First Flowering Tea

So, yesterday my Woot.com order came with my Primula glass teapot and 39 flowering teas...I am stocked on flowering teas for the next year+ now I think. The real reason I ordered this was so I could get the full experience with the Dragon Balls I won from a member on Steepster.com but I decided it couldn't hurt to try it out first.

I decided on the green tea with jasmine and picked one pretty much at random, ending up with one called Noble Madame. I only poured in enough water to fill the pot 2/3 of the way since I really didn't feel like drinking 40oz of liquid all by myself. I must say, I'm not sure which was more fun, watching the flower unfold or watching my son watch the flower unfold! He was quite torn between watching the tea and helping Grampy cook breakfast.

About 5 minutes in I poured my first cup. The liquor was a pale yellow-peach with a light, pleasant jasmine flavor, comparable to Stash's Monkey King Jasmine in strength.

At 18 minutes I poured another cup. This time the liquor was a bright peach-apricot color with a slightly stronger jasmine flavor.

The liquor kept getting darker the longer it steeped (up to a deep red-amber) but I couldn't detect any bitterness up until the tea had steeped about 45 minutes. At which point the level of liquid was down enough that it just fit in one of my mugs.

This even tastes quite pleasant when it's cold (I forgot about my mug sitting beside me on the shelf -o- )

Fragrant Flowers

This morning I decided to have a blend and wanted something floral to celebrate the lovely weather we've been having. I chose the Che Sen Lotus and Jasmine Yin Hao from Stash. Amazingly, even though the two floral notes were easily identifiable, they also combined to add a lovely lilac note. Or perhaps that's just my wishful thinking considering I recently found two tea companies that sell lilac tea.

Spicy Rose

Today I woke up to a light blanket of snow covering the trees and ground and decided to stick with chai again. I chose EnjoyingTea.com's Bangalore Rose Chai as a base and added Rosebud Black and Jasmine Yin Hao from Stash as well as my usual spices. I absolutely love the deep red that the Bangalore steeps to and the opaque peach-orange that results from adding milk is lovely as well. I should try brewing this the traditional way sometime.

Cherry Blossom

So for lunch guess what I had. If you thought "breakfast" go get yourself a cookie. Maybe I should get a cookie too after I write this... Anyway, I decided to have a nice floral green blend and chose the Cherry Rose Kyoto Sencha and Jasmine Dragon Pearls from EnjoyingTea.com. It was so naturally sweet that I almost didn't even have to put sugar in which is saying a lot from a sugar-lover like myself! I was eating French toast with syrup though so if I hadn't added the sugar the flavor would have been overwhelmed. I didn't add much though.

Bouquet of Green

Today's blend was a base of Che Sen Lotus green with Cherry Rose Kyoto Sencha and Jasmine Yin Hao. With the recent warm weather I've been itching for green leaves and summer so this was just the thing to soothe my desires...temporarily at least. The tea was well complimented by the french toast with cinnamon and syrup also.

Chocolate Blossom

Today's blend: Chocolate Chai from the Bar Harbor Tea Company with Stash's Rosebud Black and Jasmine Yin Hao. It amazes me how much my son likes the floral teas when it took me so long to get used to drinking something that smelled like perfume. Perhaps it's because he's never smelled jasmine perfumes that he drinks it so readily.

We also enjoyed the toast with butter and cinnamon sugar that accompanied the tea.

Jasmintte

Today was off to a bad start and I needed a soothing tea just for me. I started with a base of Moroccan Mint and added Che Sen Lotus green tea (a tea from Vietnam) and Jasmine Yin Hao. The full-bodied mint was nicely complimented by the floral notes and actually kept the tea from being overpowered by the bagel with marmalade I had for breakfast.

Someday I will have the time for a second infusion of this blend as both the Moroccan Mint and the Che Sen are teas that take multiple infusions well. Unfortunately since I have two kids under school age it doesn't look to be something that will happen soon.

Orange Blossom

Today's blend: Stash's Blood Orange black with Monkey King Jasmine and nutmeg. Glad I decided to go with the waffles instead of the omelet that I had been considering. And I got to drink the entire pot of tea again since my son decided he'd rather have orange juice with his grandfather.

Tea and Truffles: Take II

So, I still have truffles left and had a bit of time this afternoon so I steeped a pot of Stash's Jasmine Yin Hao and Rosebud Black teas with a bit of orange peel. This blend worked MUCH better than my previous attempt with the Monkey King Jasmine tea paired with the truffles. Truffles are a very rich chocolate and I have found that rich flavors need rich-flavored teas to match them. The Monkey King Jasmine is more like a jasmine scented breeze compared to the Jasmine Yin Hao, which can be compared to standing in the middle of a garden full of blooming jasmine on a warm summer's day.

Vanilla-Berry Blossom

Today's blend: French Vanilla black tea with Monkey King Jasmine green and Strawberry black. I had to do a bit of tinkering with milk and sugar amounts to bring out the strawberry note, more sugar and less milk than I usually use, but the extra calories were worth it (not that I count calories anyway but I've been trying to cut back the amount of sugar I use with my tea).

I was surprised that my son actually liked it considering he usually doesn't like trying new foods. But he had his tea and waffles and asked for more of both!

A rose is a rose is a rose...not

I had a bit of my chocolate cereal left this morning so I decided to try a new rose blend. It didn't work out too well. I used EnjoyingTea.com's Bangalore Rose Chai as a base with a touch of Stash's Rosebud black and Monkey King Jasmine teas and my usual spice blend. The only flavor note that stood out was the jasmine, the rest was all muddled together in a rather bland mix. I blame the chai.

Jasmine and Truffles

For Valentine's Day my husband bought me two pounds of truffles and I've been trying to find time to sit down with the raspberry ones and a pot of tea. Today I made the time.

I chose the Jasmine Dragon Pearl (Imperial Long Chu). Unfortunately it was a bit overwhelmed by the strong flavor of the truffles. Next time I'll go with the Jasmine Yin Hao which has a much stronger jasmine note than the Pearl.

Empress' Spice Garden

Stash's Rose Black with a touch of Jasmine Yin Hao, orange peel, cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg.

Teas with rose petals go very well with chocolate so I paired it with chocolate chocolate-chip muffins