Culinary Teas

I will be reviewing this tea in depth on Tea Examiner, probably this weekend. The spices are very tasty, but the tea flavor was a bit weak for my personal taste. I felt myself wishing there had been a bit more tea in proportion to the flavorings.
Another thing that crosses my mind is that I have yet to taste a pumpkin spice tea that really tastes like the spices most commonly in pumpkin pie, which seems to be what the tea companies are trying to do. The primary spice in pumpkin pie is ginger, followed by cinnamon, clove then nutmeg. Pumpkin spice teas always seem heavily spiced with cinnamon with the other flavors lagging sadly behind or completely absent.
Despite this fact, however, Culinary Teas’ Pumpkin is a delicious and very drinkable tea.

Another tea from the box!
It certainly does taste like pumpkin. Unfortunately, like most pumpkin teas it’s kinda like the uncooked version. Tried with and without a splash of lait, and they were both nice.
Overall, I like it, but I don’t love it.
Rating: 78

Thanks Liberteas
I know she’s reviewed this over at http://sororiteasisters.com a while back but I was UNable to locate this in the steepster database so I am adding it now!

This reminds me of McNulty’s China White which I remember enjoying as a straight-up white tea that happens to be sun-dried. All-Natural…no flavoring…just plain GOOD.

This is just that and I am enjoying it very much!

Thanks Liberteas!

This is really good! It looks like your stereotypical Genmaicha but the aroma reveals it’s Chai side! What a rebel! :)

This IS exactly what I was hoping for with this one! Popped Rice, a great green tea base, matcha-hints, roasty and toasty, and SPICE! Everything is present here and everything is well REPresented! Very nice!

This came in the traveling tea box Group B – I think this is quite nice actually. It could be more “creamy” or some sweetness to it but I actually like adding my own german rock sugar over having stevia already in a tea so I respect it not being sweetened. I added sugar and the flavors really popped.
A good one.

Thanks to darby for sharing this tea! It smells like fall – pumpkin, spice, warm blankets, fuzzy boots, and hay rides. Sadly this tea doesn’t taste much like it smells. I’m not getting pumpkin much at all. It tastes like black tea with a little spice at the very end of the sip. Not nearly as much flavor as I was hoping for. The cream however is a very nice touch here.

A little sugar doesn’t really help bring out the flavors either. This isn’t bad really, I’m just one of those people that really likes an in-your-face pumpkin spice flavor.

Prepared this by steeping for 2 minutes with 180°F water, then putting in the refrigerator overnight. I also had a small cup hot before chilling.

This is very flavorful and aromatic. It’s delicious. I’m not sure I would think pear if I didn’t know that’s what was intended, but I am getting a sort of dried pear flavor when I think about it. It’s very good, fruity, sweet, and has a nice clean aftertaste. No bitterness or astringency. The green tea base is really good too, which really makes the aftertaste pleasant.

Sip down #4

The dry notes smell mostly of cream with a hint of candied pumpkin. Once steeped it smells very creamy.
It’s a little spiced like pumpkin pie and mainly creamy. There is however some astringency.
I’ve been having issues with my black teas lately. I must be steeping too long. So I’m going to add a bit of milk to this and see how that goes. It definitely helped to get rid of Tue astringency and it still tastes mostly like cream with that hint of pumpkin pie.

Although not my fav tea, it will stay in my cupboard.

This is a very pleasant morning tea – a nice, mild black tea. It’s not an overly strong breakfast tea, rather average, and the flavour is pleasing. Like most of its type, it’s lovely with milk, and the bare hint of Earl Grey gives it an agreeable character. Tends to be an easy tea to get multiple people in agreement on.

Sad to see this one go. I stretched this little last bit as much as I could. Delicious! I had this for my morning ride to work. Didn’t need any sugar or milk. One of my favorite fruit flavored black teas.

Backlog. I drank this yesterday. It was very exciting to open this tin of delicious smelling lichee black tea! I absolutely LOVE lichee and the scent. I only have one more helping left! Ahh! I don’t want to run out of this one.

I love this tea! I am trying to reduce my caffeine intake to one cup of tea per day. It is hard, but I need to do it for the time being. This was a good choice. :) I’m glad I am still able to have most of my tisanes.

I was going through my untried, unopened teas and saw this. Now, I absolutely love lychee/lichee. It is one of my favorite fruits! I am so thankful that they sell it at the farmer’s market store by the H-mart. Anyhow, I ripped the package open and placed it in a clean tin. The scent was intoxicating. The scent is so strong and sweet smelling almost to the point where I was thinking, “is this real?” The black tea leaves were small, thin, and wiry.

