ZenTea

Since I cannot take my allergy meds again until after my interview, considering how much I’ve slept since taking them, I must turn to my boohoo I don’t feel good tea. Although I feel fine, I would just like use of my nose.

This is still so good, I don’t know why I don’t drink it more often than when my throat hurts or whatever my problem is at the time. It always smells like it’s going to be super medicinal, from the moment you remove the steeper basket to every time you take a sip…it’s just so rooibosy. But the lemon and mint are pretty strong flavors so you’ve got a nice mix of them with rooibos.

I should have added honey to it, but for some reason it tastes really sweet this time around. Kind of weird but I’ll take it.

Oh, my “I feel like crap” go-to tea. I have been sniffling for days, and I went to drop off my rent check. The manager offered me hot chocolate, and I was like noooo, I need tea! I had drinking chocolate last night and that probably didn’t help hahaha.

I first got this tea like 2 years ago or so, I had used up any mint or citrus tea I had and I could not shake a cold, so I went to ZenTea. I was like I have a cold, my throat is killing me, and I love rooibos. Boom. I was given a pot of this with some lime wedges and honey.

Now it is always the tea I drink when I feel sick. It’s minty, it’s just citrusy enough, and it’s very soothing. Of course, I don’t think I actually have a cold right now, I just have a body that’s had enough of this ridiculous temperature jumping around here.

I bought this from ZenTea’s shop, so it just says “organic Darjeeling,” but on their site it looks to be “Darjeeling Avongrove (organic)” so now I have at least some idea more of the tea. (Although not much since the description just talks about the different kinds of Darjeeling and not about this tea itself. Agh. I should have asked but I had been there to brainstorm and I was too excited by my idea.)

I’m guessing it’s a second flush, because I’ve seen the liquor of first flush Darjeelings and this is much darker, and that Muscat grape flavor is really, really there. This tastes more like grape than teas I’ve had with grapes in them and it’s creeping me out…in a good way.

After a somewhat disappointing tea experience I don’t usually brew the same tea up again because I usually just want to move on. But the aftertaste that this tea had left in my mouth was so pleasant that I really wanted to be able to drink this tea and enjoy it. So out went the bitter cup and I brewed up another, this time with a shorter steep, and lo, all the bitterness was gone. All those nice flavors I mentioned in the previous note are there but they’re at the forefront this time. I also get more of the “alcohol” note, which is always sort of weird with tea, but all the alcoholic drink based teas have it, because I guess without it this is just grape/raisin flavored, right? Wow, that was a runon sentance. Anyway, the point is that it’s very pleasantly ice winey now.

I was pleased when I smelled the dry leaf of this tea that the scent of the flavoring wasn’t super overwhelming like some of the teas I’ve gotten from this company. It does have a nice juicy sweet grapey aroma, which in the steeped tea is similar but definitely a more winey note. Ice wine is so sweet and raisiny, and that’s born out in the scent.

This seems like it would be delicious… if it wasn’t bitter. Argh, I can’t seem to drink a black tea these days without finding it bitter. I am hopeful, though, because aisling of tea brewed this at 2 minutes and liked it, so I think I will definitely have to try that. Beyond the bitter it had nice grape/raisin/ice wine flavors that seemed natural. I do have an aftertaste as if I had been drinking ice wine, but without the alcohol. Better for work, that way!

Coldbrew sipdown (325/307)

My father in law secretly enjoys the iced teas I make and he’s always surprised by them. Every time I have coldbrew ready when they come over and he always sighs and says he guesses he’ll try one. This time he was intrigued by the ice wine tea, as he’s a big wine drinker, so I poured him a small glass and he was very surprised by the flavor of the ice wine. “It really does taste like ice wine!”

XD. He cracks me up. Anyway, this is a sad farewell, I love this tea dearly. But I have several other ice wine teas and they will keep me warm.

