Bottle tea: Teas' Tea Unsweetened Black

I may finally have found that elusive unicorn of tea -- a bottled black ice tea that tastes like really good black tea, with no sweetener or weird aftertastes.   In the grocery store this morning, I found Teas' Tea bottled black tea, which advertised itself as "unsweetened" and "rich & subtle."

This is a serious tea drinker's tea.  It tastes like tea, with tea-like qualities and tea flavors.  And it's strong black tea.   As in, "I probably lost a layer of enamel on my teeth" strong and "I hope I don't drop this on my desk and dissolve a layer of varnish on the wood" strong.   Probably strong enough for +Rhiannon theCurious.   But it's oh so delicious for people who love the inherent taste of tea.  After little diluting with water (about 1/4 water to 3/4 tea), it has been a perfect morning wake-up tea.

I found this tea in King's, but I bet it will also be available in Wegman's or any similar upscale grocery store.  It's also available for ordering on-line.

Guest review: Trader Joe's Vanilla Rooibos

My loathing for rooibos is never going away, so I've asked +Christina Kirk to review this tea.  She's drinking it with a tablespoon of honey.

"It's a very nice blend.  The vanilla is not over-powering.  It's a typical rooibos flavor.  The aroma is light and the flavor is well-balanced.  The honey helps add to the quality of the tea by changing the rooibos flavor to something more gentle and mellow."

"If you want a rooibos, with some vanilla, this is your tea.  If you want a vanilla with some rooibos, I'd recommend other brands."

Tea tasting: Adagio's Silver Needle White Tea

Silver Needle (or Bai Hao Yin Zhen) white tea is grown in the the Fuding and Zhenhe districts of China's Fujian province, and is picked only for a few weeks in the spring.   It's a tea drinker's tea.  There are no flavorings and no distraction from the tea taste.

This is not a bracing black "oh my god give me caffeine" wake up tea.  This is a sipping tea that requires proper attention.  Supposedly, there's an inherent sweetness to the tea, but with my over-sugared American palette, I don't quite taste that.  However, this tea has layered flavors that I'd need days of swishing around in my mouth to identify properly.

Pay attention to the brewing instructions with this.  There's a substantial difference in flavor depending on how long you steep this tea.  Steeping too long (as, for instance, when your humble reviewer gets a call from work in the middle of brewing) kills off the subtleties of flavor.  The over-steeped tea isn't bad by any means.  But, it lacks the intricate flavor of the properly steeped cup.

Adagio sells a 5-cup sample pack of its Silver Needle (unflavored) for $6.00.  They also sell a Jasmine Silver Needle, which I think I may need to buy for my jasmine-loving friends.  I recommend that anyone who is a serious tea drinker (or wants to be) try this lovely, intricate tea.

Tea deal!

Republic of Tea is having a Cyber Monday deal - buy over $30 of tea and get a free tin of British Breakfast black tea.

I highly recommend their Comfort and Joy tea as a good holiday black, or their Downtown Abbey Christmas tea.

Tea tasting: David's Tea's Spiced Apple

After checking and double-checking the ingredients list to be sure that "spiced" didn't mean it was going to kill me (capsaicin is of the Devil), I bought a sample package of David's Tea's Spiced Apple tisane.  I'm glad that I did.  It's really quite good and definitely several steps above the Celestial Seasonings version of spiced apple.

As a "spiced" tea should be, it's made spicy with cloves and cardamom.  The tisane also contains apple pieces (duh), figs, star anise, chircory, and black pepper(?!).  Apparently one can't have a David's Tea tisane without at least one ingredient that makes you go WTF??   The apple, fig and star anise pieces are large, making it nearly impossible to brew this tea in a small tea ball.  Fortunately I have a few large brewing baskets that allowed to me fit the ingredients.

The aroma is amazing -- a heady fall day full of apples and chai.  The flavor has a tartness to it, like a Granny Smith apple.  It's not an apple pie tea.  It's an apple cider tea.  If that makes any sense.

Combining the hot tea half and half with hot apple cider was an amazing success.  The tartness of the tea blends the sweetness of the cider quite nicely.  It adds all of the spicy qualities of mulling the cider without the hard work.

Tea Tasting: Mighty Leaf's Chamomile Citrus Herbal Tea

This has been a weekend of teas that are gentle to my stomach.  I realized that I haven't reviewed Mighty Leaf's Chamomile Citrus tea, even though it is one of my dependable soothers.  So here we go.

This tisane is made from rosehips, orange peels, chamomile flowers, lemon grass, lemon myrtle, nana mint, hibiscus flowers and natural citrus flowers.  I hadn't realized there was hibiscus in this tea until I read the ingredients -- there's none of the usual tart tang I associate with hibiscus.

