Tea Derivations

I’m tired out by work this week (and it won’t stop this weekend, oh no). I thought I was tired enough to not write a tea post, but no, here I am, still awake, and very annoyed.

Tea is my outlet for frustration. I can enjoy it (or, sometimes, hate it immensely, which always makes for an amusing review), and I can blog about it in short bursts. In contrast, I often feel like I need to say something useful on my main blog, and my Sherlock Holmes blog can soak up a lot of brain power all by itself.

Anyways: onto the tea!

Thursday

This time, when I took my loose leaf Queen Mary tea to work, I actually labeled the baggies, unlike the previous day. And it turned a somewhat unpleasant day into a quite tolerable one.

Of course, I was so out of it that morning that I accidentally ended up cold-steeping the Almond Cream (and it really was the Almond Cream this time). However, I always bring two cups worth of any particular tea to work, so I drank the second cup hot. It was rather pleasant, and better than Republic of Tea’s Vanilla Almond (both bagged and full leaf). Almond Cream has more of a cream flavor to it as well as the almond, whereas Vanilla Almond tastes almost purely of almond with just a tiny smidgen of vanilla.

(The cold-steeped Almond Cream, by the way, turned out to be quite good, although I think this is a tea best drunk hot. And for reason the cold-steeped tea leaves more of a strange aftertaste.)

After the hot Almond Cream was Republic of Tea’s Cranberry Blood Orange, iced. I must say, it’s quite a good cranberry/orange black tea blend, and is excellent iced. (Sometimes it seems that the lower grade teas ice better than the higher grade teas; but I may simply just not have had enough experience with higher grade teas.) Cranberry Blood Orange goes well with almost any fast food, which is a blessing, as work is surrounded by fast food places.

Next was Queen Mary’s Lady Earl Grey, which is similar to Twinings’ Lady Grey: both contain a more delicate touch of bergamot than their own plain Earl Greys, with a bit of lemon built in. I’ve been drinking Lady Grey since forever, although I think I ought to at least try the full leaf version before I switch over to Lady Earl Grey.

Afterwards was the usual Tao of Tea’s Peppermint. You know, a long time ago, I accidentally discovered that peppermint tea was good for the digestive system. It’s even good for That Time of the Month when the cramps come, although it’s not as effective as ibuprofen. Apparently it calms muscle spasms, including those involved with the digestive system, though how it manages to calm down the uterus’ contractions is beyond me.

Friday

Started the bleary morning (ugh) with Queen Mary’s French Vanilla. I think I love it; it’s a little different from other vanilla teas, including Mighty Leaf’s Vanilla Bean, any of the rooibos vanilla blends I’ve tried, and other teas blending vanilla with some other ingredient. It’s almost ice-cream style French Vanilla, although again, if you don’t like black tea, you won’t like this vanilla tea.

I think the tea is a little lower grade than Vanilla Bean, which is one of the more awesome black teas I’ve drunk. But it’s still quite a good tea.

The middle of the day livened up with Queen Mary’s Strawberry Pepper for a lunch tea, with Upton Tea’s Earl Grey Chocolate. I’ve never considered it before, but an earl grey chocolate tea comes close to an orange chocolate tea, but with earl grey. This would probably boost it past my other orange chocolate teas, except that earl grey’s bergamot interferes with some of my medication (which is why I can’t drink any of it late at night, even herbal earl grey blends).

As an early evening tea (the afternoon was… fun) I switched to Tazo’s Wild Sweet Orange, this time hot instead of iced. I think I prefer their Passion to Wild Sweet Orange, and I usually drink Passion iced as a dinner tea—as I did today.

For a nightcap, I drank both Queen Mary’s Apple Strudel (sweet and dessertish as always) and Mighty Leaf’s Chocolate Mint Truffle (which I think isn’t as good as Harney & Sons’ Chocolate Mint, but then again, this entirely lacks caffeine, whereas Harney & Sons’ is a black tea).

I still haven’t finished the Chocolate Mint Truffle; for some reason, Mighty Leaf tea always steeps in 12oz units, rather than 6oz or 8oz, so there’s often extra tea left over that goes cold. Sigh.

Hmmm.

I notice I drink quite a lot of tea in a day, sipping all sorts of flavors from multiple blenders. This variety beats soda almost any day, and certainly any week.

Ah well. I enjoy all this immensely.

And so to bed.

Kind of a slow day for tea, mostly because I got sick in the middle of the day.

