Vanilla Chai

Still rainy, cloudy, and icky out and my son wanted to share tea again so I chose the Vanilla Chai from EnjoyingTea.com and added my usual spices. I know I didn't add any pepper but I can still taste it...and looking at the ingredients listed on the site there is indeed pepper.

Lemon Cream

My package of teas from my tea trade came yesterday and I was determined to try the Bangkok Lemongrass by Teavana. The smell in the package was a creamy lemon, like a lemon tart, and the steeped liquor was the same as well as being the color of lemon meringue. The taste was definitely lemon and cream with a faint note of something fruity in the background...perhaps from the rooibos.

This tea is so naturally sweet I could probably get used to drinking it without sugar which, for me, is saying quite a lot. I probably wouldn't drink this often but it would be a great occasional afternoon tea on a rainy day in the summer. With chocolate chip muffins.

A Peachy Morning

This morning I decided to try the Plum Peach Oolong I had designed with Design A Tea. It was absolutely lovely the way you could pick out each flavor and still have them meld together into a lovely whole. At one point I found myself thinking "Is this tea or is this nectar?" it was so good!

And I have found another tea that goes well with the spiced blackberry peach jam! Happy day!

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.

Chocolate Seduction

So this morning I decided to give the China Seduction from Design A Tea another try. I measured out two heaping teaspoons, double what I had used before, and as I was doing so I realized that only about a third of the mix was tea leaves. The other two thirds were chocolate nibs and rose petals respectively. Perhaps that was the cause of the weak taste last time.

After steeping the liquor was a murky red-brown. Very murky, I could hardly make out where the spoon touched the bottom of the tea cup and I use a small cup.

First sip...WOW! Now THAT is CHOCOLATE! Milky smooth but with a slight dark coco bitterness. It actually tastes a lot like the jasmine-infused chocolates that I have. I'll have to try blending this with some jasmine tea at some point.

It also went marvelously with the bagel I had spread with spiced blackberry peach jam!

Revisiting an old favorite

Blasted weather still hasn't warmed back up yet. I needed a tea this morning that could warm me up so I chose Stash's Kashmiri Chai Green Tea and used two bags in my tetsubin for extra strength. Loaded up with lots of milk and sugar it was smooth and silky with just the amount of spice I needed to start my day. I was enjoying my tea so much I nearly forgot to eat my banana bread!

Headed South

So, yesterday afternoon I had gotten everything set up so I could make an omlet for lunch, including cracking the eggs into a bowl. Between one thing and another I ended up not getting any further than that on the lunch front. So this morning I decided to finish that omlet idea. I topped it with my black bean salsa and extra cheese and had a couple slices of banana bread as well.

Seeing how I seemed to be heading south for breakfast I decided to have some of EnjoyingTea.com's Roasted Mate Chai, rounded the flavor out with some Winey Keemum, and added my usual spice blend. I added a bit more nutmeg than usual though which gave the tea a pleasantly warm bite that complimented the salsa and the banana bread nicely.

Sweet or Savory

This morning I had waffles and eggs so I needed a tea that would work well with both sweet and savory flavors. I chose the Winey Keemum English Breakfast as a base with some of Stash's Rosebud black tea, orange peel, and my usual spice blend plus some cardamom scavenged from another tea in my cupboard. The resulting blend worked perfectly with both breakfast foods.

Simple and Soothing

Today I decided to keep it simple and had some Winey Keemum with orange peel and cloves. It went very well with both the omlet and the banana bread that I had. It also did a great job at settling my son's tummy after a bit of an upset.