The Spice & Tea Exchange

The second infusion is noteworthy because the tones have all softened. Not really lightened as in diminished, but softened as in become quite harmonious with one another … melding into a more unified flavor that is floral and sweet and soft and creamy. I think I like this second infusion even better than the first.

I find this tea to be confusing … or at least, I think that the Spice and Tea Exchange is confused. The ingredient lists green tea, whereas the description and title calls this a White tea, and the leaves look like white tea to me.

This has a very romantic overture to it, the rose and the jasmine and the lavender are the most prominent flavors here, with the rose being the primary focus. The peppermint is rather soft, really, and seems content to sit off in the background. The white tea is not lost here, either, and offers a light, sweet, slightly creamy taste to the pleasing floral tones.

Quite nice.

Thank you Indigobloom for this sample!

I’ve been a bit unwell (I’ll get to that at the finish) so I decided to SMOKE it out of me! Teach that ol allergic reaction a lession I will! Ya’ll know I love me some Lapsang Souchong! With this sample I went past the recommended steep time by 1 minute because I like my tea full bodied. Um, smelled nice and smoky but not in a room filled with smoke sort of way. In other words, no one was going to call the Fire Department.

The golden brown liquor looked just right when I took my first gulp, hum, which was milder and sweeter than I was expecting. I’ve been drinking a bold and salty Lapsang Souchong with a slightly burnt edge for some time but this was different. This one was smooth and mild with far less salt, and with tannin at the finish creating juiciness.

I added sweetening (I know that Indigobloom does this too) and cream which created a nicely balanced morning cup of smoked, buttery sweet tea. Perfect pairing would be toast and jam or sweet bagels.

FYI
Just a note for anyone with food allergies (like me)…Rooibos is in the legume family which I found out by getting a reaction…arf…so you should avoid it! Who knew! Made my throat and mouth all scratchy and sore and swollen and I felt awful…could have been worse!

Sipdown! 829.

This one has definitely lost flavour over time, but I’m not sure it’s really a bad thing, haha. It was pretty darn potent before! Anyhow, I should have sweetened this, but it’s perfectly smooth to drink straight, therefore fairly enjoyable.

Ok… being brave tonight! Trying my first straight lapsang souchong, courtesy of Indigobloom!

I do love campfire, and smoked meat, so this tea does smell quite good. I just can’t shake the desire to eat a large piece of beef jerky .

Oh man. So smoky. SO SMOKY. Shocker, eh? Ooh, this may not be the best tea to mix with others, as the smoky flavour is lingering in my mouth. It’s pretty smooth… no astringency. Really tastes like liquid smoke in a cup. It’s not actually as strong as I was thinking it could be. I kind of like it. However, I think it’s better blended with other things… brings out the maple syrup Let’s see what this does!

OK! Added way too much. But… I like it! If I add salt will it taste like maple bacon?? Hmm, not sure I want to possibly ruin it. I like it sweet and smoky.

I think lapsang souchong will be a tea for me to mix with others for kicks, not to drink straight. This one’s perfectly drinkable, but I think adding smoky notes to other chocolate teas will be much more fun.

Thanks again for the sample, Indigobloom!

ETA: Second infusion is weaker, but I dosed it with maple syrup anyhow. I suspect the smokiness of this one could last a long time, so I think I’ll stop at two infusions. Or maybe three.

Awwww! Indigobloom was incredibly generous and gave me her last/close to last bit of this tea to try for myself! As part of an ENORMOUS amount of other samples! So excited; naturally I had to start trying things tonight, and clearly started with this one :D

Short note b/c I shouldn’t be on here at all. Too much work left.

It smells much like Golden Moon’s Coconut Pouchong to me. Kind of a toasty, tasty coconut flavour. Taste-wise it’s similar, but better. In which way, you ask? Damned if I know :P I suspect it’s the base, actually. I don’t recall exactly what I thought of Coconut Pouchong, but although I liked it, I seem to remember feeling like something was off. Definitely not the case here. I clearly should have brewed up about four infusions of it while I was downstairs, but now am going to have to wait until tomorrow (so tired).

Definitely leaving this on my purchase list for some time in the distant future. It is delicious. Thanks again Indigobloom! :D

ETA: Second infusion, same parameters, is pretty good. Quite coconutty. I would like to taste more oolong, but it’s quite lovely. Perhaps I’ll go for a third before I sleep tonight; we’ll see.

