Steep City Teas

Sexy sexy chai! The combination of the romantic, soothing floral and spice in this is totally fab!

What impressed me the most in this blend was the lavender. Steep City just added enough to give you a nice smooth talking calming effect without making the blend tasting like soap (or lotion, whatever one would associate lavender with).

Full review on my blog, the Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/sexy-chai-from-steep-city-teas-tea-review/

I enjoyed this blend, although it wasn’t at all what I was expecting. I thought I’d get mostly orange and oolong flavors, but in reality the dominant notes were definitely ginger followed by hibiscus, with citrus as a fairly distant third. The oolong base hardly came through – but it’s quite possible I underleafed my cup, and that could have a lot to do with it. I didn’t notice any berry flavors, but then those are often overwhelmed by hibiscus. This tasted more like a tisane than a tea, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Ginger + hibiscus isn’t a combination I’ve tasted before, but I thought it worked quite nicely. Thanks to Steep City Teas for the sample!

Additional notes: Sipdown… the last of my Steep City teas and my favorite. I’m somehow the only Steepsterer who ever wrote a note for this one. I wish I knew what happened to Steep City. I liked their teas! By the time I wanted to order, they were done.

Additional notes: I noted two years ago that mine was the only tasting note for this tea and yet I’m STILL the only person to write a note for this tea? Such a shame as it’s a good one! It might be a little more aged than I remember (does anyone know if golden yunnans age worse than other teas? Maybe they are similar to white teas?) or maybe my tastebuds have changed… this one does seem a little more like tomato soup now. Otherwise it’s a little honey and a little peppery and a little malty. No real chocolate notes. I’d compare it more to Verdant’s Golden Fleece though the leaves look completely different. It seems to have a darker colored cup than I would think with mostly gold leaves. Not as much flavor as the glorious Yunnan Sourcing Imperial Mojiang but that one set a very high bar. But this delicious Yunnan should be getting more love. I’d planning on a Steep City order eventually but I’d love to try more samples.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 tsps. // 10 min after boiling // 2 min steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 min

Additional notes: Sad sample sipdown! I loved this one. I tried my sample again to see if I good justify an order from Steep City but I’m not sure I can right now! I have so much tea. But this is certainly a favorite. What if I justify it by saying I’ll put some of the Steep City order in the tea boxes? hmmm…

Oh, this is exactly the tea I was hoping this was! This blend features a delicious buttery sencha with the perfect apple… and some cinnamon! The apple pieces floated in my basket infuser and took up the entire top of the basket, so I’d say there are a ton of apples here! Apple blends are usually wrong for me, but this one is just authentic, genuine apples. No weird flavor added. I absolutely love the idea of the buttery sencha with the apples because it tastes like an apple dumpling or apple pastry. It’s just perfect. But the only thing I might change is add a dab more of sweet cinnamon. Probably the best apple tea I’ve tried and one of the best green tea blends I’ve tried. This is going on the MUST BUY list when my tea stash is reduced. These samples were a great idea from Steep City because they are all delicious blends. I wouldn’t even need samples before buying full ounces of their other blends.. I trust how tasty they are now!

thank you Steep City for the samples! I love the logo and the packaging for the 2-3 teaspoon samples. Also… the teas are really good. This sounded like a lovely spring/summer blend. After a three minute steep, there is equal parts lavender and lemon. It’s seems to me like lemon verbena but I didn’t see the verbena actually in the list of ingredients. I didn’t see much lavender in the blend, but it’s a nice balance of flavor. The tea I had the other day only had a few pieces of lavender floating the infuser, but the flavor was amazing! Hibiscus is listed, but it isn’t a problem. I don’t taste any! The oolong is kind of hidden in the flavors until the second steep, but the flavor is nice. Lemony lavender! This blend is very bright and refreshing. It really IS lavish. It was a nice sunny day for a cup or two of this one.

This tea was okay, but it didn’t really grab me. Overall, I found it a little bland. Not enough mango flavour or aroma. To me, mangoes sometimes have a kind of punky taste/smell that doesn’t appeal to me — and the mango that I could detect in this tea had that.

