• It’s BITTER:  My god is it bitter.  It’s almost past the scale of bitter to downright stale in my opinion.  Whenever I get that slightly vegetal taste (the “undertones” of tea flavor), I am hit by the obscene, awful taste.  It’s like I’m on a fun rollercoaster, We’re past the best part of the ride, and you’re like “oh man, that was badass!” Then out of nowhere the coaster goes off the rails and it’s a 9 o clock news story.  Of course nobody’s hurt, but it certainly puts a damper on the rest of the day (or in this case, the drink).
• It’s COLD:  Yes yes I KNOW it’s supposed to be cold.  I’m not a moron.  Every time I drink iced tea I think “this is like leftovers of a once fresh tea.”  It’s like when you go to Olive Garden and order some delicious meal, then you take the rest of it home.  When you eat it later, it still might be good, but it’s not “fresh.”  Tea should be hot, not cold.  Ever accidentally take a sip of your once-hot tea?  It’s disgusting.
• Lo-Qual:  Lipton.  Snapple.  The two big offenders of iced tea.  These brands make iced tea so artificial that it cannot be enjoyable to this teacaster.  They try to make it really sweet by adding high fructose corn syrup, but no matter how much they put into it, the drink is bitter!  I’m not sure how they do it, it’s quite baffling.  The flavors are fake, and it tastes like it was made out of powder.  It’s like a combination of Kool-Aid and lukewarm black tea.  The secret’s out:  that’s the formula!

There it is.  Now, I’m not hating on anyone that loves iced tea, heck my Father drinks it all the time.  It’s just so “commercial,” that it has lost the essence of tea and has turned into a “better” soft drink.  People also like to throw whole fruit pieces in it too, which, although tasty, just homogenizes the tea and the fruit.  I guess I’m just a bit of a purist.  The only iced tea I actually drank and didn’t absolutely hate was Adagio’s Anteadote.  I could tolerate it.

…Enjoy!

Also, thanks to Adagio for a birthday surprise, including some great Chai samples as well as a new IngenuiTEA infuser!  You guys are the best .

One more thing, in addition to probably checking out Episode #31 (even in it’s bad streched out form), I’d like to point you to my first article for my college’s newspaper, The Campus!  Tried to write an informal, rather simple argument of loose leaf vs. bagged teas.  Let me know what you think!

BLAHHHHH

Not sure if you want to call this “episode 31″ or “episode 32″ but either way, it’s something to watch

Like I said, I really wanted to like this tea, but I just cannot find myself getting into it. I expected to taste green tea, but all I got was HEY HERE’S SOME MINT, TRY IT. And it wasn’t even like “oh it’s minty, but it’s pretty good,” more like this came from my grandpa’s candy dish from the Post-WWII era. In essence, this tastes like a STRONG mint leaf with a mix of random other small flavors, like it’s been sitting in the dish w/ other minty stuff (remember those little white chalky mints?) and red hot fireballs. Bad combo.

Just doesn’t CUT IT for me.

Check this out on Steepster:

DISCLAIMER:  I added a half a teaspoon of ITO EN Matcha with this Genmaicha tea, to see what it tasted like.  The results may frighten you.  Okay not really, but maybe.

To start off, I just wanted to say that this was not my idea alone.  My good buddy @paintedleaves put this on her blog and I decided to try it.  After a bit of WikiResearch (note: I coined that phrase), I found that this is sometimes sold as a package (Genmaicha and Matcha) and it is known as Matcha-iri genmaicha.  Lackluster title.  I prefer to call it Genmaimatcha or Genmaitcha.  But what do I know about Japanese?  Anyway.

Genmaicha for those of you unaware, is a blend of popped rice, green tea leaves and occasionally popped corn (in this case, Adagio’s HAS popped corn in it, need to try some without it).

COLOR
The color of normal Genmaicha is a surprisingly light green from my experience.  It’s very clear and it tastes like grass that has been slathered with butter and roasted (even sauted) over a skillet.  It’s almost overwhelming when you first try it, and the variety of green tea associated with is almost FIERCE.

Now, mix this combination with ITO EN’s premium Matcha and you get a hell of a combo!  Flavor pops out the wazoo, not to mention it looks like something you would find in a swamp or sewer.  So basically you’ve got your tea that looks like something out of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and “Gak.”  But smells absolutely enticing.

Now onto FLAVOR

This is a strange combination.  Though I tasted the typical genmaicha flavor, it was overridden (overrided?  whatever.) by a blast of the pure strength of the Matcha powder.  It was like I put more powder in than genmaicha.  It had this really smooth and silky texture to it, almost like chocolate with a mix of tannin.  It also tasted like if you had sand in your mouth, or if you were ever a kid and tasted a rock by accident (hey, what the hell, kids are weird, I know I was)!  It was bland, yet it had that KICK to it, given mostly by the genmaicha’s popped rice and unique flavor.  It also tasted like vegetals that you would find around the beach.  The smell of that driftwood and seaweed, THAT’S what it tasted like.  It’s so seaweedy, like you accidentally got a gulp of Lake Erie’s water.  All in all, INCREDIBLY potent.

catchafire:

At the start of the new millennium the Dalai Lama apparently issued eighteen rules for living. Since word travels slowly in the digital age these have only just reached me. Here they are.

• Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
• When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
• Follow the three Rs: Respect for self, Respect for others, Responsibility for all your actions.
• Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
• Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
• Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
• When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
• Spend some time alone every day.
• Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
• Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
• Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
• A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
• In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
• Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.
• Be gentle with the earth.
• Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
• Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
• Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

Found owenkelly.net

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