Trail Lodge Tea

This was a rather lackluster tea with a whole lot of honey and not much else. I wanted more raspberry. More peach.

Check out the full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2017/11/17/peach-melba-from-traillodge-tea/

Despite the picture, this tea came in a bag. It seems to be available loose as well from the website. I got this as a sample in the swag bag at Midwest Tea Fest.

I brewed this in a cup for a couple minutes at 85C. It’s got a nice aroma that reminds me of fallen leaves, flowers, and just a hint of white grape and melon. The tea has a nice thick body, tastes very clean, no astringency. It’s got the classic muscatel note of Darjeeling. Pretty low on the woody taste elements. It’s a little bit tangy and has notes of melon. That’s about all I can say. I have trouble discerning nuances as much when Western brewing since I’m so accustomed to Gongfu style. For tea from a bag, this is really nice. The clean quality of the taste matches what I’d expect from organic tea, and it’s Fair Trade, so that’s a plus. In retrospect, I kind of wish I had tore open the bag and just used a brew basket. I feel like I taste paper in the aftertaste.

As I was cleaning my tea cupboard, I stumbled across this – a leftover from my swap with the wonderful Terri. There was just enough left for a brew, so I gave it a go. My guess is that it’s a Ceylon, due to the smell, taste and strong astringency of the cup. The dry leaves smell like dark raisins, or dried blueberries – sweet and fruity. The taste echoes the smell, but with enough astringency to make your mouth both feel dry and water at the same time. Not for those who don’t enjoy astringent tea. This tea benefits from some kind of sweetening, and I think that it may hold up well to milk too.
400th steeping note! My, time does fly on steepster. :)

Sipdown! I’m finally down to 200 again, which is a relief; my plan is to get to at most 150 and maybe even fewer by Christmas. There are just so many little bits of teas that have accumulated it’s hard to keep track. Luckily my mom has switched from coffee to tea recently and she’s more than willing to help me out, so it’ll go twice as fast.

This tea is so interesting to me. My “cotton candy” comment in my first note still stands, and I think it must be because the strawberries are dried. I’ve always found that dried strawberries taste very different than fresh. The mango in this is really amazing, almost like eating the real fruit. Delicious!

This is a really nice fruit tea. The strawberry is sweeter than I expected, almost like cotton candy, which might be the influence of the mango. The mango flavor itself is more subtle and comes through more in the aftertaste, but it’s definitely present. That must be because—surprise—there are actual chunks of mango in this tea! That’s a rarity in the mango teas I’ve tried and I’m impressed. The base is nice and smooth and allows the fruit to be the star, but as the cup cools down it takes over a little more and balances out the strong strawberry note. This is a great summer tea that I would consider restocking when it’s gone.

Thanks for sharing TerriHarpLady! I loved the scent as soon as I opened it. Very peach-y! I was a bit disappointed to not see any actual peach in the ingredients. I guess that’s the ‘and natural flavorings’. Still it is a very nice cuppa tea. The peach is the prominent flavor and it doesn’t seem artificial to me. I can taste a touch of raspberry. It really is lovely. But i seem to say that of most fruity dessert teas. I like that this is a rooibos/honeybush blend since I can drink it in the evenings. Many fruity teas seem to have other tea bases. This is a nice dessert. I wonder if it will resteep at all?

Thank you thank you TerriHarplady! The first tea from the lovely teas I received in a swap today! I am only allowing myself a tea after a get one of the cleaning type jobs completed! Otherwise I’d sit and drink tea and read all day! Tea has a gentle lemon and graham cracker taste. Did I under leaf ? Allergies blocking the nose? Still yummy, even though the flavor is not as pronounced as I might have liked.
Now! On to more cleaning! It’s amazing how dusty/dirty/messy a house can get with only two fairly neat people in it!

Another one from terri. Sadly, now that i’ve had the pumpkin ginger tea that she shared with me, all others fail in comparison. This is a nice ennough tea…a little heavy on the clove but still good. I’d put this as more of a pumpkin spice tea than i get anything out of it that is pie like. That being said, it just can’t compare to the other one…that i’ve hidden away with my anxi shou. it must hide! for a no good very bad day when i need a smile.

Backlog:

This is actually a pretty tasty root beer rooibos blend. Much better than I expected it to be. The base is rooibos and honeybush, and this might be one of the reasons why I liked it, because I tend to prefer it when these two herbs are combined rather than have just one or the other. I think that they really complement each other in a good way.

A really good interpretation of “root beer” … here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/08/08/root-beer-rooibos-from-trail-lodge-tea/

sipdown on this one! This is the last of the tes for this morning as i need to go out and run some errands…more to come when i get back though as i have a few things on my list i want to drink up today if time allows and i’m in the mood :) I am a fan of this one…it’s creamy and fruity. I think i need to give terri an excuse to pick up a few more from this company so i can try some more and maybe make a small purchase haha

terri…this is so good! seriously. green teas? not my favourite but this is totally custardy and delicious without being overly sweet or too “green” YUM!
Thank you so much for sharing!

Backlog:

Totally yummilicious! (Yes, it’s a word, I just made it up.)

I love the base of this tisane, it’s oxidized rooibos (red rooibos), un-oxidized rooibos (green rooibos) and honeybush! It’s a great combination, because the flavor is sweet, honey-like, with notes of nut and fruit. A really nice complement to the lemon meringue pie flavors we’ve got going on with this tisane. Mmm!

