Jillian

Well uping the steeping temperature/time made the sour cherry flavour a bit stronger, but this tea is still a long way from being black forest cake. It needs a sweeter, creamy element to it for it to work, I think. And chocolate – you can’t have black forest cake without the chocolate cake layers and chocolate shavings, yum!

I opened the little sample pouch of this tea I got as part of the Valentine’s Swee-tea exchange (thanks AmazonV!). At least I think this tea is what the ‘Neapalitain’ lable is refering to… ⌐_⌐

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love how Frank uses real flavouring that you can see right in the tea. I’m finding big cocoa nibs, pieces of vanilla bean, and bits of dried strawberry all mixed in with the honeybush – it’s great. The result does smell very much like Neapolitan ice cream which makes me a feel a bit nostalgic as I haven’t had that particular type of ice cream in years but it was a pretty common treat at my house when I was a kid.

The flavour doesn’t quite get there in terms of authenticity, although it certainly makes a game effort. The chocolate flavour seems to dominate everything else to some extent and I wish the strawberry in particular made up more of the flavour profile. Despite that, I’d still count this as another awesome blend from 52Teas. :)

The owner of the Granville Island Tea Co. told me that this is one of their most popular blends, though I do wonder if that has partially to do with the fact that Granville Island is a popular tourist destination and ice wine is becoming known as a rather Canadian sort of thing – like maple syrup.

I found the smell of this tea to be richly sweet and quite fruity\grapey. It doesn’t smell fermented or yeasty like actual wine might, which I’m thankful for as I think that would be rather off-putting. The flavour is quite strong and authentic as if I’d actually mixed ice wine with the black tea in my cup. The flavour is very wine-like but sweeter and with a hint of something a bit floral on the aftertaste.

I really enjoyed this blend; maybe next time I’m in Vancouver I’ll buy a full pouch rather than the little sample of it got on my last visit.

This is a pretty classic black tea blend and the Granville Island Tea Co does it quite well. The tea is a bit on the astringent side, which actually ends up working with the lemon and strawberry flavours by bringing out the fruitiness. Milk or any sort of dairy would be a big no-no for this tea I think, although a bit of honey might work fine. It’s a light, summer-y sort of tea that brings to mind fancy afternoon tea parties out in the garden on a nice day. It would probably make a good iced brew for this reason as well.

I wasn’t terribly thrilled with my last experience with Vykasa tea (see the Tropical Fruits tea) but I found this one on sale for $3 at my local Winners/HomeSense store, so I decided to give it a try.

It was…surprisingly nice. The ginger is present without being too hot and spicy and the melony flavour of the canteloupe isn’t overwhelmed by it. I’m not sure why it’s called a ‘chai’ unless that’s just to refer to the ginger because I can’t really pick up any other spices in the tea. None the less, I found it an interesting and enjoyable drink.

The first steep of this tea (at 3:30 mins) was strongly bakey with a distinct roasted-grains flavour more like what I’d expect from a dark Formosa oolong. This was noticably toned down in the second steeping (at 4:45 mins) though the flavour overall remained full and strong. I also picked up some vegetal notes now that the roasted flavour wasn’t as overwhelming and there’s a hint of sweet at the end of each sip, though it’s not what I’d consider to be ‘raisin sugar’. A pretty decent dark oolong over all.

I think I’m in love. This tea is the definition of chocolatey – I could smell it thoughout the house while it was steeping, making my mouth practically water with anticipation. The flavour is sheer chocoholic’s heaven, the rich taste of chcolate blending seemlessly with the sweetness of the honeybush base and enhanced by the malt notes. I can totally see how adding some milk and a touch of sweetener would make this taste like a chocolate shake. I think I might try that with my next cup of the tea. Yummy!

The tea smelled distinctly of sour cherries while it steeped but as it turns out this was sort of false advertising as this was quite muted in the flavour. The tea mainly tasted of yerba mate and light black tea with a hint of fruitiness. It was rather underwhelming and nothing like black forest cake in my opinion, though maybe I just need to steep the leaves for longer.

There’s something about the smell of this that makes me love it – it’s an interesting mix of fruity, spicy cinnamon, and the tangy scent of the juniper berries. Somehow they all manage to work together very well. I wish a little more of the fruity sweetness had gotten into the flavour. Overall the flavour seems to be tangy, a mixture of citrus and juniper berries which give the tea a clean flavour with notes of pine. The cinnamon is subtle, but it gives the tea a warm, soothing quality to it.

It’s a very interesting and unusual tea.

First of all, the art on the tin is awesome – I love dragons and the ‘get high on a pot’ bit made me laugh as well.

This is a really nice dragonwell, close to, if not as good as the one I get from my local tea shop. It’s a light, but full-bodied tea that tastes quite savory with the flavour of some sort of cooked green vegtable woven through it. It leave an interesting, almost salty aftertaste in my mouth that makes me think of miso soup.

This tea smell yummy enough though the flavour is a little bit on the weak side (possibly due to my short steeping time?). The black tea base is smooth and not to astringent and I can taste some strawberry flavour although the cake part is rather absent. Not a bad tea – I think I can work with this one. ;D

I bought this on my Boxing Week trip to Vancouver (I picked up a lot of tea during that time). I don’t normally drink many fruit tisanes but this one caught my interest being that it’s an apple-based tea instead of the usual berry-based ones. And even better – no hibiscus – whoot!