First Review. I’m a bit under the weather today. Being careful of what I eat and drink with a nausea migraine, I thought this caffeine free Blood-Orange Smoothie might be a refreshing departure from my usual puerh’s and malty black tea choices. Thank’s again to a gift of tea from my son Aaron.

Even dry this smells good. All my life, until moving to Colorado, I’ve been around oranges, lemons, tangerines and all sorts of citrus growing in neighborhood yards. I love the bright and sunny orange in this tea which is so fragrant and scrumptious!

I let the steep go 6 minutes. The flavor is like those orange-slice jell candies with a vanilla smoothness that reminds you of orangesicle ice cream. Intense! I can’t imagine drinking this without sweetening and cream. It would not do justice to the intention of the blend which makes a splendid smoothie. I don’t like to sound like everyone else chattering “It tastes like orangesicle ice cream” but if it does it does..OK!

As far as the other ingredients: There is an aftertaste of uh…apple slice. Look for that. Odd but true. My take on the rose and hibiscus is that while you can’t taste them on their own, they are the hidden slight sourness in the blood orange…the ‘tang’. Clever addition.

This would be a nice tea to pair with a cheese danish…um…or bagel and cream cheese.

I’m going to have a chocolate day today. I have a couple of chocolate tea’s and since I LUV CHOCOLATE I decided to drink them all in one day! Binge!

This has been my favorite chocolate tea. It’s rich and dark the way I love chocolate bars. The other thing I love about it is that the flavoring isn’t sour. I HATE SOUR FAVORING! But as I said, this tea is dark chocolate GOOD!

There’s a sweet little restaurant in town called The Chocolate Cafe.
I’ve taken the grandsons there one at a time for Italian Soda and Chocolate dessert. Lava Cake, Mousse, Creme Brulee to delight my little Princes http://flic.kr/p/cRDTWS. There is something magical about sitting in a lovely space, having a chocolate dessert served on a white plate that is decorated beautifully with berries or chocolate squiggles or powdered sugar, that’s far removed from picking up a cupcake at Whole Foods.
Flowers on the table, Italian Opera softly playing in the background and my little guys know that they are special to Grandma.

Chocolate is never casual like a cheese sandwich or jelly beans.

I made a pot of this tea for my morning wake-up and steeped it for 4 minutes.
My addition of cream and sweetening to this tea didn’t dilute the dark chocolate flavor but made it creamy and rich. It’s so good. I had forgotten how good. I’m totally out! I’ll have to call my son to send me more from the store at Pier 39!

Megan (granddaughter almost 17) and I have been watching Tom and Jerry cartoons this morning on my Big Screen TV. Don’t-cha just love Big Mice in the morning?!
Her tea of choice was…ta da…Black Chocolate! (I like it too!) My son Aaron brought it to me from San Francisco last month as a gift.

Megan’s comments about the tea? Straight up the tea is suprisingly sweet, and with milk alone…creamy. By adding sweetening delicious with an almost marshmallow chocolate flavor.

Marshmallow?
I think what she was tasting was a bit of malt that I missed in my first go around review. This time I could taste it clearly. There was a bit of what I love in malt ball candy. ( I like that candy at the movies but they taste more waxy than I remember as a child). This is a great Black (the color is very, very dark) Chocolate flavored tea, very rich and creamy without bitterness or acidity.

Big, dense chocolate flavor like a Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Bar is what I love about this tea!

First Review. I Love Dark Chocolate! I buy a certain brand of dark chocolate that has sea salt on it… and I put the candy bar in the freezer…so that every night I can break off a square and eat it slowly all by myself…umm. I love this salty, creamy dark chocolate!

My tea cupboard was lacking a chocolate tea. I ran into a review by IndigoBloom some time ago about STE Black Chocolate…and my son Aaron was bringing me some tea from their store in San Francisco…so ah ha…I decided to put this on the “get me this one too” list.

I am fussy about my chocolate. I still was skeptical about a tea that could deliver the kind of REAL dark chocolate flavor rich enough and authentic enough not to make me gag! I was NOT looking for cocoa. NO milk chocolate. DARK CHOCOLATE ONLY PLEASE! I want a chocolate to play with… ( to add some chili, some maple bacon, some lapsang souchong, salt etc….mad scientist at work!).

