I generally consider myself level-headed when it comes to finances…except when it comes to tea. Then I am guilty of being impulsive. I’m supposed to be on a tea buying ban, remember? Except I indulged in the DavidsTea semi-annual sale. And…can I let you in on a secret? I only shared half my haul. (Don’t judge me!)
It’s not like I needed any of the tea. Nor had I been eying any of the teas in the collection for any amount of time (except Forever Nuts!). I just picked out teas to try haphazardly, which I’m sure is why the Cotton Candy blend ended up in my cart.
I mean, Cotton Candy flavored tea? That’s ridiculous. How do I go from sipping a tie guan yin to a cotton candy flavored Rooibos? I never claimed to be a connoisseur, but common’!
Except…the Cotton Candy Rooibos from DavidsTea is really, really good. It is a blend of Green rooibos, purple sprinkles, mango, hazelnut brittle, and natural and artificial flavoring. It’s really does taste like cotton candy, but in the best way possible. It’s sweet, ambiguously fruity, and creamy.
The drink does have a natural (“natural”) sweetness already from the Rooibos, the sprinkles, the brittle, and the mango pieces, but if you’re looking for decadence, add some milk and your favorite sweetener for liquid dessert! Or sip it iced for a fun summertime treat fit for the county fair!
Have you ever tried Cotton Candy Rooibos from DavidsTea? Or what is the most frivolous tea you ever tried?
If you like Cotton Candy from DavidsTea, check out these other sweet dessert teas:
Forever Nuts from Davids Tea is a fan favorite. It is one of their best sellers, and lauded as a “gold standard” for herbal/fruit infusions by many of my favorite tea vloggers, so I gave in to peer pressure and purchased a bag for myself during DavidsTea’s recent semi-annual sale.
Forever Nuts is a blend of Apple, almonds, cinnamon, beetroot, and artificial flavoring, and the moment I opened the bag, I was greeted with the warming scent of nuts and sugary sweet cinnamon and vanilla; it smelled just like the candied nut vendor’s stall at the county fair.
I sipped this tea iced and with just a splash of milk, although it tastes equally delicious when sipped hot as well. And this tea is total eye-candy! Because of the beetroot, Forever Nuts steeps to a fun, vivid pink.
The flavor of the tea is very similar to the scent of the tea– very much like candied nuts. Or even like the crumble on top of an apple crumble! It’s nutty and sweet and there are cinnamon and creamy vanilla flavors that come through as well. This tea makes me wish Autumn were already here! (Then again, I wish it was always Autumn, so…)
Forever Nuts tea was such a treat, and I’m already looking forward to buying another (much bigger) bag of this as Autumn draws near.
Have you ever tried Forever Nuts, and what did you think of it?
If you have been a fan of Adagio Teas for any length of time, surely you have heard about their Masters Teas. It’s a relatively small collection of hand-processed, premium teas, and to be honest, even though I knew they existed (and even purchased some Formosa Ali Shan Oolong), it’s a section of their site that has a tendency to fly under my radar. I find myself easily distracted by their more robust collection of colorful, blended teas. But now, Adagio Teas has launched a sister site to give their premium teas the attention they deserve.
Masters Teas offers direct-from-the-farm teas, and to ensure freshness, tea is processed in small batches and only becomes available on the website upon harvest. This means, you might see “coming soon” on product pages from time to time. Masters Teas also embodies the Roots Campaign, which encourages tea drinkers to “Know Your Farmers”. Each tea page provides information about the tea’s geographical origin as well as the tea farmer; Masters Teas strives to put a name and a face with the tea.
I had the wonderful opportunity to try some tea samples (for free in exchange for reviews), and I’m eager to share my experience with you. I debated recording a video for today’s post but decided to take it slow instead. I decided to go back to my roots and just write. It’s a process that makes me feel nostalgic. It reminds me of slow, Saturday mornings back when Jon and I first moved in with each other. Back before crazy, stressful jobs. Back before a mortgage and trying to decide if we should replace the roof. Back before we had two cats that wake me up in the middle of the night. Back before baby. Mornings were just quieter back then. As were afternoons, evenings, 1 AM, and 3 AM.
