Kayla Wheeler

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Mmm! Alright – I am sagacious in my favorite teas, I know, but this one is a definite keeper! A complexly-flavored black tea that has nothing in comparison with the Kroger/Scott’s brand of English Black Tea. Although not very interesting in terms of smell, the flavor is – whoa, intense and delicious!

Let me tell you – this is a tea to take with cream and sugar, but by all means, try it out plain first. Both ways are delicious.

A bold flavored black tea that really makes a lesser blend look gross by comparison.

It’s wonderfully rainy, and I’m celebrating my new bookcase being built (what? That’s a special occasion for me) so I decided to try a new tea out. Although a bit plain-Jane, I figured why the hell not?

The color is as you would expect of a black tea – a nice dark gold with a black hue. I was expecting the flavor to be a bit plainer, but I was surprised to find that the taste of the black tea is edged with a slightly… floral flavor?

I can’t smell the taste that is on my tongue whenever I sip the tea, but another taste reveals another nip of flower. I mean, I get that camilla sinesis IS a flower, but I didn’t expect this blend to taste floral. Although not completely unpleasant, and the taste does fade under the flavor of the black tea, it does leave its mark on the palate. The problem is that the floral taste seems to taste like old lady perfume smells, if that makes any sense.

The floral tinge and the weakness of the black tea itself does not leave too favorable of an impression on me, but I’m not about to throw the whole box of tea away. I’m not about to buy this tea again, however.

Came in a box with three other blends of Higher Living Teas, at the TJ Maxx next to where I work. It’s not infused with honey or vanilla or chocolate or even cinnamon – just a simple green tea. Even the box’s art reflects the simplicity that this tea was aiming for – very low-key.

I have to say that I was not given a wrong perspective of what this tea was gonna be like – it’s simple and does not have the “wow” factor that the chamomile with vanilla had. Well, its a perfectly good, albeit plain, green tea, and if that’s what you’re looking for, then Higher Living has a good plain one – one that will probably be grand as an iced tea, likely really good with a hearty meal. As I made it, hot, it’s nothing to write home about.

I got this in a sampler of other Higher Living teas and at the time, thought nothing of it. When the tea I had planned to drink was, um, ripped, I decided to make this my back up. Now, I have heard that people actually ENJOY drinking Chamomile, but the only chamomile I’ve ever drunk was the terrible blend that Celestial Seasonings makes. Seriously, that blend tastes like chewing on wildflowers and a pinch of dirt, and I worried that that is how chamomile generally tastes. Well, after trying this tea out, I want to say that I now get the liking for chamomile.

The over powering taste of flora is not so potent in this tea, and you can taste all kinds of desserty stuff in the tea. I really couldn’t decide whether it tastes better cold or hot, I decided that they both taste great.

Good luck with your mid terms, every one!

Was excited to try this tea out, so I saved it for a particularly tough day, when I would need something special to get me through every thing. As I waited for it to finish steeping, I realized that a multitude of tea dust was floating on the surface of the water and that the bag I had was ripped. Shit. The sip I did take of it was great, and it smelled wonderful, but I didn’t need to be eating leaves as I studied for my mid term. Maybe I’ll actually get a decent cup of this, one day.

Thought that this would be one bad idea of a tea, but I was surprised to find that the flavor actually added something unique to the concept of Earl Grey. The green tea adds a mellower canvas for the orange to come through.

Tried it hot; doesn’t taste all that great hot. I’ll recommend that everyone stick to iced tea with this blend.

I think I’ve been steeping it wrongly the past few times, and the flavor hasn’t quite held up to the place it once had in my heart. I’m going to try steeping it more carefully next time.

When I first opened the foil packet this tea came in, I was astounded by the fact that this tea smelled very much like Apple Cider, but with lemons instead of apples. After steeping the smell was even stronger!

This tea is a real delight to drink, and it does, indeed, remind me of fall weather. It makes me long for the return of the school year; I feel like I should be drinking this to support me as I study, wearing warmer clothing.

Again I love the addition of the black tea to this other Bigelow tea (the other one being the Plantation Mint) which gives me a good caffein boost and kicks the flavor of the lemon up quite a great deal. This tea tastes great hot, and the name doesn’t do this fact justice; I believe that Bigelow really should change this tea blend’s name to Lemon Cider, as that’s exactly what it tastes like.

The only reason I have a slightly lower score for this blend instead of Plantation Mint is because of the lack of actual lemon in this tea. Even though it certainly tastes like the real thing, I bet the flavor would have been very much improved if it contained some actual lemon peel instead of soy lecithin.

I tried this once before, as was far from blown away by this tea. I decided to try this tea one more time, I admit, because I was drawn back to the pretty purple box and the elegance of the name of this tea. Darjeeling. It just sounds like a word made up to be used in poetry.

Ah well. I was optimistic for the first sip, and I was initially surprised by my earlier memory of this tea. As I get near the middle of this cup, I start wanting to get this stale, papery aftertaste from off of my tongue. Quite a shame, as the initial taste of the tea and the smell coming off of the tea is very warm and inviting. I think I notice the aftertaste more with this tea because of the underwhelming strength of this tea. Unlike what I’ve read about this tea, I really do not notice any particular bitterness to the drink, even after steeping this cup for a little over four minutes.

Dull, slightly unpleasant, I have a suspicion that this tea would taste better iced. As a hot drink, this tea leaves me feeling disappointed.

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Tried it again, and I have to say the Blueberry is probably the most tasty of Boston’s fruit green teas, but that ain’t saying all that much. Tastes like fake blueberry, but thankfully the green tea itself isn’t too terrible and it saves me from wanting to dump the whole thing down the sink.

