daunt:

Waxing Moon- Not really a Full Moon tea but part of the Moon series! It’s got white monkey, white blueberry & kukicha.

I wanted to do something very fresh and much more along the lines of green and white tea and less sweet than my usual teas. It’s got a hint of sesame/chestnut flavor and a bit of natural blueberry to it as well.  VERY good, I really enjoy it.  It’s got a bit of a scent of barley?  ANYWAYS, it’s a bit earthy, I really like it! :)

THANKS GUYS! <3

Here are my other teas including my Tea Wolf blends!

Shot Through the Heart - Allison Argent’s tea with rooibos jasmine, green rooibos bonita, white cucumber & marigold flowers.  

OH MAN so this is my least favorite label, I swear I will draw Allison all badass next time.  BUT this tea….this TEA. It’s got jasmine in it which is one of my favorite things ever and it tastes so fabulous.  Also I paired her with Scott so now you can get 20% off if you buy this one AND Sugar Puppy! 

Next up will possibly be Jim Kirk, Boyd….or….Maybe something else? Depends on how soon I get the rest of my work done. :)

THANKS GUYS! <3

Here are my other teas including my Tea Wolf blends!

amezri:

In my last Adagio order, I picked up daunt’s A (sort of) Fairytale. (I’d love to read the fic that goes with it, but I don’t think it’s been posted yet?) Here are my impressions of this blend.

I used about 2 teaspoons for 10oz of 195F water and steeped for 3 minutes. The recommended temperatures for all the teas in this blend is 212F according to Adagio, but I find I like oolong teas better at about 195F (honestly, that’s the temperature we keep our hot water thing anyway).

The tea brews up a very lovely color with a spicy scent. I didn’t get much in the way of vanilla, though. Without milk or sugar, I thought it was a nice tea with the pumpkin spice being the strongest and little to no vanilla flavor. A touch of sugar boosts the flavor a bit.

Now… with some sugar and a splash of cream, I finally get the vanilla flavor in this tea. I like this one a lot with sugar & cream - it’s like a milder version of Harvest Moon, which is my absolute favorite.

A second steeping of the leaves for 4 minutes is mostly oolong tea with a slight hint of the pumpkin spice. A third steep at 5 minutes is okay, but it’s definitely all oolong at that point.

Would I buy this again? Yes, indeed. I’d have a tin of it on the shelf next to Harvest Moon!

Awesome write up, thank you so much! So glad you liked it, I am such a sucker for sweet black/oolong teas.  8)

The Beast - Tea with Spiced Mate, Peppermint,  Blackberry & raspberry leaves.  

So this tea turned out pretty damn delicious and crazy.  If you like peppermint or mate I definitely recommend giving it a try!  I took ages finishing the art, I scrapped the original label and redrew it.  Creeeepy teeth! 8D

Anyways, I am still working on labels for a TON of my teas!  Hang tight for more character teas in the future! :)

Here are my other teas including my Tea Wolf blends!

ichimon-no-saito:

daunt:

Forest Lovers - Tea with Wild Strawberries, Forest Berries and Honeybush Vanilla

So Cara makes the most AMAZING tea and I’ve been dying to do some myself.  Teen Wolf really gave me that last push of inspiration to get on it.  I will have Lydia, Derek and Jackson’s up this week probably. :D

Cara is also making some Teen Wolf teas and I can’t wait because they will be amazing.  *u*

at the sakura con this week, I picked up this tea, as well as one named “Harvest Moon”. I tried Harvest Moon today, and it’s amazing!! If Forest Lovers is as good as it sounded, I’m pretty certain I’ll have found my new favorite tea supplier <3

Ahhh thank you so much! I am so glad you liked them! :’)

daunt:

Quick purchase I wanted to share:

I bought these airtight containers to keep my Adagio teas in rather than the pouches because these can stack and contain 2 bags worth of tea. :D  I just peeled off the labels from the Adagio bags (yeah you can do that, Adagio is cool like that) and put them on the side of the clear containers. 

I bought the white topped 5x3x4 sized containers!

You can get them from the Container Store for only $3.99 each! :)

amezri:

My new Takeya Flash Chill Tea Maker arrived today! My brother showed it to me and I had to have one. Two-day shipping from Amazon FTW! It’s a pretty awesome contraption that makes brewing & chilling iced tea easier and it only cost about $20.

