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Feeling Peachy Keen!

The second tea from the new winter insert that I am sampling is Peaches & Cream.

The aroma of the dry tea as I unzip the packet is extraordinary. You really believe you are standing in a peach grove!

Lovely large white tea leaves compose this tea which is flecked with yellow and orange petals and small chunks of dried tropical fruit.

The flavour is smooth and light. As expected with a white tea, there is nothing bracing about it. I'd also suggest there's a perky quality to it, perhaps from the fruit. It seems to be a cheerful tea. Without any spice or vanilla creaminess that might suggest a peach cobbler or peach crisp effect, this tea truly emanates white tea and fruit and makes a delightful mid-morning tea. I would think that this would also be a lovely iced tea, and would probably be a refreshing base for a cocktail as well.

Let me know if you try it iced or as a cocktail, or any other recipes you use it in - I'd love to hear about it!

To get your own Peaches & Cream simply contact your Steeped Tea consultant, and if you don't have one, you can find one close to your vicinity by clicking here.

 

The New Winter Insert

Have you browsed the new winter insert yet?

Right on the first page, you will see some new teas, which, for me, is always the highlight of any new Steeped catalogue or insert. I love my tea, and I'm always curious to see what new flavours Steeped has found for us to explore! I took advantage of December's hostess special so that I could try 2 new teas right away.

I have to tell you, they are both fabulous!

Nuts About You is a blend of black and oolong teas accented with almonds and walnuts. Isn't it beautiful? When you unzip the bag, the aroma that wafts out is sweet, yet nutty (not surprisingly). I steeped my tea for about 3 minutes and then started to drink.

I found it to be pleasantly sweet, without the addition of milk or sweeteners, and a very smooth, easy drinking cup. The insert suggests that this is a great after-dinner tea, which it certainly is - in fact, if you are trying to skip dessert (and a lot of us are at this time of year!), this could make a delicious replacement for dessert. The sweetness will satisfy your craving. That is why I also think this could make a great mid-afternoon beverage, when you might be thinking about a snack as a pick me up a few hours before dinner. I know I'm enjoying it just about any time of day, and encourage you to give it a try, perhaps at your next party!

I'll be back in a day or so to share my impressions of the other new tea I've had the pleasure of tasting!

 

Gorgeous Grapefruit!

How gorgeous is this tea?

This is a lovely summer tea, available through your Steeped Tea consultant. You'll find it on the summer flyer.

Beautiful pink rosebuds and tangy citrus peel nestle in the delicate pale green-grey leaves characteristic of white tea.

The first time I tried this tea, it was iced and tasted pucker-up tart and invigorating. Unsweetened, it was a little bold and bracing. Next time, I would add a little agave or honey to sweeten it just a tad.

I was also curious to try it hot. As you draw the cup to your mouth, you are hit with the  fragrant citrussy aroma. Hot, it features the mild straw-like taste of white tea.  When I discarded the spent leaves later (into my rose garden - they love spent tea leaves as a mulch), the delicate fragrance of the roses wafted and reminded me of the gently refreshing cup I had enjoyed earlier. This tea seems light and refreshing for summer, but if you still had some in the winter, try steeping it with a cinnamon stick and some allspice buds and add a touch of honey before serving - I think you'll have a lovely winter warm-up.

Bet you didn't know there was a song called Grapefruit Tea. It's by an artist called Olivia, and you can check it out here.  

The lyrics are posted on the lyrics time website, if you're curious...

Tea on TV

Did you see Amazing Race last Sunday night (March 27th)? The racers had to go to a tea shop in China and taste a cup of tea, and then when they reached India, they had many many cups to taste to try to find the tea identical to the one they tasted in China.

 

How would you approach such a challenge?

The first thing this racer said when she tasted the tea in China was, "Hmmm... peach." That had to be the taste she was searching for in the next leg of the race.

Smelling the tea in China would help too, because if the racer touched a cup, they had to drink the tea. But they could smell without touching if they leaned over.

