Culinary Teas

Ok this tea is wicked cute, I love the sprinkles. It’s not too spicy, but I don’t taste a lot of pumpkin. I think in comparison to DAVIDs Pumpkin Chai this is more chai and DAVIDs is more pumpkin. I truly think that chai lovers will enjoy this tea, and I bought 3oz of it so I’m up for swaps haha. It didn’t wow me but I definitely don’t dislike it.

Ehhh..I’m still disappointed with this tea. Tried a 4 minute steep – oops saw I did that last time too, my bad, maybe will try 3 next time – and I get the faintest taste of pear/apple, but mostly just rooibos. It’s a very nice smooth rooibos, woody tasting which I don’t mind, but I wish the flavoring was a bit better on this one. Whenever I feel like a super lightly flavored rooibos, I will drink this one, but definitely won’t repurchase. :( and I remember it tasting so much better in the summer! Ah well, it is still tasty, just not flavored enough for me. Dropping rating a bit as well. See previous notes.

I think this is the tea I got at my local tea shop yesterday. Back when I first tried this tea in a to go cup there last summer, I loved it. We’ll have to see how it compares now that I’ve tried a lot more rooibos teas.

The dry smell is pretty good, I get pear and apple as well. However, steeped it mostly smells like rooibos. This didn’t come with brewing directions so I tried 4 minutes so that it wouldn’t get too rooibos-y, but I’m not sure, it may have. But there is a faint pear smell so I’m hoping it will turn out good.

Hmmm..this is lacking in pear flavor :( the rooibos is very nice and smooth, with a nice woody taste, and I get a hint of apple, but not a whole lot of pear, maybe a little bit, but not very much. I might play with steeping parameters to try to find the sweet spot with this one, it’s still enjoyable and light for when I want a fresh, not heavily flavored rooibos, but I’m a bit disappointed that there’s not more pear flavor. But I will persist and try to find the flavor!

I got this one from Novi! I am kind of obsessed with melon teas of any form, and they seem to be relatively rare so it’s always exciting to find a new one. And with kiwi?! Oh yes please.

Though really you can’t really taste much kiwi, the watermelon is BAM in your face in a very good way. Very much like a liquid jolly rancher but the base does stand up to it. But somehow it’s also quite natural tasting? Truly a mysterious tea! Mysterious and delicious.

You know how some people put salt on watermelon slices to make them sweeter? I am kind of wondering how iced watermelon tea would taste with a tiny sprinkle of salt… and maybe mint… and rum… I feel a cocktail experiment coming on!

Got this in trade from Alphakitty who is so nice and gave me so much tea this trade.

I can definitely taste the caramel in this tea, layering pleasantly over the black tea base. It’s creamy so that’s probably the cheesecake flavouring, though it doesn’t really taste like cheesecake to me, but then I always get the chocolate mousse cheesecake whenever I go out for cheesecake so I’m possibly just missing that. I really can’t taste the cherry at all, even when this has cooled down and the flavours have come out more.

This isn’t a great tea, but it’s a good tea and one that I’ll drink the rest of my sample. I’m enjoying it, which is really all I can ask for. Probably a good thing I don’t love it, actually, because I have too much tea already and really shouldn’t be buying more, yet I just signed up for the Della Terra try-me of the month club so apparently I’m just not listening to myself.

This was from the traveling teabox! SO FUN to get this!! I’ll be taste testing a bunch of them while I have the box. This was one of Alphakitty’s favorites, so I had to try it. I think I’m getting the white tea heebies from this one. White tea is my least favorite. The bergamot flavor is okay but there isn’t too much cream flavor here for me. In my opinion, earl grey creams are best with black tea, but I’m willing to try earl grey anything!

Backlogging this one. It’s ok…not bad, not my fave. It doesn’t really taste like mousse or even white chocolate but it does have a subtle creaminess to it.

