Christina / BooksandTea Send Message

Needed some black tea to wake me up this morning, and this seemed like a good candidate since it’s approaching sipdown territory.

This is a really round, bold tea. I think that the strongest flavours are of ginger and cinnamon, with the ginger winning out. I tried it unsweetened first. Then I added some agave nectar, and that really helped balance the flavours and make this an enjoyable, sippable cup. A nice morning boost. Not sure if I’d want to restock it, but I do like the spice balance here.

Thanks again to Aimee Popovacki for a sample!

The first time I had this tea to go, it was absolute bliss in a cup. The second time, I bought the tea myself and packed it in a thermos. That turned out awful, because the thermos wasn’t rinsed out enough, so it tasted (and foamed) of soap!

Would the third time tonight be the charm?

…I’m not sure. The smell of peach was there, but I didn’t have any hibiscus blossom in the dry leaf this time. Without the sweet/tart taste of the hibiscus, it tasted and smelled too strongly of jasmine. Soapy, in fact.

Of course, now that I have this tea in my cupboard, I can play around with it. Next time let’s see how it tastes with a tiny bit of agave nectar added in…

Backlog from earlier this evening.

I finally opened up my tin of this! I just didn’t have the time for this one before. As I’m finding typical for Nina’s teas, this smells absolutely heavenly when dry – fruity and slightly floral, even candylike. The raspberry is definitely the most prominent flavour here.

Also as I’m finding typical for Nina’s teas, this doesn’t come with any steeping instructions. Sigh. I went with 1.5 tsp for 8 oz at a temperature of 75°C and a 2-minute steep. In the end, this tea was a lovely yellowish green, mostly clear but slightly cloudy. There was some dust at the bottom of the cup.

Brewed, the scent is very similar: fragrant and fruity, with the raspberrry still dominant. However, alas: the base tea itself tastes somewhat musty! This definitely tastes like a Chinese green, (perhaps Chun Mee?) and I can see why this melds well with the fruit flavours, but I’m not a fan of the base itself. It’s not bitter or astringent, though.

I’m finding that Nina’s teas are rather finicky. The smell is worth it, though – I will figure out how to make this tea work, as I’m rather fond of red-fruit greens.

Backlog from this afternoon:

After I got home from the accountant, I took a much needed nap, then decided to pep up with this blend. This is my second attempt at this tea. I really want to like it because it smells amazing. However, I still haven’t figured out how to make this tea taste the way I want it to (apple with rose in the background).

This time I reduced the steep time, and the rose was far less dominant, but the apple still didn’t come to the fore. I only have enough for one cup of this, so I think I’ll try steeping it for 4 minutes next. If that doesn’t do it, then so long sipdown.

Needed a pick-me up this morning. Note: it’s a bad idea to catch up on all your freelance bookkeeping the night before you visit the accountant for your taxes. You will stay up until 1 AM. It will not be good.

Anyways, I was so fazed this morning that I don’t remember much about the taste of this. Chocolaty, nutty, a bit sweet. It smelled lovely. Didn’t get much of a raspberry flavour. But I still have a little left of this to try.

Another new tea to try!

One of the things I’ve noticed lately is that while vanilla flavours in tea sound like a good idea, they’re really hit and miss for me. So far, the best example I’ve had of vanilla in tea was DT’s Earl Grey Cream. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this tea, but it did smell lovely when dry.

Right now, as brewed, my opinions are mixed. I waited too long after it cooled down to start drinking it, and when I did, I ate some other strongly-flavoured food that drowned out the taste in my mouth. When I finished my food and drank the tea in earnest, there was a really weird taste to it. I don’t know for sure if it was the vanilla, but the last time I tasted something similar it was from a vanilla-laced green chai which I didn’t enjoy.

I might also have understeeped this. Will re-evaluate once I drink it without any other foods affecting my palate.

Finally had a chance to open the package that I received last week. The dry leaf smells strongly of peach, apple, and vanilla, so I was really looking forward to testing it out!

Nina’s teas don’t come with any steeping parameters, unfortunately, so I tried the tea with 2 tsp/12 oz for 3 minutes at 90°C. I initially meant to steep it for 2 minutes, but the phone rang and I got interrupted.

Brewed, the tea still smells strongly of peaches and vanilla, as well as chocolate, with the apple being fainter. The taste is of chocolate/vanilla and possibly some cream, with the fruit tastes being less dominant. This is not astringent at all, but I think that I would have appreciated it more if it were steeped at a higher temperature for a shorter length of time. I still have 2 oz to play with to figure out the perfect steep. Withholding a rating for now.

I’m back after an exciting (but tea-less) weekend of convention-going, and it’s good to be back home. I settled on trying this tea since I had a small sample size of it.

Hoo boy. I really wanted to like this. I had been informed by other reviews here to expect a taste that was briny, vegetal, and mineral, but I still didn’t like this. It tastes stale. And that sucks because I’m barely half a cup into this stuff, and I’ve brewed a full pot of it. I really don’t want to drink the rest. I’m even seriously considering putting the rest of the sample into the compost, as I just don’t want to drink this. Bah!

Many thanks to kaylee for sending me this in a swap. This is my second time trying a guayusa tea, and while I’m still adjusting to the taste, this was quite interesting.

I followed the steeping instructions on the package (1.5 tsp, 8 oz, boiling water, 6 minutes) and came away with a dark amber brew that smelled of vanilla and herbs. I could taste the medicinal-ness of the guayusa in the background, but I swear that I smelled some other flavours that weren’t listed as part of the ingredients: thyme, definitely, and perhaps oregano.

Not quite sure what to make of this. Perhaps it’s the lotus stamens? It’s interesting, I’ll give it that.

I got a sample of this tea from Indigobloom because I told her that one of my cats is named “Marco”. Since then I’ve been saving it for a suitable occasion, and today seemed perfect. All winter he was looking a little tubby, and I was worried that there was something wrong with him. We took him to the vet today, and it turns out that he’s actually not gaining weight – he just looks chubby. He’s in fine health it seems. Yay!

Unfortunately, the other cat, Gracie (the one that I’m using as my avatar here) is LOSING weight. She lost 1.5 pounds in a year, which is a lot. Perhaps that’s why Marco’s been looking so big – she’s small in comparison. Fingers crossed that her blood work turns out okay.

Anyways, Marco Polo tea to celebrate Marco the cat! I know that French teas in general can be a bit finicky, so I should have been a bit more careful with this one. As it was brewing, it smelled lovely, and the wet leaf smelled like strawberry jam. I don’t taste any strawberry sweetness or creaminess, but I do think I get a hint a rose. I I think I might have oversteeped this, even though it doesn’t taste astringent.

Ah well. There’s still enough left in the sample for one good cup, but if I had to choose right now in the “red-fruit-flavoured black tea from French tea companies” competition, I think “Quatre Fruits Rouges” by Nina’s would win out.