Capital Teas

This is a sipdown for me tonight…
I’ve had this herbal for 2 years now so it’s a good thing I’m finally sipping it down ;)

This is a good blend of herbs including lemongrass, ginger, lemon peel, licorice, and peppermint. The licorice is not that strong, in fact I usually add sweetener to this when I drink it. I would like this better if it didn’t contain peppermint, I’m not always in the mood for mint and it can trigger my acid reflux. I will be on the lookout for some plain lemongrass soon, I think…

CT says this tea is good during times of illness… well we’ll see about that!

I brewed up some of this yesterday in my Lupicia handy cooler and it’s been sitting in the fridge overnight. I think this is really nice as an iced tea, the lemon and gingergrass are very refreshing. The mint seems stronger than I remember and there’s only a tiny bit of licorice in here. It’s barely noticeable if you ask me. Still I feel like I am not tasting things normally at all so I still don’t want to try anything new.

I’m already feeling like a nap and it’s only 2 pm. This doesn’t bode well for the rest of my day… :)

Part of the Wellness Collection from Capital Teas — I’ve been looking for a lemongrass ginger tea for a while and this is super tasty. Lots of lemony ginger goodness, I don’t taste much peppermint or licorice here but overall this is a really great herbal tisane that doesn’t need additions unless you want them. One word that comes to mind is “zippy”. Great for an afternoon or evening relaxing cup.

I thought I’d try this one iced today as it’s been languishing in my cupboard for a while now. When I first tried this I enjoyed it more, but now I am finding it to be REALLY tart. I added some sugar to it and thought it was better that way. I don’t think this will be a repurchase for me, I find the hibiscus just really overpowers and it’s giving me a stomach ache. Hopefully I will find a way to finish this off or bequeath it to someone.

Hi Steepster — I’ve been busy but here’s a tasting note :)

This was part of the Wellness blend sampler I ordered from Capital Teas recently and I tried it for the first time today. It’s an all herbal blend with pieces of fruit, which is nice. It’s definitely tart with notes of grapefruit, orange and lemongrass being very predominate. The blackberry and eucalyptus leaves give it a bit of an herbal-y flavor and I bet this would be a great iced tea too. Yes there’s hibiscus in it — so there’s that to contend with — but it isn’t as sour as some hibby blends I’ve had. Overall I really like this, definitely good for an herbal blend; it’s tasty and reminds me of juice.

If you like grapefruit flavored things you will probably end up liking this.

T&C Box 7/18

This one smells so good! I definitely smell both cherries and figs; mom says it smells like fruit wine and I have to agree. I hope the taste of this lives up to the name, because I love both cherries and figs and good fruit teas are one of my favorite kinds.

On to the taste: this is so, so good. I’m going to have to get it. The cherry note is sweet and strong, and then the fig comes in later. The fig is subtle but definitely still there, and both fruits taste natural. This is a full-bodied cup, probably more so than any of my other favorites, but I love it. It’s great for a cold day like today, but I think it would stand up to ice too! Thank you, Nicole!

T&C Box 5/18

This one smells wonderful dry—such a kick of ginger and clove with some green herbal notes underneath. As it brews I notice more of the cinnamon, too. Is this technically a chai? I don’t really know how the classification there works but it seems like one.

The taste of this is great. It’s spicy without being too hot and sweet without being overpowering. I expected this to be much spicier and more overwhelming, but it’s actually very soothing.

In other news I’m kind of in love with my kettle. No more guessing! I’ve brewed only perfect cups of tea with it so far. Obviously this means it’s foolproof. ;)

I am not feeling well today, so decided I would sip this one down…

It’s definitely one of my favorites from Capital Teas and one that I would buy again (and may, since I am going to Washington DC for the holidays). This is a nice mix of mint with the slightly cocoa black tea base. I find adding soymilk to this makes it nice and creamy. I definitely have enjoyed it!

Afternoon tea…
This tea is true to the name, if you want something with minty and chocolate notes it fits the bill. Of course it tastes more like peppermint bark when you add actual sugar, but even without the sugar it’s pretty good. Definitely nice for this time of year as the days are growing shorter and the holidays are growing closer…

I just spent the better part of 15 minutes digging around in my tea stash (and not finding) a plain peppermint tea. It’s strange how someone with so many different teas could be craving something so basic but I guess that’s how life goes sometimes. This is definitely minty but I’m hoping the caffeine this late in the day won’t keep me awake!

Digging into some of my new stuff from Capital teas!

Tea of the morning here — mmm I love this concoction. The taste of black tea, peppermint and vanilla is creamy and rich. It is so delicious! Not exactly like peppermint bark because it isn’t crunchy but it is pretty darn close. It isn’t too sweet — in fact I put some sugar in it along with soymilk. I have a feeling I will be going through this bag rather quickly!

Hm. Silly me. I ordered this during the latest Capital Teas sale thinking I needed a jasmine dragon pearl around to have with Chinese and Thai takeout. I didn’t even read the description, I just ordered it. This isn’t jasmine. It’s just green. :)

So, while it wasn’t what I was expecting, that was my fault.

This is a decent green. Very juicy. It even smells a little fruity instead of vegetal. It reminds me more of a white than a green, actually. It’s very light. It seems to be a good quality.

Love this iced. There is something very summery about this tea.

