M&K's Tea Company

Having had a several more cups of this, I still say that mint and pine are a great flavor combination, but I’m not quite as pleased by this blend as I was with the first cup. It seems rather inconsistent. Sometimes it will be mostly mint or mostly pine. Sometimes the sourness of the berries will come through more strongly – which I really don’t think adds to the blend – and occasionally it will have an odd waxy mouthfeel and a chemical aftertaste. Sometimes it’s amazing, but sometimes it’s disappointing. It still makes for a nice change of pace, and I’d buy more to see what it tastes like fresh since mine is rather old, but I’m dropping the rating a bit.

This is good. It’s mild, and just a bit drying, but mint and pine work really, really well together. It’s a nicely balanced blend, too. I like how the flavors come together.

This sounded quite nice. The tea had a hint of sweetness from the “honey” in the blend. A few of the ingredients were “honey roasted” and I think that brought it about. I didn’t taste any licorice root (thankfully), but a nice lemon & raspberry warmth. I thought the green tea provided a nice, faintly grassy, backbone. I’d like to pick up another sample of this one, but with M & K’s M.I.A. I don’t know that that would be possible.

Cold Brew Sipdown (139)!

Thank you Liquid Proust for the sample! I was highly intrigued by the ingredients list for this blend. There were a lot of different/unique sounding things, such as the Skull Cap herb. Unfortunately, all I could taste was licorice root and chamomile. So, you know, not the most spectacular flavour. Likely ’cause I dislike chamomile.

God do I hate chamomile…

Sipdown (140)!

Drinking a pot of this right now before bed. The sample comes from Liquid Proust and while I wasn’t so stoked to try it since it’s a Chai blend (something I’m not huge on) I do think it was definitely worth trying, if only to expand the different types of Chai I’ve had. In this case, the rooibos base is kind of what makes this one a little bit different.

The taste of the “Chai ingredients” isn’t so bad, actually. I definitely taste a fair dose of cinnamon and allspice and some cardamom. I don’t particularly get any of the anise or cloves, though and that’s a bit disappointing because I actually greatly like both those flavours. What’s especially weird for me about this blend, though, is that it tastes very bready. And not so much bready in a “baking bread”/positive way? It’s almost more of a sourdough type of flavour note. Unusual, to say the least, and fairly unwanted.

Not a bad tea overall but not something to write home over. And I’m pretty cool with not drinking it again…

Cold Brew Sipdown (138)!

Thank you Liquid Proust for the sample! I don’t know if I’ve had any teas from this company before, but they sound incredibly familiar.

The cold brew was really good; ever since Saturday when we went out and celebrated my birthday I’ve had the nastiest bruises, a sore back and a constant headache and the cool, refreshing mintyness of this tea was a real relief. It just made me feel at ease, and my head feel a lot more clear. Honestly, most of the flavour was strong, sweet spearmint. I know there’s supposed to be other flavours in this blend but I didn’t taste them as much. I’m 90% sure the anise just blended in with the spearmint’s sweetness or perhaps enhanced it. But ginger? Nope, didn’t taste that.

It was good, though! I’d drink it again, though probably not stock it.

Love love love this tea. It was my introduction to genmaicha, and now I’m hooked.

Sadly, I did not care for this guy at all. I was so excited to try it, but it just wasn’t what I was expecting. Instead of any floral notes that I expected, I was met with pure artichoke water. Very similar to chrysanthemum.

YASSSSSS. I freaking loved this tea. It was my first pu-erh, and I was super hesitant. But, I’m so glad I went for the sample. I got lots of raisiny/fruity notes. It was awesome for a few steeps. I can’t wait for M&K to come back from their winter break so that I can purchase more.

This tea is excellent! I plan on getting more ASAP. It tastes just like a snicker doodle. Perfect cinnamon & vanilla fusion. A wonderful delight. I have had other teas that claim to taste like a snicker doodle , but don’t deliver. That is not the case here. Best I’ve had from M & K and could become a personal favorite. So good!

I found this bitter and not very vanilla. Not a fan.

There is literally nothing to add to what Daylon said as his review was exactly what I found. A dry semi roasted broken up white tea.
It sounded awesome which is why I bought it. I may just stick to my furry white teas as they seem to be the only ones I end up enjoying.

Chamomile is strong with this one. I do taste honey but no toffee. I can tell there is tea in this and not just herbals but I would be hard pressed to pick out Assam as one of the teas. Normally licorice root is something I avoid because it makes my lips unpleasantly sweet after drinking. Maybe the roasting changes it somehow. I noticed it in the back of my throat but not as strongly as I would have expected and none on my lips.

It wasn’t horrible but it also wasn’t anything I’d purchase. Glad to have been able to try it! Thanks, LP!

