[Food] Mr. Mochi Chocolate Flavor

Wile I was aimlessly searching at my local Giant to see if by some hope I would find Ice Cream Mochi that was not Miyakawa, since their mochi can be hit or miss depending on how long it has been on the shelf. I stumbled across Mr. Mochi and starred at the freezer shelf for a bit in disbelief since I was actually successful in my search (well I hoped at least because I really wanted some ice cream mochi!)

I had a few options, all basica flavors, Vanilla, Strawberry, Chocolate and Green Tea. I decided to grab the Chocolate to try out.

They also make a line of ice creams as well under the name Mr Green Tea.

The packaging for these was weird. They come individually wrapped and are in a small foam pocket inside the box that is sealed. This has to be for freshness since the mochi can dry out in freezer boxes. 

Oh my goodness these things taste amazing! The mochi is soft and squishy, the ice cream is really good and rich, they taste like a dream! 

Want to check out Mr. Mochi for yourself? They are on sale at Giant Foods and Stop and Shop on the east coast. Or check out their webpage here!

[Tea Review] Biltmore Blackberry Black Tea

I visited the Biltmore House and Winery a few weekends ago and while there discovered they have their own brand of tea that is distributed by the Oliver Puff and Company (according to the packaging) There were a few different flavors of tea, but the Blackberry smelled the best to me so I grabbed that one!

The packaging for this tea is a 3oz. tube with a top that pops on and off, The tea is loose and the container is really full. The first smell of this is fruity, a great blackberry smell with a hint of black tea smell underlining it.

The taste is a black tea taste with hints of blackberry, very refreshing, I also added a little honey to sweeten it up a tad. It was a nice tea to have when you want something subtle that has a nice simple taste.

You can purchase the Biltmore Tea at the Biltmore, I was unable to find a link to it online but you can check out the webpage for the Biltmore house and winery here!

[Tea Review] August Uncommon Teas "Dark Iris"

I am always looking for new teas to try, and I stumbled across August Uncommon Teas on Facebook, they were offering a free sample of their tea, so I said why not? and gave it a try. With their free sample you got to pick which tea you wanted to try so I grabbed their "Dark Iris" Tea. Dark Iris is one of their Gourmand teas, it says it is a "Rich oolong with peach, pistachio and lime", to me this sounded interesting as a tea!

 

The sample came in a resealable bag with 14g of tea, which on the bag says makes 4 cups of tea. The smell of the dry tea was strong. It has a very lime scent to it and a nutty scent. I wasnt quite sure about this tea upon smelling it.

 

The back of the bag says the tea "Tastes Like: peach, crème fraîche, iris, lime blossom" so I was still of course intrigued and willing to give it a try. The smell of the tea once steeped was not as strong on the nose and had a very good lime/peach/nuttiness to it. 

 

The taste was very pleasing, Lime and Peachy, with a hint of nuttiness to it.  I am not a huge nut fan when it comes to my teas but this I would drink again, at least finishing off what I have of it. This seems more like a chill, and relax after work tea than something I would make for myself in the morning. 

 

August Uncommon Tea is a company out of Los Angeles, Ca. They have a few different varieties of tea on their webpage and rotate them out, making them in small batches, so if "Dark Iris" is something you think you would like I would go check it out, a sample size is $4.00 and a tin of it is $29.00. They also have a lot of other interesting sounding teas on their site as well! Check them out here.

[Tea Travels] Just Because IYQ in Myrtle Beach SC

 

While visiting Myrtle Beach back in May, I stumbled across this fun little Tea Room called "Just Because IYQ". I was not able to find any tea shops or tea rooms while looking online, but luckily drove by this one and saw it from the road after eating lunch so decided to stop in.  

 

The Tea Room was very cute and colorful, with artwork and local boutique type items along the walls. They also had a large selection of Tea Forte Teas, which were what they also served in the Tea Room.

 

I got a yummy Cherry Mazipan Tea, which was delicious, and also got a yummy orange cranberry scone as well, since I had just eaten lunch before finding this cute little place. They also had these cute metal birds with lemon wedges in them, they were for easily getting the lemon juice out and into your water or tea! 

 

The tea and scones were well prepared and very wonderfully presented. Everything about this little place was lovely, they had a large variety of tea and everything from small tea sandwiches to scones and other small deserts.  So you could also have a lovely meal there. The service was friendly and the nice lady serving us made sure we were well taken care of. 

 

This was a surprising little find, and I am glad I did since it was so cute and the food (and tea) were really good! It was quiet and a nice place to just sit and talk and enjoy the people you were with. 

 

And like I mentioned above, the also sell tea. They have a wide selection and variety of Tea Forte Teas, from large cans of them to sampler sets. 

You can find "Just Because IYQ" online here and check them out if you are in Myrtle Beach SC.

[Tea Review] The Whistling Kettle's Sencha Kyoto Cherry Rose

The Whistling Kettle is a small tea store and eatery in Ballston Spa, NY. I was lucky enough to get to visit it many months ago and really loved it! I will write about the actual eatery in another post, for now I am going to be talking about one of the teas I got while there! A delicious Green Tea called "Sencha Kyoto Cherry Rose". Now knowing me, there are two words in there that made me want to smell and try this tea, cherry and rose, because we all know those two items in a tea make me automatically want to love it!  

 

The packaging for the tea is a loose leaf resealable bag, they also sold their tea in tins as well.  This tea has an amazing fruity smell and a lovely color with rose petals in it. 

The flavor is a great fruity green tea, with hints of rose and cherry in it. If you steep it too long it can be bitter to some peoples likings, but I also like the bitter taste as well, so this tea was a win, win for me. The tea also has a lovely color to it after it has steeped.

