The Spice & Tea Exchange

Backlogging from over the weekend and I LOVED this! Perfectly flavored for my taste buds! Will review more later when I have another cuppa!

It always seems that when I come back, that a layer of dust has covered my Steepster account…. and man, it’s been a minute since I’ve posted on here…. Lots of stuff has been going on lately, lots of crazy, hectic stuff… I still drink tea during my hectic schedule, but I don’t get much time to do so. Most of it is at work, with unfiltered water and using tea bags…. Quite sad actually… I still find time to drink the good stuff at home, but it doesn’t happen as often as I’d like…. But I’m off of work today for a change, trying to relax…. and as I sit here writing this, drinking this Blood-Orange Smoothie Tea, I can’t stop this sense of jitters that I have… No, it isn’t from this tea that I’m drinking, it’s caffeine free… These are more of a nervous type of jitters…. I just made the final few design contestants in Adagio’s tea shirt contest. I’m both excited and nervous about it at the same time. I’m not going to lie, one of the reasons I wanted to post about this tea I’m having is to ask you, my fellow Steepsterites, for help in this contest… If you could possible head over to the facebook album page for the contest and vote for my design, I would greatly appreciate it (it’s ok if you don’t like it and choose to go with another design I guess, thanks for taking the time to vote at least). If you do give me a vote, I greatly appreciate it… Maybe even ask friends and fellow tea lovers to do the same? ;) …

My design on there is #2. I went for a Wabi Sabi thought process and aesthetic with the design I chose. There is a rough feeling with the brush strokes of the cup design to mimic that of an uneven surface. It is simple, yet so in depth. The simplicity touches on the notion of Less is More. With Wabi Sabi, you learn to find the most simple object to be interesting, fascinating, and beautiful. It can change your perception of the world to the extent that the individual, uneven brush strokes makes it a more interesting object and gives it greater meditative value.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150814106620495.751070.368656650494

Once again, thanks very much if you vote for my design. I really appreciate it. :)

And now, on to actually rating this tea and talking about it more in depth! Brittany recently went to San Francisco to check out a grad school, and she happened to come across The Spice & Tea Exchange and stopped in to pick up some stuff for me. She got me some of this Blood-Orange Smoothie Tea, some Coconut Oolong Tea, some Green Tropical Tea, and some Green Tea Mints (Lychee flavored!)… This tea instantly reminds me of a dreamsicle when I smell the dry leaf. One thing about this tea that I wish they changed though was to put steeping instructions on the bag. They give a general steeping instructions card, but I didn’t realize that I had this card until after I had steeped my tea. I just went with a general steep for rooibos with this tea to play it on the safe side. This tea tastes quite good. It is naturally sweet, naturally tart. It has a strong orange taste to it, but that smell of dreamsicle that I get from the dry leaf, doesn’t translate very to the taste very well. If anything, there is a slight dreamsicle taste to it, much less than I wished it to have. Don’t get me wrong though, it is still a very good tea. I want to try it served latte style like the bag recommends, that might give it more of the dreamsicle taste that I am wanting. It is a great night time tea since it is caffeine free. I enjoy this tea so far, I just need to experiment a little more with it. I can’t wait to try the other Spice & Tea Exchange teas…

It’s miserably warm outside but I’ve decided it’s time for a cup of tea regardless. The Spice and Tea Exchange’s Pear Caramel is the last tea I have yet to try from a recent outing, and I’ve been eager to taste test it.

Brewed it’s a lovely translucent amber color, and smells like…. tea. Hm. Upon tasting, it’s sweet, but not the dripping with juice, wet pear I was hopinh for. There’s a very very subtle burnt sugar flavor, which I’m assuming is the caramel. There’s also something very floral about it, though I can’t pin point it.

I’m underwhelmed. I’m going to try a second steeping on the leaves once I’m done with this pot and let them sit longer and see how that goes.