This tea brewed up a nice, dark brown color. The scent is still strong, but a little more subdued compared to the dry leaf. The taste is amazingly delicious. It is not bitter at all, so I decided not to add anything to this tea. It is best left untouched. The lichee taste is there and isn’t overpowering as the black tea base was perfect. The black tea and lichee scent was well balanced. There was a hint of nuts or toast in the back. The slight sweetness lingers behind. What a juicy tea! I am glad that this tea isn’t the usual “fruity, tart” tea in the ways of fruit teas. There is no astringency at all. It was so smooth going down my throat. I love when black teas are this way.

WOW! I am awake now! This has a nice amount of caffeine in it.

Loose tea smells of sweet cordial cherries – the chocolate, cherry liqeur, and maraschino are all present. Same goes for the tea – dark chocolate, liquid cherry filling, and maraschino. The cherry flavor is artificial tasting, as any maraschino is. The black tea base is assertive in this one, bitter and strong, but it actually tastes good with the sweet candy flavor. A keeper!

The Tea Nation has this orange spice black tea and it is superb. I only wish I could buy it easier. The only place I know that sells it is Ollies and they run out regularly. (:

Thank you LiberTEAS for this sample. I’m gonna jump right in and say that this is a bold cuppa. My palate was a little sleepy from the half hour I laid down- that was supposed to be sleep (4th week on third shift that this has happened) so the first sip GRABBED me. I was about to write something to the effect of ‘if this is Canadian breakfast I’m starting to think that they’re all lumberjacks and steelworkers-including the women’, but within a few sips I got used to and started to really appreciate the boldness it has (and yes I realize that women can equally fill the roles of lumberjack and steelworker. My wife and I are both commercial/industrial painters who may be climbing steel,hanging off the side of a building,or just painting the walls of a brand new hospital on any given day,so no offense intended).

Soon after I got used to the initial boldness I started really seeking out the malt aspect. I must agree with the makers description that there is an oak characteristic, though I’m not too sure how flowery it is. For me the touch of sweet I find is subdued by an equal touch of smoke…almost a mesquite, but ever so slight. I- ‘THE ASTRINGENCY WEENIE’ am shocked to find that the astringency most other taste notes spoke of was hardly present…at first. This may be because, out of fear, I elected to steep this for two and a half of the three to five minutes suggested. At first, I only found slight dryness on the roof of my mouth with very little on my tongue not sure if that’s normal or not.
As the cup cooled, as cups always do, the astringency rose a bit as well as the malty notes. Now my tongue was getting that dry, almost chalky, feeling.

Second steep was three minutes with a little less water. As before the cup started out smoother before cooling. Out of curiousity I checked it when pouring my cup-one hundred ninety degrees farenheit. It’s not as complex either. Maybe a little less water still would be in order. Mostly what’s left is a semi-sweet malt flavor that gains astingency when it cools. That’s all I got, a pretty good cuppa especially to start the day with.

tunes-Benny Goodman=Mambo Swing,Louis Prima=St.Louis Blues/Just A Gigolo(David Lee Roth didn’t write this song),Charlie Byrd=So Danco Sambo/A Carol For All Seasons

My first Steepster swap! Thanks to Will Work for Tea for this lovely surprise! I love Pumpkin, I have been patiently awaiting the comeback of Pumpkin Chai from DT and felt this could hold me over until TOMORROW when it’s re-released. So, I busted out my pot to brew up my CaveMama tea and then I dropped my digital thermometre in the water :(. So I just went with boiling water. After I prepared it, but before I tasted it BoxerPapa showed up and tasted it. His response “Can you make me some of that, but stronger?”
It’s good thing I only need it until tomorrow…
I had read the reviews that this was a weaker tea so I tried to compensate by using 1.5 tsp in 6oz water. I steeped 4 minutes on mine. BoxerPapa got 5 min and a rounded 1.5 tsp. . . He didn’t complain so I assume it was satisfactory.
The taste to this tea is quite light, but good. The cream (I would guess vanilla?) is a bit more potent than the pumpkin and you can’t really taste the tea nor does it give you much of a jump start. But, this would be a good after dinner tea!

Love this tea iced… just sweet enough, but not overpowering, and the black tea base doesn’t overpower the flavors! This is also one of the best smelling loose teas I’ve ever had… The vanilla smells artificial, but the berry is one of the least artificial-smelling artificial blueberries I’ve ever smelled. Love this one.