Capital Teas

Backlog 13/67
From Carol Who.

When I found this tea I was very, very surprised. A spicy tea? What’s that? :D Being terrified of spiciness, I avoided it for a while. But tonight being another tasting night, I decided to give it a go. With much trepidation, I brewed my cup, sat it on the table and began tasting with my sister. Meanly, I handed this cup to her first. I didn’t warn her. I’m a terrible person.

But her face was priceless.

After she finished beating me, I tried it. It was spicy water with no flavor to me. She got her husband who is the one we nicknamed “Dragon” for reasons not entirely unrelated to his spicy eating habits. He almost liked it. Almost. But to him, the afterburn was just an annoyance. It didn’t provide a nice enough burn on the tongue and there was no good flavor surrounding the burn. We sweetened and cooled it next and he said maybe if it were “Southern-style sweet tea” (read: Iced and way too much sugar) it might be good. But as it was, it was the wrong kind of spicy for him.

And if you want proof that I’m a terrible person… next I let my 7 year old daughter try it.

… I am a terrible, terrible person.

(No children were harmed in the making of this review. She giggled after she finished washing the taste out.)

That said, no. Just no. Not for me. Thank you Carol Who.. .for the most entertaining “NO” I’ve had yet in a tea. :)

There’s a Capital Teas nearby now, so I’m giving them a try. My first cup was Cream Earl Grey. It was fine, but I was expecting more of a cream taste. It was more or less a hint of vanilla added to a somewhat subdued Earl Grey. If anything, the vanilla seemed to muddy the brightness of the Earl Grey’s bergamot to me. I I like my bergamot to sing. Added milk or cream and sweetener would probably bring out the creaminess of the vanilla, but I had my cup plain. So not bad, not great. I’ve not had cream earl grey from another brand yet, so I can’t compare.

Dear mj thank you SO much for sending this: it is SO good! Another cold brew, because I don’t know about you guys, but over here, your dress most certainly sticks to your thighs when you sit down for too long. It is SO H0T! Now to the actual tea part: the strawberry flavour in this tea is perfect: not too much, just enough to say it’s in therre. It does not outshine the oolong, but compliments it beautifully. There is a whisper of floral notes and a bit of a grassy flavour that pairs really well with the flavouring. The astringency of the tea is so light, and gives the tea an almost bubbly quality, like the mouth feel you get after drinking good champagne. Such a soft and wonderful tea. mj thanks again, this is rocking my world right now :D

I picked this up the last time I was visiting the BF in Maryland. I think it’s new for the summer. First, a gripe about Capital Teas: when shopping in the store, you have to buy 4 oz minimum. Who wants to do that?? My intention when stopping in was to buy a little bit of a few teas to try, but that was not to be. Sigh. I asked if I could buy smaller quantities and was told no because they come with the tin…..but I don’t need a tin, I told them. Blank stare. It looks like online you can buy in 2oz quantities, at least.

Anyway, I had to choose carefully and I am extremely pleased with my choice. This tea is just so extremely pleasant. Dry, the tea smells pretty strong. I was worried that the strawberry flavor was going to be way too much. When you pour the water on, the leaves burst open like they’re spring-loaded and the strawberry scent is unexpectedly delicate. This continues with the taste of the tea. The primary taste is a nice roasty oolong, which I’m learning that I prefer to the greener oolongs (although I’m in love with DT’s vanilla orchid oolong, which is greener but that’s an exception). About halfway through the sip, the strawberry makes an appearance and is so delicate that it’s more like this tea makes my tongue remember what strawberry tastes like rather than my tongue actually tasting it presently. The strawberry taste is more like strawberry jam than fresh strawberries, although it’s not very sweet. I know that seems contradictory but that’s the best way I can think of to describe it.

Sometimes I really should put some sort of time limit on myself with regards to Pinterest. I have spent my day (so far) sipping tea and looking at origami designs on Pinterest, ever expanding my origami board with tutorials and diagrams. Ok that is not entirely true, I did make a blooming kusudama this morning as a way to wake myself up, I also learned that the pick (or pointy thing) from my Gong Fu tea tool set works as a great origami tool as well.

Today’s tea is a celebratory tea commemorating a royal wedding between teas! Royal Wedding Tea by Capital Teas is a blend of Black Tea, White Tea, Bergamot, and Rose Buds. Hmm, red roses and red tea…looks like this is a Red Wedding…I am a terrible person. So this wedding is an arranged marriage between Earl Grey Black and Earl Grey White, hopefully their union will stop the War of the Roses. Ok, I will try my best to have that be the last of my terrible puns and references. The aroma of this tea is a great blend of bright bergamot and heady roses with a creamy quality, this tea smells pretty. The aroma reminds me of summer blooming flowers and warm sunlight, I like the effect this tea’s aroma has on my brain.