This morning I decided to start my little sample of Mighty Leaf’s Bombay Chai. I really quite impressed; it perfect fits inbetween Twinings’ Chai (with interesting things going on in the taste) and Harney & Sons’ Indian Spice (with a better spicy punch). As a simple chai (without going through the entire chai preparation process), I think I like Bombay Chai best. Definitely need to order some more of it.

I followed up with Steven Smith’s Lord Bergamot, as the day’s first Earl Grey. Wow. Very smooth, high grade tea—Lord Bergamot and Earl Grey Supreme will, I think, go to the ropes.

Afterwards, I tried some of Twinings’ Earl Grey, loose leaf, and was… disappointed. Of course, either Lord Bergamot or Earl Grey Supreme are difficult acts to follow, but I didn’t realize how difficult they would be. Twinings’ Earl Grey is quite decent, although it feels a little flat—Bigelow’s has more punch, at the cost of a lower grade of black tea; Numi’s Aged Earl Grey does better with decent grade tea (perhaps the same grade as Twinings?) and a better punch.

In fact, Twinings’ Earl Grey feels a little too much like their Lady Grey in terms of “briskness”, with a heavier bergamot flavor.

And then I got sick. I’m not sure why. The last time I felt sick was due to a Lipton tea with palm oil in it; I know Twinings uses palm oil, but it’s not listed in the ingredients on the Earl Grey tin. Still feeling a bit of that.

I decided to finish out the day with Yogi’s Mayan Cocoa Spice, and while it definitely had cocoa in it, it tasted a little bland. Most likely because I was sick. Sigh.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

Late last night, I didn’t drink Tension Tamer like I wanted to, but I did try the Lemon Herbal tea from Harney & Sons.

And Lemon Herbal was definitely my first dud from Harney & Sons. I suppose it’s an okay tea for someone who only wants a little bit of lemon, but it didn’t have the zing of Lemon Zinger, the punch of I Love Lemon, or even the flavor of Chamomile Citrus. Rosehips, people. Rosehips.

The Lemon Herbal I got could have been stale… but inside the tin, it had been sealed in a ziploc bag. So probably not. Just weak, man. But now I have a black tin I can use for one of Mighty Leaf’s untinned loose leafs.

I drank some I Love Lemon after the failure of Lemon Herbal. Mmm. Then followed up with a miscellaneous vanilla rooibos loose leaf blend from my local tea shoppe, which is lovely, but I can’t distinguish it from Good Hope Vanilla.

This morning (late, after nightmares) I started off with a black dessert tea to continue the vanilla vibe. Specifically, Vanilla Bean from Mighty Leaf versus Vanilla Black from Harney & Sons. I think the difference between the two is similar to the difference between some types of vanilla flavoring: Vanilla Bean is sort of a bourbon base, while Vanilla Black is a rum base, if such a thing exists. Definitely a rum (and far sweeter) base.

The vanilla blissed me out (or the caffeine riled me up, since both are black teas), and I did my taxes. Yay.

Then I amused myself matching up Twinings’ Chai against Harney & Sons’ Indian Spice. Their characters are actually quite different; Twinings’ is more treble, Harney & Sons’ more bass. If that makes any kind of sense at all. They’re both likable, but I would give the edge here to Twinings’ Chai—there’s more going on in the taste even if it’s much milder, whereas Indian Spice seems to be all about the pepper.

Then I partied with a pot of Bangkok, so I’m not all down on H&S.

And right now I’m sipping some Vanilla Comoro, the decaf version of Vanilla Black and still as rum-sweet. In fact, the sweetness of Vanilla Black/Comoro versus Vanilla Bean has made me question the idea that Real Bits Are Better Than Just Flavored Tea. In the case of vanilla, chocolate, and Earl Grey, I think what ends up mattering is how the tea tastes after all that.

Peppermint: such a simple ingredient. You wouldn’t think there was a difference between different brands of peppermint tea, especially when the list of ingredients is “Ingredients: peppermint.”

And yet there is a difference. Just like there’s a difference in the various grades of tea, so there is when it comes to herbs, and definitely when it comes to peppermint. Location and rainfall and how the leaves are cut all make a difference in how a peppermint tea tastes, and it’s really quite strange. Even a blind taste test can distinguish the difference between many brands; it’s that marked.

I’m going to cover some that I’ve tasted over the years. The featured teas below solely consist of peppermint—but wow, what a difference. I’ve had mild and kicky and inbetween peppermint teas from both supermarket and specialty tea makers, even from Steven H. Smith himself, and that’s special indeed.

The list is presented in the order that I recalled them, and as a progressive discussion of the qualities of peppermint tea that can change its flavor profile in such whacked ways.

