Culinary Teas

Experience buying from Culinary Teas http://steepster.com/places/2981-culinary-teas-online-milford-indiana

I bought a one OZ sample of this in late November, 2011, having brewed it twice.

Appearance and Aroma of dry leaf: about the same as the rest of the flavor-added black teas from Culinary Teas: medium grade leaf, strong aroma (of cinnamon, in this case).

Brewing guidelines: four TSP, four cups H2O; four-cup ceramic teapot, with ceramic basket; stevia added; my standard Chinese red tea steeping times and temperatures; three steepings.

Flavor of tea liquor: good, and very Cinnamon-y, but otherwise nothing noteable about it.

Value: Culinary flavor-added tea’s are generally very reasonably priced; this one is $8.15 / 4 OZ, which puts it at about $2 / OZ (and even less with any discounts and/or if you buy it in larger quantities).

Overall: I bought a bunch of samples of flavor-added black teas at the end of last year for my wife to try. We both agree that, although this is a reasonably good tasting tea, it’s not one we plan to buy.

Tried this after a night of social drinking. Nothing like a “hair of the dog” tea to brighten your day. This stuff – unlike other flavored teas – actually doesn’t dilute very much after the initial dry whiff. The flavoring holds up after a good steep. As an added bonus, some of the natural floral characteristics of the Ceylon base also show through.

Full Review: Pending on www.teaviews.com

This is really very good. Sweet and toasty from the Genmaicha, and just the right amount of spices to create a warm and inviting cup. This is not a spicy chai, and yes, I do love spicy chai, but I like the balance here. The spices are gentle and do not overwhelm the flavors of the genmaicha, but, I can taste each spice. It’s a little peppery, zesty, cinnamon flavors are sweet and a little spicy too, the cardamom and cloves offer a solid background of spice, and I can taste hints of coriander.

I like the overall harmony of this cup. Well balanced and delicious. Very YUM!

Backlog from yesterday afternoon!

This tea was ok.

Smell: Dry, in the bag. Cirtusy, and a bit peachy. An odd mix, really. Couldn’t place everything. Steeping it was about the same.

Taste: Very subtle, though I swear there was something citrusy, so I added a bit of lemon. It was alright, actually. The peach was….there? Maybe? I don’t know. It was kind of bitter, too.

My guess is that I need to try again, maybe add more leaf, and also maybe try it cold. I’ll add more once I do that. Though it might be a little while.

I only have small, single-serving teapots at the moment, which means that the bf and I often end up drinking different teas in the evenings. I suppose this is for the best: while we have similar taste in teas we are often in different “tea moods.” But since I am in charge of actually brewing the tea, I end up having to wrestle out of him what he wants to drink. Sometimes it’s very specific, but some nights (like tonight) he’ll say “some sort of black tea.” I have 36 different blacks in my cupboard, not including samples or blends with green/white teas. So really, not a very helpful suggestion! I decided to go with the Orange Pekoe tonight, which I specifically got for him when I had my big Culinary gift certificate. He used to have a bagged version a lot and liked it, plus I can always go for more afternoon-type blacks.

This is an… unassuming tea. It’s mild, sweet, only a bit brisk and very mellow. Definitely more of an after-dinner drink than a mid-afternoon one, and with milk & sugar it’s definitely more likely to put you to sleep than give you a jolt of caffeine. But I certainly don’t need all my teas to be eye-openingly brisk, and for what it is this is definitely a solid choice.

This is the first in the lovely care package from Azzrian.

This is a very light, flavorful tea. I got more of the caramel and cherry in the aroma than in the flavor. However, the taste is pleasant and lightly sweet.

Decided to brew this as my last cup of tea (tisane) for the evening.

This is really good. Sweet almond flavor that melds deliciously with the rooibos’ natural nutty tones creates a very pleasant depth. The fruit notes of this are sweet and become very clearly apricot by the aftertaste. At first it just starts out with a tasty, sweet fruit flavor, but what type of fruit was not really distinct. But this flavor lingered well into the aftertaste, and at this point it was easy to identify it as apricot. Definite amaretto notes going on here.

Really quite good.

Sipdown! 824.

This one is definitely too perfumey for me. Sure, it tastes kind of grapey, and a bit reminiscent of ice wine, but honestly, Butiki’s Gui Fei Oolong tastes more like the real thing to me, and it’s not even flavoured! Also, there’s a bit of astringency here even with a 2-minute infusion, which I’m not fond of. Ah well! I’m not sure that finding the perfect ice wine tea is a huge priority for me (although I think a well-done one could certainly be interesting).

