A Quarter to Tea

This was very tart today, which I enjoyed. Its another Earl where the bergamot does not take over. I appreciate that! The currant certainly holds its own here, which is also a nice thing.
A very sunny start to Monday.

My new teas, part of my black Friday haul, have arrived from A Quarter to Tea! Oh, my poor cupboard, swelling up again.
I was excited to start them, so this was broken open as the breakfast pot of tea.
Its a very bright earl, with the bergamot and currant making my cup almost tart in flavor. Its almost aggressively cheerful, and it certainly woke me up!
Yay having new teas to try!

And it’s a belatedly posted sipdown!

#long time ago internet hiatus sipdown

This tea now is approaching a year old, but the smallest bit of remaining leaf has been tucked away safely in a tin in a cold dark cupboard.

Very much enjoying this cup. Well done, Lauren.

Now do I dare hope for the same euphoria in my next cup?

Sipdown! A migraine has knocked me a day behind in my Hannukah sipdown countdown, but I haven’t given up!

This is yummy on its own, but even yummier with a touch of DavidsTea pumpkin agave. I’m sad to see it go. The maple and vanilla flavors are well balanced without overpowering the woodsy rooibos. It doesn’t resteep well, so I just do the first steep for a long time to extract maximum flavor. Perfect for cold winter nights.

Samurai Travelling Tea Box – Tea #41

Cold brew!

I couldn’t remember if I’d had this tea before, but I see now that I have a few years ago and I felt pretty similarly about it then as I did now. It’s not a bad chocolate and hazelnut type of flavour, and smooth/not overly sweet but it’s also just kind of thin and tastes a bit more like that waxy milk chocolate that you get around Easter over a really nice chocolate.

It was easy to drink in the moment but not something worth holding on to.

Sipdown (146)!

This is a queued tasting note.

Drank this one as a commute tea earlier in the week; I’ve been working so much at both jobs this week that I’ve gotten so behind on my tasting notes so I’m trying to sneak in a handful tonight. Gotta keep things short and to the point though…

On that note; I liked this one well enough but it’s definitely not something I’d order again. In fact, it’s not even something I picked out for myself in the first place: it was my free sample from my order that was selected for me. But it wasn’t bad; it was just really chocolate without a lot of other flavour to give it any sort of depth or nuance. Yeah, smooth, rich and creamy chocolate – but just chocolate. I’m not too big into chocolate teas, so it didn’t thrill me. I appreciate it for what it was though.

Sad sip down. I finished this one off. It was a warm, lightly spicy confection of a dessert tea. I was going to say it’s been unseasonably cold, but that isn’t true. It’s January in North Dakota. It is not unseasonable to not get above zero for 5 days straight. We did get to -1 this afternoon. Tomorrow is expected to be 4 above. But that’s what they said about Friday and today, so I’m not holding my breath. Good day to stay in and drink tea and knit.

This was in my last order from A Quarter To Tea. A dessert-y black tea with a real aroma like spiced rum. The maple is definitely present, adding a sweet note. The tea base is Jun Chiyabari black tea. I’m not familiar with that tea. It brews up rather light in color (compared to say, a robust breakfast tea) And the scent is marvelous. For me, the flavor wasn’t as good as the scent. But you know my sense of smell is weak, and that detracts from my sense of taste. Others may find the flavor to be as strong as the scent. I should add that the antibiotic is again adding a slight edge to what I taste, so my rating may well go up next time I drink this.

I thought this was a very nice tea, but I much prefer the Orange Rum Truffle. Still, I’ll have no trouble finishing the ounce I got.

Sipdown (212)!

Iced at work yesterday…

- Astringent
- Stonger on the spices than I remember the hot cup tasting
- More cinnamon/ginger/cardamom and less fennel/clove though
- Too much allspice, imo
- Wanted a touch more sweetness
- Orange notes
- Pleasant overall though

This is a queued tasting note.

