Meditative Mind

Here’s how you know you have too much tea: I bought 2 oz of this tea about a year and a half ago in a sale at the Tea Spot, and when I pulled it out this morning I realized that the bag has never been opened. Yup, still heat-sealed closed.

Fortunately being sealed preserved it. I brewed this a bit hotter than I have in the past, more like I’ve been brewing white teas lately with Teavivre’s instructions. There is this western sense that white teas need to be babied, have to be brewed really cool, but that’s really not true. It’s kind of like the false notion that white teas are low caffeine and relaxing, when to many people white tea makes them wired! I certainly feel energized by a cup of white tea. I like how when they are brewed hotter they get more robust, more bready, and sometimes even a kind of cocoa-y note comes out.

This one reacted similarly. The rose and jasmine play well together here and are lovely, if you love florals. The white tea definitely had notes of hay and grains and yeasty bread. I must make an effort to drink this one more often (obviously).

I’m fed up with trying to drink black teas, at least for a little while. Every single one of them tastes bitter to me. This has been going on for a couple of weeks now, & I’m sure it’s due to allergies, but it is SO frustrating.

To give my tastebuds a break, I’m having a pot of this one. This is an old favorite, from my mostly green tea days, a lovely fragrant tea that is also beautiful to look at. I don’t always love floral teas, but I don’t really hate them either. The main taste I’m noticing today is a light sourdough bread quality, coming from the white tea in this blend. I’m still getting a slightly bitter sensation, but it’s mild, so it isn’t ruining things for me. The jasmine & rose are nicely balanced. For some reason when I drink this, I always feel like there is a bit of mint in there, & in fact I used to think it had mint in it, but it doesn’t.
Anyway, the Cardinals vs Nationals game is getting ready to start, & I plan to spend my entire day in my PJs, watching baseball, surfing the internet, & drinking tea.
A perfect day in the making!

oh Terri….i tried. For you, i tried. I pulled this one out of the box of samples that Terri sent me after seeing Dinosara’s post about rose tea. I warned Terri and promised myself whatever she sent i would try. So try i did! For the record? I’m sure this is a lovely tea if you enjoy licking flower beds ;) Ok so it’s not that bad, but floral teas are truly not up my alley. If i rated this purely on the basis of how pretty it is, it’d be up there in terms of rating. As it stands, i’m not going to rate it because i don’t like floral teas. In an attempt to try and provide some unbiased feedback – this is a smooth tea that captures that rose essence. Additionally, if you like jasmine pearls, the rose in this blends really nicely with it.

Thanks Terri!

It’s been a busy day so I thought I’d pull this one out. It’s nice and calming. Floral and sweet. I need to make some more time to just sit and enjoy my tea.. not throw it in a tumbler and scuttle everywhere.

After a six-hour car ride, I’m finally in Boston to visit some family. They had a few teas in the house, most of which weren’t loose leaf, but this is one of the ones that was and I thought it sounded like a nice calming tea after a stressful day and it certainly was. I’m turning to white teas for moments of calm more and more recently, and this blend was very good for that purpose. The subtle flavor of the white peony blends perfectly with the light floral notes of the jasmine pearls and rosebuds (of which there is just the right amount to make it a light floral accent rather than an overpowering aroma). Very nice. I’ll have to see what kinds of tea shops I can find around Boston.

Thank you Bo at the Tea Spot for this Sample Tea

One of the first tea’s I loved was a Rose tea. It surprised me that I didn’t gag like I was drinking perfume…. even though it smelled like cologne.
I never liked the Bottled Rose Syrup my Nephew David slathered on pancakes or favored in Baklava (a taste he came to love on Cyprus where he was born).
Tea was different somehow. The flavor was always sweet but more like soft floral honey.

When I opened this tea packet from The Tea Spot the whole top half was pretty packed with pretty Rose Buds.
I dug around looking for the Jasmine tea strands to gather bits for a good cup to brew. It was hard to control the amount considering the size of the flowers and white leaves so I used a large mug and finum basket with a little more leaf and water.
The temperature is suggested 176F for 2-4 minutes. (I would go for the full 4 minutes!)

The flavor was a good balance of Jasmine and Rose. Very floral and not very astringent at all, (I think that’s what other reviews referred to as harshness).
To get the most out of the beautiful floral flavor I would add sweetening. There’s no way I would drink this without sweetness to make the flowers nectar. Even honey would be an acceptable addition, especially a very mild wildflower honey.

A calming tea that is exactly as the name implies…good for quiet time and relaxation.

I found this on sale at my supermarket on clearance for 3.99. The date was good so I bought it. This is a very interesting tea, you can smell the jasmine and rose petals. It is kind of an aromatherapy. The jasmine and rose flavors are light and mixed with the white tea. Its not heavy Jasmine like Andrews and Dunham Jasmine. Its a very nice tea for relaxing and sipping during the evening. This is not a tea I would drink everyday but it is good for a change of pace.

Thank you Sil for this sample.

I have the start of what I call ‘tea belly’ so something light would be best to continue my tea marathon with. As a blend it’s attractive and fragrant, nice to see the tea pearls blending in nicely. Scent is very floral and sweet, like a secret rose garden with one bench and your sat there in the sun with your eyes closed just absorbing it’s beautiful aura.

Once steeped the tea looks mushy inside the teapot and weird..not as attractive as it’s raw form. The tea soup is golden in colour with a sweet rose scent.

Flavour is stronger than I thought it would be and I wish I opted for a weaker steep time (maybe around 2-3 minutes). As it’s so strong it has a little bitterness and a sort of waxy tone but only on a minor scale.

The rose is sweet and natural tasting and there is something sweeter in the background that I believe to be jasmine. I think as a blend it’s too floral, the rose and jasmine are competing against each other for dominance and I just don’t think it blends as smoothly as it should. It’s alright but just not for me so I wont be rating this one. Would suit someone that loves strong flower teas.

I smell the leaves: they have a strong aroma of roses…

I taste the plain liquid.

It is dry yet just a hint of sweet prevails! It is also very floral, very rosy.

When I look at the tea in my mug, the liquor is a clear green…

I add sweet.

The sweet brings out the floral flavor of the roses nicely.

I go outside, in burning heat, to watch my little brother skateboard.

Sipping the tea, I think of clouds on this cloudless day…

The tea is still dry.

I have my little brother try some.

“Tastes like sugary water roses.” he says with a matter-of-fact tone as a wide grin spreads across his face.

I smile back.

I suppose he’s right.

This is a nice tea for deep thinking, as the name suggests it is. It makes me think of slow-moving clouds shifting distantly in the sky.

The smell is very floral, and the taste follows. It’s lighter than I expected, but I don’t mind — the flowers don’t overwhelm. There isn’t much of a tea taste here, just enough to establish itself as white tea and then let the flowers take over. (A bolder tea base might have been more interesting, but I personally enjoy the way it is quite a bit.)