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‘Samurai’ Traveling Teabox – Tea #12
Another interesting one to see in the teabox.  I wasn’t paying attention to the instructions though and made this as a normal tea instead of the latte.  This is the finest ground rooibos I’ve ever seen.  It almost looks like rooibos matcha but they say to put it in a teabag.  The ingredients say rooibos, vanilla bean and fenugreek for some reason.  The resulting brew is surprisingly light.  The flavor is vanilla enough but there is also the tiniest hint of an off flavor, like onion or something? I looked up fenugreek and it says it should have a maple flavor? 
Steep #1  // 1 teaspoon for full mug // 10 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2  // just boiled // 3 min

Another day: The second steep session, I tried to steep how they say on the bag:  A teaspoon in a teabag in half a mug of water for five minutes (or less), then add milk to it.  I don’t usually adding milk to my teas, but I wanted to try the LATTE brew.  I can’t say I liked it better this way.  It was fine. The milk really brought out that onion flavor though.  If you can ignore that, it DOES really taste like caramel.  But it mostly just seemed like milk.  I’d rather just drink this brewed normally, without any milk.
Edited to add the next day: on the second steep, I brewed for about 30 minutes at boiling (despite the warning of bitterness on the package) and it was very good. No onions this time, which is odd that it disappeared if I brewed it longer. It’s only about the strength that I expected this tiny of rooibos to be. But the cup was tasty anyway. More maple.

derk

Fenugreek does have a semblance of maple to me. Nothing at all like onion.

tea-sipper

hmm… I wonder where the onion is coming from…

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derk

Fenugreek does have a semblance of maple to me. Nothing at all like onion.

tea-sipper

hmm… I wonder where the onion is coming from…

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Hi! I love tea and trying new ones – it adds a bit of variety to my day! Books, music, TV & movies are my thing… and tea, of course.

Some of my favorite tea shops (still operating):
birdandblendtea.com
teavivre.com
52teas.com
svtea.com
whisperingpinestea.com
justea.com
harney.com
Dammann Freres
fusionteas.com
Javateaco.com
Lupicia
Octaviatea.com
Davidstea
eco-cha.com
what-cha.com
singleoriginteas.com
teasenz.com
tealyra.com
Mandala
verdanttea.com

Favorite tea shops (RIP):
butikiteas.com
steapshoppe.com
steepcityteas.com
aquartertotea.com
dellaterrateas.com
zentealife.com
angrytearoom.com
theteamerchant.net
joysteaspoon.com
tealiciousllc.com
Rivertea
Specialteas

My icon photo is Richard Mayhew from the graphic novel ‘Neverwhere’ by Neil Gaiman, Mike Carey & Glenn Fabry.

Most of the teas listed in my cupboard are actually sample sizes. I don’t really have 2,000 ounces of tea around here! Many of my teas have only one teaspoon left… maybe two. But I like keeping them in my cupboard list for reference to what I could be sipping. Usually, I write tasting notes once for each tea. I’m still drinking them, just not writing tasting notes each time!

I’m always in search of: Hattialli, Qu Hao black, Jin Jun Mei, teas using marshmallow root.

My dislikes: hibiscus, ginger (unless in chai), turmeric, bee pollen, charcoal type flavors

My ratings:
95-100 – Super awesome deliciousness favorites – cupboard essential
80-95 – Also pretty delicious
65-80 – Pretty good
50-65 – Okay
1-50 – Probably won’t want to sip it again

I’m planning on being a Steepsterer as long as there IS a Steepster, so if you’re not hearing from me, that means something happened to my health… if you know what I mean. (Or as evidenced by the great computer hiatus of 2019, something happened to my computer… I have a dumb phone so can’t access internet on that. As of 12/20/21 my wifi might start getting unreliable.)

Happy sipping!

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USA

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