The lemon-y notes are sweet, like lemon curd. Notes of vanilla, and every once in a while, I taste hints of butter. It works very well in tricking the palate into thinking that it’s drinking a slice of lemon meringue pie.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/06/29/lemon-meringue-tisane-from-trail-lodge-tea/

This was the 2nd of my bathtub teas today!
I’m not usually much of a fan of flavored greens, but I have to admit, this is pretty tasty, especially with a pinch of sweet added.
There are real freeze dried blackberries in this!

Backlog:

A nice blend of white and green tea leaves (although, I admit that I was a little confused by the name of this tea, since it seems to imply that this could be a black tea blend … right? Right?!?) I do like the base though, because it’s soft, smooth and creamy. It melds beautifully with the sweet-tart fruit notes.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/04/23/black-raspberry-tea-blend-from-trail-lodge-tea/

My sons Drew & Leif asked me to report that they drank the last of this tea, & they both love it. I guess I’ll have to get more, the next time I see Annette at the Farmer’s Market.

Sipdown!

Trail Lodge tea is a local (St. Louis) company owned by Annette Hopkins. She has a booth at the Maplewood Farmer’s Market on Wednesdays, & it’s really nice to stop by & visit with her, enjoy checking out her newest teas, & talk tea! Most of her teas are fair trade, & she donates to local causes, like the Wild Bird Sanctuary. I love that she offers .5 oz sample sizes of most of her teas, as I don’t really want to buy 4oz unless I’m absolutely sure I love something. How many of us have 4oz tins of tea that we tried once or twice, just taking up space in our cupboards?

So this is one of her newest blends. I smelled it, and the aroma is heavenly! I made a cup earlier this morning to enjoy in my bubble bath, & it was SO tasty: a rich dark cup, with an almost coffee-like essence, creamy real caramel squares that melt into a sweet buttery taste. It was perfectly tasty plain, but I added a pinch of stevia because I was in the mood for sweet, & it really reminded me of an ice cream I used to get long ago at baskin robbins…the kind that is coffee flavored, with swirls of caramel. Yum!
If you’d like to check out Trail Lodge Teas, here’s the link:
http://www.traillodgetea.com/default.asp

Sip down! Last of this cup from Terri….enjoying a bunch of my single cup servings to get them out of my cupboard before I reorganize this weekend :). Enjoy this even though its slightly weak in terms of the strength of flavour. But it’s still really tasty!

I cold brewed this the other night to see how it worked out. Seems that this is a tea better suited to hot brewing and then maybe cooling it off to drink cold. It’s not bad this way, but i prefer the hot brew i made the other day. good to know though as i do like this one from terri :)

thank you terri! Finally getting around to trying this one, though i have to admit i brewed it as though it were a black tea. Oopsy! Still though! this is pretty tasty! I’ll need to try this out with a cold brew and a “proper” brew just to see how it changes. The taste is a weeee weak for my preferences but still pretty yummy!

Yesterday evening I dumped the rest of this tea into a qt jar, filled with water, & put in the fridge. Today I’ve been sipping it all afternoon. It’s a very refreshing blend of green & white teas from a local tea vender, with freeze dried black raspberries mixed in. It’s not something I’d crave, but I’ve enjoyed drinking it & sharing it with a few friends! That’s all she wrote!
321

Now that the weather is cooling down, the boys are drinking more tea again, reminiscing about our past Adagio fandom orders, & all that. Drew has all of his classes on Mon, Wed, & Fri. Leif’s classes are on Tues & Thurs. Everyone has been fending for themselves for breakfasts lately (we have a rule in my house, which I call, “Find it, Kill it, Cook it, & Eat it”. Of course, nobody in this house is killing anything, but we have had that rule for a long time, & all of my kids know how to fix food because of it). Leif is on ‘Fall Break’ from his college, so the 3 of us had a nice breakfast together, which included a huge sweet potato that I dug up yesterday! Leif selected this tea & brewed a big pot, which we all enjoyed. It’s a light tasting cup, with a very bright, tart, & fruity flavor. I still haven’t tried it iced, but I bet it would be tasty that way.

Today I went to the farmer’s market. There is a guy who brings me eggs every week. I visited with him for awhile, & then wandered around, just looking. Most of the booths don’t have anything I need, but it is a great market. Locally made artisan breads, goat cheeses, salami, all kind of produce, meats, etc.

Trail Lodge Tea was there. Annette, the owner, is a tea lover, of course, & lives in the St. Louis area. She’s also really nice, & I enjoyed a pleasant visit with her. And I bought more tea, LOL. How could I not? I got half an oz each of peach melba & lemon meringue, both Rooibos/honeybush blends that I had before & enjoyed. I got half oz of Pumpkin pie, a black pumpkin chai type of blend. Then I wanted to try this black raspberry, but she only had a 4oz package, & that was the last of it, as she is out of the dried raspberries. I ended up buying it. I don’t usually buy 4oz of tea unless it’s something I’m really in love with, but, oh…I don’t know…I just did. I also don’t usually buy a lot of flavored greens or whites.

And guess what? I think I like it! Unsweet its ok, a little on the tart end of things, but with just a little stevia it is quite tasty! The green & white teas are fair trade certified organic, she uses real dried raspberries in it, & organic natural flavorings. All of those things make me happy, & the tea tastes good too! I think it will probably also make a very nice light & refreshing ice tea as well.

Sipdown!
Gradually working my way through the smaller quantities of tea. I got this one at the farmer’s market from the booth of a local tea company. It’s nicely bold, with a little maltiness.
The rest of this tea is on it’s way to Israel!

Backtracking, this was my 2nd cup of the morning, enjoyed with breakfast.
A nice bold & lightly malty cup.
Sorry for the lame reviews.
:)