58

I absolutely love lavender, and tend to grab any lavender teas that I can find, but as I discovered with this tea, unlike bacon you can definitely have “too much of a good thing” in the case of my favorite floral. I ordered from Lupicia for the first time recently (I couldn’t resist the lure of sakura teas!) and when I saw Lavender White on their site, it seemed the perfect kind of tea for a lavender lover like me.

I made it the other morning, coming off a four-day long migraine that was trigger during a bought of food poisoning. It was such a strong lavender flavor I thought that maybe I had used way too much leaf (I tend to use a bit more than average with white teas, because it is so light and fluffy; I was at work and didn’t have a tea scale available, so I usually wing it by using two teaspoons instead of one to account for the light fluffiness of the leaf on the spoon). The taste was a bit too overwhelming for me, but I will say it did an amazing job helping to kick the remainder of that waning migraine out of my head.

I thought maybe a cold brew might be better suited to it, so when I got home, I measured out the leaf on my teascale and let it cold brew for around eight hours in the refrigerator, then strained the tea. It had a much lighter, clearer color, and I was hoping it wouldn’t taste so strong. I did enjoy the taste better iced, it didn’t have the sort of acrid/bitter aftertaste that the warm cup had from such a strong lavender infusion, but the flavor still came off really strong and less of the light and delicate floral touch that I enjoy so much; I think the white tea is just too light of a base and there is so much lavender in the blend it is just too strong and overwhelming here. But I still wasn’t willing to give up!

So I — quite literally — decided to make lemonade of the situation! I added a few teaspoons of frozen lemonade concentrate to the mason jar of iced tea, gave it a brisk stirring to mix it in and dissolve it, and… perfection! There was enough lavender flavor to hold up against the addition of some sweet lemon notes to the brew, so the iced tea tasted just like a lavender lemonade. It was icy cool, super refreshing, and the two flavors complemented each other wonderfully.

For as much as I love lavender, I definitely will stick to lavender in blends; a little goes a long way! But I’m happy I’ve found a very tasty way to continue to drink this tea; I’m looking forward to the pitchers of iced lavender-flavored lemonade in my fridge once the warmer months set in!

Flavors: Bitter, Floral, Lavender, Mint

Preparation
Iced 8 min or more 6 g 32 OZ / 946 ML

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Bio

Hi! I’m Sara, a middle-aged librarian living in southern Idaho, USA. I’m a big ol’ sci-fi/fantasy/anime geek that loves fandom conventions, coloring books, simulation computer games, Japanese culture, and cats. Proud genderqueer asexual (she/they) and supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. I’m also a chronic migraineur. As a surprise to no one, I’m a helpless tea addict with a tea collecting and hoarding problem! (It still baffles me how much tea I can cram into my little condo!) I enjoy trying all sorts of teas… for me tea is a neverending journey!

Favorite Flavors:

I love sampling a wide variety of teas! For me the variety is what makes the hobby of tea sampling so fun! While I enjoy trying all different types of teas (pure teas, blends, tisanes), these are some flavors/ingredients I enjoy:
-Dessert/chocolate/vanilla/caramel/cream/toffee/maple
-Sweet/licorice root/stevia
-Vegetal/grassy
-Floral/lavender/rose
-Spices/chais
-Fruity
-Tropical/pineapple/coconut
-Bergamot (in moderation)
-Roasted/nutty
-Tart/tangy/hibiscus/rosehip

Disliked Flavors:

There are not many flavors or ingredients that I don’t like. These include:
-Bananas/banana flavoring
-Hemp/CBD teas
-Smoke-scented teas/heavy smoke flavors (migraine trigger)
-Perfumey teas/extremely heavy floral aromas (migraine trigger)
-Gingko biloba (migraine trigger)
-Chamomile (used in blends as a background note/paired with stronger flavors is okay)
-Extremely spicy/heated teas
-Medicinal flavors/Ginseng
-Metallic flavors
-Overly strong artificial flavorings

With the exception of bananas and migraine triggers, I’ll pretty much try any tea at least once!

Steeping Parameters:

I drink tea in a variety of ways! For hot brews, I mostly drink my teas brewed in the western style without additions, and for iced tea, I drink teas mostly brewed in the cold brew style without additions. Occassionally I’ll change that up. I use the https://octea.ndim.space/#/ app for water-to-tea ratios and use steep times to my preferences.

My Rating Scale:

90-100 – Top tier tea! These teas are among my personal favorites, and typically I like to keep them stocked in my cupboards at all times, if possible!

70-89 – These are teas that I personally found very enjoyable, but I may or may not feel inclined to keep them in stock.

50-69 – Teas that fall in this range I enjoyed, but found either average, lacking in some way, or I’ve had a similar tea that “did it better.”

21-49 – Teas in this range I didn’t enjoy, for one reason or another. I may or may not finish them off, depending on their ranking, and feel no inclination to restock them.

20-1 – Blech! My Tea Hall of Shame. These are the teas that most likely saw the bottom of my garbage can, because I’d feel guilty to pass them onto someone else.

Note that I only journal a tea once, not every time I drink a cup of it. If my opinion of a tea drastically changes since my original review, I will journal the tea again with an updated opinion and change my rating. Occassionally I revisit a tea I’ve reviewed before after a year or more has passed.

Inventory:

My Cupboard on Steepster reflects teas that I have sampled and logged for review, and is not used as an inventory for teas I currently own at the present moment. An accurate and up-to-date listing of my current tea inventory can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/xjt9ptx3 . I am open to tea trades (within the United States only!) at this time. Note that I will not trade teas that I currently have in a quantity less than 50g (samplers, 1oz packages, etc.) or any teas that are currently still sealed/unopened in my cupboard.

Contact Info:

Feel free to send me a Steepster PM, or alternatively, check the website URL section below; it goes to a contact form that will reach my personal e-mail.

Location

Idaho, United States

Website

https://teatimetuesdayreviews...

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