Fragrance and taste is what makes tea something to savour!

(Photo from ctv.ca where the photo is credited to Disney)

Tea Tasting - Coconut Calypso

The photo does not do this pretty tea justice. There are large pink rose heads snuggled with pretty blue petals, long white strands of coconut, and large mossy green leaves.

The fragrance is heavenly, which doesn't tell you much, I know.

A few years ago, I was fortunate enough to spend a week in Spain. It was gorgeously hot every day and the evenings cooled to a pleasant but never cool temperature. At dusk, there were little white flowers that opened their blooms and the fragrance floated on the evening air. That fragrance does not match the fragrance of this tea, but the feelings it evokes does.

I love white tea and how it gently supports delicate flavours. This tea is gentle, floral, delicate, calming, sweet, feminine, relaxing.

I realize that I've told you more about how this tea makes me feel than how it tastes. The taste reminds me of something that I cannot easily put words to. Sometimes coconut flavours and fragrances help us recall beach parties and limbo contests, but not in this tea. Coconut Calypso helps me recall that calm, relaxed, end of day feeling. And I love sipping on it any time of the day, especially on these snowy (again) days when I'd love to be somewhere more tropical and hot!

 

Crunch Time!

Have you been browsing the new Winter flyer? There are so many new teas, with exciting flavour selections, and health boosting properties. Steeped Tea consultants, were fortunate to be surprised with a little Christmas gift in the mail last month from Tonia, the Steeped Tea founder. Just another great benefit of being a Steeped Tea consultant! This writer was also blessed with a surprise of tea in the mail. We received a tin of Hot Yoga and a tin of Toffee Crunch tea, along with a gorgeous photo card of Tonia and her family. I've tried both teas and like each for different reasons. Today, my focus is on the Toffee Crunch.

Although this photo doesn't show it well, Toffee Crunch contains slices of almonds, and little cubes of caramel along with cocoa kernels and the rooibos.

I steeped my rooibos in boiling water, leaving the infuser in for the cup for 5 minutes.

The aroma makes me think of sweet and nutty at the same time, perhaps not surprisingly, given the ingredients. To me, rooibos naturally has those properties anyway, which is why it takes the addition of flavours so well. It smells like there could be something yummy baking in the oven.

This tea is a delightful mid morning or mid afternoon cup, especially when you maybe are fighting a craving for something sweet. It's smooth, sweet, and satisfies the craving nicely. It would be lovely sipping while enjoying a book and unwinding in the evening. Of course, if you decide to put a cookie with it, the tea is a nice complement. Yesterday, I served this tea to a friend, along with a plate of Christmas cookies and chocolate and the tea made the chocolate seem even creamier!

Steeped Tea has a lovely family of these Toffee flavoured teas now. The Toffee Dream, a white tea, has long been a favourite of mine. In the fall, the Superior English Toffee, a black tea was introduced, and now a roooibos version. So whatever your tea preference, you are bound to find a toffee flavour you can enjoy! I think I love all three! Recently, Tonia commented on Facebook that this is one of her favourites as well.

You can enjoy this tea for free (50g bag), when you place a $50 order this month. If you received some cash this Christmas, or if your tea stash is getting low, this is a great time to place an order and try this delicious new tea! If you don't have a Steeped Tea consultant, you can find one here.

 

How to Make Great Tea Even Better!

 
How do you make great loose tea, like Steeped Fine Loose Tea, even better tasting? It's simple: start with good water.

A number of weeks ago, I wrote up my little review of the new Hazelnut Banana black tea. Loved it, by the way! I had used water from the water filter and boiled it to prepare the tea.

A few days later, I was at a friend's home and she had served me the same tea. She had boiled water that she poured straight from the tap and I have to tell you, the tea tasted completely different. Many of the lovely nuances noticeable in my cup at home were missing. Mostly it tasted like a black tea, with a vague flavour to it, and was quite disappointing.

