Tea Time Part VI

This Tea Time post came much sooner than I expected!

***Disclaimer: I'm *not affiliated* with any of these tea brands or vendors. Just sharing the goodies I enjoy is all.

First up is TeaHaus, but let me back up a bit.

In the fall of 2018 (I think), Julia introduced me to her favorite Japanese tea brand, Hanamizuki. She generously sent me a few of their teas to try (will post soon--they deserve a dedicated post!), among which was this spectacular Hakutou Rooibos, a white peach-flavored green (un-oxidized) rooibos that can be brewed hot or cold. This tea was so good it sent my hoarding instinct into overdrive and the only thing that held me back was that, well, it's only available in Japan. Ha.

So instead, I went searching for a states-side equivalent. After some googling, I found a Peachy Green Rooibos and some gorgeous Kotobuki Washi Tins from a blender by the name of TeaHaus in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The great news is that the tins are more beautiful in person than in pictures. In fact, I just went back and bought more tins from them! 

- Peachy Green Rooibos: this is the not-so-great news, this green rooibos doesn't hold a candle to Hanamizuki's. It isn't so much the green rooibos itself but rather the flavoring, which not only has this artificial smell to it but also a weird sugary aftertaste that I'm not too keen on. No, I'm not going to throw it out and waste it. Of course I can still drink it, but I'd pick Hanamizuki over this any day.

For my order, they sent me two samples of rooibos, the red (oxidized) variety, both flavored, a Mango Strawberry and a Capetown. Red rooibos always pauses me, because there's something in the oxidizing process that gives it this particular flavor that, to me, smells and tastes like cough syrup. So I did look upon these two samples with suspicion and reluctantly tried them one day, only to be pleasantly surprised: there was no cough syrup taste! Well, actually, I could taste a tiny little bit of cough syrup in the Capetown sample, but not the Mango Strawberry. Either way, it was interesting. I probably won't buy more teas from them, because I'd rather spend money on what I really like, their washi tins and Hanamizuki teas ^.^

Then the spring of 2019, Julia sent me an even bigger care package, with lots more Hanamizuki teas in her favorite flavors (how am I so blessed with such generous and kind friends?! Thank you, Julia!), a Lupicia tin (will be in its own post in the series), and a bunch of tea bags from Germany.

All the tea bags have packaging in German so I'll just post photos of them :P I have been brewing a bag of different flavor every now and then, and I love the varieties because I get bored easily, hence my giant cabinet of teas (see, I have an excuse :P). My favorite so far is the Peach Passion Fruit (at least the picture shows peach and passion fruit), but everything else has been great also.

Not only Julia was kind enough to send me all sort of yummy teas, she also sent filter bags for me to use with those loose leafs. How thoughtful was she? Thank you again, Julia!

The below is yet another care package I received from K., a Japanese friend I'd known since my JET days in 2005. We've been exchanging care packages once a year or so, and she sent this last spring, a package full of goodies for me and my little guy. I really do have awesome friends ^.^

Among the goodies for me was this Tsujiri Matcha Milk. Who doesn't love a nice cup of matcha latte? Yum! I like mine with lots of milk, and I've made strawberry matcha milk smoothies with it too.

This bit here is actually six years too late as I've been buying and drinking loose leaf blends from Heartfelt SF since 2014.

- Earl Grey Lavender: After we moved home from SF the summer of 2014, we made friends with N., one of hubby's colleagues at his then-new office. N. and his wife A. were SF locals themselves who moved out of the city a year before we did. They introduced me to this tea from Heartfelt, a local SF gift shop they frequented while they were still living there. At the time, I was thrilled to try a new Earl Grey--I have a thing for Earl Greys. I didn't expect it to knock my socks off. This is, hands-down, the best Earl Grey Lavender I've ever had. Ever. And I've had many. The lavender in this blend is mellow and isn't at all overwhelming, and mind you lavender is strong. It takes some serious blending skill to keep all the flavors balanced, especially the lavender. What particularly impressed me with this blend is a distinct caramel note when there's no caramel flavoring added. And yes, I can discern the bergamot, the lavender, and the caramel. Needless to say, I've been hoarding it since. When hubby and I moved to Tokyo the summer of 2015, I brought a pound of it with me. Enough said.