 

This has been my go to tea for the last few weeks to take to work and drink on all day, it has a mild flavor and works well with drink it while eating or just drinking it on its own.

You can purchase Sencha Kyoto Cherry Rose and lots of other teas and tea wares on their webpage or visit one of The Whistling Kettles two locations, the info if on their webpage!

[Tea Review] Hawiian Islands Tea Company Strawberry Lychee Tea

 

This weeks review is one of the teas I purchased while in Hawaii. Hawaiian Islands Tea Company Strawberry Lychee Tea.  I purchased about four different boxes (all different flavors) from the Hawaiian Islands Tea Company, and was excited to drink them all! The Strawberry Lychee was the first box I opened and it has been so good!

 

Each box contains 20 paper tea bags. They have really pretty plastic wrappers that let you know the name of the tea and the tea companies logo on them. 

 

The smell of the tea when opening the tea bag up is amazing! It is a mixture of Strawberry and Lychee smells.  It just smell delicious, like a really yummy cake or something. 

 

The smell of the tea once it has steeped is also pretty yummy smelling, the Lychee dominates the smell and the taste fruity with a Lychee base and a hint of Strawberry, but also not an overpowering fruit taste since the black tea taste is still there.  

I purchased this box at an ABC store in Oahu, but I also saw them for sale at grocery stores and Longs Drug stores all over the island. They have a large variety of teas, some you will see me review in the coming weeks! You can find all their flavors on their webpage, and even order them online here!

 

[Food] Bubbies Ice Cream Mochi

One of my favorite things about Hawaii (well other than the beautiful weather and scenery) is the food! There is such an amazing diverse amount of food available to eat and it was all great (at least what I tried, which this trip was a lot of Japanese food, and a lot of Bubbies!) I seriously wouldn't shut up about how excited I was to get to eat as many Bubbies Ice Cream Mochi as I could handle while I was there!

Bubbies is a local Hawaiian Ice Cream company, that also make delicious Ice Cream Mochi (in my opinion it is the best I have ever tried, for the moment.) They have 20 flavors (I believe they add others from time to time.) I have tried 10 of the flavors, and I really cannot say a bad thing about any of them! The ice cream is delicious, and the mochi is soft and chewy.

During my trip this time I tried the Lychee, Li Hing Mango, Chocolate Mint, Blueberry, Passion Fruit, and Guava. Many of these I had tried on my last visit to Honolulu 10 years ago, and the Blueberry is still one of my favorite flavors that they make, it is just so good.

Li Hing Mango, Lychee and Blueberry

Li Hing Mango, Passion Fruit and Chocolate Mint

I was able to find Bubbies sold individually at Lawsons Market in downtown Waikiki and at Tea Boss as well, but they also sell them in grocery stores all over Honolulu.

(I purchased mine years ago at a coffee shop that had different flavors each day too.) depending on the grocery stores you visit depends on your selection. I visited a Safe Way that only had three flavors and a Foodland that had six flavors.

Safe Way Selection

Food Land Selection

On the mainland, depending on where you live you can even find Bubbies at Whole Foods and some higher end grocery stores, but it is hit or miss if your store will have them (I know the ones near me do not, while I have friends who can get them easy.)

The packaging for the store bought Bubbies is really nice too presentation wise. The boxes have 8 ice cream mochi pieces in them, and have a piece of tissue paper over them.

If you get the chance definitely try them out! They are delicious and your taste buds will thank you! Check out Bubbies online here!

[Tea Review] The Geeky Hostess "Mrs. Bennet's Nerve Tonic"

In February's Boom Box by Espionage Cosmetics they included a .5 oz. container of tea from the Geeky Hostess based off of Pride And Prejudice. The Geeky Hostess released a set of three teas inspired by the Book and the movie Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I sadly did not get February's Boom Box, but one of my friends who is not a tea drinker passed her tea on to me! (which I am really excited about, thank you Lizzy!!)

Mrs. Bennet's Nerve Tonic comes in a lovely metal tin and has the tops where you can see the lovely tea inside! It has Chamomile, rose, sage, lemongrass, and yellow sugar in it. It has a really flowery smell, with the Chamomile being the strongest from what I could smell. 

And look just how lovely that tea looks. So many colors, and so fresh looking. You can really taste the chamomile with hints of other flavors as well. But the chamomile is the dominant taste. It has a light taste that is pleasant. 

The Geeky Hostess has some really fun teas (and sprinkles!) in her shop. You can find them here!

To learn more about Espionage Cosmetics BOOM Box go here!

Also featured in the opening image is this fantastic mug by my friend, that I got at Regeneration Who 2! You can find her pottery online here

[Geeky Food] Cold Stone Creamery Batman Vs. Superman Ice Cream Creations

Batman Vs. Superman came out in theaters this week, and there is a ton of marketing going on for this movie! Everything from toys, to some fun ice cream deserts at Cold Stone Creamery! I headed out to my local Cold Stone today to try one of the yummy ice cream concoctions (if I could have eaten two I would have trust me!)

    

There are three different creations, each after a character from the movie, Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman. 

Oh Batman! It's so soon! 

And each comes with a cute little plastic ring depicting the characters symbol! 

The actual creation was super yummy. The batman one was chocolate ice cream, cookies and I think chocolate syrup. It was all crammed inside a waffle cone! 

If I get a chance to try another (I used a gift card to get this one, so technically I still have enough to get the other two if I want to eat that much Ice Cream in a few days......) I would really like to try the Wonder Woman one, since taste wise that one also seemed pretty yummy sounding! 

You can find out info about these ice cream creations and the Batman Vs. Superman Ice cream cake that they also have HERE!