Meghann M

LauraR sent a sample of this my way to try along with some other samples. I’ve never had a roasted mate, just green mate in a highly flavored blend from Teavana. The tea smells of milky chocolate and something roasty and toasty.

I taste the milky chocolate, and a malt, not like an ice cream malt, but like the malty flavor of assam, a very bold assam. Whew…this is a roasty malted tea. I think I would like it more if the chocolate was more pronounced and the malt was less. Might have to play around with the brewing temp or adding a pinch of sugar to see if any more flavor can be brought out.

Wow, this tea smells of tart citrus, fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. Looking at the teas description, it is blood oranges and not grapefruit, even better! I haven’t had blood orange since Ciao Bella’s Blood Orange Sorbet a few years ago. The tisane brews up the color of a blood orange too. Such a rich deep crimson. Delicious. This tea makes me want to dance!

Thanks JacquelineM for letting me sample some of this tea! Must get more!

Another sample from LauraR. Pleasant black tea blended with mild cloves and cinnamon spices and a bitter sweet orange flavor. I like how smooth this blend is. The black tea doesn’t bitter after 4 minutes of steeping. Very nummy.

This was a great Milk Oolong to experience as my first milk oolong. The leaves are so dark and tightly rolled, the aroma is very sweet and creamy. The leaves brewed up a nice pale yellow with an exquisite taste. I love how creamy this is. I didn’t think I enjoyed it much at first, but then the sweet, almost peachy taste hits my tongue and I NEED more. This was a great way to start my day this morning.

I enjoyed the rich sweetness of the first steep more than the milky creamy second steep. Thank you LauraR for the opportunity to try this tea! I can see it becoming a favorite!

This has become my go to morning tea. I love the blueberry pastry notes, and have been finding whole dried blueberries the farther I get down in this pouch. I just really enjoy this tea. The package is slowly dwindling. I hope one of the other flavored blacks I have from 52 teas will take its place when this is gone. This is perfect for my mornings. No additives needed. I find it better flavored without the milk and sugar.

Mmmmm….smells like apricot gummy rings, the fruity, sweet orange and yellow O’s Trolli makes. Love how fragrant this tea is. Brewed up a small 5oz cup so I could enjoy multiple infusions. Love the light sweet apricot flavor in this blend. I have enjoyed six steepings of this tea (added 1tsp more of leaves after the first 3 infusions). I could see this being a regular tea. I could drink this all day and not sicken of it.

Ahhh….sigh. This tea will carry you away to a tropical island. The leaves are strongly scented of cherry, pineapple and coconut. Makes me think of higher calorie blended beverages that are oh so sweet and delicious. The leaves are a medium length green, maybe a sencha? I’m pretty new to green teas, so not sure, and they weren’t listed.

The aroma is similar to the scent of the dry leaf, sweet and fruity. The taste is sweet, fruity and comes through with a strong green base. I’d like more coconut flavor in the blend, but it is definitely part of the blend. Great pairing for a green tea. I found I liked it better hot than iced. The flavors came through stronger in the hot version than in the iced.

Thanks LauraR for including some of this in the tea swap package:)

Art of Tea Sample 12/24

Wow..the Earl is very strong in this one. This is a highly scented bergamot tea. I probably shouldn’t have had this right after the Jasmine, but it was to be steeped at the same temperature, so I brewed them up at the same time.

As it cools I can taste more of the sweet green tea base, and less of the hit you in the face bergamot. I’m excited to be moving on to the dessert blends this afternoon. If the chocolate in chocolate monkey is as strong as the bergamot in this Earl, I will be in heaven!

Art of Tea sample 11/24

I could sit here and sniff this tea all day, but that wouldn’t be a very good review. The blueberry pieces are huge in this blend, understanding why it smells so deliciously berry and jasmine. The taste is of sweet blueberry and jasmine, a very very strong jasmine. It leaves a taste on my mouth similar to getting sprayed in the face with perfume/hairspray/air freshner that just is not pleasant. I love the initial taste of the blueberries, but the jasmine really throws one for a loop.

I wonder if this could be tamed by blending with another tea? Or an herbal berry blend? I really really wanted to love this one!

It got a little better when it cooled off, the jasmine wasn’t so much a perfume…or maybe my mouth built up a tolerance to it?

