DaisyChubb

Phew finally finished a marathon steeping with this tea!
(Okay that’s untrue. I slowly enjoyed it over 2 days and it was wonderful)

I found the 3rd steep to be my favourite – it was the sweetest and creamiest with no hint of bitterness.

And the price for this tea is phenomenal! Thank you Angel and team for the samples, I think you found a new customer in me (and I’ve only tried one sample!)

Full Review here: http://www.daisychubb.com/review-taiwan-jin-xuan-milk-oolong-tea/

LiberTeas sent this one my way so I could have a nice refreshing iced tea. mm and it is!
I definitely agree with her note:
The flavours in this tea are very muted when hot. I had a hard time picking any flavours out, except for the sensation that it was sweet.

Cold however, was a whole other experience! Sweet and tart from the pineapple (tastes fresh!) and juuuicy from the blueberry. I find the flavours are pretty much equal in taste, which is sometimes unique to a flavoured tea! The green base was nice and sweet, not too astringent, which added to the experience.

Ah yum, definitely destined to be an iced tea to remember

Has anyone said it yet? Okay I will

May the Fourth be with you.

I believe this is my first non flavoured milk oolong.
The flavour is definitely subtle, but very smooth and just the right amount of sweetness.
Vegetal and buttery, light but full bodied. All of this from the first one minute steep!

Thank to you Teavivre for the samples – this is a delicious and high quality tea that is on my list. :)

Full review later! I have many steeps to go :)

(Wooow what an amazing aftertaste. It lingers. I like that.)

I would love to take Captain Assam on a date. He’s bold, but oh so gentle.
Seriously though, this is the smoothest Assam I have ever tasted. I expected a kick in the butt this morning, and he delivered caffeine-wise, but taste-wise he was almost mellow. And sweet!

Thank you for the sample LiberTEAS – I have a few cups left and I’m looking forward to them greatly :)

Wow, this is one of the better coconut teas I have had in a while. It reminds me of the black tea in my coconut cream chai from Tealish, but I love this – straight up.

The coconut flavour is strong and made very creamy from the vanilla. I would drink this as a dessert tea, but as it is, I’m loving it as a morning tea too. But hey, I’ll take coconut all day every day.

Thank you LiberTEAS for the sample! You know what I like n_-

mmm! Thank you for the generous sample LiberTEAS!

She recommended this one to be as an awesome iced tea – and it really really is!
The berry flavours are so refreshing, I honestly wished I had a box of blueberries in my fridge that I could munch on while I drank.

Summery and delish – I loved the depth of the blackberry flavour as well. Blackberry and yogurt is one of my favorite snacks, so I might try this tea with some milk next time to see what happens :)

i cold brewed it, which gave me an almost smoky flavour from the tea base. I will definitely try brewing it hot over ice for my next go – I have a feeling it will be a lot more flavourful. I’ll let you know :D

Wow – a huge thanks to LiberTEAS for instigating a swap with me!
Not only did she send me an amazing package, she was awesome enough to send me a sample of the famous blend!!! Thank you !

The flavour is over the top. I only used 1.5 teaspoons and a pinch of seasoning salt, steeped for 3 minutes and I’m in love.

Some reviews have mentioned that you have to be in the right mood for a tea like this. I think I would agree – but luckily for me, I was in the perfect mood! I had a suuuper sweet lunch and breakfast and was craving something salty and savoury. This seriously did the trick.

The strongest flavour I’m getting is basil, with the sweetness of the sundried tomatoes and then finally the black pepper kick at the end. It’s subtle but definitely there.

My favorite part about this tea is that it tastes like tea~! It’s blended perfectly, the black base with the hint of smokiness from the lapsang souchong (it really is the perfect amount) is so satisfying.

Thank you LiberTEAs for letting me try this seriously one of a kind tea! I’m a fan. :)

(Also, this tea will be the very first review to christen my blog! ee!)

Had a wonderful gong fu session with this beauty.

The flavour is wonderfully light and smooth. Buttery corn in the air, sweet corn in the taste. Very refreshing.

The perfect compliment to soothe my tummy after a hearty and heavy meal – I took the time to enjoy the beauty of the sunny day and spend some time with this tea.