I love this tea.  The aroma is lemony and very slightly grassy.  It's comfortable and soothing like chamomile should be, yet the citrus elements prevent the flavor from becoming bland and insipid.  The citrus becomes stronger the longer it is brewed.  I like a good 5-8 minute brew time for this tea.   It's a good late-night palate cleanser, and excellent with a dash of honey.

Tea Tasting: Tea Forté's Moroccan Mint Green Tea

I'm quite fond of the flavor balances achieved by nearly all Tea Forté teas, and their Moroccan Mint Green is no exception.  The green tea here is a gunpowder green, with a smoky tone rather than a grassy one.  It pairs well with a subtle and subdued mint flavor.  It's more refreshing than soothing, but it's a good drink nonetheless.

I'm not sure what makes this tea "Moroccan," though.

If you want a really minty mint tea, this one is not for you.  For that sort of tea, I would recommend Twinings Pure Peppermint, my go-to tea for settling upset stomachs.

Tea tasting: David's Teas Spiced Pumpkin Herbal

When in Quebec City this weekend, I picked up a same of David's Pumpkin Spice herbal tea.  Yes, I know I'd said I was breaking up with David's Teas, but it was right there, calling to me.  And I double-checked the ingredient list four times to make sure it wasn't going to kill me.

It's a very gentle pumpkin spice flavor, lightly cinnamon with a slight fruity quality.  There's a tiny bit of maple in there, which surprised me because I generally don't like maple.  It's not really sweet at all, but I bet some honey would enhance it nicely.  This is a nice fall tea that I didn't expect to like.

Tea tasting: Mighty Leaf's Orange Dulce

I discovered Mighty Leaf tea in general, and Mighty Leaf's Orange Dulce black tea in particular, during a particular grueling year of traveling for work, when I spent more time in hotels than in my own home.   A number of the hotels on the West coast carried Mighty Leaf teas.  The brand has since become a favorite, particularly now that it has migrated into the more upscale grocery stores on the East coast.

Orange Dulce is a tea that is a tea you're either going to love or hate.  I happen to love it.  But, if you don't like Earl Grey or its lighter cousin Lady Grey, don't bother even trying Orange Dulce.

Orange Dulce is a blend of Ceylon and China black teas, flavored with bergamot, orange, vanilla and jasmine blossoms.   The aroma is wonderful.  It's soothing and refreshing, like a warm orange scone.

In both flavor and armoa, the orange is the strongest note, with bergamot playing close second.  The vanilla acts as a mellowing agent, soothing the flavor from sharp citrus into something more gentle.  The orange-vanilla notes linger longest as you taste it.  That all being said, this is not an orange herbal tea.  It still tastes like tea undernearth, although very subtly.

It is essential to watch the brewing time closely.  Brewed for too long, it becomes a hot, tea-flavored creamsicle, which is more off-putting than it sounds.   Orange Dulce should be brewed closer to the 3 or 4 minute mark than not.

This tea also doesn't ice well.  The flavor mix needs warmth to work.  Icing it turns it cloying.

NY Times Summarizes Current Studies on the Health Benefits of Tea

The full article can be found here:  http://nyti.ms/1Q0is3O

In brief:

Tea drinking is associated with a lower risk of multiple liver diseases, including a type of liver cancer.

Tea drinking is associated with a lower risk of depression.

Tea drinking is associated with reduction in risk of stroke, cardiac disease, and diabetes.

Drinking green tea, but not black tea, is associated with a lower risk of prostate cancer.

There have been other health claims for tea, but those are not supported by current studies.

Unfortunately, most of these studies have been done in Asia, where daily tea-drinking far outstrips anything in the U.S.  Many of these studies do not have a good study of the dose-response rate (i.e., how much tea do you have to drink before these health benefits occur?)   And, of course, even strong correlation (which is all these studies have tracked so far) does not prove causation.

But, I think we can safely conclude that drinking real tea certainly isn't bad for you.   I withhold judgment on Lipton.   :-)

Tea tasting: Tea Forte's Lemon Sorbetti Green Tea

What a nice, fun tea!  Tea Forte's Lemon Sorbetti green tea has a lovely light and sweet tone.  It's definitely lemony, without being the awful, sickly artificial lemon flavor of bottled iced tea.  The name is apt; this tea is very close to a lemon sherbet/sorbet in use of lemon flavor.  I let the tea steep a little longer than is recommended for green teas (entirely by accident), but it didn't go bitter.  The underlying green tea seems to be more on the floral end of greens than the grassy end, and it works well with other flavor elements.

