With all these updates I’ve been forgetting to drink tea!!!! (I hope you’re all happy)
I looked at some of the other reviews of this one and I’m afraid I don’t get it. Or maybe I just have a long way to go with my tea preparation knowledge…
Absolutely love the aroma! That’s the saving grace of this tea. Open the tin and you get hit in the face with chocolate (not literally). Some people probably wouldn’t like that but I do. But after that amazing nose, I only get slight hints of those flavors in the liquid. There’s a slight maltiness, but I don’t get strawberries. Maybe a bit of sweetness for strawberries…but I think that’s stretching.
Oh, and since situational drinking descriptions seem to be the trend now…I’m sitting in my apartment working on Steepster listening to 3Oh!3 (also from Boulder). Fatty (cat) is sleeping on the couch and Dexter (dog) is sleeping in his bed – real lively bunch.
Anyways, I’m really doubting my tea drinking skillz…where my Steeps at?
said in a high voice choking back the tears
Preparation
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Try steeping it a little less…over 5 minutes – depending on amount of loose leaf – might be the case. Was it bitter at all?
I should have mentioned how much tea I used in the review. I used about 2 1/2 heaping teaspoons for the pot, which is about 26 oz.
But my problem seems to be that I’m not getting all the flavor I expect to be getting out of the tea (especially flavored ones like this). That’s why I don’t imagine it’s an over steeping issue, I seem to be getting better at avoiding bitter tea. Maybe my problem is setting my expectations correctly…maybe I’m just more of a tea purist (unflavored tea) than I know…
Try doubling that. I usually use about one heaping tsp per 6 oz of water… it’s more than most companies recommend, but you can get an extra steep or two out of it anyway.
I don’t know why, but the image of you crying on the couch squeaking out “WHERE MY STEEPS AT?!” while your dog and your cat stare at you and 3OH! 3 blares in the background is making me giggle madly.
Could be the delirium. [Oooh…delirium. http://momentumoffailure.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/del20tremens1.jpg ]
Could also be the fact that you’re wearing a Shredder costume.
On a nearly unrelated note, does the lead singer of 3OH! 3 make anyone else feel like they’re listening to a Hellogoodbye song when Don’t Trust Me starts? That’s the only song of theirs I’m familiar with.
Jason, try 2.25g for every 6oz steeped for exactly 5 min.
I think a LOT of us were too busy being on steepster to drink tea today… but not me of course… LOL ok, I’m a bad liar. :)
takgoti, you crack me up. You’re my poster of the week, fo sho. I just had to say that. And I agree with the 33 observation. Except that Hellogoodbye is superior!
P.S. Delirium is super strong, y0.
@teaplz Aw, shucks. Thanks, friend!
I like Hellogoodbye, too. Something about Two Weeks in Hawaii makes me feel like I’m in high school again. Strangely Weezer-esque for them.
P.S. Delirium Tremens is the only beer that I can claim to actively enjoy. Being that I have the tolerance for alcohol of a fourth-grader, it takes a little more than half of one for me to start breaking out the WHOOOOOs!
@jack: I’ll give that a try.
@cofftea: I’m having a hard time figuring out the conversions there. Maybe because I’m tired. Maybe because I don’t have a scale and its hard to convert grams (weight) into teaspons (volume). But assuming I can figure it out, I’ll also give that a try :)
@takgoti: That’s ridiculous. You’re being ridiculous.
For one, I would NEVER sit on the couch and cry. I sit in my chair while working and do all of my crying there. Secondly, apparently I’m wearing a Shredder costume just because of my avatar?!?! That’s crazy! It’s friday, my costume is in the wash. I can’t work in it 5 days straight, that’s just gross! Mon-Thurs is the only reasonable limit. Stop being ridiculous.
I will stop being ridiculous when you reveal to us which one of your cohorts is Bebop and which one is Rocksteady. [I’d throw Krang in there but he’s gross and I always hated his voice.]
It’s the dog. His name is “Dexter Bebop”. I always wanted to get a dog and name them either Bebop or Rocksteady, but when it actually came time, Rocksteady was just so impractical and would probably just end up becoming Rocky or Rock. Casey Jones was mentioned at one point, along with basically every other turtle character. We did seriously consider Bebop though. But in the end he just looked more like a Dexter so we made Bebop his middle name.
The cat’s name is Hermes, but he’s so fat we just call him Fatty (I didn’t name him, he’s my gf’s cat).
Hey, a post with a setting is a post with character! :D Even better if you can throw some little background anecdotes in there as well.
As for the conversions, Jason, grams happen to be a standard measuring unit around these parts, so I pulled out me scales and a teaspoon and Adagio’s apricot tea which I guesstimated must have roughly the same leaf size. One teaspoon with as much top on it as I could without spilling was 3 g. One teaspoon with a tiny little bit of top was 2 g. I would say that I have pretty standard sized teaspoons but my scales only deal with one decimal, so it’s not terribly accurate, though. I could take it to work and measure there with five or six decimals, but considering the kinds of things that are normally measured there, I wouldn’t be prepared to drink it afterwards. :)
Um, that’s kind of awesome.
TMNT was the only thing my brother and I could agree to play when we were little before we discovered Captain Planet and the big momma, X-Men. He was not down with the My Little Pony and I wasn’t a big fan of G.I. Joe. My only issue was that they always wanted me to be April and I wanted to be a turtle. So then they made me be Donatello because “He’s purple and you’re a girl.” Those were bitter, bitter years.
A friend and I also once went through two entire rolls of quarters to beat the TMNT arcade game at Fuddruckers.
Go big or go home.
