Crocuta

I had thought that lychee would be a difficult flavor to infuse into a tea, but remarkably there is a distinctive lychee note at the end of each sip. Impressive! Unfortunately, I’m finding that the floral notes are a little too strong for my taste, bordering on perfume-y. The scent is all floral, and the first part of a sip is floral through and through. It fades into a lovely lychee with a basic black tea background, though, so it isn’t undrinkable.

I love a good floral herbal tea, but I’m wary of floral blacks. This one is a good example of why. If only the fruit and flowers were more balanced, I could be a fan of this. As it is, I think I’ll finish what I have and pass on it in the future.

So there I was, planning a reluctant online order (I hate paying lots of shipping just for one item!) just so I could try this tea when I find out that 3 DAVIDsTEA shops have just opened up around Chicago. And one of them is literally right off the Armitage stop! So on my way home from work I swing by, taste some delicious samples and leave happily with 2 oz of Blueberry Jam and a couple cup’s worth of Bear Trap (impulse buy, but it sounded too tasty to pass up). Then I walk across the street and pick up a blueberry-lemon donut from Glazed and Infused (teehee) and head home to dream of the ultimate blueberry breakfast next morning.

This tea was rather different than I expected, but that’s not a bad thing! From the smell and the look of the leaves, I expected a pink-tinged brew and a tart flavor, sort of like an upscale Celestial Seasonings. The actual tea is a typical brown with a strong black tea flavor mellowed out by a bit of blueberry jam sweetness. It’s definitely not tart, but it really does taste like blueberry jam! I do wish it was a little more like tart blueberry jam, though. I added a bit of honey to the second half of the cup, but I think I prefer it without.

I’m very impressed with how many dried blueberries are actually in the blend! They really don’t skimp! And if you’re shameless, like me, you can pick them out of the drained leaves and eat them after you finish your delicious donut. If this is wrong I don’t want to be right!

In an interesting turn of events, several tins of Tazo materialized next to the rack of Bigelow tea boxes at my office coffee station this morning. Tazo isn’t tea that I would normally seek out and purchase, so this is a chance for some new reviews.

Unfortunately I can’t rate this one very high. It sounded like the most promising contender at first, but there’s just something off about it. I like licorice, and there’s even part of a sip where things get very licorice-y that I enjoy, but there’s something really muddled before it gets there. It’s earthy in a bad way, like stepped-on wet leaves. There’s some nice apple notes in there, but very little vanilla flavor. The flavors seem to all be good on their own, but they just aren’t playing nicely with each other here.

My very first milk oolong! Fortunately, it’s a tasty one.

The scent of the brewed tea is delightful. There’s something sweet and almost biscuit-like about it. The taste is quite different. It definitely has that vegetal “oolong” flavor that everyone knows, but it’s softened by a buttery texture. Each sip is astoundingly complex, starting off full, grassy, and creamy and rising into a clear, salty, and slightly astringent finish. There’s perhaps a tiny bit of fruitiness at the beginning of a sip. This is a far more vegetal tea. I’m not sure if “milk” is exactly what comes to mind when I drink this, but if this is what a good milk oolong is like I will happily drink more of them!

Very, very strange. Not bad by any means, but just so… strange! This herbal is obviously more intended for the health market than the taste market, so it’s hard to hold it to the same standards. The website talks up the health benefits quite a bit, but I’m sure I won’t notice them. The smell and taste are strangely acidic and medicinal. The chamomile mellows it out a bit, and there’s a hoppy, cinnamon-laced bite at the end of each sip. I suppose it’s appropriate for such an unusual and unique tea to come from Australia. It’s like the platypus of teas.

This is drinkable, but there’s not much else to say about it. Bland, thin, watery pumpkin pie in a cup. The “pumpkin” (highly doubtful that there’s any actual pumpkin flavor here) spices come through, but there’s barely a hint of black tea taste to be found. It’s not horrible, it’s not offensive, it’s not much of anything. Just a steaming cup of “eh.”

The leaves in this one are just beautiful, so long and green and tasty-looking! The smell is a very strong, sour citrus. So naturally I had pretty high hopes for this tea!

Fortunately, it did not disappoint. The brewed cup is very bright and fresh tasting with just enough grapefruit flavor to complement the tea without overpowering it. Somehow it manages to have a crisp flavor with a very smooth mouthfeel. It’s not particularly sweet, and I think that adding extra sweetener would ruin the delicacy. It’s perfect as-is!

I would very much like to make this a regular in my cupboard if I could afford it!