Holy cow I love this tea. I love ice wine and I love berries, so this tea is perfect for me. It’s that cool berry sweetness and it’s just so good. I’m sad this will be a sipdown tomorrow.

Mmmmmm, yep. I’m still in love with ice wine teas. I have three now and want more, more, more! De and I went out for breakfast (nom!) and when we got home, she began filling the thermos for her day at work, so I made a cup for myself while she was at it. I didn’t know what I wanted, so I broke out the tea game she made me for my birthday. I got a card that told me to pick something with raspberries….done! This was exactly what I didn’t know I was craving XD. I drank about half my cup and then got distracted by a two and a half hour nap. Ooops. When I got up (and rescued the tea from Pekoe), it was ice cold and equally delicious. I might need to invest in a larger amount of this beauty. Thank you so much, Dinosara!

Oh my goodness. First, a side note: I am endlessly amused that I had something containing Ontario ice wine shipped to me (in Ontario) from someone in the States XD.

I am in love with ice wine teas, I think…and I think I need to try some ice wine next time my in-laws have it in the house. The two I’ve had have been wonderful! This one was juicy and sweet and just a hint of tartness but not overmuch. Just enough to bring a smile to my face. It’s going to be a good tea day, I suspect. Thank you so much for sharing this with me, Dinosara!

So I never put milk and sugar in my tea, partly because I drink most of my tea at work and I don’t have those things there, and partly because I like drinking my tea straight. A tea has to taste good on it’s own for me, without additions. That’s not to say that I haven’t come across several teas that I didn’t love straight, and then never get around to drinking them even though they would probably taste good with milk and sugar. So I finally brought some of these teas home to have on the weekend with additions.

This one is tasty with milk and sugar. It wasn’t horrible without it, but it was kind of lackluster. Now it’s way more nutty and a lightly chocolatey, and the slightly bitter tea base is smoothed out and covered by the milk. I think the weekend milk and sugar teas will definitely be a way for me to use up teas I wasn’t very fond of straight.

I got a small pouch of this tea free with my order from ZenTea (i.e., eZenTea.com). However, it doesn’t appear on their website! There is a listing for it (and a tasting note) here on Steepster, but no product description. How am I supposed to know what to think about this tea?? Heh. It is rare that I drink a tea (especially a tea with such a non-descriptive name) without knowing beforehand what it’s flavored like. The dry tea on this one smells sweet and desserty, perhaps mostly like caramel. I do get some chocolate as well.

Steeped, it smells nutty, chocolatey and a bit toasted, a little bit like how chocolate chips smell when burnt. In the flavor, I find that caramel again, along with the burnt chocolate note. There is a very slight bitterness to the cup. As it cools a definite nuttiness (perhaps hazelnut) comes out that makes me forget about the bitterness a bit. I feel like this tea would be super delicious with milk and sugar, but I usually only take my teas plain, so that’s not happening. Perhaps I will take the rest of this sample (about another cup) home and try it some weekend with all the fixins’.

Thank you thank you thank you Dinosara for this generous helping of deliciousness!

I knew I had to have it tonight, despite it being the evening. It’s 9:12 and I should stop steeping but… it tastes so so good.

This great buttery taste pairs with the raspberry flavour, that isn’t milky or creamy per se.. but it’s.. full flavoured and yummeh!
On the first steep the raspberry overwhelmed the rest of the flavours, but as I steep more I get a different balance of leafygreen oolong with just a hint of raspberry flavour. Delicate. Delicious.

I tried cold steeping this one this one to see what I might get from it, but unfortunately all I got was cherry candy. Which would be not so bad if I liked cherry candy, but I do not. A hot steep was better for this tea.

I was emboldened by my earlier success to go ahead and try the other teas from this company. This one I chose because the description noted almond in the addition to the fruits. A quick search yields that it is being sold under the name Pearl of Fruits by a couple of other retailers.

