The Tea Table

This I’m excited for. The smell of the dried leaves is pretty much what the name implies. You’ve got your typical chai culprits like cinnamon and ginger demanding attention but with a lemongrass blanket laid over the top. The brewed liquid is DARK. Dark as in, can’t see through my clear brewing vessel dark. The smell of the brewed leaves really makes me think of delicious fresh baked pie crust more than anything. Taste wise, this is interesting, but I actually ruined that part of the review. I had nothing but dinner on my mind, and I started eating my jambalaya before tasting this enough to think of what to put for the review. Lemongrass is one of my favorite scents, but I’ve never had lemongrass flavored anything. I’m hit with a vegetative and flowery taste first and foremost and that’s followed with the normal chai spices, but they’re pretty muted by the spice of the food. And actually, the fore taste is a bit muddled by the butter on the bread I’m eating as well.

I’ve taken way too long away from my food to type this, and I’m absurdly hungry. Back at it.

It’s 6:42 in the morning and I haven’t slept. Sure, I rolled around in bed for a few hours, but it’s no good. I have to be at work in 2 hours and 15 minutes. Maybe it’s my fault for having no self control.

“Nah bro, you got this. One more cup of tea, and three more issues of The Walking Dead. You’ll be able to catch all the way up by tomorrow!”

“Three hours?!?!?! Three hours?!?! How many issues did…how much tea…this can’t be. Where is the nymph who stole my time? I demand to know!”

Well you might as well start the day with some faux coffee before you get into a breakfast blend. The bag certainly smells a bit like coffee, but there’s more there. The cocoa and almond brittle bits are there to dress the coffee beans in a sequenced jacket. Not the light, ever so slightly glimmer sequence, but the disco ball fish scale sequence that demands your attention. You will not speak with java without them being heard.

Once brewed the smell of the earthy leaves take the wheel, and the sugary roar of the aforementioned scents nap in the back seat so our grizzled old friend java can ride shotgun. Oh they’re still there talking in their sleep, but they needed some rest before the real show started. This being a sample with about 2 1/2 teaspoons you decided to get weird. There’s that nice solid 16 oz mug that’s your standby, and a smaller 12 oz next it. Doing no real math to figure it out, you decided to pour a bit of milk and add some sugar to the larger vessel while leaving the other plain so you could have dueling cups. So that’s one full 16 oz cup with milk and sugar (3 1/2 min.), and about 5-6 oz’s of the plain brew in the other (5 min.). Good for focusing on one cup? Not at all. An interesting way to start the day that never really ended? That tired grin on your face sure seems to indicate so.

The naked cup sees Java struggling with his seat belt, wanting to jump out of the car at 90 miles an hour, when freshly poured. Give it a couple minutes and cooler heads will prevail. Once the old man gives up and settles in, you get to hear him mumble on about how strong he used to taste. He doesn’t have the fight left in him to yell it at you anymore. It’s more like he and the others swapping stories now. Nice, full bodied, malty stories, so smooth that you know they’ve learned to play off each other when entertaining an audience. Yogurt even pops his little head up every now and again with a little quip. By the time this half cup’s run out of gas, you’re wishing you’d have given it center stage. At night it’s not what you’d be looking for. Too familiar. Too relaxed. But sitting here, waiting on the sun to rear it’s ugly head and remind you what a long and painful day is approaching, you’d give anything to have those old familiar voices keeping you company. The rave still going on next to you is fun, but it’s not what you’re really in the mood for right now.

When you stop to stretch your legs and get in the other vehicle, you’re quickly presented with the fact that this is a party bus with Neal Cassady at the wheel. At the door Almond, Yogurt, Vitamin D Milk, and Sugar ask if you’re here because you got their invitation. They’re not mean of offensive about it, they just want to make sure that you know who exactly is throwing this party. Java’s lingering around, but he’s staying in his seat and watching as the others pull the reluctant Cocoa on to the dance floor. She’s out there trying, but you can tell she’s a little bit uncomfortable. Not really ready to come out of her shell yet. You look on while the party’s still hot and raging, and each of the flavor’s dancing are clearly looking for your attention. They share the dance floor, but not in unison. This isn’t the electric slide, they’re each trying to out do the other. Once the party’s died down a bit and someone opened up the windows and started to cool everything off, things really start to get weird. Someone else steps on the floor and approaches you. As you savor the scene and really drink it in, you realize you must be too foggy. You’re too tired, and the party has died down to lukewarm, that’s the only answer for it. Is that..no. Ba..Ba…Banana? No, no one invited Banana did they? Suddenly you realize it’s just Almond, Yogurt, and Milk playing tricks on you. They’d probably have you questioning your own sanity if you weren’t sure you lost it quite some time ago.

Next time around you won’t just ask for a lift and stumble in unprepared. It’s time you bought the ticket for this runaway ride and settle in for the long haul.

Delicate but complex. Good for afternoons when I need a pick-me-up. The aroma is very subtle and it took me a few tastes before I really appreciated it.

Years ago my mom got a tea called Rainbow Rooibos from a place called Green Goddess Herbs in the San Diego Area. We were coming to the end of the tin, so we started searching for replacements. This was the first one we opted to order and try because the dry tea looks identical.
The tea has a nice smell when it was dry, the sweet amaretto smell.
Brewed it is a pretty red-amber color. Taste without milk or honey is a little sweet, but nothing real exciting. It is an okay cup with milk and honey, but nothing I would go out of my way to drink. My mom likes it, which is good because the tea we were trying to replace was her favorite, but I was sad that she mixed the old tea with the new, because the old was a whole lot better. So for me, the search continues.

