TeaFrog

Noticed that I’d been having a LOT of blacks. This is because due to jetlag and the need to drive around trying to find a place, I have been operating on the principle that if I ingest even one non-caffeinated tea, I will just pass out. Still a little variation is definitely in order. Mixed black and green to the rescue!

Can’t say much about the taste because I did that thing where I completely forget about the tea I’m steeping and left it for, like, 20 minutes. Strong! Still, the second steep was certainly passable. This also finishes up my sample of this. Hmm, to get more or not to get more. Gotta decide soon before the mega super awesome teafrog sale ends!

Tried this again with the water at a much lower temperature. The result, predictably, was less bitter in terms of base tea-ness, but the flavorings still seem unable to decide if they want to be fruity or floral. I think I’m definitely getting more green tea out of it this time around which, so far is making for a much “smoother” tea, but the combination isn’t really wowing me, to be honest.

I will admit that might just be because Rabs’ note on Almond Biscotti has made me want to drink some, myself :P

The problem with getting samples is that you want to just try them all at once. I’m trying to space out my TeaFrog samples, but…I don’t know how successful I’ll be. I’m going for two per day, so…this is number one!

So here’s what I’m thinking. Do I count this as my green for the day? If I drink it TWICE can I count it as my green for the day? How does that work exactly. I treated it as a black tea since the bag called it one, so did I kill all the useful stuff in the green tea? Dunno!

On to the tea. The aroma of both the leaves and the tea itself is VERY fruity to me. Which is weird because it is full of flowers. I’m not getting the sort of artificial sense that I am interpreting the posts that compare this to candy as indicating, though. The steep came out a very light brown. Golden brown? Sure, why not.

Trying this out, it’s quite nice! Very flowery with a light hint of fruit and the black tea peeking through. The green tea is kind of absent though, although that’s probably due to the way I prepared it more than anything else. I have to say that I really like the combination of these flowers – it gives the tea a kind of body that I don’t think a single one of them would have been able to grant. I can’t really differentiate them individually, but, on the other hand, i don’t really have much experience with the taste of flowers other than roses so it would probably be weird if I could.

Not sure that I would want this as part of my permanent collection, although I would drink it with pleasure if I had it. I was thinking to myself a while back that I could use more fruity/flowery teas for when that mood hits me, but is this the one I want? Dunno! Have to try the others first.

Wow, this tea is creamy and delicious. I can taste the pineapple and coconut lightly and they are balanced very well. I don’t taste the rose but maybe I am not supposed to. Perhaps it is a binder of agents and helps to create that creamy taste. Next, time I will try it with sweetener too.

The red peppercorns add an interesting zing to the flavor of this tea. I wish the pineapple and coconut were a little more to the fore, but overall, this is an interesting genmaicha. I can see how others came to the idea of carmel corn. I think the smell of the tea is definitely reminicent of caramel corn, but the flavor didn’t have that for me.

Yum.

Num. This is a nice tea. The coconut and the vanilla blend nicely, and the rose is very subtle. The white tea is very much in the background, but the four worth together nicely.

Overall I’m finding this a soothing cup, and is making me want to curl up on the couch rather than being at work… :)

So…. it smells like coconut and vanilla, that’s a good start I guess. It definitely looks great (not so much the leaves themselves as the overall mix).

First sip: Nutty hit in the face -didn’t expect that. Perplexes me. As I keep on drinking my cup I start tasting the actual coco part of the nut ! Delicious ! Long and smooth lasting after taste. The vanilla is present and complements the overall experience very well without feeling powdery at anytime.

So what’s missing ? Well the White tea part of this drink is rather subtle (might be my steeping method). This is an excellent soothing tea if you like coconut and aren’t looking for a white tea party in your mouth. Plain Pai Mu Dan or Silver needles will do a better job at dealing with your white tea craving.

Overall, impressed with this one, will most likely order more.

Trying to finish this off. Getting more and more meh on it.

