Sip Downs. . . They always make me feel like I’m being productive with my tea stash. It seems like all of a sudden I turn around and my tea has doubled in size. For some time now I’ve been on a buying hiatus but it seems like my stash just doesn’t seem to be dwindling. I have a lot of really great teas in my stash but I just haven’t been paying much attention to them unfortunately. Something I’m about to change.
So today, I said goodbye to one of my all time favorite A Quarter To Tea blends. . .Lychee Daisy!
Lychee Daisy is a vibrant green tea blend that gives you all the candied floral feels you could ask for. . . and then a bit more. This green tea blend is sweet with a romantic floral tone that really doesn’t steer you wrong. Brewed up as a hot tea or a cold brew, the flavor always stays on point and never lets you down.
The tea starts off with this touch of astringency from the green tea and the sweet kick from the sprinkles. Then as the sip develops, you get more of the floral flavors taking over (from the jasmine buds and rosebuds) which translates marvelously into a candied floral finish.
What really elevated the tea was taking a touch of a sparkling flavored peach water and topping my cold brew off. Really delicious, refreshing, and the perfect way to welcome in the spring like weather we currently have coming in.
For me being a green tea and floral fan, this tea is where its all about. Simple yet oh so lovely and tasty. I’m sad that I’m savoring the last little bits of this tea. I will be sad to see it go but A Quarter To Tea always has fun and unique blends to try. Once I’ve drank down more of my stash, I’ll be placing a good size order to see what new blends A Quarter To Tea has made lately.
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: A Quarter To Tea
Description
This tea is no longer available but click below to learn more about A Quarter To Tea.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Jasmine Pearls from My Tea Guy. . . .
Floral teas done just right can really deliver an experience like no other tea can. There is something so romantic, so alluring, so down right comforting about having a floral tea that delivers. And after the last few weeks of constant meetings and trainings, I needed some comforting.
So while I was organizing my stash I saw this delight that had gotten stuck behind a few other blends. Jasmine Pearls are typically a tea that I gobble up eagerly so to say the excitement was real would be an understatement.
Brewed with water prepped right around 175 and steeped for about well, the tea is still steeping because I’m using my Wall mug (from Boreal Wildcraft- do yourself a favor, check out this mug and get one. Game Changer!) Even with the tea constantly steeping, this tea is simply perfection. Soft subtle green tea notes mingle with stronger floral flavors to present this romantic combination that I have fallen in love with yet again.
What I adore most about this tea is that even with using this unique brewing vessel, the tea is not overwhelming or giving me that really overpowered floral note that makes the tea too harsh to enjoy. Each sip is just providing so much enjoyment and allowing me to really dive into the tea while enjoying watching the tea sit at the bottom of the mug. Simple, beautiful, and comforting. All the attributes you want to find in a good cuppa tea.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: My Tea Guy
Description
Jasmine Pearl tea is a fragrant, refreshing tea made by combining jasmine flower blooms with green tea leaves. The flowering jasmine plant originated in Persia and was brought to China around 300 A.D. Tea scented with jasmine became popular during the Song Dynasty between 960 and 1270 A.D.
Our Jasmine Pearls are hand-rolled under the supervision of tea master LIN ZHENG KAN (The fourth generation tea family descendant). The spring picked tea leaves are hand-rolled into pearls and then dried until summer when they are blended with unopened jasmine flowers which bloom overnight, releasing their aroma into the tea. The flowers are then removed and the process is repeated several times.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Bad Wolf from Geeky Teas. . . .
What a clever tea! For those who don’t already know, Bad Wolf is a pop culture reference from the long running British tv show, Dr. Who. The Doctor’s companion in that series was named Rose. She was a street smart, brave, adventurous working-class British girl.
If you have seen the full Bad Wolf series, you know that Rose is no shrinking violet. (See what I did there?) So a tea named Bad Wolf can NOT be a foofy, princessy teatime blend. It has to be STRONG! But it has to have the essence of Rose, too, and the love that never, ever died.
Don’t go into this tea expecting a Victorian romance novel. They named it Bad Wolf, not Rose!
This is a bold black tea base with a hint of rose, the peppery kind of rose, running beneath. I have found that when rose flavor in tea is subtle, it tends to lend subtle sweetness rather than tasting full on floral. That’s the case with this tea for me. The lingering aftertaste is a little sweet, but not overly floral or cloying.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Geeky Teas
Description
Black floral rose tea
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Emily Dickinson’s Jasmine Tea Blend from Simpson and Vail. . .