 The website says the sweetness comes from honey, but I don't see any honey in the ingredient list.  I can't imagine wanting this tea to be sweeter than it is.  However, if you only like sweet tea, I definitely recommend using a wildflower or clover honey.

Tea tasting: Lavender Cranberry Herbal

On my last trip to Canada, I picked up two teas from the Seafoam Lavender Farm: one traditional lavender herbal, the other a lavender-cranberry tisane. (It's under the heading "Lavender Tea" on the website.  Teas are in the "Culinary" section.)

Since I am in a tea-tasting mood today, I brewed up some of the lavender-cranberry.  The aroma is primarily lavender, with the sharp tart bite of cranberry as an undertone.  The cranberry comes out much more strongly in the flavor.

I made iced tea with half of what I brewed and left the other half for drinking hot.  In iced tea form, it tastes primarily like a gentle cranberry brew, and then the lavender sneaks up on you in the after taste.  Some cranberry teas have the same bitterness as cranberry juice (which I happen to love), but this is a kinder and gentler cranberry.  It's almost mellow -- I think that's the influence of the lavender.  Some people might need sweetener for it nonetheless.  It's a refreshing, palate-cleaning iced tea.

In hot tea form, the cranberry element is noticeably tarter but still not bitter.  The lavender is even more subdued.  I think the hot brew would benefit from some light sweetener.  Overall, I like the iced tea qualities better.

The only down side from this tea is that I now *really* want some lavender shortbread.  :-)

Raspberry Sugar from The Spice and Tea Exchange

+Wendy Marques brought me some raspberry-flavored sugar (sugar and raspberry puree) from The Spice and Tea Exchange some time ago, but I had forgotten about it.   Today, I decided to try it in some Assam.

I don't usually like sweetened tea.  I like tea to taste like tea.  However, one-half teaspoon of the raspberry sugar in 12 oz. of strong Assam managed to invigorate the flavor without being overly sweet.  It didn't have the artificial teeth-smarting sweetness that makes sweet tea so unpleasant to me.  Yes, it was sweet, but almost daintily so.  It tasted more like I'd crushed a raspberry into the brew than like I'd added too much sugar.

The Spice and Tea Exchange website has a number of other flavored sugars for sale.  Next time I have some free cash to spend on tea-related things, I'm going to order some more for taste-testing.

Ooh, they also carry teas.  Definitely an excellent find.

Alys's Tea Party Swag

For those people who love both tea and books, I now have a Zazzle store featuring the quote at the header of this blog:

http://www.zazzle.com/alyss_tea_party_t_shirt-235293320666494500

http://www.zazzle.com/alyss_tea_party_cup_mug-168857033398440745

Tea tasting: Twinings' Prince of Wales

The weather has finally cooled off to the point where a cup of hot tea no longer sounds like a form of self-torture.  Huzzah!

I was in the mood for a black tea, something slightly different than my usual Assams.  And lo, on the shelf at Shop Rite was Twinings' Prince of Wales, billed as a lighter black tea.

According to Twinings, "This tea was specifically created by Twinings for HRH The Prince of Wales in 1921, who later became King Edward VIII. This special blend combines teas carefully selected from the Jiangxi, Anhui and Yunnan provinces in China where their high altitude and mountain mists help protect the tea bush from excessive sunlight, forming conditions ideal for tea leaf and bud development. Joined together with tea from the Hunan province, these teas create an aromatic blend that is brownish-red in color and has a light, mild taste and slightly woody characteristic."

Edward VII, for those of you playing along at home, was the one who abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson.  Don't hold that against the tea.  Interestingly, though, Wikipedia says "Twinings of London . . . has largely withdrawn its Prince of Wales tea from the United Kingdom market although it is still marketed abroad."

Prince of Wales is, as billed, a lighter black tea.  It lacks the intensity of a good, solid Assam or English Breakfast.  It has character, though, which is what matters, and a far superior taste to the standard orange pekoe.   There are flavor notes within the brew, although I'd go with grassy rather than woody to describe them.  It is not nearly as grassy as a green tea, but I would definitely recommend this brew to people who favor green teas.  It would also appeal to someone who likes black Darjeelings but finds them a little too easy to over-brew.   Prince of Wales is a sipping tea, not an "oh my God is it morning give me the caffeine now" tea, but a nice tea nonetheless.

Boozy tea: Queen of Teaba

I played around recently with some vintage 1920s cocktails, including one called a Queen of Sheba:

50 ml / 2 fl oz Sloe gin
50 ml / 2 fl oz Passionfruit juice
2.5 TSP Grenadine
2.5 TSP Lime juice
Champagne or Ginger Ale (because I forgot to buy champagne)

Pour gin, juices, grenadine and ice into cocktail shaker.  Shake and pour into chilled glass.  Top off with champagne or ginger ale for the bubbles.