A favorable sencha mixed with lavender blossoms. Very simple, and very good. Sips are salty, bright and floral and become smoother as it cools. It’s rather grassy, but not in a bad way. I don’t feel that the lavender is masking a low quality tea. If anything, I might prefer it with a little less lavender for the seaweed-y sencha to shine through even more. It’s a minor nitpick, though. I don’t have much to complain about here.

I managed to completely botch my first cup of this under the impression that white tea needed a longer steep than average. Naturally the result was quite disappointing. Fortunately after looking at the other reviews I made a second cup with a much shorter steep time and can fairly review this tea.

It’s a pretty decent bai mudan. The mouthfeel is quite smooth and buttery. The taste is more vegetal for me than floral, but my mouth might be a bit too conditioned to floral teas that have actual flowers in them. There is a slight honey taste at the very end of the sip. Not bad by any means, but I definitely prefer Infussion’s Sencha to this.

Not bad, really. It reminds me a bit of drinking a chai cookie, and I love the huge slices of ginger and cardamom pods in the dry leaf. I could have asked for a bit more coconut, but it isn’t entirely absent. Like most Teavana teas I wish it was less sweet, but all in all it’s a favorable dessert tea.

It’s nowhere near morning, but that’s not going to stop me from drinking this. I’ve had a tiring week and I need a little pep!

I was very intrigued by this one due to the triple-tea mix of mate, black tea AND rooibos. I suppose there might be potential for something to go wrong there, but I find that they don’t clash whatsoever. Immediately upon opening the package I find that I am going to like this one much better than Matevana: whereas Matevana’s leaf smell was overpowering chocolate, this one is a much more complex spicy nuttiness.

After a couple sips I added a splash of cream because that’s generally how I prefer my mate. This is a very pleasant tea to drink. The teas blend very smoothly, with lots of roasted nutty flavor. There is a hint of chocolatey sweetness, but it’s downplayed by the earthiness in a good way. This is definitely my Teavana mate of choice.

Such a sweet, simple little tea. Only three ingredients, but they blend so wonderfully. The Bai Mudan white tea isn’t the star player of the trio, but it provides a warm and buttery background. The mint leaves are the main flavor, supported by a rosy aftertaste. So bright and clear, not even the slightest bit musty. I do feel a sense of peace drinking this tea. Highly recommended to mint and rose lovers.

I drink so much flavored tea that sometimes I forget just how good a cup of the basic stuff can be! This is definitely a good sencha. The dry leaf has a perfect grassy scent, but the brewed tea doesn’t taste very grassy at all. It’s very clear and bright, maybe a hint of leaf and pistachio somewhere in there. The mouthfeel is so smooth and pleasant, it’s easy to drink a cup without even realizing it! I will definitely be enjoying more of this, especially whenever I make Japanese food.

Confession: I know that the little red things are pink peppercorns (which I do like) but I really, really want to picture them as tiny cherries. I just can’t unsee it.

This is one of the best-smelling teas I’ve ever had, both dry and brewed. It’s tart, delicious cherries down to the pits. Not the juicy sweet kind, but the little sour kind. Which I am more than okay with. Unfortunately, I am not super into the inclusion of rosemary. While the taste is also rather cherry, I just feel like the rosemary is dulling it down and drawing it away from that vibrant tart cherry I smell before I sip. It’s more than drinkable and it gets less grassy as it cools, but I just can’t help feeling wistful about what this tea would be like without rosemary.

Floral, grassy, sweet, and a little bit musty. I was excited to try it based on the variety of flowers in the ingredients, but I’m afraid the chamomile dominates and the rest play supporting roles. Still, it’s a nice relaxing cup to have right before bed, even if it isn’t terribly exciting.

So sad. I could have LOVED this tea. I love marzipan, roses, violets, black tea, saffron, cinnamon, almonds… What could have possibly gone wrong? SUGAR, that’s what. Obviously Teavana makes sweet teas. I would never order from them expecting anything else. But I have my limits!

Even the smell of the dry leaf gives me cavities. I actually pulled out a misshapen lump of purple sugar about an inch long when I opened the bag. A candied violet gone wrong, I presume. The tea itself has some lovely notes of rose, violet, cinnamon and almonds… but it’s all buried under a thick layer of tooth-aching sugar. This is without me adding ANYTHING to it. I couldn’t even finish my cup.

If I want a cookie tea, I’ll stick to Cha Yen Thai. This one isn’t even getting a second chance.

Oh… Oh my. Color me pleasantly surprised. Looking at the ingredients list I had been all prepared for another snarky “Oh look, it’s another Teavana candy-tea” review. And as most Teavana teas are, it is very sweet. Open the package and the scent of an almond cookie wafts right out.

