The TeaCupany

I just got my mail this morning. The postwoman dropped it off so late I didn’t even know there was anything there. Happened to check this morning and there was my monthly package from The TeaCupany! I had mixed feelings about this tea. It’s been years since I’ve had gunpowder tea. It wasn’t my favourite then but back then I never knew how to brew green tea properly either. On top of that when doing a search for basic gunpowder tea on Steepster, there were not very promising reviews from any tea company. I was curious though and wanted to give it a chance. Meant to brew this for 2 min at 185 but it extended to 3 min.

This is a very robust green tea reminding me a bit of black tea (which may have been why I didn’t like it too much then). It’s not grassy , mellow, or vegetal. It’s got a bit of a bite and the unexpected delight was the bit of buttery flavour that comes through. No doubt about it though, this tea is strong. 3 min was a bit too much. I would go for the 2 or even less for the next time I have this. This doesn’t fall into some of the really good green teas but it’s not really bad either.

I left that review before I finished my cup. At the end of the cup, the tea became so bitter I couldn’t drink it. Brewed up a 2nd infusion and steeped only 1 min 30 sec. After steeping I had something to do so left the tea for 5 min. Came back to it and it was bitter. Then I asked myself, why am I spending time with this tea? It just doesn’t agree with me. So I ditched the cup and moved on to something else.
I see on Teavivre’s website they have instructions on how to brew gunpowder tea so next time I will try that. The Teacupany did not put any brewing instructions on the package.

Sipdown (177/183)!

Ok, I’m cheating. I received some of this from the generous Dexter3657 who noticed I like both pear flavoured things and white tea; and today I cold brewed a mason jar of this for about nine hours, but taste wise I’m getting absolutely nothing but water, and the tea doesn’t look like water. Boo.

So, I’m going to send the last little bit off to VariaTEA (despite her protests about receiving more tea) just like she so often does to me! Besides, I’m feeling tea overwhelmed at the moment…

But despite the sort of “failure” of this pear white it got me thinking that Stacy should totally do a white pear tea! I’d be happy with any approach she took with a pear tea, but a caramel pear…

That would leave me weak in the knees.

Also, not rating because I don’t know where to even start: it doesn’t taste bad, it just doesn’t taste like… Anything? Water. How do you rate plain water?

I was expecting a tart edge from the rhubarb in this tea, but the really weird thing is that this tartness didn’t translate into a fruity taste, but into the sort of “curly” taste I associate with oolongs!

I really can’t describe it – it’s just the way that the flavour hits my tongue, it’s not quite astringent, but it makes my tongue want to curl in a certain way.

Unfortunately, this reminds me of a rather green kind of oolong, and I’m finding that I’m not a fan of greener oolongs. At this point I don’t know if I don’t like oolongs at all, or if I only like more roasted, darker ones.

Anyways, this tea tastes really familiar somehow. I know I’ve got a tea in my cupboard, or that I’ve already sipped down, that this reminds me of, and I just can’t put my finger on it. So frustrating!

At least I got to try it via swap instead of purchasing. Thanks, Ubacat!

Took this tea in my Timolino today. It’s got a sweet grassiness with a nippy rhubarb edge to it. I’ve tasted something like this rhubarb flavouring somewhere else but can’t remember. Overall, an enjoyable tea. I liked it even better than my first cup so maybe this one will grow on me more.

This came as a sample with one of my Tea Cupany orders. In general I like this company.
This tea is not one that I would have chosen for myself. I’m not a huge citrus fan, and grapefruit is probably my least favorite of them.
Having said all that, this isn’t as bad as I was expecting. This is oolong and it’s grapefruit – exactly as the name promises. Not generic citrus, but this is grapefruit. It’s not overly tart, and yet not too sweet. I think it’s well balanced. The oolong is oxidized enough for my tastes (I don’t do well with really green floral oolongs). This is probably about a medium oxidized oolong. All in all, if you are looking for grapefruit oolong, I would give this one a try.

I don’t know why it is but I am at a loss of words to describe this tea. I have been enjoying some unflavoured green teas lately and when I taste the flavoured it comes across as not natural to me. I still think the tea is good. It’s got a decent green base, a bit astringent. The apricot flavouring is okay and could be adding to the astringent taste. Nothing bad about this tea but nothing seems to really make me love it either. Holding off on any rating until I’ve had a few cups of this. It might grow more on me later.

Because I had read all the notes on this ‘sweet’ tea as they popped up on my dash, I knew it wasn’t going to be sweet at all. And so I cold steeped it. And it’s still quite tart.

Very refreshing, it has a nice flavour although what I’m getting is mostly hibiscus and apple with a bit of mango juice at the end. Not sure I’d get it again, but I am glad I got a chance to try it.

From MissB who got it from Dexter3657. Thank you for sharing!

I can’t believe it took me this long to try this tea! I was worried about this hibiscus and the rosehips really detracting from the strawberry flavour, but I was pleasantly surprised. The flavour is sweet, fresh, and totally strawberry! This is going to be a nice iced tea, but it is also pretty fantastic hot! I didn’t add any sweetener and I found the tea to be perfectly fine without it. This was a pleasant surprise and I look forward to enjoying it more often!

GCTTB I figure i need to try the last few teas from the tea box that i really wanted to try and get the rest on the move. I wanted to try this one even though it was a green because i enjoyed the other teas that dexter had shared with me from the tea cupany. I just haven’t had a chance to actually place an order myself….yet.

