http://www.examiner.com/article/win-free-tea-for-a-year-from-the-tea-spotThe Tea Spot, one of my very favorite tea companies, is running a contest on their Facebook page. It is a chance to win a membership in one of their seasonal tea clubs.
After writing the article, I started thinking about tea clubs. I have never joined one, but they might be a good idea. It is a good way to introduce yourself to new teas.
It is also cheaper in the long run. There is an initial outlay of more than $100 most of the time, but it is less than the total price of the teas and the shipping costs if they were purchased individually.
It is a really convenient way to buy tea if you have the money to put out for it. It comes right to your door and you do not have to pay any additional shipping costs. It is like getting a nice little surprise package once every three months.
The only drawback that I can see is that you do not pick the teas that you want. You pick a category of tea, but not the individual teas. While I am sure that the tea clubs, no matter which company they are from, have great tea. They may just not be the teas you would choose for yourself.
That does not necessarily have to be a problem. There are a number of tea exchanges on the Internet. You can always trade any tea you do not want with someone who does.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Tea review: Rishi Tea's Keemun Royal Reserve - National tea | Examiner.com
Tea review: Rishi Tea's Keemun Royal Reserve - National tea | Examiner.com
The nice thing about having a tea blog is being able to write in first person. On Tea Examiner I must be an impersonal, neutral journalist. When I blog, I can put some emotion into what I write about.
My experience with Keemun is not vast. I have only tasted a few of them, less than a dozen, I am sure. Therefore I researched Keemun for a week or two before even tasting the tea. I wanted to know what I should be looking for in the flavor and fragrance.
Since I am not STI trained, I find this helpful in defining the flavors and scents in the tea. I know what I taste, I just do not know the terminology for it. I am, however, learning every time I write a review. It would be nice to have the time and the money to take the STI classes, but that is not within my capabilities at present.
Anyway, I really enjoyed the Keemun. I steeped it too strong the first time, but for subsequent steepings, it was truly lovely. It was one of the darkest teas I have ever drunk. It looked a lot like a stain one would paint on unfinished wood to make it dark. The highlights are so pretty the cup of tea might be a jewel.
Keemun Royal Reserve was the darkest and strongest Chinese tea I have ever tasted. It made me realize just how little Chinese black tea I consume. When I think of Chinese tea, I mostly think of oolong or green tea, sometimes white, but when it want black tea, I usually turn to a Ceylon or Darjeeling. The Keemun had a completely different flavor that I will now add to my list of flavors to enjoy.
The nice thing about having a tea blog is being able to write in first person. On Tea Examiner I must be an impersonal, neutral journalist. When I blog, I can put some emotion into what I write about.
My experience with Keemun is not vast. I have only tasted a few of them, less than a dozen, I am sure. Therefore I researched Keemun for a week or two before even tasting the tea. I wanted to know what I should be looking for in the flavor and fragrance.
Since I am not STI trained, I find this helpful in defining the flavors and scents in the tea. I know what I taste, I just do not know the terminology for it. I am, however, learning every time I write a review. It would be nice to have the time and the money to take the STI classes, but that is not within my capabilities at present.
Anyway, I really enjoyed the Keemun. I steeped it too strong the first time, but for subsequent steepings, it was truly lovely. It was one of the darkest teas I have ever drunk. It looked a lot like a stain one would paint on unfinished wood to make it dark. The highlights are so pretty the cup of tea might be a jewel.
Keemun Royal Reserve was the darkest and strongest Chinese tea I have ever tasted. It made me realize just how little Chinese black tea I consume. When I think of Chinese tea, I mostly think of oolong or green tea, sometimes white, but when it want black tea, I usually turn to a Ceylon or Darjeeling. The Keemun had a completely different flavor that I will now add to my list of flavors to enjoy.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Tea review: Rishi Organic Vanilla Black tea
Tea review: Rishi Organic Vanilla Black tea
I do not normally enjoy vanilla flavored teas. The vanilla added usually tastes and smells like vanilla perfume. This tea, however, was very delicious.
The fragrance of the dry leaf is sweet and very rich with vanilla flavor. I immediately thought of how well this tea would go with desserts from the richness of the vanilla.
I steeped it according to the directions on the envelope in my favorite teapot and cup set that I use for tea reviews. The cup is wide and has a white interior, so it makes allows me to see the color very well as well as appreciate how the tea smells.
The picture does not show it, but the color of the tea liquor is a rich brown with reddish highlights. The aroma coming rising from the cup was more subtle than the fragrance of the dry leaf, but it was still very seductive. I waited very impatiently for the tea to cool enough to be sipped without burning my lips.
