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Cooking TTB #4

Out of all of the winter/christmas releases this year from David’s this is the one I was most interested to try however after suffering from a serious BF spending hemorrhage and an overflowing tea hoard I couldn’t justify a $50 order with David’s to hit free shipping and so I had to console myself with the likely fact that I wouldn’t get to try this and was therefore very happy when I found this sample hiding at the bottom of the Cooking TTB!!

Brewed up at 195 and steeped for 5 minutes I really must admit I’m not getting a real baklava taste out of this tea, there doesn’t appear to be a syrupy nutty pastry taste which I usually associate with baklava but holy cow is there cinnamon and apple!! Tasty and very glad I had the opportunity to try it out but I’m also glad I didn’t break the bank on a sneaky purchase of this myself. Back to the box it goes!!

Cooking TTB #3

Another delicious sounding tea but with only a small amount of remaining leaves… Since this sounded so amazingly summery and cocktail like I decided that even with the small amount of available leaves that I just absolutely had to make this iced. Opening the bag I was immediately hit by the the scent of cucumber and mint, throwing it in the basket to steep I could hardly wait for my first sip!! A cocktail inspired tea at work… oooh, it seems so wrong but oh so right!!! Tasting it, the scent was spot on! Cucumber… mint… this would be amazing with a couple of springs of fresh mint… or even better, at home around the pool with a sneaky shot of white rum in the middle of summer…. mmmmm… summer!! Will definitely be picking up some of this once the weather starts to warm up!!! Delicious!!!

wOOt wOOt 100 reviews!! And it only took me 18 months LOL!! I really need to make sure that I log and write tasting notes for all the teas I drink!! So 100 reviews requires a special tea and I cannot believe that I haven’t logged Laoshan Black Chocolate Genmaicha yet!!! Oh the chocolatey amazingness, oh the toasty rice deliciousness, oh the caramelly goodness, and of course the nutty tastiness!! This is one of my favorite teas and for some reason it tastes even better at the end of a long day of meeting after meeting after… well you get my point! It’s like a fantastic reward at the end of a day of never-ending drudgery!! I don’t ever want to run out of this tea and will do all manner or crazy insaneness to ensure that I NEVER do!!! :)

Cooking TTB #2

With a 5 am conference call this morning I desperately needed some caffeine to help keep my eyes open!! I couldn’t wait to dig back into the Cooking TTB and was looking for something a little more breakfasty to help in this endevor and this Assam jumped right out at me. Since there was only one cup’s worth of leaves in the bag I thought it best to start off with the tea black, then add milk and finally add sugar! Black the tea was honestly a little bland… nice and malty but nothing to really write home about. With milk the tea was a little more creamy and a slight nutty taste was also suddenly present. With sugar this became a typical breakfast tea for me, the sugar masked some of the more complex notes, the nuttiness was definitely gone, but it became easy drinking tea for me. Big thank you to Flyawaybirdie for including this in the TTB for me! I’ve been curious about Golden Tips for a while now and really appreciated the chance to try one of their teas!!

Cooking TTB #1

So I have to prefix this review with the warning that I really don’t like grapefruit… so why did I start my digging into the TTB with this sample? Honestly I just couldn’t wait until tomorrow morning to start trying all the delicious teas and was therefore after a rooibos or herbal due to the late time of day… AND I’d told myself that I had to take advantage of this TTB and make sure I tried a bunch of things that I wouldn’t usually pick out for myself. This tastes a little bit like watered down berroca or a lemon orange vitamin tab (without the effervescence) oh, and a hot version of above… which doesn’t really work for me… but again, I’m did mention that I’m really really not a grapefruit fan right? so maybe thats the problem???

Waiting until it cools to see if the flavors develop a little better…

Mmmm ok, once cool I get more of the mint, its got a much more refreshing taste and is less medicinal. I could imagine drinking this one iced at the lake house on the patio in the middle of summer but alas I don’t have one of those! Its a nice tea but really not something that I would usually pick out or something that appeals to me personally but I really appreciate the chance to try it!! Back to the box it goes!

This smells amazing, seriously like heaven (assuming you love strawberry, rhubarb and cheesecake… and honestly who doesnt???) My latest Butiki order arrived this afternoon and of all the amazing goodies this is the one tea that called to me… seriously it beckoned me… Scent… AMAZING!! So good it deserves capitals!! The taste… kinda boo :( It was a weak, slightly smoky taste with little indication of the amazing ingredients contained within…. I really feel I may have jumped on this too early considering it was shipped with a number of stronger scented teas, my most likely suspect coffee and cigarettes. So I’m holding off any form of rating since I don’t feel I’d give it justice… watch this space tomorrow

Oh Black Lotus how I’m going to miss you… One of my favorite teas ever!! I was seriously sad when I heard that Stacy was finally out of this tea and I had to commiserate with a cup or two of nostalgia… ah who am I kidding, I’ve hoarded this tea like a doomsday prepper since the news broke and I must admit, finally being no longer able to buy this does feel a tinsy bit like the end of the world right now… any one who happens to have a good suggestion for an amazing breakfast tea I would be more than appreciative…. any ways, what can i say other than I love this tea and will miss it like crazy…. sob

I had two bags of this tea in my tea box as part of my $50 happy bag and since we were camping this weekend I thought this might be good to bring along, I generally hate dealing with tea leaves when camping, especially in the backcountry!! It’s just messy!! This tea just screams breakfast to me. Perfect with milk and a touch of sugar it reminds me of the teas I used to drink with mum and dad growing up back home in Oz. Nice but nothing to write home about.

Thanks yyz for the hint to brew this slightly cooler than I would usually for a black tea to really bring out those delicious cocoa notes.. At 100C all I got was sweet potato and bread, but at 85-90C the aroma and taste of this tea changed to this amazingly malty, chocolatey goodness, seriously the aroma was so fantastic I wanted to fill my bathtub up with this tea and just soak in it!! Unfortunately it was a sip down which means another yunnan sourcing order is in my very near future… just as soon as the imposed budget will allow!

There is a definite rhubarb and custard flavor to this tea however unfortunately the stevia is ruining it for me… note to self, you don’t like stevia so stop buying teas that contain stevia!! The addition of milk brings out the custard and creamy notes. The remainder of this tea is going into the swap pile for the Herbal TTB.