187 Tasting Notes
Mmmm. I think that TeaEqualsBliss said that this was bold yet comforting, and she’s exactly right.
This is my first Yunnan tea. The dry leaves themselves smell a bit peppery, and they’re a really pretty gold/black color. Steeping these was really fun, because the leaves proceeded to twist and jiggle their way around until they unfurled and grew to enormous lengths. When poured, the cup is a very pretty amber color.
The best way I can describe this tea is robust. It tastes a bit earthy, but a pure earth flavor, not like dirt. More like if dirt were refined and recycled into an absolutely delicious substance. I don’t know. There is a slight edge of bitterness, but it was more on the side of malty. And there wasn’t any astringency to speak of.
I kept trying to taste that unique Yunnan peppery flavor, but I really couldn’t detect it. Maybe my tastebuds and tea knowledge aren’t up to snuff yet, or perhaps this tea isn’t the highest quality Yunnan out there. I sat in my chair with my hands cupped around the mug, sipping this quietly and reveling in the flavor. I really enjoyed this cup!
Preparation
Woah. So this is the last tea that rounds off the loose teas that I have in my cupboard that I’ve tasted in their bagged incarnations. And this one is probably one of the most different.
I shared the cup with my mom, who was amazed at how fresher and interesting this tastes as opposed to regular, garden-variety chamomile. It brews up to a beautiful light yellow. Let me tell you, this one is a real chore to clean out of the infuser basket in the IngenuiTEA. Or probably any infuser, for that matter. The blossoms, while adorable, break up a lot in the water and require multiple rinses to remove all the pesky residue. It’s pretty annoying.
The other complaint that I have is that after the first layer of beautiful, full blossoms of chamomile, there seems to be a lot of crumbled dust in my sampler tin. I think there might be full blossoms under that, but I really can’t tell. It’s a bit disappointing if they’re all smashed to smithereens in the tin, though.
The taste of this is a lot better than I expected it to be, actually. I like chamomile, but only really when I’m feeling under the weather. It’s always really sweet, almost to the point of being cloying. I’ve found as I’ve drunk more and more tea that I’m losing a taste for stuff like this. I was surprised at how light yet rich this one was! Although it steeps to a pale color, the flavor is very, very refined. I never noticed that chamomile tastes like apples, but it does! Like fresh apples from an orchard, scented my the flowers around them. Or something poetic along those lines.
Anyway, this was pretty enjoyable. Does this mean that I want to drink chamomile every day? No. But this really is much better than a lot of the bagged stuff.
Preparation
I feel the same way that you do about chamomile. As it is, I rarely drink it straight, it’s usually blended in some kind of mix. Even then, I don’t drink it often.
I’ve noticed that breaking up thing about chamomile blossoms, though. I’ve never brewed chamomile anything in my version of the Ingenuitea, but maybe submerging it in water would help? Like dunking it in a bowl. I’m not sure how feasible that is.
It’s pretty pesky, that damned chamomile… I really don’t want it steeping up with better teas. :(
Golden Moon sampler set comes tomorrow in the mail and I’m super-excited! Plus I have trips in the near future to pick up stuff from Teavana and Dean & Deluca!
Squeee! It’s going to be an exciting tea month for you!
Have you ever used those T-Sacs? I’ve been thinking that those might work for the small stuff that often escapes a mesh infuser, like chamomille and rooibos.
@Jillian, I use a different brand but they are AMAZING.
jeez I like this tea but the cleaning is annoying as hell I agree!!
I know exactly what you mean, it’s sooo ridiculous to clean out of the ingenuitea filter. Good review though.
I find cleaning it is easier if you dump as many of the leaves right away, let it dry, shake it again, and then rinse. Of course if you want to make more and don’t have time to let it dry, just dump then rinse.
Wow.
So this one’s actually pretty interesting for me, because I think I’m beginning to be able to detect taste differences between different varieties of teas!
This one steeps to a medium-colored amber. It’s drastically different than the color of Twinings’ brew, which is so dark and murky it could be mistaken for coffee.