Excited for tasting this morning, I brewed a nice big 24oz pot. The pour was dark and promising. First gulp…CHOCOLATE! Not malt or mocha…DARK CHOCOLATE! Yippie (sorry)…but I’m so glad that this measures up to what I desired. Rich, dark chocolate that is deep enough to add sweetening and cream to (which I did of course). There is a little malt but it is natural and very subtle, a chocolate maltiness… not the sort that resembles yam or graham crackers. Thankfully, there is no bitterness, tannin or acid. The finish is smooth vanilla. I went back later after the pot was empty (didn’t take me long to swig down 24oz of this black velvet!) to taste the cold drippings under the brew basket. The rich liquid was still not bitter.
I’m going to have to order more of this tea! 1oz will not last long!

If you notice the new picture by my name, that’s Rocky Mt. Bighorn Sheep…a little picture I took on Wed.

I’ve been bagging samples to send off to people all day. I really mean it, ALL DAY.
For a person (me) who has no ability to multi-task (my brain misfire issue), bagging, labeling, making notes and keeping a list of who’s been sent what tea takes triple time. The only easy part is sweeping tea debris off the wood floors.

At about 5pm, I was beginning to nod off to sleep on the couch. Garumph! That would never do! “When was the last time I had some tea today?”, I asked myself. “Too long, too long ol girl.” So I rummaged around for a lonely tea that I’d been ignoring (feeling tea guilt).

Oh yes, the Green Tropical. I almost forgot about this little plastic bag. It certainly looks like it came from a spice store all green see through as though it’s filled with Rosemary or Greek Oregano. Hum. The tea had not impressed me the first go around at all.

I was very careful to steep the leaves 3 minutes. The flavor is flat at high heat…those who drink this tea comment on how much better it is cool or chilled. So I waited.

There is a strange astringency…not like a bite at the finish that lingers, but a stinging on the whole surface of the tongue. I don’t see the point since the tea is so faintly flavored. There’s hardly any pineapple to speak of. No strawberry. Almost nothing to hang onto.
The best thing this tea has going for it is a nice floral/fruity scent when dry…like a room freshener.

As a tea, not that interesting.

Really a boring, boring tea. But the caffeine will keep me awake! ;)

First Review. I’m back. I’ve been staying at my daughters house for a few days with her brood of 6 permanent children and 2 foster babes while my son et al were at my condo. He brought me tea from The Spice and Tea Exchange at Pier 39 in San Francisco. (Well trained!).
A highlight of this week was our venture to Rocky Mountain National Park about 1 hour from my house. We saw 8 Big Horn Sheep close up for the first time and several herd of Elk (50-100) which are very common and often run around town (Estes Park). We went up to about 11,000 ft to the snow line where the panoramic view of the valley below was spectacular! I wish that I could show you a photo…me drinking tea 50 feet from a huge grazing Elk with a meadow spread out wide and golden…then jutting, windswept mountain peaks topped with snow blowing high above and far beyond me.

Today…family is off flying home again. I spent 4 hours driving to and from the Denver Airport. I am home. Time for tea!

Green Tropical is a low caffeine tea and the packet says that it is great iced. I Am Not an Iced Tea Fan. “I may try it some time,” I said, “but not tonight.” I do like pineapple which this has in it, so I’m hoping for goodness. Green tea is not what I choose to drink as a rule. This is light and mild. I can taste some pineapple, a tad of strawberry but no other fruit. I’m not really liking this hot all that much erh. I have to take action!!! So, change of mind will mean a change of preference.
Dashing…to the freezer for ice, I have given in to chilling the tea! Also, it needs sweetening otherwise, it is bland. The iced taste is much better, still weak, but refreshing enough to enjoy on a hot day. I get it. This isn’t my favorite tea but not the worst and better than average.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this!

I really am enjoying this blend. It is one that I overlooked while shopping the other day at the Spice and Tea Exchange. It has a lot going on, and one might think that its too much for one tisane, but, they all work together very well. The cloves start out warm, and then I notice the licorice-y tones, and by the end of the sip, I notice a crisp mint tone. The pineapple comes through with a sweet, juicy note that really refreshes the spice melange.

The yerba mate is not a strong flavor here, I notice hints of earthiness that seem to unify with the earthiness of the clove and anise, but it never becomes a strong earthy flavor.