The dry leaf smells pretty much like generic tart fruit candy. I can also get a fairly distinct orange note from it, but not much else. Steeped, it has definitely mellowed, and now I do get a light nutty aroma joining the fruit (which is not so much orange now, more berry-ish). The flavor is pretty pleasant. Is it an almond/fruit blend that can stand up to Dammann Freres or even Harney’s Boston? No. But it’s drinkable, which is good. I’m not sure which “exotic” fruits are supposed to be in this—the description just mentions berries and orange—but they are melding together in a way that is difficult to tear them apart. I was hoping for maybe a bit of florals but I am starting to think I should know better with this type of tea; the fruit flavoring completely obliterates any florals that might have been. There is definitely a nutty, marginally marzipanny almond to this, but it doesn’t seem to work perfectly with the fruit flavoring, and kind of sticks out a bit. I can’t really taste much of the tea base, for better or worse. Overall, not a complete failure (like the unfortunate “Jasmine Lemon”/Macabeo), but not one I’d reorder.

I suppose it is time to start working on sipping down some old teas in my stash. Starting with this one! I remembered that I only had a bit of this left, so I decided to make it a sipdown. I used a bit more leaf (but it is quite old), and hopefully left behind the tea crumbs in the bottom of the bag. I also looked at some old tasting notes that mentioned a bit of bitterness in this, so I went full green tea with my steeping temp.

It seems to have worked pretty well. Nicely almondy, no bitterness. Not much interest from the base teas either, but it’s hard to win with a black/green blend. Nice to finally get this one out of my cupboard, it’s been in there forever!

An old tea, and one I always underestimate. This is a really almondy tea, perhaps the most “almond extract/marzipan” tea that I have ever come across. It doesn’t have much else going on: it’s almond, and that’s enough. I do wish it wasn’t a black/green blend… it’s kind of unnecessary and makes proper steeping difficult. As such, there were hints of bitterness playing around the edges here, but the sweet almond was enough to overwhelm them.

I have very little of this tea left (perhaps only one more serving), and while I don’t think it will be a restock it is worth noting if you like almondy things.

I wanted to try this tea again since it has been a long time since I last had it. The last time I was pleasantly surprised but I wished it was an all black tea instead of a black/green blend, and I think that holds here. Despite that, it is a nicely almondy tea, and definitely one of the more almondy ones I’ve encountered over the years. It does have a marzipanny feel and a bit of an apricot hint, which really brightens up the sip, but I just wish it was on a yummier base. Still, it’s tasty and one of the few teas I’ve found that’s really almondy enough for me!

This was a mistaken tea. I actually ordered the Caramel Roasted Almond black tea, but they sent this instead, and I never heard back from them when I emailed about the mix up. So I’ll shrug it off and drink this one; at least it’s still almond.

The dry leaf smells powerfully almondy like almond extract or very strong marzipan. So far, so good. The sweet almond/marzipan aroma is still present in the steeped tea along with a richer, nuttier aroma which I feel like is the black tea (Ceylon, yay) making itself known. And finally, the marzipan carries over to the taste, which, if you don’t know, is exactly what I look for in an almond tea (but rarely have found). The flavor is very almondy, but the tea base is a little bipolar. Black/Green blends are always tricky, and under the best of circumstances they combine the richness of the black tea with the freshness of the green tea. This one the bases seem a bit muddled, and I kind of wish it was a black only base. Nevertheless, I am shocked by how much I am enjoying this tea. I wasn’t really expecting much based on the other teas I’ve had from this company. Different wholesaler on this one, I guess. As it cools I am getting a tart, fruity, almost apricot flavor at the front of the sip. As far as almond teas go, I still prefer my Marzipan from the Tea House in London, but as I can’t get that one without going to London, this is an impressive second option. I do wish I could try the Caramel Roasted Almond as well now.

I used this tea to make muffins before I even drank it. But, it was awesome in them, so it would figure it was even more delicious to drink. It reminded me of a Mounds bar in tea form. Neither flavor overpowered the other, I could taste both chocolate and coconut. Definitely tastes like it would be more indulgent than it really is. I wish it was freezing outside because I think it would make an amazing ice cream too so then it could be a bit bad!