Aha! I found you. I sampled what I believe was this tea today at The English Tea Room (at least, the description from the menu and the description here on Steepster were almost identical to one another, both specifically mentioning Spanish orange and white chocolate). They’re not terribly good about advertising exactly where their teas come from… I’v known for a while that they do source at least some of theirs from the Metropolitan Tea Company, but I was rifling through Culinary Teas’s selections, and many of them look and sound familiar, so I think they source some from that company as well. Anyway, I had a pot of this with my chocolate chip cherry scones (divine!) and my eggs benedict (sumptuous!).

The aroma of the tea was very much white chocolate, which impressed me, but I couldn’t detect very much orange. The same held true when I tasted it—no matter what I did to it, I couldn’t make the orange flavor come out. The white chocolate was there, though, and the tea base seemed to be light and not overpowering. Tasty, but I wished I could’ve tasted the orange. So, meh.

Really disappointing. I had high hopes for this tea since I love their plain rose tea. I figured chocolate, roses, what’s not to like?

I saw whole rosebuds in the bag, but when I smelled it I only got a muddled scent that wasn’t very rosey at all. I didn’t taste any chocolate, nor roses either. I barely tasted tea it was so weak. When cooled, I get the barest hint of rose, but not much else. To tell the truth, I’m beginning to wonder if I got a leftover bag from last year that had gone stale.

The first cup I steeped for five minutes, and poured it down the drain because it was so bland. The second was drinkable only because I steeped it for two minutes more and threw in some rose tea.

If all their “special” Valentine teas are this lackluster, I think I’ll skip out on them next year.

I absolutely HATE this tea warm… I think I just don’t like any green tea warm. The high rating is solely for this iced. It tastes sort of like watermelon jolly rancher candies with just a little salt.

Ooh, a tea that I haven’t yet tried! Also courtesy of Alphakitty, thanks! Also, oof, did I mention that I’m trying to hit 1200 tasting notes by the time my 1-year Steepster-versary rolls around, which is on Jan. 29? I have 37 to go….. yikes! I thought I had until the 31st, which would totally be more doable…. so hopefully I drink a crapton of tea tomorrow with Sil, Raritea, and Indigobloom!

So I really had no idea what osmanthus was, but when I sniffed this tea, it smelled sort of peachy. Since I was expecting floral, I assumed contamination… until I just read the tea description that mentions notes of peach! Awesome! Much more stoked to try this now, haha.

Strangely, the flavour reminds me quite a lot of 52teas’ Virgin Fuzzy Navel green… well, strangely until it occurs to me that Fuzzy Navel is orange/peach, not just citrus. (And then I read Alphakitty’s note which also mentions citrus…. go go tastebuds!!) So yes, the primary initial flavour is peachy/citrusy, which is tasty, and once those fruity flavours fade, I’m left with a really nice caramelly flavour, which I totally wasn’t expecting! I assume that it’s from the green tea.

So I’ll admit that this is another tea I wasn’t super stoked to try, but I’ve been proven wrong again. This, is tasty! And the sencha base is pretty good. So, I’m glad you sent me a sample of this one, Alphakitty!! And for those of you missing Virgin Fuzzy Navel, I’d suggest you give this one a shot. Perhaps it isn’t as strongly flavoured, but it’s hitting the same flavour combination for me!

This sample once again comes to me thanks to Alphakitty!

I am not the biggest white tea person. It’s not that I don’t enjoy them when I have them, because I often do, it’s just that I rarely seek them out. Nonetheless I requested this one from Alphakitty because although I have had Earl Grey white teas before, I’ve never had an Earl Grey cream white tea. Sounded interesting!

I don’t have much of a default steep time for white teas, so I guessed on this one. I have a feeling I should have steeped it a little longer for optimal flavor. As it is, it’s pretty tasty. It definitely smells like an Earl Grey cream, though obviously without the black tea notes. The bergamot is pretty light, and I would probably like more in the blend, but it is overall creamy and vanilla-y. The white tea base is smooth and not too hay-ish or grassy. A pretty nice tea.

