Apple Walnut Cream Cake tea review (#27)

Herbal tea

Margaret's Fine Imports

www.pittsburghcuppa.com

$3.99/2 oz

Ingredients: Apple pieces, marshmallows (glucose/fructose syrup, sugar, water, gelatin, corn starch, natural vanilla flavoring), apple slices, walnuts, flavoring.

Happy Thanksgiving days! This tea is SO good! It's perfect for the colder end of fall.

I thought I was tired of apple tea, but this one has the word "cake"! It looks like trail mix and smells like perfume--like a surprisingly good-smelling nail polish? The huge pieces of dried apple and marshmallows are so fun! The tea is a beautiful rich yellow.

The steeped tea looks cloudy yet thin, but the flavor is sweet and full. I don't know if this is a term applied to tea, but I'm going for it: it has a really nice mouthfeel. A full-bodied mouthfeel. It's delicious!

Double the time and use really hot water for steeping, because it takes a little longer for the dried fruit to open up. 

And look! The kitchen under construction now has a windowsill.

So. Much. Fun.

The marshmallow melts away while steeping.

Don't forget to use really hot water!

Next, I'll review chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

Lady Londonderry tea review (#26)

Flavored black tea
Margaret's Fine Imports
www.pittsburghcuppa.com
$3.50/2 oz

Ingredients: Luxury black tea, freeze-dried strawberry, lemon balm, calendula and sunflower petals, natural flavors.

The interwebs has attributed Lady Londonderry as Princess Diana's favorite tea. I wouldn't be surprised if she loved it! Named after society hostess Edith Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry, the tea evokes graceful propriety. It's calm, sophisticated, delicate.

The black tea is soft and the strawberry and lemon flavors are  refreshing. It has a delicious scent pre-steeping and also from the hot cup.

I love it as an afternoon tea with milk or honey, but it's also great iced because of the fruit flavor! Don't oversteep; it's a light tea.




Pink-ish and yellow pieces... you can see the strawberry is more pink when I bought it (below).

My next review is on an AWESOME fall tea for Thanksgiving. It's really unusual!

Peach Momotaro Artisan tea review (#25)

Flavored white tea
TEAVANA
www.teavana.com
$18.98/2 oz

 
Ingredients: Floral white tea infusion, "soft peachy undertones."

I've never had blooming tea before! It's fun to try. The white tea and peach flavors are really light. Don't let the tea sit in the water too long, or it'll get bitter. It was nice to see it floating in the cup like seaweed while I drank it, though.

Before steeping.

Opening up slowly.

Pretty flower!

Next time I need to try it in this glass pot meant for blooming tea from Teaposy!

Come back for a very sophisticated tea, indeed.

What's your favorite flavor of blooming tea?

Chocolate chai black tea review (#24)

Flavored black tea
Prestogeorge
www.prestogeorge.com
$2.05/2 oz

Ingredients: Black tea, ginger root, green cardamom, chocolate chips, chocolate flavor.

This chai is awesome! The chocolate is perfect. Not too much that it overwhelms the other flavors, but just enough to make the tea sweet and smooth. No sugar needed.

For some spice, there are full cardamom pods that add some interest to the flavor. I came across these same cardamom pods in a chicken masala dish recently! Don't eat the pod whole... just try it in tea.

This tea is very fragrant. The rain outside is falling sideways, and it's turning to snowy sleet over fall leaves near the Point of Pittsburgh, but I'm fine inside with my heated pad and chocolate chai. I really want to try Prestogeorge's other chais... in my quest for the perfect chai!

Whole chocolate chips and cardamom.

Foam while steeping.

 

Amazing price. You can see how far along the kitchen is, which is not enough.

Come back next time for a fun flowering tea!

What do you think of chocolate in tea?

Chocolate chip black tea review (#23)

Flavored black tea
Prestogeorge
www.prestogeorge.com
$3.25/4 oz

Ingredients: Chocolate flavored Oriental black tea, chocolate chips.


It's the final one... the last 23 Teas of October! (#23)

Chocolate for Halloween! It looks like the pieces of black tea are actually coated with chocolate! You can even hear the chocolate coating sliding against itself as you pour the dry tea.

It has little chocolate chips, which melt and infuse in the tea. Steep this tea for longer than you usually might. It takes some time for the liquor to thicken.

The chocolate smell is very noticeable and the flavor comes through with some nuttiness. I'm actually tasting the chocolate  more as it cools. Delicious with milk. A perfect dessert/snack tea for a long afternoon when you're craving sugar. And I plan on having a lot of it today.





Chocolate-coated pieces and chocolate chips!

So cute in the tea ball.

Yellow liquor deepens to a warm brown.

Come back next week. This it the last 23 Teas of October review, but I'll have more reviews in November!

It's your LAST DAY to win!
(Win tea! Rules here http://allteanocrumpets.blogspot.com/2014/09/tea-giveaway.html)

Happy Halloween! Be safe.

Apple Caramel Almond black tea review (#22)

Flavored black tea

Prestogeorge

www.prestogeorge.com

$4/4 oz

Ingredients: Indian black tea, almond chips, apple pieces, and apple caramel and almond flavors.

It's The 23 Teas of October! (#22) 

A smooth, satisfying tea! You'd think apple and almond wouldn't work together, but it's nutty and darkly sweet. It smells like candy!

The almond is the most noticeable flavor to the nose, but the caramel softens the taste, and the apple is a quiet sidekick. It has huge slices of almond, a few pieces of dried apple, and tight curls of black tea that pack a lot of taste. This is a new fall morning favorite. Great instead of Halloween sugar... or in addition to it!

Come back tomorrow for the best Halloween flavor of all time: chocolate!


(Win tea! Rules here http://allteanocrumpets.blogspot.com/2014/09/tea-giveaway.html)

Ready for Halloween?

 

Bouquet of Flowers No. 108 tea review (#21)

Kusmi Tea
Flavored black tea
us.kusmitea.com

Ingredients: Black tea, bergamot, citrus fruits, flowers.

It's The 23 Teas of October! (#21)

Fascinating! I've only had bergamot in traditional black earl grey tea before. This Kusmi Tea from Paris was fun to try. I received a Kusmi box from a coworker who wants to use up tea before she can reasonably buy more... happy to help!

Bouquet of Flowers No. 108 has bergamot with citrus and flowers, which makes it invigorating but refreshing for the afternoon. The dominant flavor is citrus.

The acidity is very noticeable so I added a little sugar. The caffeine is noticeable and definitely perking me up in the first sip, which is good, because I still have editing to do.

Bergamot and citrus are nice together. Ahmad Tea in London (@ahmadteaUK) recommends adding a squeeze of lemon to earl grey; sounds great!

I just love the cloth tea bag that's stitched shut. I've never seen that before! I don't use tea bags too often, because they usually have smaller and lesser pieces, but these cloth bags have nice large pieces. Just as large as what you'd use in a tea ball.

Pretty packaging.

Steeping instructions on the tea bag. Smart!

Pretty yellow color.

Outside of the box.

So many options!

 

A closer look reveals large pieces of tea.

Come back tomorrow for a great Halloween flavor: caramel apple!


(Win tea! Rules here http://allteanocrumpets.blogspot.com/2014/09/tea-giveaway.html)

What do you think of bergamot?