CHAroma

This is spicy and nutmeg-y and full of flavor! The clove is very strong and makes me think of my older brother for some weird reason…I think he’s the one who always begged my mom to make pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, whereas I never particularly liked it.

Anyway, I agree with others that it’s not very cheesecake-y. But I don’t tend to get cheesecake flavor out of 52teas cheesecake blends. I’m not sure what about it makes me miss that flavoring, but I’m missing it here too.

However, I do find this tea delicious! The blend of spices is very similar to what would be in a pumpkin pie. Now I’d really like to try 52teas’ Pumpkin Pie Tea because I feel like I’m drinking it now! Yum!

This is definitely a tea that needs milk. And again with this tea, I find the aftertaste the highlight of the experience. But the more I drink it, the more I like it. It’s actually really great cold too. I’m impressed! Thank you to Ninavampi for sharing this tea with me!! Go Ecuador!

Oh, wow! This smells amazing as it steeps! I received it as a free sample with my last Adagio purchase. It got mixed reviews here, so I had pretty low expectations. But this is great! It smells like chestnuts and cocoa and immediately made me think of Christmas!

Of course, then my officemates started saying, “Something’s burning! It smells like an electrical burn.” I told them I had just made tea, and they claimed it wasn’t coming from that. Then after I insisted they smell it, they started to think maybe it was the tea. Hahaha!

Well, no matter. I think this tea smells great! And not like electrical burning. The taste is very yum! It’s 100% authentic chestnut to me with a really lovely aftertaste. It’s naturally sweet and almost creamy without any additions. I’m also getting a hint of caramel. This is awesome! I highly recommend!

As I keep sipping it, I’m trying to figure out what others didn’t like. I might have pinpointed it. When I raise the cup to take a sip, I am kind of assailed by something off-putting. And I think the lovely chestnut flavor is most enjoyable in the aftertaste. This doesn’t bother me so much, but maybe it does others.

Still, I think this one is worth a shot. Plus, it was free for me, so I’m sure that’s also a contributing factor to my liking it. Who doesn’t love free tea? :)

I found this slightly battered tea bag at the bottom of my tea stash. I’m not really sure where it came from or how long I’ve had it. But it’s tea, so why not brew it?

As I poured the hot water over the bag, the tea bag filled up with an inordinant amount of air. Despite my best efforts, I could not completely submerge the bag. Weird.

The brewed tea doesn’t have much of an aroma. Perhaps it’s because it’s so old. The liquor is a deep, dark, opaque brown. I accidently added some sweetener before I tried it out of habit. So, I can’t comment on what this tastes like sans additions.

But I was actually pleasantly surprised by this tea! It’s very smooth and still quite flavorful. There’s not even a hint of bitterness or astringency. I think I added a tiny bit too much sweetener because it’s a bit tart. And I can’t imagine that’s from the tea leaves themselves.

I also almost always add milk to black tea. I usually find it either tannic or bitter. But this is great even without milk! That’s pretty impressive to me.

This is really quite good. My Twining’s English Breakfast may have a contender. Now I have to go pick up a box of this!

Ugh!! I can’t believe it! I wrote my Thai Chai tasting note and then accidently deleted it! AHHHHH!!!! You can never write the same thing again. It’s never exactly as it was. What a pain! Blurg! This sucks…now how to try and recoup my loss.

I made this tea two ways: a traditional Chai tea latte and a normal cup of tea. I’ve had limited Chai experiences, so there’s not a whole lot of things to compare it to. But this one still ranks pretty highly. It’s not my favorite. Adagio’s Spiced Apple Chai still claims that title.

It’s good though! Just not quite as spicy as I like. The lemongrass and coconut create a much sweeter, softer Chai. It’s a completely different experience. If you love Chai, I definitely recommend you try this one out.

The normally brewed tea tasted remarkably similar to the latte. I couldn’t distinguish much difference. That’s good and bad, in my opinion. Good because you don’t have to expend a lot of effort to make a great cup of tea. Bad because I did expend a lot of effort to make two different cups of tea and that effort was kind of wasted.

But overall, I enjoyed this. You know what? I didn’t like my first review anyway. This one’s better, right? Oh, how would you know. Whatever. Drink more tea!!!

Many thanks to the very generous Mercuryhime who was so kind as to give me not only a sample of this tea, but an entire box full of tea samples! I can’t wait to try them all! This being the first of many, I picked a favorite and what’s sure to be a winner.

I wasn’t sure that a Bai Mu Dan existed that was much different than what I’ve tried in the past. I should have known that Andrews & Dunham would manage it.

