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So, the day before yesterday started off really well (tea-related), but went very badly downhill (not really tea-related, except for this tea). Then yesterday started horribly (not tea-related, except that I had to rush out of the house w/o my morning cuppas), stayed pretty bad (I think it shot my tea tastings for the day, too – will get to those if Steepster starts being happier), and then got resolved (included a nice, cheery night-time rooibos – ditto).

The good start to day-before yesterday involved a lovely email from Stacy of Butiki Teas and then two morning cups of tea from the swap cteresa sent me, neither of which will get onto the database here. One was a “random” Ceylon from a local tea shop – local to her, that is – which I found delightful, and which inspired me to order a Ceylon to try from PureAromaTeas. And the other was a home blended chai she made up with a Portuguese black tea, which was so good it made me walk around the house asking “Why have I never thought of chai for breakfast before?!?”. All I can do aside from that is check out the rough proportions of spices cteresa used, as they were spot on.

[skipping over non-tea-related woes] In the afternoon, I made a pot of Wanderlust for Cara and me, as she’s a big Yumchaa tea fan too. (By ‘pot’ I mean the Magic Infuser/Cha Cult I own.) Now, I have to say, with all due sorrow, that I’ve found a Yumchaa tea I didn’t like. Dry, the smell of the apple and cinnamon was lovely, but after steeping it went bitter, which it also tasted. I have to say that my taste-buds were not tainted by the bitterness of the day, as Cara also found it bitter, before I’d even said anything about it. I know Teresa wouldn’t have rated this one highly if it had been a problem with either the cinnamon or the green tea base, so I’m stumped as to what went wrong. That said, I’ve had teas I liked a lot less, but it was both Yumchaa and a Teresa favourite, so expectations were very high.

At least it rules one tea out of my next order from Yumchaa, thereby making life a bit easier! :? (If we ever get to London again, I’ll definitely try it in store though, to see if I still don’t much like it.)

Wow. This was the first of the wonderful parcel sent to me by Sil and what a first tasting! I’ve been drooli… I’ve been looking very hard, and very often, at the Butiki teas on offer at the moment, and this was one I didn’t even give a second look to, as I’m just not a big grapefruit fanatic. There wasn’t much smell from the dry leaves, as I oh-so-carefully measured them out, but the first sip had me shaking my head in disbelief about how good the tea I had not been interested in was. The green tea base is amazingly smooth and sweet grassy without being like, well, chewing on your lawn grassy, and the grapefruit flavour went through a variety of interesting notes without hitting a single bitter one. Amazing.

I had to run yesterday after drinking this, which is why I didn’t get a note on it, but I still had time to do three properly appreciated infusions. No way I’d have skimped on tasting tea this good. I’ll be making this again, and sharing this time with my younger daughter, because she’s interested enough to deserve a taste of this too. :P More notes to follow.

cteresa kindly sent me a sample of this, and I was very excited to try it, especially as we seem to share rooibos tastes and Mariage Freres teas are not easy to get over here! Glad to say we still seem to share tastes of rooibos(es?) – er, rooibos blends, as I liked this one a lot. Not quite as much as Yumchaa’s Chilli Chilli Bang Bang, but I’d have been sad if I had preferred it to the Yumchaa, for reasons of unavailability mentioned above.

I brewed up the whole sample in my Cha Cult (which cteresa and I both also happened to get from Yumchaa and which works perfectly for rooibos) last night and then shared out big cups between Cara and myself. I liked the rooibos base a lot – it has that good woody taste, that isn’t at all dusty or bitter but has a hint of vanilla I think – and the citrus flavours were lovely. Like others, I didn’t even know what I should be looking out for in the “Oriental spices”, and, perhaps for that reason, didn’t get much spicyness, but it was so flavourful I didn’t mind that.

Thanks again for the sample, cteresa!

Not my kind of chai at all, because of the anise, which is far too prominent a flavour to be ignored. Possibly the chicory root doesn’t help, but I can’t get past the anise to determine that. I’d think this was probably a pretty good chai, if you like the flavours.