Even though I haven’t ever tasted Assam tea by itself, because I had some Ceylon last night, I was able to pick out the Ceylon taste immediately. In the first couple of sips I kept thinking “buttery” once again for Ceylon. This disappeared as I got midway through the cup, but it was still interesting. After each sip, I’d get a dark and interesting kick. Not bitter (and I think there’s a fine line here), but I guess a taste that could be described as “malty,” as Adagio and Lena have said. And I thought to myself, that has to be the Assam!
I really, really enjoyed this cup this morning. But here’s the crazy thing – I actually wanted it to be even bolder. I think the ratio of Ceylon to Assam is okay, but I would have actually wanted more of an Assam kick. I wanted the brew to be a bit more in-your-face, kicking ass and taking names. Towards the bottom of the cup, the Assam was definitely more present, and I felt myself grinning through those last few sips.
This is definitely more endlessly sippable than the Twinings blend, but I sort of like how assertive and RAWR-worthy Twinings’ Irish Breakfast is. Thinking back on it, it’s probably because they’ve dialed it up on the Assam a bit. Their blend made me feel like a scurvy pirate, slugging down my brew with a big “ARR.” It’s almost masculine. This one was more of a “rawr” without Caps-Lock. Not to say it isn’t delicious – because it is – but I was actually expecting it to be a bit stronger.
Preparation
I hearts this review! It has everything. Even pirates. :D
You might want to check out Republic of Tea’s Lucky Irish Breakfast blend. I think Adagio’s Irish breakfast has higher quality leaves but it means that it isn’t quite as in your face as ROT’s.
Auggy, I don’t think it’s necessarily the quality of the leaves that has me. I guess I just wanted something more robust, which would come from a higher concentration of Assam than what’s in this blend. The Ceylon is definitely the star here, from what I can taste, with the Assam the more subtle note. Ceylon has more of a default tea taste than I expected in this blend overall. At least what I can taste! I’m still new at this. :)
Sounds like you know exactly what’s going on with it better than I do! :) I guess I wasn’t looking at the Ceylon vs Assam so much as the power of the Assam… not sure how the blend balance is in ROT’s but their Assam seemed more aggressive to me… but then we’ve already established I’m a wuss. Hehe!
You are SO not a wuss! You’re the pu-erh queen, m’lady! :D But I’ll definitely taste ROT’s blend if it’s got a larger Assam kick. Thanks for the recommendation!
Haha – one pu-erh does not a queen make! But takgoti did send me 2 others to try so that is exciting! Whee!
Just a late-night cup before going off to sleep. This loose leaf thing is kind of ritualistic and soothing in a way. It’s pretty late, so I figured I should try and steep up some decaf.
I’ve had Harney & Sons Decaf Ceylon bagged, so I sort of knew what this one was going to taste like. Ceylon has a very default “tea” flavor. It’s pretty mild, light, and soothing.
Adagio’s Decaf Ceylon was no different. It brew up a nice orange color, and didn’t have any strong smell (neither in the wet leaves nor in the actual cup). The taste was pretty full-flavored, even though it was decaf. My palate isn’t good enough to detect the difference between decaf and regular tea. Or maybe it’s the CO2 process that makes it taste pretty much the same.
The boyfriend tasted this one and he like it enough to have a couple of sips, commenting that it was smooth. I have to agree. I’m still surprised at how not bitter loose leaf is in any way. How pure and clean everything tastes. It’s like the essence of the tea leaf (which it essentially is).
Preparation
I think the CO2 process is supposed to take away less flavour and antioxidents than the methyl-whatever process. Or is it the other way around?
You’re correct. the CO2 process is supposed to be the one that is kindest to the non-caffeinated flavor elements. It’s especially impressive when compared to water decaf methods. The difference between it and the methylene chloride method (which is also very effective) is that there are no solvent remnants with CO2 decaffeination. CO2 is the more expensive process, though.
I can taste a slight difference between decaf and full-caf teas, but it is not a difference that bothers me in most teas.