This is delicious! It has that lovely hay and sunshine flavor of White Peony that I love, plus something extra. I’m not sure how to describe it. My first instinct says this is a greener version of Bai Mu Dan. But I think that might be understood differently than I intend it.

It’s honey-sweet with a bit of unexpected tart. Subsequent steeps yield floral, toasted pumpkin seed-esque, flavorful cups. It really is lovely. I’ve enjoyed this sample very much. Here’s how I brewed it:

170 degrees for 2.5 minutes
175 degrees for 4 minutes
175 degrees for 7 minutes
175 degrees for 14 minutes

No astringency. No bitterness. Just awesome. It’s too bad there’s not more of it. I could probably drink this every day. Thanks again to Mercuryhime for making this great experience possible!

I’m playing Skyrim today, which means I’ve forgotten to eat or drink anything. I had a light lunch, so now it’s time for some tea!

I’m very excited to try this one! I was digging through my tea stash trying to figure out what I wanted. As I reached for the Teavivre boxes, I could have sworn that I had another plain green tea and here it is! The aroma of the dry leaves is heavenly. I know I’m going to love this one. Just sniffing the leaves is the confirmation that green tea was what I was craving.

The leaves are very interesting. Green curly little things with white tips. As others have mentioned, this tea reminds me of silver needle as well. There’s just a hint of dry hay and sunshine in the aroma that lingers like white tea.

I followed the steeping instructions on the package. The aroma of the brewed tea is…strange. It’s a subtle aroma, but it reminds me of something. Squash maybe? Or perhaps zucchini. Not what I was expecting from the dry leaf smell. EDIT: After 6 months more experience tasting teas, it turns out that subtle aroma is smoke! I usually detest smokey teas, but this one is subtle enough that it doesn’t bother me.

Mmmm, the taste is really good! It does taste remarkably similar to a white tea. In fact, I’m hard pressed to find much of a difference. I’m not detecting any green grassiness. That strange quality in the aroma (i.e. the smoke) has made its way into the taste. But it’s not off-putting, just unexpected. This is a complex cup of tea with layered, subtle flavors.

Long after the sip, there’s a hint of green tea grassiness. But not much, only a hint to remind me that this is a green tea and not a white. How interesting! This tea is just full of surprises. I highly recommend.

Like others, I received this tea as a free sample with my recent Adagio order. This tea is pretty average. I can’t taste much cinnamon, which I’m thankful for. I agree with others that cinnamon is not something found on a candy apple.

So, what do I taste? Mostly black tea and caramel. I’m not getting hardly any apple at all. In fact, I think any apple in this is wishful thinking on my part. There’s no bitterness I could find, but I did add a little skim milk.

It’s not a bad tea, but there’s something off about it. It’s either the black tea base or the heavy, cloyingly sweet, caramel flavor. It was nice to try, but it’s not something I would crave or buy.

My rating of this blend: 93 out of 100.

As recommended by Ninavampi, I mixed 1.5 tsp of Vanilla Black Tea with 1.5 tsp of Peppermint and added boiling water. The result? Pure, luscious, minty, Christmas-y, candy cane tea!!!!!!

Oh, I just can’t wait to try this!!! After a three and a half minute steep, I’m ready to dig in! But I know I’ll regret it if I try to drink it too soon. I’ll burn off all my taste buds with scalding hot tea and then not be able to taste my beautiful new creation (or rather, Ninavampi’s creation).

Hurry up and cool! I went out to Target and picked up some Peppermint Oreos to go along with the tea. But I’m holding off eating those till I try the tea, which brings me back to my waiting dilemma. Why not wait until the tea cools off, try it, and then write this tasting note? Why, that would be too simple. And then you’d miss out on sharing in my impatience, which is part of the experience of this tea. :)

Finally! First sip. Mmmmmm!! Ninavampi was right on! This tastes EXACTLY like candy canes! I also find that adding a little bit of sweetener helps to take it from minty black tea to candy cane-ucopia. I’ve heard mixed reviews on a lot of Adagio’s new holiday blends (candy cane, cranberry, candy apple, etc). I almost bought a holiday sampler anyway because I really wanted some candy cane tea. But the reviews on this site stopped me. And I’m glad I didn’t waste my money! This tea is so spectacular, I don’t think it can be topped!

How come Adagio didn’t just put their vanilla and peppermint teas together, slap a candy cane tea label on it, and call it a day? Well, no matter. It’s 8:30 at night, and I’m drinking black tea anyway because this is just too good. It was calling me all day at work. “Come home and brew me!” Happy to oblige you, Tea. It’s my pleasure.

