Perennial Tea Room

Day 19 of my Steepster homemade advent calendar from Kelmishka! I liked this one a lot! It’s very juicy and tastes like natural fruit rather than candy. I get a lot of orange and lemongrass, with some other citrus that’s probably the grapefruit. This is delightful both hot and cold. I appreciate that this stuck to being a fruit/flower/grass blend rather than trying to add a rooibos base, which I think really would have thrown the balance.

Here’s Hoping TTB

This tea actually had a note on it saying “Do not sniff too deeply upon opening”. Challenge accepted! But despite the dire warning, I didn’t find the aroma or flavor overwhelmingly strong. Basically, this is a glittery black chai with a hint of plum.

Here’s Hoping TTB

This is nice, but not the best Golden Monkey I’ve tried. The flavor is pleasant: light and sweet with chocolate and molasses notes. But it’s not as strong as I’d like and there’s a hint of astringency in the aftertaste that I’m not a fan of.

I picked up a sample of this at the Pacific Northwest Tea Festival. It’s a good winter spice tea with a hint of chocolate. I’d pick some up again if I com across it.

A sample from Miss B. I think all of my recent tea orders might be waiting for me when I get home, so all the more reason to work on some samples today! I think I’ve only tried maybe one or two Thai-style teas before, although I tend to enjoy them. Usually it’s coconut that sets a thai chai apart for me, but I don’t see a lot among the dry leaf here. There’s some black tea and some rooibos, plus dried ginger root, orange peel, the odd fennel seed…It’s not giving much away at the moment! I used 1.5 tsp for my cup, and gave it 4 minutes in boiling water. It brewed up unexpectedly dark, so I added a decent splash of milk. Milk and chai make me happy anyway!

To taste, it’s noticeably a Thai blend rather than Indian, but I’m finding it hard to put my finger on exactly what makes it that way. It’s sweeter, even without any added sugar, and there’s definitely some coconut which gives it both a tropical edge and a distinctive creaminess. I’d say there’s also quite a lot of fennel seed, because there’s quite a well defined aniseed flavour, and that’s helping with the sweetness too. I can taste cinnamon, and a touch of ginger in the aftertaste, but they’re not particularly prominent. I’m thinking that even the rooibos is helping the effect a little, giving is a lighter, woodsy-tasting base rather than the thick maltiness of a more traditional chai blend.

I’m enjoying this one, and it’s nice to be reacquainted with a Thai chai! If anything, it’s reminded me how much I’ve missed not having one around for the longest time. I’d quite like to try adding coconut milk to this one, just to see if I can amp up that aspect a little more, but I suspect the sample will be gone before I get around to doing that! One for the future, maybe :)

Another sample from Miss B, and a delicious one it is! I think I’ve only tried a couple of “sugar cookie” blends before, and neither particularly stand out in my memory. I think it’s at least partly because sugar cookie is such a mild flavour anyway – although distinctive in its own right. This tea captures the flavour perfectly. The initial sip is sweet, smooth and creamy, with the almond emerging in the mid-sip and a sweet biscuit flavour running throughout. The almond isn’t harsh or overpowering in the way of marzipan, but soft and almost candied in flavour, just as you’d expect. The end of the sip features slightly malty, brown sugar-like notes. Deliciousness in a cup!

1 tsp, 3 minutes, boiling water. Splash of milk.

A sample from Miss B, and my first cup of the morning. I used 1.5 tsp for my cup, and gave it 3 minutes in boiling water, no additions. It certainly smells like lime, but sadly it doesn’t really taste like lime. There’s a mild sourness that’s vaguely reminiscent of citrus fruit, and a really rather nice creaminess, but other than that I’m not getting much from this one. The black tea is smooth and silky, which is nice, but I wanted lime and I’m not getting it. Sad face.

The grassy floral notes in the scent of this tea were amazing in the store so I had to buy it. I’ll have to revisit this one again as I feel that the steep I did following the instructions wasn’t quite as good as I was hoping.

I’m not really sure of whether this is a tea of the Perennial Tea room or one of their teas that they buy in bulk from other companies. Either way it’s an interesting tea. Might be good with some wine added. It says 3 minutes for steeping but I had forgotten I was steeping it (my daughter was not wanting to eat breakfast) so I ended up steeping it for about 10 minutes. Surprisingly, it has no bitterness. In fact I think it’s quite good. The spices definitely have a bit more kick then they probably would of at 3 minutes. Actually, the more I drink it the more it reminds me of a chai.

