Steven Smith Teamaker

Four years after I first tried this hot, I finally tried it as a cold brew. I want to drink only this for a week, LOL. I imagine this would be great sitting in a garden in Portland, Oregon, with a bright white Oregon sky. Or, instead of a garden, in the parking lot of the abandoned Fry’s Electronics building in Wisonville, Oregon.

The flavor really pops with a cold brew, about as well as hot-brewed. The vegetal/grassy toasty green tea balances nicely with the rose flavor.

It smells toasty, a bit rosy, and delicious!

If they don’t serve this at the Japanese Garden in Portland, it’s a shame. I ordered a box of this based on the concept alone, and I’m glad I did! I love genmaicha, and I love roses. They go great together here. I don’t remember a genmaicha tasting quite this toasty, but I’m definitely a fan.

Contemplate the tranquility of a nice garden while sipping this tea. Mmm.

Nice, bright peppermint with a grassy note. I don’t know if I’ve had peppermint leaves from the Northwest before. It’s a very pleasant taste, much nicer than peppermint starlight candy or minty toothpaste. Heck, I don’t even use minty toothpaste any more. Bleh.

I remember my favorite tea with peppermint was an herbal from Peet’s, from when they made their own teas, called Xiao’s Blend. It had chamomile and peppermint. Oh hey, they still sell it online, interesting. By the pound?! Is it made by Mighty Leaf? So many questions. Would probably be easy enough to approximate with bulk chamomile and peppermint leaves.

Anyway, got off track there. This tea is good. I’ve now tried each type from my Steven Smith sampler, time to make an order to stock the tea shelf at the office.

It’s very pretty in the bag with all the flowers! It smells like chamomile. It tastes a little sweet, with the lemon myrtle standing out a bit above the chamomile. It’s a bit floral too, with a little minty note.

I’ve been going through my Steven Smith sampler at work one tea at a time. I know it’s a bit silly to drink this as a “wake up” tea in the morning… but it is very tasty.

This reminds me of English breakfast, but reinvented. I’m getting used to that concept from Steven Smith.

I taste caramel, black tea, and note of blackstrap molasses and raisins. It’s also a bit sweet. I’m sure this would go fine British style with milk, but it’s great as-is.

I recommend having this magical tea served to you by a silkie in the English countryside before going about your day learning spells from an ancient magus. But however you prefer is probably fine too.

I poured the water slowly and at a distance from the hot water tap at work, to cool it down enough for green tea.

This is a nice, smooth tea. It’s very vegetal, with a strong asparagus note. Good job, Steven Smith.

The water from the water cooler hot tap at work is pretty close to boiling.

This smells nice, subtle bergamot.

The balance is great with this one. The bergamot is present but not overpowering, and there’s a creamy mouthfeel. I’ll bet it would make a great London fog too.

And sipdown!
This was never my favorite blend- I found it veered too easily into bitter, which is unfortunate.
I actually tried it with a splash of milk, something I almost never do, and found it very agreeable. But, as I almost never have tea with milk, this blend is probably not the breakfast blend for me.
Still, very nice to try!

Less than nice work situation continues, but there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. We are not out of it yet, but there are huge steps towards a resolution. Gosh I hope so.
Normally I love my job. I love coming into the office, I love by boss, I find the company great, all sorts of good things. This week has certainly needed frequent reminders that everything is good, and I am very happy, and this will pass. In a few years I wont remember it at all.
I’m still not quite sure about this breakfast blend. I’m finding it a little bitter, which is never what you want in your first cup of the day. But there is a richness of flavor, after the initial bitter sip, so I am not opposed to playing around with it.
Hmm.

Its going to be a long day. I feel it.
Ugh.
I’ve gotta keep the tea coming, then. And we’ll start the day with this, which is very rich and strong. I’m gonna need that today.

Well, time to crack open a new tea! And whoo boy, is it a strong one.
Thats not a criticism, exactly. Sometimes a very strong tea is exactly what I need. But this morning I’m finding it maybe a little too malty…
Breakfast blends and I are not always the very best of friends, but I am getting to know them better, which is very good!

My roommate received this tea from a friend as a holiday gift. Looks like the tea is not available at the moment since the season is over. The description on the box said it combines “flavorful Ceylons, rich North Indian Assams, and high-grown Darjeeling teas with rosemary, black currant and a pinch of cassia”, which is a mix definitely different from most of the other things in our absurd tea cabinet. So, I gave it a try.

The version we have is in cloth sachets but based on the total weight I calculated each is about 2.3g. The sachets are a good size and the tea has plenty of room to expand, so no complaint here. I got to use one of our cute but oddly shaped mugs that the steep baskets don’t fit in.

The black tea is lovely and strong, fairly tannic. Of the additional flavors they list, I pretty much just get the rosemary which also hits strongly in the nose, but I absolutely love it. It’s like sitting right next to the Christmas tree and breathing deeply. I’m only docking a few points because reading the description I was expecting a hint of sour fruit from the currants.

Big Hibiscus sounds like the name of a tea that I want nothing to do with…

Not much to my surprise at all, I’m not really into this tea. It’s super tart tasting with this God awful licorice root sweet finish that crawls down the back of your throat and lingers for far too long than is comfortable. Bleck.