I should just throw in the towel with Earl Grey, or perhaps I didn’t like Adagio’s blend. Or maybe I brewed it up incorrectly. :(
Whatever the case, this didn’t work for me this morning. This tea smells absolutely delicious – more like a Lady Grey than an actual Grey. I’ve had my nose permanently stuck in it since my Adagio order came in. It’s mouthwatering. And pretty, with the little blues and the dark black of the tea.
And it steeped up to a beautiful amber hue, with a very pleasant smell. Bergamot and citrus and floral.
But the taste left something to be desired for me. It was fairly smooth at the get-go, but then there was a really bitter kick at the end. Very bitter. As in, over-steeped tea, even though I followed the directions that Adagio gave for brewing this baby. Or maybe it was bergamot overload. The bergamot flavor here comes on stronger in the sipping than it does on the nose. Like really, really strong.
I think I need to lower the steeping time on this one significantly. I’m feeling fairly disappointed right now, though. I thought I was going to experience an Earl Grey revelation. As in, “Ahhh, now THIS is what Earl Grey is supposed to be.” I was able to finish the entire cup, but I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I hoped I would have. Maybe it’s time for me and Grey to part company – even though I really do love Twining’s Lady Grey.
I’ll keep experimenting with steeping time, though, and see if I can mellow this beast.
(P.S. This is one of the funniest reviews that I’ve read about this tea: http://www.teaviews.com/2007/06/25/review-adagio-earl-grey/ I can’t say my experience was AS bad, but it was disappointing on so many levels.)
Preparation
Try another brand or come back to it later. You’re just getting started:) You may find that over time your tastes change. I started adding mint to everything and now I don’t think it’s all that great unless it’s iced… Or Adagio’s cocomint green… YUMMY!
I’d suggest either lowering the steeping time (3.5 or 4 minutes, maybe?) or adding milk. That usually works well for my in terms of reducing the pungency.
Personal tastes aside, a black tea should do fine w/ boiling water, especially if you like other blacks steeped in boiling water. Maybe play w/ the leaf to water ratio as well.
I’m with Jillian – a lower steep time is a good place to start (I think Adagio does insanely long steep times on some of their teas). Milk will work, too, to smooth it out a little. I pretty much can’t drink EG straight – too strong. Cofftea also brings up a good point – try other brands. All EGs are not created equal!
Ohh, if you’ve got a tea place around there that sells Mariage Freres, they’ve got some great EG and EG-like teas. Rushka is one of my favs and their 1854 is good too but a more floral/jasmine-like EG. Pretty much everyone has their own spin to EG so don’t give up just yet!
The whole milk thing has been a thorn in my side for a while, since I’m lactose intolerant. :( I’m always hesitant to add soy since it has its own strong, nutty flavor that I’m afraid will overwhelm the tea. :(
I’m definitely going to lower the steep time, and see if I like it. The black tea in here didn’t seem like the best, either. I would never steep an Earl Grey for five minutes in bagged form (I’ve actually done 1-3 because they can get overwhelming very fast), but since I’m new to the loose leaf steeping, I’m unsure of the time-to-flavor ratios yet.
Mariage Freres is sold at Dean & Deluca, which are all over NYC, so I’ll try and pick up some gourmet French tea!
Most flavored teas aren’t as high quality as unflavored. I typically start with 3:30 for most flavored black and go from there. Mostly though it is personal taste and you’ll just have to play a little to find out what you like best. As a general rule, the larger the pieces of leaves, the more time it can take without getting bitter.
MF also has a Lady Grey that is good. Just tell them you are looking for an EG or Lady EG and they should give you lots of options to choose from.
Not sure what to tell you about the milk substitute. I’ve used non-dairy creamer before so maybe something like that? If you decide you want to go the additive route.
s in stock. Much lighter than typical EG fare.]
I have NO idea what happened there. I swear it wasn’t me. I had much more typed out.
Of course, now I can’t remember what I had typed out. Something about D&D having Harney and Sons tea as well and that you should take a look at their Winter White Earl Grey if they have it in stock.