I’m enjoying this tea. The coconut flavor is quite strong and surprisingly authentic, and the mouthfeel is rich and creamy. I almost feel like I’m drinking coconut milk – or light coconut milk, at least. I can’t really taste the tea base, and I’m not getting any pineapple notes – I didn’t notice any chunks of fruit in my sample either. Thanks to Steep City Teas for this sample!

I had high hopes for this one, but the flavoring is too sweet and artificial for me. The aroma and flavor are both heavy on the strawberry candy notes. I’m not noticing any papaya, but then I often find papaya too heavy on sweetness and too light on any other flavor. This tea is very sweet, so it could well be that the papaya’s contributing to that. The green base doesn’t really come through.

This is my least favorite of the Steep City samples I’ve tried so far. I tend to prefer my fruity teas lighter/less sweet/more natural, and this blend’s just not to my taste.

Sipdown! Thanks to Sil for this one.

I’m pretty ambivalent about this tea. A 2.5 minute infusion was great for the base, which I’m quite enjoying, but there’s not enough mango flavour for me. On the other hand, what mango I am tasting is much more along the lines of how I’d like it to taste, as opposed to the floral messes some blenders seem to make mango into (there is a difference between yucky floral and fruity floral!! I know mangos are quite sweetly aromatic, but that does not mean that they are flowery!)

Anyhow, with more mango flavour, I think this one could be great. Might be one to try another sample of while visiting Sil for a tea date :D (Unless she sips down that one before I make it there! So much sipping down!)

Full review on http://sororiteasisters.com/ on the 11th of April but here are the snippets:

Vanilla Sky from Steep City Teas is their version of what many of you may know as Monk’s Blend.

There is a trick to this tea however, and it fairs far better when iced. I do not find this to be as true with Monk’s blend from a couple other companies I have tried, but with Steep City’s Vanilla Sky it is so much better when you let it cool to a room temp or even slightly cool. The vanilla flavor comes out so much stronger, and the grenadine is more present as well.

This is not a tea for everyone, I have seen many reviews for other companies Monk’s Blend get varied reviews – more of a love it or hate it, to middle of the road, meh type of tea. What I have found however may change some people’s opinions of this blend. Also I have seen that many people just don’t care for grenadine. Regardless if you have this tea, from Steep City or another vendor in your stash, give it a try cooled, or even iced or cold brewed in your fridge.

I will say, this is by far, not my favorite tea from Steep City Teas, they have some blends that are out of this world, but I can see why they would want this in their offerings, because it is a rather well known blend.

backlog

OMG exploding! SOOO MUCH FOOD for Canadian Thanksgiving extravaganza. I’m so happy my friends put so much effort (and food) to celebrate it here in the US. Feels like better timing for me than American Thanksgiving.

The food: 26lb smoked turkey, muffings (stuffing made in muffin tins, roasted potatoes, gravy, pomegranate jelly, creamed spinach, amazing asparagus big coucous salad, a whole roasted pork loin, macaroni and cheese made with an entire giant brick of cheese, blue cheese stuff bacon wrapped dates, homemade bread, pumpkin pie spiced fudge and nanaimo bars. So much food for 9 people, though a couple of my husband’s friends ate like 2 full plates of food.

After eating all that, then cleaning up, I curled up with a big tumbler of Blushing Geisha iced and Pokemon X. It was really refreshing and a nice tea to end the day with.
See previous notes or my Oolong Owl post http://oolongowl.com/blushing-geisha-from-steep-city-teas/ for review of this tea.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! /spiraling out of control

SIP DOWN! Love this tea – the floral and fruity is super yummy, with a cute orange red appearance too! Best iced tea! I’m getting a little cherry like flavor with the tea leave dredges.

Crap crap, that means I should do another SteepCity order, and it will not be a small order too. I have so much tea that I haven’t even tried yet, kind of scary. I remember the old days of “yay new tea, try it right now!” to now “not enough time to try all these teas. You Mr. Oolong I will try next Tuesday and Pu’er 2012 on Monday” Yeahhhh.

(come on guys, I’m the only one with tasting notes for this tea, give em some love!)

Droool, Blushing Geisha always makes a solid iced tea – fruity, sweet and floral! YUM! Sad thing is I can see the bottom of the bag now, I might need to order more when I get around to another Steep City order. I’m fearing that order – it will be huge.

