TeaBlogger » tea types

Madagascar Vanilla Red Tea

teablogger — Fri, 07 May 2010 01:45:31 +0000

I recently tried this red tea from Celestial Seasonings. They have the most gorgeous packaging, and when some colleagues at work bought me this while I was sick, I was intrigued…. Red tea is not normally my thing, it not really being “tea” any more than any other herbal remedy, but the African inspiration of this blend kinda sucked me in. And the cool lion, of course.

It was pretty good. Something about the vanilla reminded me of other not-tea beverages, and gave almost a medicinal quality to it. It was okay straight but i decided to add milk and sweetener and in general I liked it. I still like how the ingredients all revolve around Africa – not something I have every day.

Will it replace Salada and Earl Grey? Not likely. But when I’m feeling fickle or bored, it may be just the thing!

what do you do with a tea you DON’T like?

teablogger — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 06:17:20 +0000

I have recieved a gift or two or a hundred over the years of many different kinds of tea. And really, I love it because I love to try them all. But invariably, there are at least a FEW I don’t like…

So what do you do with them? I have 19 tea bags here of Apple Raspberry tea, licorice tea, and vanilla chai. Don’t get me wrong. I adore Chai. I love vanilla. But not in tea. And not together!!

I don’t know what to do with them all…. Perhaps I’ll take them to work and hope people will aggressively steal them. If only I knew some needy tea drinkers out there that were just craving a nice Decaf Hazelnut?? Anyone?

Or perhaps they’ll collect dust until I think of a better use for them.

flowers & chocolate for lovers… of tea

teablogger — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 09:12:16 +0000

There’s nothing so classic for Valentine’s Day as flowers and candy, preferably chocolate. But sometimes classic can be boring, whether it’s a dozen roses or your millionth cup of Earl Grey. With that in mind, here’s a few interesting-looking twists on the traditional old Valentine’s Day gifts, especially suited to tea lovers and those who adore them:

Green Tea Dark Chocolate – If the chocolate is as nice as the packaging, I’ll love it. Seems like a reasonable price too!
Torn Ranch also has Tea Infused Chocolate Indulgences, with flavors like Masala Chai and Jasmine Green… Intriguing!

Flowering teas! I don’t know whether these various videos makes flowering teas look awesome or terrifying, but some flowering teas can be truly lovely.
This beauty from Adagio (who refers to them as ‘display teas’) looks gorgeous!
And there’s also quite a selection at Mountain Rose Herbs.

Besides their beauty, the nicest thing about flowering teas is that they are really easy to try. Steeping is nearly the same to any other tea, and all you need is a glass teapot so you can watch the magic. Numi has some instructions for brewing teas, including flowering teas, but all you really need to know is:

Without a strainer, place your tea flower in your glass teapot.
Boil water. Pour over.
Watch & Enjoy.

Like many teas, many flowering teas have a brewing time of 2 – 3 minutes, but they can also be reused. Can silly old roses work magic like this?

tea ‘n’ honey! earl grey with lemon

teablogger — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 07:48:37 +0000

I’ve never been much for honey, but since I recieved a TON of it for Christmas, it’s time to experiment. This is when I realized that since I’d rarely tried honey, I had no idea what to pair it with!

My first attempt was a Stash Decaf Earl Grey from their delightful tea chest, with a squirt of not-so-real lemon juice from my fridge. I also had no idea how much honey to go with, but I ended up settling on about three spoons from this awesomely cute honey spoon, also from Stash. (My dad went to town on their catalogue!) I ended up with a refreshing drink that was the tiniest bit sweet, but mostly focused on the bergamot and lemon. And it was wonderful!

Gives me hope for more honey experiments in the future….