I LOVE Earl Grey, but I hated Adagio’s version. SpecialTeas’ Earl Grey de la Creme is a great one to start with if you’re just trying Earl Grey for the first time. They also have several other Earl Grey blends that I hear are great, including a new one that’s heavy on the citrus.
@Bethany, that was my first EG and it holds a special place in my heart. So yum!
I agree with your review, but I found this tea takes some tweaking to get a better taste.
Try this: 2.0g of it, 7oz 212F water, steeped for 2.5 min
I love Adagio’s Earl Grey Bravo, however, I too have found that following the brew instructions makes for a not-so-tasty cup of tea. I would definitely suggest the brew instructions that caustiq posted.
This tea is definitely best with just a small teaspoon of tea per cup and boiling at 4 minutes, not 5. It packs a punch, so 5 minutes is much too long, IMO. Hope you’ve tried it again with other prep settings! :)
I drink a lot of peppermint tea. It’s true. I really enjoy the way it tastes, I like the menthol feeling on my tongue and in the back of my throat, and I really enjoy the benefits of it (and the lack of caffeine as well). I know bagged peppermint pretty well.
How awesome is real peppermint? I mean, yeah, in the bag, it’s peppermint. But it’s not like peppermint dust. This is awesome. Amazing. So refreshing and yummy and minty! I used two level teaspoons and followed Adagio’s directions for steeping time and water temperature. The result was a green-yellow liquor that didn’t smell that strongly of peppermint.
But the taste! I still feel the coolness in the back of my throat. I’ve always felt that peppermint has a slightly bitter taste to it. Not this! No bitterness, and after the cooling effect, there’s a faint hint of sweetness. It’s really refreshing. I could drink this all day.
Loose leaf is proving to be super-awesome indeed. Color me impressed!
Preparation
Glad you liked it! Peppermint got me thru my “Ugh I hate tea but it’s supposed to make you lose weight so I’ll drink it” phase. I was all about mint added to any true tea and dessert teas. It’s interesting now to go back and drink a tea w/ mint in it because I don’t like it as well. Although I do have a faux mojito recipe that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE using Adagio’s white cucumber.
And so the journey begins…
I just finished my first cup of loose leaf tea, and what a tactile experience it is! I brewed this up in my brand-new IngenuiTEA, using a teaspoon of Adagio’s blend, and steeping it for the recommended five minutes. I couldn’t help but sniff the little tin over and over again as I waited impatiently for the cup to finish brewing.
The tea steeped to a much more amber color than I was expecting, but I’ve read in several places that this is typical of Adagio’s blend. But the smell! It was so tea-like, so indescribable in a tea way, that my nose is too newb-ish to make out everything. It’s so awesome to watch those leaves unfurl and grow. It looks like an actual plant, and not dust from the factory floor!
The taste is amazing. Beyond the taste of the English Breakfast blend, and this tea in particular, I’m going to talk about the taste of the loose leaf itself. It tastes clean, and pure. It’s not bitter at all (the five minute steep time sort of freaked me out, because if you steep most bagged teas for that long, you have a fairly foul brew). It’s rich and smooth and nuanced. It’s almost like seeing in 3D for the first time. There’s no flatness of taste, or stale flavor. It’s just pure, unadulterated joy.
To talk about this English Breakfast – it’s a bit lighter than I think of when I think of English Breakfast, but it has a lot of the smokey elements that I can sometimes detect. It has an almost buttery quality underneath the main tea taste, with a pretty sweet aftertaste. It isn’t astringent at all, and rolls on my tongue in pure delicious awesomeness.
I am definitely craving another cup. How yummy! It’s like I wasn’t wearing glasses anymore, and now I can see! The only complaints I have right now is that I probably want this one a little stronger. I probably have to add a teeny bit more tea to my teaspoon.
Here comes a ridiculous question, regarding the teaspoon. How does everyone put their tea on the teaspoon? I tried digging my measuring spoon into the tin, but then freaked when I realized that I was probably breaking my precious leaves! So I washed my hands and dried them a million times before carefully picking up the leaves and placing them on the teaspoon. I wasn’t sure how to really “make” the teaspoon, though. The leaves are fairly wiry and long. It didn’t seem like a full “teaspoon,” even though the leaves were peeking out beyond the level point of the spoon.