I really like this one. What’s funny though, is that i could love it even more as a puerh. The flavouring in this one reminds me a LOT of the puerhs that are put into the orange rinds. It’s for sure a mandarin flavour though, not strictly orange and that is whats makes me happy with it i think. Another win from the tea cuppany!

Great Canadian Travelling Tea Box

Dex to the rescue!

It’s not bad. Green tea is one of the few types that I can easily drink unsweetened (prepared correctly that is), but with that being said, none of the flavors really pop when I do that. I faintly taste lemon and maybe a little orange, but it’s an afterthought, not the main event. I bet I would taste more fruit if I sweetened it, but given that this is one of the few types of teas I can do without, I’ll sip the rest of the cup as is.

The dry tea is what appears to be a dark shou mei, with pieces of apricot and marigold petals scattered throughout the tea.the scent is pretty lovely like a soft peach mousse as the dry tea has a hint of cream scent to it.

After 2.5min the tea is a pale amber tinted gold. The shou mei. and the marigold are present in the scent and the taste adding herbal and mineral and citric notes to the peach flavouring. The peach is sweet and tastes like a cross between Tim Horton’s peach drink and warm peaches and cream. The flavouring is pleasant but subtle. The tea is silky and creamy on the tongue. It re-steeps pretty well, with the peach actually intensifying a little.

A pleasant introduction to a new company. Thanks Dexter3657!

Sipdown! This was still tasty even years later. :D It maintained the flavor! I liked the creaminess of this one. Thanks again to Dexter for those lovely teas a couple Christmases ago!

One from Dexter3657! Thanks so much! This one sounds interesting — the dry leaves certainly smell very sweet. It seems the black tea is actually infused with the flavor. I saw ONE clove in the infuser… that’s a bit odd. haha. I wouldn’t have minded more spices! After a three minute steep, this is nice but not something I’d call pumpkin pie. I agree with Dexter – kind of cakey. It’s like a banana coffee cake almost… or a cake that would have hints of spices in it. Almost like a carrot cake but with banana instead of carrot. Even the description says cake so I don’t know why it’s called pie. The black tea is medium bodied. Not bad but not pumpkin pie!

Wow! This was good, like really really good! It smells exactly like a candy cane! I tried it unsweetened (I am sitting here enjoying it while listening to Fairytale of New York, I love alternative carols). Drunk this way, the mint is prominent and sharp. I think a touch of sugar would help highlight the candy aspect. That being said, the mint is not unpleasant and the base tea has no bitterness to it (though I did give it a super short tea). I didn’t think anything could replace my love for Santa’s Secret, but this is a strong contender!! Well done, TeaCupany!

I tossed this in my tea traveler and took it to work a few days ago. Things are insane at work right now, we need break to come like yesterday, so this tea got a looonng steep before I got to it. That being said, I was actually really pleasantly surprised by it. No it is not really “sweet”, but the tart is not bad either. Also, though the apple was definitely present, the cherry taste was also there. I think this is the first time I have had a cherry tea that really tasted like cherries, so I was impressed. I am going to give this a shot cold brewed and see what it does, but thus far I am pretty impressed!

I was super excited to try this tea after school today, but alas it was not quite as fantastic as I had hoped it would be. To clarify, it is not a bad tea per se, but the others were so nice that I had super high expectations. This tea has the same nice white base to it, but the blueberry really does not shine through as much as I had hoped it would. I was looking for a real hit of blueberry, as it does tend to be a stronger flavour, but all I got was a mild hint of berry mixed with the vegetal white.

Because I like the white base, I think this tea will get drunk with little problem, but I am more fond of the Grapefruit and Peach Whites!

Tried this again, still a nice white base with fruit hints. Peach is such a strong flavour, that I just wish that there was even more peach to this. Nevertheless, a nice white tea.

Another nice white, vegetal with nice hints of peach. Not quite as much of a juicy peach as I had been hoping, but this is a nice mature subtle peach tea. I am really, really liking these white teas I have been trying! Tomorrow I need to jot down my thoughts on the cherry tisane I tried, which was also good, and I am hoping to try the blueberry white!

Well, I get how to pull the sweetness out of this brew now: oversteep it by ridiculous amounts, and suddenly it’s an apple tea with faint notes of mango. It’s okay, and I should have made a note on it that I wanted to save the rest for cold steeping, as there’s now barely enough for a cup left. Ah well.

Thanks again to Dexter3659 for sharing this with me!

Thanks to Dexter365 for a taste of this cuppa love!

I remember Dexter saying something about this (or a related) tea, that The TeaCupany was playing tricks on us with naming conventions. With this, I wholeheartedly agree. This is far from sweet, but rather, quite tart due to the high level of hibiscus. Truvia does sweeten things up, but it’s still a bit underwhelming. I want mango, darn it! I get little.

I can see how this would be really great cold steeped, so perhaps I need to use the rest of it for a cold-steep experiment.

I liked this tea! It is definitely a nice, light flavour. The white tea base is the stronger note, but the citrus is also definitely present. This took beautifully to short steep. It was sweet and a little floral with base fruit notes. I thought it was a simple tea, there wasn’t a ton of different additives and flavour notes I was supposed to be searching for, but it was simple done right. I was really, really impressed, this is white I could go for more often!

This is such an interesting white tea. Very different from the other white teas, I have. The cucumber is crisp and lends a strong vegetal note to the tea. I don’t reach for it all the time, but it is perfect when I am looking for something a little different!