ETA: The second infusion wasn’t nearly as perfumey. But I hadn’t intended to re-steep this one, so once I realized what it was, it went down the drain. Needed to keep stomach real estate available for other teas.

Decided I’d compare the two ice wine teas I have tonight. Should have thrown 52teas Sweet Merlot in the mix too, but I didn’t think about it and probably have enough teas on the go right now anyhow. This one is courtesy of Azzrian!

Dry, this one smells sweet and a bit tangy. Steeped, it smells sweet and perfumey and OMG I’m such an idiot, I was swirling it around and dumped a bunch on my computer. Ok, all better, luckily I missed the actual keys part of the keyboard, just got some next to the trackpad. Funnily enough this is not even the first time I’ve spilled on my keyboard today… I’m usually better, I swear!

So back to the tea. Definitely surprisingly perfumey given the relative lack of aroma from the dry tea!

First infusion (boiling-ish/4min):
The taste is perfumey. Definitely reminiscent of an ice wine. Rather mild, which is ok. I can’t pick out the black tea base specifically, but can feel that it’s there. There’s also a touch of astringency, but not bad, just a bit mouth-drying.

Second infusion (boiling-ish/5-6min):
Less perfumey in aroma, but almost more perfumey in taste, perhaps because there’s less black tea base there to disguise it? Actually – it’s reminding me an awful lot of some sort of similarly-scented soap. That’s not to say it tastes soapy, but I swear I’ve had a soap in the past that smell/tasted VERY similar. Or bubble bath or something… some bath product. Perhaps even shampoo/conditioner. To my knowledge though, I don’t think I’ve ever had an ice wine or even grape-scented bath product (unless it’s one of those little plasticky bubble bath thingers that I’m thinking of, in which case it could be grape). I didn’t get this association really until the second cup (and even went back and it’s just not quite the same in the first infusion).

Overall, an interesting tea, but I don’t think I’d choose it for myself. I’ll have to see what the next version is like! And perhaps at some point give the Design-a-Tea version a try, since that was Azzrian’s favourite.

After two pretty disappointing tea experiences in one day, it was time to fall back on something I know I love. I have a whole bunch of new teas sitting there waiting to be tried, but oh well! Sometimes you just need a familiar cup.

This is one of the teas I got with my $100 certificate. I bought a lot of teas with it that I wasn’t familiar with or even sure that I’d like, and this was definitely one of them! I’ve never tried anything osmanthus flavored, and descriptions I looked up seemed pretty vague (peachy? floral? vegetal? malty?)—but hey, it’s free tea, I might as well take a chance! Boy, am I happy I did. Osmanthus is a flower, and it’s certainly quite floral, but in a deeper way than some other floral blends (jasmine, rose, etc). It’s a rich, almost juicy taste, and underneath the floral tones is a bright, tasty citrus. I was not expecting that at all, but it’s fabulous! It’s like the love child of jasmine and mandarin orange. The green base is very nice too—not too vegetal, but with some sweet and lingering woodsy flavors.

This has quickly become a staple in my cupboard, and the fact that you can get 4+ good steeps out of it certainly helps. It seems like it would be fantastic iced, but I can never seem to wait long enough to cool it down—I just want to drink it right away whenever I take the leaves out!

I’ve been debating for a while which tea to have for my first tasting note—kind of silly, but it seems important! This one seems the most fitting, as I wouldn’t have it without Steepster. About a month ago there was a post about Culinary Teas having a $100 giveaway, and I entered and promptly forgot about it. Then two days before my birthday I got a surprise email and won! This was the first tea I added to my cart and my favorite of the 12 I got, so I shall christen my Steepster account with it.

I love earl greys, they were one of the first teas I ever had but there are so many varieties that it’s pretty hard to get tired of. It’s my go-to evening tea, but I’ve never tried a white blend and liked it… until now, of course. The cream elements elevate this tea perfectly—it’s light, sweet, creamy, with a mild hint of citrus. This is definitely a subdued and mellow tea, without that in-your-face bergamont a lot of blends have. It’s so comforting, like drinking a shortbread cookie with icing. I always put milk in my earl grey and it adds an almost overly creamy flavor here, so I take it with just sugar. Unless I’m feeling sleepy—while it has caffeine, this tea with milk puts me right to sleep!

No other tea says “spring” to me quite like a cherry flavored Sencha. It always evokes images of cherry blossoms and the beauty and splendor of spring. This is a really delightful cherry Sencha, sweet cherry with a hint of tart, and a slight sharpness from the rose. The Sencha is crisp yet smooth. A lovely cuppa.

I didn’t brew this quite the way the instructions suggested (by dropping a tea bag into a 20oz bottle of water), instead, I put five tea bags into my half gallon pitcher and added filtered water and allowed it to steep overnight.