Giving the tea a steeping, the wet leaves take on a more malty quality, but there is still a lot of roses and citrus. Although, it seems like with steeping the bergamot has evolved into orange making it sweeter. The liquid has a sweet, creamy, quality with notes of malt and oranges. The strong rose aroma from the leaves does not seem to transfer to the liquid, except in a delicate finish.

The taste of this tea is elegant, sweet and creamy with a vanilla quality that quickly transfers to oranges and roses. The vanilla and creamy tastes remind me more of a muffin or some baked morsel rather than an ice cream taste, specifically some baked goody with an orange glaze. This tea is smooth and the rose notes become stronger as it cools. I want to sip this tea from a fancy teacup while nibbling scones and wearing petticoats. Sadly at the time of taking the notes on this tea I lacked a fancy teacup and just had a monstrous glass mug, now I have a pretty white teacup but still lack the fancy teacup with matching saucer…and preferably some sort of gold accenting and flower design. I tried adding cream and a bit of sugar just to see what it was like and I found that it did not improve, the tea is smooth and sweet enough of its own that it does not need any additive, except scones on the side. While listening to White Wedding…ok really, I am done with the puns now.

For blog, photo, and random crafty link: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/05/capital-teas-royal-wedding-tea-tea.html

This flavored green tea came as a sample in my last Capital Teas order which I placed months ago, but I just discovered I had it the other day. I had it once iced and today I’m having it hot, it’s good both ways but I think I prefer it iced.

The flavoring here is very natural which is good. I don’t like artificial flavorings that smack you over the head (here’s looking at you, David’sTea). The strawberry, orange and lemongrass are all present here in a subtle way. If you drink this plain it is slightly tart. A touch of sugar helps and is nice if you want something that’s more on the “juicy” side. I’ve definitely enjoyed this sample but I have enough flavored green teas already that I don’t think I need to add this into my tea collection.

Capital Teas refers to this as a bold tea, and it most certainly is. The base teas form this very strongly, in your face flavored tea. There are both caramel and toffee flavors very present. The combination doesn’t work for me. I think it’s the pu-erh that just pushes it in the wrong direction to me.

I tried it both hot and cold brewed as an iced tea.

Capital Teas Irish Rum Cream has some of the more pleasant facets of this tea without the ones I don’t like. I’ll stick to the Irish Rum Cream, which is great both hot and cold brewed, next time.

Edit: I tried this tea again hot and added some stevia and I enjoyed the tea a lot more. I added half a teaspoon of stevia to about 10 oz. of tea and it really helps to balance the toffee and caramel flavors, while muting the coconut flavor even more. I still prefer Irish Rum Cream much better, but if you’re looking for a sweeter, strongly toffee flavored tea, this could be the one for you.

Sipdown (184/186)!

Well, I used less milk this time around – but the primary flavour was still the rich, creamy milk with traces of weaker, generic black base. I mean, it tasted really good but not very exception or specific.

Overall, I’m pretty much totally ok with being done with it. It’s an older sample in my cupboard and it feels good to get it out of the way.

And on the 10th day of Christmas Steepster gave to me, Ten Lords a Leaping…

Fun fact: I just typed out “Lordes”, like the Royals singer, instead of “Lords” and now I’m giggling a little bit.

Other Fun Fact: It took me an embarrassingly long time to get to this tea from the 12 Days of Christmas swap (this day was provided by Kelci), and I’m sorry about that!

Straight blacks are morning teas for me, and often I’m not really up in the “morning”. And I guess this sample just got pushed to the very back of the sample drawer in my kitchen. I recently reorganized it though, which is when I found this and moved it to the top.

I think I may have added in too much milk though because that’s practically all I could taste in the blend, other than some faint generic (but nice generic) black tea with maybe a tiny bit of floral notes? I have one more cup though, so when I make it tomorrow for work (to get the sipdown in) I’ll use less milk and see what other flavours I notice.

It was good, though!

Tea #32 from Considering a new TTB
I somehow missed this the first time I went through the box, I normally try any Earl Grey teas first since they’re my favorite. This was a pleasant surprise to find, I really need it today. I’m sitting here at the kitchen table writing, admiring the beautiful sunny day and just noticed that it’s snowing… during the last week of March. My husband had the nerve to point out that it is completely possible that we’d have snow in mid-May for my birthday, it has happened before.

I’m putting my foot down right now, there will be no snow in May

This is a nice calming EGC, the flavor is very subtle and unlike the strongly flavored EGs I normally prefer, but I really like having this for a change of pace. I can taste more of the vanilla than I can the bergamot and the floral notes from the rose hang out in the background, barely noticeable over the other flavors. I think it adds more color to the dry leaf, than it does actual flavor. I’ve never ordered from Capital Teas before, but I may have to, if only to try their Cream EG White which makes up part of this blend. I’ve never had an EG White, I can’t think of anyone else off the top of my head that blends such a thing, I am intrigued.

