Compass Teas

Hmm.. liked this better when I thought I oversteeped it, actually… maybe I underleafed this time? I did one level tsp. per cup. This has a wonderful balance between bergamot and vanilla in smell and taste, though – my favorite of all the earl grey cream teas I’ve tried so far.

Hmm.. liked this better when I thought I oversteeped it, actually… maybe I underleafed this time? I did one level tsp. per cup. This has a wonderful balance between bergamot and vanilla in smell and taste, though – my favorite of all the earl grey cream teas I’ve tried so far.And I just ordered enough to teas to break my “75 teas or less” rule. Sigh. I’ll be at 81, when my new Upton and 52teas order comes in. So…guess that means I need to do six sipdowns by the end of the week? Better start now!

This is a fantastic earl grey cream.

It is smooth, as the name suggests, with a good balance of bergamot and vanilla. It was also pretty flexible on the steep time, too…I forgot about it and it went for 3:45 instead of 2-3 minutes as recommended. (Not a huge overage, but some teas really don’t let you get away with even that!)

This is one of the best of it’s kind, that’s for sure.

I can’t believe I didn’t write out more of the steeping parameters I used last time – you’d think that somewhere in the space of that small novel I would have done so. Anyway – 1 tsp. leaf per cup, milk and sugar to sweeten the first cup, just sugar on the second for this time around.

Had this today while we planned out our month over breakfast. Moving is all about logistics, but it looks like things are falling into place. Still, I can’t wait for it to be April 1st.
This is going to be an interesting couple of weeks, but at least I’ll have plenty of tea to relax on in whatever downtime I get. :)

One of my various goals in life (shared with a lot of others, judging from the many discussion topics on Steepster) has been to find that elusive perfect Earl Grey for my palate. Given my preference for vanilla flavors in anything, I’m focusing my Earl Grey search on the cream variety.

I ordered this one as a part of my massive Compass Teas order recently, and the first thing I did was compare it with Upton’s version, which I’ve got a ton of still and which the boyfriend uses as his work tea. Ugh, I am so jealous he has the time to even steep and mess with loose leaf at work. The perks of an office job!

I’ve had a pretty limited experience with EGC so far – Teavana’s and Upton’s. The Teavana EGC was WAY too strong on the bergamot smell more than anything – it was really overdone. It gave me a headache to have any more than one cup, even though it tasted okay. The Upton pricepoint and non-headache inducing quality was what made me choose what I’ve been drinking ever since.

When comparing this to Upton, the Compass EGC was actually much more vanilla/cream heavy – I’d never noticed before but Upton’s Earl Grey has almost a lemony note mixed in with the bergamot. From smell alone, this is looking pretty good!

My biggest problem with Upton’s earl grey when steeped is how dingy it looks. It has a thin mouthfeel and when I add milk (whole milk, mind you) it turns greyish and still is really flimsy in texture. I was worried about whether this would be just a general characteristic of all Earls, because texture is a deal breaker for me. I can’t do a tea, no matter how nicely flavored, if the mouthfeel is flat. And from what I remember of the Teavana variety, it also seemed to be a bit weak on texture – though that could have been because there was SO MUCH flavoring it was overwhelming the base.

Luckily it doesn’t seem to be a problem here! There is no dishwater look to the tea when milk is added (I wonder if that was from the added flavoring used in the other one?) and it has a nicely full body! Cream is stronger than bergamot here, which is perfect for my preferences. It did well with sugar or without, and played nicely with milk. Yay for a well rounded tea!

And double yay for having several ounces of it to enjoy!

Alright – this is a sipdown to start getting me back in the right direction. I’ll be down to 80 teas after this.

As another bonus, this was a seasonal tea so I can’t buy more. Even though when I went on the website to check for sure it was out of stock, I found a watermelon black tea. WATERMELON. BLACK. I’ve only just this year realized I can eat watermelon. Up until now I have been unable to stomach it..it used to taste absolutely foul. Cantaloupe still tastes that way – one bite and it’s like this rancid bomb explodes all over my tongue. So gross.

Anyway, so I had this hot with milk and sugar and am currently enjoying the balance of marshmallow and black tea in my cup. I’m bummed though – I started making this before i pulled up my last tasting note and I had wanted to try blending with the Laoshan chocolate genmaicha. Grrr. That really would have been awesome. Ah well. I guess I’ll just have to hold out until the winter when it comes back and give it a try then! (And put a note somewhere so I can remember to do it for real!)

I think I have enough leaf for one more cup after this, and then it looks like its gone from the Compass Teas website. Makes sense, I guess, as even the name is seasonal. Well, I take that back – it’s present in sample size quantities, but I can’t see myself placing an order consisting of like, 3 sample size bags and that’s it.

