Happy Lucky's Tea House

As I was driving south last week I stopped at a favorite tea house about 10 minutes from the interstate for a refill on their cinnamon/vanilla breakfast blend. A 20% off of chai convinced me to try this one and I must say it’s a bit clove heavy. I might need to break out some ginger to sip down the rest of this. It’s supposed to be toasty and puddling like, but all I’m really getting is clove.

Advent Tea: Day 4 from Michelle
I’ve tried this one twice now by the time I’m actually posting my review. (The first cup was drunk on Day 4 and the second was prepared yesterday.) The dry leaf of this one smells like cinnamon and vanilla. The steeped tea tastes pretty similar as well. The vanilla flavor is very nice and there is a slightly brisk quality to it. It’s not overly brisk or drying for breakfast tea though which I appreciate. Accents of cinnamon hit your tongue. Drinking this gave me all of the cozy holiday baking feels. Thanks, Michelle!

I got both this one and China golden snail in my last order and I like this one better. It brews up chocolatey, velvet and rich. Not sure how a black, unflavored tea can be so full of dark chocolate flavor, but I should stop wondering and just drink it. I do tend to get busy and distracted when drinking tea occasionally, I should make more of an effort to savor each sip. Not every cup is a similar sip, but this one should be contemplated and thoroughly enjoyed.

Needed to choose a tea to go. Chai is easy and good for just about any time so this one came with me. It has the perfect amount of spices and the blend makes an amazing cuppa. When paired with a curry bun some of the flavors pop even more. Also love that it has that perfect amount of spiciness.

This is like a light version of a rumchata. Smooth mouthfeel, plenty of spice without being overwhelming. The vanilla is what really gives it the flavor it needs to be different though. Without the vanilla it would be more like a ‘chai’. Going to try this with milk too.

It was a morning. I oversteeped this tea. But I wasn’t willing to give up completely so I’m sitting here now with a second cuppa. This is a very astringent tea; perfect for milk/sugar. Ah. Speaking of which I’m going to add some. The earthy tones are nice but the depth of the astringency is just a bit too much for me. For those Rate My Tea’ers’, the color is a slight bit darker than milk chocolate. The oat milk helps a bit though I think regular milk would be better. If I wouldn’t destroy my tummy I’d do it. Very malty. Comes out even more with the milk.

Sky samurai and I must be on the same wavelength because just as I went to add this tea to the database, I find it’s already there! I have under leafed this a few times, so today I put 1.5 tsp for 8 oz of water and got more flavor from these tightly rolled tea nuggets. I like that it’s forgiving, you can let it steep longer without getting bitter. It’s not very complex, chocolate yeasty malt is the best descriptor, no undertones or lingering aftertaste. A straightforward tea that is a step down from Happy Lucky’s Golden Monkey, one of my favorites.

Often I forget to use the malty descriptor. Malts were and still are, one of those American past times I can’t stand. Granted I am also allergic to cow’s milk… But that is the main descriptor for this tea. Malty to the core. The longer you let it steep the heavier the malt becomes. The aroma is ripe with earthy tones. Wet leaves, compost, musty. The wet leaves are a beautiful dark chocolate color.

I’ve been traveling and when I got back to my tea cupboard, this is the tea I’ve picked first. A delightfully balanced blend where you can taste the black tea on the first steep, but the cinnamon and vanilla are the stars here. This will go for three steeps with the vanilla becoming prominent on the third steep. A nice warming, wintertime tea that I’ll need to replace in my cupboard.

I do like a nice chocolatey golden monkey tea, and this is an excellent example. I probably used more leaf than I needed, but I tend to brew strong cups of tea in the morning, and I was very happy with the flavor it produced. Is this a cup of tea or a chocolate malt milkshake? Well, the temperature would be different, but the taste is about the same. As this cup starts out as a malty piece of chocolate, it blends into slight bitter dark chocolate as an aftertaste. I’m not sure I have ever had an example of Golden Monkey that I liked so much. This is one to savor until it’s gone and purchase again when I’m passing through Fort Collins.

The recommended time to steep this tea was boiling for 5 minutes but I decided to try 3 minutes and work my way up from there. At 3 mins it was spicy and, imo, not a nice blend of tea. The chocolate verges on bitter so I’m glad I stopped the steep at 3 minutes.

I’ve been mixing this tea with Happy Lucky’s Vanilla Black Tea and then adding a bit of cream. Doing that makes this tea bearable, but it is not a blend I would opt for again.

The only time I would recommend this tea is if someone was looking for a spicy chocolate tea to mix into another tea. The spicy part of this tea is on point but it’s the only part of the tea I enjoyed and that part left me needing a heartburn pill.

Another issue I had with the tea was that it was so fine I had to empty my tea cup after I spooned the tea into my strainer/infuser, before I added the water, otherwise I would have had a bunch of tea remnants floating in my cup. A little is fine, but this was much more than I expected (somewhere between 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon). I’m not sure if this is typical for the tea or if I had just got the bottom of a batch when I purchased it.