Details review coming next time I drink it. First – I enjoy. :)

Autumn Harvest:

mm oh I am in heaven.
There is a lot I want to say about this tea, the 2012 Spring Tieguanyin and Verdant tea as a whole, but I’m too overwhelmed to put it into words at the moment.

Suffice it to say, this is the second tea that has brought me to the emotional brink. It’s hard to “type” about – it has made me speechless, breathless.

More notes to come – but I just want to say, this one reminds me SO much of homemade roasted pumpkin seeds – which is one of my most favorite things in the world.

I’ll be back!

Thank you MadAlyce for the sample! I’m slowly but surely going through my sample drawer :D

With the ingredients in the tea, one would think it would be absolute heeeaaaven for me! It has everything I love – yet something smelled wrong. It reminded me of sickness. I think it was the quality of the mate to be honest. (but I’m not sure what it was)

I brewed up a cup and sadly, it tasted the same. I couldn’t taste any coconut, but I think some pineapple was there, and a little bit of lemongrass, but other than that – it was just very murky.

I appreciate being able to try this tea – but Teavana has been a 100% miss for me! Nothing I’ve bought or sampled has been good. Oh well! Thanks for the sample though – you never know until you try! :)

Alright I am finally sitting down and doing this review. It’s only been about a week since I received my Red Leaf Tea order, but I’ve had this tea three separate occasions since then. Every time I went to sit down and write a review – I was already finished my cup and I didn’t quite know what to say. I knew I wanted to thank aisling of tea for her amazing reviews of this company, and this matcha in particular. (thank you!)

I think I understand what took me so long. This is a seriously mysterious matcha. When I opened the package and took a whiff, I associated the sweet vanilla smell with something else, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I whisked up a cup between 175-185 degrees – the matcha itself was bright, vegetal, creeeamy and full of vanilla deliciousness. Definite vanilla bean or real vanilla extract – a flavour that isn’t sweet but is associated with baking. When I bake with my 3 tablespoons+ of real vanilla – it always smells sooo delicious and sweet, but if you were to taste it itself – it doesn’t taste how it smells. That’s the opposite of this matcha – it really does taste how it smells – I think that’s where the mystery came from.

Finally I associated the smell with the matcha whipped shortbread I made a while back. Of course! It smells and tastes like delicious flour, sugar, matcha and vanilla! Since I ate over a dozen of those cookies, it’s now obvious where that taste association comes from haha. Love it. (You can find this matcha here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/madagascar-vanilla-matcha.html ).
I really want to do a comparison of this vs the new French Vanilla matcha. Subtle but delicious differences I’m sure!

Oh man I just got an awesome idea. Mini matcha shortbreads for summer, using the different flavours of matcha! Ah! I can’t wait to see how the flavour translates into a simple flour, butter, sugar cookie. Paired with an iced matcha. On the front porch. Okay I don’t have a front porch : ( But I have the makings of the rest of it :D

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Today I mixed 1/2 tsp Madagascar Vanilla and ½ tsp Mango. Deeelish. Want to know a secret? It was so delicious and perfect that I drank the entire cup without realising I didn’t put any sugar in it. How sweet it is! It wasn’t bitter at all – because I accidentally let my water cool to 165 degrees. This is my new matcha sweet spot temp when I want to drink it straight up. I didn’t even want to make it into a latte – it was creamy and sweet – with the vanilla matcha it almost tasted like I already put milk in it. This isn’t my number one matcha choice, but it is PERFECT for blending!

I don’t know if I mentioned this in my other reviews – but this matcha (and the other varieties) has (have?) an amazing echo of taste. The aftertaste of the natural flavours lingers long after I’m finished the cup. To be honest, it kind of makes me crave more. If I wasn’t already bouncing off the walls with matcha energy, I might make more! No joke. This stuff packs a serious energy punch. I’ve been having it every morning! I feel lucky :)

Wow! I just checked everyone’s recent reviews and the amount of Red Leaf Tea is off the charts! Woo, we’re an international Matcha team :D Love it.

