Teaopia

This was my absolute favourite tea, and I am heartbroken that it is no longer available.

Teaopia is long gone and this has been languishing in my virtual Steepster cupboard unreviewed. This is from memory, but I recall this being very pleasant. Not transformative, but a good bright cup.

For my own notes, in case the steepster tea profile switches up:

Apple pieces, rose hip peel, strawberry and raspberry leaves, elderberries, bramble berries, sunflower petals, vitamin C from the acerola cherry, and safflower and cornflower petals.

One of things I like about green teas is that they go really well in creamy, fruity blends.

I tried this at a friend’s house and loved it! The fruit is nice, but the creamy coconut and milk flavours are what got me.

Brews a deep orange colour. I accidentally let 2 tsp leaves steep for over 10 minutes and it got a tiny bit bitter (and on the cusp of being tart from the fruit) but not astringent, which is an excellent sign. I’m going to try this again as an iced pitcher starting with more water and see how it is cold. I really enjoyed it hot, but I imagine it makes a nice iced tea as well.

This is probably the last time this tea will ever be reviewed. Teaopia was bought out by Teavana.

This tea sat in a bag, yes a paper kind of bag, in my cupboard for years.

I got two full steepings out of this. It was better than a teabag, for sure. Nothing really noteable to mention. The darker red of a cup of tea.

At the time I had this and an Irish Breakfast. My bias led me to prefer this one, as it had ceylon in it. The Irish aas definitely more Assam like.

Jade Snow is a mix of Green (Jade) and White (Snow) Tea.
It’s not a real Snow Tea (which is not Sinensis) but usual white upper leaves, i couldn’t really make out hairs but there are some light green leaves mixed with larger darker greens (photo)
The problem with this tea is how to brew it. I wasn’t able to really brew it perfectly.
It get’s either watery with less aroma (2min 60 °C, good for green but useless for white) or bitter (3-4min 70-80 °C, good for white but makes green bitter).
Maybe the best way to drink it is with about 3grams for 100-150ml water, steeping it for 2.5-3 minutes at 65-70°C.
with 4-4.5minutes at 70 °c you get more sweetness and flavour (you can smell a wonderful sweet aroma on the leaves after straining) but also quite bitter tea.
but that hasn’t got to be bad. just try it and imagine drinking a bitter snowy “winter” sinensis with sweet aroma and a taste of iced tea.
The tea couldn’t really convince me but maybe there are lovers out there who appreciate the bitter and sweet taste.

edit: today i tried 70-80 °C and 2 – 2.5 minutes and got a better result. No bitterness, more flavour. I used a cold pot and brewed the leaves with 80 °C, so they can get soft quickly, the water went down to 73 °C very fast so it steeped at like 73 °C with a hot initial wash.
The taste was ok, nice warm aroma, but nothing special really. More like a Bi Luo Chun.

I miss Teaopia so much. I didn’t appreciate them as much as I should have when they were still around…

Anyways, my mom-in-law gave me what she had left of this one, but I feel it’s definitely past its prime. Sometimes you can have a tea for a while and it still works, but this one isn’t like it could. It has the apple flavour still to it and it’s got a bit of cinnamon, but that’s about all I’m really noticing at the moment. It’s definitely a sweet tea from what I’m picking up. I feel like there is something else I’m picking up, but I’m not sure what it is… nutmeg? Yeah I dunno.
Anyways, I don’t taste the base at all with it, which is good and bad. I’m not one for oolongs, so it’s nice I can’t notice it, but at the same time, I’m starting to like them a bit so it would have been nice to get a bit of the flavour.

Well, like I said, this tea is past it’s prime so I shall let the rest of it go.

Teaopia, come back!!

From the GCTTB #3

This one interested me when I first saw it, nuts and butter from the oolong mixed with apples and spices? Yes please!

I ended up over steeping this, the wonders of getting distracted by Facebook :p but it was quite forgiving which surprised me. The aroma had lots of butter and nuts with just a bit of apple underneath, but it was a fairly subtle.

Taste wise, I didn’t get “apple pie” right off the bat, the apple actually didn’t show up till the finish. That said the butter and nut notes with that touch of cinnamon was a nice mellow intro to the tea. Once the apple kicked in it just made it that much better.

Certainly not in your face with flavor, but for those days that your looking for mild and natural it hits the spot.

I love you Jillian!!!!! I have been trying to get my hands on some of this since Teavana bought out Teaopia and I could no longer get it. Jillian had some and sent it to me. THANK YOU!!!
I was a little apprehensive about trying this again. My tastes have changed, will I still love it. Is it really a good tea or am I just emotionally attached? What if I do still love it and really can’t get more now? What if I hate it and it effects all those fond memories I have of it? Sigh…. OH I LOVE THIS TEA – I STILL LOVE THIS TEA – THIS IS MY PERFECT DESSERT TEA Really happy to be drinking it right now.
If anyone out there has any – yes please – let me know, will buy or swap for it. :))

GCTTB

I miss Teaopia. I understand that my tastes have changed, but I have fond memories of Teopia teas – Teavana just doesn’t have the same appeal for me.

This is a nice apple tea. Subtle cinnamon – don’t like apple teas that are overly cinnamon. It’s a little roasty from the oolong, it’s a little nutty, sweet apple, hint of cinnamon and vanilla. I like it.
Now if I could just find some creamy nut oolong…..

This is probably one of my favourite black teas. It has a delicately sweet, creamy flavour without overpowering the flavour of the black tea base. If this was made available again through Teavana, I would definitely suggest picking some up.

This was a free sample from the Julian tea cottage. Overall it’s not impressive. Couldn’t taste much apple or cinnamon, but the black base was quite nice. There could’ve been more apple or cinnamon to justify its namesake, but then again these fruity teas aren’t my thing anyway..

Loved it, but I could not find it any more…

At long last, I’m having this one from Ceylon Star and while it was mild, it is actually nice and not too cloying fake.

sipdown

I brewed the rest of this hot and stuck it in the fridge overnight. It still isn’t stunning, but it is substantially better iced than hot. The flavor is now natural strawberry instead of generic berry. The end of the sip is grassy and a touch bitter. I’m willing to chalk the bitterness up to user error. Overall, this makes for a decent iced tea. Thanks to Christina for sending it to me!

Thanks for the sample, Christina!

This blend is ok. It’s aptly named. The dry smell definitely evokes a spring morning. Clean and fresh. Brewed, it tastes generically of berries. There is a pleasant juiciness. It really isn’t bad, I’ve just come to expect a lot from flavored teas. Generic berry juiciness just doesn’t cut it. This could be really good iced, though. I’ll try it that way before delivering my final verdict.

I’ve never really tried any teas from Indonesia and I’ve never really had any oolongs that weren’t from either China or Taiwan. As I’m a big fan of trying new things, this tea intrigued me too much to pass it up.

The dry tea has a sweet, fruit-like odor but as the leaves steeped the tea takes on more of a floral character. The flavour leans towards floral but with an odd green bitterness tacked on at the end. It might be that I oversteeped it so I’ll try for a reduced steeping time on the next round.

I like this one – it’s fruity and fresh with a slight bit of tangyness to the flavour. I can distinctly taste the fig too which is great though I’m not sure where the cactus part is supposed to come in. I’m just glad it doesn’t have spines. ;)