We're revisiting Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse a second time, with two more of their teas: Silver Dragon Green (no link) (3 minutes, rumbling temp) and Jasmine Silver Needle White (4 minutes, rumbling temp). As usual, Joe and Brandice spend most of this episode in complete and utter disagreement with one other, perhaps even more so than the average episode.For photos from this episode, visit our Flickr pool, and for more episodes and other tea tidbits, visit STeaPtv.com. Contact Joe and Brandice via...
Jun 02, 2008•17 min
This episode features two teas with similar flavors: Adagio's Foxtrot (boiling, 7 minute steep) and Felicitea's Sloth Tea (3 minutes, rumbling). This is Felciitea's first time on STeaP, so give Summer (the masterful tea blender behind the Felicitea name) a friendly welcome. You can also add both Summer and Ilya to your friends list over at our community. For photos from this episode, visit our Flickr pool, and for more episodes and other tea tidbits, visit STeaPtv.com. Contact Joe and Brandice v...
May 25, 2008•21 min
This is the "giving pu-erh another chance" episode. In trying both Golden Moon's Pu-Erh (four minutes boiling) and Adagio's Pu-Erh Poe (five minutes boiling), we have mostly likely succeeded in disappointing pu-erh lovers around the globe a second time. Let us know, pu-erh lovers... what are we doing wrong, or do Joe and Brandice just not get pu-erh?For photos from this episode, visit our Flickr pool, and for more episodes and other tea tidbits, visit STeaPtv.com. Contact Joe and Brandice via st...
May 19, 2008•19 min
Today STeaP is looking to nature for tea, and finding some in it's own backyard. We will be trying two tisanes, Dandelion Leaf Tea, steeped for 7 minutes in boiling water, made by Joe himself, and a Sassafras Root Tea, steeped for 5 minutes in boiling water, made by someone else himself. For photos from this episode, visit our Flickr pool, and for more episodes and other tea tidbits, visit STeaPtv.com. Contact Joe and Brandice via steap@steaptv.com.
May 11, 2008•19 min
Today's pairing was supposed to be a duo of fruity herbals, but an atomic fire broke out in the studio and we quickly realized that these two teas have absolutely nothing in common. Check out the episode to find out what we thought of Dragonwater's Blood Orange and Boulder Dushanbe's Boulder Tangerine, both prepared at boiling temperature with a five minute steep.Disclaimer: No one was actually harmed or lit on fire during this filming. Joe briefly lost his mind and thought he was on fire, but w...
May 04, 2008•20 min
This week Joe and Brandice try two totally sweet teas from Mighty Leaf, the Orange Dulce (a sweet black tea) and Chamomile Citrus (a sweet herbal/tisane), both with notes of citrus. Both teas were steeped in boiling water, the tisane for five minutes and the black for four minutes. It was totally sweet.What is even sweeter is that we totally steeped the tisane a second time. What could be sweeter than that? We don't know. It was pretty sweet.For photos from this episode, visit our Flickr pool, a...
Apr 28, 2008•24 min
This week, the episode falls on my (Brandice's) birthday, so I got to pick the tea. If you don't yet know this about me, I am a HUGE fan of primates, so the obvious choice for my birthday was Monkey Picked Tea. In addition to the monkey-themed tea, I also brought a sizeable portion of my monkey collection, and general monkey-related merriment was had by all (mostly by me). I hope you'll enjoy watching us try a tea that was hand-picked by monkeys in a remote mountain village. I really enjoyed try...
Apr 21, 2008•25 min
Today's episode features another tea from The Simple Leaf called Pure Decadence, a white tea grown in the district of Darjeeling, India. With a name like Pure Decadence, Joe thought this luxurious tea deserved its own episode, so that we could also try steeping the tea a second time (something often done with white teas) and seeing how well it holds up to multiple infusions. The tea was prepared with a 7 minute steep in rumbling (not quite boiling) water for both infusions, and you'll have to wa...