It did that thing again where it failed to taste like Tiramisu until there was just one sip left in the cup and it cooled whereupon it suddenly tasted like Tiramisu…
I really need to just let it cool before drinking it. (But I get THIRSTY)

I too ordered this with my TeaFrog order. There is SOMETHING in there that has the most overpowering fruity smell so whenever I open the box I’ve stuck them in (thanks Golden Moon :D ) it hits me first. I think it’s the Hawaiian thingy. I may have to isolate it from my other teas because that is all I get until I move like, ten feet away from my cupboard.

Once that happens, I can smell hmm, something. Not sure that it is tiramisu per se, but it’s nice! Now, before I tried this, I tried, using advance scientific techniques, to ascertain tiramisu’s place in my pastry affections. But then I realized that I love all pastry in different ways and to compare them is unfair. But I DO like it a lot. On the other hand, I haven’t had it in a while. Now that I think about it, the last time I had it was in Japan, so…god only knows if it actually tasted like Tiramisu is supposed to. At that point I was willingly eating pizza with corn on it.

Anyway so the tea. It smells quite nice, but I can’t say that it’s Tiramisu-y and the taste is…hmm, I’m not sure. Very almondy. Amaretto perhaps? I can definitely see the cherry flavor mentioned by some of the other reviewed. I don’t think the rooibos is that prominent to be honest though, the blend, while not necessarily tiramisu like works well.

I DO find this tea tasty, but I have a bunch of other rooibos samples in my TeaFrog order so perhaps one of the others will speak to me more.

Second steep: as it cools it becomes more tiramisu like! That’s weird! Clearly more experimentation is called for.

The ordering of my first run of TeaFrog samples coincided with a pretty stressful period at work, so I added this to the samples order. Of course, then I didn’t get to it until things were much less stressful. But so it goes.

The mixture of herbs in this one is pretty eclectic, and I’m sure I haven’t knowingly had a tisane with any of these ingredients except lemongrass before. I took St. John’s Wort in capsule form for a while a long time ago, but never had it in a drink. Makes me wonder what this is going to taste like. I fear it will be unbearably medicinal.

The smell of the herbs, though, is pleasing enough. It’s savory and sweet at the same time, which is interesting. Herbal mixtures don’t usually come down on the sweet side for me unless they contain fruit or mint, but neither is present here to explain the sweet note to the fragrance.

It makes a light yellow liquor that smells mostly of lemon, but has a savory (thyme? sage?) aroma underneath. And it tastes…. not bad! Not medicinal, mostly a very light lemon flavor with some cooking spice flavor around the sides. Not as strongly savory as either verbena or the Sleep Tight from TeaGschwendner. In fact, there are some sweet, non-lemon flavors that pop every now and then on the tongue.

In general, this is a class of tisane that I’m finding I’m not strongly attracted to flavor wise. I like the idea of them, how they sound in theory. But in practice I’m almost always left scratching my head and wondering why I didn’t have something with a chamomile base instead if I want to be calmed or made sleepy. As these go, though, this one gets points for being reasonably tasty and non-medicinal.

Unfortunately, I have had the same similar reaction to this tea as the other reviewers. It was AMAZING in the package, smelled heavenly. However, once prepared I tasted the chocolate, rooibos, and another flavor I can’t describe but I can say it was not Tiramisu and it no longer smelled as it did when it was dry. I can just say it was ok. However, I agree with Morgana I prefer the rooibos in the background and the flavors to be the major players in these type of rooibos drinks.

Nice light green tea with fruity notes. Reminds me of a delicate white tea. Brewed this up in my new gaiwan…very cool…it has amazed me how having the right tool for the right tea improves the flavor ten fold:)

Do not think that thought I have been seduced by the amazing power of strawberry zabaglione and spiced apple chai that I do not love you anymore, Earl Grey. You are still my favorite!

I continue to like this extra lemony Earl Grey but I have been pining a bit for a more traditional one lately. Unfortunately, since the volume of tea in my cupboard is currently still quite daunting, I can’t really justify ordering more. This definitely confirms that I like this in addition to, rather than instead of Earl Grey.

Stupid California weather has finally stopped being so stupid hot that the thought of drinking tea causes me to pass out from heat stroke. Yay!

This is good, because I SO did not get enough sleep last night and REALLY need my black tea fix. Mmmm, delicious lemony tea.

Needed to warm up after my smoothie. Stupid cold Santa Barbara.