The apple flavour, predictably, is the strongest component of this tea and drinking it make me think of biting into a crisp, juicy Macintosh apple. It’s naturally sweet and there’s a faint hint of something spicy underneath as well. It’s a very ‘warm’ tea that, for me anyway, dredges up memories of Thanksgiving and Christmas time.

I tried this cup with a half-and-half mixture of hot water and hot skim milk, which gave the chai a thicker, creamier texture that I found more appealing than just using straight water. The rich, sweet vanilla flavour is quite easily apparent although it maybe makes the tea just a touch too sweet (again, it’s not as bad as other powdered chai mixes I’ve tried).

This does make a nice iced tea. It tastes quite fruity and refreshing although the hibiscus taste a bit stronger and more tart than it did when it was hot. Fortunately it doesn’t overwhelm the other flavours and the whole thing ends up being a nice mix of tangy and sweet.

I add a judicious amount of agave nectar to this cup and it brought out the sweet caramel flavour very nicely. :)

Yummy – adding a spoonful of honey really brings out the vanilla in this chai.

My steeping cuppa had a faint, delicate floral scent that reminded me of wild honeysuckle blossoms. There’s a bit of that in the flavour too, although it’s quite a fresh-tasting sort of floral with little hints of honey. It has a surprising amount of presence for a tea that looks so light and subtle – yet it manages to linger on my tongue, making it hard to dismiss.

I managed to get a canister of this tea on sale at my local organic foods store which was lucky because it’s usually quite expensive and I likely wouldn’t have tried it otherwise.

I followed the steeping directions on the container that recommended 3/4 cup steamed (well heated in the microwave in my case) milk with 1 tbsp of the matcha powder, and I then filled the mug up the rest of the way with hot water. I didn’t wisk the matcha, I just made sure to stir it thoroughly with a spoon which seems to have gotten more or less the same result. The latte doesn’t look very matcha-ish being sort of an off-white colour, though there’s lots of nice froth on top – I love frothy lattes.

It’s a little bit short in the flavour department as the most prominent thing I can taste is the milk. Still I can tell that the matcha and chocolate are there – they’re just hiding. ;) The chocolate is the sort of flavour you’d find in a basic Cadbury hot chocolate mix, going for that sweet, milk chocolate flavour rather than the richer, bitter-sweet cocoa flavour. The grassy matcha is an interesting counterpoint to the chocolate – almost a yin to its yang or something silly like that.

This wasn’t bad at all for an experimental first cup, though next time I’ll add more of the powder and see if I can’t get more flavour out of it.

Mmm, lots of love for this one, especially now that I’ve steeped it longer, so I’m uping the rating. The cherry flavour seems to get more pronounced the longer the steeping time I’ve noticed which might be a factor in my decision.

I was so happy when I managed to get a bag of this the first time Frank reblended it. Just the idea of this tea sounds delicious to me.

It smells very coconutty and I can see that there’s an abundance of coconut shavings mixed in with the honeybush. The first thing that I can taste is the coconut flavour wrapped in with the sweetness of the honeybush. At first I couldn’t tell where the cheesecake was, but it comes in later a sort of creamy, slightly sour taste that’s just barely there, teasing the tastebuds before it’s gone. A touch more cheesecake would be nice, but other than that I really like this one. It’s like eating dessert only without any of the unwanted calories – yay! :D

One look tells me that there’s hibiscus in this tea – nothing else would turn the water such a vivid red colour. The tisane seems to be a mix of hibiscus, rosehips, apple(?) bits and lavander with a few pieces of orange peel thrown in so I’m not sure how this is supposed to be a ‘Citrus’ anything!

And it basically tastes like hibiscus and lavander – I might drink this if I had a cold (and my tastebuds were dulled) but it’s not to my tastes at all, being very tart and pungent. Maybe I’ll give this another shot with a reduced steeping time, but so far I’m not impressed.

I’m trying out my new matcha chawan that I got in vancouver during Boxing Week. It was on sale for only $10 at a nice Japanese ceramics place in Kitsilano – I was pretty proud of that find. I noticed that it seems to keep the matcha warmer for longer than the old bowl I was using before did – I’m happy I don’t have to chug my tea so quickly any more. ;)

I went with 1 tsp in 3/4 cup (6 oz) of water this time and I noticed that the strawberry flavour was noticably stronger although it’s still sort of a slightly bitter/un-ripe strawberry flavour rather than the sweet, ripe flavour the smell suggests. I’ve also noticed that using this much matcha gives the tea a distinct powdery taste that I don’t particularly care for.

First of all, thank you to Dinosara for giving me this tea and others to sample.

The tea came in little ‘single-serving’pouches which I found to my annoyance aren’t really ‘single’ servings at all – there’e easily enough for two cups of tea in each little pouch and using the whole thing would have made the tea far too strong. It’s certainly not a whole leaf tea – most of it is in the form of ‘tea dust’ the type you’d find in a regular teabag. So far I’m not too impressed.

Taste-wise it’s a pretty generic English breakfast-type tea. It’s too bitter and astringent to take without milk, but with milk it’s decent enough. It’s nothing special to be honest, and there’s not really anything that would make me choose this tea over something cheaper like Red Rose.

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