CupofTree

Thank you Amanda for this sample.
It was the first tea I tried in my new forest mug from DT which is now my favorite mug ever. I already want to buy another one incase something happens to it. Here is a pic of the entire forest set. http://flic.kr/p/d8PVCS

The little leaves are what drew me to this tea. The first time I tried it, I found the maple and rooibos a bit too much for me, so this time, I made a blend using one teaspoon Oh Canada, and one teaspoon black tea. I called it Black Maple and it came out pretty awesome. Perfectly balanced, not too much maple or rooibos, and I was drinking it in the morning so it made a great breakfast tea. I found it to be very warming, so I would much rather enjoy it in cold temperatures. It smells so yummy!

I’m starting to think white tea may be my favorite after black tea. There’s just something about white tea that makes me not want to sweeten it, and I love not having to sweeten a cup of tea. Mostly I’ve had flavored white so I wonder if I’d like pure white tea. Must explore more.

This tea is awesome. The dry smell in the bag is incredible and I’m not quite sure how to describe it fully, other than it has a very scrumptious coconut scent. I love seeing the fuzzy white leaves and brightly colored flower pieces in this blend.

It’s an extremely relaxing brew. Light, creamy, coconut goodness.

Thank you to the Tea Merchant for being awesome and letting us at steepster try some of your teas!

The packaging is definitely awesome from this company. Nicely made labels on the brown sample bags, and the wax seal was very cool.
I was lucky enough to have received this tea for free and while I love the name of the tea and thought the ingredients sounded good, I couldn’t really enjoy it. I’ve never really had a real puerh blend before and I guess I just don’t like puerh at the moment.
It’s a very bold cup and I appreciate the dark coloring of the tea, but it just doesn’t smell good, and nothing really appeals to me in the taste.
I do however feel like it wakes you up. I will finish this cup, but I don’t think I will be making another. Will keep on the side for future swapage.

Yum yum yummy with milk and sugar. Not much else needs to be said about this tea… it speaks for itself. And now I know of another tea that I would like to eat! I really wanted some chocolate and a cup of this really does the trick of saving you from going out and finding a big piece of chocolate cake somewhere.
Must get a tin of this when it gets cold out (which is like 6 months from now haha… hah… yeah… maybe won’t wait that long)
Thank you Amanda for this highly enjoyed cup of tea!

There are high force winds and crazy rain outside from the tropical storm to the west, but I just couldn’t stay in the office for lunch. So I ventured out, came back soaked of course, and am now freezing. I just may get hypothermia… maybe I’ve been watching too much Survivorman though.

So this tea is really warming me up! I put some honey in it, and now it’s really comforting too. Surprised to find another good green tea with mint, and its ease of brewing makes it better for work. While the mint is actually just a flavor and not real mint, it tastes quite good and is perfectly blended.

There really should be official “storm fun” days in florida to be away from the office. I love walking in the rain.

Had to get a sample of this one because I loved the name and the ingredients sounded good. I’ve been waiting to try it and now seemed like a good time, having just returned from a forest. It was a very small forest, as it was in a park, but it was awesome and is the only one I can get to from where I live. I am just waiting for the day until I live near the real forests…

As for the tea, it tastes quite floral. It’s almost overpowering the mint but I do taste the mint. It’s actually one of the best green teas with mint that I’ve had lately, and it reminds me of my favorite iced green tea from Tazo. This would probably be good iced as well. Maybe even with a little honey. It was definitely a relaxing cup of tea.

A tropical storm is coming, and the skies are a beautiful grey. This is one of my favorite times for tea, plus its saturday. I’ve been wanting to try this tea for a long time and thanks to Amanda and Nicole, I finally have some DavidsTea!

This has to be the best smelling tea ever. It smells almost as yummy brewed.

So first, I’m trying this without any sugar or anything in it.
I get the minty taste first and a silky mouthfeel.  If I didn’t know there was chocolate in it, I honestly don’t know if I would have thought of it, but as it cools I think I taste it more.

It is a nice refreshing wake up tea. I imagine it would be really good with milk and sugar, so I will try that another time. The fact that I can drink the whole cup without any sweetener in it is saying something, and actually, that makes it a winner. My boyfriend said he tastes a hint of spice and I agree. Its starting to rain and now we will visit my favorite tree covered jungle-like park, since this weather makes it the best time to do so!

Have to say again that this tea is reeally good. Its so full of taste and yumminess that I actually want to eat it or at least gulp it down deliciously like water. But it’s too hot and I must take my time to sip and enjoy. Upping the rating from 80 because it’s rare to find such a satisfying tea. And a fruit tea at that! (Must add honey though)

Thank you so much Nicole for sharing this tea!