This cocktail does quite well when mixed half-and-half with a berry-based tea.  We used Twinings' Wild Berries herbal, which is tasty without adding sweetness (a Queen of Sheba really doesn't need *more* sweetness).    I suspect Celestial Seasonings' Wild Berry Zinger would do well, although slightly sweeter.

Awful Coconut-Tea-Water-Thing

Well, that was vile.

ONE has started selling coconut water with tea.   As I tend to like tropical flavors in tea, I thought this sounded interesting and worth a try.   So I picked up the Tropical Colada flavor.

I drink bad tea-related products, so you don't have to.   :-)

Apparently, this stuff is made of coconut water, pineapple juice, passionfruit juice and tea.  I suspect that the mixture of juices was at some point shown a low-rent diner tea bag.  Or perhaps the original fruits were shown the tea bag.   There is no discernable tea or tea-related flavor in this substance.  There is, however, a sort of slimy back-taste that makes me want to scrape the back of my tongue and throat.

I tried mixing the coconut-tea-water stuff with strong black iced tea.   It didn't help.  

I tried mixing it with  a strong tropical green tea.   Nope.  That slimy back-taste just won't quit.

I'm dumping the rest of this stuff down the sink now, hoping that it won't destroy the septic system.

Iced tea tasting: Republic of Tea Watermelon Mint Black

Republic of Tea has been putting out a bunch of new teas specifically for icing, in large pouches.  I picked up the Watermelon Mint Black because it sounded interesting.  I'm really quite pleased with my choice.  Definitely some of the best tea I've had recently.

The watermelon comes out most strongly in the scent.  It's not a sickly sweet Jolly Rancher watermelon smell.   It's a clean and crisp smell, just barely sweet, that is full of summer.  The taste is minty at first, and then slightly sweet in the finish.   It reminds me of fresh fruit salad with mint.  This tea does not need sugar or sweetener unless you are a Texan.  It's definitely a keeper.

Sparkling Hibiscus Sangria Cooler

Republic of Tea has started making large tea pouches for iced tea, especially geared towards summer flavors.  I came across the following recipe using their Hibiscus Sangria Tea.

I have raspberries at home.  I think I'm going to try this one, albeit without the sparkling water because I hate fizzy drinks:


Serves: 4 servings

INGREDIENTS

2 cups boiling water
1 pouch Republic of Tea Hibiscus Sangria Tea
¼ cup agave nectar
2 cups sparkling water
1½ cups mixed fruit and berries (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, peaches)
Ice for serving

INSTRUCTIONS

Steep tea pouch in boiling water for 5 minutes.
Remove pouch and stir in agave nectar. Pour into a small pitcher and add sparkling water.
Mix in desired fruit.
Pour into glasses filled with ice and serve.

Boozy Tea: Darjeeling and gin

Prevention magazine has published on line an article about tea-based cocktails.  Since I am limited in my ability to consume alcohol, I rely on you, my faithful readers, to try some of these.

This one looked most interesting to me for a summer heat wave.

3 oz gin

4 oz Darjeeling tea, cooled

1½ oz rose simple syrup

2 oz (1 oz in each cocktail) Perrier sparkling natural mineral water

A few dashes of peach bitters

1. COMBINE first three ingredients in a mixing glass filled ¾ with ice.

2. STIR for 30 seconds to combine.

3. POUR in separate Old Fashioned glasses with one large ice cube in each. Add a few shakes of the peach bitters. Test for sweetness, and add more rose simple syrup if necessary. Stir again.

4. FINISH with 1 oz Perrier in each glass.

5. GARNISH with a slice of peach or orange.

Created by Warren Bobrow, cocktail writer for Foodista and author of forthcoming book Apothecary Cocktails

Tea tasting: Tea Forte's Coconut Mango Colada Green Tea

For some reason, adding tropical flavors to green tea seems enormously popular.  I must admit that the combination works.  I've liked pretty much every tropical green tea blend I've tried so far.

Tea Forte's Coconut Mango Colada Green Tea works adequately as hot tea, but spectacularly as iced tea.  The tang of the green tea prevents the coconut, mango and vanilla notes from becoming overly sweet.   Tea Forte claims there's also some lime in this mix, but I can't taste it.  

The coconut aroma is very strong, but it does not come out nearly as strongly in the taste.  It surfaces primarily in the aftertaste.  The most dominate flavor is fruity.

If it were not 90+ degrees out, I would consider drinking this hot with some honey to see what that did to the flavor profile.   I'm also wondering what this would taste like as iced tea with some sweet moscato added.  Or lime juice.  Perhaps I will experiment after work.

