Steam Tea House

Also wrote this during the Great Steepster Tantrum of earlier this week.

Thank you to OMGsrsly for passing down a generous sample of this! I’m looking for the perfect creamy maple tea.

The scent of the dry leaf is quite delicate, like a burnt sugar maple. There are slivers of almonds throughout the dry leaf so I’m curious as to whether they’re going to change the flavour profile at all.

I actually tried the first cup yesterday without any additives. There’s something about this that is very mellow. Even the base is mellow. Like all the flavours melt into each other and any sharp edges have been dulled. You almost can’t even taste the base? I don’t know. But yet the maple is very mellow too. No almond.

The smell that this tea leaves behind in the cup after it’s all gone is marvelous, like maple cream cookies.

Steepster’s recent freakouts have encouraged me to write a few of these in Word and save them to submit later. Now, I’m about to enjoy the second cup with a little bit of half-and-half.

Second cup with half-and-half is nice. The cream complements the maple and wakes it up a bit. I also steeped this round a little longer and the base has more hold too.

It’s a tasty choice but I just wish there were a tad bit more maple in this. I’m sure this would be perfect with a couple drops of actual maple syrup but alas, I don’t have any right now.

Backlog…ugh, oversteeped or overleafed and it was bitter and astringent. This tea deserves better. Hopefully next time…

This is from OMGsrsly so if I futz up the rest, I can probably secure more fairly easily.

Steeped tonight with hubby, and it is way way way better(!). I did add a little sugar still (less than normal) and some milk. but I am getting a maple taste now. Yum!! It’s like I have maple syrup running down my throat with each swallow.

I like this one a lot, especially with maple syrup. :) (Thanks for the tip, Sil! Maple syrup is AWESOME in some teas!)

Yep. Yummy.

Steam sources this one from JusTea, which is awesome. Makes it a lot easier for me to get.

(Side note: Reading the JusTea website, the owner started Rocky Mountain Bicycles. My bike is a ‘92 (I think) Rocky Mountain Fusion. The white women’s variety that I haven’t found anywhere on the internet. Small world!)

I got this one a couple weeks ago or something like that, and just found it in my cupboard when I was packing samples up for the tea meet/swap.

Umm. I think I may have a Tea Problem.

This tea is really quite delicious. It reminds me of an Assam – it’s quite bold and leans toward astringency. That being said, I added a tiny bit of honey to it today, and seriously enjoyed it. The honey REALLY compliments the flavours in this tea. It’s all rich and carby, thick and sweet.

So happy I got some of this tea, and I’ll be enjoying it a lot in the early mornings I have coming up!

Oops. I was typing, then I guess I forgot what I was doing on my phone and went back to Facebook.

Ok. So I had this today, iced, while I was picking up stuff for Sil. There was a little honey in it, but quite frankly it didn’t need it. It’s a very sweet fresh kind of coconut flavour, and the base didn’t go bitter or astringent or weird at all. I think it’d be really good iced with coconut milk. :)

(Also, tea 200! Yay!)

I’ve oversteeped this more times than I can count and it still manages to taste mellow and smooth with the milk. I wouldn’t call it flat, per say; prairie land has a crazy amount of texture and dips if you look close enough.

I wish I could say what kind of coconut this reminded me of or what base I think it has. Unfortunately, I chugged away six big mugs-worth of this tea without ever giving it the attention it deserved. And now it’s gone.

I enjoyed the short time I had with this tea and my empty mug smells of coconut macaroons- all good things, I think! Thanks OMGsrsly. :)

Sipdown. Definitely need to pick more of this tea up.

Yes, it’s rooibos. I kind of wish it didn’t have the rooibos in it, but whatever. I can deal. It’s chicory and spices and yum. So, SO good as a latte.

Oh so good. With almond milk and 1/2 tsp maple syrup tonight.

Om nom nom.

Both dehydrated and cold this evening, so I’m probably going to have one more gigantic mug of tea before going to bed with a large bottle of water. :)

(10 min at boiling. Might just resteep this one as the chicory is good for that.)