Apr 14, 2008•25 min
This week we're trying some Oolongs, one from The Simple Leaf and one from our old stand by, auraTeas.The Simple Leaf's Honeybee is an Oolong grown and prepared in Nepal. This is produced by the Meghma Tea Estate and is quite different than most any other Oolong you'll find on the market.Next up is auraTeas' Formosa Mingjian Retro Oolong, a simple Oolong and not as complex, or expensive, as the other Oolongs we've had from auraTeas. Will it stand up to the STeaP taste test?For photos from this e...
Apr 07, 2008•22 min
Can this show get anymore Assam? Absolutely! This week we bring you two strong Assams; TeaFrog's Assam Banaspaty Organic FTGFOP-1, steeped for 4 minutes in boiling water, and The Simple Leaf's Mountain Malt, steeped for 3 minutes in boiling water. How will they compare to the Sessa from episode #18 and Upton GFOP Assam from episode #11? Watch and see!For photos from this episode, visit our Flickr pool, and for more episodes and other tea tidbits, visit STeaPtv.com. Contact Joe and Brandice via s...
Mar 30, 2008•20 min
This week, we're trying one of the more rare kinds of tea blends, the Green/Black blend. How is it possible to steep a tea made from both Green and Black teas? This episode will answer that question. The first tea is Upton's Midsummer Dream, a mix of China black tea and green Sencha along with sunflower petals, cactus blossoms and rhubarb steeped for 3 minutes in rumbling water. The second tea is Teasource's Prairie Passion, black and green tea blended with papaya, rosehips, sunflower and passio...
Mar 24, 2008•24 min
Happy St. Patrick's Day, tea drinkers! We bring you a very green tea today, in the event that you're looking for something other than (or in addition to) green beer today. O-Cha.com Green Tea has generously shipped us some very high quality teas, including our choice for today, the Uji Matcha Kiri no Mori. They also included very helpful and specific instructions for properly preparing matcha, which can be found on their website. I also (Brandice) made a promise to discover whether the two types...
Mar 17, 2008•18 min
This week, we take a look at two "blueberry" flavored teas, although upon further inspection, it seems that one of our choices didn't actually have any blueberry in it. Our first tea was a Blueberry-Flavored White from Tea Frog, steeped for 2 minutes with rumbling water, and our second tea was serendipiTea's Berry Blueberry, steeped for 5 minutes with boiling water. In the past, neither of us have enjoyed a tea or tisane with blueberry flavors, so we thought we'd try a "real" tea with blueberry ...
Mar 10, 2008•22 min
It's time for another battle! This time there is a duke-out between Tea Source's Earl Grey White Tip (steeped for 4 minutes at boiling) and Upton's Saint Isaac's Blend (steeped for 5 minutes at boiling), and it gets quite heated! See these two teas duke it out, and you might see Joe and Brandice duke it out as well. Be sure to check our Twitter feed, because we might be giving something away from this episode. :) For more episodes and other tea tidbits, visit STeaPtv.com. Contact Joe and Brandic...
Mar 03, 2008•18 min
Tired of the winter weather? The endless snow, slush, and blistery winds? Well, STeaP visited the tropics this week, with two tropical-friendly teas. We first tried Mighty Leaf's Green Tea Tropical (which some of you won samples of, from our Twitter giveaway) with a 3 minute steep in rumbling water, then we gave Golden Moon's Coconut Pouchong a go with a 3 minute steep in boiled (and then momentarily cooled) water. Take a break from the cold and enjoy our tasting in the tropics! For more episode...
Feb 25, 2008•21 min
Today was a battle between two dragonwell green teas: TeaSource's Dragonwell Wild Mountain (generously donated for review by TeaSource) and Adagio's Dragonwell (from Brandice's collection). Each tea was prepared with rumbling water and a 3 minute steep time. Which of these mighty green tea dragons will 'win' the battle? Watch and see! For more info on STeaP, visit STeaPtv.com.