It’s a beautiful collection of herbs and flowers, that turns the most striking color as it steeps. Once brewed, it tastes of oranges, roses, apples and some vanilla.. almost like candy. Absolutely phenomenal.

I’ve never really considered myself a fan of coconut, but for some reason it has become somewhat of an obsession recently. I knew after smelling the Coconut Oolong I had to have some. The coconut is strong and creamy, definitely something you get on the inhale and exhale as you drink. There is a slight bitterness to the tea, but I found that to be gone on the second steeping. As a note, on the second steeping definitely let it steep longer than the first, and taste test it for flavor. What you’re left with is intense, super creamy coconut and yummy oolong and absolutely no bitter taste. I ended up chilling it and it was incredible on a super hot summer day.

This (unfortunately discontinued, but Teavana sells a suspiciously similar variety I’ll have to try..) wonderfully sweet tea has to be one of the most heavenly scents I’ve ever smelled. The tea itself is gorgeous to look at, with bits of red cinnamon and white almond slivers amongst a generous amount of black tea.. honestly, I could just leave this tea in a bowl on my table to look at and smell and be happy without bothering to taste it.

A tad bland on its own, a teaspoon of honey and a dollop of milk (almond milk in particular does the trick!) makes this tea live up to its look and scent. There is little tea flavor to be found here, the creamy vanilla flavor of the cinnamon and almond completely dominating both the nose and the taste, but that’s not a bad thing at all for a dessert tea. I’d prefer this to a real almond cookie, honestly. It’s particularly good on a snowy winter night but I find myself making a cup of this once a week even in the middle of our humid DC summers.
-Cash

One of my favorite teas from one of my favorite shops. I try to keep this one on hand, and particularly enjoy drinking a cup right before bed to finish my night. (Yes, I know this is a mate – caffeine does nothing for me..!)

It’s great right from the first step: big chunks of dried fruit (licorice and pineapple), gorgeous blue cornflower petals, and a fresh-looking bright green mate base exude a pleasantly spicy cinnamon apple scent. I definitely recommend putting this in a tin; the ingredients are very different sizes and you want a balanced scoop.

The steep releases more cinnamon apple scent, this time emphasizing the fruit. I love watching this tea steep, as the liquor very slowly and very gradually becomes its ready-to-drink pale gold.

Generally, I like my teas to have a very bold flavor. Rainforest Mate is unique because the sip initially tastes very watery, a notable tart sweetness creeping around the edges of your tongue and throat as it sits and finishing up with slight anise notes. It’s confusingly weak and bold at the same time, the latter definitely aided by heat; I’ve never iced this tea but having tried it nearly cooled I don’t particularly want to.

Writing this overdue tasting note, I’m realizing that I have plenty of flavored mates (nearly all of which I love) but have never tried the stuff plain. Any brand recommendations?
-Cash

Now, I’ve only tried (to date) one other variety of genmaicha to compare this to (which greatly paled in comparison), but this tea’s perfectly toasty, smooth green flavor and strong pleasant scent was enough for me to declare genmaicha one of my favorite varieties of tea right from the first sip. I’ve drank a cup of this every afternoon since first discovering it months ago and don’t plan on stopping anytime soon, though I may switch to other brands’ genmaicha.
-Cash

This made for an unimpressive hot cup, but as soon as I poured it over ice I was in love. There’s unfortunately not much tea flavor to be spoken for here, but the fruit flavors come out in a perfectly mild manner with – most importantly, and the biggest downfall of iced greens in my experience – just the right amount of astringency. I haven’t purchased this again since running out of that initial bag, but I’d definitely recommend this to a friend.
-Cash

Note: What I had did not bear the “Bonita” name, but this tea smells and looks the same as the plain old Peach Rooibos I purchased.