I know I’m getting all technical. Perhaps I just have to add more tea to the teaspoon, or buy one of those teaspoons made especially for measuring out tea.
Either way, this was an awesome, awesome experience. I can’t wait to continue my journey with loose leaf! YAY!
Preparation
I’m SO glad you enjoyed your 1st loose experience. Reading about it even made ME giddy!:) That is the very reason I weigh my leaves by the gram. Especially w/ a voluminous white tea, it never works… and think of how much empty space is left in the teaspoon!:( I’m anxious to see what you think of resteeped leaves.
YAY! I agree with Cofftea, it makes me giddy too. Now I want to hug you. hug :D
It’s because they stuff so much tea into those little tins, but it’s only really a problem the first couple of times taking something from the tin. I have a narrow wooden tea scoop that I just gently sort of twist into the tin. It works for me. Sometimes I spill a little but it’s minimal. I don’t have the patience to weigh the leaves, and my kitchen scales only have one decimal so it’s nowhere near accurate enough for it anyway.
@Angrboda. I bought a pretty cheap ($15 including shipping) scale that measures to .01g. I LOVE IT! It’s small enough to take on vacation w/ me. But put it in your carry on and put it a bin before going thru security if you fly. It can easily get smashed and I’m not sure the metal detector wouldn’t screw it up. It beats getting aggrivated trying to measure the leaf. That only works well for small leaf herbals like mints, small rolled teas like gunpowder, and finely chopped teas (and who wants those?).
Eh, I don’t care that much about accurracy with my tea. I know how much to put in my different pots, and if it’s a larger leaf tea, I can guesstimate at the adjustment closely enough that I get consistent brews. It comes with practice.
Yay! I’m so excited for you – how fun to read your first experience with loose leaf!
My method of getting leaves out is similar to Angrboda’s twist… I tent to tilt the tin to the side, insert the spoon at the top with the open side down and then rotate the tin so tea spills into the spoon. It’s a lot easier than it sounds.
I do weigh my tea but as long as you keep in mind the size of the leaves changes how much volume you need (1 tsp for black, up to 1 tbsp for fluffy whites) you should be okay. Measuring by weight gets a more consistent cup but can be a little too perfectionist for more laid back personalities (says the recovering perfectionist).
Thanks guys for the tips with getting the leaves out of the tin! The sample tins are so tiny that it’s a bit difficult to attack it.
And YAY! I am super-excited as well. This is so awesome. I’m actually really happy that I have had a bunch of bagged tea before I started loose leaf, because the flavor comparisons are really awesome.
I was thinking of getting a scale, but I don’t think I’m that far deep in yet! There’s a Teavana not that far away from me; I might go in there to get some tea and a spoon soon!
1 tbsp for some whites? Wow. The only thing that’s really annoying about Adagio is that they don’t have amounts for their various teas.
@teaplz, check the discriptions on their website. I make it easy for me and do 2.25g across the board. So much easier than putzing around getting as much leaf into a teaspoon as you can w/o breaking them.
EeeeEeEEEEEeeee!
I must echo everyone else’s excitement for you. I got one of those little Teavana tea spoons when I was first starting out and it’s been helpful to me ever since. The only exception has been, again like everyone else mentioned, with the fluffier teas. [I don’t have a scale yet, but as someone whose perfectionist tendencies haven’t been fully suppressed, I can’t imagine that the purchase of one is far off.]
In any case, it’s fantastic that your first go was this enjoyable. It’s incredibly exciting and refreshing to see tea drinkers try loose-leaf for the first time. Thanks for sharing your experience with us!
@takgoti and everyone else interested. Make sure you get one w/ the calibration scale included. It’s easier and cheaper that way.
How does the "tea"spoon differ from a teaspoon. I figure I have a measuring teaspoon and the teaspoon you eat w/ and that’s enough. "Tea"spoons just seem like a way for companies to get you to spend more money to me.