This produced a strong flavored iced tea, but, I wouldn’t say it’s too strong, and certainly not bitter. Instead, it’s really tasty. I like that while the mango is a dominate flavor here, it does not overpower the flavor of the green tea, and the Matcha really comes through so deliciously. Sweet, slightly vegetative, and very restorative! Yummy!

Backlogging from a week ago

Experience Buying from Culinary Teas http://steepster.com/places/2981-culinary-teas-online-milford-indiana

I bought a one OZ sample of this in late November, 2011, and have brewed it once so far.

Appearance and Aroma of Dry Leaf: In the bag it looked dark brown (like a black tea), but when I took some of it out of the bag and looked at it in the sunlight, I could see that it was very dark green leaves with a few white-ish colored leaves here and there (looks more like a yellow tea, as in H&S Yellow Sprout, but with much smaller ‘pieces’); it does at least smell like a fresh green tea: vegetal, almost spicy (again, like H&S YS).

Brewing Guidelines: Six shallow tsp = six cups water; glass Bodum pot, leaf free to roam; stevia added; my standard Chinese-green tea steeping times and temperatures (although I went a little cooler than planned with the last two steepings); four steepings.

Flavor of Tea Liquor: My wife and I both generally liked it; the front-end was mild, but it had a good ‘finish’ (I think that’s what you call the end of the tasting note) in that it had a flavor similar to a fresh spring green on the first steeping. After second and third steepings: (me): “Decent, passable,” (wife): “And not nasty” (my wife calls the taste of some greens ‘nasty,’ so that’s meant to be somewhat of a compliment for the tea). It still had some mild flavor on the forth.

Color of tea liquor: Somewhat cloudy, yellow-green color.

Appearance of Wet Leaf: There was lots of movement of the leaf while steeping; it was mostly chopped bits of leaves with a number of stems.

Value: Good: $7.25 / 4 OZ. Any green tea under $2/OZ that has at least decent flavor through three steepings is notable in my book.

Overall: Again, I bought this as a possible candidate for an inexpensive green tea. And it turns out this one’s a keeper, as in, worth buying the next time we order from Culinary Teas. My wife and I both thought the flavor of this one was reasonable on all four steepings (I am reasonably impressed when I can still get flavor out of the forth for a tea priced below $2/OZ). If we do order a few flavor-added black teas from them this fall, this green will be a good candidate to add to the order to help get our total over $75 for the free shipping (otherwise the shipping can easily cost $7, or higher, as they price by weight).

Experience buying from Culinary Teas http://steepster.com/places/2981-culinary-teas-online-milford-indiana

UPDATE (6/14/2012): Yesterday I completed a second session of steepings with this tea (a total of three steepings) and got the same results. My wife noted that although it was different than the other greens we normally enjoy it was still drinkable (she’s kind of picky, in my opinion). I upped the rating by two points.

I bought a one OZ sample of this in late November, 2011, and have brewed it once so far.

Appearance and Aroma of dry leaf: It is a medium brown color and looks like large coffee grounds; it has a surprisingly strong aroma (surprising as it doesn’t look like a green tea to me), that smells like just about any other decent green I’ve had.

Brewing guidelines: six very shallow teaspoons (as this stuff is very fine) = six cups water; glass Bodum pot with metal infuser/plunger; stevia added; I basically used my standard green tea steeping times and temperatures; four steepings.

Color and Aroma of tea liquor: Not much aroma; it was an unusual color for a green tea (my wife even noticed this), as it was very yellow-ish; it was clear, though.

Flavor of tea liquor: Not anything that interesting to report here, as, in general, it tasted like many other green teas I have had; it did have decent flavor on the third steeping, and even some on the forth; and there was some astringency when I tasted a bit of water that was hiding in the bottom of my Bodum strainer when I went to do the next steeping (not a big surprise though, especially for a green tea at this price range).

Appearance and Aroma of wet leaf: It basically looked the same as when it was dry, which was VERY surprising; it looked almost like finely ground, and cooked, hamburger (I was expecting to see tiny fragments of opened leaf); it had almost no aroma (at least when I composted it and smelled it then).

Value: This is where this tea has something notable about it; I think it’s Culinary tea’s least expensive green, at $6.10 / 4 OZ, which puts it at about $1.50 / OZ (and even less with any discounts and/or if you buy it in larger quantities).

