BlueKittyMeow

I could really pick out the individual ingredients (coriander, fennel, with a little bit of cumin) – they all seemed to be very distinct and yelling out “Hey! I’m right here!” like they were little hot dog vendors at a baseball game or something :P
I wasn’t expecting to love this from the scent but I actually think it tastes nice. There is some kind of a sweet element here that tastes like black licorice (I guess that’s the fennel). Normally I’m not really a licorice person, but I really like that flavor in here.
It kind of strikes me like Moxie – either you like those flavors or you don’t. It is another one of those teas that seem like my grandmother would have liked. I think it’s good :)

I received this as a sample in my order from David’s Tea – it smelled really nicely of orange zest when I opened it up. (I think I’m slowly becoming a “citrus” person. I never used to like it but it’s been some of my favorite notes in the tea I’ve been drinking lately). The tea also looked really nice – I’m really digging eccentric herbal blends right now.
I steeped this a little cooler than the package recommended – I didn’t want the oolong to get bitter.
There’s a real low sweet nutty earthy scent to the brewed tea. The citrus is still there but the darker scents have come to the forefront. I suppose that’s the pu erh? I had a great pu erh once and haven’t found one that has been interesting since, so I’m not the best judge here.
The flavor is okay. It kind of tastes like I let some orange zest sit in water. It’s decent to sip on and the scent balances some of the lack of flavor out.
Nothing I’d seek out again, but not awful, just average.

The leaves of this smell like sweet powdered milk – I like the nuttiness of the macadamia nuts.
Brewed it is so nutty. It smells incredible – really more like a desert than a tea.
The flavor of this is really nice – it’s a very sippable tea with a nice full body. The nuttiness is more of an aftertaste. The main flavor of the tea is smooth and subtle – I’ve never had mulberry leaves so I can’t really comment here except to say that I like it. It’s a relaxing, smooth, nutty cup.

The flavor of the loose tea is really nice – I especially smelled the peppermint, fennel, and the licorice.
After brewing it I smell even more peppermint and it seems more like a digestive tea than a general “herbal” tea.
Taste: weirdly sweet – that must be the licorice. This doesn’t taste like something that would pep me up – I’m half expecting this to make me drowsy actually.
It’s not bad and I’m really acquiring a taste for the more medicinal herbal blends, so I’ll wait and see if this actually gives me energy.
The flavor isn’t bad and at least it’s interesting.

Hurray! Something interesting :)
After the disappointing tuo chas, I’m actually glad that I have no idea what to think about this.
From the beginning, I was fascinated by this tea and I really wanted to like it. I opened up the bag and was baffled – it was so much smokier than I had expected! I brought it around to my dad who likes whiskies and asked his opinion. First he said it smelled like a wet campfire which is, I think, what it was reminding me of. Then I mentioned the whiskey aspect and how it was made and he said he could absolutely see that.
My sister thought it smelled fabulous. I’m still on the fence. The piney scent really smells like some kind of carcinogenic chemical to me.
The flavor isn’t bad… it’s super interesting and less abrasive than the scent.
I’ve never tried anything like this before – the smokiness really lingers in my mouth and I can’t tell if I despise it or if I love it. It is one of the other.
My (vegan) sister mentioned that the scent smells a little like beef jerky – that scent/flavor started coming out more as the tea cooled.

Halfway through the cup I decided I like it :)
I tried adding milk to it at that point. I really like that too! I think this would be the perfect breakfast tea on a rainy day. The smokiness with the fogginess, the dark mellow notes with the color of the day, the sharpness with the drumming of the rain… yup. I’m sold!
ETA – I want to try brewing this for 3 minutes next time and see if it’s easier to drink black.

These are fun little things – The little tuo cha was so tiny and adorable. Just by itself, this was really fun to open.
There was an initial fishy smell. I kind of like that, but I can see how other people could find it offensive. I didn’t find it bothersome. It wasn’t super earthy or complex, just slightly fishy – I felt like I walked into a fish shop on Canal Street or something :D

I did a 20 second rinse and then did a 30 second steep with water just short of boiling.

This actually smells slightly floral! I was expecting a super strong brew. A little leathery – super low undertone there.