Another from Liquid Proust’s Secret Pumpkin box! This was surprisingly (to me anyway) very good. The leaves unfurled pretty big and the light greens mixed with browns were beautiful to see. I get the floral notes with a little bit of buttery feel but definitely the gunpowder green as well. I like this one. Maybe enough to order some some day…

I get the apple, the cinnamon and the chamomile. It’s sweet but not as in added sweetener. More like a mildly fakey apple but not in a bad way. A lot of the cinnamon for me seems to be in the scent, which is fine. This is a perfectly acceptable chamomile blend. I wouldn’t buy it once the sample is gone but only because I don’t drink herbals often enough to use it. If I were an herbal tea person, or if someday I have to be due to overdose of the real stuff, then this would be on the shopping list. :) Thanks, Liquid Proust!

Oh, and I’ll echo the comments on LP’s note, don’t do this without a DIY tea bag. Luckily, I use them for tea parties so I generally always have them on hand. :)

I hate chamomile… but this came with the Halloween sampler pack from M&Ks Tea and I had to try it.

10:30pm, this was just the right time to try it out. The first thing I noticed was all the little pieces of flowers rather than the large tops. While I like the appearance more this way, they are the HARDEST of all things to clean from a steeping device that I have ever encountered.

To my surprise, a great surprise at that, this tea is great. While sipping this, I’m actually thinking about buying more because this is a great tea to drink before bed. The apple taste is right there mixed in with the stronger notes of chamomile, yet it isn’t as nasty as what I remembered. There is a sweetness to this tea that is rather pleasant as well. Overall, this is an impressive tea that makes me question if other chamomile blends are decent.

A few nights ago I was curious about this tea because I read about black tea and jasmine mixed awhile back. Seeing that this was a mixture of three different black teas and jasmine with extract as well, I was skeptical because I’m not big on Ceylon tea; in fact I dislike it.
Here’s what I found out about this tea though, the jasmine is a feel not a taste. Pretty interesting to be honest. Take two things I don’t generally like, black tea an floral taste, and something wonderful is created… had me all kind of confused.
The jasmine feeling in the mouth was very noticeable while the black tea mixture had a smooth astringency (meaning it didn’t interrupt the flavor).
A purchase made with doubts turned something quite delicious :)

This is my first genmaicha, but the first time I tried it I instantly fell in love. Its good both plain and with sugar. To me the flavor is reminiscent of Golden Crisp cereal, but without the sugary taste. It’s toasty and comforting and just a great anytime tea. Love it and definitely plan on trying more genmaicha in the future.

This to me is a bit of a confused blend, but one I am going to definitely try again. The chamomile is very strong and has a very rich flavor, not leaving much room for the other flavors to pop. I do love chamomile but this blend seemed overly chamomile like. I love M&K’s Pumpkin Patch Spice blend so next time I order more, I’m going to grab another sample of this one. Maybe with a bit of experimenting this tea can really pop.

http://www.cuppageek.com/index.php/2015/10/20/mks-fallhalloween-tea-fun/

It is Saturday night and that means it is time to PARTY! I of course am going to party the best way I know how, getting drunk on tea, playing Terraria, and eating a peanut butter and honey sandwich. Yeah, I know how to live the high life. I have never been much of a party person, so really this is a great evening, I might even work on some painting too. If you can’t tell, I am already a little tea drunk, but that tea’s tale will be told next week!

Today we are looking at M&K’s Tea Company’s Smoked Pine and Sage, an herbal blend of hand roasted and harvested Pine Needles and California White Sage, which honestly sounded so awesome that I had to try it. I love smoky teas and roasted things, and a tea described as tasting like a bonfire sounded awesome. The aroma of the needles, sticks, and leaves is very smoky and burnt, it has a resinous tone and a sage-rub note. It reminds me of sage smudges I would do before I decided burning things with asthma was a bad idea, the smell is very nostalgic and pleasant, and mixed with the resinous burnt pine aroma, it certainly smells like a bonfire…specifically one at a New Age meeting. Ah, nostalgia.

Into my steeping vessel the herbs went, and the aroma totally fills my tea corner, it is like an autumn bonfire with a mystical edge to it. So the wet leaves smell like a bonfire, a very heavy sage filled bonfire, resinous and a bit meaty…it really does remind me of a meat rub. The liquid has a savory edge, not quite meaty, but savory, with resinous pine notes and smoke.

Tasting time! The amber-gold liquid is like fire in its aroma, and the tasty is certainly a campfire as well! It is warm and gently sweet, while also being savory and slightly meaty with notes of strong sage and resinous pine. I am not sure how I feel about it, I don’t dislike it, but I certainly did not like it as much as I was expecting I would, what with my love of smoky teas. I sat a while with this tea trying to figure out what was not working for me, and I think it is that slightly meaty note, it reminds me too much of a meat roast rather than a tea. Conveniently I have a mom who also loves smoky things, so she got sent the rest of my pouch, I anxiously await her opinion on it!