This one had some smaller pieces that looked like they could get bitter quick so I was very cautious with the steep, removing the leaves at about 2 minutes. This is another outdated sample from LiberTeas that I should have drank sooner but it still holds fairly true on smell. Steeped aroma is bold black tea (very Assam!) with an afterthought of bergamot that comes through to me as a bit of fruit loops. Now, assams are not my favourite and neither are earl greys but I have discovered I apparently have a fondness for jasmine so I’m very intrigued by this blend.

With my brave face on, I delve into the first sips. Bold but then tempered by a flowery sweetness – that must be the jasmine. The sip morphs back into a bit of astringency at the end that prompts me to keep sipping. I’m not picking up on any bergamot and I think this is one that must be drank quickly so I’ll just sit here and do that, I think.

Nice blend, but not remarkable for me. Could be the age or could be the ingredients, either way it was lovely to try a new tea! I have enough left for another 2 or 3 cups, I might give it to the beau for iced tea as he likes that sort of thing. Actually, I might give it to his work as they are all into tea now. I love sharing the tea love!!

Sunday sample Sipdown #2

This was actually more delicious than I expected!! I had tried the sample once before and I remember it being fairly astringent and bitter. This time around I realized that it was just because the quality of the black tea base was pretty great. It is definitely strawberry, from the second you smell it to the linger of the sip. Not overpoweringly fruity but a really nice touch of sweetness.

Sunday sample Sipdown #3

Ok backlogging this. I’ve had this sample for a while and just tried it for the first time yesterday. I didn’t really get much of a chocolate flavor, then again white chocolate doesn’t taste very chocolaty. I guess I would say it was a bit creamy and slightly slightly sweet with a nice strong black base. I wouldn’t stock it as one of my main dessert teas but for people who like a little flavor but not a BAM dessert tea like Della Terra type teas, this would probably be really nice.

I didn’t love it enough to purchase it, but I will definitely finish the sample.

I can definitely taste the white chocolate, at least after I sweeten it (understandable; I find that’s true of most chocolate teas). There’s nothing particularly special or complex about this, but it’s a solid simple dessert tea.

One of my favorite teas, I brew at 180 for 2:30 with lemongrass, mint, and jasmine. Absolutely delightful.

Very tropical… Not fond of the flavor hot, but one of the best iced teas I’ve ever tasted! The strawberry and coconut are strong, but the kiwi flavor is pretty understated – if you’re not specifically looking for it, you may only notice a vague fruity flavor, not necessarily kiwi. The brew smells strongly of coconut, but doesn’t have the thick mouthfeel that coconut usually brings a tea – probably since there’s no real coconut in the tea. For someone like me, who hates that oily texture, this tea is a winner!

I’m not quite sure I enjoy this one, honestly… The black tea base has an interesting flavor, slightly bitter. And the mint isn’t what I expected – I was hoping for a sweet candy mint, or a very icy-cold mint (like their Brandy and Wintermint). It tastes vaguely minty, and very green, which just isn’t something I look for when wanting to drink a mint tea.

Actually pretty good! I feel like this tea won’t get a fair shake from me right now since I adored Twinings Pomegranate Raspberry herbal so much, and in a way, I’m right. This tea is delicious – when steeped properly, its not bitter at all, and the fruity sweetness is really nice. But, possibly due to my taste buds missing the raspberry in the other tea, this one feels like its missing something. Maybe a squirt of fresh citrus juice, or a dried berry from your personal stash tossed into the steep?

Overall, still a very good tea that I would order again, since it does have a flavor, yet is still versatile enough to play well with others.

This tea is pretty delicious. Sadly, you have to pretend that the baggy doesn’t say Black Forest on it to really appreciate the flavor. Because if you’re expecting chocolate cherry cake, you won’t get it – you’re better off trying the Cherry Cordial blend from this company instead, which has those flavors. This tea, however, is more like a sweetened black tea – very smooth base, almost no bitterness. A nice, plain drinking tea, but maybe not a dessert tea.