It’s quite a shame, because this is a great marshmallow tea. It’s not toasted marshmallow, which would probably be the only thing I’d add to this blend – but it is equal parts marshmallow and black tea. The base reminds me of my beloved East Frisian blend, only it’s as if someone treated it like a hot chocolate and put a marshmallow on top. With milk and sugar (not a lot of either, and not necessary at that) I am absolutely in heaven.

I wish there was a way to add a toasted flavor without burny/smoke flavoring. I can’t do the lapsang. Maybe some toasted rice from a genmaicha? Or maybe… my LAOSHAN BLACK CHOCOLATE GENMAICHA. OMG. I think all of the lightbulbs in the world just went off inside my head – that is a blend that will be happening the next (last?!) time I make this tea.

If it’s good I may just find a way to place an order of only sample sizes. The things I’ll do for my tastebuds. :)

Mmm. This tea.

Based on my phenomenal obsession with Della Terra’s S’mores tea, I was hoping I would like this. Marshmallow is my favorite part of the S’more, after all.

The dried leaf smelled like a bag of marshmallows – not toasted, not melted/charred – just a newly opened bag of them. So sweet, fluffy sugary smelling. The steep time on the bag said 2 minutes, but that didn’t seem like it would be long enough, so I went for 3 minutes. I knew 4 would be way too long after what I did with the donut chai 2 days ago.

There’s no real mystery or complexity here: it tastes like black tea and marshmallow flavoring. It was perfect at 3 miniutes – sweet and creamy with no astringence. It didn’t need any additives, either, though I did add some milk to the second cup. I think I prefer it plain, though – it just held its own really well.

I really like this one – I feel like I’m not giving it enough fanfare, though. It delivers what it promises and there were no surprises, and I am looking forward to the rest of my sample!

I’m not going to lie, this tea was the catalyst for my Compass teas order.

I mean – DONUTS! Probably one of my favorite desserts! In TEA!!!

The smell of this dry is exactly what those cinnamon sugar apple cinnamon donuts smell like. I think you get them from Krispy Kreme? Anyway, even the boyfriend admitted it smelled amazing – though he followed that up with his trademark “but I wouldn’t want to drink it.” Flavored blends just aren’t his thing.

Sadly though I think I steeped this too long. I went by my standard black tea steeping time but plain this is SO astringent, even a touch medicinal. This needs milk and possibly sugar…and even with it that medicinal note is peeking through – maybe that’s the apple-y note gone bad?

Anyway. So next time I’ll try a shorter steep and hope that helps things…

Tea of the morning. I decided to finish off this sample that Jackie T sent me months ago. As previously noted the tea does not taste like eggnog or rum, but it is a decent vanilla tea. I added some sugar and milk to my mug which enhanced the vanilla and gave the tea a wonderfully smooth and silky texture.

This isn’t a tea I’ll be ordering, but as a swap tea it was great. Thanks, Jackie T!

This is another sample from Jackie T. Thank you!

This is the second time I’ve had this tea. The first time I felt like I spent too much time trying to dissect the tea, so I ended up skipping the review. After sitting down with the tea this time I can say that Jackie’s review is spot on. I don’t taste eggnog or rum. There is a good vanilla flavor and a robust, toasty, ever so slightly astringent black tea. While I wish I could taste something that hinted of eggnog I do like this tea. The tea itself is quite delicious, and the vanilla is very well done.

So, not what I wanted, but I’ll have no trouble finishing off this sample.

I actually thought this had yerba mate in it! It smells very mate-ish to me. And at first, it tastes almost off-puttingly herbal—just agressively green and earthy (in a “sawdust-floor, hippie, co-op grocery” kind of way). But then on cooldown, the flavor mellows out to mostly mint and citrus. This is very spearmint-y.

Get this if you like spearmint.

Sssshhhhhh! It’s a Secret :)
Traveling somewhere!!! See previous notes

This is one of the BEST smelling Hazelnut Black Teas I have ever smelled! And I’m not a Hazelnut NUT per say :)

Once infused it smells like hazelnut and a bready/bakey type aroma combo!

It does infuse to a dark brown…not like coffee-dark brown but a darker brown – darker than medium-dark brown! LOL

The flavor is strong! Both with the black tea base as well as the hazelnut flavor. The two flavors mesh well together!

Yup! I like this one just fine and dandy!

Today I am going to try and review as many teas as possible to break down some of my piles as I have to tide-E-up around here! PLUS – I really want to try a lot of my NEW teas!! AND – I’m busy divvying up swap boxes, too!