Back then, Jon worked Saturdays, so I would start my day with a cup of coffee while soaking in the brisk Autumn air out on the balcony. (For some reason, it’s always Autumn when I reminisce about the apartment.) Then, I would go to the library and spend an hour trekking through stacks, searching for books to read. Afterward, I would come home, put the kettle on, photograph the books I would never actually finish reading, and then I would write about tea. I’d write out my tasting notes, sure, but more importantly, I would reflect on how I would experience the tea, how it would make me feel, and definitely the weather. (I can’t tell if the weather was used to create atmosphere, or if I’m just so guarded that even in my writing, I couldn’t move past small talk). Still, some of my favorite pieces of writing came from those slow Saturday mornings, sipping tea.
I shuffled through a selection of eight teas before settling on a familiar, yet wholly different Muzha Tie Guan Yin. This kind of oolong is no strangers here on my blog, though the ones I’ve tried in the past were from the Anxi region in China and were only lightly roasted. The Muzha Tie Guan Yin from Masters Teas comes from Wen Shen, Taiwan, and compared to its Anxi cousin, it’s highly roasted, which impacts both the physical appearance and the tasting experience.
The dried tea leaves are a dark, muddy brown color. The leaves are tightly rolled, but unfurl to full leaves after steeping. The smell is of minerals and wet grass clippings that are slightly composted, and makes me think of rainy, late-springtime afternoons. After steeping, the wet leaves smell charred, vegetal, and like dark salad greens.
I steeped this tea three times, as recommended by the Masters Teas website, at 212 degrees starting at three minutes and increasing the steep time one minute with each subsequent steep.
Steep One:
The color of the liquor is the color of golden syrup, and it has buttery and spiced aromas with sweet blossom undertones. The tea has a medium-to-full bodied mouthfeel, and it is not nearly as astringent as I anticipated. The predominant taste is of buttered rice with mineral undertones. The butter rice flavor stays with you long after you sip, too.
Steep Two:
The liquor is still golden syrup-colored, but it smells smokey instead of buttery. The mouthfeel is still medium bodied, but again it lacks the butteriness that was present in the first steep. It also is slightly more astringent than the first steep. The flavors do become more complex during the second steep though. I tasted dry grass clippings. I tasted a spiced flavor that came through after the tea sat on my tongue for a while– earthy cinnamon. I tasted light, powdery blossoms as the tea began to cool.
Steep Three:
The final steep had a medium-to-light body, and a flavor that reminded me of dried clover and hay from late summertime. (Maybe something akin to the Chunmee Green tea I tried recently).
Overall, the Muzha Tie Guan Yin was a beautiful tea with complex flavors that peaked during the second steeping and one that I I can’t wait to experience again. If you are interested in premium, direct-from-farm teas, make sure you check out Mastersteas.com. Also, stay tuned because I have several more teas from Masters Teas to try out. I’m especially looking forward to the Formosa Ruby 18 Black tea, the Sincha Genmai Cha, and the Yu Qian Anji Bai Cha.
I don’t think I have ever openly declared my nerdom here on my blog, but I have demonstrated it here, here, here, and here. Now however, I would like to declare it:
I. Am. A. Nerd.
Like a stay-up-well-past-my-bedtime-even-though-my-infant-son-has-me-sleep-deprived-so-I-can-sneak-in-some-video-game-playtime kind of nerd. Or a I-lost-track-of-how-many-times-I’ve-read-Harry-Potter-kind-of-nerd. Or a I-used-to-write-Lord-of-the-Rings-fan-fic kind of nerd. I can’t believe I just admitted to that last one, but you’re beginning to see the picture, I hope. And now I can add to this list: a visited-the-Motor-City-Comic-Con kind of nerd!
A couple of weeks ago, Jon and I visited the Motor City Comic Con, and it goes down as one of the coolest things we’ve done together. Over 60,000 people visit the Motor City Comic Con over a weekend, and the convention floor is filled with comic book vendors, artists, cosplayers, celebrity guests, tabletop games, and celebrity guest-led panels.
Since this was our first comic con, we were a bit overwhelmed when we first arrived, but shortly we found our home in artist alley. We spent most of our time (and perhaps way too much money) there, but it was rows upon rows of artists and crafters selling fandom-inspired prints and coasters and comics and candles and postcards.