Art of Tea sample 10/24

This tea has so much going on. The first sips are very tart with a bit of floral undertones. I definitely taste the rosehips in this one. Made the liquid a very dark orange. This tastes very herbal/medicinal. I think I would enjoy it more if it didn’t have the chamomile and mint in it. Too many mixes of flavor to be satisfying to my mouth today. Wow. Try this for an interesting experience.

Art of Tea sample 9/24

This is a very mellow citrus tea. The liquor is a pale crimson and full of tart citrus aroma. The taste is smooth and mild with more of an aftertaste of orange and lemongrass. For those of you that find hibiscus to strong and tart, this would be a good tea to try. I like my teas with a bit more zest.

Art of Tea sample 8/24

Ahhhh, this is refreshment in its purest form. A smooth mint concoction that hit the spot quite right this morning. The spearmint and peppermint are both coming through quite strong. Enjoyable cuppa

No notes yet.

Art of Tea sample 7/24

Not getting any chai spices after an 8 minute steep in boiling water. Wondering if this may have been mislabeled as it tastes like a plain rooibos. I may have to cut open the tea bag with the next bag to see what is inside. Holding off on the rating as I’m not sure if this is the right tea :(

Art of Tea sample 6/24

Wow is this tea perfect! The pumpkin is light in taste, but it smells very pumpkin. The brewed tea is pretty dark, I was surprised to find it was a honeybush and not the red rooibos in this tea. I love the spices, cloves add to the festive feeling of this tea. There is a natural sweetness to this tea. I didn’t need any additives, but I am saving the second cup for a tea latte type drink! This will definitely be a tea I purchase. Thanks Jaime for making these samples possilbe!

No notes yet.

I think I’ll have to play around with this one. Tried to make iced tea with 4 tsp in 16 oz plus 16oz ice. Steeped the tea for 3 minutes and got such a tannic taste in my mouth I had to dump the whole thing. I will have to try with less tea…or wait and try it hot. I don’t think these cherry teas are for me. Been an anti cherry day. Grabbing a coke zero for the road…giving up on tea for the afternoon :(

Ahhhh….now this is great tea! I’ve been really impressed with the teas I’ve sampled (thanks to *Jaime) from RoT’s Raw Green Bush line.

This tea smells heavenly, sweet coconut water with plantains. It is blended so harmoniously the taste is just like velvet, but lighter. This tastes like a flavored water version of a coconut banana smoothie. I will definitely be buying more of this tea. This is sooooo good!

I feel bad for adding this tea to the tea library and giving it a poor rating. Eww…the aftertaste just killed me in this tea, highly astringent taste with a hit of cherry just before the swallow. Would be fine if the flavor ended with that hint of cherry, but the strong appalling aftertaste hits right at the end of the sip.

New cup needed pronto!

What a great tea to relax with last night. Another sample Jaime passed my way. Very strong lemon flavor, like bitting right into a lemon wedge with a nice aroma of chamomile and a woodsy note to the honeybush. I will enjoy this while I can!

Such a fruity currant aroma, but got nilch flavor in the taste. It tasted like a sweet black tea with such a teasing scent of currants. I was really hoping for a great currant flavor in this too!

Whoa, the smell is perfect for the day all of the leaves seemed to change. Fall is really here, and this tea did the trick of reminding me of that. The smell was unlike anything I’ve ever drank. Lots of BBQ grilled in smokiness plus a sweet aroma I couldn’t place…part of the bbq? I didn’t get much tea taste, but there sure was a lot of flavor. Although I haven’t tried a pure lapsang to compare it to, is the smokiness the tea flavor?

I shared this cup with my husband and it went down smoothly. I don’t think it is something I would buy, but it definitely opened my eyes to the world of Lapsang teas. I’m excited and curious to try more of this kind of tea.

Thank you Jaime for letting me sample your personal blend.

Art of Tea sample 5/24

I’m loving this blend. I’m also loving that Art of Tea uses lemongrass in this blend with the raspberry rather than using hibiscus to liven up the fruit flavor. The lemongrass makes it more of a blend than a fruit drink. The honeybush is noticeable in this blend, but it adds a woodsy note to the lemon berry drink. Another great herbal blend from Art of Tea. Yum Yum yum!

Art of Tea Sample 4/24

Total user error/label reading FAIL on this tea. I thought it was a rooibos so I steeped for 7+ minutes as the timer went off and I didn’t go remove the tea promptly. It was probably steeping for over 10 minutes.

Wow did that make one cup of awakening tea. Glad to know that’s not how the tea should taste! It sure would have been a great wake me up cuppa. I will rate when I brew this correctly!