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Hi Steepster friends!
I haven’t been here much lately as I am not trying a lot of new things lately, most of the tea I’ve been drinking is stuff I am trying to sip down or old favorites I’ve already written tasting notes for.

I’m not a big David’s tea fan but I do love cardamom so I got some of this the last time I was in the store. I have enjoyed this as a breakfast tea most of the time with soymilk added. It definitely has a strong cardamom flavor, so if you don’t like cardamom I would skip this. I’m not sure I’m getting french toast but there is something buttery and pastry like in the flavor.

The only bad thing about this in my opinion is the very sweet after taste. I definitely don’t mind it as much as some of the other tasters did. I wonder if they could have just made this without the added sweetener, after all it’s easy enough to add your own.

Overall, this is better than I thought it would be but I probably won’t repurchase it.

Good morning Steepster.
I haven’t been buying much new tea lately as I’m trying to work my way through the formidable stock I already have. I picked up this sample tea bag in one of our hotels in India (can’t remember which hotel).

I’ve never been a big Breakfast Blend tea drinker but this is pretty nice. It’s a blend of Assam and 2nd flush darjeeling. The Assam is more prominent and the darjeeling is adding a lighter and fruity note in the background. I found this to be pretty tasty with a splash of soymilk, it did not need sugar. For a breakfast tea, I would prefer something a bit more hefty but I can definitely see the appeal of this. I have enjoyed it.

Hi Steepster,
Happy New Year! Did anyone get tea for Christmas? I did not, as I was vacationing in India with my boyfriend and his family. We went to Dehli, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Agra and Varanasi. It was an epic trip and pretty fun, though India was very chaotic and busy, even more so because a lot of people were traveling within the country on vacation. I put a bunch of photos on Instagram under the name TeaBrat.

I did not see any tea plantations, I wasn’t in the right section of the country for that. I didn’t even see a lot of tea shops or tea bars which kind of surprised me. Everyone does drink chai, though it is usually made with milk and very sweet. I’m having a cup of this Lupicia blend because it’s one of the only chais I have. I got it last year in the grab bag sale! I really need to drink this down. As far as chai blends it is kind of “ok” I usually prefer more ginger and cardamom in my tea. I guess I’ll try to drink this down soon.

Back in San Francisco, the weather has been totally dreary and I am still recovering from some 30 odd hours of traveling and not sleeping. Had a really bad bout with stomach issues and then a cold after that. Jet Lag really sucks! It was definitely an adventure though.

My stomach has been feeling bad since I started taking the oral typhoid vaccine (going to India at the end of next week). I thought a pu’erh might be nice this afternoon so I grabbed this on my way to the office. I’m still leery of my puerh collection after my apartment got sprayed for cockroaches. The smell of bug spray was everywhere. Still it’s a hard decision to throw out what amount to hundreds of dollars of tea.

This sample was in a plastic ziplock bag so at least I think it was better protected than the pu have that’s wrapped in paper. I still haven’t decided what to do! Anyway this is a good shu, I have always liked it. Chocolate and velvety. Hope it does the trick to settle my tummy a bit.

I am out of these, finally. A sipdown!

I have enjoyed these white tea blooms but it has taken me a long time to finish them off. Normally I am a green tea fan, but I would like to drink more of my white tea supply since they are so high in antioxidants. The trouble is I have so much tea it’s getting hard to sip anything down. I guess there could be worse problems to have ;)

I have to confess I’m not the biggest fan of David’s Tea – too many disappointing blends come out of there in my opinion. However, I was at the mall today and figured I would try a cup of something I’ve never had before. I had a cup of this hot, with no sweetener. This is a blend of white and green teas with cherry, rosebuds and coconut. I did enjoy the cherry/floral flavor of this. I find that cherry is such a difficult flavor to get right in tea. This wasn’t too bad but it did seem slightly high on the artificial flavor. Probably would not turn down another cup if it was offered to me, but it won’t be a purchase.

I picked this up from the new Asha Tea House in San Francisco, which is just a short walk from my office downtown. So far I’ve had their houjicha latte and lemon jasmine iced green tea to go, both were really good.

I decided to pick some of this up today because yunnan blacks are definitely a favorite of mine and it couldn’t hurt to have another breakfast tea. I steeped it for 2 minutes with boiling water per package directions and am drinking it plain.

This is a nice, rich black tea that doesn’t have much bitterness at all. I am getting chocolate plus a bit of tobacco aroma & flavor. I don’t normally sweeten my tea but I ended up putting a small amount of sugar in this, and that brought out even more chocolate-y and roasted notes. A very good everyday drinker, for the morning or anytime. Happy with this purchase!

Honestly I cannot remember when I bought this mate blend but I decided to have it on a whim this morning when I woke up. I don’t tend to like flavored teas first thing in the morning, but this wasn’t too bad. It has more of a berry flavor than I remember and certainly seemed to wake me up a bit.

Good morning Steepster.
I found this lurking in my tea collection this morning and evidently I haven’t reviewed it (until now). This came as one of my dark tea of the month selections from Yunnan Sourcing a while back.

I decided to steep it for 2.5 minutes and with boiling water, which may have been overkill for this tea. It is an assamica variety and definitely has a lot of malt and chocolate. I am getting a slight bitterness in the finish which could be cut down with decreased steeping time, or a lower water temp. This is good on its own or with a splash of soymilk. I will certainly enjoy the rest of the package but I don’t think I will need to purchase this.