Guest Tea Review

A guest review from regular reader +Jody Livingston, concerning some tea brought back from the Kingdom of the Rat God:

I was gifted with a package of tea from the Joffrey Coffee and Tea Company. Since it's summer, everything is getting made into iced tea so I made a batch of the Tahitian Vanilla Rose oolong tea. I made half a gallon and added a half cup of simple syrup. I tried a couple sips while it was still hot, and all I can say is, I hope it was better iced. It was sickeningly vanilla, and I could barely taste the rose. I like rose tea, I use rose sugar, and I've made rose cookies, so I was really looking forward to this tea. Once it was iced, it was just as bad. Completely unbalanced. I think vanilla should be a subtle taste, and not overwhelming. I thought to myself, What Would Alys Do? 

So I added about a half ounce of rosewater that I use for cooking and voila, balance. So now the tea shines, the balance is lovely, and all the tastes compliment each other, rather than the slap fight that was going on when I first tasted it.

A sort of tea house review: The Pandorica

It's not quite a tea house, but it has many tea house like qualities.  British-themed decor.  Vaguely British food.  A section of the menu devoted to various kinds of tea.  Tea cozies.  So what the heck, I'll review it.

The Pandorica is a Doctor Who themed restaurant in Beacon, NY.  I went to there on Sunday afternoon with +Christine Dalessio and +Murray Blehart , two of the biggest Whovians on the planet.  The walls are decorated with Whovian fan art.  The chandeliers vaguely resemble starbursts of sonic screwdrivers.  The menu is filled with cute little Whovian puns.  The door to the loo is painted like a TARDIS.   One TV screen runs Dr. Who episodes with close-captioning.  David Tennant was the Doctor for our visit.

The food was pretty good.  I had a green salad and a quite solid cottage pie, nicely flavored and hearty.  The cheddar on top of the pie added flavor without overwhelming it.  They could have used a lighter hand on the vinaigrette dressing on the salad, but I tend to use a very light hand with vinegar on anything that isn't chips.  The baked potato appetizer, however, direly needed some sort of flavoring.

For dessert, I had a nice white cake with blueberries and marscapone icing.  It was a great idea, but it needed more blueberries or a slightly heavier cake.  Not bad by any means, but just a little short of greatness.   Chrissy and Murray had "fish fingers and custard" -- which was actually a tiny bit of dipping custard with battered and deep fried french toast-like "fingers."

Rather than trying hot tea on a July day, I opted for the raspberry iced tea, which was splendid.  It was fruity without being overly sweet.  There was no tang of hibiscus, which means they had to be using a very high quality raspberry tea to make it.

The generally pretty good food was, unfortunately, undermined by simply dreadful service.  I asked for a refill of my iced tea three times and did not get it until the entire table was ready for a refill.  We waited interminably for our food.  A fairly simple lunch with dessert should not have taken over 2 hours.  (The downside of having Dr. Who episodes running is that we know how long we were sitting waiting).  It was not a particularly busy day and there was no excuse for our waitress's simply disappearing for long stretches of time.

I'd be willing to try the Pandorica again, although on a day that I'm not in a hurry.   I hope they get their act together, because there's a gem of a restaurant in there just waiting to get out.  Plus, the notion of honey pear tea appeals to me, although perhaps on a day when it is less than 80 degrees.

Tea tasting: Tea Forte's Coconut Chocolate Truffle

A little bit of the islands seemed like an excellent way to celebrate my last work day before vacation, so I picked up a sample of Tea Forte's Coconut Chocolate Truffle black tea.   When first brewed, the coconut aroma is strong and delightful, perfect for summer.

I drank the tea hot first, then iced the second cup.  Both were excellent.  The predominant flavors are the coconut and the tea.  The chocolate truffle comes out in the aftertaste, a mellowing influence on the sweetness of the coconut and the bite of the black tea.   The flavor balance handles being iced without any loss of quality.

What the tea doesn't do well is tepid.   I accidentally let half the hot tea brew sit too long.  It had a very detrimental effect on the flavor.  So ice it or drink it hot!

Tea Forte Orange Jasmine Green Tea

Jasmine is one of those scents/flavors that has to be handled with care in tea.  Too much jasmine and you're gagging on liquid incense.   As a result, I'm very unimpressed by this tea.

All I get out of Tea Forte's Orange Jasmine Green tea is jasmine.  Really strong and overwhelming jasmine at that.  As in, it's going to crawl into my nose, beat me up and take my lunch money jasmine.  Like fourth season of Angel Jasmine.

The orange is fairly well-hidden.  I had to brew it a second time with the same bag to get the orange notes in the aftertaste.  I liked the second brewing far better than the first. Some honey also helped beat the jasmine back into submission.