Here were some of my favorite pieces of artwork:
I love these clever pop culture mash-ups by Steve Jencks, especially Robocop replacing the Tin Man on the yellow brick road and Alien preparing to dine on ALF, while ALF prepares to dine on a cat. [WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM]
Okay, okay, so Jon may have chosen the wrestler prints, and I may have chosen the X-Files print, but I still love how they look like the covers of comic books. Artwork by Erik Hodson [INSTAGRAM]
These images hardly do the artwork by Sean Anderson justice. What you don’t see are the metallic and holographic leaf elements that make his superhero artwork truly impressive. He also had a series of superheroes set against Detroit landmarks, which was cool to browse through. [INSTAGRAM]
The artwork by Andrew Heath was perhaps my favorite. I loved it so much that along with a TARDIS print I also purchased a book of his artwork to display on the coffee table (that I will someday soon buy). [WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM]
As much as I loved Artist Alley, I know we missed out on the cosplay contests, and I would have loved to visit some of the guest panels (especially the Doctor Who After Hours event!) but, toting around Oliver made that challenging to do. Maybe we can look forward to that next year though.
Have you ever been to a comic con? What are some of your favorite fandoms?
I haven’t always appreciated rooibos tea. I’ve struggled to put into words exactly what I sense when I sip this type of tea, and the best I’ve been able to come up with to describe my experience is something between imitation vanilla extract and tobacco– not always the most appealing of flavors. However, Adagio Teas has changed my mind about Rooibos teas, and lately I have not been able to drink enough of it! Their Rooibos Pecan Turtle is quickly becoming a new favorite, just like their Vanilla Rooibos.
Adagio’s Rooibos Pecan Turtle is a blend of rooibos tea, apple pieces, cocoa nibs, cinnamon, dark chocolate chips, chicory, golden pecan flavor, natural caramel flavor, natural chocolate flavor, and marigold flowers. A bit of sugar, turns this caffeine-free tea into a perfect after dinner dessert.
Have you tried the Rooibos Pecan Turtle from Adagio Teas? What did you think of it? If you’re looking for more dessert teas, check out these tasTEA recommendations:
Back in December, Tea in Spoons hosted a Tea Sparrow teas giveaway, which I won (yay!) So first, thank you for the opportunity.
Second, if you haven’t heard of Tea Sparrow, please go check them out! Tea Sparrow is a tea subscription service, and for $20 a month, subscribers receive 4 loose leaf teas to explore– one black tea, one green tea, one Rooibos tea, and one herbal tea.
The first tea I tried from Tea Sparrow was the Nut Crunch Rooibos, and it was especially dreamy as a latte. But, the tea I was most curious about was the Cacao Husk Tea!
Cacao Husk Tea is…well, pretty self-explanatory. It’s tea made from the shells of the cocoa bean that would have otherwise been discarded. The Cacao Husk boasts an antioxidant and vitamin-rich, mood-boosting, caffeine free cuppa while tasting like a mug of hot chocolate.
So does Cacao Husk Tea live up to its reputation? According to my tastebuds…not so much*. Check out the YouTube video at the top of this post for more thoughts on this unique tea. Have you ever tried Cacao Husk Tea before? What did you think of it? I still have some Cacao Husk Tea left, so if you have any pointers on how to brew it, I would love to hear them!
* I feel the need to offer a disclaimer here: my feelings on Cacao Tea are not a reflection of Tea Sparrow or the product they deliver. This one just comes down to preference. Some people prefer black teas, some people prefer green teas. I prefer tea that is not the Cacao Husk!
Today, I’m sipping Berry Creme Compote from Adagio, and it’s one of those teas that makes me think it’s a lot warmer than it really is. Which is why it’s only 39 degrees outside, but I have the back door open to let in that cool Springtime breeze. Did I say “cool”? I suppose I really meant to say “chilly”.
Look at this tea though. It’s practically a fruit salad! Berry Creme Compote is a blend of rose hips, hibiscus, apple pieces, blue cornflowers, natural creme flavor, raspberries, natural blueberry flavor, natural strawberry flavor, raspberry leaves, strawberries, blueberries, and natural black berry flavor
The first time I had this tea was while I was on maternity leave back in October. I had it hot, and slightly sweetened, and I thought it was tasty then. But, this tea really shines when it is iced; it becomes a refreshing treat for a warm, Spring day.
I steeped about 2.5 heaping spoonfuls of leaves per 8 oz of water, and I let it steep for easily an hour to get a really concentrated liquor since pouring it over ice would water it down a little bit. Aside from the beautiful and bold red liquor, Berry Creme Compote is a blend of tart berries and cream. I sweetened my iced Berry Creme Compote with a drizzle of maple syrup too, which helped draw out the creme flavor even more. (I find this tea is a little too tart for my tastebuds without sweetener).
