Boston Marathon and David's Tea - The Chai Collection

I was in Boston last week. Boston is such a neat city, besides all the history of the place there are so many things to see and do there. Whenever I get a chance to go to Boston I take it. While I was in Boston I took a walk over to the David's Tea store on Washington Street, the staff was friendly and I was relieved to read that they are safe. I saw signs for the Boston Marathon and even though I am not into sports I thought the Marathon would be something interesting to see.

I am deeply saddened by what happened at the Marathon. Three people killed, including an 8-year-old boy, so many injured... Such a thing should never happen.

Of course there are already rumors circulating about the Marathon bombing. Please verify before you click share or forward. Snopes and ThatsNonesense already have pages up on the Boston Marathon. Also there will probably be fake charities run by scam artists using the Boston Marathon so be careful who you donate to. The One Fund is a genuine charity set up to help the victims.

Some Tisanes - Montana Gold and Evening in Missoula

This week I am reviewing two of my favorite herbal teas. Yes, I know herbals/tisanes are not really tea but I make them with hot water and really like them. Both are blended by the Montana Spice and Tea Company, there are quite a few places to buy these teas online, these I got from TeaSource.

Montana Gold is a rooibos tea with orange rind, clove and cinnamon. I steep for about 6 minutes with boiled water. Here is my Steepster review:

Montana Gold

I need to get more of this tea, I drank the last of it the other day. Either hot or cold it's good. No sweetener needed. A great tea to drink late in the day without any caffeine to keep you up.

A lot of cinnamon taste, hints of citrus. The cinnamon is stronger with the second steeping. 

Evening in Missoula is my favorite tisane. It smells and tastes a little like birch beer. It has just about everything in it, but none of the ingredients are overpowering. Here's the ingredient list:

• Blackberry leaf
• Chamomile
• Damiana
• Lavender extract
• Lemon peel
• Papaya leaf
• Passion flower
• Peppermint
• Raspberry
• Red clover
• Rosehips
• Spearmint
• Star anise
• Strawberry leaf
• Vanilla 
• Wild cherry bark
• Wintergreen

Evening in Missoula

 I might attempt to blend simpler teas and tisanes, but home made Evening in Missoula is out of my league. Steepster review from a couple months ago:

I started drinking this tea recently but it’s quickly become my favorite tisane. All the herbs blend together perfectly, nothing overpowering the other herbs, an aftertaste like birch beer. Tastes good hot or cold, though it tastes a little sweeter if you let it cool. It doesn’t need any sweetener, though I sometimes add a little honey.
I usually steep it 6 minutes but it can probably steep for less than that, I’m used to black teas and this tea looks light yellow in my glass pot but it’s stronger than it looks. This tea can be steeped at least twice and still taste as strong as the first steeping.
This tea is something of a cure-all too.

 It is a very relaxing tea. I really need to order more of this tea too, I have been scraping the bottom of the bag so the picture of the tisane leaves is not the fairest.

Both tisanes are usually found looseleaf, but can be found bagged. I prefer looseleaf but getting Montana Gold bagged might be better than loose because rooibos likes to escape most tea strainers.

Celestial Seasoning - Sweet Coconut Thai Chai

I got an order in from Adagio last week, but have been too busy to do a proper tasting with photos and all thanks to my classes. And all but one of my teas from Adagio contain caffeine and I have been having trouble falling asleep so I resorted to a decaffeinated bagged tea last night for my blog.

  I prefer looseleaf teas but there are a few decent bagged teas out there. Also bagged teas are cheap, I can usually find Celestial Seasoning teas on sale 2 for $5. A while back I had gotten some of their Sweet Coconut Thai Chai.It is one of the first chais I have ever tried and still one of my favorites.

The tea part is a mix of rooibos (which is already caffeine free) and decaffeinated black tea. There's a bunch of different spices and coconut flavor.

My Steepster review:

Is it just me or does this tea get better when you’re getting closer to the bottom of the box?
This is a bagged tea but it’s still really good. Very spicy, strong hints of coconut. Even awesomer if you use a flavored coffee creamer, like pumpkin spice or chocolate, like most milk teas are improves with flavored creamers. When I can’t use fancy creamers I use milk (whole milk is better) and add honey instead of sugar.

I decided to try the chai iced last night. This added a few extra steps. I was supposed to add the milk to the ice separately, and to allow the chai to cool before adding it to the ice. The chai was still warm when I added it to the ice so the ice melted and the chai turned out weak and watery. But it is still a good chai if you make it properly.

Nina's Tea - Jamais Vu, Grand Amour and Scorpio

Nina's Tea has just been launched in the US and Canada. Nina's Tea is pretty popular in France so it's exciting to get a chance to try their tea. I contacted them through the Facebook page, was sent a catalog and got to pick out three teas for free samples, Jamais Vu, Grand Amour and Scorpio. They shipped fast, even with the bad snowstorm we had I got the teas within only a few days.