The last time I got this, I received the bottom of the barrel. It’s mostly rooibos. :)

Still, the flavours are nice, especially when I mix a little Chicory Dickory Dock into it. It would be Even Better if I had some of that coconut creamer I make, but I’ve been lazy and tired and don’t have any in the fridge. Almond milk does in a pinch!

Oh delightful. Definitely caffeine-free, and yet warm and comforting and delicious. I really like this one. Chocolate, vanilla, cardamom, cinnamon, chicory. And rooibos off in the background.

YES! It’s back, and I like it.

The ingredients have changed, I’ll try to update them later. It now contains dark chocolate, which is nice.

I steeped it with a little coconut milk and a lot of water, on the stove, for about 15 minutes. Then I poured it into my glass and added some of this weird-ass creamer I made with egg, coconut milk, coconut oil, and powdered vanilla beans.

Weird.

Only, it works. It’s nice and creamy and rich and delicious and oh, I’m so glad I went to Steam and got more of this. Yum.

Drinking more. Mostly cinnamon and chicory tonight. Again, I added sweetened condensed milk.

So delicious and comforting.

I think I’ll have to fill a tin with this one, then bring it home and maybe bash it with the mortar and pestle to break up the gigantic lumps.

This tea is RIDICULOUS with its pieces of cinnamon stick and whole cardamom pods.

Delicious, though.

I steeped it in a preheated mug, with boiling water… then added sweetened condensed milk.

Mmm. Comfort tea at its finest.

Oh, this is so so so so good. The chocolate essence is deep dark 90% chocolate flavour. There isn’t so much chicory in here that it’s ridiculously bitter like chicory dickory dock (although that might be the vanilla).

I’ve been enjoying this heated on the stove top in 50/50 water and almond milk. I don’t add sugar to this one. I also only use 1 tsp per giant mug (about 20 oz), and steep for 10 or more minutes. This tea is heavy, so you don’t get a lot. I prefer a longer steep to get all the spicey goodness out, as well as conserve the tea.

It’s OK in water, but since the tea tastes like an amazing mix of ovaltine and coffee substitute with a splash of chai spice, I do prefer it with at least 50% milky stuff.

Holy moly!

I made this tea, and it’s awesome! I guess having a variable temperature kettle makes everything better. :)

(With a little honey)

Ooh! Pleasantly surprised here. I cold steeped overnight, then heated it up in the microwave to enjoy warm.

WAY better than hot steeped. At least for me!

I did get this tea because I’ve seen a couple people be really enthusiastic about ordering it, so I know there are people out there who love it. Just not me. Good thing ShayneBear wants to try some, because getting through the 50g on my own would be a bit of a chore.

I have had this tea for a couple weeks now (at least!) and I despaired at getting it to be drinkable. The black base as well as the flavour oils are designed to give a tart, pithy grapefruit taste. Blech. I don’t like pith at all, so after trying a multitude of different methods of hot brewing it, I tossed some leaves into some cold water and put it in the fridge.

4 hours: Delicate, sweet grapefruit and black tea. Very light colour.
12 hours: Stronger sweet grapefruit and black tea with some pithy bitterness. Still a very light colour.

I enjoy it best at 4 hours, but 12 hours is still lovely with nothing added to it. Tastes like there’s white grapefruit juice added to the tea!

I’m glad I can enjoy this one cold, but wow. Hot really doesn’t work for me at all.

Got this iced today when I dropped in to pick up more tea for my mom. Sadly, they were out so I have to (oh noes) go back on Friday.

This is a surprisingly good rooibos. It’s fruity and spicy… not quite chai, not quite citrus.

I’m not sure I’d get this one for at home, but as a non-caffeinated iced tea on the go, it’s really tasty.

I received a sample of this when I was in the other day. We were chatting about teas and I mentioned my dislike for Laoshan Black, and he suggested this one as, I think, being similar but different. Maybe.

The colour is a dark ochre. It’s lighter in flavour, but it still has that weird burnt flavour. In this case it’s like toasted walnut skins – astringent and weirdly nutty. I think my mom would call it “earthy”. If you like walnuts (or, uhh, just the skins!), I can see this being a good flavour.