Normally I resteep my teas, but this was so lightly flavored that I don’t think it will resteep well.

This tea tastes good, but I think the strawberry overpowers the lemon and other flavors. I drank this tea hot and imagine it would be better as a iced tea. If winter ever ends, I will try it iced and review it.

I love figs and have been drinking Fig Rose from Teavana. I got this sample of Summer Cherry Fig so I decided to compare them. One obvious difference … Summer Cherry Fig is a black tea and Fig Rose is an herbal. The aroma of Summer Cherry Fig leaves is mildly fig with a black tea background . Fig Rose jumps right out at you. This tisane has big chunks of everything and is quite lovely. After brewing the Summer Cherry Fig has a mild fig aroma and taste. It’s not a bad cup especially if I want a some caffeine. I would still choose the Fig rose for most times because it has more flavor and is so soothing.
Back to my earlier mention of my finger. Yes, it is broken. I spent a while at the Urgent Care Center. It is a simple fracture so they didn’t have to do any surgery. My index finger is buddy splinted to the middle finger. I will have to switch my tea drinking to my left hand and I hope I don’t spill too much. It looks like it will be splinted for 4 weeks. :( I may get out of some chores like washing dishes and I plan on milking this for all its worth. ;-D

Great Canadian TTB

This is a nice chocolate peppermint tea. However, it is very similar to Della Terras take on chocolate peppermint and I am pretty sure I have a lot of that in my cupboard. Nonetheless, I am really enjoying this cup so thank you Jeweled Thumb for adding it to the box.

Tea & Cards TTB

Steeped about 9min, since the slider doesn’t go that far.

This one smells like a chai, looks a bit like a chai…but it doesn’t quite taste like one. It’s peppery and hot, but the spice seems a little one-dimensional and didn’t make a real impression on me. Overall I’d have to say that this one comes across as being rather harsh and unpleasant.

Not one I’d drink again, sadly.

This is such a likeable, easygoing tea. What do you like? Green? Black? Fruit? Nut? It’s all available here, and it’s delicious hot, iced, sweetened, or unsweetened. Makes a great dessert.

I don’t know what it is about black teas. They make me feel all sorts of panicky and stressed, with or without too much caffeine. Really weird. Anyway, having given in to a black tea earlier today, I’m now under the impression I can counteract it with herbals. Why not. So I started with Capital’s Calming Tea. Halfway through the cup, I don’t feel any less agitated (because that would make it Miracle Tea), but it certainly is a nice, soothing cup. I had bought this as a possible chamomile-category competitor with American Tea Room’s [That’s an edit: I had thought Zzz was from Capital too.] Zzz Tea. The flavor doesn’t blow me away like the Zzz does (that verveine goodness just really knocks me out), but taking away that top note does leave it more purely calming. I would say it’s an easy win for the Zzz, but this is really hitting the spot after too much black tea.

A fun free sample from Capital, and surprisingly delicious. It’s part of their kids’ tea collection and supposed to taste like Jolly Ranchers (which is an overstatement). I would never in a million years have picked this up, but….I might just buy it now. I can’t decide just from tasting it whether it has any sweetener in it, but I suspect it doesn’t. It’s probably just slightly sweet from the fruit. It has a deep, real strawberry taste, and I can imagine this would be incredibly refreshing over ice too. I might just have to investigate their other kids’ teas!

I tend to make large pots of this one. I don’t get much vanilla here, but there is a very nice balance between all the flavors that keeps me drinking it all day long, and it’s reasonably priced enough to do that. The flavors are not particularly strong either, so I would actually never mention this for someone looking for a real earl grey flavor. It’s more like a basic white tea with just a little extra, unidentifiable something.

What a strange beast. My little brain puts its oolongs into fairly neat categories of ‘roasty’, ‘green and floral’, and ‘milk’ (its own thing, apparently), but this tea is none of those. On first sip, I thought it would land – lightly – in the roasty category. But as it cools…no. It’s surprisingly delicate, but then leaves with a touch of sweetness. It’s like trying to taste honeysuckle sap from the flower when you can almost get it. I don’t know if I’ll repurchase given the steep price, but it’s not off the table.

Great Canadian Travelling Teabox!

…mostly because i figured i should try to get at least ONE tea in from the box every day until i go on vacation. I think i like this one a little better than the Della Terra version, if only because the lemon flavour seems a bit stronger. I don’t know if this qualifies as PIE like, but lemon chiffon…sure! :) happy to try this one out :)

Final Count: 144 (including the teas i got this week from everyone! woot woot!)

This was interesting. Good! I imagine it’s called Sailors Delight due to the fact it actually has flavours associated with fruits known to have vitamin C in it. Which made me think of citrus. So when I saw Strawberry in TeaBrat’s description, it made me think twice. I think I need to have another cuppa :)
Thanks for the sample TeaBrat!! This is quite yummy. I just haven’t decided in what way, fruit wise. yet. haha