 My takeaway is that this is a tea best briefly steeped, unless you *really* like jasmine.  I don't like jasmine quite enough. Having finished the sample package, I won't be buying it again.

Making your own tea blends

Throwing this here so I can find it again:  http://www.bulkherbstore.com/blog/2013/03/how-to-make-your-own-tea-blends/

I think this is something I want to pursue when I have free time: making my own tea blends.

Tea tasting: Tea Forte's Peach Rhubarb Preserve

I picked up a sample package of fruity white teas from Tea Forte.  One of the favorites of the samples so far is Peach Rhubarb Preserve.  It has a fruity cinnamon aroma that screams peach pie to me.  The flavor is definitely fruity, but not overly sweet.  That could be the effect of the rhubarb moderating the sweetness of the peach.  After the first initial sweetness, there's a lingering tartness plus the smooth aftertaste of light cinnamon.

I wish it were an herbal rather than white tea, because I'd love to be able to drink this in the evening to relax.  

It's a strong enough flavor that this tea would be splendid iced.  I don't think sugar would help it at all.  Honey yielded with a light hand, however, could work quite nicely.

Tea tasting: Tea Forte's Darjeeling Quince

I'm a real fan of quince flavoring in tea, so I was excited to try Tea Forte's Darjeeling Quince tea.  It's smooth and slightly floral, with the tea remaining the predominant flavor.  The sweetness is tempered by the tartness of the quince and citrus elements.   I think the lighter floral nature of a darjeeling makes a good match with the fruit flavoring.

It's a lighter scent and flavoring that the Republic of Tea's very similar Raspberry Quince black, which is one of my absolute favorite teas.  I'll definitely order and drink this again.

Tea tasting: Tea Forte's Lemon Lavender

Tea Forte's Lemon Lavender herbal tisane smells amazing, rich with lavender and hints of citrus.  By smell alone, it's the perfect tea to drink while contemplating the possibility of sleep.

The base of the tea is chamomile, with lavender, lemon, apple and linden leaves added.  The chamomile is definitely there.  However, the tisane is overwhelmingly lavender in aroma and taste.  Lemon seems to be the middle ground, present in the background and the aftertaste.

This tea is not going to be to everyone's taste, but I adore lavender and it completely works for me on all the necessary levels.  It's calming and soothing, while also being brisk and palette-clearing.  I suspect it would be remarkable in iced form.

Tea tasting: Teavana's Passion Tango

Teavana's Passion Tango herbal blend is one of the blends available through Starbucks these days.  It bills itself as "bright tropical notes of papaya and mango with bright citrus lemongrass with a hint of cinnamon."

Bright is a fair description of the tea.  A sharp and tangy citrus flavor dominates.  The cinnamon note is in the background, very lightly blended in.  It reminds me of a hot version of the plantation iced tea I had in Hawaii.  It's only very slightly sweet; adding honey or sugar would probably work nicely.

This tea does not have the over-engineered quality that many Teavana blends have.  Some reviewers have recommended that it be blended with Teavana's Youthberry or with it Wild Orange Blossom.  As I have both of those tisanes, I'm going to give that a try.

Tea tasting: Adagio's Coconut Pouchong

Pouchong is a type of oolong tea from Taiwan.  As pouchong generally has a slightly sweet and slightly coconut-like flavor, Adagio created its Coconut Pouchong blend to highlight the coconut elements.

The tea has the slight sweetness of a oolong, but it's not a sweet tea.  Both the tea and the coconut flavor are more grassy than sweet.  It's not the coconut of a macaroon.  It's closer in flavor quality to eating a raw coconut, yet gentle and subtle at the same time.  The oolong hits all the right notes on top of that.

I'm definitely ordering more of this tea.  It strikes me as the perfect companion to sushi and Japanese noodle dishes.

Tea tasting: David's Teas' Midsummer Night's Dream

I can't completely break up with David's Teas until I at least taste the non-lethal non-rooibos samples included in my Christmas/birthday present.

Tonight's experiment is Midsummer Night's Dream, which bills itself as a "citrusy-mint tea with sweet apples, cool spearment, tart gooseberries and petals of marigolds and rose."  Someone needs to tell them that apples are not citrus fruits.   After checking the ingredients carefully, here we go.

It smells peculiar.  I can detect both citrus and mint, but in an odd balance.

The taste is far better than the aroma, fortunately.   It's pretty much what it says on the tin: citrus and mint.  The citrus is bright and sunny, and the mint is very subtle.  Strangely, I don't detect any apple at all, despite the apple pieces clearly being part of the tisane.  I'd definitely drink this again.