Since I just had Teavivre’s other jasmine tea yesterday, I’m going to compare the two.

First impression, yum! These are quite similar teas, but I’m detecting a heavier sweetness to these pearls. The jasmine is again very nice and very well executed, but the pearls seem a little less floral than the Mo Li Yin Hao. The green tea is also more absent.

With both teas, I started out with a 1.5 minute steep and increased subsequent steeps by 30 seconds. They both held up to multiple infusions equally well. However, I am detecting a tad more astringency. I remember the Mo Li Yin Hao getting astringent at the end of the third cup. But the astringency appeared in the pearls halfway through the first cup.

I don’t want to be too critical. It’s still a delicious cup of tea. I think I just prefer the other one. The Mo Li Yin Hao was just so perfectly balanced. Still, this tea wins out on cuteness.

How adorable are these little tiny pearls??! I’ve never had jasmine pearls before, so I’m glad I finally got to see what all the hype is about. They’re much smaller than I expected, but they unfurl really beautifully. I’m not sure what pearls have to do with dragons though…Perhaps they hoard them?

Overall, a very nice tea experience tonight. Very relaxing after an incredibly stressful couple of days.

Mmmmmmm!!! This is an incredible jasmine!!! Just the right amount of floral with a green tea aftertaste. The green tea comes out more as it cools. This just might be the most perfect jasmine tea in the world!

The aroma of the dry leaves is awesome. The leaves are dark, wavy, and ultra skinny. This tastes a lot like what you get in good Chinese restaurants, except better.

The last time I had a tea like this, it was an unnamed Jasmine at a Thai restaurant. It was soooo good, but they left the tea leaves loose in the teapot. So 10-15 minutes in, my fantastic tea experience was sullied with overwhelming bitterness. This is that tea minus the bitter. Just plain deliciousness!

The last of my samples of old 52teas blends via iHeartTeas. Like the others, this one has lost most of its added flavors with time. It mostly tastes like a cinnamon black tea. It does taste faintly like a snickerdoodle, but that could be just because I want it to. It’s fairly tannic and not the most enjoyable black tea base I’ve had. But I don’t fault 52teas.

Freshness is paramount with all edible things, so I should not have expected tea to be any different. Alas, so much for thinking I’d get to try out some retired teas. And I thought I was being really clever and sneaky too. :P

Another old blend that’s lost its added flavor. Buttery movie theatre popcorn is my favorite food, so I know its taste well. But at least the black tea base is still yummy!

Okay, after buying this tea about, oh I don’t know, four months ago, I figured it was finally time to try it tonight. Thanksgiving is over, which means we’re officially in Christmas season!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!! I love the aroma of fresh balsam and the taste of candy cane cookies. I love visiting my boyfriend’s family in Connecticut and cutting into the honey baked ham. I love singing Christmas carols and spreading holiday cheer. I love eating a half melted bowl of snow until my tongue goes numb, and I can’t form sentences.

Now that I’m an adult, I’ve realized Christmas is so much more than presents. In fact, I think presents are the worst part of Christmas. What to buy everyone? I don’t want to buy them something just for the sake of buying them something. I myself don’t want anything besides money. I know, I’m too practical, but I am my father’s daughter.

When I was little, presents was all Christmas was about. One year, I woke up early and opened ALL of my presents before anyone else got out of bed. My parents were so mad that they put everything in a really big box in the living room, and they told me if I touched it, I’d be grounded for life. I think they left it there, un-taped, for about a month before my mom finally caved and let me have the toys back.

That was probably the first Christmas where it occurred to me that it’s not about getting presents. My parents explained to me that they were upset because they didn’t get to see how happy I was when I opened them. That’s their present, watching me exuberantly rip through packages. Suffice it to say, I felt pretty awful.

But anyway, that was a longer than intended anecdote. Peppermint tea! It’s finally the season to try you!

Sniffing the dry leaves makes me want to break out the ice cream maker and make some Oreo peppermint ice cream. The brewed liquor is much darker than I expected, although I can’t really tell what color it is since I’m drinking out of my brown owl mug again.

The taste is mouthwatering, both hot and chilled in the same cup. This is delicious! The more I drink it, the more I realize the taste is in the aroma and the aftertaste. It’s best drunk piping hot. Yum!

I went to my Dad’s house for Thanksgiving this year. His wife, my stepmother, offered me a selection of Republic of Tea teabags. I chose this Ginger Peach green tea. It is a bagged tea, so my expectations weren’t that high to start with.