I got some of this from MadelineAlyce and I’m actually liking it. I mean, as much as I can like a fruit tea. Normally I avoid teas that have hibiscus and rose hips, but this one is not tart at all. Like, not at all. It’s smooth and apply. It reminds me of cinnamon apple sauce. It’s a very juicy kind of tea. I believe it was a tea similar to this that I used to get my friend into tea back in college. cinnamon apple with loads of honey is a good beginner tea cause it tastes like hot cider. And who doesn’t like hot cider?

I got a sample of this tea awhile back but I’ve forgotten who it was from – so whoever you are, thanks for the tea!

The dry tea smells like a tasty combination of vanilla and butterscotch which I could sit and sniff all day. :D Interestingly the rum/butterscotch is very subtle in the tea itself; the dominant flavour is the cream with hints of coconut. I’ve been drinking it with milk so that might be skewing the flavours a bit, but I would have maybe liked a bit more of the rum to come through.

This was not drinkable by itself. It tasted a little bitter, as if the tea had been steeped to long. I will have to retry with a shorted steep time. I did not get any hint of vanilla in the steeped tea. Once the milk was added, the bitterness mostly disappeared, and the creamyness began to surface. Add honey, and you have a decent cup of tea, but with a slight bitter aftertaste.
See my full review of The Tea Tables Earl Grey Cream v. Teavana’s Earl Grey Creme at: http://akoalateablog.blogspot.com/2012/02/tea-2-and-3-creamy-earl-grey-face-off.html

So good.

Had this one this morning, with a little milk and sugar, i dont usualy do that but this one was good that way. I like this tea.

It’s not bad, pretty good actualy, says No-Caffiene so i try it close to bedtime :)

Not malty or sweet enough for my taste. I purchased a first flush single estate Assam from the Tea Table some years ago, and was haunted (and probably spoiled forever) by the robust, muscular sweetness of its cup. This is not that Assam. It is, however, delicious as a good everyday brew. If you want a tea to convert inveterate coffee drinkers, try their Tippy Golden Assam Mangalam instead.

Smoky grassiness characteristic of many Chinese greens, with a surprising finish reminiscent of a good slice of homemade yellow pound cake.

Backlogging – This sounds like the exact same tea I got from Sereni tea so I am logging it here. Maybe they are using a common supplier?
http://sereni-tea.net/index.php/butter-truffle.html

In any event I agree this is a strange tea. It is kind of buttery but due to the cumin, corinader and pepper it actually comes off like an indian dessert. I did like the pistachio element here. I think I liked it a bit more than the other reviewers. It was okay but I’m not sure I’ll be craving anymore in the future. It was good with soy milk.

I. LOVE. THIS. TEA. There is nothing better than maple and blueberry together. It’s the perfect dark sweet mixed with light fruit. One of my favorites.

I received a new batch after the awful qualities of the first, and it was simply amazing.

Contrasting the stale, flat tea I got before, I was pleasantly surprised. The liquor was this quite amazing, vibrant amber with a fruity, floral aroma. I almost enjoyed looking at it more then I did drinking it.

The tea itself was pretty mellow-bodied and smooth. It tasted vegative, but it was played down by pleasant fruity aftertaste. Overall, it went down great with almost no bitterness.

I’ll definitely be buying this again.

Remarkably unspectacular.

Perhaps my tea wasn’t very fresh, but it was just flat and uninteresting. It smelled like black tea, and when steeped, tasted like nothing with the smell of black tea. Very disappointing, but then again, perhaps I just didn’t get a very good batch.

This tea is sublime. Wonderful aroma, beautiful coppery colour….really, really good.

Try this Makaibari after a hard days work, around 7pm in the evening ! It works like meditation !

This chocolate tea smells really good when you open the bag, but I agree with my fellow Steepster, it is not a replacement for hot chocolate to be sure. I like it with Silk Very Vanilla soymilk, it enhances the chocolate flavor and sweetens without being syrupy. I would repurchase this if I don’t find a better chocolate tea first. Oh, and I wouldnt recommend smelling the steeped leaves, they smell like vomit. Seriously.

I tried this iced via the cold steep method. After 20 hours of steeping in the fridge, it produces a medium yellow brew (no, this is not my urine sample) with a light grassy, wheat-y smell, and an equally delicate, similar taste. I didn’t add ice because a) it was cold enough from the fridge, and b) I thought diluting it would remove the taste. This is quite drinkable and tasty. I’m planning on bringing the rest of the pitcher to work to serve for breakfast for my co-workers, with some banana bread I made last night. I hope they’ll like it. 95 degrees in the shade here, heat indexes up to 105—keep hydrated, I plan to with more of this iced tea!

I got this as a free sample from The Tea Table, and I’m glad it was free, because I still don’t know what I think of it…! When I prepared it, I didn’t know anything about it (except that it was loose tea), not even that it was a green tea. Reading on this page that it’s green, I don’t totally see it. The brew in the mug is a medium-to-light golden brown. Except for a certain grassy element to it, it doesn’t taste like green teas I’ve had. The predominant flavor is a nearly metallic base—call it “oxidized”. Not a deep or bitter flavor, just a sort of round, baked kind of flavor. I’m not tasting sweetness, and if this is “toasty” apparently I’ve been making toast wrong for years. It’s almost bread-y. This is also the only smell you can get from the brewed tea.

Not that this is necessarily bad. I am drinking the whole mug and will probably finish the sample. But I probably wouldn’t buy more of this, and if this is Lung Ching, now I know that Lung Ching is missing some of what I look for in tea: brightness, and a variety of flavor notes.