Hello!

Hi Tea Lovers!!




How have you been? It's been awhile since I've updated you all. I currently live in California, however I'm moving to my home state of Michigan at the end of the month. If only I could have moved in the Spring- moving in the wintertime is very unpleasant. Here in San Francisco it's been very rainy lately. Nobody likes moving heavy items in the rain. No offense to Californians, but they really are not good drivers - add rain and it's a disaster!!




I still drink tea. There's a place in Burlingame, California that my boyfriend and I go to a lot and it's a beautiful tea house that does afternoon tea with traditional tea sandwiches, scones, and lovely Madelines. I usually get Black vanilla bean tea with milk and sugar with cucumber sandwiches.


Oh, before I forget to tell you. I have a new promo code for Canton Tea Co. You can use my promo code as many times as you want for 10% off your entire order. Don't worry- if the products you want from Canton are on sale, the promo code for 10% off still works!!!

Leah2017 is the new 10% off promo code for my Tea blog readers!!!!!!  Get some amazing tea from Canton Tea Co today. PS- I love their Matcha- I had a matcha latte today.


What is your favorite go to winter tea? Do you ever have tea lattes? I love a good tea latte in the winter time.


Have you seen what I'm doing with my life recently? I made a business out of my artwork. I'm having a blast. If you like art, please visit my page. Here's the link. Below is a painting I did called "Viva"

Thanks for stopping by!

Leah

Introducing: The MIITO

Recently I came across this awesome product that could come to stores if we help them out on Kickstarter! I thought it was really awesome and I think you will like it too!

Gifts for Tea Lovers

10 % off tea, worldwide shipping

Hi readers! I've teamed up with Canton Tea Company, which is a lovely tea company that uses sustainable tea only and they ship worldwide! All of their tea is ethical and purchased directly from family run farms.

I'm really excited to announce that on my behalf if you buy tea with them, just because you're a reader of Tea Reviews by Leah, you'll get a 10% discount if you enter the code TRBL10 into the discount code box upon checking out. If you want to take advantage of this discount, it will be active for you, your friends and family for the next year.


My favorite part about Canton is their owner's love for tea and of course, their products. Their teaware and looseleaf tea is amazing, or if you prefer their teabags those are great too-they're silky tea bags!


Just go to http://www.cantonteaco.com/  and upon check out enter my discount code:

TRBL10 

(it stands for Tea Reviews by Leah!!)

Cheap but effective tea infusers

One of my friends contacted me today and gave me a great idea for a blog post. Why not share some tea infusers that are good in quality and low in price? I know that the easiest way to drink tea is with teabags, but the problem, in my experience, with that is that the tea in bags tend to be lower quality. When I first discovered loose leaf tea, I did not have a special mug with an infuser or a teapot. What I used was a little ball on a chain that hooks to the rim of your mug and the loose tea is spooned into the little ball. What I used was this little guy. It's cheap, but it gets the job done and the best part is how easy it is to clean out. You just open it up and empty it straight into the garbage bin. Or, if you have a garbage disposal, right into the garbage disposal. Let's have a look at other infusers I recommend.

IPOW infuser:

Another great one is this one (above), which is another highly reviewed tea infuser that goes right into your mug and teapot. It's very simple, you put in the infuser, scoop your favorite tea into it and pour hot water over it. Wait until the time desired has passed and then remove it. In my experience, this one is better for mugs than the little ball because the tea has more room to move about in the mug, which steeps the tea better. If you're interested in the one above, just click the image of the infuser where you'll find it on Amazon.

OXO infuser:



This doubles as a tea infuser and a tea scooper. I've never used a two in one before, but I have used a similar infuser to this, but the chamber was a heart instead of a ball. This one uses a twisting mechanism to open the chamber and clean out the inside. I'd imagine to clean it you'd have to run it under water to get all the loose tea out. You would use this infuser just like the other two, submerging this into the cup before you poured hot water into it.

Doggy infuser:




I thought it made sense to finish with the cutest infuser. It's a dog, a pug to be exact and he uses his little arms to hold onto the rim of your mug. How sweet! It has great reviews and it's also fun at the same time. Again, just click the image above if you're looking for the link on how to get one of your own. I've seen a lot of cute infusers like this, but the problem is that a lot of them aren't very good. This one is a rare exception.

Leah

Strawberry Silicone Tea Infuser

Strawberry Silicone Tea Infuser

Rating: 1.5/5

Order: Amazon US or Amazon UK

Today I've decided to switch it up a bit and review a tea infuser rather than just tea. The infuser or silicone tea bag I've chosen is available on Amazon in the United States and in the United Kingdom for very cheap. Oh and there's a reason for that. But first let me tell you how to use it and then I'll get to the rating.

It comes as one unit. The top of the strawberry pops off so you can spoon some tea into it. Make sure it's completely sealed back together or else the top will drift away from its other half once you've poured water on top of it. You tea drinkers add the tea bag first before the water, right? It's a crime to add the tea bag after! At least, I feel it is. :) I decided to use my Blueberry Jam tea because the leaves are of average size:

See those beautiful leaves? This is as clear as I could get the photo. I think my phone was confused as to what I wanted it to take a photo of. Here's what it will look like once you've spooned the tea in:

The amount of tea will look small in the strawberry when it's dry. It's okay-it will expand when it comes into contact with water. Don't over do it, 1-2 teaspoons is enough for one person. Then, close the strawberry with the top and place it into your mug.

Please excuse the tea stained glass. It gets a lot of use from two tea lovers and one of them is British. Not me though, I'm an American. *Waves American flag* This is how it should look before you pour the hot water in your mug or glass. Now, this is where I became disappointed. Let me show you:

Do you see all those leaves that just escaped from the strawberry? I mean, I could have added the tea leaves without the strawberry and have resulted with a stronger tea! This is where this infuser lost mad points with me and gained a terrible rating. Yeah, the thing is cute, but what's the point of it being cute if it can't do its job. Especially if it has one job and one job only. Major disappointment. However, this tea is still drinkable. We can save it! Luckily most of the time with tea the leaves sink to the bottom if you get some loose in your mug. So I can drink this cup of tea until the bottom and then I'll become wary of the leaves below. 

Until next time :)

Leah

French Press Tea & Stay Connected

Want to keep up with my blog? Find me on Facebook, I update my page every time I've reviewed another tea.

I wanted to try something new today, so I decided to try steeping loose leaf tea with a French Press, which is traditionally used to make coffee. I figured people were more likely to have a French Press lying around instead of a teapot, so why not! Below I've scooped the tea (Blueberry Jam black tea) into the French Press:

 Next, take the French Press' lid/plunger off and just scoop the tea into the glass cylinder. Cover your tea with about 1 liter of water for 2 people, or if you want more than one cup of tea. What I typically do is drink one cup hot and ice the next cup to have for later. Put the lid on top with the plunger bit still pulled up. Brew the tea for the allotted time the packaging recommends and then wait. See below what the tea looks like when it's brewing. 

After the allotted amount of time has passed, press the plunger down to filter the tea. Voilà! You have freshly brewed loose leaf tea. I was a bit worried that some of the smaller tea leaves would bypass the filter, but as displayed below that was not the case at all.

Look at that beautiful honey golden shade of tea. Perfect. Now what's great is if you have a French Press lying around you don't need to go out and buy a teapot. Enjoy!


Leah