On David's Teas: or, who does this sh---?

Oh, David's Teas.  You are quite creative.  I think just a little too creative for me.

I'm browsing through my David's sampler pack when I come across a tea called "Read My Lips" that bills itself as a sweet black tea with chocolate and peppermint.  Sounds lovely, right?  Until I look at the ingredients:  Chinese black tea, peppermint, chocolate, pink peppercorns, sprinkles, natural and artificial flavouring.

I'm not allergic to peppercorns (they don't contain capsaicin).  Nevertheless, peppercorns are not something I want in my tea.

And then there's this trap, also just discovered, although fortunately without actually consuming any:  The Spice is Right contains "Cinnamon, green tea, orange peel, cloves, chili pepper."

I really don't like having to check the ingredients of my tea to make sure it won't kill me.  I don't have this problem with other tea companies.  They either *clearly label* the few brews that contain chili peppers or *don't put gorram peppers in tea!*

I'm sorry, David's.  Between the weird artificial cream undertones you throw into perfectly good blends and the hidden death traps in your other teas, I think we're done.  I'd say "It's not you, it's me" but in this case, it really is you.

In which tea tries to kill me

I'm allergic to capsaicin, the chemical that is the active ingredient in chili peppers and other hot peppers.  Fortunately it's not a "one taste and OMG bring me my Epi-Pen and get me to the ER" allergy, but it's bad enough.   In self defense, I've become very adept at detecting peppers and chilis in food by scent and initial taste, without actually consuming any of it.

This evening I made some herbal tea out of the David's Teas sampler that I got for Christmas/birthday.  The tea was called "Sugar Plum Forest" -- sounds like it should be a sweet, fruity tea, right?   The description of the tea on the package says: "And this tartly fruity, lightly spiced blend is the perfect winter companion. Just one sip and you’ll have visions of sugar plums dancing in your head. Not to mention apple, hibiscus, ginger and warm winter spices."   So I'm expecting pumpkin pie-type spices with a significant helping of cloves and cinnamon.

When brewed, the tea smelled a little spicy, like the cloves I was expecting, but there was something slightly off about the aroma.  One mouthful later, I'm spitting the tea into the kitchen sink because I taste *chili pepper* in the tea.

Looking at the ingredients list on the sampler insert, I see: Apple, hibiscus, rooibos, ginger, licorice root, raisins, cinnamon, rose hip peel, plum, cardamom, star anise, bruised pepper, cloves, chili pieces, artificial flavouring.   [emphasis added]

WTF.   All the WTF.   Who puts chili pepper pieces into tea?

Someone who is trying to kill me, that's who.

From now on I am checking all of the ingredients in David's Teas because they cannot be trusted.  Harumph.

Tea tasting: Tea Forte's White Cinnamon Sage

Cinnamon can either be sharp and zingy, like a red hot candy, or soft, mellow and comforting, like cinnamon toast.   Tea Forte's White Cinnamon Sage is of the soft, mellow variety.   The cinnamon flavor is used with a light hand, the sage serves to smooth out the flavor.  There's no sharpness at all, not even in the aftertaste.  It's like a warm hug on a rainy day.

Tea tasting: Tea Forte's Honey Yuzu Green Tea

I picked up a sampler of Tea Forte green teas that included Honey Yuzu green tea.  Yuzu is an Asian citrus fruit.  In addition to yuzu flavor, the tea also incorporates grapefruit and orange flavors.

It's a complex and fascinating tea.  It starts with the slight sweetness of honey and then finishes with a distinct citrus flavor, all of it overlaid with a smokey quality.  It's refreshing and palette-cleansing.  However, it's definitely not a tea for everyone.  That smokey quality is going to turn off a number of people, and there's a certain grapefruit-like bitterness in the aftertaste.  But I rather like it, at least in small doses.

I'm going to try it with some buckwheat honey as sweetener to see what flavor notes that brings out.

In which Alys tries to love rooibos and fails

Rooibos is a "a broom-like member of the legume family of plants" according to Wikipedia.  Its leaves are used to make what is called "red tea."   I have tried and tried and tried to like red tea, but I'm ready to call my efforts a complete failure.

To my taste buds, there is something almost chemical and artificial about the flavor.  Red tea doesn't have the sharpness of proper black or green tea, and attempts to add fruits and other flavorings don't complement it as well as straight up herbal teas.  It tastes to me the way dyes smell.

My latest good faith effort to learn to enjoy rooibos was trying Tea Forte's Swiss Apple.  About the nicest thing I can say about it is that I did not rinse my mouth out after drinking it.  It's supposed to taste of apple, cinnamon and chocolate.  I don't taste any of those things.  All I taste is the rooibos and I just can't like that taste.   On the other hand, the tea smells amazing, so maybe someone who likes rooibos will find it appealing.