But the ingredients are intruiging: pink peppercorns, entire star anise, slivered almonds. Brewed up to a lovely deep amber, it’s like sipping on a delicious almond spice cookie, and I love it. I can see the chai, kind of, and I can see the thai, kind of, but really let’s call a spade a spade. This is a cookie tea, and a tasty, complex and drinkable cookie tea. It’s plenty sweet with no extra sugar needed. I’m enjoying the combination of red and black tea. It makes for very good sipping.

You’ve done right on this one, Teavana. Let’s hope you can make more like this.

This one had a lot of potential to be a Celestial Seasonings Zinger clone, but I was intrigued enough to try it at a steep discount by the inclusion of beetroot and chunks of dried grapefruit. And sure enough, it’s much better than any Zinger. The hibiscus dominates as it tends to do in teas like this, but the citrus is also a prominent player and I believe the beets mellow things out a bit. It’s tart, but not as insanely unbalanced tart as Celestial Seasonings and Tazo go. I don’t think I’m ever going to be over the moon about a citrus hibiscus, but if that’s your kind of thing this is one of the better ones.

I’ve learned to be wary of chocolate teas over the years. They always seem to promise a lot more than they deliver. Republic of Teas chocolate always tastes artificial and waxy, and Teavana knows no restraint when it comes to sweetness.

Enter a sample of this tea. What’s this? Simple black tea with real quality chocolate curls (I may or may not have tasted one straight out of the packet) and a hint of vanilla? No mockolate flavor? Only 3 simple components? Promising!

This might be one of the best chocolate teas I’ve had. It isn’t perfect; there’s a certain dusty aftertaste that I’m not loving. But the chocolate melts into the tea, giving it a smooth and creamy texture, and the tea and chocolate combine wonderfully. This is not hot chocolate masquerading as tea. This is real chocolate-infused tea, and a very balanced one at that.

I’ve found that adding a bit of milk and cream cuts down the dusty/bitter components. Overall, a great tea for dessert.

One thing I love about Zen Tea is that they include the steep times right on the package. I’ve been spared many an over-steeped tea thanks to companies that take that extra step (putting the info up on their website just isn’t the same!).

I was worried that the tea would be a bit cough-syrupy from the very powerful dry leaf smell. Fortunately, that’s not the case at all. The tea retains the cherry smell once steeped, but the taste itself is much more subdued. It’s rather floral, rather grassy, just a bit fruity. Everything is in moderation and it’s very smooth on the palate.

I wish I had ordered more than a tiny packet of this now that I know it doesn’t taste like candy, but c’est la vie. I’ll enjoy what I have and hope that it’s a tea that comes back when they restock.

It’s been a while since I’ve drank any oolong, and this wasn’t a bad way to get back into it. The coconut smell is rather strong from the dry leaves and stays present once steeped. It brews to a pale golden color with a very, very buttery mouthfeel. Seriously, this is one of the most buttery teas I’ve tasted. There’s a bit of a vegetal aftertaste. This one won’t win over anyone who isn’t a fan of oolong, but it’s not bad to have in your cabinet. I think I’m going to ice my next cup and see how that turns out.

Not too shabby for a little bagged tea with no actual fruit in it. The flavoring doesn’t read as artificial, just a nice blueberry-like taste accompanying a slightly bitter black tea. I’m not sure how huckleberries compare to blueberries when eating the real fruit, but I really can’t tell the difference in flavored tea. I won’t seek this out, but I wouldn’t turn it down either.

I picked this up in Teavana’s Heavenly Sale for fantastically cheap. The minute I opened the package I just went “Yep, this is a Teavana tea alright.” It probably had something to do with the overwhelming smell of Cocoa Puffs and everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to the blend. Snarking aside, it’s not bad at all. The sweetness isn’t nearly as overpowering once brewed, so it’s quite drinkable. The cocoa does overpower the delicate flowers, of course. I’m not sure why they’re even in a cocoa-mate blend except to make the dry leaf more colorful. Halfway through the cup I added a splash of cream, which complemented the mate and cocoa nicely.

Overall, not bad for a morning cuppa if not a little heavy-handed and clumsy. Recommended to chocolate tea lovers and sweet-tooths (sweet-teeth?) who want to give up coffee.

This is what all of those dusty sort-of fruit teas from Celestial Seasonings wish they were. This blend does everything better: a widely varied medley of real dried fruit and hibiscus as a supporting role, not the main character. The taste is tart berry jam through and through. I’d be interested in sipping this next to a cup of that Buttered Toast tea 52Teas makes. My only complaint would be that most of the flavor dominates up front but doesn’t give much of an aftertaste. Still, I can say without hesitation that this is one of the best herbal fruit infusions I’ve had the pleasure of tasting.