Very lovely, I enjoyed this quite a bit.

Yesterday, my husband took me to Portland to visit the Spice and Tea Exchange as I’ve never been there. It is a difficult task to convince him to take me to such a place, as he is convinced that I have enough tea and I don’t need to be shopping for more. sigh But, I had a Living Social voucher, so, he had to take me. (evil grin)

This is one of the teas that I purchased (I didn’t spend much time checking out the spices, as I already have a favorite spice merchant). The description suggests malty tones and I get those, but, the chocolate notes are a little more difficult to discern until the tea has cooled somewhat. They are more pronounced now, but, as the description also says, they are indeed subtle. I taste more of a caramel tone than a chocolate-y one.

A pleasant breakfast blend, although as breakfast blends go, it isn’t as invigorating as others I’ve tried. Pleasant, but, not amazing or anything.

Perfume!!! In a cup!
When I saw other people’s notes about tea tasting perfumey, I didn’t quite get it. All I could picture was flavoured ethanol (never-mind the health implications! ha!)
But then this tea came along… and there it is! perfume. Rosey perfume.
At first, when the cup was hot, it was overwhelming. Almost nauseating. I was plotting ways to get rid of it almost immediately after my first sip. But then the cup cooled somewhat and before I knew it, I’d sipped away at it to the bottom! The floralness had mellowed out quite a bit, so I tried a second steep and ohh yes this was much better. Floral in just the right way. There wasn’t enough “tea” flavour in there for my liking but that’s ok, maybe I will add some after tweaking the settings a bit. Perhaps a 30 second steep would fare better than my initial 2 minutes.

Hey, I cold brewed this Oolong in the new Steep & Go (why does this name remind me of a Tupperware party gadget?) and it tasted very, very D-liscious!

I jammed a bunch of tea nuggets into a big 1 liter bottle of Dasani and screwed on my purpley/pink filter top (there are 4 colors) and stuck the bottle in the frig.
5 hours later….ZAM! Coconut Oolong Magic!

I like this Oolong hot. I like this Oolong cold. I like this Oolong!

(Steep & Go is a Tea Spot product but available many places)

Yesterday I cleaned out my closet and purged it of old clothes and shoes. Today, my daughter and granddaughter (who is 5’9 like I ‘was’) came over to ‘shop’ from my closet before I haul everything away. (We’re at different stages of weight loss)
We inevitably get the giggles. I have no idea what sets us off…but I end up crying with laughter, they laugh…and pretty soon we can’t stop. Every little thing is hilarious. There were clothes scattered about while we trapsed in front of the mirror like proud teenagers posing outragiously. We had no shame! The women in my family have fun together, and act crazy!

I really am a Blessed woman.

After my laughing and silliness was over and I was alone again, I chose this silky Coconut Oolong for my evening tea. It had been some time since I last tasted a fragrant, tropical coconut tea.

I let the steeping time go about 3 minutes before pouring. The flavor was exactly as I wished, floral and very coconuty. It reminded me of a creamy coconut milk. There was juiciness with very little tannin.
I added sweetening, prefering a coconut cream pie dessert tea to add the finishing touch to a good evening. I tried adding some cream then coconut milk but prefered the tea with sweetening only.

This tea is a naturally flavored Coconut Tea,…one of the things that is becoming important to me. I can taste the difference. There isn’t any sour aftertaste from chemicals. The flavors that linger are delicate, pleasant and authentic.

A Really Good Coconut Oolong!

First Review. Natural Coconut Oolong…now doesn’t that sound delicious! Um Yum! So many of us Steepsters love our Coconut Tea and I’m one of those who does also. Tricky to find a good tea has enough coconut without being cloying or artificial tasting. I was hopeful that this would be a winner so I followed my set of Oolong brewing instructions and set to the task. I failed, or should I say bombed. First I used water that was a tad too cool and steeped 4 minutes which was too long. The tea tasted like coconut but was bitter, icky. OK. This won’t deter me. Do over Bonnie! Put the Temp up to 185 and steep time at 2 minutes…much better ahhhhhh. Rich and juicy coconut, sweet without being floral orchid Oolong way I’m used to. Really nice. Creamy but not buttery. There is a slight astringent finish. As the tea cools the cream coconut thickens and coats the tongue blocking the astringency. Adding sugar or agave really brings the coconut flavor up a notch in a delightful way. This is a cuppa to sip on the beach in Kawaii! Anyone want to join me?!