Flavor: really weird. This doesn’t really taste like pu erh to me at all… there’s still a kind of light fruity flavor, slightly tart. I don’t even know how to describe this since there isn’t much flavor to my palate.
I’m underwhelmed.
We’ll see if the subsequent steepings are more interesting.

ETA – I did a 1 minute steeping with slightly hotter water. No improvement. Actually dumping it. It’s not bad, just frightfully boring!
Time to make a different cup :)

Mmmmm. It smells like carob!
Brewed up, the scent is mellower – really dark and rich and creamy.
The flavor is a little strange. The tea is much thinner than I was expecting. There is a light fruity note on top, from the raspberries.
I like the way the dark somewhat bitter chocolate and the berry flavors play together.
Not bad. Let’s see how much energy this gives me…

It’s so pretty! The leaves smell deliciously herbal (descriptive, I know). There are floral elements, fruity elements, something that is almost sweet, something else that is kind of licorice like… lots of different scents but nothing that clashed.
I meant to only steep it for around 6 minutes but I think it might have been closer to 8.
I tasted it and I love it!
The hibiscus is the first undertone, then some of the minty flavors, then the floral notes. It unfolds so beautifully. I really like this tea. It is complex in the most wonderful way and it is “medicinal” without being off putting. It just smells like it is good for you, but tastes like something that my grandmother would bring out as a special treat – old world, slightly surprising, and thoroughly wonderful.
I will definitely be ordering more of this!

ETA I tried resteeping this (boiling water for 15 minutes) and got only a pale imitation of the original. It wasn’t bad, but it was a ghost. Note to self – don’t bother resteeping this!

Wow! This is so gorgeous!
The loose tea smells so fruity and sweet and like honey. Serious wow.
I spin my own yarn and silk is one of my favorite fibers to spin. I’ve never tried anything with mulberry in it before, so this should be interesting!
I decided to steep it at a lower temp than the bag said, 190 vs 200 and let it go on the longer side (~6.5 minutes (4-7 was the recommended).
This smells so sweet steeped! It’s like honey :)
The flavor is nice and subtle – I’ve been trying a lot of tea lately that I haven’t cared much for, so I was starting to think it was just me being picky or something. This one I can safely say I like. It’s super light flavored, with a creaminess that underlays it from the coconut. The more I drink this the more I like it – as it cools the flavors really come out. I want to try this iced.

My order from David’s Tea came today! And it couldn’t be a better day to have tea. Giant headache and all of my cats escaped (we found them).
This smells so good in the bag! The tangy acai berry is awesome – there’s the sweet/bitter scent going on.
I brewed this as just under boiling in my new New Leaf teapot.
The scent of the brewed tea is nice and mellow. Nothing leaps out at me or smells artificial or out of place, but I definitely get a big whiff of berries.
Flavor-wise, I’m not sure. I think I’ll try the next cup with sugar to see if that brings out some of the flavors. It’s the first non-rooibos herbal tea I’ve had in a while so it takes getting used to picking out the flavors here too.

I added some sugar to my second cup. It gives it a really pleasant initial sip, but the bitterness still came through after that. I know I didn’t brew it too long/hot, so I’m thinking that must be the juniper berries.
Martini lover that I am, I’m going to just try to think of it like a nice martini… berry… tea… thing. :D

This smells like orange zest! What an awesome “wake me up” scent.
After brewing, the citrus and wood scents sit right next to each other. My favorite household job is polishing the piano – this is kind of a comforting blend of scents. There is something a little sweet behind it, it’s not like… pine sol or anything!
The actual flavor is really really strange. I liked the plain yerba and I liked the scent of this spiced yerba… not sure about the flavor. It almost tastes like lemon chicken, but with some of the actual … chicken-ness added. (I should note here that my sister just made me a plain omelette which I also thought had chicken in it. I think I’m just tasting the spices. So the tea might not really taste like chicken) :)
It really woke me up, either way!

