Culinary Teas

Sample from the last TTB. I had to let this cool to room temperature so the flavors could shine. The black tea is pretty pleasant, and I’m enjoying the flavoring they used on top. It’s almost like maraschino cherry juice or something. It’s fruity and tangy in just the right way. This one is interesting!

I first purchased this tea a few years ago and really loved it. I thought it did an amazing job of capturing the flavor of a chocolate covered cherry in a teacup. I recently had the opportunity to purchase this wondrous blend again. In fact, I was so enthusiastic I ordered an 8 oz bag, only to be completely disappointed when I tasted it.

I don’t know if supply chain issues force them to change vendors or what happened but this tea is not what I remember. The chocolate flavor is so understated as to almost not be present. The cherry flavor is similarly muted, although at least it doesn’t taste like artificial cough syrup. I’ve tried making it several different ways to determine if my preparation technique was diluting the flavor. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to matter how much extra Tea leaf I use or how much cooler the temperature of the water is, I’m still getting a very disappointing cup of tea.

I recently ordered this tea because I like the flavors of white chocolate and orange and decided to give it a try. Imagine my disappointment when I realized that this tastes exactly the same as English Tea Store’s Chocolate Orange blend, where it sells for a significantly lower price.

It’s not a bad tea, although I honestly it smells better than it tastes. When I open the bag the chocolate and orange aromas are subtle but noticeable. When I brew the tea, the flavors disappear almost entirely. I’m going to make other attempts using slightly cooler water and shorter steeping time to see if that helps bring out the flavor.

Unfortunately, I’m so irritated by the fact that I paid almost twice as much for what seems to be the same blend as the one sold by English Tea Store, that it’s hard for me to recommend this.

Three to Seven minutes. That’s quite the range. The dry scent is a bit lacking but only, I guess, because this is an older sample. Slightly creamy, slightly woody. The liquor aroma isn’t bad. Kind of like brown sugar. Vanilla. The flavor is bits of vanilla with woodsy tones. Cedar and oak. Slightly sweet. The base is nice. Strong enough to fight on its own but not so strong that it overpowers the other flavors in the blend. Perhaps in its prime this would be better but eh… can’t say it’s one I would seek out on my own.

A new company from the TTB! This tea has that classic sweet almond flavor that I’ve seen in a million teas, but I don’t get tired of it. I have to say that the flavors are a little more muted than I prefer. The black tea is a little thin, and the flavoring wasn’t as strong as it could have been. It’s a pretty straightforward blend with nothing else going on. I would have preferred this flavor with a black tea with more depth, but it was still pleasant to drink warm with milk and sugar.

A bit underwhelmed by this. The cherry/almond aroma of the dry leaf is lovely. The flavor is a bit lacking.

Mastress Alita’s Monthly Sipdown Challenge – a caramel tea

A pretty obvious choice for this prompt. Unfortunately it doesn’t really taste like caramel to me- maybe vaguely? More like a slightly buttery vanilla. Not bad, but not something I need to purchase once I run out. Pretty boring.

I wasn’t super confident when I placed an order from Culinary Teas, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by quite a few of their blends. This is one of them.

It smells just like a freshly baked cinnamon roll- sweet cinnamon and pastry dough.

The flavor is much more subtle, which I like. The black base really shines through, with just a touch of the cinnamon pastry peaking through. Love that it’s a cinnamon pastry, rather than a red hot or Saigon cinnamon flavor.

This is quite tasty- really lovely creamy blueberry flavor.

Sipdown 15/15-2022

Logging the sipdown.

Culinary Teas blends have been quite hit or miss for me. This one was surprisingly nice. Unfussy and easy to brew. Good both with and without sweetener (raw sugar cubes). Would likely be nice with milk or cream as well. Lovely creamy vanilla flavor. The black base is basic, but not astringent or harsh.

Sipdown 151-2021
Not a true sipdown, as I’m putting it in my swap pile. But, I’m counting it. This is not for me. The grenadine flavor is really medicinal and off-putting.

Culinary Teas had a 25% off sale, so I purchased a few teas that I had been interested in. I love almond flavored things, and I already have an almond green tea that I love. But, I have been search for an almond black. This is not it. This is not very good at all.Truthfully, I can’t taste much flavoring at all. The black base is really muddled and cheap tasting.

Bought at a local market vendor. Fruity flavor with some hibiscus flavor. Very good.

The other review preceding my is very accurate. I bought this at the local market. The elderberry flavor and currants are very strong. I usually like my tea very strong but maybe will decrease steep. I threw in the whole bag and left it in. The flavor was more wine-like than I would prefer. I might like it with honey which is very rare for me.

Packed with whole fruit and Vitamin C, this is a tea to drink for vitality and energy.

Elderberry lays a delicious immunity-boosting foundation. The hibiscus adds a tart dimension to the blend, which makes it very refreshing and full of Vitamin C. The rosehip chips add a mellow smoothness to the tea along with even more Vitamin C. The currants give the tea a very distinctive character – black for fruitiness and red currants for ‘bite’ and tangy flavor. Finally, raisins give it a natural sweetness.

A predecessor tea to this in our shop was Berry Berry Herbal, but we think you will like this even more.

Take a look at this blog post about tea treatments for a cold, of which Elderberry is one.

Ingredients: Elderberries + Currants (a.k.a. Corinthian raisins), Hibiscus petals, Natural flavors

Dropping back in for a second to say that this is a very disappointing tea. I detest artificial cinnamon. The apple tastes fake, too. Skip this one, y’all, unless you like watered down Red Hots.

Really delicious, I thought. Nice, strong black base overtones of lavender. Bergamot is a little bit on the strong side but not overwhelming.

Perfect with a little bit of milk and sugar.

I actually had this in my pile of teas to get rid of, but I decided to retry it since I couldn’t clearly remember my first opinion of it. There’s a pretty strong burnt flavor. I mellowed that out with some milk. I feel like it manages to evoke both butterscotch and caramel. It’s sweet, and I really do like it. I’m keeping it after all! This one is from Ost.

I thought I would finish off this sample and continue my quest to reduce the number of teas I have (lol as if I will ever do that).

This has a strong and realistic pineapple flavour. The black base is flavourful, but not overpowering. I can taste hints of floral and fruity flavours from the base. Slightly brisk/bitter, and the pineapple is somewhat sour/acidic. I think this is best iced and with sweetener, but I do really like the taste.

I added a little bit of a chocolate soy milk protein shake to sweeten it/enhance the flavor. I think the soymilk works really well it adds a lot of creaminess, some sweetness, and enhances the spices. The previous brews of this were very unpleasant. I get hints of cola from the spices in this cup. This cup was pretty yum.

I’m really behind on tasting notes and am trying to catch up. To use this tea up I’ve been recently mixing it with DavidsTea’s Kashmiri Chai. At first I expected that it wouldn’t pair well since this has a black tea base and the Kashmiri is a green tea base. With some honey and milk though it actually works really well. This tea by itself was pretty hard to drink. I also don’t care for the Kashmiri Chai by itself either it was ordered by a family member.