Nice big piece of orange peel

I tried the Jamais Vu first. In French jamais vu means "Never seen", but it is also a psychology term when someone experiences something they recognize but it seems unfamiliar, like the opposite of deja vu. Hmm. Anyways Jamais Vu is a black tea that has pineapple, orange, mandarin and safflower. I made a short tasting note on Steepster:

Very citrus, fruity, and slightly floral. I could not taste the pineapple but I could taste the orange and mandarin well enough. Tart but not too tart. I like it with a little sugar.
On the second steeping the orange taste is even stronger.

 It is a very strong tea but not bitter, I steeped the same leaves four times (3 minutes for the first steeping, slightly longer for later steepings) before it started to weaken.

I tried the Grand Amour next, but I did not like it as much. It's also a black tea, flavored raspberry, redcurrant,caramel and vanilla. My Steepster review:

Fruity, incredibly fruity. Maybe too fruity if that is possible. Since I opened the sample all I can smell or taste is raspberry and red currant. I am starting to panic for fear I will never taste anything else ever again.
I let the tea cool to room temperature while I ran some errands. The fruityness is not so overwhelming now. I think this might make a good iced tea. I do not taste any caramel or vanilla though.

 I tried steeping the leaves, it was a little better but I still did not like it and all I could taste was berries. Someone who loved this tea suggested that I try a shorter steeping time ( steeped for about 3 and a half minutes) and slightly lower temperature and she might be right, but I think I just do not like this tea. I think there are two kinds of raspberry teas, the kind I like and the kind I just don't like.

Nina's Tea has a collection of Zodiac themed rooibos teas. I was choosing teas based on their descriptions rather than names, and the Scorpio's peach, apricot and cream attracted me more than my sign. This tea has a pleasant peachy smell. My Steepster review:

This is my favorite sample from Nina’s. I can taste the rooibos, slightly woody. The apricot flavor comes through strong but not too strong, hints of peach and it is very creamy. The tea is fine on its own but I added just a few drops of cream, no sugar needed. This is a good dessert tea for the evening, and because there is no caffeine I do not have to worry about it keeping me up all night.

My first steeping was for about 3 minutes, sadly the second steeping was a little weak even though I steeped it for at least 5 minutes. I have about half a teaspoon left and think I'll add it to my used leaves for a third steeping.

Nina's Tea USA website is still under construction but some Nina's Teas are available on Amazon.

Design a Tea

Design a Tea is a nifty site. They're not as fancy as Adagio, much simpler. You pick a base tea (black, green, oolong, roobios) then up to two different flavors. You can have your tea bagged or looseleaf. They also have other options where you can blend in an herb. Design a Tea tries to stick with organic teas and only uses organic flavoring.

Pumpkin Apple

Another nice thing about Design a Tea is that for $1 for shipping they'll send two free samples (and a coupon for $2 off your next order, limit one per customer) I like a good deal and trying new teas so I gave it a shot. My first tea was a black tea, flavored apple and pumpkin. The second tea roobios flavored with chocolate and cherry.

They shipped fast, less than a week letter I had an envelope with two tea bags, individually wrapped in plastic.

I tried the Pumpkin Apple black tea first. I didn't care for the scent very much but I did not order this tea to smell it. I stepped it for about 5 minutes, added a little sugar and took a sip. I could not taste any pumpkin, but I could actually taste apple, most apple teas I can only taste cinnamon. So I was impressed by an apple tea that actually tasted like apple.

Cherry Chocolate Roobios

My mother saw the packet for the Cherry Chocolate roobios and asked me how to pronounce it. I'd always pronounced it roo-be-ohs, glad I haven't talked to anyone who knows better because it can also be spelled rooibos and pronounced ROY-bos. Learn something knew every day, and every day I find out I was wrong about yet another thing. The packet did have an error on it though, rooibos is caffeine free but chocolate is not.

I had the cherry chocolate rooibos tea with milk and sugar, the cherry flavor dominated the tea but I could taste hints of chocolate.

I will probably order from Design a Tea in the future, shipping is only $5 and their tea is not too expensive. I will probably choose different flavors next time though.

Update 2013/01/15- A message from Design a Tea:

When you request your samples – we have to create that sample to order. We have to get the flavor blend right, not with a 60 gram order blend, but all in a 2 gram (single serving). Boy, that can be a challenge at times. And sometimes a flavor gets beat-up by a stronger one (Sorry LAZEY)- but all is not a wash. If you enjoyed a particular sample (some you won’t and you’ll find yourself saying.. what was I thinking??)-when/if you actually order it- mention in the “Comment Section” during check out – you want more pumpkin or less coconut. We’ll give it the college try… heck that’s what we do… fine tune your custom designed teas every time you order. That in itself is another big difference, we as a small tea company can offer. 

Sweet! So that puts them on the same level as Adagio. So give Design a Tea a shot, or at least try their free samples.




Use code 7109946321 to save $5 on your first order from Adagio.