Soluna Garden Farm's Berry Berry

Soluna Garden Farm is a small farm in Winchester, MA, which has a storefront where it sells its various products.  +Cheryl Kent brought me a selection of their teas when she came to visit for 12th Night.

Today's review is for their Berry Berry herbal, a tisane of elderberries, hibiscus and raisins.  It makes a beautiful deep ruby purple brew that lacks a strong aroma.  The tin recommends brewing for 5-10 minutes.  At 10 minutes, it's a dense, strong cup of tea.  Fortunately, even brewed at its strongest, the hibiscus isn't overpowering - it gets mellowed out by the other berry flavors.

Brewing for 6 minutes seems to produce the best flavor, balanced without being overly strong.  The elderflowers and raisins predominate, but the hibiscus adds a hint of tartness.  I like it, but I come away wanting something more -- more berry, more fruity somehow.  I think raspberries would be an excellent addition.

I may try combining this tea with Republic of Tea's Downtown Abbey English Rose Tea and see what happens.

Republic of Tea Education E-mail Series?

Republic of Tea is promoting its newsletter about tea:  http://www.republicoftea.com/newslettersignup.aspx?v=4&c=CK-ES-D2-GG-IMG-RM-RM1-R01-v7&gclid=CJ_z2fePycMCFW4V7Aod6ycADA

I'm tempted to try it.  Has anyone else signed up?

In praise of a good Assam

Assam is a province in north-east India where tea is grown.  When it comes to uncomplicated black tea, Assam is a tea's tea.   It's smooth and dark and slightly malty, with a fresh finish.   It stands up to milk, sugar and honey.   So don't reach for some crappy, characterless orange pekoe thing.  Reach for some Assam!  

Twinings sells a darn fine Assam that can be purchased and shipped through Amazon.

I like Harney & Sons' Assam in both caffeinated and decaf forms

Taylors of Harrowgate's Assam is findable in many high-end supermarkets and again, orderable through Amazon.

The lovely +Cezilia Raposa brought me some excellent small-batch Assam this weekend, from Soluna Garden Farm.   I've been limited in my ability to appreciate it by the awful head cold of death, but I plan to try some as soon as I regain my sense of taste.

Tea tasting: David's Teas Apple Custard

I am working my way through the David's Teas tea sampler that +Joseph O'Malley and +Michelle O'Malley got me for Christmas.   Not wanting caffeine this evening, I decided to try the Apple Custard herbal.    It's . . . odd.

The tisane is decidedly more custardy than apple.  It's got that creamy note that David's somehow gets into some of its teas, and a definite vanilla aftertone.  But I'm not really getting apple as anything more than an afterthought.  I'm almost inclined to do a blend of this with a Celestial Seasonings Apple Spice to see if it strengthens the apple flavor.  I may also experiment with sweetening it with honey or that apple ice cider I like so much.

I don't dislike it.  It's just not what I anticipated from a tea billed as a "apple" custard.

Tea tasting: David's Tea Bubbie's Baklava

I ended up working from home the last two days because the ferocious cold disagrees profoundly with my joints.  As a result, I had the chance to sample some new tea:  David's Tea Bubbie's Baklava.   Despite the silly name, I found it quite good for a wintery day.

It's an oolong tea with nuts, cinnamon and a host of other flavors added.  The cinnamon is the most noticeable tone -- it's most prominent in both the aroma and the flavor.  The other flavor notes include a little bit of fruit and a little bit of rose and a hint of ginger.  All in all, it is almost exactly like drinking the aroma of a bakery.

This brew is very much a matter of taste.  Some people will like it (me), but I expect most people will find it too cloying.  But fresh baked goods are among my greatest food weaknesses, and there's something about this tea that captures in liquid form the aroma of a fresh, nutty, cinnamon roll just out of the oven.

I can't imagine icing this tea or adding sweetener too it.  Icing it would kill the subtlety.

Tea tasting: David's Tea's Lime Gelato Green Tea

On a nasty snowy day, what better than a tea intended to taste like lime gelato?  David's Tea's Lime Gelato Green Tea mostly succeeds in its aim.  It's a gentle, light lime flavor, not overly fruity.  There is a slight smoothness that suggests the creaminess of gelato.  Apparently there's some sort of yogurt flavoring in here, which probably contributes to the cream note.

What it lacks is the tartness of a lime, the snappiness that you find in a good key lime pie.  This is one of the few times that I'd like a little more fruitiness.

It's not bad. It's light and sunny and not overwhelmingly sweet or fruity.  I give it a generally favorable, although not enthusiastic, recommendation.