Clearly this is merely a subjective point of view, but I truly believe if you want to experience the best flavour from your loose tea, start with great water - filter it so that the additions of chlorine and other chemicals are not present in your cup.

When it's howling outside...

... here in southern Ontario, the wind is blowing, there's snow in the air (though not much on the ground yet, here). It's just plain blustery.

On days like this, I reach for comforting things like afghans, thick sweaters, hearty soup, and tea!

The spice teas especially appeal on days like this. The fragrance with its exotic notes hint at warmer places and taste just seems to warm from the inside out.

Steeped Tea offers a lovely range of teas with spices. Of course, there are the many chai blends in black, green, rooibos and even mate offerings. There is also spicy ginger rooibos, spicy cinnamon rooibos, cinnamon stick green, superior snow cap green, and from the holiday flyer, pumpkin pie, Christmas chai, and mulled spice. Today, I am sipping one of the new teas introduced in the fall catalogue, Vanilla Maple Cinnamon black tea.

This tea presents subtle and complex flavours. The cinnamon is there, in a gentle way, not a bold Hot Tamale flavour, but a soft and warm hint. The maple adds a sweet yet grounding aspect to the tea and the vanilla offers a lovely creamy smoothness to it. Can you tell I like it?

You bet, especially on a morning like this when the wind shows no sign of stopping, and all I hear is the sound of wind wrapping itself around the house. I better put on more water for a second cup!

What is your favourite tea when you just want to cuddle into a cup of warm comfort?

Fruit-tea Tea!

Sorry for the bad pun.

Today I had the pleasure of tasting Steeped Tea's newest fruit teas. Technically not tea, of course, but because we brew them, we'll still call them teas, OK?

The Bubblegum fruit tea had me skeptical because, well, it contains bubblegum. Although it does make for a colourful tea in the package.

The gum gets removed before steeping, and if you are making this tea for the kids, you could give the gum to them to chew on while they wait for the tea to steep and to cool enough for them to sip.

The tea smells sweet and the taste is also sweet. This tea has a smooth, soft fruit flavour, and while it would be delectable iced, is also very pleasant as a hot beverage as well. The aroma of strawberries is enjoyable and reminiscent of early summer. My daughter does not enjoy strawberries, but actually found this tea to be delicious. So the other fruit flavours may disguise the strawberry enough for her to not detect.

One of my first encounters with tea, as a teen, would have been with a bagged red zinger type. This tea completely reminds me of that, only better. Tangy, you will sense the citrus on your first sip. As the tea cools, you'll enjoy complex berry tastes. The blackberry adds a full, wholesome flavour that I do not remember red zinger having. Without anything added to sweeten this tea, my daughter found this one a little too tart to enjoy, but with some sugar or honey would enjoy this alot. I suspect it would make a very thirst quenching iced tea as well.

Give our fruit teas a try - there are a lot of blends to enjoy. And why not experiment with mixing them into our teas as well.

Tea Tasting: Superior English Toffee

I have adored the Toffee Dream white tea and when I saw that Steeped was offering this tea, Superior English Toffee, I was hoping it would be a black version of the white.

It is a blend of black and white tea. Large leaves are the first thing you see when you open the bag, and sprinkled in are lovely blue petals and small cubes of caramel.

The room fills with the smell of sweet, as though you are baking, while the leaves steep.

The taste is scrumptious! I do not sweeten my tea, usually, unless I've added lemon to it. If I did sweeten my tea, I'd be inclined to omit the sugar, or at least reduce the amount, because this tea already is rich and sweet.

Will it go with eggs and bacon at breakfast. I'd say not, but it will make a delightful mid morning, would be a lovely accompaniment to a tea loaf in the mid afternoon, would be wonderful with dessert, or instead of dessert, and if you can do caffeine in the evening, would be terrific with a book when you are ready to settle down after a busy day. Truly comfort in a cup!

You can order your own Superior English Toffee by phoning or emailing your Steeped Tea consultant. Or order online on her website. If you don't yet have consultant, click here.