Cold again today, need lots o’tea. Also, after being somewhat Earl Grey deprived over the holiday weekend (we had Rishi Earl Grey which is good! Don’t get me wrong. But…there was not a lot and we had to split it and it was kinda…weak. and the water wasn’t very good. and that’s coming from someone who lives in Santa Barbara, motto: “Holy Shit The Sediment In My Electric Kettle Is Like An Inch Thick”) I decided to get all Earl Grey-y today.

Mmm, delicious Earl Grey Special, you are complex! But delicious.

Yaaaaaay, TeaFrog order came in today! And I didn’t even have to concoct any stories about alternate realities to explain it’s lateness! Well done, post office!

Naturally, I went straight for the Earl Grey Special. I feel very happy right now, since I have this more rounded (friendly?) Earl Grey and then the in your face, I would almost call it militant Earl Grey Cheesecake from 52teas. It is a good combination! I wanna say that the Earl Grey-ness is much more prominent here than it was in the sample, but as I look over my other entries, it seemed like there was a general acclimation process going on the more I drank of it, so perhaps I am just perfectly primed to appreciate it now. It’s still got a little bit more of the citrus zing than your average Earl Grey, but I like it! Gives it character.

Now, the only question is…where am I going to put it? My tea cupboard is a little…full.

I continue to like this more each time I drink it. Which is good.
Going to leave the rest of the bag for my mum to try when she visits – she’s a big earl grey fan as well.

Thought I’d take a break from my morning chocomate and try this again. I think I liked it more this time around, the black tea seemed more prominent and there was more of an essential Earl Grey-ness underlying the other lemony flavors. I like how the lemonyness doesn’t make my throat scratchy like it does with the Devonshire Earl Grey.

Gotta reiterate the whole thing about drinking it hot though. The cooler it gets the more the Earl Greyishness recedes, leaving a strong overriding lemon taste that DOES start scratching my throat.

Pretty sure I’m going to get more of this. In the hypothetical future when I am not on tea lockdown and about to leave for Japan.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!
My TeaFrog order came in today! The package looked like it had been through several wars and was torn in several places (the samples were OK, though don’t worry!) so I have come up with a theory for its lateness that involves a SINGLE POSTMAN transported to a WAR-TORN CANADA IN AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE determined to return to his reality and DELIVER HIS PACKAGE AT ALL COSTS (Warner Bros: call me).

Obviously I made a beeline straight for the Earl Grey Special because…Earl Grey! Special! AND put back on the “in stock” list JUST FOR ME ( ♥ TeaFrog). The smell is certainly quite distinctive, I’m not sure I would have been able to peg it as an Earl Grey if I didn’t know that that’s what it was. There’s a general lemony, fruitiness about it, but there’s still a bit of the Earl peaking through saying ‘yes, yes I’m here, wot wot.’

This is definitely not your ordinary Earl Grey. I wouldn’t say that the lemon is dominating, but I think that the interaction of the various citrus with the jasmine has created something extremely interesting – definitely something that I could see drinking regularly. I doubt it will replace just straight Earl Grey for me, but it will be great as an Earl Grey alternative (a la Lady Grey, etc.).

Oddly, as the tea cools I get more of a taste of um hm, lemon hard candy? I’m thinking of a specific Polish candy but I don’t think that will help anyone. Lemon drops maybe? I’m not sure that I’ve ever had a lemon drop but it looks right! The moral of this story is: drink this tea while it is hot. It is a fine moral.

I have to say as a final note that I really quite like the base tea here. It is present, but not overwhelming. Very nice.

Drinking some of this hot with honey, chilling some to drink later. The green/black mix is always a little frustrating to steep, but this one is pretty forgiving, and adding sweetener makes it even more so. Might get more of this with my next Teafrog order (which will be soon, since Love just ran out!)

Having this iced, sweetened, and with milk tonight at G’s request; ’tis the last of the sample, but more should be arriving soon!

It’s surprisingly good like this – something about the chill or the milk actually makes it taste like flowers instead of fruit! Still pretty sweet, even on its own, but a tiny dash of sugar turns this into a dessert tea like violet ice cream. Mmmm…