I was not at all disappointed. I was, in fact, very surprised at how good it tasted. The tea beneath the flavor of the vanilla was very smooth and very compatible with the vanilla. It would be very good with any dessert that I could think of, from chocolate to fruit to spicy.
It occurred to me after I wrote the review linked above that Rishi Organic Vanilla Black tea would also be a good tea to cook with. I could imagine pulverizing this tea and using it to make shortbread cookies or cupcakes. I also imagined adding it to my popular 4th of July three-chip oatmeal cookies or using it as a tea concentrate to flavor frosting, sauces, or a pudding. Think it would be excellent steeped in cream and then used as a sauce over pears that had been poached in cinnamon. Better yet, the pears could be poached in a good masala chai.
I seem to be obsessed with cooking with tea these days. I recently red Culinary Teas by Cynthia Gold and Lise Stern and I have been consumed with the idea of cooking with tea ever since. That aside, however, it would still be a great tea to drink with dessert or to cook dessert with.
I do not normally enjoy vanilla flavored teas. The vanilla added usually tastes and smells like vanilla perfume. This tea, however, was very delicious.
The fragrance of the dry leaf is sweet and very rich with vanilla flavor. I immediately thought of how well this tea would go with desserts from the richness of the vanilla.
I steeped it according to the directions on the envelope in my favorite teapot and cup set that I use for tea reviews. The cup is wide and has a white interior, so it makes allows me to see the color very well as well as appreciate how the tea smells.
The picture does not show it, but the color of the tea liquor is a rich brown with reddish highlights. The aroma coming rising from the cup was more subtle than the fragrance of the dry leaf, but it was still very seductive. I waited very impatiently for the tea to cool enough to be sipped without burning my lips.
I was not at all disappointed. I was, in fact, very surprised at how good it tasted. The tea beneath the flavor of the vanilla was very smooth and very compatible with the vanilla. It would be very good with any dessert that I could think of, from chocolate to fruit to spicy.
It occurred to me after I wrote the review linked above that Rishi Organic Vanilla Black tea would also be a good tea to cook with. I could imagine pulverizing this tea and using it to make shortbread cookies or cupcakes. I also imagined adding it to my popular 4th of July three-chip oatmeal cookies or using it as a tea concentrate to flavor frosting, sauces, or a pudding. Think it would be excellent steeped in cream and then used as a sauce over pears that had been poached in cinnamon. Better yet, the pears could be poached in a good masala chai.
I seem to be obsessed with cooking with tea these days. I recently red Culinary Teas by Cynthia Gold and Lise Stern and I have been consumed with the idea of cooking with tea ever since. That aside, however, it would still be a great tea to drink with dessert or to cook dessert with.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
North American Tea Championship Iced Tea Class winners
North American Tea Championship Iced Tea Class winners
The results of the 2011 North American Tea Championship were in on June 1. This is just the first time I had a chance to write about it.
I found it very surprising that Rishi did not have any winners this time. They have scored big with their iced teas in the past.
There was a time when I would not drink the RTD iced teas, but in recent years, their quality has improved. ITO EN in particular makes a great unsweetened brew in their TEA'S TEA line. It actually tastes like tea, not tea soda. I am not quite sure how Snapple became a first place winner. I am going to have to try their bottled tea again. To me it always tastes like slightly tea-flavored soda or juice drink, not much like tea.
I much prefer to brew my own iced tea. I use Tetley's British blend. It's a blend of Assam and Ceylon. It has tiny leaves for quick brewing, but the tea has a good flavor. This makes me think that the tea is the broken pieces of good tea left behind after processing as many teabag teas are. As James Norwood Pratt has said, the dust of good tea is better than the full leaf of bad tea. Or something like that. I forget his exact words.
Last year I used green teas for iced tea for the first time. I find that green teas can be even more refreshing than the black teas. One needs merely be more aware of the more subtle flavors of green teas. The Tea Spot's Boulder Blues is my favorite green iced tea, though I am going to try their Jasmine Petal green tea soon.
I also have the lightly oxidized Darjeeling that Shiv gave me. It is very sweet and subtle. I think it will be delicious iced.
The results of the 2011 North American Tea Championship were in on June 1. This is just the first time I had a chance to write about it.
I found it very surprising that Rishi did not have any winners this time. They have scored big with their iced teas in the past.
