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?