I think it must be very rare to meet a tea lover who is not also a book lover. The Simpson and Vail Literary Blends are an incredible way to celebrate both of our passions – drinking tea and reading. Good books are always better with tea!
This blend is inspired by the flowers Emily loved to grow. The base is listed as jasmine tea, and my best guess is that this is a pouchong. There are jasmine flowers, rose petals, marigold petals, and blue cornflowers as well, making an absolutely stunning presentation. This is a tea that needs to be displayed on the table in a tea scoop or in a little glass before steeping, because it makes a beautiful display to begin your tea time, and shouldn’t tea time engage all of your senses? Your eyes will feast on this one!
The steeped tea is a medium gold color. It is a smooth and lightly brisk tea, which is very fitting for Miss Dickinson. The floral taste is surprisingly light. This isn’t a heavy jasmine and rose blend, but rather a confident green base with light floral notes sweetening it.
“Bring me the sunset in a cup.” Yes, thank you. This is lovely and comfortable with hubby and daughters sipping away and draining the pot as we wind down for the night.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Simpson and Vail
Description
Emily Dickinson was born on December 10th, 1830 and lived in a home that was central to Amherst political society thanks to her father and brothers. Growing up around powerful men prepared Dickinson for a life of the same, but society dictated that, as a woman, she was relegated to seemingly less meaningful ventures. Her anger at this slight comes across in her poetry and letters where she explored complex ideas of meaning and self while examining the smallest details of the world around her. She withdrew herself from society and lived in relative solitude until her death. Only a few of her poems were made public during her lifetime, but four years after her demise, a collection of poems was published and met with popular and critical acclaim. Her poems reveal a complicated mind that examined itself with as much attention to detail as it examined the world. Dickinson’s defiance of categorization and simplification make her a popular poet to study even today.
In the years she spent away from society, Emily Dickinson cultivated an extensive garden. In it, she grew jasmine flowers, cornflowers, roses, and many other flowers, plants and herbs. These flowers appear repeatedly in her poetry so our blend had to be floral. We created a delightful combination of jasmine tea and rose petals that brews to a light ecru cup with long green leaves and rose petal accents. This delicate tea hits you with a strong jasmine taste that’s sweetened and mellowed with the subtle flavors of the rose petals.
Ingredients: Jasmine tea, rose petals, jasmine blossoms, marigold petals and blue cornflower petals.
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Go to Wonderland with a cup of Lewis Carroll tea from Simpson and Vail.. . .
Springtime feels like the time for Alice in Wonderland: flowers blooming, spending more time outside, feeling a little more whimsy after the winter blues. I’ve seen a few new teas popping up this time of year, themed for just such an occasion.
I recently tried the Lewis Carroll blend of black tea from Simpson and Vail. In case you don’t know, Lewis Carroll is the author of Alice in Wonderland, among other works. Alice in Wonderland tends to be a favorite among tea fans for the famous tea party scene featuring the Mad Hatter, not to mention all the cute tea cakes that wreak fantastical havoc for Alice’s adventures.
This Lewis Carroll tea blend features an Indian black tea base, combined with Chinese Rose Congou black tea, highlighted by added violet fragrance and flavoring. All these flowers are meant to put us in a fantasy world, whether in the queen’s roses, or in the garden beside the tea party. There are lots of blossoms in the dry leaves, and the brewed cup smells as sweet as a blooming garden.
I enjoy the fragrance of this tea, but strong floral blends aren’t my personal favorite when it comes to taste. I found I enjoyed the tea more with a touch of milk and sugar, which helped mellow out the strong floral flavors and made the brew more like a flower-scented dessert.
This is a great tea to put you in a springtime mood, perhaps sipped while out-of-doors after a dreary winter. If you’re one for having fancy tea parties, this may also be a great choice, whether it fits your Alice in Wonderland theme, or just because it feels fancy and ladylike, and makes the flowers on your teacup smell like they are alive and fresh!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Simpson and Vail
Description:
A tea party plays a memorable role in Carroll’s most celebrated novel as the setting for Alice’s nonsensical meeting with the Mad Hatter and the March Hare. “A large rose-tree stood near the entrance of the garden” where, as the Mad Hatter told Alice earlier, “it’s always tea time.” To make our Lewis Carroll blend, we added our fragrant violet flavor to an Indian Black tea and Rose Congou tea, a China black that has been scented with rose petals during the drying process, to create a deep amber cup with an incomparable bouquet and a flavor that is absolutely heavenly.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