Not being a huge rooibos fan at the time, I largely purchased this tea because I was curious how green rooibos differed from the traditional red. I was surprised to find I liked it quite a bit more than the previous rooibos infusions I’d tried; not having a strong basis of comparison, I can’t comment on how well the green rooibos flavor came out but none of the advertised ingredients seemed particularly overwhelming and the cup did have a satisfying, if mild, peach flavor to it that was great for just before bedtime. Not something I’m likely to keep in stock, but I didn’t regret the purchase.
-Cash

This is another one of my vacation Groupon purchases. In the store I wasn’t completely sure I would like it as the smell was a bit off, but, since their selection was a bit small and I was having trouble finding ones I thought I’d like, I decided based on the ingredients to give it a whirl. Opening the bag last night, it smelled much tastier, almost making me wish I had gotten two bags.

Taste-wise it’s pretty yummy! A nice, nutty flavor with a hazelnut finish (nicer than Tealicious’ Hazelnut Black which tastes a bit coffee-y to me). Added some brown sugar splenda blend (my go-to sweetener as the agave experiment did not work out – seriously, what is that stuff?!?) and we’re good to go.

Two bags of this followed me home from Sarasota Florida thanks to a Groupon. It kinda irked me that I had a $15 Groupon and everything in that store was $4.79, but that just meant I had to buy more tea.

This smelled soooooo good that I just had to get 2 bags. I’ve been looking for a good coconut tea and was hoping this would be it. Sadly, it’s not, but that’s probably a good thing since I live in IL.

This is a good tea, just not enough coconut flavor for me. It’s there, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a little too subtle for my tastes. What I really want is a good coconut black tea as I tend to find that they’re a little bit bolder. I might try a little higher temp (my kettle has oolong at 190 instead of 195 with the next setting being 200) next time to see if I get more punch from the coconut.

I can’t believe I haven’t rated this one yet! I could have sworn that I had… hmm.
Anyhow, this was at one point a fave of mine, but not as much now that I am here in TO. See, I bought this in Florida, and the water must be different there because this tea in particular is not what I remember! The coconut oolong, which I also bought at the same shop, tastes better here, but not the rainforest mate. Odd huh?
Here, I taste more of the licorice, and the mate, whereas in Florida, it was all about the fruitiness. Can hard/soft water make that much of a difference?
Who knows. Oh and I am definitely getting the mint here, where I never noticed it prior. That said, it’s still very smooth, and I quite enjoy my yerbas.
So, my rating is based on these factors then:
1. This tea is useful, keeping me energized for the moment but it won’t cause me trouble later in the evening when I try to get some sleep. I also enjoy the yerba taste, as mentioned above. and again, it’s super smooth, also a good thing
2. I’m not a huge licorice or mint fan except in very particular circumstances (icecream for instance. I love mint chocolate chip!)
3. The fruity part, which initially drew me in is gone.
Thus, this tea would have previous received a score of 90, but is now relegated to 84. Oh well. C’est la vie!

Oh, lovely coconut oolong… where have you been all my life? Hands down, this is the best coconut oolong that I’ve ever had the pleasure of drinking. Oolong is most definitely my favorite tea, and I really love coconut, too.

This is by far the most aromatic tea I’ve smelled to date. The coconut permeates everything. It’s very nice, though, and not the sugary sweet coconut, but instead a fresh coconut scent.

195F (90C)/3 min – The scent is still very present and the flavor is extraordinary! I have to say that this tea gives milk oolong a run for its money. Because of the coconut, however, it requires a certain taste and if one isn’t in the mood, then it wouldn’t be as much of a pleasure to drink. The oolong is lovely. It’s not a roasted oolong, but more of a medium, fresh tasting one. It has a toasty flavor, which only enhances the coconut.

Thank you, Indigobloom, for the tea share! :) I loved it.

When I was little my mother put me in a daycare that cornered the market on scratch and sniff paraphernalia, including faerie stickers of various fruit like chemicals with a frilly “strawberry” sprite that often wound up on the plaque of the boy’s restroom.