Celestial Seasonings: Peppermint

This is the second brand of peppermint tea I ever drank, and I did so mostly for peppermint’s stomach-soothing capabilities (it calms down the digestive system’s agitation, basically). I usually brewed it about double-strong. This brand is the most available and very popular, even, I think, the most popular. It comes in both large and regular-sized packs for this very reason.

Like most peppermint teas, Celestial Seasonings uses Oregon peppermint, the taste of which is very distinctive and what most people think of when they think “peppermint.”

This tea usually has a good kick to it, so it’s great value for money, but the strength’s not consistent and it can go off once you peel off the plastic (and even before that, if it’s over a few months old). I think it’d be difficult to distinguish a fresh pack of the Celestial Seasonings brand from the higher quality Oregon peppermint teas later in this list. But it would have to be very fresh.

Bagged: Celestial Seasonings • Amazon.com

Mighty Leaf: Mint Melange

Of peppermint teas, this is by far the mildest one, with nary a kick. For folks who dislike the rather unsubtle strength of most peppermint teas, this may be the most ideal tea. I’d almost describe the taste as spearmint.

People who love the taste of “real” peppermint (which is to say, Oregon peppermint) will usually think the taste is too weak.

Mighty Leaf’s usual high standards for ingredients is present here, and the peppermint comes from Morocco—where the rainfall is such that the flavor of the leaves produced is delicate indeed.

Available both bagged and in full leaf form.

This used to be my favorite peppermint variant, but it has since been booted out by the next two brands.

Bagged: Mighty Leaf • Amazon.com
Full Leaf: Mighty Leaf

Twinings: Pure Peppermint

Twinings speaks very highly of its peppermint tea, but never specifies exactly where this particular peppermint comes from, instead murmuring something about “it’s grown all over the world now.” Wherever it comes from, it has neither the delicate taste of Moroccan peppermint nor the flavorful body of Oregon peppermint. If it comes from Oregon, I’d be very surprised; perhaps older peppermint is used, and the less powdery this older peppermint is (Twinings tea particles tend to be larger than Celestial Seasonings’) the less it can compensate.

Or it just comes from somewhere else that’s not the same conditions as the Pacific Northwest. In my experience, tea makers will usually broadcast the location of their peppermint quite loudly. Perhaps Twinings is simply being British.

Regardless, if you prefer something inbetween delicate and ass-kickingly strong, this may be the perfect brand for you.

Bagged: Twinings US • Twinings UK • Amazon.com

Harney & Sons: Peppermint

This is my second-favorite peppermint tea. This is a very good Oregon peppermint tea, and arrives in a little tin so that it doesn’t go stale quickly. (Perhaps if one stuck the contents of a young Celestial Seasonings box in a tin it wouldn’t go stale, but the more powdery a tea is, the quicker it stales in general.) The leaves for Harney & Sons seem the right age for maximum kick while staying at what I’d call medium size cuttings. And it’s high quality as per the usual.

I love the pyramidal sachets, although ever since I discovered little sachets that one can pack oneself, I’ve switched to the full leaf version. You can also get this in run-of-the-mill teabags.

Bagged: Harney & Sons • Amazon.com
Sachets: Harney & Sons • Amazon.com
Full Leaf: Harney & Sons

Steven H. Smith: Peppermint Leaves (No. 45)

I like this peppermint tea the best. It has the largest leaves and the freshest taste, most likely due to its individually foil-wrapped teabags in sturdy boxes, and the way Steven Smith usually obtains his ingredients. His teas are expensive indeed, because ingredients are hand-picked by the makers themselves. This doesn’t exactly happen for the mass-produced teas (all of the above, even the technically higher grade brands). For this reason, the Steven H. Smith teas usually taste very, very good. It’s kind of strange that their peppermint is no exception (but then again, as shown above, peppermint can taste differently depending on location, age, picking, amount of crushing).

Available both bagged and as full leaf, directly from their website or at local stores. This is likely never to be sold on Amazon.com or other online tea shops because the batches are relatively small, even tiny, compared to other tea makers.

I’d say that this tea has the highest quality, but Harney & Sons has a similar quality for a cheaper price—though full leaf is more comparable in price between the two brands. Make sure you have a ready tin for the Steven H. Smith full leaf, though.

Notably, Steven H. Smith also has a spearmint tea. I haven’t tried it yet, but want to….

Bagged/Full Leaf: Steven H. Smith

I found the first one on YouTube, and started searching for more. The ones with animated sand are quite interesting, but the ones acted out by people (apart from the “Waterfall” one here) are a little… bit… American, which is to say, lame, and remind me why I stopped watching commercial TV.