Thank you so much Nicole for allowing me to try this one! I’m slowly trying the new-to-me teas. I wanted a vanilla tea so I went with this one hoping it was kind of like vanilla. It doesn’t look like there is MUCH white tea in the dry blend… just a leaf here and there. I love the tiny flowers though. I steeped a bit over a teaspoon with this one, to make it a sipdown next time. The site says 190 degrees for 3 minutes so I waited around 17 minutes… since it didn’t seem like much white tea anyway. The second steep didn’t seem overdone even at four minutes right after boiling. The flavor is nice, not the nicest Earl I’ve tried, but it has a nice balance of bergamot and cream, maybe because the base teas aren’t very strong here to give you much flavor. There is a smoothness & sweetness to it. Not much rose for me. But I like that it focuses on the Earl.

This was the tea for the 10th day of Christmas in the 12 days of Christmas swap. Thanks Kelci!

This was a very light straight black tea. I might have steeped this incorrectly. My cup ended up being very bitter. I will have to give it another go.

This tea put me off with both it’s brewed and dry smell, but it was more pleasant once sipping. I could taste both the green and black teas in it, and peach with a slightly vegetative edge. It was a good cup of tea but I can’t see this becoming one of my go-to teas.

This is just a good cup of black tea. There’s no frills or assertiveness, it’s just something that is comfortable and tasty. No astringency either, which is a pleasant Ceylon surprise.

Thanks Kelci :)

So I was hoping that this would taste similar to Della Terra’s Lemon Chiffon because while I love supporting Della Terra, Capital Teas is my local tea company. I am happy to say this this is very similar (and cheaper)!

I finished up the DT I had so I can’t compare side by side, but if I’m remembering correctly, the DT version is ever so slightly less rooibos-y (which is now a word). Though, CT recommended an 8 minute steep so maybe it would be different with less time. Still, the idea is the same and I’ll happily drink this one.

2.5 teaspoons + sweetener in my 16oz steeping mug

I like this tea. The black tea flavor isn’t too strong and the blueberry is subtle but good. I made it with just a smidgen of rock sugar (I suspect it would taste syrupy with a full teaspoon). Perhaps I will mix this with Teavana’s Blueberry Bliss rooibos to bring out the blueberry flavor more. (And silentrequiem said this is a good candidate for iced tea, so that may be what I do with this next.)

(Sample from silentrequiem. Thanks!)

This is a nice tea. I thought it was only a green tea so I’d meant to steep it for no more than 2 minutes, but I accidentally forgot about it and let it steep for 5 minutes. It wasn’t bitter at all, but the fruit flavor was VERY strong. (Perhaps a little too strong.) I resteeped the leaves for about 3 minutes and the resulting tea was quite nice. After reading that almonds were in this tea, I thought I could detect their flavor.

(Sample from silentrequiem. Thanks!)

I generally don’t like green teas unflavored, so I’m not going to describe the taste of the base tea, but as a whole, I love this tea. To me this tea tastes like Christmas. I drink it in place of Talk of the Town November – January and I look forward to it every year.

Usually I love teas with orange and nuts, and this tea is no exception. The peppercorns and the almonds combine to form a slightly spicy note that I love. I really don’t taste any orange flavor in the tea, but I’m sure it’s there.

I could probably drink this tea and Candy Cane Lane from November through January every year and not get tired of them. If that’s not high praise, I don’t know what is.

I had this tea first without sugar a few days ago. It was fine, but the flavors were subtle and the black tea smokiness was a little strong for me. I’m having it again now with sugar, which improved the flavor in my opinion. I can taste the pistachio and I think I taste the almond as well, but the flavors aren’t as distinct as I would like. This is still tasty overall, however.

(Sample from silentrequiem. Thanks!)

First of all, two things. This tea is called Irish Rum Cream now. Secondly, I’m guessing this is supposed to taste like rum because of the name, but I don’t really drink, so I can’t tell you if it tastes like Irish rum cream or something like that, simply because I have no idea if it does or not.

I can tell you that it’s an interesting cup of tea. The base tea has a strong, malty flavor. The overall flavor is black tea combined with a flavor somewhere between coconut and vanilla. Kind of a little tropical. It’s not quite either flavor, but it reminds me of both of them.

I’ve never tried it iced, but it seems like an interesting idea.

It’s not my favorite black tea, but I’m in no way sad I have it.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the transformation after cold brewing this tea in the fridge overnight. This is almost a completely different tea when iced. I even bumped up my score a few points since I enjoyed it so much cold! The coconut really comes through to form this cool, tropical treat. I added a slice of lime for even more fun! I’m guessing it would be a big hit at a summer BBQ or something like that.

When it comes to tea, I’m kind of a creature of habit. I mostly know what I like and what I don’t, which is what enables me to purchase (and review) mostly teas that I know I’ll enjoy quite a bit.

One thing I have found I don’t often like are these dessert teas that taste like something else. However, during my last trip to Capital Teas I was 2 oz. short of the pound discount, I love all things pistachio and I was feeling a bit adventurous, so I decided to wander out of my tea comfort zone and give this one a try.

I’m so glad I did.

The one thing that attracted me to this tea was the smell. It had a mostly pistachio smell, along with what I think was coriander. I usually don’t like teas that smell like that, but I was all in.

I added some sweetener, which is my custom for these dessert teas.

Simply put, I have never had a tea that tasted more like a cookie before. It was great.

While I taste the almond and what I believe to be coriander, pistachio is very much the dominant flavor which is probably why I like it so much.

No dessert tea will ever taste as good as a nice iced black or hot white tea, but this one surely gets to the neighborhood!