It’s too astringent for me, although it’s a different astringency than what I’m used to. It’s not one where my first though is to add milk, where I do if I over steep my breakfast teas and they end up on the astringent side.

After adding some soy creamer, still no. Maybe with real milk, but I don’t tend to consume much milk that’s not fermented.

I have enough to try a smaller cup, and I think I’ll steep it for only 2 minutes next time.

Time to move on to the tea that keeps on giving – steep 5 of the Earl of Anxi.

Edit: Do you like my cell phone picture, taken under shoddy fluorescent lights? :)

(10 second wash, 1 minute steep) Are green oolongs supposed to taste like seaweed? That’s what I smell, and that’s my initial impression of the taste. But there’s so much more going on with the seaweed taste that I can’t say I don’t like it. It’s smooth, it’s not bitter at all. It’s reminiscent of a grassy green tea drunk with a side of miso soup, but the mouth feel isn’t nearly as delicate. Overall, this is a REALLY interesting tea, but I can’t rate it till I taste more oolongs for comparison. (Edit. Wakame, or spinach. That green, almost salty smell with a hint of astringency. But it doesn’t taste like spinach. IDK. Tea is weird.)

This tea is still tasting lovely (as much as I can taste) on the third steep. Still reminiscent of seaweed (maybe wakame?), but that could be due to my cold!

This is the first oolong I’ve ever tried, so I had no idea what to expect. I brewed as suggested, with 1.5 tsp of tea in 250 ml of water. A 10 second rinse, followed by a 1 minute steep.

I… actually really like it. It’s not bitter at all, it smells kind of green, and it tastes really smooth. My sense of smell is impaired due to a cold, but once I’m better I’m going to try it again, and probably go buy 50g to share with my mom. This won’t be an every day tea for me, but I do like it.

I’m going to hold off rating it until I can smell.

PS. I’m down near the bottom of mug 1 now, and I’ve figured out what it smells and tastes like. Seaweed. No, really. In a good way. Fresh and green.

This is not my favourite Assam. Even with the addition of soy milk, the mouth puckering dryness seeps through. Without milk, this tea may not outright own it, but I’m pretty sure it has partial claims to the term “astringent”. A definite “wake-me-up-kicking-and-screaming” tea, at least for me!

The liquor’s aroma is malt, honey, and raisins, which is per usual. I do like that the tea tastes as if a tablespoon of honey has been stirred in. It’s a nice, crude morning cup.

Thanks, OMGsrsly, for this sample from Steam- this is the last of them!

I’m weird and prefer my blacks steeped at a lower temperature, for a longer time. Partly because I’m too impatient to wait for my cup to cool enough for me to drink, but also because a lower temperature lets me make a stronger cup with less astringency.

I will admit, I’m not usually one to reach for a straight Assam. I prefer Ceylon, so if I’m wanting a single-source I usually grab a Ceylon, but honestly, most of my straight blacks are blends (Irish Breakfast generally, which is funny since it’s largely an Assam blend, yet I never reach for a straight Assam!) or Lapsang Souchongs.

I got a sample of this from OMGsrsly back when we had our Victoria swap and tea crawl. I’ve been terrible at not going through all my goodies, partly due to not having the best access to my collection/kettle due to renos on the house (specifically my room/the stairs next to my door, blocking my only path into my room), so I’m finally catching up, bit by bit.

The leaf smells a bit malty, and somewhat stronger than the steeped liquor. The liquor is a really lovely deep red, richer in colour than my usual go-to Ceylon from Silk Road. But the liquor itself is actually quite mild. The richness is more of an aftertaste vs a kick in the teeth, which while extremely pleasant, is VERY different than my usual black picks.

I was expecting a bit more “oomph”, going by the scent of the leaf and the colour of the liquor, but I’m pleasantly surprised! It’s extremely smooth, despite the longish steep, rich, comforting, but not so bold that it leaves your mouth feeling dry.

I’ve been munching on banana chips while typing this, and the combination of flavours makes me feel like I’m eating banana bread! So decadent!

I think that after this, I’m going to need to give Assams more of a chance, and let my Ceylon addiction simmer down a bit. This turned out to be nothing like what I was expecting, and I’m pretty darn happy!