- Earl Grey Moonlight: after years of stocking up Earl Grey Lavender from Heartfelt, I finally branched out and tried another one of their teas. This is a pretty good blend as well, smooth and without the astringent burnt taste that ruins a great many Earl Grey creams for me. I still like their Earl Grey Lavender best, but this was another good one. They also have a Caramel Black Tea which I'll try with the next stock up.

Since moving into our permanent home the summer of 2018, I decided I was plain sick and tired of plastic. Over the years, we'd done a few things to help minimize our use of plastic, but I felt we weren't doing nearly enough. 

For example, we've been using reusable grocery bags since moving to New Jersey the summer of 2006. However, we still had to reach for plastic produce bags for things like corn cobs, scallion, cilantro, herbs, etc. When we moved to San Francisco near the end of 2012, we'd discovered Glasslocks and have since grown a substantial collection of these awesome containers. However, occasionally we still had takeouts in styrofoam boxes. Among the perks of owning a permanent home was getting farm-fresh produce delivered to our door in glass containers, which eliminated plastic milk jugs, paper juice cartons among other things. However, our household was still reliant on plastic saran wrap, plastic ziplock bags, etc. Among more perks of living in suburbia were the many Asian eateries, including the boba joints I so love and frequent. However, boba means plastic cup, plastic sealing lids, and plastic straws. Plastic, plastic, plastic. No more plastic if I could help it. Sorry, end rant. 

Anyway, it was a light-bulb moment when I spotted this Lovely Jar from Kusmi Tea last summer. The straw pictured was standard size and not meant for boba, but I didn't really order boba anyway. I prefer my "boba" milk teas with milk pudding, or if it's flavored green or oolong teas then I prefer just simple chia seeds or green tea pudding, for neither of which I needed a giant boba straw.

This borosilicate glass jar was everything I was looking for, until I actually put some tea in it, at which point I learned that the stupid steel lid wasn't leak-proof :( Yeah, this lid was just for show and liquid would come pouring right out when I tip the jar. What a dumb design, right? So yeah, I still use it, with care, of course. It actually works ok with thick smoothies, but it certainly won't do for bobas. Oh well, onward with the search.

Along with the [not-so] Lovely Jar above, I also got this Pineapple-Mint Green Rooibos to try. I have to admit that although the sealed canister was nice, the size and the mechanism are clunky and make it difficult to store. So if I were to buy more teas from Kusmi, I probably would just go for the bagged loose leaf.

- Pineapple-Mint Green Rooibos: the mint kind of overwhelmed the pineapple flavor, and either way this was a bit too herbal-y for me. Being a green rooibos, there was no cough-syrup smell or taste, hooray! And dressing it up with fresh fruits does make it taste better.

Last fall, I was just browsing David's Tea when I thought to search for my beloved discontinued tea: Monk's Blend. Lo-and-behold, it popped up on the search--they'd brought it back! Whaaa!!! I didn't know how long it would be around for so what did I do but add a couple of pounds of it to my cart, along with a Sweet Almond Green Tea and several tea tins ^.^

- Monk's Blend: oh yeahhh, my jam! Although this blend tastes a little different, more of the white tea and less of the creamy milk oolong.  Totally understandable, as even the same will taste different from crop to crop, much less a tea blend. It doesn't change how I feel about the tea, and if I cravea creamier brew I could always add more milk oolong to it myself.

- Sweet Almond Green Tea: this was pretty good, although with more tastes of green tea than almond. Whereas the Kusmi Tea's version has more of a balanced note. I still like this though, as the almond flavoring doesn't taste artificial, just a touch weak.

Last spring when I was stocking up sunscreens, another item that kept popping up in my searches was aojiru, aka green juice. Technically this isn't tea but is a veggie drink made from young barley grass (大麦若菜, oomugi wakana), kale, Japanese mustard greens (小松菜, komatsuna), etc., but I'd thought I'd squeeze it in here anyway ^.^ I've actually known about aojiru for a long time. My sister told me about it when she was a JET in Shizuoka back in 2008. She even sent home a bunch for my parents. I never got around to try the stuff she sent so I thought I'd buy a few bags, one for myself to try and the rest for my mum.

This stuff just tastes like grass-water to me :P, although since I found out I was expecting I'd stopped drinking it. I figured I won't be able to resume drinking this stuff until my tiniest one weans himself off, who knows how long that will be, so I ended up giving the rest of my bag to my mum anyway.

See my previous posts:

- Tea Time

- Tea Time Part II

- Tea Time Part III

- Tea Time Part IV
- Tea Time Part V