Feb 18, 2008•17 min
Joe and Brandice bring you two love-themed teas for Valentines Day, trying Tea Frog's Love Flavored Rooibos (boiling water, 5 min. steep) and then the Chocolate & Ginger Spice (boiling water, 6 min. steep). To order these teas and try them for yourself, visit Tea Frog's website and use the promotional code "steaptv" to receive a 10% discount on any purchase.For more info on STeaP and our ongoing adventures, visit STeaPtv.com.
Feb 11, 2008•28 min
Joe and Brandice try the Upton Pu-Erh, a fermented/aged tea. We don't really know a lot about pu-erh, but this particular tea seems to have an enthusiastic following, and can taste very different, depending on age. Chair at A Tasty Beverage did a review of some pu-erh teas as well, and we've rounded up some informational links on pu-erh for those of you who may be as new to this type of tea as we are:Pu-Erh Wikipedia // Pu-Erh.net // Pu-Erh on About.comHave any of YOU tried pu-erh? Tell us what ...
Feb 11, 2008•17 min
STeaP revisited Aura Teas for our 20th episode this week with an Formosa Mingjian Osmanthus Guihua Oolong. This was prepared with a very short, specific steep time, like all Aura Teas, and it is an incredibly complex oolong that continued to evolve as we made our way to the bottom of the cup. We hope you'll enjoy our 20th episode, and be sure to visit STeaPtv.com for all of our tea-related tidbits!
Jan 31, 2008•19 min
This week, STeaP?s in New York! We had a little visit to the Big Apple and stopped by Alice?s Tea Cup: Chapter 2 at 156 East 64th St. We had a great time and even meet up with Chris and Michelle, who have been life-long STeaP fans. We first interview Haley Fox, one of the co-founders of the Alice?s Tea Cup chain of tea rooms in New York City and talk to her about tea rooms and what compelled her to start one in the first place. We then try two of their most popular teas, Mauritius, a strong tea ...
Jan 21, 2008•22 min
Inspired by Masto?s sCHeaP epsiode, we take on Adagio?s version of Chai, Oriental Spice. We?re not much for milk or sugar in our teas, so how will a Chai stand up to our ?refined? taste buds? You may be surprised.
Jan 21, 2008•18 min
This is it! The eight contestants? teas are tested and a winner is chosen! There were no losers, since all eight contestants will be receiving free teas, but there was definitely one tea that came out on top. Filming took about five hours total, so you may notice a bit of caffeine-induced hysteria and what may have been a case of caffeine hangover by the time we had sipped our way through eight cups of tea. The Disembodied Voice (Amy) joined us for this episode as a third official judge of the e...
Jan 21, 2008•57 min
We are trying another Upton tea today in the form of Kensington Breakfast Blend. You?ll need a good black tea to stay up for the New Year (or at least I will). We also introduce and show off our Christmas presents. Brandice got a TriniTEA from Adagio and we?ll see how well it preforms. Stay tuned for our tea showdown next episode and our STeaP takes NY after that. We?ll be bringing in 2008 with a bang!
Jan 02, 2008•23 min
Happy Holidays from Joe & Brandice at STeaP! I’m very excited to share our Christmas episode with all of you. :) STeaP got a holiday surprise from Teaposy, a shiny new tea set for two! This little number was sent to us via the wonderful people at Importika and we just had to feature it for our holiday episode. We also got a wonderful flowering tea assortment and show off one of it’s selections, Calendula.For the holiday season, we introduce a more intimate STeaP, now with less wall and more ...
Dec 28, 2007•22 min
What do you do when your co-host is rude and talks on the phone during taping? Feed her a tea with bugs in it, of course!This week we’re trying a tea with a very long name, Formosa Natural Baihao Oolong Choice. This tea is one of the free samples sent to us by AuraTeas. Can a tea chewed on by cicadas really be any good? Watch and see.
Dec 28, 2007•16 min
The episode you’ve been waiting for, the breakfast tea rematch. Will throwing a quality Adagio tea in the mix change the results? Will switching seats help the tasters? Will everything taste like green beans from now on?Stay tuned, Steaple!Introduction written and performed by Steve Erickson.
Dec 28, 2007•29 min
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Dec 28, 2007•19 min