Can’t speak for others, but mine differs by not being a teaspoon at all but rather one of these http://www.teaspring.com/Dragon-Head-Tea-Scoop.asp
I could imagine though that if you have several teaspoons of varying sizes and shapes, using the same one each time would help getting a consistent amount of tea every time. You always know exactly how many spoonfuls are just right, regardless of whether you buy a fancy one that you like or use a regular teaspoon.
Maybe a fancy one isn’t really necessary, but I like my little wooden scoop because I like having nice tea things.
@cofftea Eh, it doesn’t really differ. It was just a quick and dirty way to get a teaspoon separate from the set of measuring spoons I’ve got and they gave me a discount for getting it with the gravity strainer thing so I figured why not? I don’t usually brew my tea in the kitchen and this way I could keep it at my desk without having to take if off the ring/remember to put it back, etc. Works for me.
@Angrboda HAH, those are fantastically intricate! I can’t say that I’m not a little fuzzy on how tea scoops work, exactly. I like my spoon because I can fool myself into thinking I’m being precise, but should I get a scale I imagine I’d get a scoop, too. Seems like a gentler way to get at the tea.
Backlogging from last night and oh my.
So, I went away with my friends to a trip to my friend’s cabin in the woods a last month, and I brought some teabags with me. I had one left-over bag that I found yesterday of peppermint from that trip, and decided to steep it.
What a big mistake! What a foul, stale brew that tasted like twigs and had this bizarre, bitter taste. I threw out my cup and immediately steeped another cup (from a fresh bag), which tasted much, much better.
I doubt I’m going to have much time to pause today and tomorrow due to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, so my tealog is going to be fairly vacant. But I really can’t wait to try the loose leaf tea that’s coming my way (and should be here super-soon).
Preparation
This is very commonly true of Celestial Seasonings teas. They are marvelous when fresh and not very good once they stale. They get too stale for my sensitive palate once they are about 9 months old.
If you turn over one of the boxes, you’ll see that they are dated. There is a white space with numbers and letters pressed into it. The day is first, then the month, then the last two digits of the year and then a letter. So if the number reads: 29OCT09B that means that it was actually put in the box over a year ago on October 29, 2008. All their teas are given a Best Before date of exactly one year after they are packed.
This makes it relatively easy to only buy Celestial Seasonings teas when they will taste good.
Totally unrelated comment (man I wish we had some sort of messaging system) but I saw you got your first Adagio order! So…what did you get? I went peeking in your cupboard but didn’t see any clues :-p
More peppermint for a really garbagy morning. :(
Random note of the day: this tea brews up to a really funky color. I guess I never paid attention, but the edges are green and the middle is this clay brown. Bizarre. Whatever.
Preparation
Whoa. That’s weird. Reminds me of those science “experiments” we used to do in elementary school. You know, where you pour in the oil and the honey and the colored water and it makes layers.
Also reminds me of when I went to camp and they used to dye the lake before the parents came to pick us up. The dye wouldn’t go all the way out to the edges of the water, so the edges would be brown but rest of the lake would look like we were in Maui or something. It also turned your legs blue.
takgoti, you went to a weird camp.
Don’t even get me started on the squirrels.
I…
You know what? I’m just going to walk away.
Nonono! You cannot drop that squirrel comment. I NEED TO KNOW.
YES, INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW!
@Auggy They rode around in this big fanboat and dyed it this really fake looking blue-green color. I think it was mainly because there was a golf course being built and it had been raining for a couple of weeks, so the cast off from all that Virginia clay and grossness had drained into the lake until it resembled the hue of poo. Red-brown poo. It was one of my favorite reasons to shout whenever my parents expressed interest in sending my brother and me back there: “They DYED the LAKE! It’s a CORPORATE SHAM!” [I didn’t even know what that meant, exactly, but one of my friends had said it and I thought it sounded reasonable.]
HAHAHA. Well now the squirrels are going to sound really anticlimatic because everyone wants to know about them.
