Kaylee Send Message

This poor tea. I’ve rather abused it today. Totally imprecise (too close to boiling) temperatures and unmeasured steep times. And you know what? It’s still darn good.

I used half a teaspoon for 4 ounces. I’m currently on my third steep and it’s still holding up nicely. I’m getting a lot of rice flavor and savoriness, rather evocative of miso soup. As usual, Den’s Tea impresses.

Thanks to adagio breeze for bringing this tea to the States all the way from Britain!

The dry tea smell like strawberry and hibiscus. There’s a lot of stuff in the mix – I’m seeing coriander seeds, what looks like small bits of dried strawberry, dried citrus peel, what looks like dried peach (I tasted this after brewing and it tasted peachy), and a few other ingredients I can’t identify.

As Lindsey pointed out, there’s no online description or brewing instructions, so I had to wing it. I used ½ teaspoon for 4 oz, brewing it for 3 minutes in water that had cooled slightly after boiling. The liquid is a deep reddish-pink. The flavor is all hibiscus and strawberry. There may be a touch of tartness mid-sip, but that could be wishful thinking. There is a slight but not overwhelming aftertaste of strawberry candy.

Overall, this is just ok. I think it would be nice as an iced tea – probably sweet and juicy. Too bad I’m not a huge fan of iced tea!

Oh noes! Only one or two cups left in this bag! Oh, wait, that’s why I bought a second bag. Thank you, past Kaylee.

I wanted to pick out something special for my 100th post. This definitely fits the bill. A wonderful combination of savory and sweet, this actually makesa a quite nice breakfast tea. It’s a relatively delicate, not at all astringent alternative to the typical breakfast black tea. Nom nom nom.

I bought this sampler back in December 2010. I gave the Earl Grey to my partner and finished off the green tea and the blood orange a while ago. Somehow the Pirate Chai took longer to work through. These tins are great though. The chai held up quite nicely in one even after 2 ½ years. The tins are also super cute and great for storing opened Teavivre samples.

This tea’s ingredients are not listed anywhere but appear to be clove, orange peel, black tea, and maybe cardamom. It tastes like there’s cinnamon in the blend, but I can’t make it out visually.

I used 1 tsp for 8 oz, steeped in boiling water for an unmeasured amount of time (probably about 5 minutes). Spi-cy! The clove slams into you up front, the cinnamon takes center stage mid-sip, and there’s just a smidge of citrus throughout. I can’t make out much about the black tea base other than that there’s just enough astringency to make it clear that this is a black tea (the pain in my stomach also confirms that it’s a black tea – I’m a bit of a dummy for drinking this at all). I’m not tasting the cardamom, but that might be because I’m not quite sure what cardamom tastes like…

I added some rice milk halfway through, but I don’t think it improved the flavor any. If anything, it made the tea less enjoyable. Somehow how the creaminess just didn’t mesh well with the spiciness. Maybe brewed too strong? Not enough rice milk? Needs sugar? Whatever the issue is, I liked this tea better straight than creamy.

The aftertaste is all spice and tingly lips. Lovely! This would work better as a morning pick-me-up than an evening tea, though.

I decided to treat myself to tea and scones at the Upper West Side location. Pricey, but lovely.

One warning – they automatically make this with milk unless you specifically request otherwise. They readily brewed up a new pot for me, though. Without milk, the color of the tea is a tad darker than clover honey. It smells like gingerbread. Perfectly autumnal.

Upon first sip, the immediate taste is spicy. I thought it was cloves, but there aren’t any in this tea so I guess it’s the ginger. The cinnamon kicks in mid-sip and blends quite nicely with the spiciness. It’s a strong flavor, but I love it. I can’t make out anything about the base tea other than that it is quite smooth and acts as a lovely palette for the ginger and cinnamon. There’s no astringency. The aftertaste is primarily ginger with a touch of cinnamon.

I only drank two cups of a three-cup pot, so I took the rest to go. I added some rice milk when I got home and nuked it for a minute (heresy, I know). Quite good. I think it would have been even better with some brown sugar, but I don’t have any. The rice milk did add some creaminess and a touch of sweetness that really complimented the spiciness nicely.

This is really interesting as a chai because it uses a green tea base rather than black. I quite enjoyed it. Still, not so much so that I feel an obsessive need to keep it in stock (unlike the Alice’s Blend and Casablanca).

Oh. My. Goodness. This tea has just been an oasis for me at work. I’ve been brewing it up in the morning and bringing it to work in my handy dandy spill-proof travel mug, which has the added benefit of keeping my tea warm for hours. This is a particularly important feature because work has been extremely hectic. It actually has taken hours to finish a mug. And this stuff is good to the last drop.

I brewed some up at home today so I could write up a proper tasting note. I like to brew it longer than the recommended 3 minutes, and easily get at least two steeps out of it. The smell is just perfectly rosy. The color is the same golden tone as clover honey. The taste is like rose candy with a hint of vanilla. Perfection.

I just noticed that I described Alice’s Casablanca blend as actively making a bad day at work better. So I guess these two teas complement each other as work accessories! This sounds like an excellent excuse to keep both teas on hand at all times and get a little temp. kettle for the office.

The smell of the dry leaves is sort of generically tropical. Hot, the tea tastes like mango and a touch of pineapple, but very artificial. Maybe a touch of floral flavor as well. Icing the tea yields improvement. The smell is all mango and quite natural. The flavors come out a bit more as well. But it still tastes artificial to me. A lot of other tasting notes indicate that they didn’t find it at all artificial tasting, so I wonder whether there’s some difference in the brewing or I’m just being overly sensitive. Either way, this tea gets a “meh” at best.

Many thanks to adagio breeze for the bag. I didn’t feel like making an entire pitcher, so I broke open the bag and brewed it looseleaf.

This actually isn’t bad hot. Crisp, grassy, with a hint of orange. Nothing astounding, but not at all awful. Good for an afternoon pick-me-up or as an accompaniment to a light Mediterranean lunch.

Cold, this is quite lovely! Bright and tangy. Quite refreshing. I suspect this would be especially good with a touch of sugar. Definitely better for a hot summer afternoon than the early days of fall, but I suspect we’ll get two or three more hot days in the next few weeks before fall fully settles in.

The dry leaves are thin and needle-like, with a bright vegetal smell. They unfurl into the cutest little yellow-green leaves. The brewed tea is a very, very pale yellow. As in, you can barely tell it’s not water. But it sure doesn’t taste like water! This is wonderfully vegetal and buttery, without being too heavy. There’s a nice dry aftertaste too. This easily gave me two good steeps. I probably could have gotten a third, but I’m trying to make a dent in my stash. As usual, high marks for Teavivre. Many thanks to Alysha for the sample.

Protip: Teavivre’s sample packages always have more than one serving but aren’t easy to reseal. Luckily, the labels on Teavivre’s sample-size packages peel right off and stick nicely to a tin or baggie! Most people have probably already figured this out, but I thought I’d share for anyone who hasn’t.

Sipdown! Many thanks to my friend rashad for the sample.

This has sort of a floral, citrusy smell, which is about what you’d expect from a Jasmine Lemon tea. The flavor is heavier on the citrus than the floral. It tastes like lemon tea with a flowery undertone. And it is flowery – not distinctly jasmine. That might have something to do with the fact that there are a lot of other flowers in the mix. What are rose petals and lilac doing in a jasmine tea?

Overall, this is acceptable but utterly mediocre. Finished the cup, glad I tried it, not going to miss it.