After a disappointing cup of hazelnut honeybush which I ruined by adding honey (how on earth do those not go well together??) I decided to try the green rooibos to see if that would help me sleep. It’s after 2 am so, I’m getting concerned that I might never fall asleep again after last night’s insomnia.
I opened the package and got a really nice green scent. I can’t really say more than that, it didn’t really have any particular notes that I picked up on and it didn’t really smell like red rooibos that much.
Brewed it had a little more of that creamy rooibos scent. Also, for some reason I was expecting it to brew up green – it’s actually a really nice apricot orange color.
It’s really strange to drink – there isn’t any particular flavor, but there is a sweet/dry grassy flavor/sensation that hits the back of the roof of my mouth while I’m sipping it.
It’s completely unlike red rooibos.
I’m already feeling sleepy! I like the way that rooibos makes me sleepy better than honeybush. Honeybush kind of made me feel like I was being sucked into sleep against my will. Rooibos makes me tired in such a way that I actually want to go to sleep.

This was another adagio honeybush flavored tea that I really didn’t like the scent of in the package – I think it’s just way to strong for me. When I took a whiff from a distance it was fine.
The brewed tea actually smells a lot like hazelnut coffee, or coffee with hazelnut creamer. I love the scent of hazelnut, so this is definitely a good thing.
I like the flavor of this way more than the vanilla honeybush. Where that tasted artificial, this tastes nutty and nice. The hazelnut and the honeybush really play well together.

This is my second cup of honeybush tea tonight – 10:40 and I’m trying to go to sleep. As opposed to last night when I must have been way too caffeinated. I lay in bed drowsing unable to fall asleep until 7am at which point I thought in foggy horror “oh my god, what if I’ve become one of those people who are unable to sleep and then they just die?”
After thinking that, however, I was able to fall asleep and grab a few hours of sleep. Incredibly, I was fine today after staggering into the kitchen and grabbing a cup of tea.
My point here is, hopefully the honeybush will save me from a caffeine induced all-nighter. (And where was whatever kept me up last night hiding when I was in college and actually wanted to pull all nighters?)

First impression on the scent of the leaves – kind of weird!
It smells nothing like the regular honeybush – it has an artificial scent that makes it seem like something I would use as a glass cleaner.
It smells much better when it’s steeping. Actually fruity and appealing.
The flavor is so so – it definitely tastes like vanilla, but to me, less like vanilla beans and more like vanilla frosting. Which is fine! And some people might really like that.
Just not quite my cuppa :) I like the plain honeybush much better.

The scent of this is awesome! It smells like a soft leather chair. Actually, what it really smells like is the awesome barn that houses the vegetables for the local organic farm. They always have herbs drying from the rafters and I always try to place the scent. And, apparently, it smells like oolong tea :)
I gave the leaves a quick rinse first.
Once brewed the leaves were pretty – a lovely dark red-brown, like tobacco or something.
There’s an interesting scent (smoked cherry?) to the liquor. Also: dusty books and some kind of sweet almost salted caramel scent.
The flavor is slightly bitter in a good way. There is mild astringency, but I like it. The flavor isn’t much special compared to the scent (the scent is amazing though). It has the most amazing body – it’s so thick.
There is an after-taste of something toasted. Toasty and slightly bitter.

ETA: I did a second infusion. I did this one at 190 degrees for only 3 minutes. I think I was too harsh on it, following Adagio’s directions.
I’m getting a woodsy strawberry scent off this – the scent overall is fainter than the first infusion. I’m not picking up much else other than that vague fruitiness and smokiness.
The taste is rather floral – also a little biscuity. It’s nothing striking though.

Well, I can’t speak for what the dry leaves smelled like because I was in full on “stagger mode” to get tea made this morning. Last night I lay awake until 7am thinking about different scenarios for location scouting for my film. Which was a waste of time either way because “bleary baffled middle of night insomniac” me didn’t convince any of my imaginary conversation partners to let us shoot on their imaginary locations.