On to the review! :
Yummeh. Blueberries are not my favorite fruit, but when I opened my package I knew I was going to love this just as much as the mango. The scent was strong blueberry! It reminded me of fruit leather, deep purple, chewy, yummy homemade fruit leather by the hippie auntie I used to have. Ah sense memory, I love it so.
So I whisked up this delight with the plan to make a couple little lattes – one with soymilk, one with almond and one with regular. I don’t know, I just wanted to taste the nuances and find my favorite pairing I guess! Also to see which milk went best with fruit flavoured matcha.
Honestly though, I really enjoyed this one sans milk – just with some sugar. (I also experimented with sweetener, and found I prefer sugar over agave for my matcha).
The froth! I got a crazy amount of froth with no clumps in this batch. I definitely credit the quality of the matcha for that, because my whisk skills are shoddy at best. That’s when I knew I was in for a treat today. This blueberry matcha in particular was very smooth. The berry taste fluctuated from sip to sip – one sip it was a tart not quite ripe berry, the second it was an overly plump, huge juicy ripe berry. The aftertaste was definitely the latter. The flavouring felt more strong in this batch than I expected, but I loved that very much. What a deal :D Again, I love that this company uses natural flavouring – it really shows in the quality of this matcha that it tastes like the berries, not like a candy.
With almond milk, the matcha latte tastes almost like a baked good – a blueberry matcha scone or shortbread. The soymilk tasted, well, like soymilk (I think it was my least favorite of the 3). With hot frothed 2% milk it was very sweet. I find hot milk to be naturally sweet, so that probably accounts for it!
Last, but certainly not least, I had it as an iced latte. (If you’re wondering, with all this crazy matcha energy – I’m learning the ukulele!) I HIGHLY recommend enjoying these fruit flavour matchas from Red Leaf Tea as iced lattes. Oh my goodness! The fruit flavour just comes alive and honestly tasted like a blended real fruit smoothie. Of course, once I get a blended I will be making blended iced drinks 100% – but until then, the ice cubes will suffice.

You can find this deliciousness here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/blueberry-matcha.html
(Oops, I almost posted the link to “Bilberry” matcha, which is cool because I got to read about and learn what a Bilberry is! I can’t help but wonder what it tastes like…)

If you like 52teas Rainbow Sherbert, I think you would like this one! It reminds me of it in scent and flavour. I can’t quite pinpoint why, but I can’t wait to mix this with other flavours to see what happens!

Oh. My. Goodness.

I know this is common knowledge, but I am a mango enthusiast, just as much as a tea enthusiast. I have a very keen tongue when it comes to mango. Or something. Anyways! I love it! And I love this matcha! It totally delivers.

So I started with ½ tsp and 2 oz of water (175 degrees), whisked it up like crazy – Woah go back, let’s talk about the dry smell. When I first opened the package, I couldn’t stop sniffing. It was so rich, like a mango candy but not artificial. I found the package again and now I can’t stop sniffing it again. It smells like a mango so ripe that you know it’ll be dripping down your chin. Yes!
Okay on to the brew:
The colour is a deep, almost forest green. I took a sip and it was a bit strong for my tastes so I added another ounce-ish of water. As strong as the sweet smell of mango is, the matcha is not at all lost. In fact, it takes the forefront of the taste. I’m not a matcha connoisseur – but this is definitely the tastiest matcha I’ve had as of yet. It’s vegetal in that matcha way: full flavoured, lively and fresh. Fresh! This flavour combination is so well balanced. The mango is subdued (fyi: I stuck with the delicate flavour choice. You can really customize your order with Red Leaf Teas – the grade of matcha, flavour strength, etc), but definitely still there.

For my second cup, I added some sweetener, as mangos are quite sweet when ripe. Yep. This is perfection. The mango flavour tastes real, like a fresh mango popsicle as opposed to a mango lollipop. It’s so full bodied, I can almost feel the texture of the mango. That is cool. I added frothed milk to the last half of the cup. Mmm creamy matcha latte, my favorite way to have matcha. In the future, I would definitely use a full teaspoon and not add more water when adding milk to make a latte. I lost a bit of the flavour of both the matcha and the mango, but I know for next time to make it stronger! Either way this 30g will last me a while… until summer hits and I’m making smoothies 24/7.

