Handmade Tea

Brewed properly (ie. not in a contaminated strainer), I really love this tea. Solid black base with a little astringency and bright leathery notes, which are nicely matched to the sweet kiwi and creamy coconut. So far all the Handmade teas have been well-balanced to my palate—not too much of anything, usually exactly enough.

So far I’ve only had this plain & hot, but I think it would be great iced or dessert-style with loads of sugar and cream.

Wow, it’s been a long time since I posted! (Not that I haven’t been drinking tea, mind, I’m just spending very little time at the computer.) LET’S DO THIS.

1. Opening the canister is a treat. Creamy coconut, the bright sweetness of kiwi, and… well, let’s not pretend. Coconut is Queen of this blend, at least in dry form.

2. Oh CRAP, this infuser smells like orange peel

3. OH CRAP, MY TEA IS RUINED FOREVER

4. At least orange is remotely harmonious with the other ingredients? But still. I can’t rate this one yet.

NO MORAL

I’m not big into “flowery” sorts of tea, but this makes for a very nice post-yoga-workout brew. The lemon balm gives it a sort of cleansing feeling and overall is very relaxing. The flowery-ness is apparent, but not in an overwhelming way, just enough to be soothing and fragrant.

I received this in my super amazing sampler box from LiberTEAS!

I think I must have made this wrong… I just got a grassy bland flavor from this that I am sad to say that I ended up pouring out. The description sounds lovely and the tea looks delicious too. Bah.

Made this one iced today. Used 3 tsp in 20 oz boiling water. Steeped 4 minutes then chilled. This one is delicious iced. The black base is light, with a taste of lemon. The mint is much stronger when it is iced vs. hot. It is a very refreshing drink, and although I didn’t do it this time, I may add some rum next time to make a kind of mojito type drink. I added 2 tsp sugar to sweeten it up a bit, but that was a bit too much. Without sugar it tastes good, but the sugar makes the mint “pop” a whole lot more.

This is May’s tea of the month. I am quite excited for this one. I am trying this one first hot, but I am excited to try as an iced tea.

The dry tea is a mix of black tea, pieces of lemon peel, and varying sized pieces of chopped mint. It smells delicious and super refreshing. Like iced tea lemonade with mint.

The tea tastes like a moderately bold black tea, accented with sweet lemon and mint. The mint is not overpowering, which is nice. I find sometimes mint teas can taste like toothpaste or mouthwash, but this one does not. There is a boldness to the tea with the slightest hint of astringency, but it is quite refreshing.

Anticipating a great iced tea!

Initially I did not like green tea as iced or cold brewed at all. But the more I try it, the more I start to like it. The key is doing it right (well that is the key to everything, I guess). I find you still have to watch how long you brew it for, because if it is too long, it starts to get bitter.

I cold brewed this one 1.5 tsp in 10 oz for about 13 hours.

This one is heavy, thick, and creamy. I am getting apricot and peach flavours. The hops add a subtle beer type flavour. It is like a light, blonde beer without the bitterness, carbonation, or foam. I never thought I would like beer like that, but I guess I do.

The green tea flavour is light and lingering in the background. It add a slight sweet vegetal flavour.

I think I will finish off the rest of this tea as a cold brew.

I had a few problems getting this April tea, so Caleb from Handmade tea sent it to me again with May’s tea. It was well worth the wait!

The dry tea is a mix of green tea leaves, large pieces of hops and small chopped up dried apricot. The smell is divine. It smells like sweet, fruity, buttery, green tea with malty hops. The tea tastes like smooth, buttery, green tea, there is a very gentle sweetness from the apricots. It is perfectly proportioned so that the sweetness doesn’t overpower the subtleties of the green tea, but it is also not fake tasting. The hops taste medium strong underneath the buttery green tea. The tea is thick but not strong. There is a very slight bitter aftertaste, that I find to be similar when drinking hop-py beer.

This tea blend is excellent.

I love hops!