SO!
I have no clue what the leaves smell like.
The liquor though smells awesome! It’s like an egg pastry… some kind of bavarian creme egg pastry. A-ma-zing.
I started out drinking this neat without milk.
The flavor is nice and nutty with a full mouth feel. Even better, it’s astringent in a good way! Instead of just making my mouth feel like I sucked on a desiccant packet, the dryness adds to the nutty flavour.
This does not need any milk at all.
So, like an idiot, I said “I’ll add milk! And see what I think.”
Well, let me tell you. Milk totally kills it. All the subtlety is gone.
So I did a second brewing of the same leaves.
The second brew smelled nuttier and slightly more bitter. The liquor is still thick and it’s still creamy, but in more of a roasted nut kind of way. It kind of reminds me of the first cup of coffee I ever had (it was also the best cup of coffee I’ve ever had). We were camping and it was kona coffee brewed in a percolator, drank under tall pines in Maine. It was pretty perfect. This tea has the same nutty aftertaste.
Overall – I love it! Next time I won’t ruin the first steeping with milk…

The leaves (I love the shape by the way) smelled smoky and buttery and herby all at once. Nothing in your face, just a really nice green tea scent.
The leaves unfolded so beautifully when I brewed this! I love it when tea is visually appealing as well. The surprise of the little balls unfurling into pennants was delightful :)
The liqueur smells like caramel! I was so surprised by that. It has notes of brown sugar as well. It also smells like warm toast. I love buttered toast-like green tea!

Right before I could taste this I noticed a flea on my dachshund. I freaked out and sprayed him down with enough clove oil flea treatment to drown the bloodsuckers.
Consequently, I had to wait around 20 minutes for the clove scent to leave my nose. Note that my tasting might be affected by this!

Okay, finally getting to taste this!

The scent as I sip it is very present and wonderful. The initial flavor is kind of boring – the slightly metallic generic “green tea” flavour.
The immediate aftertaste was the nice toast flavor. Maybe slightly burnt toast. Not too bad. The lingering aftertaste is more like the initial flavor but with some sweetness. It’s almost sweet in the way artichokes are sweet on my tongue.

I made a cup for my sister too and she thought it tasted burnt, but in a good way.
The more I drink this, the more I decide I like it – Not bad, and certainly interesting enough!

ETA: I did a second steeping of the leaves, same temperature and time.
Wow – the scent really improved this time. I swear, it smells just like caramels. Magical caramels that you would eat on a rainy day in one of the forgotten rooms from The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe. Seriously. It’s that good.
The flavor is more astringent than before and a little sharply herby. The liquour is still really nice and thick.
The aftertaste is really nice though. It goes back to the caramels. There is a seriously sweet flavour that just keeps lingering on my tongue, and again, the artichoke kind of sweetness at the back of my throat. The actual drinking of the tea is a mediocre flavor but the tastes/scents before and after make it absolutely worth it.

The loose tea smells incredibly like chocolate on first whiff.
After that, it smells very strongly of cinnamon – I don’t have a lot of fondness for cinnamon to begin with but this smelled more like a christmas candle. I wasn’t sure how that would bode for the drink.
I mixed up a combination of milk and water 50/50 and brought it just to a boil. I added two heaping teaspoons and set the stovetop on low. I let it simmer for 3 minutes and then strained it.
It still smelled pretty strongly of cinnamon.
The taste was pretty good. I just really don’t like how strongly this smells of cinnamon (I’m just going to keep harping on this), but the flavor was surprisingly light on cinnamon. The milk being brought to the high temps is really sweet and mellow. There isn’t any bad aftertaste at all. It’s fairly pleasant but nothing like the Thai Chai which I really enjoyed. And it really has no chocolate taste to speak of.

The first scent I got of this was kind of earthy and mellow. Again, it kind of reminded me of stables.
The leaves were so pretty and golden brown!
I did a shorter steep than the package recommends because I’m finding that Adagio’s suggestions make a brew that is more bitter than I would like.
I tried the liquor black first and it was very smooth – not metallic like Keemun. I did add milk, but it really didn’t need it. With the milk it had smokey vanilla flavours. This would be a really great morning cup of coffee (but I’m enjoying it now too, at 8:00PM. It’s my “I have tons more work to do and I’m taking a short tea break” time).