But honestly, it’s not bad. It’s not fresh, and it has that off taste of non-authentic Americanized bottled green tea. But I’ve had worse. My biggest complaint is that there’s no string!!! How do you steep a teabag with no string?!

It was kind of inconvenient. But not as inconvenient as the cup of tea on the table became. Apparently, it was blocking my boyfriend’s view when we played the Mexican Train Game. So he blamed the tea when he lost. Hahahahaa! [Insert evil maniacal laugh here].

Anyway, back to the tea. I steeped it in almost boiled water for somewhere around 1.5-3 minutes. I’m not very precise without my tea paraphernalia. The liquor was an orange-tinted, dirty brown color. It smelled and tasted mostly of peach. Not much ginger, which is a good thing. The ginger stayed subtle and paired well with the tea base.

It’s not the best example of green tea, but it’ll get you through the day. If it were on Netflix, I’d give it 3 stars.

This is my first yerba mate. I only used 1 tsp in 8 oz. of water because I read that online somewhere for steeping instructions. I’m not sure if it would be better or not with more leaf. It definitely isn’t too watery.

But that’s probably because I’m tasting A LOT of banana in this cup. I don’t really like banana flavorings, let alone in tea. I believe I’ve said this before. I also am left wondering what yerba mate really tastes like. All I can think of is…tea. Hello, Captain Obvious! But alas, descriptive words are eluding me today.

I’m not getting much in the way of cherry either. I think I’d like a pure cherry flavored yerba mate over this. Overall, I don’t fault the tea as much as I fault my own taste buds. I’m afraid the last few 52teas blends have been a bust. This is just not my thing. But if you like banana, this is your tea!

The first time I tried Tie Guan Yin, it was while I was watching my boyfriend play Dark Souls on PS3. Just tasting this tea made me think about that game, hahaha.

Anyway, this is a really good oolong. It’s not quite as tasty as Life In Teacup’s version, but it’s pretty close. The aftertaste is just as yummy as the tea itself.

The leaves came a little crushed though. I think they vacuum packed the sample too tightly. But it did come in the most beautiful little packet I’ve ever seen! So colorful with a gorgeous bird on it. Crushed leaves nonetheless, it still brewed a delicious cup. And it holds up to multiple infusions really well too.

This tea is like a meal. Lipsmacking good!

Well, I’m sorry to say it, but 52teas has finally disappointed me. 1 ounce? Really? Sure, it’s a white tea, and white tea leaves tend to be big and long and take up a lot of room. But does that mean you use half as much to brew a cup? Nope. In fact, most people see how big the leaves are and put too few in their strainer, thus creating a weak cup and furthering the misconception that white tea is tasteless water.

I mean, I get 2 ounces of honeybush and even 1.5 ounces of the Very Important Tea that costs an extra $6. But for my regular $9/week tea I only get 1 ounce??! That’s not really acceptable to me, especially because these white tea leaves are diced into little tiny, unrecognizable pieces.

But maybe I’m being too critical. Hold on, what’s that funky smell in my kitchen? What did the boyfriend cook for dinner last night? I should take the trash out and clean the litter box. Oh wait, that aroma is coming from this tea!! Eeek! What could it be? The kiwi? The tequila flavor?

Okay, maybe I shouldn’t be complaining that I only got 1 ounce of this. It’s not so great. The strawberry tastes like overly sweetened strawberry puree. The kiwi doesn’t really taste like real kiwi to me. The white tea is indistinguishable from the other flavors, unless it’s that funk. But I think the funk is probably coming from the “tequila flavoring,” whatever that is.

I thought I was going to love this. Bai Mu Dan is one of my top favorite teas in the world. I know its flavor very well. But I don’t detect that lovely flavor anywhere near my cup. :( I’m sad. I wish I didn’t have to write about such disappointment, especially since it’s the first review of this tea.

Don’t let my pessimism deter you! I gave it to my boyfriend to try and he said, “Mmm, it’s very good. First thing I noticed was how good it smells. Fruity. I really like it.” So clearly, this just isn’t my cup of tea. But it could be yours!

Wow, this is definitely a mint tea! And that’s pretty much it. The mint obliterates any flavor of green tea.

It’s not that this is a bad tea per say. It’s kind of like Lipton black tea. It’s great when you think that’s all there is. But once you taste some high quality loose leaf teas, there’s just no going back.

What is this? A full 60-90 seconds after the sip, I get a faint, vegetal, green tea aftertaste. So strange.

If you were dying for tea, this might tide you over. But it’s not something I’d stock up on.

EDIT: I drank the bagged version by the way. It was a sample from an awesome co-worker! :)

This pretty much tastes exactly like all the other White Peony teas I’ve tried. And that’s a very good thing, because I’ve loved all the other White Peony teas I’ve tried.