I decided to try a new tea today because I’m happy it’s Friday. This just happened to be what I picked up first out of my samples. I’m the only one in the office at the moment, making it the perfect tea time.

First of all, the dry leaf smells awesome. I think its because of the surprise ReadMyLips in the same package that scented this tea with yummy chocolate!
Brewed in my favorite big Seattle mug using a T-sac, and followed the 1 minute brewing instruction. Was pleasantly surprised to see the tea become the perfect color in that short amount of time. This made me happy after having lately tried some other really weak black teas I bought that brew disappointingly light after even 4 minutes.

Onto the taste, wow! I love it! Now I know that I like Assam tea, having never had pure Assam before that I know of. It’s so silky and satisfying and I can taste a hint of chocolate. I absolutely love that the chocolate infused this tea a little and I’m going to start storing some teas together in their own bags but in the same tin. Does anyone else do that?

I just brewed it again for 2 minutes now and it’s still good. Nice to have some real tea. Thank you again Nicole!

So this tea was a rather pleasant surprise. I was not expecting to enjoy it, seeing that it’s fruit tea which I’ve had my share of mixed experiences with. I was especially not expecting to like it hot, but I brewed it both hot and iced, and hot wins!

The tin of it simply smells awesome and it brews to a pretty pale red color. I added honey and would have to say I taste the apple more than anything. I love that there’s lemon grass in it, and the rest of the ingredients just go together smoothly, while not being tarty.

I could see myself enjoying this tea more in cold weather though, just because cold weather makes hot tea better. Theres also something about this tea that makes you think it should be drank in a wine glass for some reason… and sitting by a fire place. This tea is rather lively I must say.

Study break Tea Time! Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for this sample.
The leaf scent is very pleasant and earthy.
Taste wise, I’m finding it difficult to judge because I’m new to straight loose-leaf green teas and don’t have any others on hand.
With that said, I’m not sure how to rate this tea either. I don’t taste much but after reading the other reviews, I have to say I agree mostly with the smooth, mellow, lightly buttery, veggie taste.
Its not really my thing but perhaps I am just not ready for straight green teas and have yet to develop an appreciation for them. Glad to have tried it though.

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for this sample!
The packaging immediately caught my eye and I was wondering what in the world Zoombweebies was, so I looked it up to find that they also make 52teas who I keep seeing on steepster and have yet to try, so I’m happy to have a better idea now of their teas.

This tea smells pretty good and I can really smell the chocolate and strawberries.
Sweetened with german rock sugar. It’s really a step up from the usual black tea I drink. Interestingly I having a pleasant silky mouth feeling.. maybe that’s the chocolate oils?

I was actually wanting a chocolate tea and I’m quite satisfied now. I even brewed it twice and it was still nice. Enjoyed this tea during my forest studies. :)

I’ve become rather bored of Twinings English Breakfast every morning and decided to switch to this instead. Maybe I should start alternating my weekly morning black teas because I seem to get tired of the same taste quickly.

I like this tea. I was surprised to find it at my local supermarket and bought it because I hear it’s England’s “official tea” and since I love British things, I had to try it.

Although I rarely add cream to my black tea, this one is definitely best with cream. Just one mini moo will do. Add some honey and it’s pretty tasty. I’d say it’s a good, classic, solid tea. I also really needed the strength and boldness of it today as I am very tired from staying up most of the night with a poor feverish fellow of mine.

I find this one extremely bland, and have yet to find a good moroccan mint tea. However, I had a bad cold recently and drank a cup of this which I added a bunch of honey to and it was the best cup by far. I enjoyed its blandness while being sick and the honey really helped it along. I also like how you can’t over brew this tea, as it never turns bitter.

This was really disappointing. I absolutely love the tea bag version and bought the full-leaf tin, thinking it would be the same.
The full-leaf brews a different color than the bag and tastes totally different, I don’t like it at all! It actually tastes kind of gross, like something you shouldn’t be drinking.

I like this one. Tried it a few years ago at the bookstore and appreciated how unique it was. Recently acquired a pretty green tin of it which smells awesome after each opening.
I like the short tea bag string, the pyramid shaped bag, and looking at the little dry pieces in it.
The tea tastes like it smells, lovely, and with a quite prominent coconut taste. Its one of the few green teas I can enjoy. I imagine this tea will remind me of the south once I move from it.