Saw this one up on QTT’s site and instantly knew I needed it just because of the name. Damn literary teas dragging me in ‘cause I’m a big ol’ nerd…

Seriously though; I love Edgar Allan Poe and if there’s any of his works that could translate really well to a tea format it’s The Cask of Amontillado since that’s focused around a drink. So I was really excited to see how this one works, despite it being a Chai. And it’s good! Great, in fact. Even if this wasn’t Poe themed I think I’d genuinely love it, but the fact it had such a mulled wine like flavour on top of being based around an actual wine is just really perfect.

Seriously, I’d say the bulk of the flavour is medium bodied, smooth and enticing red berry/red fruit notes and citrus complimented by undertones of Chai spice. The fennel and clove stand out from the general “chai spice” flavor as well, and as those are two flavours I really like so it’s an even bigger draw in for me. It just feels masterfully balanced and very easy to sip on/relax to. All of the flavours are well rounded, and there’s no unpleasant bitterness or astringency.

Easily one of best Chais I’ve had in a long time.

Sipdown (160)!

Finished this one off yesterday – but I wanted to do something more unique to finish this off so I decided that I’d add some tequila to it because it is a margarita themed tea, after all. This is the point in the tasting note where I should point out that I pretty well fucking hate the taste of tequila. I drank way too much of it in high school and it just makes me feel sick now. However, in the moment I thought that this would be a good idea.

It was not.

Even though I only added about an ounce of tequila into a twelve ounce mug it was still way too strong of a flavour note and I felt like it detracted from the tea which is just so nice and beautifully balance all on its own. Though I will say, after a while a lot of the alcohol burned off from the boiling water and that made it bearable enough to finish the mug which I was originally worried I’d have to dump out.

Tea and alcohol can be a wonderful thing to mix together… but not always.

This is a queued tasting note.

Had this one as a cold brew, and I definitely liked it better the second time around! Everything I mentioned from the first time was still true but this time I felt like the fruit flavours were just equally richer and more pronounced/distinct. In particular, the orange and cranberry just had such great clarity.

Yummy!

Today’s Cold Brew!

There’s really nothing about this blend I’m not enjoying to be honest. The soft, earthy mate is the perfect supporting flavour for the lush, tart time notes and crisp cranberry coming through. In many ways, it strongly reminds me of Butiki’s Blackerry Lime Guayusa but with a yerba mate base instead. With this base, you get less dampness/rainforest-y goodness but the flavour also feels just a little bit ‘cleaner’ too, if that makes sense?

The orange is a flavour note here I didn’t pick up on until like halfway through the brew; it blends pretty nicely into both the citrus aspect of the lime and the sweetness of the cranberry. I did finally pick up on it though, and it’s nice as well. Overall this is just a really nice, enjoyable medley of fruit notes.

Well balanced, clean flavour profile, not too sweet.

I don’t know what else to say. I liked it a lot.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYDmaexVHic&index=5&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ

Hey, listen. I’m only two teas into A Quarter to Tea so far but really… Impressive is the word I’m going to use. I was on the verge of dismissing almost all flavored teas but this company/person has revived my belief that there are good flavored teas to be had.

The dry leaf certainly smells pretty spot on with the name of the tea. There is a slight artificial edge underneath. Not enough to be off putting but it gave me pause. Not to worry. The flavor of the tea after it brewed really nails it.

I did gong fu style which I’m sure I wasn’t supposed to with this tea but yeah I do what I want haha. The scent that wafts up from the brewing liquor is pretty amazing. I served some to my mom and wife and they both took notice to how good it smelled from the cup. There is a certain cinnamon taste in the first two or three steeps. Not biting cinnamon but more like a creamy vanilla cinnamon.

What is even more impressive about this tea is that I am on steep 5 (6?) at about 1 minute and the leaves and the liquid both still hold that delicious vanilla cream cinnamon scent. The flavor is only slightly diminished but is still really, really tasty.