Sipdown!

Thanks MissB for the sample! I had this last night while I watched a movie. It was a lighter Thai tea and to truly bring out the flavours I added some honey and a splash of almond milk. Generally I’m not a fan of adding any dairy (or in my case “dairy”) to my teas, but the only exception to that is Thai and Chai teas. I found this one to be light in taste with no noticeable specific spices, just a conglomeration of them as a whole. It was alright but I prefer something with a bit more heft. I do appreciate the chance to try it though! :)

Thanks so much for the teas, Nicole! I got an awesome package just for shipping and I super appreciate it. If it wasn’t for such nice Steepsterers, I wouldn’t have been able to try nearly as many teas that I have. It says something when I mostly organize my teas by who has sent them to me… and I can usually actually remember WHO sent them to me! :D

The leaves here lead to a lovely dark amber brew. It’s light for a golden monkey – probably the lightest one I’ve ever sipped! The flavor is more like one of those teas that are all golden leaves – like Yunnan Sourcing’s delicious Imperial Mojiang. The flavor isn’t chocolate at all but a light molasses/honey/maple syrup maybe hints of stone fruits. So delicious. Two excellent steeps.
Steep #1 // two teaspoons // 10 minutes after boiling // 2-3 minute
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3-4 minute

Drank this this morning as part of my random sample grab fun. It smells like lime. It maybe tastes just a bit limey? I think I need to make this iced. Pretty unoffensive base, with average maltiness and smoothness, with no cocoa or coffee, which is a good thing to me. Pretty meh, but at least some caffeine!

I think from looking on Perennial’s website that this is actually from Silk Road but since my tasting experience was so different from the one I had with the Silk Road sample I thought maybe I should enter it is another tea.

The first thing I thought of when smelling this freshly steeped brew was “funnel cake.” It smells like a county fair – hot oil and fried dough. There is a dryness at the tail end of the sip but the overall flavor is very mild. It’s buttery fried dough until the dry hits. A nice tea, but not one that I’d keep around. My tasting of this was so different from my Silk Road sample tasting I’d wonder if they were the same batch of tea. At least I have a good bit of it to experiment with steeping parameters. :)

I have been so busy that while I have been drinking plenty of tea I haven’t been logging much of it. Plus, a lot of what I’m drinking is simply repeats of things I’ve logged before. So I’m still here and reading all your notes – sometimes the likes stick and sometimes they don’t. Still working on some tea news for you – should be after mid-November and it will be ready for public announcement. :)

This is a lovely tea! Huge, wiry leaves.

It smells very strongly of wild rice! But the flavor is very light with honey notes. It’s actually very unusual. Very good.

Dunno why this is called cappuccino anything, it’s just a caramel rooibos. A nice one at that, but I was hoping for a coffee replacement in a decaf tea when I grabbed this. Nothing wrong with it, just… not as described.

Was thinking of this for an iced tea when I grabbed it, and I think I’ll need to try it as such to really give it a decent rating. It’s a very smooth, subtle cup, with only a hint of lime in it for me, along with something that’s not reacting well to my lips/tongue. I’m finding myself itchy/feeling like there’s an allergic reaction happening on a smaller scale.

Had my first cup of this today, from a tea-buying spree in Seattle this past weekend, where among other things I attended The Film School, and ran into Kevin Smith and Jason Mews in my hotel elevator. It’s a nice, solid Thai tea, although I had to oversweeten it (like a traditional Thai iced tea) to have it taste authentic. I can see myself really enjoying this!

Wooo! I do not know if this tea is actually from Perennial Tea Room, as where I got it, the shop owner prefers to not reveal the origin of the teas.

1st Smell: Mmmm. Lovely. Bergamot with the sweet light smell of roses.
1st taste: Just as lovely as the smell. I love the smell and taste of roses in tea. I think the next time I make this, (Which probably should be in a pot.) will be with a splash of vanilla syrup, as I’ve gotten used to EG cream, and miss that, to slightly blunt the intensity of the Bergamot.)

Strong smell and flavor (from the marsala wine). Next time I should try steeping it for a shorter time. Not sure if I like it.