Have had several cups of this now, and I’ve decided it’s a nice black tea base with essence of confusion-to-your-senses. Sorry, candied essence of &tc. I rather doubt the flavouring is all natural, and I feel I should dislike it for that reason, but it is such a happy smell/taste (though smell especially) that I don’t. Certainly not over-perfumey, despite which, I find myself craving an oil blend I could dab on myself and wear around all day. I definitely am craving candied chestnuts, aka marrons glacés! I totally agree with Ysaurella about the slight chestnutty bitterness, which is nutty but different from other types of “nutty” flavour.

Will try to do a closer approximation of a proper tasting note soon! Just for now, adding that yesterday I tried a smidge with my unsweetened almond milk, being afraid of ruining the cup, and it was lovely that way too.

I love Genmaicha, though I’ve no idea where I first came across it. I’ve never had it dusted with the Matcha before, and am not entirely sure I recognise the difference between this and a straight Genmaicha. Possibly it helps to diminish the slightly bitter Sencha taste. But whatever it is, it makes a delicious cup of green tea! Toasty rice is just the best smell/taste, and it goes so well with the tea base. I think it would be very nice cold in hot weather too – should we ever get such a thing here.

Nope, I won’t be able to make myself like this tea, so I’m offering it up to anyone who wants it. I’m fairly certain this is a “good” houjicha, though I have little enough experience with it. Smelling this and my Lapsang explained it all – that’s smoky, woodfire-ish, even peaty. This is acrid. Doesn’t taste as bad as it smells, but not my cuppa.

If a few people would like to try, I’ll split it up, otherwise I’m happy to send it off around the world again. Please, someone(s), take me up on this offer! I got free shipping as it was part of a 3 packets of 100 g each deal, and the other two I love, so it’s all good.

So, what did I think? I think this ‘tea’ is perfect if you like drinking lavender. Which I have discovered I don’t, despite my love of all things lavenderish. But, I’ve made this for myself 3 or 4 times now, and each time it’s gone like this. Go to take a sip and my senses are yelling that it’s TOO LAVENDERY. Yuck! It’ll be like pouring a bottle of essential oil into my cup! It’s just wrong! (Drama queen about tea? Me??) And then I take a sip and it’s so smooth, and it’s lavendery, and I can’t really taste much else over the lavender, but it’s smooth and soft and leaves my mouth feeling really clean, and comforted. And this goes for most sips, although with less internal yelling, and then it’s finished and my stomach joins my mouth in feeling soothed, and I look bemusedly at the bottom of my cup and wonder whether I liked it or not.

Cara won’t even try it, given the strength of the lavender, so I probably won’t reorder, but at the same time, it’d be a wonderful thing to have around for soothing. Maybe? And for sure, anyone who straightforwardly likes drinking lavender tea should be right on this one.

Well, that was an interesting tasting. Free sample from B&B, and I liked it quite a lot, but am still trying to process something that smells so fruity and sweet, along with the buttery, and that tastes so *un*fruity and so buttery. And not sweet! What’s that about?!? Actually I think some of it may be that the green tea base is more Sencha-like bitter than — well, than not. (China green is more than a bit broad as a category! But I still think it tastes a bit like a Sencha.) Got a few infusions, and all were tasty.

I’ll be tasting this again, and may have a better sense of what I think of it, but may not manage anything much more. Pity a classy operation like Betjeman and Barton provide such useless brewing instructions.

Just finished the last of this off and will have to do a few, “let me be fair” type comments to qualify my meh rating. First thing is that I was probably looking for – not a replacement – but an everyday, cheaper version of Yumchaa’s Chilli Chilli Bang Bang. That’s just not fair to most teas! Also, silly of me to try this one probably, as I’d never put orange biscuits in my gingerbread. Had it had any noticeable ginger flavours, a bit of orange might have been okay, but all I got from this was a rather faint generic citrus fruit. It should have had more taste, as there really are big bits of almond, peppercorns, and ginger is hardly an expensive ingredient to add to your gingerbread tea! (Actually, my bad again for not thinking harder about that ingredient list.) I’m guessing Yumchaa’s rooibos base is a lot better too, as if I weren’t looking at the tea, but drinking on a blind taste test, I don’t think I’d know it was rooibos.

All in all, not offensive in any way, but not something I’ll buy again.