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Not quite as good as home made stuff, but very close. It has a slightly powdered milk flavour to it, that you just don’t get when you make it with condensed milk. But it’s flavourful, creamy and just the right amount of sweet. The convenience factor is also a big bonus.

It’s been ages since I’ve had this, but it’s still a favourite. The dry leaf smells earthy, roasty and buttery with intense raspberry notes. Steeped, the raspberry is mostly aromatic with some delicate notes on the palate. The oolong is a bit earthy and roasty, with a vegetal tang toward the end of the sip which carries through the finish, and then long after the sip is done a butter and berry note pops up.

I love this so much. The experience kind of reminds me of eating a raspberry pastry.

I love love love lemon but I’m not a fan of hibiscus at all, so it was a gamble on whether this would appeal to me.

The dry leaf smells amazing, sweet and lemony, almost like candy. Always a good sign.

I made a pot of this to share with a friend, 3tsp in my 26oz Bee House pot, 96C water steeped for a long time.

The liquor is a really intense red, from the hibiscus, and there’s a lot of hibiscus tartness, but fortunately, the lemon notes are strong, which shifts the tart from hibiscus bleh to lemony deliciousness. There’s also a hint of grapefruit and orange. The grapefruit, particularly that tangy bitterness of grapefruit, makes a subtle appearance on the finish. I’m not sure that I’m detecting any mango here, but I’m not too disappointed, because this is very tasty. I had my first couple of cups hot, and now the pot is mostly cold and it holds up very well at any temperature.

So yay for reconnecting with old friends and fruit tisanes that don’t get overwhelmed by hibiscus.

I grabbed this today, because 125g for less than $2 was worth taking a chance on, and I was kind of charmed and amused by the brand name.

This is okay. Nothing spectacular. It’s a pretty simple oolong without a lot of nuance. Roasty, woody, earthy notes that are a wee bit smoky on the finish, but that don’t really develop much. Still, perfectly drinkable and you can’t really beat that price.

The dry leaf is dark and crinkled. Not quite rolled into balls, but not really twisted either. Somewhere in between. It smells like the steeped cup tastes.

If you’re looking for a complex oolong this is not it. But for something simple to sip and not pay much attention to, you can’t really beat the value for your money.

Wow, what a hectic day. This was my first cup of the morning, at 7:30, and here it is, after 1pm and I’m just finishing it.

The dry leaf is dark and twisted and smells very tart, with berry notes.

I steeped this at 96c for 2:30, 1tsp in 8oz of water. I think with these Secret Garden black teas, I need to try steeping in cooler water, because this is on the border of tasting over steeped. It’s not particularly bitter or astringent, just starting to develop those characteristics a bit, and I feel like I could do with a lighter cup.

So, I’m not really feeling this one. The description really got the flavours and lightness of strawberry shortcake and whipped cream in my head, and I’m not really getting those qualities. There’s raspberry and strawberry flavours, and just a hint of tartness, along with some rosy floral notes, but the vanilla isn’t really making itself known, and it’s just lacking the creaminess that I was hoping for.

It’s not bad, but it doesn’t really stand out among berry teas for me. The flavour didn’t really change or develop much from hot to cold.

Thank you, Tiffany at Secret Garden for the sample.

Oops. I started making this earlier in the day, steeped it for four minutes and found it lacking, so I put the leaves back in and then completely forgot about it. The cup is now cold and has been steeping for probably more than an hour.

This is pretty tasty now. The cinnamon is intense and sweet, like candy hearts, but the blueberry off-sets it nicely. There’s just a bit of berry tart and flavour at the back of the mouth, that makes it feel a bit juicy, instead of just like liquid cinnamon.

I am enjoying how potent the flavour of this cup is. It’s like drinking juice.

I’m getting back to my morning routine of getting up with my partner instead of sleeping till 11am. This is good. As much as I’ve never been a morning person, I like sharing a schedule with my partners and being able to go to bed (and actually fall asleep!) when they do.

