Culinary Teas

This tea is good, but not quite what it says it is. The cheesecake flavor is pretty nonexistent, though it does taste of whipped cream. The cherry is more of just a vague, unidentifyable sweet fruity taste. The caramel note is quite strange… more like a brulee topping that is just SLIGHTLY darker than it should be – not overly burnt, but a tiny bit overdone. Overall, a pretty good tea if you’re not expecting it to taste like cheesecake, caramel, or cherry.

This tea is a bit confusing to me. It smells incredible after brewing, and if I could find a scented oil like it, I’d be set for life! I didn’t much enjoy the very first flavor that hit me from the first sip… Maybe the brandy? But still, not something I loved. But then the peppermint hit, and its the most wonderful mint flavor I’ve ever experienced in a tea. I’m imagining this with a squeeze of lime, or with a spoonful of hot cocoa powder mixed in, and just incredibly excited about the potential of this tea.

This tea is actually pretty good on its own – a nice, deep brown infusion that smells much more of cream than of pumpkin. You can taste the pumpkin, and the cream, but this particular tea tastes a little bland – improved by a pinch of this brand’s chai spice mix.

Had this tea rated at 82, but had to lower it. It just isn’t sweet enough… Drank it iced today, with extra sweetener, but the orange flavor was very faint… the tea completely overpowered it, and made even the slight hint of orange taste burnt and completely unappealing. Finished for the caffeine, but didn’t enjoy a sip.

At first taste, I didn’t like this tea at all. It tasted more like orange pith than anything else, very overpoweringly bitter with no hint of the fresh orange peel sweetness I was hoping for. After adding 4x more sweetener than I do with my other teas, I found the flavor I was looking for, and the tea became quite good! Would’ve been rated higher, but I like to use even Stevia sparingly, and prefer teas that work with little.

I may have oversteeped, but this one is exceptionally bitter to me. It smells like a good, albeit artificial, caramel apple, and I’m hoping that if I keep a closer watch on it next time, I’ll get a flavor closer to that scent.

Backlog from yesterday.

I also got this tea from Alphakitty, thanks!

This was pretty pleasant. The base of the tea was similar to the pumpkin cream: uninspiring, but inoffensive. The apple was juicy, the caramel was definitely caramel “flavored” but not very authentically. It’s like some caramel candies, or caramel flavored things that don’t have caramel in them inherantly. Again, not necessarily bad, but just with that hint of fakeness to it. Still, again, I drank up my cup of this tea with pleasure.

Backlog from yesterday. Super busy lately!

I got this tea from Alphakitty, thanks!

I love anything pumpkin, so I was interested in trying this. It was a pretty tasty tea! Definitely pumpkiny, though not especially creamy. It’s also only lightly spicy. A hint of pumpkin pie spice, but not overwhelming for sure. More like a delicate pumpkin souffle. The tea base was not very interesting, but also pleasant enough and not bitter at all. Definitely tasty and I drank up my cup with pleasure!

A very nice Assam. Malty and rich. A bit on the dry side. Good with milk and sugar or even with a slice of lemon peel in the pot and sweetened with honey. I’ve used this Assam to make Chai.

So far my favorite Assam yet.

HOLY DISGUSTINGNESS!

Ok so this was my first attempt with Lapsang Souchong, but OMG! I opened the package to sniff and expected a delightful aroma. Instead I got barbequed dirt… And a case of the dry heaves.

I gave it to the friend who so heartily recommended it. Evidently my review was quite entertaining to her. AND she got some free tea lol.

Never again!

Rich and delicious tea! A bit malty but not dry at all. I love this two ways, with milk and sugar and also with a slice of lemon peel in the pot, sweetened with honey. A great morning tea for sure!

Nice enough, but a bit light for me. Then again, I’m not a huge fan of first flush darjeeling.

The best Oolong tea I’ve ever had. It’s sweet with a floral finish and aroma. Never bitter. A lovely tea for any time of the day or night – and especially if you’re a fan of Oolong teas. If you’re new to Oolong don’t start out with this one because if you do, all the others will taste terrible!

I have resteeped this twice with good results. They claim you can resteep it more than that but I don’t, mainly because I like a fresh pot of tea.