Now that I think about it, the blueberry reminds me of the “blueberry” flavor you get in breakfast cereals.

blend. I was a bit skeptical; I am not a big fan of Stash’s Peppermint, and thought that I would just not like mint teas period.

Well, apparently, I just don’t like pure mint teas. This tea actually is not pure Spearmint – which is, by the way, just delicious – but accented by yummy, subtle black tea to make a tea that even cold doesn’t fall into the category of toothpaste backwash. As others have stated, this tea tastes best cold, which differentiates it from Stash’s mint tea.

Spearmint + black tea = delicious dessert tea that pairs perfectly with cheesecake or chocolate anything.

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Bought this with a sampler set that I procured from the local Sam’s Club and have ignored this particular

Bought on sale, so I can’t complain too much.

Maybe I steeped it for just long enough to make it quite bitter, but I highly doubt that a few seconds made such a high difference. I’ve had it a few times before this, and I found the taste to be adequet. Pretty dull, but it does leave a pleasant aftertaste on the tongue. Not sure what ginseng tastes like, and am still not fully certain what it is supposed to taste like, after having drunk this tea.

The tea bags smell lovely, but it doesn’t equate a wonderful taste, at least iced. I think it tastes vastly better warm.

A small bag whose ingredients include green tea and mint “flavoring”. I really think that I want to give away/throw away a lot of the tea samplers I got in the large collection that I originally thought was a good deal – as I look at other brands of bagged tea and their genuine efforts at great tea with real ingredients, I can really tell the difference between this brands and every other one I have in my cabinet.

Weak flavor with a slight twingy after taste of mint that clings to your tongue for a minute after you sip this tea. I frankly cannot taste the green tea in this concoction, which was why I had bothered trying this tea int he first place. I already have some Stash pure peppermint tea, and this one simply tastes like a weaker version of that already pretty weak tea.

I’ll give this tea another chance some other time – I’ll try letting it steep for three minutes, against my better instincts – but I think the bag’s small size and artificial flavor and probably poor quality of tea has made this tea dead on arrival. Now I think I’ll finish this cup and try something with an actual flavor.

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Have had to wake up a little earlier than I’m used to lately – exhausted and not looking forward to hearing my clueless professor talking about her personal opinions and biases instead of how to write a paper correctly, I’ve found solace in taking this to class when I’m not feeling up to pretending to enjoy listening to her insane babbling.

After having gone through for more bags of this tea, I think that I can make a few inferences; one, the tea bag is absolutely fat and stuffed with tea, and two, this tea is wonderful, warm in taste, to me, comforting, and impossible to steep for too long. Even for the size of the tea bag, you can get a surprising amount of good steepings from one bag. When I’m tired, annoyed, or if it’s late and I need to stay awake, one cup of this is great incentive to keep going.

Steeped this bag once before to get acclimated to the taste.

And it seems that every tea from this brand that has a fruity flavor to it is, indeed, artificial. Sigh

I’m not really sure what to say on this one – on the first steeping, a lot more of the green tea came through, making the artificial taste a lot more forgiving on the tongue. The second steeping, however, betrays its artifice, as the green tea has really left the building. This is probably due to two facts – the anemic size of the tea bag itself, and the size of the “travel mug” that I’ve been steeping it in, which is a bit large and pretty filled with water. At any rate, this tea’s resonating flavor on the second steeping is this artificial blueberry taste that was light and forgiving on the first steep through. I’d say this one is good for a single steep – a light green tea with a tickle of false blueberry – but toss the bag out on the first steeping.

Jeez, Boston really needs to get its fruit-flavors in line – probably done best by incorporating actual fruit into the bags.

Got 8 small tea bags with this flavor in a large hexagon-shaped “sampler” with twelve different teas in it. I picked this one out from the pack first, because it looked the tastiest for the moment.

Didn’t exactly get to pour purely “boiling” water over it, but it infused just fine before I took the tea bag out. I drank it cool, a little pre-occupied with a game I just got, along with the sampler at the mall, and found it to be delicious, without any sugar needed.

I haven’t yet had a chance to drink it hot, but this sweet-smelling tea reminds me less of mango than a mango/pineapple blend, and somewhat tastes it, despite the “artificial” flavoring used in the bag itself. Again, I just wish that there had been no need for the “artificial” in this tea, but what can I say – at ten bucks for ninety six tea bags with twelve varieties, I’m not finding much at all to complain about. A sweet-smelling – and somewhat to a less degree, tasting – drink that I think a kid would especially enjoy.

Update – Made a few more cups of hot tea from the first tea bag. I found that I could steep one small bag and make around five flavorful small cups of tea. I tried it with sugar, and it actually seemed to make it taste slightly more unpleasant. Not sure I would buy this particular tea again; the artificial flavoring in the tea puts me off, and it’s not even all that great of a taste. It’s not all that “un-fruity”, but doesn’t quite seem right, as it does not have any actual real fruit in it and I believe that the taste reflects that.

Steeped it for a while, it turned a lovely dark brown. Smells a little strange; not lemony, per se, but – and this is gonna sound weird – a bit like that sickly sweet smell that you get when you leave some soda out for days. Yeah, not too pleasant.

Drinking it, it’s a bit of a shock, when you’re expecting lemons or even, say, raspberries. I don’t know what this flavor really is, other than it’s not, um, too pleasant. It’s drinkable, if you’re not focused on it, like you’re working on something else at the time, but if you’re trying to enjoy yourself and you are not a fan of heavy, tartish, spicy flavors in your tea, you might just want to try this one out in a sampler. I mean, at least CS tried to make a different kind of tea, but it isn’t pleasant tasting, at least, to me.