The smell of the tea is lovely and the flavor of vanilla and the tea came through in a nice and balanced way which I found surprising. I find black tea tends to steal the show against other flavors.

Though I didn’t find the tea displeasing to the palate, it wasn’t something I would pick for myself again. Black tea is a very yes/no tea for me and this one is barely checking the “yes” box even with a bit of sugar and milk.

The next cup I brew I will steep for 2 and 1/2 minutes as 3 minutes still had me picking up on a bit of bitter aftertaste.

EDIT: 2 and 1/2 minutes at boiling and a splash of milk added gave me the best cup of tea from this offering, but did not enhance my rating.

I had a bit of a backlog of Happy Lucky’s Teas so tonight I decided to give this one a try as I’ve never had it before. I followed the brewing instructions on the bag and didn’t find it to be strong enough so I steeped the tea for 4 minutes overall. At 4 minutes I hit right on the edge of the tea taking on a bitter aftertaste. I’d stop at 3 and 1/2 minutes on any future brews.

I’m not sure how I feel about this tea. It’s not undrinkable but it’s definitely not something I would buy again. Not, at least as a stand alone hot tea choice and if it would just serve as the base I’d rather another choice. All I can taste is the tea leaves and I get no hint of rose, not even as a subtle undertone.

In the tea’s description they mention it being good as an iced tea so I think I will that a try as I’m not a fan of it hot. I’ll come back to edit my review once I’ve done that. For now my review and rating is unfinished.

EDIT:

So I’ve made the tea as a cold brew and I remain unimpressed. There is almost zero flavor. It is so subtle that I wish I had mixed it with another stronger tea as a base but I wanted to experience the tea as it is. I added sweetener to draw any flavor out of it and am still uninspired thus my final rating remains unchanged at 45.

Wow! This blend may be my favorite licorice tea flavor I’ve tried thus far.

I steeped a blend of it along with a base tea for 5 minutes at 200 degrees along and it came out fantastic! The color is a nice deep brown and the licorice is outstanding. I even pick up on undertones of the dates.

I love licorice tea and I cannot believe I’ve left this tea sitting in my cupboard for so long! It won’t last now that I’ve gotten around to making some!

I’ll still keep my Stash Licorice tea as a back-up but this is now my go-to for licorice tea.

EDIT: On a sad note, during my last visit, I was informed this tea would no longer be offered so I bought up their remaining stock. (I believe the issue was due to sourcing dates in the tea.) Bummer. Was my favorite tea holding the highest rating I’ve given to the teas I’ve rated thus far.

Lots of malty goodness in this tea with hints of chocolate and Carmel. Very smooth tea even though I used too much leaf the first time I brewed it, no bitterness in the cup. I have a feeling this won’t stay in my cupboard very long!

Had this yummy tea this morning. It was pretty good. I liked how it was light on the earl grey flavor with a nice kick of floral goodness. Loved starting my morning with this one.

Sipdown #12. . Woot! Woot!

For cute pics of my new Pop figures and the rest of my ramblings. . . (I got Mrs Pots and Chip from Beauty and the Beast)

http://www.cuppageek.com/index.php/2015/08/27/epic-sipdown-12-madame-grey-from-happy-luckys-tea-house/

Cold Brew!

This was one of the things that got added into the Herbal Blending Box, and it’s something I’d never had before, let alone heard of, so I decided to try it on its own to see what I think of it before mixing it with anything. I definitely like how it looks visually though; it’s fluffy and light and the green and purple colours contrast really well.

It brewed up incredibly light in colour. I’m having a very hard time describing the flavor; it reminds me of chlorophyll and the air before it rains but then there’s this note that reminds me of the taste you get in your mouth when you lick a battery. Don’t judge me; it was an intense game of truth or dare and I know I’m not the only one who’s done it. Finally, the finish is like a very, very watered down sage flavor. This is so peculiar and interesting; and I’m liking it a lot actually.

I can’t really think of how I’d use it in a blend, though. But I’m sure I’ll figure it out – there’s enough here to play around with. There’s definitely a particular flavor I want to put my effort into recreating first, though.

Today’s word of the day is… “Insurrection.”

Insurrection is “an act or instance of rising in revolt, rebellion, or resistance against civil authority or an established government”.

I wanted to compare these with Teavivre’s black pearls, and I think I prefer Teavivre’s. These pearls have 2 good steeps in them and then I find it quite weak. I find myself just wanting more with these. Good enough, but could be better.

Bonnie sent me a sample of this tea some time back and I have only now found myself in the right mental place to taste it. So, I threw the pillow into a gaiwan today after work and set to. I’m glad I did. It’s light, floral and sweet with a vegetal base note. It reminds me of why I really should drink more oolong. I should probably write more about it, but the other two tasting notes tell you as much as I would. Read them for more on the tea, because I am going to focus on drinking it instead of writing about it! Thank you, Bonnie.