First tea of the morning is Buckingham Palace. I couldn’t remember what was in this one at all, but it was at the top of my untried pile, and I figured I couldn’t go wrong with a black, because morning.

All I really got from the dry leaf was a malty fragrance, so I’d kind of decided that this was probably just a blend of black teas. Not so! Steeped the liquor is quite dark brown and has a hint of floral fragrance, but then on the palate is loads of jasmine. What an awesome surprise! There’s also hints of bergamot, but quite subtle, a bit of vegetal from the green, and bold, malt and astringency, with a touch of bitterness. This has a thick, almost creamy mouth feel with a bit of a drying sensation.

Jasmine is definitely the dominant flavour here, which is different and interesting paired with the boldness of the black base. I’m very used to jasmine with greens or other more delicate teas with a lighter body.

As the cup cools, a really lovely sweetness develops along side the jasmine, reminding me of bamboo leaves.

I steeped this for 3 min at 96C, but I think with my next cup I might go for slightly cooler water and a bit shorter time. The Secret Garden black base seems to steep very quickly and be quite sensitive.

Hmm, secret flavours.

My first impression from the dry leaf was subtle notes of chocolate and strawberry.

I steeped 1tsp in 8oz of 96C water for three minutes. I typically steep blacks for at least four, but Secret Garden’s Plum & Cottage Pear seemed a bit oversteeped at four minutes. I think three minutes was the right choice for this, and I’ll be starting with three minutes for my other Secret Garden blacks, too.

Steeped, the cup smells very creamy on top of the strawberry chocolate notes.

The taste… it’s good, but I can’t really put my finger on what I’m tasting. Creamy, chocolate, strawberries, malt?? A hint of berry tart that’s there on the finish but not the rest of the sip? Maybe even just a touch of citrus and hops? There’s definitely more to this than just strawberry, chocolate and vanilla.

I’ll have to try this again on a different day and maybe my palate will be able to better pick out the different flavours, as I’m having a hard time accurately describing this. It’s desserty and different from other chocolate berry teas I’ve had. I like it, and I think it would probably be tasty with milk and sugar, too.

Thank you to Tiffany at Secret Garden for the sample!

I sent my sweeties to work today without lunches, so this morning I’m in the kitchen, prepping some stuff for lunch delivery. And I think my wisdom for the day is, don’t pan-fry stuff in your underwear. No matter how warm it is in the kitchen. Just don’t do it.

Last time I had this tea it was made with really old leaf that had been stored in a crappy plastic bag. So I picked up a couple of cups worth of fresh leaf when I went to Bulk Barn, since other teas of theirs have been much better fresh.

But fresh or no, it’s still not that great. There’s a kind of generic berry flavour, and then some hints of vanilla come in as it cools, but the black base is pretty boring, and I just want it to be more distinctive.

Ah well, it was worth a shot.

I am both leery about grapefruit tisanes, and enthusiastic to try them all. I love grapefruit but it’s easy to do it wrong, and just have it end up tasting like a cup of sour water. So I tried this with both a bit of excitement and trepidation.

The dry leaf is chunky and smells of grapefruit and oranges. It has that really intense, distinctive grapefruit smell that’s a bit bitter, a bit sweet and a lot tart. So far so good.

I used a heaping teaspoon for 8oz of boiling water and let it steep for 5 minutes. It came out a little weak, so back it went to steep for a few more. I didn’t time it the second time around, but it probably got about 8 min of steeping total.

With a nice long steep, this doesn’t disappoint. I think it’s got a bit more sweetness and a wee bit less back of the mouth kick than Tea Story’s Pink Grapefruit (which is one of my all time favourite tisanes), and this one has orange notes on the nose which are different, but they are very similar and this measures up very well.

I suspect this would be awesome iced. It’s very fresh and juicy, and as it cools the grapefruit gets a bit more intense, with that slight tongue numbing/tingling that comes from fresh grapefruit.

Thank you to Tiffany at Secret Garden for the sample!