This is fantastic and remains one of my top favorites. But the best part is, it’s the cheapest iteration of Bai Mu Dan I’ve found!!! Samovar is a whopping $12 per ounce. Adagio is $5 per ounce. But Teavivre? It’s less than $2 per ounce!!!!!!!!!!!

Simply amazing! I’m definitely a Teavivre convert.

The black tea base is very smooth, no bitterness or astringency in the least. But I’m not getting much else in the way of flavor. Perhaps that’s because this is a rather old blend. Still, it’s too bad the flavors didn’t last. It sounds like this was a good one.

Second steep yields a tiny hint of vanilla, but still no pecan. Pity.

This tea has me a little frightened. It’s a honeybush, which I hear is very similar to rooibos. Rooibos and I don’t get along. I knew there was a probable chance of receiving a honeybush blend with my 52teas Tea of the Week Plan. But I also had heard so many good reviews of 52teas that I figured it was worth the risk.

And overall, I’m a very happy customer. All their blends are unique and delicious. And I’ve found while perusing my credit card statement that I’ve bought a lot more than just the 6 teas that came with my subscription.

But enough stalling. On to the honeybush tea! The dry leaves smell of raspberry and banana and slightly medicinal. The brewed tea aroma is still raspberry, but the medicinal quality has gotten stronger. I feel dread as I sniff the aroma. I want to like this; I do! But I’m not so sure…

Okay, time to sip it…Wow, actually I mostly just taste raspberry with an aftertaste of banana. Thank God! I really thought this was going to be awful (no offense to 52teas). With the second sip, I’m convinced that 52teas could blend just about anything and make it wonderful!

I mean really, I don’t even particularly like raspberry or banana-flavored things. And don’t get me wrong, the tea nails these flavors. Yet somehow, I find myself enjoying the cup. Insanity. Simply insanity. What is this world coming to?

That being said, if anyone would like a sample, I’m more than happy to share.

^{Did I mention that 52teas has done a popular tea revival? Check out their in stock blends to see a couple favorites return to your life. The world is a happier, brighter place with their rebirth.}

It’s an amazing tea that can overcome my strong dislike of red rooibos. I’m impressed with this.

It’s super sweet even sans additions, and I usually like overly sweet concoctions. The flavor is strongly chestnut and sweet potato. I’m not getting much in the way of pumpkin, or at least not the way I’m used to tasting pumpkin in drinks.

In something like a Starbuck’s Pumpkin Spice Latte, it’s a lot of spice and milk and espresso. There’s very little actual pumpkin flavor, or maybe I should say authentic pumpkin flavor. The pumpkin that’s in this tea is more like slicing open a baked pumpkin and digging in. More natural and less processed.

The taste lingers long into the aftertaste too. This is a really nicely balanced cup of tea. The flavors mesh well together.

Yum! I’m liking this tea! It does still have a little bit of that red rooibos quality I don’t like. So, I won’t be placing an order. But I am enjoying my cup, and that’s saying a lot right there.

I made this as a chai tea latte in the morning, and again as a regular brewed tea in the afternoon. No additions at first, then a little bit of sweetener.

It was still really good, but I definitely prefer it as a tea latte. Still couldn’t really taste the apple either. I suppose this should be upsetting or disappointing. After all, it is an apple chai. But I really enjoy it anyway, sans apple flavor.

I also recently put in an order to Lupicia that included their apple green tea called Tsugaru Green. That’s where I’ll get my apple tea kick!

So, I’m perfectly fine with enjoying this tea as a chai and nothing more. Call me silly. I don’t know. But I’m a happy camper, and that’s what matters most, right? :)

OOOOOH YUM!!!!!!!! This is GREAT!!! It’s sugary, sweet, spicy, and oh so yummy! I can’t believe how delicious this is!

I made a traditional chai tea latte, and it was so worth it! Honestly, I can’t taste the apple at all. It just tastes like chai. But I’m really pleased with the way it turned out.

I think I know where I messed up with the Samovar Masala Chai. With that one, I put all the spices in a small tea ball. I don’t think it allowed the spices to expand enough once they got wet. So, the flavor didn’t really permeate throughout the liquid.

With this one, I just let the spices roll around in the milk and water. That makes this brew a winner! Now I feel really bad that I basically wasted the Samovar Masala Chai. From the smell of those spices, I bet it would have knocked the socks off this Adagio chai.

Oh well, live and learn. At least I have a nice cup of chai to enjoy on Veteran’s Day!