Overall: I’m trying to go through the samples left over from all of the sales near the end of last year (I still have about eight left). I bought this tea for two reasons: one, it was inexpensive, and I am always on the look-out for a decent tasting, inexpensive green; two, it was from Kenya, and since I have never had a green tea (or any other tea that I am aware of) from Kenya, I wanted to try one. I admit I didn’t put much effort in trying to ferret out all of the different flavors in here (maybe I will when I brew up the next pot of it); so with that in mind, all I have to state is that it’s flavor was a little different than the standard Chinese green tea (I hope to flush this out when I do the next go around with it), and it’s better than some other lower-end teas like a chun mee (which commonly is too smoky, or something, to me). Nothing great about this tea, but nothing off-putting about the flavor, either, which is not uncommon at this price range. Still I’m glad I tried it, and I hope to try other teas from Kenya when the opportunity presents itself.

A little too bergamoty, at least natural bergamoty, but I quite enjoyed the strog black tea base.

I’ve only tried a few chocolate mint teas, and this has been my favorite so far. I’m afraid to go out and try others when I have this security blanket good tea! It smells like a minty snickers bar when dry. I wish the chocolate was a bit stronger than it is, but otherwise, this is a delicious dessert tea.

I made up some for my mom and I. This is one tea that she always likes. I give her plenty of teas to try, but I think most of them she just goes along with because she’s my mom. But this one she really does enjoy. I think I’ll leave the rest at home when I go back to school for her

I drank this yesterday and haven’t had time to log it since school is currently kicking my butt.

I haven’t had any other chocolate mint teas to compare this too, but I think this one is great! Neither of the flavors drowned the other out. The chocolate and the mint blended together very nicely.

New tea of the day…… (AKA SRP #1 in Sample Reduction Plan 2012)

I got this one in my foodzie box from LiberTEAS. I missed out on this when Culinary Teas had it available for a short time in February. I was so glad that Ann was able to include this one in my box.

I get mostly rose tea with a hint of chocolate. It is really very good. I do think I could do with a bit less rose and a bit more chocolate flavor. It is amazing how much this reminds me of Upton’s Rose Congou but with a slightly bigger hint of chocolate. From the description on Steepster, it is a blend of rose tea and chocolate tea. I have Harney’s Valentine blend which is chocolate tea with a hint of rose. Really, I think I would like something in between the two, but I will happily drink this one until it is gone.

Usual teapot method.

The aroma is out of this world! Amazing sweet and juicy strawberry and sugary chocolate! Very nice! The taste is darn good, too! It’s a pretty good balance between strawberry and chocolate and I have already had several cups over the last 2 weeks! Thanks to LiberTEAs, that is!

This is VERY tasty! Just the right amount of rose and chocolate with a perfect black tea base for this flavored tea! The chocolate is more of a darker chocolate! I had this twice last week and twice today so far but it’s the first time I have been able to log…sorry about that!

Special thanks to LiberTEAs for this! It’s FAB!

This is quite yummy! Not the most complex sencha I have ever had but the floral flavor does not kick ya in the face which is good as I am not a huge fan of florals but it is present and very nice to support the yummy cherry flavor that is not cloying at all! Cherry is one of those flavors that is so hit and miss for me! Its pretty right on!
I could see this in my stash again! I used 2 teaspoons as I wanted more flavor and I steeped 2 minutes (recommended 2-3)

Thank you to Emilie for this big sample! This really smells like candy canes and a bit of cherry…like the chocolate gooey cherrys from Christmas that you pop in your mouth as a kid and almost get sick on…yes those ones!
Well, today it LOOKS like rain. We had 81 degrees yesterday and today it might rain for the first time since the end of August!!! Skiers will be glad to get some new powder snow in the higher up’s! Good weather for peppermint tea. I brewed this fragrant pot up and took a big sweet slurp (add sweetening please). Tasted like a paper dry peppermint stick with a cherry finish and was less cherry than expected. Fell kinda flat. This tea needed something more. When a recipe needs tweeking you tweek it right?! I KNOW you guys add stuff to your not-so-great tea. Spy’s are watching! I add things too. The comments about “Oh I wish it had a little more lemon”, or “Why isn’t there some chocolate?”…well, I see you scurring to the cupboard for the chocolate and to the frig for lemon. Can’t fool me! I went to the DARK SIDE! (where else would you expect me to go?) I added a pinch of Lapsang Soochong. I wanted to make the peppermint cherry SMOKIN! It was just small enough an amount to make it interesting and give depth. I liked it. This is something I have done before to play with my tea. Call me crazy. (I know you do!)

Quite good. The strawberry was excellent – not chemical or fake like a lot of strawberry can taste. I agree with the other tasting note that a little more cakey flavor would be nice but once I added some milk and a touch of sugar in the raw it really came out nicely. Very YUM and I was so in the mood for something decadent!