They figured out how to get into our bunks through the crack between the roof and the wall [no clue how, because of the angling and whatnot should have rendered it physically impossible, but anyway]. Sometimes we’d come back and there’d be one of them running around, and once one jumped through while we were IN the cabin, but one time we came back from activities and there were about eight or nine of them flying around the room, knocking over things, and who knows what else. Never heard so much screaming in my life. They were smart little buggers.
I think that was the year they decided to put mesh up along the crack in the cabins. Not that I ever went back. I hated camp. Too much hugging and group participation and recycled food and bad singalongs to saccharine songs for emo me, and it meant that I missed a good half of the summer swim season. I told my parents that if they tried to send me back I’d escape to the main road and sell myself to the first passerby. Such a drama queen.
That was camp.
It’s funny, because I kinda like camping now, but that’s also probably because I have discovered alcohol. And nobody makes me make god’s eyes for an hour. Pointless.
fin.
I’m just sitting here, sipping this after I’ve felt fairly awful all day, and playing some Snowball 2007 (http://armorgames.com/play/314/armor-games-snowball-2007/ ). It’s addictive, fun, and awesome for the upcoming winter season. My personal high school was an even 3500. My tea is nice and soothing. I think I might be loosing a taste for chamomile, though. If anyone added sugar to this, I’d look at them as if they were crazy.
Preparation
Yeah, chamomile is one of those things that I can’t drink every day or it starts to taste like upchuck.
I have yet to play Snowball 2007, but I’ve become addicted to many a game over at http://www.kongregate.com – horrible stuff. Also, http://www.orisinal.com has some addictive, sickeningly cute games I used to let kids I babysat play. [Okay, I used to play them, too.]
LOVE Kongregate, and Orisinal is adorable in a really saccharine way. Winterbells might be the perfect holiday/winter game I’ve ever seen, though.
Chamomile is also a tea that I associate with being sick, so sometimes it doesn’t get the most pleasant reaction from me. I’ve found that since I started drinking real tea, my taste for the herbals has lessened. :( They just don’t taste as good!
I feel like I’m rediscovering teas when I read your reviews. Made of pure awesomeness.
@Auggy, I agree!
:D I’m glad that everyone is getting a lot of enjoyment out of my tealog! It’s been so much fun logging all of this and watching my tastes evolve. You just wait! There’re still oolongs and greens and whites and pu-erh to get to (none of which I’ve ever tasted in loose leaf form… and I’ve never tasted white or pu-erh, period).
I started with black because it’s the most familiar. But all of you have been a tremendous help! The Golden Moon sampler is on its way!
www.denstea.com has a free green sampler that comes w/ info. You pay $3 upfront, but you get $3 off your next order of $15 or more. Check it out:)
MY GOSH! I just saw all the GM teas you have in your coupboard now… I don’t want to think of the damage your check book must have suffered lol.
No! Hahaha, they’re all samples that my boyfriend got me as a present!
http://www.goldenmoontea.com/Tea_Taster_s_Sampler_P56C28.cfm <— Each brew 1-2 cups and it was $20! I was so excited that I just added all of them to my cupboard like a fiend!
HAHA! Sweet! As soon as I have room I’m so buying that.
They each come in foil-wrapped bags, so it’s very, very easy to store! Plus I had a $5 off coupon by using the code “teareviewblog” which was pretty awesome.
It’s actually 31 teas! The only tea out of all the Golden Moon teas I didn’t receive is Vanilla Jasmine. Literally their entire catalog in a box! It’s pretty exciting. :)
No Vanilla Jasmine! shoot, I’d LOVE THAT. How long is that coupon code active?
I have absolutely no idea if it’s even active anymore. My boyfriend used it early last week. I’ve heard that other people got Vanilla Jasmine and not Rose. But really, it’s quite the steal, and a super-excellent way to try all of Golden Moon’s offerings. They’re all loose leaf as well. It’s going to be a great tea education for me. I can’t wait to dive in!
Whoops! Looks like I do have Vanilla Jasmine! :D It’s every single one of Golden Moon’s teas!