That is exactly what this tea tastes like. Combined with the radioactive pink color that stained my mug through three scrubbings, this tea would be a perfect tie in for a breast cancer fundraiser, an amusing tea you’d only buy once for the experience of drinking a scratch and sniff sticker.

The more I drink this, the less I like it. The flavor just doesn’t hold up to the expressive, sweet aroma of the dry tea. So sad!

Half a teaspoon of sugar in the raw and a dash of skim brought out the almond cookie notes wonderfully. It’s not a very complex tea, but lightly sweet and tasty. We’ll see how it grows on me.

backlog! this one isn’t posted on their website, sorry I couldn’t post a pic or deets. Ah well, I don’t have much of this left. If I want more, shipping costs will be high :(
It’s the closest I have to straight up rooibos tea so you can bet I’ll miss it sorely.
Anyhow, I love that it has a fresh, nectar-ish taste which always leaves me wanting more, like water. There’s no astringency or sourness either.
This time however, I mixed it with some dried tea ginger, and oh my was it ever yummy! No sugar… just the tea and ginger.
I accidentally steeped it for alot longer than intended but it turned out great so perhaps that is the trick. Well, I’m off to make a cup of something else now…

This tea is great! however not a staple for me. It’s very sweet but asides from the almond flavour, does not carry much else. It’s pretty much a cup of liquid, almond cookie… which in my opinion, is a rather simple flavour. That said, when I’m craving that something sweet, it really hits the spot. I prefer it with some milk, and a touch of sugar to enhance the almond. It smells yummy as well of course!

Welps. This is definitely just an average oolong now, after all that time! To be fair, I’ve had it for a few years now. Too bad we bought so much that I couldn’t drink it down very fast.
Perhaps I can use it up in Kombucha. I have a lot of tea that needs to be used up.
I wonder how many baked goods I can use tea in…

Sighs. Where have my coconut oolong loving ways gone? There was a time I adored this particular tea so much that I wished to share it with anyone willing to indulge.
Now? I revisit as a throwback to the good ol days but otherwise I am indifferent.
My how tastes change. I know this is still a delish tea. It’s smooth and sweet, slightly creamy with a hint of tang hidden underneath. The coconut is strong, but not overpowering (imo). So why did I stop adoring it so?
Oh tea lords, I want to love this one again! I really do.

So I had some fannings of this left over, which I’ve been saving for eons now… for what I don’t know… but after all the talk recently about which is the best Coconut Oolong, and my recent lack of appreciation for said tea genre, I decided to use up the dust and see if memory serves me.
Turns out, that despite this being two years old, and 90% dust, this is still the best coconut oolong I’ve ever had.
The coconut is very sweet, in a natural and unassuming yet upfront way that seduces me like no other while the green roasted oolong note is blended so perfectly that it took three infusions to find where they separate. In fact, for awhile I compared coconut milk to this and thought “my coconut tea is so much better!”
Oh man, this brought me back to my tea “newbie” days when everything was incredible and fresh to my palate. How I miss those days sometimes!
So yep, I’m quite pleased to know that it still tastes like home, and I look forward to the day when I’m reacquainted with this delightful blend.
Next time I go to John’s Pass(Florida), you can be sure I’ll be scooping some up. And that’s coming from a newfound coconut disliker!
Anyhow, based on this experience alone, I’d rate the cup around 87, but considering the circumstances I’ll leaving the rating as is for now.

P.S. Sipdown! a sad one, but still a sipdown. 244 left to go!

Ever since I got most of my ‘buds back, I’ve been revisiting old favourites… and I thought I had finished the last of this one, but surprise, I still have a few tbsp’s left! Yipeeee!!!
I tried a different strategy this time, going with shorter steeps. The green oolong is really coming out, and despite that I am still in love! (I prefer darker oolongs)
It’s very fresh tasting, and bursting with coconut flavour.
On another note- it seems that I react badly only when there are coconut shavings? this has only the essence and I only have a sense of heaven to report on my end!! x sighs x