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So I bought this a long while ago because I love the caramel matcha. And then I didn’t open it for forever because I’d lost the scoop that I’d purchased with it. A couple of days ago I tried some conversion tables and found out that 15g that is the serving size is just a tablespoon and then I felt stupid for a while. Today I have milk so I made myself a hot latte. It is below freezing outside and I do not keep the heat above 60 inside so a cold latte is not in the cards.

This is…sweeter than I usually take it, I think. I’ve been avoiding matcha for a while for whatever reason so I can pick up a bit of bitterness that is probably just my tongue having adjusted back to mostly soda and juice rather than tea for a while. I’m sure I’ll get it back soon. Other than that, this is quite tasty and easy to make, although really not that much easier than just regular caramel matcha so I’m not sure I’ll buy it again as the matchaccino form. Still, glad that I purchased.

So I’m having trouble drinking tea lately, like there’s some sort of psychological block against tea. Trying to post this comment again because Sinatra tried to crawl into my lap while I was typing and accidentally deleted everything.

So I made some of this today, it had to be herbal because I wasn’t feeling up to a subtle tea and I have no milk so most of my black teas are completely out. Made a pot so I have another mug of this left.

I don’t know if I don’t like this as much as the first time because the tea’s 9 months old at this point or because I’ve gotten out of the habit of tasting a lot of flavours. There is a lot of flavours in this tea and I’m having trouble parsing them out. Hibiscus is the strongest today :P And there’s something sickening that’s pinging at the very back of my tongue that I can’t figure out what it is but it’s putting that shudder down my spine when I drink deeply.

Not going to change the rating, I don’t think, but something to remind myself of if I decide to purchase this again. I think I have one more pot left of this. I used almost 7 tsp to make 850ml or so.

Was served this tea at a restaurant that apparently discontinued tea on their menu a while ago. Nice of the waitress to give it to me with no charge but after tasting it, I figured it must have been quite old. There was no real taste to it. If the other tasting note here is any indication age must have turned a mild ea to a really weak one. I couldn’t taste any bergamot at all. Not going to rate this because I suspect it tastes very different than I got.

Brought a bag of teas to the coffee shop today to drink while I hang out there. It takes effort for me not to turn into a hermit when I’m depressed so I try to be out of my house when I can stand to be. I usually end up in a coffee shop or restaurant. Although I used a lot of their hot water that they gave me for free, I did order a drink and a food item to justify taking up their space for hours.

So I had 2 12-oz cups of this with unknown temperature (they quoted me at 190, but it just doesn’t feel that hot to me when I was testing it). First time I put the recommended amount of tea in the bag and it tasted as good as I remember, but much weaker. Possibly age? I’m coming up on a year for this tea rather quickly. Second cup I put about twice as much of the dry tisane and it was much stronger, that nice red colour that hibiscus lends although I usually hate it because it’s too sour, but it’s really pretty okay with a bit of sugar in this. It tasted much better the second try.

I also had an actual conversation with another coffee patron. Nice guy, cute, younger than me, told me he thought I was 26 or 27, which was flattering. Apparently I have vocabulary patterns more common to people younger than me, but I do spend a LOT of time on the internet. We talked for over an hour about ourselves and aspirations and jobs and such. Conversation started because I was airing out my new tattoo after the first washing (about an hour after the tattoo artist finishes with the painful part). So that was pretty nice. Don’t know how we haven’t run into each other before, but overall it was pretty nice, and I usually avoid human contact when I’m not feeling good. Guess I was having a better day than I thought. Anyway enough personal stuff. Hope you all are doing well and enjoying the weekend.

I ordered this by accident tonight (yesterday? It’s past midnight…) because I mis-remembered which tazo I wanted to try today. I thought this was the other herbal blend, but as it turns out it is the green one. I did not have high hopes about this considering the too-hot water and the fact that I have no idea how long this steeped other than I took it out as soon as I figured out that it had green tea in it.

Amazingly, especially since I really am not fond at all of bagged green tea in general, this was quite nice. Very very mild green flavour (not really vegetal, but still definitely there) and really no bitterness at all. The mint was very nice and the lemon subtle. I’m a big fan of mint. So this was really surprisingly good and I’ll have to try it again when I have better control of temperature and steeping time.

Was at Starbucks until they closed tonight. (Last night? It’s almost 4am). Had this tea with my ‘free refill’ from my tea purchase earlier because of some sort of starbucks member perk. Convenient. Not sure I’m going to use it much though because Tazo teas are blah. Anyway.

Refresh tastes very like a generic minty tea. Just mint. The blend isn’t special in any way. I don’t dislike it but it’s just very boring. I’ve had much better pure mint blends than this.

Sitting in Starbucks, having my first bit of tea in months. I got out of the tea habit when it got hot and combined with my complete inability to make iced tea, well, means no good tea for me.

I have had this tea before and it hasn’t gotten any better since the last time I had it, and was not helped by my inability to control all the variables, especially considering the fact that I ordered one of the herbal teas and therefore did not pay much attention to the steeping time.

Anyway, this is strong and malty but ultimately more bitter than I like with the amount of sugar that I am willing to put in it. I will make my next refill (for free since I’m a green level member or whatever the term is) the herbal I originally ordered, assuming they are still open. I am spending a lit of time here since I am out of work on a medical leave of absence right now. They also said they would give me free hot water if I brought my own tea, just have to get a thermometer because they use the same temperature for all of them.

At any rate, it’s nice to be back on steepster., even if it is hard to navigate the site on my phone.

This tasting note is for the first infusion, Western style, of this tea. Sweetened slightly, don’t hurt me. It tastes slightly beany, as I’ve noticed that Laoshan green teas do, but less than I expected. It still tastes very vegetal but less bean and more other vegetables. I taste some of the milder ‘greens’ but mostly it’s all muddled up.

In other news I am SO BORED. I signed up for a class on aeroelasticity on my Saturday (off-hours) and we spent 2 hours going over linear algebra, which was a complete waste of my time. Using Excel of all things. Awful. I used my lunch break to go over to my own building, which is conveniently within walking distance, and made myself a cup of this tea and carried it back with me. So it looks a little weird because I’m the only one in the whole room with a mug.

Go go gadget airplane flutter.

Wow, I really can’t believe how awful this is. It is definitely sweet. Really really sweet. 18g of sugar per 8 oz kind of sweet. Normally I would sweeten tea with about a 1/3 of that.

Sharing a pot with a friend/temporary roommate just now. He liked it very much, said the flavours were nice, and he’s a much bigger fan of green tea in general than I am. This is again very beany to me. Spinachy and a bit of vanilla also.