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I only noticed this month that DavidsTea now has this available on their website. Two years ago when I first tried it, it was only seasonal, so by the time I tried it, I couldn’t get anymore of it. Haha, but i just got a good 12oz of it! My goodness, I hope I can finish that. I have noticed that for these teas though I tend to need much more leaf than I do for other company’s teas. I’ll brew this at 1.5-2tsp/12oz, but I still brew it for 3 min, because that’s just become my default these last few months, for anything that’s not like puerh or green.

But yes, hmm, I do really enjoy this one. I’ve gone away from alot of chai teas, but this one is really well balanced and mild. The pumpkin really comes through more in scent than in flavor for me, but that’s enough. The black base is, as mentioned, weaker than I expect for a normal black base, but it’s good enough if I don’t overbrew it. It fades out very quickly though, I don’t expect more than a 2nd weak steep from it. After that its just colored water.

I’ve discovered the tea community on Youtube, which just encourages me to buy things, which was why I kind of distanced myself from Steepster, but eh, whatever. I’ve missed you all.

On another note, I pretty much only know this tea and the Jasmine Black Pearls from David’s, and I’ve discovered that there’s a location I can get to with a little more than a half hr’s drive. I don’t need anymore tea or teawear, but their designs are soo cute! What are your favorites/recommendations? :) I’ve heard some good things about the Iced Tea Press, but idk, I trust Steepster’s opinions more. hehe.

I was digging around in some of my tea stash from last year and found a whole bag of goodies from 52teas from one of the grab bag promotions. This was the little sample on top of the pack. Yay! It’s almost Shamrock Shake season, right? This tea is BETTER than Shamrock Shakes though, I think. As lovely and craved as Shamrock shakes are, they do taste very artificial and I typically only can finish a small cup per season. I can see myself coming back to this tea, too bad I only have the taster size.

To be fair though, I do my usual morning Brews to take to work, and I drank the third brew first on the commute to work, and the first brew in the afternoon. I’m glad it worked out that way, the hit of mint in the morning would have been perhaps too much for me, but it was quite lovely and mild by the third steep. I’m not sure why I never thought of peppermint and vanilla green tea together, I drink both quite often. Of course, that’s what I might have to resort to when I run out of this sample, I just checked the website and I didn’t find any in stock. Sigh. You guys! If you reblend I’ll buy a big bag! =)

In the meantime I know that I got some teas from the holiday thing, I just have to recall where I stashed them.

I chose Little Walk to christen my new (first!) tea table, more for the fact that it was already out than really for anything else.

It tastes like a green. It’s grassy, but the grass needs some water it’s looking a little brown, grass. For that though, it’s more astringent than a green and more pungent as well. It’s not a bad tea, but ehh. I don’t remember if I have a full cake floating around or not. I’d drink it up, but I’m not particularly impressed?

Verdant Tian di Ren 2005 Shu Pu’er

This shall be my Christmas tea this year. I’m using an easy gaiwan with a cupping set (? the one with a long sniffing cup and a stout drinking cup)

It tastes like earth and mushrooms. It’s not at all heavy or too overwhelming. =) Just smooth and easy.

Merry Christmas/Happy holidays!

From the Here’s Hoping TTB

Not my cup of tea, but I might have brewed it with too hot water? The smell was lovely, bright and floral, but the taste was really umami, which I’m not particularly a fan of.

Hmm yummy yummy. Another great fruity green tea from Lupicia. I got this one in a mailer who knows when and finally busted it out when I was late already for work and decided just to take a tea bag with me instead of brewing/decanting while at home. I had forgotten a little – the convenience of teabags. lol.

I’ll be back on Steepster more in the new future. =) I turned away from buying more tea (other than subscriptions) during Lent and other than putting in an LP other for the Dark Matter group buy (that doesn’t count, RIGHT? it comes later!), I did pretty good! But staying away from the boards will do that.

I’ve been enjoying the bag I got last time I found this in stock. Imagine my surprise to go back to the listing and find it was one of the very first teas I reviewed, but apparently not too favorably! Huh, how things change… or maybe I was wrong on the name of the tea. Who knows.

This tea is has a lovely sweet and mellowly roasted liquor that isn’t too overwhelmingly sweet like some of Lupicia’s other cherry teas, but isn’t very roasted either. It’s a very comforting taste to me and I wish it lasted longer than 2-3 steeps, as I think it’s a limited edition or perhaps seasonal thing. I wasn’t on their website last time I looked.

It reminds me of my love for roasted teas, that’s always good too. Yum.

Oooh! This is such a funny (and good!) tea. I grabbed a sample out of a TTB awhile and am only now getting around to it. It’s like getting a jasmine milk tea… but without the actual milk! It’s creamy and fragrant and soo lovely. I want more! Haha. It’s something that I can see myself enjoying often, and it got me revisiting some of my other ‘cream’ teas. (Cream in those cases usually is more of a creamy vanilla flavoring, which is nice in it’s own right.)

It brews into a nice medium bodied cup and leaves no dryness. I made my friend try some and he felt tricked because it looks like normal tea… but tastes like milk tea. =D