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/08/m-tea-company-smoked-pine-sage-tea.html

If I were a responsible adult, I would put on pants (well, pants with pockets, more leggings need pockets, but then they would just be pants and not leggings?) and walk to Aldi’s for some groceries. Turns out I am not responsible, or at the very least, I do not feel well enough to go for a walk, in the ebb and flow of my allergies, today is definitely a tidal bore, and it is a little frustrating. At least I got the new teapot all cleaned up (operation teapot rescue was a success) and managed to get in some good gaming, Terraria summoner playthrough is hard work!

Today’s tea is an herbal one from M&K’s Tea Company, their Honey-Roasted Licorice Root, it is exactly what it says on the tin, licorice root roasted in honey. Ok look, usually I am not one to talk about the medicinal quality of plants, too many nit-wits out their take random bloggers at face value and do not do research on their own and get sick. I take teaching herbalism the same way I take teaching edible mushrooms while on a naturalist hike, no just no. But licorice root is awesome, at least it has been for me, taking Deglycyrrhizinated Licorice did more for my stomach ulcer than the crazy medicine I was taking at the time did, and drinking licorice tea is one of the few things that actually soothes my sore throat. It is an exceptionally useful root that conveniently is quite tasty (though oh man it can ruin some blends when used wrong) so I actually enjoy consuming it. Back in January when Ben had a nasty cold, I gave him some of the Honey-Roasted Licorice tea and was told it was quite helpful, but he drank the last of mine and I plum forgot to get more…until I saw they were having a sale and I was having chronic sore throat…and well, my package arrived today so why not talk about this tea? Anyway, smell! It smells really good! Very rich sweet honey and an earthy-rooty-woody blend that is licorice, and a delicate roasted spice finish. If you hate licorice then you will probably be able to tolerate this tea, it smells more like burdock root than licorice, but there is that distinct licorice aroma, just faint.

However, when you steep it, the licorice really comes out, sweet honey roasted licorice, it smells exactly like that. Roasted licorice root and sweet honey dance out of the wet root bits, with a touch of earthiness as well. The liquid is surprisingly complex, notes of creaminess, honey, gentle toasted notes, roots, and a touch of spice drift out of my cup, it is very sweet, though also very mellow. It is an intriguing thing.

The taste starts out subtly sweet at the front, gentle honey and caramelized sugar, and then boom! Licorice slams into the midtaste and coats the throat with its intense sweetness and rooty goodness. It is not the usual licorice though, the honey roasting, for lack of a better way of putting it, reigns it in, it gives it a more subtle nuance, I can taste the earthy root elements, the woody notes, the resinous sweet sap notes…it is not just the super sweet intense licorice you usually get in a licorice tea. The mouthfeel is honey thick and slippery, and the sweet aftertaste lingers for quite a while. And for the first time in almost a month, I don’t have a sore throat! Also, as a side note, I find chewing on the spent roots to be very enjoyable, and unlike most herbal brews I got a couple steeps from the roots.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/08/m-tea-company-honey-roasted-licorice.html

Tea 11/11 of the tea I got from M&K’s etsy shop. I got a green tea sampler pack (10 teas) + they threw in one sample which was also a green tea :). Each of the samples I got were enough for 2-3 “servings” of tea.

I steeped a little under half of the sample for 2.5 min in 12 oz of 175 degree F water. The taste of the tea is mostly mint with a hint of citrus. Very nice and relaxing yet a pick-me-up. I’m not getting any green tea taste but that’s ok. This is a nice drink to have after drinking a bunch of wine the night before ;).

Overall I really do like this tea, but I dunno if I would repurchase simply because I don’t drink mint-green teas that often and when I do I can always mix a cheaper green with some mint tea I always have to make a similar tea. Sorry, Moroccan Mint- you are good though!

Tea 10/11 of the tea I got from M&K’s etsy shop. I got a green tea sampler pack (10 teas) + they threw in one sample which was also a green tea :). Each of the samples I got were enough for 2-3 “servings” of tea.

First off, a comment on the steeping instructions- on the back of this sample it recommended 205 degrees F for this tea. What in the world were they thinking? This isn’t a roasted green tea so it can’t stand those temperatures. For my first cup I used half of the sample steeped for 3 min in 10 oz of 185 degree F water and the taste was so bitter I dumped it out along with the leaves since I knew they were burnt- what a shame. So I used the rest of the sample in a second cup of tea at 175 degree F for 2min. Still somewhat astringent, but much better. Second steeping of the leaves, 160 degree F water for 2 min and the tea is still bitter?? Maybe I overleafed this tea, but I’ve used the same amount of other teas with this amount of water and temperature and they’ve been fine (but of course, not all teas are made equal…)

Overall the best steeping was the 2nd one, and so my final verdict based on that steeping is that this is an okay tea, but obviously it has a tendency to get bitter very easily. Therefore this is not a tea I would repurchase.