I got a sample of this from the Republic of Tea mailing and while it was kind of them to send, I would have liked if the tea was actually good.

Its just so blegh! I did not understand what was going on inside my tea cup and I couldn’t finish it. The name is appealing but it just doesn’t work.

Ok I think I figured it out. 2 Sugar in the Raws! This always seems to work for me. It tastes good and I can even taste the tea now. Much better! I can definitely drink this every week day. Level up, 20 points.

So I’ve tried preparing this every way I know how to. In a big cup, a small cup… with cream and sugar, sugar-creamer, almond milk, honey, straight… and still have not had a real decent cup. I think the tea just isn’t strong enough. Straight it’s just blah. I don’t know what to do with it and have plenty of bags left. Would love a suggestion! 

Finally picked this up after wanting to try it since my odd crave for lemon tea which doesn’t make sense in the first place because I don’t like lemons in my water..

Anyway, here goes real-time tea tasting..

It definitely smells lemony. And it certainly tastes like one! woa. I am officially drinking a lemon. Surprisingly it doesn’t have a strong tanginess to it… it’s pretty much just hot lemon water.
Dare I add honey? Yes, lets. Ok… now it just tastes funky and tangy. ew. Sorry about that. I don’t know if I should apologize to the tea or the honey..

Later: Blended it iced with a black tea, its still weird but my boyfriend liked it.

End: Best enjoyed by itself brewed light and sipped after something really chocolatey.

Had a nice experience with this one at starbucks yesterday. Normally the only way I can drink this tea is iced and sweetened as its just too strong hot. Its pretty good as an iced black tea lemonade as well.
So today I tried something new and ordered it as a latte with soy milk and vanilla syrup. It was actually very pleasant and smooth, while not being too sweet either. I still took the tea bag out pretty quickly to not steep it strong and once I finished the cup, I re-brewed it again with just their hot water, raw sugar, and some cinnamon and it was pretty yummy and light. Best enjoyed in a mug.

I have found the tea to wake up for! Except I can’t drink it in the morning because I like it so much that I won’t bring it to work and have it associated with an office in any way so I have to wait until I get home to drink it. Hopefully I am not up all night tonight.

I first tried this tea at Spot Coffee, my favorite coffee shop which is 45 minutes away. They are one of the TWO places here in south florida to serve or sell loose leaf tea, since the third recently closed.

Anyway, I first tried this tea on a nice rainy day, my favorite kind of day, and it was in a very large mug. Ah, a nice mug of tea it was! With just a bit of raw sugar, I truly enjoyed the taste and boldness of it. I am still learning ways to describe tea taste so bear with me… that’s actually a good way to describe it, it tastes comforting like a big hug from a nice big bear.

After my first cup, I kept thinking about the tea and when I went back to the shop a week later, they said they sell it! So I bought some and had my second cup yesterday in my own big mug. Usually I use glass and infusers but I wanted to drink it the same way as in the shop so I filled an empty tea bag for my mug.

Each sip was better than the last and I felt nothing lacking in the tea. Its just pure awesome, and even though its very drying to the mouth, I see this as a good thing because it reminds me to drink a glass of water after, which is always a good thing.

Not only does it taste good, but its origin is very interesting to me. The tea comes from ancient tea trees! I study trees and am obsessed with both subjects so I am in love.

First of all, I’m grateful for green rooibos because I can’t stand the red bush stuff anymore after getting so tired of it.

I was really craving a lemon flavored tea one day when I remembered I had a sample of this to try. The lemony scent from opening it was perfect and just what I wanted.

Brewed its pretty nice but best enjoyed with a lemon cookie! I imagine it would be amazing with some lemon flavored sugar. One day I’ll make some and come back to this.

This is my first white tea. It is also my favorite tea so far and I have waited until finishing 2 oz of it before writing this.

I realize it’s a hated one among many but I seriously wonder if they are brewing it correctly as that’s what helps makes this tea great. But even when I didn’t have my temp control kettle and sometimes brew it bitter I still loved it. I had to add orange blossom honey which made it incredibly tasty but now that it’s brewed correctly, I drink it unsweetened and its the only tea I can drink this way.

First of all, the scent is amazing. I love the soft cherry aroma every time I open the tea canister and while brewing. The tea is very pretty and I enjoy watching how much the leaves expand.
Taste wise, its just a lovely combination of light (cherry?) flavors that is very smooth and relaxing. I don’t get a medicinal association at all that others complain of.

I’ve enjoyed every cup of it and my favorite time to drink it is late at night. Steeped twice as well.