tea)! I enjoyed this one a lot. It has the perfect balance of black tea and raspberry, with the raspberry becoming stronger as it cooled. I ordered quite a few sample packets from The Wiltshire Tea Company several weeks ago, and I’ve been impressed with the majority of them. While some have just been OK, and none have had me wanting to stand on my rooftop shouting about their fabulousness, they’ve all been enjoyable.

Well, this was a fantastic surprise. I chose this as my ‘pre-work’ tea. As I’m unable to make my own drinks throughout the day (I survive on black coffee from a machine and my own bottled water at work), I try to choose something I’m relatively sure I’ll enjoy before I leave the house.

I currently have a wheelbarrow full of pumpkins sitting in my back garden, which I grew myself on my allotment plot and plan to carve this week ready for Halloween, so as I have pumpkins on the brain right now, the name of this tea shouted out to me.

Considering ‘apple’ was the first name in the list of ingredients, and ‘freeze-dried pumpkin pieces’ the last, I was expecting this to be more of a fruit infusion than anything else. But oh no, this… THIS was all about the pumpkin. Maybe it was because, y’know, pumpkins on the brain, but I don’t think so. I got a lot of apple, and it was gorgeously spicy from the cloves, but the pumpkin taste was so much stronger than I’d hoped for.

This was delicious! I could still taste the pumpkin when I arrived at work. I have a fair amount of this left, which I think will see me through my current craving for pumpkin teas, but I’d possibly carry on drinking this right through the winter months. The spicyness to it is enough to warrant the name Winter Warmer.