Today is my husband and I’s first wedding anniversary! We had our civil ceremony a year ago, though our family wedding event was 6 months ago. (I had a fiance visa, so we had to get married in 90 days, so we couldn’t plan the wedding that quick).

So, of what teas I have time to drink today, I will drink my favorites! This one! So I tried it at 175f instead of 212f – i can taste the green tea more, the tart is less, and less fruityness. The colour of the cup is an orange. Overall, a lighter flavor.

Hmmm, it’s a toss up, but I think I like 212F more. Maybe I’ll try a temp in the middle!

Off to.. I dunno what we are doing yet. The weather is pretty grey looking so picnics and garden tours might be out.

First to tea log Blushing Geisha?

I thought this tea would be really tart. Green tea, jasmine flowers, marigold petals, safflowers, hibiscus, and natural flavors? Hmmm.

Anyways, Blushing Geisha is really easy to steep! 212F for 2 to 3 minutes and it comes out a delicious, not too tart, lightly floral & sweet and very hibiscus fruity tea! The green tea is light here, as the mystery flower fruityness took over. With sugar or made as an iced tea – watch out! Very good and exotic!

Only thing that didn’t come out was the resteep and cold steep. Resteep was too light and the cold steep was too tart and not all the flavors came out.

Full blog review at Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/blushing-geisha-from-steep-city-teas/

My husband, the tea hater, needs to try this one as he might like it. He was at work when I was drinking this – I’ll report back if I can get him to try this tea!

I had this one again and i just can’t seem to figure the chamomille out. It doesn’t add much, and just gets into my brew basket. Ah well, happy to have tried another steep city tea!

Thank you for this sample Starfevre!

I’m still pretty undecided about this tea. I think part of it, is that in the case where chamomile is concerned, the frustration from having it in any of my baskets makes me more inclined to be critical of the tea. if that makes sense. Overall this is a pretty good mint chocolate tea. I’m just not sure how i feel yet about the addition of the chamomille. I think it’s proabably better than the current rating i’m giving it, but that’s a tentative rating until i can try it a couple more times.

This wasn’t all that memorable. Fruity, sure… a little tart… and I’m positive that there was a nice mango tone in there, I just didn’t find it to be a juicy mango.
Also, I was doubly positive there was some hibiscus in my infuser, and I could certainly taste something sour… but I don’t see it in the ingredients. I’m not impressed. On the other hand, I didn’t hate it so that’s a plus!

Thanks AlphaKitty for a sample of this! Definitely nutty sweet and pretty tasty. However, I am reminded of why, for a long time, I thought I did not like black teas. Love the flavor. Not sure I like the combo of black tea with this flavor. Not sure I’d like the black tea base at all unflavored. I guess I’m more sensitive to black tea quality? In any case, love the caramel flavor and hint of rose. Nicely done.

thanks so much Steep City, for sending me some delicious samples! I especially wanted to try this one. I love nutty teas. This is deep dark black tea leaves mixed with some walnuts, almonds and rose petals. After a four minute steep, the flavors here blend so well together! The black tea is syrupy, malty, molasses-like. I kind of wish the base wasn’t as good so I could detect more of the nutty flavor… as I wouldn’t mind a ton of that. I’m always on the look out for more walnut or almond teas. The pretty rose petals add a nice hint of flavor, also. The syrupy flavor might be coming from the apple. It’s really a unique blend that works excellently. The second cup is more of the nice black tea, but I just wish more of the elements of the blend would shine. How did I not know of Steep City before? Unless they are a new company? I can’t wait to try their other blends.

Interesting. But not quite what I was after.
I’ve been on the hunt for a delicious fruity green tea lately and haven’t had much luck. I want something with a berry tone, and I’d rather it not be sencha. Sadly, most fruity blends are sencha, because it pairs best with fruit tones! Maybe I’ll settle for a fruity tky, if I can find one?
Anyhow, this one is ok but a bit artificial tasting. There is definitely strawberry, and creaminess. Not to mention tons of sugary goodness.
I can definitely taste yogurt, which brings out a campino candy note that would settle any cravings if I had them :p
Overall… I wouldn’t mind having it around, but certainly not over another green blend so would have to drink down my entire stash and try most other versions first haha(nothing specific mind you).
Thanks to Sil for sharing her stash!