160 Tasting Notes
Last night Rick and I watched Life of Pi…one of my favorite books ever and I bawled like a baby when Richard Parker was sick. Anyway, I got up to make tea because my life has been seriously lacking in the tea department lately (I should never allow myself to be so busy that I say that again). He asked for a cup which is crazy rare and I made him Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake (score! he loved it!)
I made this for myself, I’ve had 2 cups of the Marshmallow Genmaicha and over the past month or so, genmaicha has started become my comfort tea. I don’t know genmaicha well enough yet to really taste the flavors but they were subtle and warm and complemented the coziness of the rice while balancing the grassiness of the green tea itself. I put a few pieces of rock sugar in this but I think I like it plain much better. I’m excited to read everyone else’s reviews and then have another cup and see how my tastes adjust.
Got this in an AWESOME, like out of this world, swap from Marcel Duchamp
So far I have tried this one, the Strawberry Cupcake, and the Red Velvet Cupcake and Strawberry is reining first place. This is a very very close second. The smell of this is fabulous, spicy cinnamon, creamy vanilla, and a bakery warm freshness. I am always hesitant with flavored rooibos because I don’t LOVE rooibos, but I love flavors so I’m always hoping for more flavor than rooibos. I get that with this, I get just enough of the rooibos tea taste for me, it comes through slightly but mostly it’s this amazingly smooth combination of perfectly balanced flavors.
I think this may have just gotten ahead of the Strawberry Cupcake. I’m having this right after lunch and the rooibos is being so kind to my digestion, but it tastes like dessert. I bet this is a killer nighttime tea or with a little cream and some rock sugar as a legit dessert. mmmm this would be a great latte!!
I’ve made all of these as lattes and they are very good. I’m so happy that you’re enjoying the teas!! I think we have very similar tastes.
I know and I can’t WAIT until you get your package, I think you will need to carve out and dedicate a full weekend to tasting what I send.
I mean, what tea would you drink if you woke up to identity theft? Ok not real identity theft, credit card identity theft. I’ve already reviewed this tea so I’m taking this post as a vent session.
I got a recorded message this morning from one of my credit card companies saying they’d like me to call them to verify some recent transactions. I get this a lot from PayPal Bill me Later so I figured it was routine and whatnot. Called them back, and it turns out that there was a transaction attempted yesterday in Brooklyn NY for $900 somewhere (ummm I live in Northern Vermont), then there was another one for $750 in Target in Brooklyn (Vermont is one of the only 3 states without a Target, which just adds to my frustration). Luckily, my shopping habits are so that I didn’t have nearly $750 left on my limit and it got declined. There’s this angry badass side of me that wants to track down the SOB and sue the shit out of him (or her, sorry) but then there’s the tea drinking side that thinks a good meditation, a hot cup of a decadent tea, and my favorite lipgloss is all I need to bounce back.
Has this happened to anyone else? I know it’s super common in the US but I don’t know a single person who it has happened to and I never in a million years thought it would be me.
listen to this! A case of credit card fraud sets an amateur sleuth on a crime-solving caper…
http://themoth.org/posts/storytellers/tristan-jimerson
This happened to my mom through paypal a few ywars ago also and it was a nightmare to get the money refunded. I don’t ynderstand how someone can justify stealing another person’s money. I hope everything works out!
it worked out ok for me because the transactions got declined…because like what 23 year old social worker has ANY available balance on her credit card? haha. Someone legit made a copy of my card and swiped it, it wasn’t even an internet thing, and I had the original in my wallet the whole time.
Ugh, I feel you. My CC number got stolen the other day. It has happened a lot to me at this point, mostly because one of my previous credit cards from one particular bank was super unsecure and kept getting stolen. I literally had 3 new credit cards in 6 months, and it happened to some friends of mine with a card from the same bank. One time it was a copy-of-my-card thing like this, while I had the card in my possession. This most recent time it was a different card, but still annoying. Mostly just that though—annoying. You are never liable for the charges (even if they did go through) if the card is still in your possession, so its the inconvenience of waiting for a new card in the mail and updating your credit card information with places. I keep a backup card for just such occasions so I don’t get stuck without a CC.
Oh, and I could look back through my tasting log to find out what I drink afterward… usually one of my faves for comfort. :)
My mom got a specific CapitalOne card for international travel before we spent a week in France, though I was there for my study abroad beforehand and I had my own card. About 8 months later, they call her about iTunes purchases with MY card number, which was NEVER even used!