I’ve already tried this matcha in 3 ways – on its own, sweetened and as a latte. I can’t wait to try it iced, as an iced latte and in smoothies!! It honestly holds its own though, and I can’t wait to try more!

If you love mangos and/or matcha as much as I do, I definitely recommend you pick this one up at: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/mango-matcha.html

Check out how much you can customize your order anyways, I found it really cool and very unique to a tea company.

Yum!

I’m working on a real review, but I have to just come and say:

mmmmm
ango!

So delicious!

I bought a tin of this tea. Holy man. It almost makes me want to give away my Pink Flamingo and trade it in for more Kanpe. I am freaking obsessed with this tisane – although I’ll say it again, I would never ever ever drink it hot. Bleh.

But iced! mmm, it’s fruity, tart at the end of the sip, like a sour candy (I’ve sweetened with agave to cut a bit of the sourness and add the candy-like flavour), perfectly (lightly) spiced with cinnamon.
I think I need several hundred grams of this tea, strawberries, raspberries and oranges, a couple big bottles of cheap red wine – and I will have delicious tea sangria all summer long. But it’s only spring!

Oh well, I’ve started early.

YUUUUUUUM

I just iced this and added a spoonful of sweetened condensed milk.
Honestly I was a little afraid the milk flavour would take over the pina colada and it was scary, but I went for it.

Oh. My . Gosh. Youguys.
It tastes like a Pina Colada Honeybush CHEESECAKE. I get the coconut and the pineapple and the rum and : mmm it’s so refreshing and so delicious. This was the iced tea I went for when there was no hibiscus to be found.

Next step would be to blend it into a Smoothie. Sadly I don’t have a blender, but it would be the perfect amount of sweetness and creamyness with the crushed ice. mm.

With all my hibiscus hate… I am actually CRAVING it.
What is up with that?!

My last 3 iced teas from DT had hibiscus, and they were so tart and flavourful and sweet and quenching. I made an iced tea of something hibscusless at home and it fell flat! I wanted some tart! I’m just craving it is all.

And guess what? I have ZERO teas with hibiscus in them. Zero. Sigh, so to go teas it is.

This isn’t my favorite iced tea, but it’s pretty tasty. I would never drink this hot, that’s for sure. I’m getting some mango and other fruity flavours, and a bit of flowery taste, but the hibiscus quickly takes over. Which is kind of what I want right now. Go figure!

A tea I didn’t care for – along with a story of a company I care for very much! Story first, because it happened before I drank the tea!

So I went into the Downtown Davids, which I will call the DTDT, for the first time! It was little and busy, but I really liked how there were little tables to sit at. So I picked up my big green teapot to buy, my little gong fu teapot, and some on-sale tea packets and got in line.
I got to the front of the line and asked for an iced cup of Jungle Ju Ju, as I had never tried it before O: . I also inquired as to if there were any matching green cups for my pot, as there were some display ones but none in boxes. There were none, but the awesome girl wrapped up 2 of the display cups for me to take home! Yay!
Secondly, as she was ringing through my stuff, she opened up the gong fu teapot box… it was empty. Man am I ever grateful for that!! She said it seemed light, it must have been the display model box, and it was, so she ran and got me a box with a pot in it. (I am so so so grateful for that – I thought it was light naturally because it’s a tiny teapot made of glass!).
So! I got my bag of goodies and we leave, I thank her for taking such good care of me (after inquiring about a job as well haha), and we walk about a block and a half away, when I go to take a sip of a tea I left there and totally forgot about. “My tea!” I exclaim, as I turn around. And there she is running towards me with my tea. I felt soo bad!! But I wished good karma on her that day, because she was honestly 100% awesome all the way!!!

Happiness!

Well, I didn’t really like the tea that much. haha!
I found it a bit bitter – which may have come from us forgetting about the tea, but I’m guessing it’s the guayusa base. It’s not bitter in the traditional sense, but it’s quite overpowering. Almost earthy… but not in a puerh way. hum.

I can taste the fruitiness, it’s almost equal but then is overpowered by a strange taste. So I’m not sure what’s going on there, but I will say that I feel very lucky to have such an awesome place that I can frequent, and maybe one day work at, we’ll see!