@angrboda: Thanks for the little exploration in conversions, that’s awesome. So it looks like if I go with Cofftea’s recommendation, that would be a single teaspoon (slightly more than “a tiny little bit of top”) for every 6 oz of water. That’s really helpful, I appreciate you doing that! Will try.
TMNT FTW!
No problem, Jason. Turns out it came in handy again when someone over at LJ asked how many cups they could get out of 100 g :)
I read somewhere once that it’s generally a good idea to do that in order to dose tea correctly, but I’ve never got around to it before. Most of my teas are brewed by guess and learning by doing.
Try steeping it a little less…over 5 minutes – depending on amount of loose leaf – might be the case. Was it bitter at all?
I should have mentioned how much tea I used in the review. I used about 2 1/2 heaping teaspoons for the pot, which is about 26 oz.
But my problem seems to be that I’m not getting all the flavor I expect to be getting out of the tea (especially flavored ones like this). That’s why I don’t imagine it’s an over steeping issue, I seem to be getting better at avoiding bitter tea. Maybe my problem is setting my expectations correctly…maybe I’m just more of a tea purist (unflavored tea) than I know…
Try doubling that. I usually use about one heaping tsp per 6 oz of water… it’s more than most companies recommend, but you can get an extra steep or two out of it anyway.
I don’t know why, but the image of you crying on the couch squeaking out “WHERE MY STEEPS AT?!” while your dog and your cat stare at you and 3OH! 3 blares in the background is making me giggle madly.
Could be the delirium. [Oooh…delirium. http://momentumoffailure.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/del20tremens1.jpg ]
Could also be the fact that you’re wearing a Shredder costume.
On a nearly unrelated note, does the lead singer of 3OH! 3 make anyone else feel like they’re listening to a Hellogoodbye song when Don’t Trust Me starts? That’s the only song of theirs I’m familiar with.
Jason, try 2.25g for every 6oz steeped for exactly 5 min.
I think a LOT of us were too busy being on steepster to drink tea today… but not me of course… LOL ok, I’m a bad liar. :)
takgoti, you crack me up. You’re my poster of the week, fo sho. I just had to say that. And I agree with the 33 observation. Except that Hellogoodbye is superior!
P.S. Delirium is super strong, y0.
@teaplz Aw, shucks. Thanks, friend!
I like Hellogoodbye, too. Something about Two Weeks in Hawaii makes me feel like I’m in high school again. Strangely Weezer-esque for them.
P.S. Delirium Tremens is the only beer that I can claim to actively enjoy. Being that I have the tolerance for alcohol of a fourth-grader, it takes a little more than half of one for me to start breaking out the WHOOOOOs!
@jack: I’ll give that a try.
@cofftea: I’m having a hard time figuring out the conversions there. Maybe because I’m tired. Maybe because I don’t have a scale and its hard to convert grams (weight) into teaspons (volume). But assuming I can figure it out, I’ll also give that a try :)
@takgoti: That’s ridiculous. You’re being ridiculous.
For one, I would NEVER sit on the couch and cry. I sit in my chair while working and do all of my crying there. Secondly, apparently I’m wearing a Shredder costume just because of my avatar?!?! That’s crazy! It’s friday, my costume is in the wash. I can’t work in it 5 days straight, that’s just gross! Mon-Thurs is the only reasonable limit. Stop being ridiculous.
I will stop being ridiculous when you reveal to us which one of your cohorts is Bebop and which one is Rocksteady. [I’d throw Krang in there but he’s gross and I always hated his voice.]
It’s the dog. His name is “Dexter Bebop”. I always wanted to get a dog and name them either Bebop or Rocksteady, but when it actually came time, Rocksteady was just so impractical and would probably just end up becoming Rocky or Rock. Casey Jones was mentioned at one point, along with basically every other turtle character. We did seriously consider Bebop though. But in the end he just looked more like a Dexter so we made Bebop his middle name.
The cat’s name is Hermes, but he’s so fat we just call him Fatty (I didn’t name him, he’s my gf’s cat).
Hey, a post with a setting is a post with character! :D Even better if you can throw some little background anecdotes in there as well.
As for the conversions, Jason, grams happen to be a standard measuring unit around these parts, so I pulled out me scales and a teaspoon and Adagio’s apricot tea which I guesstimated must have roughly the same leaf size. One teaspoon with as much top on it as I could without spilling was 3 g. One teaspoon with a tiny little bit of top was 2 g. I would say that I have pretty standard sized teaspoons but my scales only deal with one decimal, so it’s not terribly accurate, though. I could take it to work and measure there with five or six decimals, but considering the kinds of things that are normally measured there, I wouldn’t be prepared to drink it afterwards. :)
Um, that’s kind of awesome.
TMNT was the only thing my brother and I could agree to play when we were little before we discovered Captain Planet and the big momma, X-Men. He was not down with the My Little Pony and I wasn’t a big fan of G.I. Joe. My only issue was that they always wanted me to be April and I wanted to be a turtle. So then they made me be Donatello because “He’s purple and you’re a girl.” Those were bitter, bitter years.
A friend and I also once went through two entire rolls of quarters to beat the TMNT arcade game at Fuddruckers.
Go big or go home.
@angrboda: Thanks for the little exploration in conversions, that’s awesome. So it looks like if I go with Cofftea’s recommendation, that would be a single teaspoon (slightly more than “a tiny little bit of top”) for every 6 oz of water. That’s really helpful, I appreciate you doing that! Will try.
TMNT FTW!
No problem, Jason. Turns out it came in handy again when someone over at LJ asked how many cups they could get out of 100 g :)
I read somewhere once that it’s generally a good idea to do that in order to dose tea correctly, but I’ve never got around to it before. Most of my teas are brewed by guess and learning by doing.