This is one of my new favorite teas. It’s the first Lapsang Souchong that I’ve tried so I can’t really compare it to any others, but this tea is perfect for me in the office. The smokiness reminds me of campfire smoke and latakia tobacco. It’s the closest thing I can get to being outdoors while still being stuck in the office.

When I first tried it, I was surprised by the intensity of the smokiness. I actually didn’t care for the first cup I made of it. I gave it another try a couple days later because the smell of it was so intriguing. I’m glad I did. Either the smoke flavor mellowed out after I opened the package or I knew what to expect so it wasn’t as overwhelming, but I enjoyed this tea immensely after the first time I tried it. I regularly grab for this one for a break during the day at the office now. I think it would be great to have outside while actually sitting around a campfire…

Second Review. This is one delicious flavored Pu erh! The Strawberry is super rich and holds it’s own next to the Chocolate and Pu erh flavors. Dessert, Dessert, Dessert!
If you had a big chocolate 6 layered cake with a thin layer of mocha caramel cream and some strawberries piled between the layers and plopped whipped cream on the top (I added cream and sweetening just a bit) this is what you have in a cup of this Pu erh (well not exactly but close to it). And… being a pu erh, you get to keep pouring and have some more…(I now laugh my feverish mad laugh…wah ha ha).
You have surmised that I do in fact like this tea a bunch!

First review. My grandaughter Megan (16 years old) is on Spring break and came over to watch Amadeus on my big screen tv. We’re buddies…she’s a composer and has a concert choral piece coming up (previously she’s had orchestral pieces). Anyway…I made us this great pu erh and she flipped for it. Such a whoop of “Wow grandma what is this stuff”! I was delighted! The rich chocolatey creamy flavor with a little strawberry but not too much. The earthiness of the pu erh is subtle and not fishy. So nice. We had a second steep and she asked for some loose tea in a bag to take to school next week. She was so blown over with what flavor good tea can deliver.
*A few days later I bought Megan a portable 12 oz. steeper… double walled glass sipper with a retractable stainless basket and gave her some of this tea to take to school which made her very happy indeed!

this was one of the first teas that i bought and it’s been about 6 months since i’ve picked it up and tried it again. it has a very light peach smell and flavor. this tea isn’t terrible but i own other tea’s that have a lot more flavor than this one. it would probably be better iced. not a bad buy but i wont miss it when it runs out.

Wow… I was in the mood for something creamy tonight and couldn’t decide what exactly I wanted. So I began to look through samples and I found this that seemed to meet my current criteria of “something creamy”. Special thanks to Indigobloom for sending me this to try!

It smelled deliciously sweet. In fact when I sniffed it I got a noseful of sweet followed by a hint of chocolatey goodness! By all means this was a good thing! My mouth was watering while I scooped out my teaspoons to steep it.

While it steeped, the steam smelled like a miny chocolate factory in my tea cup. The smell got stronger and stronger until it was finally time to sip it. Wow…. Creamy, chocolatey sweet, malty, slightly astringent, happiness in a teacup. With sugar added the chocolate flavor became more prominent and the maltiness was covered up a tad. Delicious. The only tiny flaw that it had was a strange chemical taste that lingered in the aftertaste. Other than that, it was great!

I believe that this is the best straight chocolate tea that I have tasted so far. They captured the essence of hot chocolate and made it blend in so well with the tea that I am sure that if milk where added it would be shockingly similar to the real thing!

I only wish I had more of it….. Oh well… You can’t always get what you want, but if try sometimes, you get what you need! ; )

okayyy I know I reviewed this one before. I remember specifically commenting that it was pu-erh awesomeness because with some milk it tastes like melted chocolate strawberry icecream… or rather, strawberry chocolate milk. SO good. Three steeps of this baby and I still wanted MORE.
I’m a little annoyed now. Steepster ate my post :(
The strawberry doesn’t come out much at first. It’s rather mild… but give it a chance, it will build I promise! With milk, this outbids any other flavoured pu-erh I’ve ever tried. Without… ehhh, it’s ok. A little too weak. No matter, I don’t mind at all =D
This will be one to repurchase, no hesitation about that!