This smelled like a riverbank. Like… with marsh grasses and shade. Really really nice, really green, really sweet.
The scent of the liqueur has a really nice buttery hay scent.
I might brew this at a lower temperature and for a longer time. I think the way I brewed it I missed out on some of the more subtle flavors. I’ll see about the second brewing.
It has a really nice buttery aftertaste!

ETA I did a second steep, this one with 180 degree water for 3 minutes, kind of winging it. The liqueur smelled more buttery rather then green to me and the flavor this time was a lot nuttier. There was still a fairly vegetal aftertaste. The liqueur had a really nice mouthfeel too. I think in the future I’ll go for the cooler temp.

I decided to go for black tea over yerba mate – I like the yerba mate but it makes me too jazzed for writing. Saving that for later in the day when I’m flagging…
So, I opened up the bag of the Keemun Encore – wow, the leaves are so tiny! I really like the scent of this. It’s creamy and smokey in this wonderful dark way like the back of a cool cabinet.
After brewing it, I’m getting really strong smooth overtones of cream and honey. I tried it black first. Drinking it was… interesting. None of the sweetness of the scent translates into flavour, but the smokiness definitely does. It is pleasantly astringent, with a funny aftertaste that lingers. It’s almost metallic, along with the smoke. I’m actually picturing a soldier from the 1930s opening a cigarette case in a cave. How’s that for oddly specific tea imagery?
In its favour, the liquor is really really nicely thick. I’m not sold on the taste – going to add some milk to this cup and then try a second infusion. Not bad, the scent is great, the taste is slightly un-complex and a little “funny”.

ETA – I added milk and have completely changed my opinion. The milk brings all the creaminess and smokiness from the initial scent right to the front and takes away the metallic flavor. With milk, it is a really really nice drink. Still not wildly complex or anything but just really pleasant. Wow, what a difference!

When I opened the package it immediately smelled like: Hello! I’m Mango! It wasn’t too artificial smelling and I really like the way the sweetness of the honeybush complimented the mango sweetness.
After brewing it, I still liked the scent and it still smelled really balanced. I like how it’s not a sharp mango scent but the really nice rounded smell of really nice ripe mango.
This is an excellent tea to just drink. It’s relatively uncomplex tasting, but that’s okay. It’s not hiding any secrets, it doesn’t really have the flavors unfold, but it is very smooth and has an awesome mouth feel – it’s very thick. As I let it cool (I really hate drinking super hot things) it seemed like it good sweeter and even more mellow. I should really try it iced.
All in all, it’s not anything surprising, except that I like it a surprising amount :)

This smells incredible! Immediately upon opening it I got a huge whiff of coconut and lemon, but in a really natural way – the really nice scent of coconut that isn’t overpoweringly sweet.
After I brewed it, it smelled just like Tom Kha Gai soup, which is one of my favorite flavours ever. It smells of coconut and lime and lemongrass with a perfect sweet and sour tang, all on top of the typical chai scent.
I added milk because in my world chai is always drunk with milk.
Wow, and one sip and I am in love! I can really see this being one of my go to teas. It is smooth and milky and creamy and the coconut plays so well with the milk. The lemongrass notes are defined but are perfect in the blend. Nothing is overpowering.
I am so glad that I decided to give chai a second chance!

I was surprised by this tea – mainly by how much I liked it!
I really really hate chai tea. So, naturally, when I went on my tea buying spree, I ordered a chai sample :) I’m the kind of person who will keep trying new things even in the face of evidence showing it might be awful!
When I opened the bag I got a mix of scents I love and scents I hate. The clove was kind of overwhelming, but I liked the other spices.
I added milk to this (because seriously, if I don’t usually like chai there is no way I’m drinking it without milk) and I actually really liked it! It wasn’t overwhelmingly spicy and sharp like other chai I’ve had. The milk mixed with the spices giving it a nice and balanced nutty flavour.
In the future I might brew it shorter as the black tea seemed to get slightly bitter. Maybe 4-4.5 minutes would do it.
Overall though, I love it!

I made another steeping of this for only 4 minutes. Wow, this tea does not resteep well. It’s much more one-dimensional after the first steeping and pretty bitter. The sweetness of the spices is gone leaving a flatter tart brew.
First cup: wonderful.
Second cup: almost undrinkable.