Thanks to Azzrian for sending me this one. :)

First off, this is my inaugural Handmade Tea blend and now I’m hooked. :)

This is BEYOND happiness! This tastes like spring in a cuppa, or at least like the sweetest and juiciest apricot juice. It reminds me of California, and my childhood, so I’m instantly flooded with memories of my home state, and all the happiness of growing up in San Diego. (And then I think again, “I must move back!”)

There are candied (?) or at least dried apricots in the blend – I am munching on one, whoops – which I think contribute to the juicy flavor. I can smell a peppery spice, “punch to the palate” indeed.

Just lovely!

Made this one again this morning as my first cup of the day. The packaging recommends 4 minute brew which I did the first time. It turned out good. But for a black tea I usually do a 2 minute steep. So I tried 2 minutes this morning. The spice of the tea is a bit more predominate with less orange flavour on the 2 minute steep. It tastes more creamy on the shorter steep. I think I like this one with a longer steep just because there is more orange flavour. Also with the 4 minute steep, I did not find the black tea base to get too overpowering (which is why I normally stick with a shorter steep for black teas).

So super excited. Came home from a week long vacation, to this tea waiting for me. I had an awesome vacation but I was trying to play “tourist” and some family members that were with us thought everything was too expensive. Sigh. Its been a long week.

This is actually March’s handmade tea, but the shipping took a bit longer to get to me. So far I am super impressed. It came well packaged, a tin with a unique label. And there was also small tins of each individual ingredient so you can smell and taste each ingredient individual and together. And the best part, there was a card, and the envelope had a wax seal on it. Yup! Awesome.

So the tea. It smells like a basic breakdast tea with very faint sweet citrus smell. I would say there is a “kick to it”, which would be the peppercorns.

The tea is a strong breakfast with mild citrus flavour, there is definitely a spice/peppery-ness to it. But it is not a strong spice. It is also slightly sweet.

As it cools, it tastes creamy.

I am not normally a breakfast tea drinker, what I mean by that is, I don’t usually drink breakfast blends, I drink Earl Grey in the morning.

Looking forward to many more months of handmade tea.

Full review tomorrow March 28th 2013 on http://sororiteasisters.com/but here are snippits:

Orange Peppercorn Breakfast from Handmade Tea has everything I love in a breakfast blend! Its deep and robust, perfectly sweetened naturally and lightly by the citrus, with a wake me up spark from the peppercorns. It tastes a little like a mimosa with a kick and trust me I need a kick in the morning!

I love Caleb’s Handmade Tea! I have only received two months thus far but both have been beyond expectation and somehow I feel as though he has been stalking my tasting notes to figure out exactly what I want in a tea! I realize that is not possible as he has so many people who subscribe to his membership plan, there is no way he could stalk us and appease us all, but I tell you what, somehow he has managed to please my taste buds perfectly!

I am going to let this sit a bit longer to meld but so far I enjoyed two steeps of this tea.
It has a nice flavor of marshmallow and in the second steep I got a nice spiciness but I do feel it has room to develop yet.
I am not sure how far in advance Caleb blends his teas before they are shipped but I have a feeling this has yet to come to its full potential.
I will say this however. It is one of the best Sweet Potato Pie blends I have had to date.
TONS of marshmallows, TONS of sweet potato bits, and a good oolong base.
I am so happy I signed up for this subscription!
The only down side which is really not a downside is that the tin is SO air tight I could barely get the lid off. :)

Tea of the morning. Yum. I feel like I am a broken record with this one! It is so good!

After I realized how much I loved this tea yesterday I had to have it again this morning. OH, YUM. This time I got more of a light cinnamon note along with the winter flavors…

WHY OH WHY did I wait so long to try this tea? OHMYGOSH it is so wonderful. THis makes me sad that I am no longer a Handmade Tea subscriber. I had so much tea coming out my ears that it did not make sense for me to keep subscribing. BUT this blend! IT Epitomizes winter! I can almost taste the pine trees.

Caleb hit it out of the park again. This tea is a true delight.

Now I am having a second steep with demerara sugar. Usually I skip the sugar entirely, but this is really good. A little cream would probably rocket this to the moon (all I have is mom’s fat-free half-and-half, which I don’t really consider to be a food product).