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You know, I think I went the entire summer without drinking this tea. And that’s just wrong because this is so much a tea to drink iced on hot days. Today, however, was cold and rainy and I spent a day out in the (wet) grasslands for one of my courses, so I needed something to warm me up.

I experimented with this to make it more like a genuine pina colada – I sweetened with some agave nectar and added some milk – all it needs is some rum, which sadly I am lacking. The milk turned the tea a rather nasty greyish colour, but ignoring that it was really tasty, very much like a hot pina colada – sweet, creamy, and fruity. Delicious!

My mother gave my this tea, and while blueberry isn’t my favorite flavour, I like it well enough to give this tea a shot.

The dry leaves are long, folded needles of tea in a nice dark green shade. They unfold into fairly whole leaves as I steep them, which is one thing in this tea’s favour. The indigo cornflower petals are a pretty touch, but I don’t think they really add much to the flavour. The tea tastes vegetal with slightly nutty undertones, overlaid with a light blueberry flavour. It’s a nice, authentic taste, which is always appreciated and it manages to be fruity without being too sweet, but in the same token nor is it bitter.

Not a bad tea at all – this is also another one that I think might be good to experiment with having it iced.

The teabag smells quite fruity, though oddly enough the dominant scent seems to be citrus rather than strawberry. A look at the ingredients reveal that there are orange blossoms in the mix, though I’m rather surprised at how strong they taste.

The taste is fresh, smooth and ‘green’ with the fruity flavours coming at the back of each sip. Oddly enough I’m still getting a lot of citrus and not much strawberry. I’ll have to adjust the steeping time and see what I get before I rate this tea. :)

This is…get ready for it….the first time Jill’s ever made matcha!

I’ve had it often enough in latté form or the traditional form in various cafes and restaurants, but I’ve been too intimidated by all the equipment and preparation needed to try making it on my own. Then I saw this tea for sale on the 52Teas website and it sounded so awesome that I bought it on impulse, even though I have no matcha bowl, whisk, sifter, etc.

I let it hang out in my cupboard for awhile until I finally got tired of staring at it today and went for it. I decided to go with Chrine’s recommendation of 1/4 tsp in 8 oz of water just for starters. In lieu of a matcha bowl I used a ceramic cereal bowl (don’t laugh) and a little metal cooking whisk (is that sound I hear the matcha purists gasping in horror?). ;)

The matcha powder smells very strawberry-y with a bit of the green, grassy scent of matcha. When I added the water it turned into a colour that wouldn’t be amiss coming out of a swamp. The metal wisk and cereal bowl combo seemed to work okay for my purposes, although the matcha tended to settle quickly and I kept having to whisk it up again.

Taste-wise it’s a little watery for my liking, though not bitter at all, which is certainly appreciated. It has the powdery-textured, green flavour I usually associate with matcha with a hint of fruity strawberry lingering in the background. I kind of expected the strawberry to be stronger given how the powder smelled, but that may be due to the amount of water – next time I think I’ll reduce the quantity I add a bit.

Not bad for a first try, though it definitely needs some tweaking. Stay tuned for more!
:D

Taking this tea with milk this morning to give me a kick in the pants so I’ll be awake for classes. It goes nicely with milk, and tastes smooth, slightly sweet and slightly bakey, with a touch of malty flavour. I could see this becoming my staple plain morning tea.

Reducing the steeping time really helped get rid of some of that tree-bark taste this tea had. Now it’s more of a bakey flavour with some lightly spicy notes.

The second steep (@ 3:00) is light and sweet with notes of mild honey and fruit. The bakeiness is still there, faintly, mostly in the aftertaste.

I’m upping my rating of this tea – as it turns out the parameters just needed some tweaking.

I don’t normally drink strong black teas without milk, but this one was surprisingly pleasant taken plain. There’s very little mouth drying astringency or bitterness, and yet it packed an impressive kick that woke me up and cleared the cobwebs from my mind (no mean feet early in the morning!). It’s full-bodied and yet smooth with hints of maltiness and maybe even a tiny bit of smokiness.

Now that I’ve upped the steeping time, the tea tastes more like it’s supposed to tastes (theoretically). I can taste the citrus, though it’s light, and the chocolate notes are there – if I look for them that is. I’d still rather the chocolate be a larger part of the flavour profile.

This tea is ok with milk, but like I thought in my last post about this tea it doesn’t really add anything. Some Russian Caravan’s I’ve had (like that lovely one from Lavender Basics – *sniff *) went really nice with milk and actually tasted fuller and took on a slightly sweet note when drunk that way.