Welcome to Lainie Sips!

by Lainie P on January 26, 2010

Welcome to Lainie Sips, a blog dedicated to all things tea! (This is a sticky post: For new content, please scroll down.) To learn more about the blog, please visit my about page.

The bulk of my tea-writing is done on this blog, but you can also check out my column on Examiner.com (Chicago-area tea news and reviews), or visit The Taste of English Tea Blog for my occasional posts there.

I host a podcast that features a lot of interviews with tea-industry people. I also do the occasional video podcast (vodcast?) and will soon be opening an online tea shop in partnership with the OpenSky Project.

You can keep up with me on Facebook, Twitter, and Steepster (a great social network for tea lovers).

Thanks for stopping by.

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Rishi’s Keemun Golden Buds (review)

by Lainie P on February 5, 2010

Name: Keemun Golden Buds

Brand: Rishi Tea

(Check out my podcast interview with Susana Mojica of Rishi Tea. Please note that we had technical difficulties in the first six minutes of the show, so you may want to skip ahead in the recording.)

Type: Black tea, Chinese

Form: Loose leaf

Cost: $9.75 for one ounce, quantity discounts available

Review: Rishi’s Keemun Golden Buds is a good example of the many flavors that can be present in tea. This remarkably tippy Keemun has flavors ranging from caramel to pine to rose, each emerging at different times as it cools.

Most of the Keemun that I have enjoyed has a rather dark leaf, with few tips. But as the name of this tea suggests, Keemun Golden Buds has plenty of gold tip. An examination of the spent leaves shows a lot of thin, narrow buds. Quite elegant.

The tea was not what I expected, which isn’t a bad thing, but was initially a bit of a shock. I didn’t expect the pine note to be as strong or as “cooling” as it was. There is a bit of caramel flavor as well, but that is mostly in the finish. But pay attention, the finish dissapears quickly leaving a cooling tingle in your mouth.

Another interesting thing about this tea is that a rose note appears after it has cooled a bit. This adds a bit of sweetness to the tea and makes it all the more interesting.

Recommended, but if you are a Keemun lover, don’t expect it to be like other Keemuns that you have tried. It can go well with food, but I’d also advise drinking it on its own to get the full effect.

Sample Provided by Manufacturer?: Yes

Affiliate Links in this Review?: No

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David Rio’s Caramel Chamomile (review)

January 31, 2010 David Rio

Name: Caramel Chamomile
Brand: David Rio
Type: Tisane (chamomile-based)
Form: Paper tea bag
Cost: $6.95 for 20 teabags
Review: I spotted this at a local gourmet market, and, despite my suspicion of tea-bag chamomile, thought I would give it a try.
The dry leaf has a rich, sweet nose of, as one might expect, caramel and chamomile. The blend also has [...]

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My OpenSky Store: Sneak Peek

January 30, 2010 OpenSky

Greetings!
Last week I announced my involvement in The Open Sky Project. I am now thrilled to announce a “sneak peek” into my new store on OpenSky. OpenSky is a new shopping experience, offering shoppers the opportunity to buy goods that have been hand-selected by passionate, knowledgeable “Shopkeepers”.
My store only has a few items in it [...]

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Teas Etc’s Golden Dragon Aged Oolong (review)

January 27, 2010 Oolong Teas

Name: Golden Dragon Aged Oolong
Brand: Teas Etc
Type: Oolong
Form: Loose leaf
Cost: $12.95 for a 1 ounce tin, quantity discounts available
Review: This is one strange looking tea. The leaves are dark brown and twisted, and there are plenty of large twigs and stems in the blend.  The nose is even stranger (in a good way): A melange [...]

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Teas Etc Sale and Interview with Beth Johnston

January 22, 2010 Tea Podcasts

Teas Etc is running a sale in honor of National Hot Tea Month, now through Monday, January 25th. Use coupon code HOTTEA at checkout and get 25% off your order, plus free shipping if you spend at least $60.
Also, Teas Etc’s founder and owner, Beth Johnston, will be my guest on an upcoming podcast episode [...]

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Kusmi Tea’s “Troika” (review)

January 21, 2010 Black Teas

Name: Troika
Brand: Kusmi Tea
Type: Black tea, flavored
Form: Muslin tea bags (loose leaf available)
Cost: $12.95 for 20 tea bags
Review: Another lovely tea from Kusmi. This is essentially an extra citrus-y Earl Grey that blends bergamot and other orange flavors with a Chinese/Ceylon/Indian black tea blend. The result is another smooth, seamless, subtle tea from Kusmi.
The tea [...]

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5 Reasons Why You Should Join Steepster

January 17, 2010 Updates

Back in June I did a brief podcast review of Steepster, the then-fledgling tea social network. Since then, Steepster has made some great strides and is rapidly becoming the place for Internet tea-people to hang out.
If you are unfamiliar with Steepster, here’s the scoop:
Steepster lets tea drinkers keep a real-time log of what they are [...]

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OpenSky Partnership & Haitian Relief

January 15, 2010 Updates

Greetings,
I have some exciting news, as well as a special request.
In April of 2009, John Caplan (former CEO of Ford Models and President of About.com), launched “The OpenSky Project“. OpenSky is a collection of online shops, each hosted by a “Shopkeeper”: A passionate expert or enthusiast who “stocks” only the products he or she absolutely [...]

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Tantalizing Tea’s Southern Belle (review)

January 15, 2010 Black Teas

Name: Southern Belle
Brand: Tantalizing Tea
Type: Black tea, flavored
Form: Loose leaf
Cost: .5 ounce sample is $2.00, 2 ounces is $5.50, quantity discounts are available.
Review: One sniff of the dry leaf had me hooked on this tea. The nose was rich and smelled of real peaches (nothing fake about it). The tea infused to a copper liquor [...]

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