We go through so much of this tea! It’s great as a light morning tea, and just as good in the afternoon or even in the evening. I like to serve this one to company because it seems to make everyone happy. It’s my mom’s all time favorite tea. The flowery notes are not overpowering, and it’s not a malty tea either. It’s crisp and clean and just, well, happy.
We drink it black with sugar. Oh – you have to be careful not to oversteep this one. If you do it gets a bit yukky. Five minutes TOPS.

This is a favorite breakfast tea in our house. It’s a nice robust cup with the flavors of Earl Grey and Jasmine. It has Assam maltiness. I would call this a complex tea, that changes flavor somewhat as it cools. We drink it black with sugar. Not so great iced, it gets a bit cloudy. I have reheated the cooled tea and it’s surprisingly good, it seems to hold its original flavor fairly well.

Oh yes!
Robust, malty with a dry lip smacking finish! An excellent morning blend!
I drink it with sweetener and milk. I use coconut milk not dairy milk and my friends who have tried it this way say it’s nearly as good.
One thing I can say about this tea is if you over steep it, then it can get a bit gross. You want to not really go over 5 minutes TOPS on the steeping time.

I love this darjeeling! I would call it a medium body tea which is delicious hot or iced. (Actually, I only make iced tea with this particular tea)I have sampled many different darjeelings, and while there are some which could be called “better” this particular tea is my “go-to” darjeeling. It’s great in the afternoon, served with fresh fruit or baked goods. I have also had this as an evening tea. The only time I will brew a darjeeling in the morning is if I’ve had coffee, or some other tea which didn’t hit me right, and I need to follow up with a favorite old friend.
Drink this tea black with or without sweetener. Don’t oversteep!

I can not live without this tea! It’s ALWAYS on hand! It’s a lovely Earl Grey, with a nice touch of lavender. Not overpowering on the lavender, just enough to make it slightly different and more exotic than ordinary Earl Grey. If you like Earl Grey and you like Lavender, you MUST try this tea. I know you will fall in love!

I bring my water to a rolling boil and steep a full five minutes. Sometimes I forget and go over five minutes, but as with all Earl Grey teas, it just gets a bit stronger and remains very very nice.

This is another tea sample that comes to me thanks to Alphakitty. I was intrigued by the flavor combination in this one: passion fruit, orange, grapefruit, and grenadine. Sounds pretty interesting!

The steeped tea definitely smells very citrusy, perhaps predominantly grapefruit. It’s actually really weird for me to try a “citrusy” tea without bergamot in it! But anyway, I definitely catch the grenadine in the aroma too, all dark and pomegranatey. And yes, some passion fruit as well. This is suddenly reminding me of a fruity, girly beach drink like a tequila sunrise. The taste is predominantly citrusy, quite grapefruity, with some nice tropical flavors backing it up. As it cools it gets a little astringent, but it almost works because that’s basically what a grapefruit does to your mouth anyway. Overall a pretty tasty tea, though probably not one I would pick up more of.

Wow my husband must have really loved this tea! I like Yunnans. I don’t know if I’ve reviewed this tea, but this was a nice warm and toasty tea. I haven’t had it in a very long time since I’m preggo and am trying to avoid caffeine as much as possible. I was looking fondly through my tea when I noticed this empty tin!

This tea is LOADED with currants! It’s also got a fairly large amount of hibiscus in it, so, if you’re not a hibiscus fan, beware.

I generally am not a fan of hibiscus, but, I’m not minding the hibiscus too much here. The flavor of the currants seems to meld well with the hibiscus. But I wouldn’t recommend oversteeping this – I went with six minutes and that seems just about right. I think that had I gone longer, this would have ended up syrupy or too tart.

As it is though, it’s pleasant enough. Tart, yes, but, not overly so. I like the flavor of the currants, it gives it an almost wine-like taste. Kind of cozy. I think it would be really good if some spices were added, to make it like a mulled wine kind of taste … or maybe if it were combined with warmed apple cider to lighten the flavor a bit and add just a bit of spice to it. As it is, I like it, but I wouldn’t say I love it.

I will include more details later, but I wanted to say that it smells as if it contains alcohol though I am sure it does not. It smells a bit “rummy”. It is good, but not great.