There was a time when I would not drink the RTD iced teas, but in recent years, their quality has improved. ITO EN in particular makes a great unsweetened brew in their TEA'S TEA line. It actually tastes like tea, not tea soda. I am not quite sure how Snapple became a first place winner. I am going to have to try their bottled tea again. To me it always tastes like slightly tea-flavored soda or juice drink, not much like tea.
I much prefer to brew my own iced tea. I use Tetley's British blend. It's a blend of Assam and Ceylon. It has tiny leaves for quick brewing, but the tea has a good flavor. This makes me think that the tea is the broken pieces of good tea left behind after processing as many teabag teas are. As James Norwood Pratt has said, the dust of good tea is better than the full leaf of bad tea. Or something like that. I forget his exact words.
Last year I used green teas for iced tea for the first time. I find that green teas can be even more refreshing than the black teas. One needs merely be more aware of the more subtle flavors of green teas. The Tea Spot's Boulder Blues is my favorite green iced tea, though I am going to try their Jasmine Petal green tea soon.
I also have the lightly oxidized Darjeeling that Shiv gave me. It is very sweet and subtle. I think it will be delicious iced.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Tea--there’s an app for that. Now you can order tea on iPhone - National tea | Examiner.com
Tea--there’s an app for that. Now you can order tea on iPhone - National tea | Examiner.com
This is my most recent article on Tea Examiner. I sort of had to chuckle at the idea of it. Why would anyone need such an application? Actually, the information on the Teavana website does not say whether this is one application or two different ones.
I cannot fathom anyone needing an iPhone to find out how to steep his or her tea or to time it. I cannot imagine being so lazy about buying tea that one would want to do it by pushing buttons on the phone.
I do buy tea on the Internet, but I like to look through several sites to make my choices. This application limits the buyer to only Teavana, which is the point, I suppose. They would want an app. to buy only from them to increase their sales.
I enjoy reading the websites of the various tea companies. That not only gives me a wider choice of teas, it exposes me to new information. There are teas I would never have known about let alone tried if it had not been for looking through the websites of The Tea Spot, Teas Etc., Rishi, Kusmi, and Adagio, just to mention a few.
Speaking of the Tea Spot, I have been taking my Tuffy Steeper everywhere. When my daughter took 3 days to have her baby, having my own tea and my Tuffy at the hospital was a huge comfort. The fact that my daughter had been in labor for more than two days was enough to completely frazzle me. Like many tea drinkers, I turned to tea to hold me together. Weak hospital tea made from cheesy teabags was not enough. So I took my Tuffy and some sandwich bags of good tea, put my Tuffy into a hospital cafeteria Styrofoam cup, used their hot water, and paid for tea even though I used my own. It was worth it to drink real tea instead of stale tea dust.
The Examiner.com new publishing tool is available, so I will be able to get to the tea reviews now. If you do not read Tea Examiner, you will find them here.
The rooster teapot has nothing to do with this post. I just liked it.
This is my most recent article on Tea Examiner. I sort of had to chuckle at the idea of it. Why would anyone need such an application? Actually, the information on the Teavana website does not say whether this is one application or two different ones.
I cannot fathom anyone needing an iPhone to find out how to steep his or her tea or to time it. I cannot imagine being so lazy about buying tea that one would want to do it by pushing buttons on the phone.
I do buy tea on the Internet, but I like to look through several sites to make my choices. This application limits the buyer to only Teavana, which is the point, I suppose. They would want an app. to buy only from them to increase their sales.
I enjoy reading the websites of the various tea companies. That not only gives me a wider choice of teas, it exposes me to new information. There are teas I would never have known about let alone tried if it had not been for looking through the websites of The Tea Spot, Teas Etc., Rishi, Kusmi, and Adagio, just to mention a few.
Speaking of the Tea Spot, I have been taking my Tuffy Steeper everywhere. When my daughter took 3 days to have her baby, having my own tea and my Tuffy at the hospital was a huge comfort. The fact that my daughter had been in labor for more than two days was enough to completely frazzle me. Like many tea drinkers, I turned to tea to hold me together. Weak hospital tea made from cheesy teabags was not enough. So I took my Tuffy and some sandwich bags of good tea, put my Tuffy into a hospital cafeteria Styrofoam cup, used their hot water, and paid for tea even though I used my own. It was worth it to drink real tea instead of stale tea dust.
The Examiner.com new publishing tool is available, so I will be able to get to the tea reviews now. If you do not read Tea Examiner, you will find them here.