My debit card will get shut down all the time if I use it as a credit card. It drives me nuts. I always accidentally hit “use as a credit card” when I’m reloading my transit card and that sets it off. I appreciate that they’re so pro-active about it, but the call to set them straight comes as soon as the train goes underground.
It happened to me through a PayPal. It was such a pain to get it all straightened out. I stopped using PayPal because of it.
I hope you are able to get everything cleared up quickly!
My aunt had her number swiped at a gas station and the thieves racked up $1000 in gas, bought a set of china and went to a fancy restaurant, luckily the credit card company forgave her these charges. On a more humerous note my cousin had an aunt who hardly ever used her card and almost never for large transactions, so when she spent over $300 for an outfit for her sons wedding the CC company called her almost as soon as she got home.
It’s happened to my Dad and it’s happened to Rayn. The person who stole Rayn’s cc number tried to buy a washing machine at home depot with it.
Credit card theft seems almost inevitable :( I know SO many people it has happened to! A nurse at a hospital swiped my mom’s card (while she was in heart surgery) and bought dinner for an ENTIRE TOWN in Mexico. My boyfriend got his card stolen by someone trying to donate thousands to an Australian school… strange stuff.
That’s awful, I’m glad the charges didn’t go through. Thieves are getting smarter and smarter. Technology makes it easier and easier for people to steal. Its so sad.
So far, I have really enjoyed all the matcha flavors I have tried from Red Leaf Tea. I have liked them most in a smoothie, I like them shaken up in cold water, and I like them warm. The desserty flavors like English Toffee and Caramel have been my favorites in cold water, but I thought I would try this one since fruit flavors make sense as an iced tea.
Not so much, there is something about this flavor that just throws me off. I don’t think it tastes much like apple I suppose, it tastes like some kind of apple flavored candy but for some reason that kind of artificial apple taste mixed with matcha is not settling well on my taste buds. This is the only one of the 5 flavors that I have tried that I didn’t like. I think I will probably appreciate it more in a smoothie because I won’t taste it as much but it will still give me the energy (which is the reason I started drinking matcha).
I would recommend other flavors before this one, but honestly this has really great reviews from tea bloggers that I really trust and purchase based on like DaisyChubb It is quite tangy like it’s description says, I just cannot seem to find a taste for it. However, if you’d like to give it a go based on it’s otherwise fabulous reviews you can get it here:
http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/green-apple-matcha.html
Really just logging this to share this link with you all about tea meditation:
http://www.wherewegonow.com/debbies-blog/have-you-stopped-tea-meditation-today
This is pretty mild, and I do taste the butterscotch as well as the caramel but it isn’t strongly flavored. It’s a good black tea base so it’s easy to drink even if the sweetness that I hoped for isn’t there. Of all the teas I’ve tasted from the huge order I have in my house from Culinary Teas, this is one of my favorites so far. I wouldn’t reorder it, there are teas I like far more, but since there are 3oz lying in a box in my house, I will drink it.
I actually really didn’t mind this tea. Living in Vermont and having Maple as the official state flavor (who knew that even existed?) I have high maple standards. This is not in your face sweet, though I was kind of hoping for that. This is very mild, with a caramel type flavor that didn’t get bitter. It was a nice cup of tea, I would like to blend it with something else, maybe a vanilla and a fruit flavored tea. That’s something I like about this tea, I think it would be a great one to blend.
Now I thought this smelled awesome until I handed the bag to my boyfriend, Rick and he said “Blech! It smells like Robitussin!” I smelled it again, and sure enough it had that same cherry with a kind of tangy spicy medicinal tinge to it. Brewed it anyway, I just so happen to kind of like Robitussin. It tastes more like a cherry cordial than cough medicine if you ask me, but sometimes I find that I have to be thinking about the flavors while I’m sipping the tea to really taste them. This one is kind of like that. Not my favorite, but I’ve had worse.
I’m not really impressed with Culinary Teas so far, I placed a huge order with a gift certificate about a month ago and it took exactly a month to get the package. I’ll review everything I try, I have a lot of them to go through. I’m a dessert tea freak so unless it’s up there with 52teas Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake, Della Terra Smores, or DAVIDs Red Velvet Cake…my ratings won’t be too high.
Great movie and I want to try that tea so bad! :D
Mmmmm, I am so impatient to get my bag of this.
This tea sounds amazing. I need to read that book too.
The book is even better than the movie :)
The book is worlds better, but I loved both. The book just has more detail and I felt I got to know Pi better on the pages.