The first thing I did was to figure out how to take the whole thing apart so I could wash it. The only piece that might get tricky is the infuser basket, but the sprayer on the kitchen sink seems to work well…at least for a first cleaning. All the other parts were very easy to clean with a sponge and rinse with hot water.

For my first pitcher of iced tea, I chose Everybody’s Tea by daunt. I kind of dislike this blend as a hot tea - hot citrus is a no go for me - but I liked it cold with some sugar, so I thought it would be a good choice. And… also a way to use up more of the bag since I wouldn’t be brewing single, hot cups.

In the booklet that comes with the tea maker, they tell you to use 10 Tablespoons of loose leaf tea to make 2 quarts of iced tea. That seemed like a ridiculous amount of tea, so I ended up putting in 7 Tablespoons. After brewing, that was still too much; next time I’m going to use 5 Tablespoons instead (or 8 tsp for cold brew).

Anyway. Tea in the infuser. Fill the pitcher half way (or a little more) with hot water - whatever the correct temperature for your tea is.  Attach the infuser to the lid and place it in the pitcher - don’t close it all the way. I am not sure about steep times for brewing a concentrated tea - for black it is the same as brewing a cup. Experiment I guess? :\

Once you’re done steeping, take out the infuser and remove it from the lid. Add in your sweetener (I did 4T cane sugar and 3T white sugar) and fill with ice. Then screw the lid on tight and shake that sucker until your ice is melted and your sweetener is dissolved.

Ta-da! You now have some tasty iced tea! (And yes, Everybody’s Tea makes a fabulous iced tea. The citrus & vanilla combo is really yummy once it’s icy cold.)

I did find that the infuser basket was kind of annoying to clean out and I suspect it might get kind of gross after a few uses because it’s so difficult to scrub (and it feels kind of delicate). However, once it gets more stained, I plan on using my travel mug cleaning trick - HOT water, a scoop of dish washing powder, and let sit overnight. That usually gets the coffee/tea stains off anything with little scrubbing afterwards.

EXCELLENT review! I have one similar to this from Teavana.  :)

robinade:

callallhiswildworksyourown:

Because I have a fucking cabinet full of tea, it’s ridiculous.

ONE: Basic Tea Needs

The two most basic things you need are a good-sized mug and a steeper. You can gather teapots and tea timers and candlelight warmers, but really you just need the two.

For mugs, it’s all a matter of taste, but I would go for at least 14oz. I have 16oz mugs and one giant 20oz mug, personally.

One mug I really like is Teavana’s Prefectea Glass Mug, because I hugely prefer glass. I thing it maintains temperature better and it lets you see the pretty tea color (which is extra good with stuff like Glitter and Gold, but I’ll talk about that later).

Note this is pretty much the only time I will rec something of Teavana’s. Fuck that company.

As for steepers, it’s a matter of what you like. I prefer stainless steel tea baskets that sit on the rim of the mug like this one from Adagio.

I like these. They’re much lower mess than other methods, IMO. Also, I tend to buy the sorts of tea you can steep twice or thrice, so I take out the steeper and let it sit in another cup until I’m ready for more tea.

I’m not fond of the tea makers that have you steep the tea in a vessel then filter it into your cup. I’ve used them in the past, but they’re a pain to clean and after a few months, they do get really gross. I got into the habit of taking the things apart to fully wash them out every week, and they still got pretty ick.

As for tea balls, I find they leak too much, and adding in more sugar for a second brew is too much trouble. YMMV though.

TWO: Things to keep in mind

1. Steep times are important for teas. Every tea is a little different on how long it needs to be brewed before you drink it. Black teas are the hardest to fuck up, but green teas and white teas are a bit tougher. Herbal will always have to brew extra because usually it’s not actually tea, it’s herbs and fruit and stuff, so give them time. 

Similarly, subsequent brews will either take two minutes longer to get the right taste or will take two minutes less, in my experience. Trial and error on that one. Look for the tea’s color and smell, guess well. (This is part of why I lean so hard of glass mugs.)

2. Water temperature is important. WATER TEMPERATURE IS IMPORTANT. All the teas you order should hopefully come with instructions on brew time and water temp, but rule of thumb: rolling boil for herbal tea, slightly less hot for black tea, and just under a boil for green and white. ESPECIALLY green tea. Brew green too hot and it’ll come out bitter as fuck.