Ugh… I am currently on some antibiotics which are not kind to one’s stomach, so I was unsure I’d even want any tea today, but I’m doing ok for the moment. Still, I wanted something that might be light and definitely non-upsetting. I chose this new tea, but I forgot what the description was like when I ordered it. Really, Jasmine Lemon doesn’t seem to be the right name for this tea, since it’s really more of a bouquet of all kinds of florals. The tea is full of flower petals and buds of all kinds along with fairly long green and white tea leaves. The aroma is a slightly worrisome artificial sweet-tart fruit candy scent, but I’ve smelled that aroma in dry leaves before and it doesn’t always turn out poorly.

After brewing my tea is a pale yellow with some dusty bits; they are likely small pieces from all of the whole flowers in the leaf. The scent is much more subdued, but still with the same general profile. This tea does taste familiar, but I can’t place it. It’s definitely sweet-tart and slightly fruity in a very floral way. I don’t, however, get any distinct notes; no jasmine, and definitely no lemon. This is the second tea from this company that I’ve tried, and though I’m pretty sure they don’t blend in-house, the teas definitely err on the side of lots of somewhat artificial flavoring that pretty much obliterates any flavors from the tea itself.

ARGH. I just figured out where I know this tea from. It appears to be identical, minus the sencha, to the Macabeo tea from ESP Emporium that I have had and not really enjoyed. A sniff test of both teas confirms that they have the same aroma profile. Interestingly, I do seem to enjoy this one better than the ESP version, but only slightly. Curses! Foiled by a new, tempting name. This is exactly why I wish I knew where the tea was coming from in these places… now I have 2 more ounces of a tea I never would have bought if I had known what it really was.

And with that ringing endorsement, does anyone want any of this? Free to a good home; I have way too much tea right now to have this one languishing in my cupboard.

I had a groupon for this tea company that was expiring in about a month, so I went ahead and bought the tea while I was already buying tea from other places. So expect a lot of new teas here for a while, because I have a ton of stuff to try!

Before my travels, I was really getting into oolongs, so a lot of my new teas are oolongs. I’ve always wanted to try the Raspberry Oolong from AC Perch’s, which is supposed to be awesome. Funny, that there aren’t very many raspberry oolongs out there from any tea company, but this one happened to have one, so I had to get some. The dry leaf pretty much hits you over the head with berry aroma. Sure, raspberry, but also just tons of all kinds of sweet-tart berries. There doesn’t seem to be any berry pieces in the dry leaf, but there is some kind of pinky-red petal in there… possibly hibiscus or rosehips, which is a bit surprising. Nibbling on a dry petal makes me think hibiscus. There aren’t very many of them in there, so we’ll see how they affect the steeped tea.

The tea brewed up really light yellow (no pinkness), and it smells tart-fruity and a bit floral. There’s also a bit of that green oolongy aroma in there. Despite the light color, the taste is pretty full. I’m enjoying it, but I do think it’s a tea that might not be for everyone. The raspberry flavoring is quite strong, especially as it cools, and it kind of drowns out the oolong itself, though I feel that it’s definitely lending a floral character to the fruit. And I can’t decide whether the flavoring might taste a bit artificial. I don’t get any hibiscus or that it’s too tart from this. Actually the aftertaste is rather sweet. Nevertheless, I am enjoying the pot and I will have no problem drinking up my ounces of this.

To break in a brand new, pretty glass pitcher, I made more tea than ever before! I split making it into two batches, so I could resteep the tea in order to not use as much at once. It worked out well. I’ve got maybe 4 cups left..oops. It’s a nice light tea, sometimes the pomegranate isn’t very apparent, and sometimes it makes it taste a bit like cherry jello. It’s good though, but it might be even better with an addition of a splash of pomegranate juice!