Teaism

I made a large batch of this last night. I was up really late but I was craving chai tea so badly. I whipped this one over the stove! My husband and I shared it, and I put the rest in the fridge. Now, I’m drinking it cold. It is absolutely delicious! It isn’t as spicy as other chai teas that I’ve had, but I think it is because I put it in a tea bag instead of letting the loose spices float in the water. Still, it definitely filled my craving.

Also, it is weird… every time that I click on “notices”, I get an error. Is this happening to anyone else????

I can’t believe that it has been over a year that I’ve tried this tea and been to Washington DC. I brewed this Western Style. I’m feeling lazy today _. This was good. The blend smelled spicy with all the cardamom, ginger, cloves… There was a good amount of black tea mixed in as well. Good tea. I had to add sugar and milk, although this could have done without them. Great tea overall! I love chai! Next time I’ll make this over the stove.

I went to DC this weekend with my boyfriend on a whim. Before I left, I quickly researched tea shops in the area. 4 hours later driving, we arrived. We had so much fun! We tried to go to the Teaism shop on Connecticut Ave, but realized it was closed on weekends. So we walked around and did all the touristy things. Today, we went to the other Teaism restaurant. GORGEOUS! I’ll write the review in “Places”.

Anyhow, my boyfriend got chai, and it was tasty! Nice and spicy but the milk helped ease the spiciness. Great blend. I bought this amongst other teas from Teaism. YUM!

Similar to a Darjeeling, but with a lighter body and simpler finish. Not quite as aromatic as it could be, though it may benefit from extended steeping.

This tea has an up-front jasmine-y fragrance and taste. Not like other pu-ehrs I’ve tried so not what I was hoping for.

this past week when i was in seattle, a friend gave me a bag (1.5 k) of world peace tea from a company called teahousechoice.com that he had in his shop after a quick brew( der water was at 92c) with an regular tea ball i gave it a try and it was wonderful, good strong pepermint mit licorice und a good hint of clove. it ist a good pick up after a long trip down the cost ( i currently live in las vegas) .

Reminds me of coffee & toasted rice. Savory & hearty.

Just tried this while on vacation in DC. All I tasted was peppermint. Good. But just peppermint.

I don’t know if my expectations towards Yunnans have been making many of these unenjoyable for me, but…I’m getting ahead of myself here. [Though you can probably guess where this is going.]

I braved the cold earlier today with a couple of friends [I mean, serious cold, like wind whipping you, don’t even want to know what the temperature was with wind chill, lung stabbing cold] to check Teaism’s Dupont Circle location out. They brew it for you behind the counter, so I can’t list any parameters, but we made our way upstairs with three teapots full of tea and sat down to catch up.

Teaism is a neat space. It’s got kind of a rustic feeling to it, and they have a ton of teaware on display, which was cool. It’s a little cramped, which is pretty much par for the course for a lot of DC spaces, but when you’re coming in from the holy crap cold it reads as cozy. My friends got their Jasmine Pearl and their Silver Needle, which I won’t log because I only tried a few sips of each [relatively unimpressive]. I drank nearly the entire teapot of this, though, so I feel that I can speak to it somewhat solidly.

Reading the website’s rather short description of this, it sounds about right. It brewed into a bright amber finish. It had a sweet finish to it. And…really, that was about it.

There wasn’t a lot of depth to this tea. It was dark. It tasted a little malty. It was smooth. The sweetness was a dark kind of sweetness. Kind of like brown sugar, or maybe like yams. And that was really about it. Oh, it began to dry my mouth out a bit towards the end of the pot. That’s really it.

Considering that it was $3.85 for the pot, it made me kind of angry. I’m not usually one to notice that kind of stuff, but having a small kind of concept of how much margin they’re making off of something they’re calling high grade made me feel a bit blah. [Luckily, this was quickly righted when we went somewhere else and stuffed ourselves with Thai food.] It’s not that it was bad. I’m making it sound awful, I know. It was pleasant enough. It just wasn’t…eh. My lack of ability to be able to finish this log off shall have to be indicative of how I feel about this tea. Eh.

This was the tisane that drew me over to the herbal dark side. I used to poo-poo tisanes until I tried World Peace. The blend of peppermint and licorice makes it great for bedtime, colds, and upset stomachs. It makes an excellent summertime iced tea, too, especially when it’s a billion degrees out. I bet it makes a good toner, too, if you used distilled water. Delish!

Very light for a darjeeling, with only the barest hints of the muscatel flavour. A bit pricey for the taste, in my opinion, but then again I prefer a much stronger darjeeling.

I bought this recently. It makes a pretty good iced tea.

Not as assertive as some types of Lapsang Souchong — tastes better when allowed to cool to an easily drinkable temperature. May be a good introduction for those who are not accustomed to drinking the smokier Lapsangs out there.

Very unique, as the company’s description suggests. Has a fresh, almost grassy flavour, which makes it a fine accompaniment to Thai or Vietnamese food. Also good when consumed on its own, especially for those who want to avoid drinking a stronger green tea too close to bedtime.

Solid pu’er tea with a flat and earthy taste. It tends to taste better served cold and long-steeped — not a bad tea to brew and then forget about for a few hours!

1 teaspoon steeped for 5 min, 212°

My favorite, so much that I went nuts one week with some I had ordered and broken it down by weight as best can be separated and determined, with some basic rounding. This formula will provide a little over 5 ounces of total Masala Chai, or just under 4 ounces of the Masala Spice Mixture alone.

Masala spices
5 grams of whole Cardamom
45 grams of Cardamom seed
20 grams Ginger, chipped
20 grams Cinnamon, chipped
8 grams Cloves, whole
5 grams Star anise, broken
5 grams Black pepper
2 grams Fennel

TEA (27% total weight)
15 grams Rooibos
25 grams Black Assam

Amounts for one cup
2 tsp of Black Assam + 1 tsp Rooibos = ~ 6 grams
2.3 tsp of whole/chipped spice Masala

Excellent served with sweetened condensed milk or with milk powder and sugar.

Not sure it can be very authentic with Rooibos in it, though.

Delicious, notes of spice and cocoa.

Yummy.

got a new bag from a traveler who stopped at the apartment on their way to boston from dc. thrilling! made another batch yesterday. the whole apartment smells great. substituting in soymilk. can’t wait to have some more tomorrow morning.

the spice blend is addicting. I’ll be sad when my package of loose leaf tea runs out.