With buckwheat honey and almond milk.

So, this is day three with a KILLER headache/sore neck. Not sure why I’m in so much pain, I’m thinking I slept funny and just got a bad kink in my neck. Some of the only things providing relief right now are lying flat on my back, applying peppermint oil to my neck/back of my head, and drinking tea with lots of cloves!?

That’s what I’m doing right now – and the tea tastes fine. It’s super average; a good representation of a typical Masala Chai, I suppose? The cinnamon and anise notes are a little stronger than the rest of the spices. I’m primarily drinking it to ease the pain I’m in though, and not for the taste. Meh.

Lucky 13th day of my advent calendar from Sara!

This is a pretty tasty Moroccan Mint. I taste the spearmint and lemon, and at the end of the sip, I swore I tasted bergamot at first, but that must be the myrtle. It’s smooth and kind of creamy somehow. The lemon and spearmint balance nicely until the end of the sip, where the myrtle takes over.

I got this in a little trade with Lexie Aleah! Thank you! I’m kinda amused by the name of this tea company. My uncle’s name is Steven Smith.

My eyes have been opened to chamomile only recently. I had previously overlooked it, thinking it was stuffy and boring, but I have gotten over my prejudices against caffeine free teas. And I have tasted some fresh, quality chamomiles. This is no exception. I was pleased by the sight of the sachet, full of pale dried flowers and a few colorful petals, with linden collected in the bottom. The aroma was sweet, clean, and floral. Appley chamomile is the main thing I taste. So calming. I’m also getting floral notes that end with a little bitterness/fullness I don’t recognize. Maybe that’s hyssop? I’m not sure. I understand that there are a lot of herbs in this, but really, I mostly just taste chamomile. And that’s lovely. Makes me want to get into bed.

I’m curious about the rest of this company’s offerings now. Going to have to check them out.

The variety of dried flowers in the sachet are a pretty sight. I’m not sure what most of them contribute in flavor since this a predominantly sweet, apple-chamomile tasting tisane. Very fresh and full of flavor. It doesn’t taste like wood nor is it drying which is a major plus. Like with No. 39 Fez, the lemon myrtle really comes out with a second steep.

This blend doesn’t excite me much since I’m not in love with flowers (except citrus), but it’s clearly high quality and I’m happy to be drinking it. It’s definitely worth a try if you’re looking for a great chamomile-based tisane. Thanks for sharing, Mastress Alita :)

I typed a really long piece on fire ecology, prescribed burning and my emotional sadness regarding the victims of the current Camp Fire in northern California but this is not the place for that so I deleted it. The smoke from that fire has blown southwest and blanketed the Bay. I’ve had a persistent headache for 3 days and woke up with a very rare nosebleed this morning. I brewed this sample from Mastress Alita, something light and refreshing that might make me feel a little better.

Fez is a pleasant blend of a grassy Chinese green, lemon myrtle and spearmint. I think the spearmint is a little underplayed here and the lemon myrtle too dominant for the type of green tea used. A second steep really brings out the lemon myrtle and a tinge of astringency. Whatever compound is responsible for lemon myrtles scent and taste seems to be the same used in lemon PEZ candy and in lemon Pledge furniture cleaner/polish, so don’t do that second steep if either of those turns you off. Otherwise, I find this to be to be a generally nice, smooth blend and would really like to try it as a cold brew.

Received this sachet as a gift from Mastress Alita, thanks.

It’s Earl Grey. It’s good. Good aroma, beautiful dark red color, good body with a little astringency, great fruity/berry-tasting base tea and a perfect level of bergamot for me. It might be one of the best Early Greys I’ve ever had. I don’t think there’s much more to say.

I’ve been drinking this at work, where it has done very well. I like this blend, but I don’t love it, and doubt it will be a repeat.
Its the sort of breakfast style blend that would really be better with milk and sugar, and as I almost never drink those, it’s not quite my thing.
Still, always happy to try new teas!

I’ve decided to bring this as the current work desk tea, as its very nice. It will be a good work companion, solid, dependable, strong.
And strong is needed this week. Tech week is progressing just as tech week always does, which is to say it makes you wonder why you ever decided to peruse the arts at all.
So, right on schedule then.
It also means late nights, so a strong work tea is absolutely essential

So far this has been a nice blend. The one detraction is that the mouthfeel is a bit dry.
I feel that this was a tea designed to take milk, so I may try it that way in future.

So, in addition to being a tea drinker, I am also a knitter. I am a total cliche, but I adore the times where I can be curled up in my cozy chair, with a big mug of tea and my knitting, and just feel like Miss Marple. So, when I saw that this yarn company (Churchmouse) I snapped it up.
So Churchmouse has a collaboration with Smith Tea Maker, and there are four blends, one for each season. I am predictable, so I grabbed up the one for autumn.
Its a really nice breakfast blend. Sturdy, just the tiniest bit astringent, and well balanced. I think it would take milk and sugar very, very well.
It would also be a great cup of tea to drink while sitting in a big cozy chair and work on a knitting project!