drink 43 types of tea

This is a chinese sencha blend with real peach bits. It’s one of my favorite bagged teas, it’s by eastern shore, you can buy it in bulk! I think if I had to have only one tea for the rest of my life… maybe I’d choose this lol. (I like a lot though!!) I like it hot with a bit of honey or iced with frozen peaches as ice cubes ^__

10/10

This morning I was thrilled to see the arrival of a box outside my front door! This box came from Baltimore coffee & Tea company!!! I asked my dad to buy assam tea from them, and to my merriment he added a few others also. One is the Della Robia Tea by Eastern Shore (one of my favorite tea companies)- http://www.baltcoffee.com/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/871.

I was excitied by the description of it – “Plum, apple, pear, orange, & hazelnut” mmmm sounds soo juicy and fruity!! Well the hazelnut ruined that!! All I could taste was hazelnut, that it is quite sweet without sugar, and maybe a bit of the fruit but it’s so overpowered.

If anyone likes sweet nutty teas, I will be happy to mail you this tea!! I really hate to throw it out. They are individually wrapped in aluminum bags so they’ll stay fresh and be sent easily. email (hanaryll@mac.com) or PM me if you are interested!! If more than one person is, I will give each an even amount of bags

hana

Tumeric is my latest fascination. I see it becoming the next ‘it’ herb and sparking a health ignited consumer craze of this herb you can get a pound of for a dollar at the small indian grocery (you can also get it fresh specially? I don’t know I haven’t gone that far yet!) It’s that yellow powder that gives mustard, curries, and many dishes their beautiful coloring. It has strong anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiseptic properties. In fact my friend from India said it’s used on skin rashes, cuts, and acne. I’ve put it on my face as a mask (and was yellow for a couple of days) but wow good results!

So I found a can of tumeric tea in the vitamin store marketed by ito en. I paid 3.99 for it. Turmeric is an acquired tasted so it wasn’t too easy to drink but after I finished I kind of wanted more. But what did I actually drink? I didn’t taste any tea! Yes the 3.99 ‘turmeric tea’ was distilled water, ascorbic acid, and turmeric. DAMNNN you can make this at home!

I decided to go for a real tea with turmeric – a plain white or green tea that is really leafy in taste I like most with this. (I’m using bonjemi white I got at asian mart). Last I add my ascorbic acid (slice of lemon). Turmeric is interesting as a brew on it’s own, interesting is good/bad… but I can say brewed with green/white tea this is really heavenly combination. If anyone is interested in trying this, a little turmeric goes a long way! Start with just a tinyyy pinch if you aren’t familiar with it’s taste.

yum yum yum another tea in the earl family (If it was a family I’d be their adopted child… I drink so much earls!) found this box unexpectadly in my cupboard and it has become one of my daily drinking teas. It has a floral orangey flavor, the bergamot is subdued. 8/10

A while ago I reviewed the tulsi tea. An herbal tea of tulsi basil which is something almost worshipped for its health benefits. It was so bad tasting to me I couldn’t drink it to get those benefits, but I came across the Tulsi Green pomegranite tea. And thought I’d get the chance to get benefits of tulsi while the green tea and pomegranite will distract me from the basil taste. Well it does so very well. I like this tea a lot!! It’s an interesting combination. 6/10

Ughhh I got this tea thinking I really need detoxification. Ever since I left ny for SC I haven’t had wheatgrass juice. That was my detox. So now I drink this tea… well at first the smell of it was SOO STRONG I felt so nauseous. I looked at this omelet my dad made (and he makes them really bad but usually I can stomache it) well I almost threw up. The smell stinks up my tea cabinet too. I expected this in a detox tea though, and after about 2 weeks I’m used to the smell. The taste is NOT as bad as the smell and the smell doesn’t bother me. Still this is not a leisure tea this is strictly a detox tea lol. I drink it everyday strictly to reap health benefits of that I do not know. It contains decaf green tea, burdock, red clover, alfalfa, chamomile, licorice, rose hips, and other stuff.

This is a loose leaf tea with a chinese sencha base, dried pineapples and lemon peel as well as dried rose petals and blue flowers. It’s beautiul looking, a coloful little medly. The pineapple flavor comes out nicely. I would most like this as an iced tea. rating 6/10

I went to the indian store to get a tea to make traditional indian tea. My Indian friend was coming to visit for the weekend and I thought it’d be a nice treat to make it for him. I don’t know what the normal tea used in indian homes is, hmm I remember Krish using this weird dissolving tea powder for his chai, and I asked my visiting friend what tea his family uses and he had no idea what it was called but described it as being ball shaped lol? So I got something familiar and delicious: Darjeeling Lipton full leaf. Lipton may not be the exotic label I had in mind coming to the indian store but I looked on the box and saw a picture of indian family. Good enough lol.

The tea on it’s own brews nicely. But for something amazing try my recipee for darjeeling spice tea (I got from Krish’s method):

2/3 of water
1 1/3 cup of milk
2 full tea spoons of tea (should form a hill on the spoon, or maybe 3 total tea spoons)
lot of grated ginger (a lot for a kick, like an inch)
cardamom pods, 3 (open it a little)
a little bit cinnamon
teaspoon honey or to taste (or sugar)

Heat the milk and water together throw in the ginger, cardamom, and cinnamon let them simmer for abut 5 minutes, stirring, then bring to boil and throw in the tea and then honey/sugar. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Stiring (otherwise the tea may boil and bubble over)

Strain the tea into cups/pot and enjoy. It’s more basic the pe-made chai teas in stores ingredient wise (like republic of tea chai has cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, black pepper, orange peel, nutmeg, star anise, cumin maybe lol), but it’s the fresh ginger that really makes this tea. I even call it ginger milk tea :D !

So lipton darjeeling tea alone: 7/10 Lipton made into spice tea: 10/10!!!

I’m starting to have a new outlook on tea. I bought my fist tea infuser spoon a month ago which maks steeping loose leaf teas easy and practical. It’s sparked a discovery in all the various tea leafs out there and loose varieties! I even started boiing water on the stove lol.

So I was browsing the tea section at the asian market, it’s a lot of fun for the curious tea lover to browse an asian market’s selection. I’n the past I always went right for a box of gen-mai cha and white. But my new love for loose-leaf had me looking at a selection of beautiful chinese tins of all the various exotic teas of china. I went with oolong which I know I have tried before, but never owned any.

This tea is so delicate and smooth that I find my self lingering with every sip just to enjoy it’s flavor. It has such a pleasant aromatic aftreteaste. I added lemon, it’s the best tea I’ve ever had with a bit of lemon. (Also a new thing since I read in the news that lemon enhances the benefits of tea 50%! I usally don’t like lemn with tea, but oolong ta with lemon, it is like a match made in heaven!!!) It’s not a tea I would add anythign else to, no milk or spice as it is just so elegant and light.

My grade: 10/10 this tea is perfect!!

Um. EW. Tulsi tea is something to be found at a small health store usually. I don’t know if this is a popular tea in india or what but basically it is made from basil leaves, which is what Tulsi means.

Another tea found at my aunts. And she loves it! But she also loves wheatgrass juice! Yeah… this is one of those things so healthy for you, but do you agonizingly drink it just because it is healthy?

My rating: 3/10