Thank you David’s Tea!

Dear friends,
I have just christened my brand new teapot and cups with this sweet nectar of a tea. Bags of it were on sale for 2 for 5 bucks at the downtown halifax Davids, so I picked some up along with this: http://www.davidstea.com/accessories/teapots-and-tea-sets/the-bubble-tea-set-45oz (Olive green coloured – my favorite colour!)

Alllllso – I bought a teeny tiny clear gongfu teapot! So. Freaking. Cute. It’s not on the DT website yet, but I am SO pumped to try it with the teas I ordered from Verdant! Double David action.

I digress! I am so happy to be able to try this deliciousness again. mm the sweetness of the almond/marzipan taste with a hint of spice. It’s one of the best rooibos blends I have ever tasted, and I’m happy to have it as the first tea in my pot.

Yum! Happiness!

1tsp Zocolatte Spice, 1 tsp Black Tea, 1/2 tsp 52teas caramel vanilla chai!

I needed a treat to reward myself, so I wanted to try to make a perfect chai! I failed, however, I made it into a latte and it’s much better! haha.

So the reward was for launching my flash game website, GameThousand! If you’re into that sort of thing, you should check it out – I’ll put the link in the comments section so I’m not a spammer haha !! I’m so excited – it took me a few months because I’m self-learning everything, and it’ll be a little source of income for me while being super fun!

mm, I just sipped the tea.

Okay, so I made it extra strong because I knew it would be a latte, but when I took a sip before adding the milk, something was so bitter it was almost sour, ah! After the milk and a huge amount of vanilla syrup, all is well in Chai Latte town :D

The green cardamom pods from the Zocolatte add a brightness to it, while the super-clove from 52teas keeps it nice and spicy. There’s a dark chocolate note from the carob which I’m liking, and although it’s not even close to my perfect chai – it’ll do for now!

:D!

Thanks to MadelineAlyce for this sample!

I read the reviews just now (after drinking it) and I can totally see how the ingredients remind me of Buttered Rum by DT. Sadly though, I did not enjoy this tea :(

Something about the smell, both dry and steeped, smelled off. It reminded me a bit or something I won’t mention, because I don’t want to turn other people off of this tea haha, but it was not a good sense memory! The taste had a rum flavour to it, that’s for sure, but I couldn’t shake the bad taste – almost sourness – so I gave the rest to the boyfriend. He enjoyed it!

Thanks for the sample though m going through my stage (finally) out of flavoured blacks being #1 and into the world of straight teas. Whoop! I have a lot to drink until then haha.

Maybe I did something wrong, but this really didn’t taste like anything to me.
I steeped for about 10 minutes, had close to 2 tsp of tea, and even had a jelly bean in there.

Well, I can taste a little bit of swamp water-ish taste, and I like that! But as the tea cools down, it tastes more and more like water. hum. Well, I got it just to get something, I didn’t really have anything in mind, so it’s not too much of a loss!

I might use up the rest or save some for a swap, we’ll see!

I’m pretty happy with this purchase. Although when I realized I went into DT and came out with 2 rooibos’ I kicked myself in the butt haha. (This one and Jolly Jellybean).

However, I was really not disappointed. On the contrary!

The dry smell is suuuper sweet, like funfetti cake mix YES! I frequent a recipe blog that uses funfetti all the time, so the smell of this tea makes me smile :)
It smells sweet, and looks even sweeter. More sweet.

Brewed! It’s still sweet! Man it’s delicious. Almost creamy from the ice cream bits and there is a strawberry flavour that is reminiscent of a pound cake with fresh cream and strawberries.

All in all, I hate those Safeway/Grocery Store bought cakes, but having a tea that tastes like them is 100% better!

Made myself a little latte out of this for comfort and joy. mmmm.
It made me think of fall, which isn’t too hard since nothing has really sprouted around here yet. No green .. except for the evergreens. :)

SO yes, I sweetened with a little honey, added steamed milk and a drizzle of vanilla syrup. Yum. Sadly I didn’t get a chance to resteep, but I know it would have been subpar compared to the first one anyways.

Here’s to Spring!