The rooster teapot has nothing to do with this post. I just liked it.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Tea Examiner to be on Lainie Sips podcast Wednesday, September 8 - National tea | Examiner.com
Tea Examiner to be on Lainie Sips podcast Wednesday, September 8 - National tea | Examiner.com
A great deal is happening right now. For one thing, I became a grandmother on August 13. Her name is Delilah June, seven pounds, 15 ounces.
My daughter had a hard time of it, and I was there with her off and on for about 5 days.
I think my Tuffy steeper from The Tea Spot helped me a lot. I took my own loose tea and my Tuffy steeper and used the cafeteria's cup and hot water. I paid for tea. I was not going to explain what I was doing. I just was not in the frame of mind to tolerate drinking food service teaba tea. I wanted good tea.
The teas I took with me were The Tea Spot's Bolder Breakfast and Boulder Blues and Thepuritea's Red Dragon Pearls. I am sure it did not hel my daughter, but it helped me so I could help her.
The most recent exciting thing to happen is that the charming and very knowledgeable Lainie Petersen is going to interview me on the Lainie Sips podcast next week. You can read all about it in the article the link goes to.
As soon as Examiner.com gets its new editing software together and we make the transfer, I will be writing lots and lots of reviews. I will try to put the link on Tea Sippings, but sometimes the link buttons work and sometimes they don't and sometimes I just do not get the time.
A great deal is happening right now. For one thing, I became a grandmother on August 13. Her name is Delilah June, seven pounds, 15 ounces.
My daughter had a hard time of it, and I was there with her off and on for about 5 days.
I think my Tuffy steeper from The Tea Spot helped me a lot. I took my own loose tea and my Tuffy steeper and used the cafeteria's cup and hot water. I paid for tea. I was not going to explain what I was doing. I just was not in the frame of mind to tolerate drinking food service teaba tea. I wanted good tea.
The teas I took with me were The Tea Spot's Bolder Breakfast and Boulder Blues and Thepuritea's Red Dragon Pearls. I am sure it did not hel my daughter, but it helped me so I could help her.
The most recent exciting thing to happen is that the charming and very knowledgeable Lainie Petersen is going to interview me on the Lainie Sips podcast next week. You can read all about it in the article the link goes to.
As soon as Examiner.com gets its new editing software together and we make the transfer, I will be writing lots and lots of reviews. I will try to put the link on Tea Sippings, but sometimes the link buttons work and sometimes they don't and sometimes I just do not get the time.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Review: Zealong Pure, exclusively from Chicago Tea Garden
Review: Zealong Pure, exclusively from Chicago Tea Garden
I finally had the time to really pay attention to the sample of Zealong Pure that Tony Gebely sent me from Chicago Tea Garden. This is the kind of tea that should be drunk in serene surroundings, like on a patch of grass next to a clear pool of water fed by a trickling fountain. Unfortunately, I drank it to the sounds of the unsupervised children in my apartment building running up and down the stairs screaming and shouting.
Still, I tried to let myself be as serene as possible. I steeped this tea a total of six times. It was fabulous. It is a very, subtle tea, with an under-note that reminded me, very faintly, of cinnamon flavored cactus candy. The taste is barely there, but it is there. I would not have missed this tea for the world. It was almost like drinking delicate flower petals that had been liquified. Amazing.
I drank the tea from the glass in the slide show. I wanted to be able to see the beauty and clarity of the tea as I drank it. I drank each cup of this tea very slowly. It took me about five hours to make and drink each steeping. It was one of the loveliest tea experiences of my life.
Thank you, Tony, for letting me review Zealong. Reviews of the other two are coming soon.
I finally had the time to really pay attention to the sample of Zealong Pure that Tony Gebely sent me from Chicago Tea Garden. This is the kind of tea that should be drunk in serene surroundings, like on a patch of grass next to a clear pool of water fed by a trickling fountain. Unfortunately, I drank it to the sounds of the unsupervised children in my apartment building running up and down the stairs screaming and shouting.
Still, I tried to let myself be as serene as possible. I steeped this tea a total of six times. It was fabulous. It is a very, subtle tea, with an under-note that reminded me, very faintly, of cinnamon flavored cactus candy. The taste is barely there, but it is there. I would not have missed this tea for the world. It was almost like drinking delicate flower petals that had been liquified. Amazing.
I drank the tea from the glass in the slide show. I wanted to be able to see the beauty and clarity of the tea as I drank it. I drank each cup of this tea very slowly. It took me about five hours to make and drink each steeping. It was one of the loveliest tea experiences of my life.
Thank you, Tony, for letting me review Zealong. Reviews of the other two are coming soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)