Violin in C Sharp

 For Christmas, my mother gave me a tea sample set from Oliver Pluff & Co., which is a small blend company out of Charleston, South Carolina that seems to specialize in historical blends.  The sample set she gifted me was "Teas of the Boston Tea Party" - blends created to recreate as closely as possible the tea blends dumped into the Boston harbor in the 1700s before the American Revolutionary War. Needless to say, as a tea nerd and a history nerd, this gift set appeals to me greatly and I have been super excited to try the blends.  The blends come in little test tube like containers that sit in a little cherry wood display.  It's a very nice design.  It also comes with a little card that describes each blend.  I decided to start with the Congou blend because I've already had the Colonial Bohea and know that I love it and want to save it for last, I wasn't in the mood for the super smoke of a Lapsang, Congou was the only black blend left and I already h...

 The next flavor in my Twinings gift box that I decided to try this morning was this Earl Grey with Jasmine. Now, from the front of the package, I thought it was Earl Grey black tea with added Jasmine essence, flavoring, or flowers.  Oh-ho, NOT SO says the back of the package - this is an Earl Grey mixed with a Jasmine scented Green Tea.  Boy am I glad I read the ingredients these days because that shifted my entire expectation for the flavor profile. Now, here's the thing I became worried about - black tea and green tea brew at VERY different temperatures, so I had to figure out where I thought I should brew the water on the temperature scale.  I wavered a bit for a while - but finally decided to go with the packaging and use the boiled water for black tea.   The reason I wavered and worried over this was because I do not like the harsh taste of green tea when it has been brewed with too hot water.  It loses its sweetness and dries out my mouth - and ...

 The second tea from my massive Christmas Twinings sample box. This is a caffeine free rooibos option - and it is one that I very much enjoyed.  I was expecting the cinnamon taste to be stronger on the profile.  Instead, what I got was something that tasted like the unsweetened tea version of orange juice - which was entirely delightful.  I have a korean tea that is sort of like an orange marmalade jelly that you add to hot water which I really enjoy but is often too sweet for me late at night.  This reminded me of that jelly tea without the sweetness. Final thoughts:  I will need to buy more of this - it is a delightful caffeine free option.

 One of my Christmas gifts this last year was a massive sample box of Twinings tea blends containing all sorts of flavors that I have never tried - well, you KNOW that means I have to review them all as I drink them! To start off, I knew that this wasn't going to be my favorite blend since the basic Twinings chai is not a chai I enjoy.  It's not... BAD - I just prefer my chai blends to have WAAAAAAAY more spice than Twinings uses.  I was curious to see what vanilla would bring to the chai party though, because it's not a flavor that I usually have in my chai.   So, what DOES the french vanilla bring to the chai party?  The answer is - nothing much.  In point of fact, what little spicing is in the Twinings chai is utterly masked by the addition of the vanilla and the cup tasted like regular black tea with a bit of vanilla creamer added.... sans cream. Final thoughts:  Not a Twinings blend that works for my tastes.

 This is a lovely caffeine free rooibos blend with a heavy spice profile. When I first bought this blend I was super excited and then when it arrived, I was horrified to see cacao pieces in the ingredient list. I can't stand chocolate, let alone chocolate in my tea.  Because of that disappointment, I've had this tin sitting in my tea cupboard for a good month unopened.  Today, I finally decided to brave the cacao - and I'm so happy that I did. I absolutely love that part of the brewing instructions are "Relax and enjoy". Rooibos blends are sort of hit or miss with me - this one is a hit.  I'm downright in love with how wonderfully spicy this is.  The cinnamon, ginger, cloves, black pepper, and cardamom are bold and wonderfully present in the first note.  Under the initial spice hit, the black currant, plum, and hibiscus sweep in with a fruit based sweetness that is followed up by the orange peel tartness that I love so much and a final hit at the back of my...

  My cousin g ave this to me ages ago to try. Frankly, I’ve been dragging my heels because the only black licorice flavored anything that hasn’t made me gag is Absinthe. So, I just haven’t wanted to risk it. On its own, it’s like the hot tea version of absinthe! It’s quite a tasty little tinsane. A nice selection to sip late at night while winding down. Paired with a ginger snap spice cookie it is AMAZING. The cookie spices heightened the tea spice and vice versa and I had this lovely spice symphony happening in my mouth. I am now sad that I only have 1 more bag of this left and will need to acquire more.

 This is such a lovely variation on Earl Grey.  Steepers is a local tea shop in Campbell, California and I often enjoy the blends from their shop.  Thankfully, for those of us who do not live near their brick and mortar shop, they do have an online store where I can get my refills. I am not often a big fan of the taste of lemongrass in my western tea blends as lemongrass for me evokes sense memories of Chinese and Thai food.  In this blend, the bergamot and orange changes that lemongrass flavor enough that my Asian food sense memory is not triggered. So many Ear Grey variations turn to other florals to balance the bergamot - and while I like a good Lady Grey with the cornflower addition, other variations with rose or lavender become too floral for me.  Of course, those that add florals usually use bergamot oil instead of bergamot flower and you can see from the wet leaf blend above that there are bergamot flowers and very little oil residue.  I will also lo...

 August bills Jet Black as "A rich black tea with roasted mate and espresso bean". Now, I've had tea with espresso beans before and I've really enjoyed the combination.  However, I was expecting far more coffee flavor than what I got from this.  Especially since on the back of the package, the very first taste they list is espresso beans. August bills the taste profile as espresso beans, hazelnut, sugar cane, and steamed milk.  That listing sounded delicious to me, which is why I bought the blend to try in the first place. My first confusion came when I scooped out the leaf blend into my strainer. Where are the espresso beans??? Not seeing any espresso beans in the actual blend worried me.  All the other tea blends I've had from other companies that bill a blend of tea and espresso beans have actual espresso beans in the leaf blend! Confused but still hopeful, I poured my water into the pot and was treated to something terribly special - within 10 seconds of the...