This herbal tea is a refreshing treat for a warm spring and summer day that had me longing for warmer weather.
This tea, along with Adagio’s Lemon Meringue Green tea, is one of their seasonal teas available only for a short time during Spring, so make sure you snag some bags of this tea before it goes back to hibernate!
Looking for more fruity teas to sip this Spring? Check out these blends:
We ran out of Bubly (which is just flavored seltzer water, like La Croix, but I feel less like a hipster drinking it), which means in attempt to avoid drinking plain water, I decided to drink a cup or two more tea than I usually do.
Teas tasted in this vlog:
Twinings Earl Grey – I might write a lot about loose leaf teas, but most mornings, I tuck in to a cup of Twinings Earl Grey tea. It’s a quick, easy, and consistent cup of caffeine to get me going in the morning. Plus, it’s inexpensive and I can pick it up at my grocery store whenever I’m running low
Mint Verbena from Harney and Sons – This tea is a blend of mint and lemon verbena. I personally did not pick up the lemony aroma from the verbena, but the mint was bold and refreshing. It was a great caffeine-free tea to drink to improve alertness.
Rooibos Mango from Adagio – This tea is a blend of rooibos tea, natural mango flavor, apple pieces, mango pieces, and marigold flowers. This particular rooibos blend from Adagio did not work for me, and I was unable to pick up the mango notes. That’s not to say this tea is bad, but there are just other rooibos blends by Adagio that I’m over the moon about.
Caribbean Crush from DavidsTea – This tea is a blend of apple, pineapple, papaya, hibiscus, cranberry, and artificial flavoring. I cold brewed this tea, and even though my sample size was not the ideal amount of tea for a cold brew, I still thought this fruit, herbal blend tasted amazing. When I’m finally done with my tea buying ban, I definitely want to get more of the Caribbean Crush.
Just Chamomile from T2 – This chamomile night-cap was absolutely dreamy. The flavor was very honey-like, and overall it was a very soothing tea for the evening.
How appropriate that I should upload a video and publish a blog post about a delicious tea that resonates Springtime on the first day of Spring? I didn’t even plan this. I don’t even think I’m that clever anymore. Of course, it’s only March, which means Michiganders are still weeks away from consistently pleasant weather and pink and white blossoms budding on trees, but at least the sun has started to poke through Winter’s cloudy days. That’s a start. In the meantime, there is Made of Tea’s Chunmee Green Tea to sip on while we wait. It has an aroma that reminds me of freshly cut hay, which makes me antsy for warmer weather so I can spend some time outdoors.
I don’t think I’ve looked forward to Springtime so fiercely before. Between working from home and having a little guy all cooped up indoors, I can’t wait for weather warm enough for strolls at the park. Here are 6 other things I want to do this Spring:
Re-do the kitchen; liven it up with fresh paint, replace light fixtures, buy a kitchen table finally…
Try my hand at growing a little tea garden in my backyard, again
Learn how to mow the lawn so Jon and I don’t battle over the yard anymore
Clean up and re-mulch the flower beds in the front yard, so our house has a little more curb appeal
Get back in to shape. I’m basically a loaf of Brioche at this point
Giving my home the Marie Kondo treatment. Seriously, when did I accumulate so much stuff?
What is springtime like in your neck of the woods, and what are you looking forward to doing?
Looking for more teas to sip this Springtime? Check out these:
Tis the season! Well, almost. And Adagio Teas has something to make your holiday season more jolly– their 2018 tea advent calendar.
Their advent calendar has 24 doors hiding individually wrapped, loose leaf quality tea bags. Some of the teas are Adagio’s most popular blends, and some are their cozy, holiday favorites. All are 100% delicious, and I can hardly keep myself from poking through all of the doors in one sitting. I’ll give you a sneak peek behind door #1, at least.
Gingerbread tea
Adagio’s Gingerbread tea is a blend of black tea, natural gingerbread flavor, cinnamon bark, orange peels, and ginger root. When served with sugar, this tea is as delicious as a Christmastime dessert, but it doesn’t taste as spicy and gingery as the tea’s namesake suggests. The blend of spices seems muted, so the flavor doesn’t overpower the tongue, but it’s still perfect for a morning baking cookies or decorating the tree. The addition of the sugar draws out an unexpected warmth and creaminess that transforms this cup of tea into a truly cozy experience. This holiday tea can’t be missed.
By Golly, Ollie! 