3. Keeping teas is not as difficult as Teavana will have you believe. You can actually just keep your tea in the plastic or paper bag it arrives in. It’s only when you get into high quantities that you need to worry about storage, but by the time you get there you’ll be wanting to look into that yourself. My only tip there is avoid Teavana’s storage tins, they sealing ring on the inside fucking breaks.

4. Also, white tea doesn’t cure cancer. 

5. Just…. avoid Teavana and all their bullshit if you can, jesus christ.

THREE: oh hay actual recs

Okay, I really like three places for ordering tea. The one I’ve used the least but still really like is Tealuxe. Their chai teas are excellent. Try their masala chai for a good spicy kick in the teeth. I’m more partial to their Tra Que Chai, which is milder and sweeter.

Adagio is that place everyone uses to make fandom blends. They have a HUUUUGE selection to choose from, and I couldn’t begin to talk about their stuff. I will say that all of the rooibos teas are very good, and I find their vanilla rooibos better than their honeybush vanilla. Their chai sampler is full of amazing and is a good starting place for teas (I even like their chocolate chai, and I don’t like chocolate).

I will warn that their flavors section is never quite as strong as I like, possibly because they’re all just flavored ceylon, and I don’t like ceylon.

I’m not a green tea fan, but their kukicha green is a very refreshing nice green. The earl grey lavender is one of my favorite black teas as well.

Now, my favorite. Light of my life, David’s Teas. Dear gooood I love these guys. Their blends are phenomenal, their presentation is really excellent, and they have my absolute favorite tea. They also include samples, so I’ll just go over everything I’ve tried.

Cookie Dough: this is a white tea that actually tastes exactly like cookie dough. It’s amazing. VERY much a dessert tea, though. 

Genmaicha: this is a very, very good green tea. It has toasted rice in it, and it lends it a veeeery sweet, nutty taste. You may actually want to cut back on the sugar with this one.

Mulberry Magic: herbal tea. Now, I do not like fruit teas. At all. But this works for me so hard. It’s a very unique, delicious taste. I got this as a sample and I rebrewed every cup to stretch it out. So so good. But don’t add milk to it, it kills the taste.

Buttered Rum: Ooooooh my god. Okay this is a black tea and it is… creamy and sweet without being dessert-y and so good. Anyone who knows me knows I do not drink at all because I cannot abide the taste of alcohol, but if you wanna make this into the best tea ever? Add a bit of coconut rum to the tea. It’s amaaaazing.

Cream of Earl Grey: Black tea. The best earl grey you will ever have. New to tea? This may be the perfect start.

Stormy Night: Black tea with coconut, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and chocolate. Literally chunks of chocolate. An excellent tea, though I personally find that if I drink more than two cups in quick succession, I feel sick? But that might just be my thing with chocolate. 

I would link to Root Beer, which is a tea that perfectly emulates root beer to a degree that is unnerving, but it’s not on the site…. SO MY FAVORITE TEA:

Glitter and Gold: Dear. God. In. Heaven. There is so much to this tea that I love. It’s a very light black tea with cinnamon, orange, cloves, and sugar balls. The sugar balls are the best part; they are these gold spheres in the drink that, when it is steeped, result in a delicious tea that has actual fucking glitter and sparkles floating around in it. I am not kidding, it’s the yummiest tea ever and it has fucking pixie dust in it. This is why a glass mug is a must for me. It’s the best, I cannot get over it.

.

So yeah. I finally made a tea post like I said I would ages ago. Hope this is helpful to some of y’all! If not, sorry for rambling on so much.

Well, I know I’m going to be stocking up on buttered rum after my next paycheck. Yay tea!

AMAZING!

Celes(tea)el with snowbud, gunpowder, vanilla oolong

I’ve had this done for months now and am finally getting around to making it live. This is REALLY delicious, it was one of those I didn’t expect anything big from but it’s amazing.  Lettie and I have both polished off a bag each now, lol.  I do plan on doing a Wincest tea, too, but I wanted to start with this. :)

This is also shipped with my Tea(se) “Sterek” tea so you can get both of them for $8 each rather than $10 if you like. ;)

Here are my other teas including my Tea Wolf blends!

DAMMIT with irish breakfast, cinnamon, rooibos peach with accents of orange peels

Bones is my favorite character from Star Trek so I had to do a tea for him!  It’s kinda bitter and super peachy and cinnamony, I found it really fun to drink. :)  I also haven’t tried it with bourbon yet, lol.  Maybe sometime!

Here are my other teas including my Tea Wolf blends!