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Was out of town and tealess for a few days. Back now.

Actually, I wasn’t completely tealess. I did have a Peet’s darjeeling from the gift shop at Asilomar state park. The other times I tried to have tea at the event I went to I was foiled in my attempts by a lack of hot water. There were plenty of Bigelow’s and Lipton’s bags, just never any water in the urn by the time I got my cup over to it.

Anyhoo. This is a strange little tisane. The cinnamon, as I’m finding is usual when it’s an ingredient, is very obvious, but there’s also another equally strong, and somewhat rounder taste which I’m going to say is licorice owing to the licorice root and star anise ingredients, with perhaps some rootbeer thrown in from the sarsaparilla. I don’t notice the orange peel at all. The combination of the two main flavors results in a cinnamon that is sweet rather than spicy, and a licorice/rootbeer that is spicy rather than sweet.

I don’t usually think of pairing cinnamon with licorice. Licorice is such a strong flavor, I don’t really think of pairing it with anything. And I have a sort of a like/hate relationship with it. If I’m in the mood for it I enjoy it, but I never find myself thinking “wow, some licorice would be really great right now, it would really hit the spot.” Sometimes it can affect me badly, and give me a bit of a tummy ache. I’ve been giving this one a try on and off for a month or so now. Though it would never be something I would drink daily or even regularly, I can see it being something I’d dip into occasionally, probably more in the cooler months than in the spring-like weather I’m enjoying today.

I’m certain there’s more in this one than what’s listed in the ingredients. For one thing: coconut. I think. I’m pretty sure. I can see dry, sort of curly white strips in the dry mix that had the texture of coconut when I bit one, but it was too small to emit any significant flavor on its own. I can see the little orange pieces of carrot, the chopped nuts, and brown spiky bits of sweetened cinnamon. The dry aroma is delicious. Really. It is exactly like carrot cake. Amazingly, given the spiciness of it, down to the scent of the carrots.

It’s a pretty reddish orange color. The red must be from the rooibos. It smells very cinnamony and rooibosy. The multifaceted smell of the dry mixture isn’t obvious in the brewed version, but it can be detected.

The flavor is enjoyable; spicy, not too sweet, and yes, there’s even a little bit of carrot in there, mostly in the aftertaste. It’s definitely the cake minus the icing, though. Carrot cakes tend to have that creamy, lemony icing, and only the very tiniest hint of that is present, and only a number of minutes after the last drop of tea has been consumed.

This one may be better a little on the strong side, so I plan to steep a bit longer next time and maybe increase the quantity some.

I wish this tasted exactly like it smells. If it did, I would have given it a 100. As it is, I think there’s a lot yet to be discovered and appreciated about this one and I’m looking forward to giving it many more chances to impress me.

Finished my box of this yesterday. I’d been making it two bags at a time in 16 oz water the last few times and ended up with a single bag left. That single bag cup was an improvement. It must have been the best ratio of water to bag I’d tried yet. The green tea was discernible in the taste. Unfortunately, the tartness was still too present, and the raspberry too missing, to make me change my mind about it.

(backlogging)

Very smooth and mellow, not at all earthy-tasting. A nice, straight up spearmint. Though I prefer peppermint in terms of flavor, this gets high marks for being good at what it is.

I guess this is what you call backlogging?

Last night I was so exhausted from working until after midnight the night before (and starting before 7 a.m. the next morning) that I went directly to bed after dinner. But the night before that, I decided to try replicating this flavor using loose spearmint and peppermint leaves and some tarragon I found on the spice shelf.

I didn’t recall Refresh being overly pepperminty, so I thought they must go heavier on the spearmint. Accordingly, my concoction was 2 parts spearmint, 1 part peppermint and 1/2 part tarragon. It tasted pretty good, and, I thought, similar to what I remembered Refresh tasting like. Then I had Refresh, to compare.

Boy, was I wrong. Big difference. First, the peppermint is stronger than it seemed. Second, the tarragon is actually more responsible for the taste, or perhaps the synergy among the ingredients, than I’d expected. The Refresh tasted much better than my attempt. Much… fresher.

Next time I think I will try a 1:1 ratio of spearmint and peppermint. I may also have to buy some fresher tarragon. And finally, I may need a different peppermint. Although I really like the Upton spearmint, this batch of peppermint, also from Upton, is too earthy for me. I find the dirt undercurrent distracting. I suppose I could also try washing the leaves, so perhaps I’ll do that as well.

Made some of this to caffeinate myself because I have work to do tonight. Either it’s different this time or I was generous last time — it’s coming across as pretty harsh. Maybe it’s because I don’t put milk or anything else for that matter in my tea. Maybe I should change that. Bumping it down a few notches in the rating for being uneven.

This is the second of the Teavana lemons and I have to say I really really like this one. I’m not done with the perfect lemon search but I’m not planning to spend the rest of my life on it (too many teas, too little time) and anyway, I have a feeling that like love, the perfect tea generally shows up when you’re least expecting it and never when you’re out there looking for it. But for now, this could be my standard lemon. At least it’s a contender.

It’s got that chunky fruit thing going that Lemon Youkou also had, but it’s a little more under control; I haven’t found a 2 inch orange slice in this one, but it’s delightful looking. The textures and colors are almost autumnal, except for the strawberries. The color palette of leaves changing in the fall. The fragrance of the dried fruit is sweet. The strawberry is there in a now you smell it now you don’t kind of way. Sometimes it’s a distinct strawberry smell other times it’s a generic sugary one. The lemon, of course, is there too.

I can’t tell you what color it is because, silly me, every time I have made this one I seem to have made it in a green ceramic cup. But the taste is yummy. Very lemon, and sweet without overdoing it. The strawberry is responsible for the sweetness, but it’s second fiddle to the lemon and virtually indistinct unless you really taste for it, which is probably why I like it so much. I wasn’t looking for strawberry in my perfect lemon.

I can see myself bumping up the rating if the continued search doesn’t turn up something really awesome, but I’m being conservative for now because I’m not done.

Thanks denisend and wombatgirl for the recommendation!

I’ve been experimenting with different mints and I really like this one. I didn’t expect to like it as much as I do, but right now it’s leading the pack on the mint front.

The mix of peppermint and spearmint, unexpectedly (to me anyway), seems to have a synergy that makes this tisane more enjoyable than a straight peppermint or spearmint, without tasting like Wrigley’s Doublemint. The spearmint smooths out and mellows the peppermint, and the peppermint gives a jolt to the spearmint that keeps it from being too passive and dull. The tarragon is just a touch, fortunately, as while tarragon has a place in my spice pantheon I don’t love it if it is too overbearing. But it is present and may be what prevents the Doublemint effect — if so, I’m grateful to it.

I’m drinking the “full leaf” Starbucks tin version of this, using two bags in 16 oz of water.

A second cup using a different formula. The directions recommend 2-3 teaspoons and 8 minutes. The first time I went with 3 tsp for 8 minutes. This time, 2 tsp for 5.

Interesting contrast. I prefer the 2 tsp at 5 minutes. It seems to lessen the earthy smell I mentioned before without weakening the flavor. Or perhaps I’m just getting used to that smell…

Straight up peppermint. There’s not much not to like about this if you like peppermint and I do. It’s nicely minty without any fake candy cane taste to it, but not so strong that you have the feeling it’s been doused with additional peppermint oil or flavorings to artifically enhance the taste. The only thing I found surprising is the aroma, which is a lot more earthy than I’d expected. But this is my first loose peppermint, so as far as I know it’s entirely possible they all smell like this but the bags screen out some of the loamy, planty smell.