You’ll see a lot of me today – I apologize in advance! hahaha!

I got this as a sample in my Compass order and am just trying it today for the first time. I get no flavor, sweetness, or marshmallow in this at all. Just a basic black tea…however it is a really good basic black tea!! Like TeaEqualsBliss said it brews to a medium dark color; it has a strong taste but not an overly bitter one. I wouldn’t drink this if I were in the mood for a flavored tea but if I needed a caffeine boost and didn’t want any extra flavor (which is rare for me), I’d reach for it.

Backlog! I sipped this while watching The White House Christmas 2012 on Saturday night. I don’t think it tastes much like eggnog or rum, but it’s a creamy vanilla type black tea. This is great for flavored tea drinkers who want to taste the TEA!! Fabulous quality, plus this company has a strong mission and donates proceeds, which I appreciate.

I was skeptical about this one. But I’ll tell ya – I’m impressed and quite the believer now after trying it! It’s Green Rooibos based. In addition to that there are lovely flavors! The only way to describe it is Fruit Punch Flavored Green Rooibos! It’s tasty!

I’m sure it would be just as good iced if not better!
YUMMO!

I was so excited to try this today. The dry leaves smell like a banana cream pie, but the fragrance definitely lessens once brewed. I was afraid that would mean there wasn’t much flavor, but luckily I was wrong. It’s not a strong flavor, more like someone dipped dried bananas in your Assam tea for a bit…not that anyone does that. It’s a deliciously subtle flavor with a kick of caffeine, definitely going to drink it every morning during the work week. I got it during their 50% off Cyber Sale, I think it’s regular price now, but I’d say it’s worth it!

Smells like Cherry Cola
Tastes like flat Cherry Cola.
I used a little cooler water for this one – not quite a cold brew – but still not hot.

It has a gold/orange/reddish color to it – it’s really beautiful!

This one is tasty. Sweet. Flavorful!
Yup! I like this one! The more I drink it the more I like it!

It’s been a while since my last YELLOW Tea. I’ve been super excited to try this one but wanted to save it for the right moment. NOW is that moment.

First – LOVE the name! Very posh!

The aroma is out-of-this-world! Slightly peppery aroma meets yellow tea meets Mimosa/Champagne/Orange flavors all working hand-in-hand.

I would have to say I can taste the yellow tea along side the orange – first and foremost. Then I can taste a bit of spice – a mild pepper – perhaps – almost like a white peppercorn, maybe. Then…a subtle champagne type flavor on the end. Even with the flavors – it’s incredibly clean. There is a nice amount of ‘juiciness’ to it, too!

This is a very lovely flavored yellow tea from Compass.

I was reading a bunch of reviews here on steepster about Rooibos but I didn’t really want a regular Rooibos so I went with this one – a GREEN Rooibos. I like both Rooibos’s, tho! I also went with this one because it doesn’t have the dreaded hibiscus! YAY! Just Green Rooibos and 3 different berries!

This smells MARVY! Much like my Very Berry Cheesecake Blend I sell…Wildtree is the product line!

The flavor is more gentle and flowing than I assumed it would be but I like it. It’s calming yet fruity and fun.

The 3 berries work really well together to come up with its own flavor – of course by pairing it with the green rooibos.

This is nicely done!

Green tea, spices, nuts…oh my!

The green tea is a bit on the light side. It’s not grassy but it’s not really sweet, either. The spices are at a favorable level for a green chai. I do LOVE that there are almonds in this, tho! You can’t really taste them – individually – until you get to the after taste tho.

Overall this is pretty good, not my fave from Compass, but they have so many I do LOVE do it’s hard to narrow it regardless! Pretty good, still!

WOWZA! This completely exceeded my expectations! This is amazing! The green rooibos worked great! The pineapple flavor is delightful! It’s not overdone and don’t taste like the ‘other’ pineapple flavored teas/tisanes out there! This is tasty-tasty! It’s sweet, pineapply, and even tastes a bit sugary – even without me adding sugar, and there is a spec of ‘green-ness’ to it and/our floral trying to hide underneath! This is really neat! And a great surprise! Kudos on this one!

This smells absolutely AMAZING!

This is a combo of juicy strawberry or even like a strawberry water with a flat champagne flavor to it! I can pick up on the floral notes, too! The White tea base is lovely! I’m really enjoying that! I agree with Indigobloom – this is a little cuppa happiness!

Liberteas a chunk of it is coming your way!

Will be starting my 2nd cup of this soon! First one wasn’t hot enough. Still tasty, tho!

See the Discussion/Threads for a special message from me about a Chocolate Giveaway on my blog today!!!

Happy Weekend!