This is an exceptional flavored tea.

I finally made my A Quarter to Tea order after having had this tea (and Spumoni) on my watch list for a while.

When I opened up the bag I was greeted with a very strong cherry cordial scent. For me, this was awesome. I love cherry cordials. A lot. Like, I can’t buy them for myself because I will eat the entire sleeve of them in entirely too quick of a fashion. But yes, the scent of this is very strong. If you aren’t as enamored with cherries, this might be too strong for you.

I had to assume that the scent couldn’t transfer to the taste in the same degree of strength. And I was right… but not in a bad way. When brewed, the cherry chocolate flavors are there but mellowed out. A bit of the oolong flavor is allowed to shine through. Which, to be honest, I had almost forgotten about it being an oolong due to the smell being so prominent. But yes, the oolong flavor is there and right next to it is cherry and chocolate or cherry cordial, if you use your imagination.

The flavors all meld together pretty evenly actually. This is during the sip. Much to my pleasant surprise, the after taste is where the cherry chocolate flavors come back a bit stronger. I would find myself almost smacking my lips after and between sips because the left over flavor almost made it seem that I had, in fact, eaten a chocolate covered cherry. I let a cup of this go cold before I drank it and that was still a tasty treat.

Hot or cold, this is one of the few flavored blends that I have come across that even comes close to duplicating the flavor from the scent it gives off. Nicely done.

Another sipdown, although I might have another little sample somewhere. Anyway, I had a difficult day and really needed a sweet and fruity genmaicha to get through it. I love the honeysuckle in this, and the toasted rice is great. This genmaicha soothes the soul.

This was a pretty interesting genmaicha, and not at all what I expected. It had a similar sweetness to agave nectar or melted sugar. I wouldn’t call it honey, but there was definite (subtle) sweetness there. The popcorn and toasted rice make for a warm, toasty cup of tea.

I previously rated this low, but now I’m not sure why. I’m kind of sad this is a sipdown now. :(

The black base goes very well with the rich, earthy cocoa. There is a bit of sweetness, maybe some vanilla also. I am not getting any marshmallow or chile pepper, but the earthy + chocolate combo + rich black base makes me want to rate this higher.

It was maybe a mistake to store this with a bunch of other flavoured teas, I think it took in some of the scents/flavours from the others.

I did a western brewing of this with 650 mL boiling water and ~1 tsp of leaf. I did make sure I got a marshmallow, however I can’t taste marshmallow at all. I wish there was a stronger marshmallow flavour (mallow root, maybe?) The liquid turned out to brew very light, but was still flavourful. The base tastes like a black or oxidized oolong. There are faint hints of cocoa, but no chile peppers or strong dark chocolate. I’m going to try this using gong fu method and see if there are other flavours coming out in later steeps. But what I do get in this cup is a malty/milk

Sipdown! I tricked out the last of my sample with a generous dose of rice milk and some DavidsTea Pumpkin Agave. The result was a gloriously maple, cinnamon, pumpkin, lightly clove, creamy, sweet brew. This is a really great fall tea for rainy days. I know because it started raining as I was sipping this tea and the combination was delightful. Take that with a grain of salt, though – I only like the rain when I don’t have to go outside in it.

Now this is an interesting experience. A Darjeeling rooibos blend? How unusual! I love Darjeeling, and have less friendly experience with rooibos, but its good blueberry in it, so hey, its worth a shot.
My initial impression is that the rooibos is adding sweetness to it, but that particular woody sweetness is stronger than the Darjeeling. That’s too bad, I’d love to have some more presence from the black tea base.
There is a nice quality to blueberry, though! And I do get a sense of the muffin, for which I probably need to give credit to the rooibos for. This tea does what it says it will, conjures up an image of the blueberry lemon muffin.
So I’d say this is a solid blend, my own general dislike of rooibos notwithstanding, and would recommend it to anyone seeking those flavors.