Look what you did, now I’m tempted to order that. I’m trying to do one tea company at a time. Almost done with all my Adagio purchases. Then I’m going to move on to Rishi. $20 for 31 samples. I’m tempted…
Jump ahead and do Golden Moon 1st, it’s the cheapest:)
Haha, steepster is a bad influence. Must resist spending!
It’s their entire catalog, Ricky. :) That’s pretty hard to beat… They’re supposed to be an excellent company!
Peer pressure. Not good. Don’t start listing places to purchase tea around NYC.
LOL you know no idea how long I spent trying to find the supposed ‘peppery’ flavour of this tea. I tried different steeping times, water temperature, etc.
Eventually I steeped it once for 6 minutes and when I resteeped the same leaves (7 minutes) the resteep had something that might possibly be pepper. Or not.
XD
I am convinced that this peppery flavor doesn’t exist. Bah! LIES! I think it has somewhat of a peppery SMELL when dry, but I probably wouldn’t have smelled that unless someone had told me about it.
Maybe higher quality Yunnan teas have a “peppery” taste? And Jillian, you resteeped this? I haven’t been resteeping my blacks just because they’re… blacks. Yeah.
Ricky! BUY SOME TEA. And I’d love to know places around NYC to purchase tea. Dean & Leluca apparently has Harney & Sons and the famous French blender Mariage Freres. There’s a place near me that sells Numi Tea, and Whole Foods has Rishi, Mighty Leaf, and The Republic of Tea. There’s also Radience Tea House and Subtle Tea here in NYC. Tavalon used to have a tea bar in Union Square but it closed and I’m not sure they’re opening it up again.
Umm, I’ll have to stop by Whole Foods sometime this week, actually no. Stop tempting me! Is it loose tea or teabags at Whole Foods?
Ricky, I think it depends actually on the Whole Foods. I’m pretty sure that the Columbus Circle location has some loose leaf. Not really sure about any of the other locations in the city, though. :P
1. I have to echo Auggy’s thoughts on the awesomeness of your tea blog. Bursting at the seams with the awesome.
2. Tavalon relocated to Jersey. Not sure if they’re redoing the tea bar or if they warehousing it up, but that’s where they be.
3. Now you have ME looking at the Golden Moon sampler. Does anyone have any extra will power lying around? Maybe packed in a box somewhere…?
I’ll check the one on Union Square and get back to you =D
Don’t do it takgoti! If you do it, I might feel even more pressure to purchase it.
Thanks Auggy and takgoti for the kind words about my bloggin’ skillz. Gunpowder is tomorrow, so you’ll probably be reading about my first loose leaf green, as well as my first multiple steeping experience. This should be interesting. :)
Buy the sampler! :D The boyfriend used “teareviewblog” as a code and got FREE SHIPPING. I don’t know if it’s still in effect, but considering that it’s the entire Golden Moon catalog, it’s pretty worth it. :) And then everyone can be logging about the teas as one big steepin’ family!
ARGH. I just bought the sampler. It IS a good deal (and the code still works for free shipping).
@denisend NICE. I haven’t done it yet, but I don’t think it will be long before I cave.
YES! :D It’s only 1-2 cups for each tea (although some people have gotten 3-4 cups out of it), and a lot of the teas have potential for multiple steepings. It’s exceedingly rare that you’d ever be able to taste a company’s entire catalog in one go, so it’s pretty exciting! :)
I plan on caving tomorrow when my new budget month starts. :D Though I might have to wait until we get back from St. Louis so it doesn’t end up sitting on my porch. :(
Yay! I love coercing people to join in the fun! All of the samples come in these heavy duty foil bags. Which is adorable, but a bit annoying at the same time, since you can’t sniff any of the teas without ripping the bags completely open. :( But there’s a full spread of every type of tea here, so I’m pretty excited. Man I love my boyfriend!
@ teaplz: I only re-steep certain whole-leaf black teas. The chinese blacks seem to hold up pretty well for a couple steeps (although not as long as other types of tea).
@Takgoti: Resist, damn you! If you cave then I won’t have any excuse not to buy the GM sampler myself. ;p