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This tea is a sample that MzPriss passed along. Thank you!

This was the afternoon tea. This was a really good tea. Light, slightly floral, slightly muscatel. I actually thought this was a darjeeling. I hope we meet again Jun Chiyabari.

HHTTB #14/18

Here is another one from the traveling tea box. I grabbed this one because I tend to enjoy ginger teas. This did not disappoint. It was a think mouth feel with a base that had the deep coco flavor mixed with the ginger. I am still not used to ripe pu-erh and so the earthy/mushroom smell the tea was really enjoyable.

I received this sample from Cameron B Thank you!

Yum! Wow, Yum! This is really hitting the spot this morning. I am sad that Steepsters is misbehaving again. I have no idea what is actually in this tea. From my taster I suspect it is a blend of Assam and Darjeeling. Whatever combination is in here is really working for me. So much so that I went directly to the A&D sight. Oh A&D I wish you sold your teas in smaller quantities. 4oz is a LOT of tea of one kind for me. Maybe I will have to con a fellow steepster into splitting a 4 pack?

The first thing I noticed about this tea is the sweetness. It has a sweetness to it I didn’t expect. Then I got the malty/fruitiness of the Assam, and then the muscatel of what I think is Darjeeling but who knows. What ever is in here has made it a yummy cup. Thanks again Cameron B for allowing me to try another A & D tea.

HHTTB #13/18

My bag of samples that I pulled from the Here’s Hoping TTB #3 got misplaced in my unorganized tea stash. Woops! I have a few left to try. This is the cup for tonight. This is a surprisingly good cup. I am having this cup straight, no additions. I taste the sweet rooibos and the pear/apple flavor comes out and adds the tart juicy flavor. This is nice and it would be a really good iced rooibos.

After posing the question, how does one make real chai? I did some reading and came up with a suitable method that seemed real. A friend of mine just had twin boys, eek, so I am trying to cook up some meals for her and the now 4 “men” in her family. The real chai method is suppose to be messy so tonight I thought heck, what is one more mess to clean up. I am so glad I made the rest of this with the Tiff real chai method, it was so worth the mess. The method went as follows:

There was about 1.5 T left of this and it was mostly spices so I dumped the remainder of the package into a pot with 8oz water and 8oz milk. I turned on the heat, brought it to a light boil, turned my back until I heard the sound of milk almost boiling over my pot, woops. Turned the heat back down and let it simmer for 6 mins. At 6 mins I added about 1.5 tsp of LB and let it sit for 3 mins. Then I poured the mess into my strainer added some honey and CHAI HEAVEN!! I will call that a successful mess! Now I wish I had more of this lovely blend. It was vanilla, citrus and a fun mix of spices. If this shows up again and a Verdant blend, count me in.

I went for a long walk tonight that happened to take me by the Crown Center, once at crown center my little legs couldn’t help but make a stop by Shang’s. I mean they did move to the first floor and all so I didn’t even have to climb 3 flights of stairs:) Once in the store there was no hope. I had to make a purchase.

This tea is one I had seen recently on the web site that caught my eye. I have recently been trying more sheng and white teas so this seemed like a fun one to try. Boy am I glad I picked up an ounce of this. This tea is really sweet. There are lots of hints of honey. There is a slight tang, and hints of clementines. This tea is so smooth. There is something else in there but I can’t tell you what. I guess I will just have to have another cup!

Yeah to more Shang tea. I am so blessed to have such great tea in my backyard!

I received a small sample of this from EvaGrim awhile back. Thank you!

We received our secret pumpkin assignments today. Oh man, I am excited. I have been scouring their wish list and dreaming up a package, then I get all nervous and hope that they will like it.

Anywho, onto this tea. It is a nice green flavor with hints of cinnamon and vanilla. I also get the roasted nut flavor. This seems to me to be a fun twist on genmachia? I like this one. If Butiki blends somehow magically stick around I could see myself drinking this in the future, but not something I will try to acquire in the last ditched effort to try everything Butiki.

I received this sample from Cameron B. Thank you for sharing!

I have been in a huge chai mood lately. I have been making a huge mug of it whenever I am home at night. I blame it on the fall. I have been drinking a standard black masala chai. This is nice upgrade. The blend of spice to tea was pretty good, the spices seem to hold up to the addition of milk and the base shines through enough that I know that I am actually drinking tea. The base makes this a think mouthful with the milk that I added. I am really enjoying this mug. I have a few chai’s I have to finish up, but an ounce of this may show up on my next order depending on how long the chai cravings last.

It has been a week and a half of sample cleanup for me. For a bit in August I wasn’t drinking a lot of tea and when I was I was only drinking my favorites. I was just in that funk of not wanting to try anything new. I am back to wanting to give a few new things a try and this is one that I gave a whirl today.

This isn’t my favorite kusmi tea that I have tried, but it is okay. I will say that I am pretty sure I oversteeped this puppy. A co-worker came into talk when I had just put my infuser in my cup. It had a beramont, floral taste to the tea, but for me the floral took over for me. This is one I am glad I got to try, but not one I need to buy.

Thank you Cameron B for allowing me to try quite a few of the Kusmi teas.

I received this in a swap from Cameron B. Thank you!

This is one I have been wanting to try for awhile. I really like dark oolongs. One of the first oolongs I tried was a roasted oolong that had a similar flavor profile. At first I was really turned off by the smell, but soon I grew to crave the taste of the tea. This tea reminds me of that first experience with the roasted oolong.

This is roasty with hints of caramel. It is very very smooth. I was able to keep resteeping this tea for quite awhile. I will have to write more on this after I have another cup or two. Thank you again for the chance to try this wonderful tea.