Finn88

Hmmm even though this one also has bergamot in it, it tastes better to me than Tower of London. A nice strong black tea with a hint of fruitiness. Not something that I would go out of the way to purchase, but I don’t mind it.

Not a bad tea, but I have come to the conclusion that I do not like bergamot. I’m not really sure what it even is, but any tea that has it I tend to not like too much. Ah well…

Blech. What the hell did I do wrong with this tea? It smells absolutely delicious…cinnamon, spices, and almonds. Even the first taste is amazing. But…as soon as I swallow it leaves this weird bitter, astringent taste in my mouth. Could it be bcause I’m not a huge fan of green teas? I have no idea…but I would never buy this. :(

The first time I steeped this, it wasn’t so good. I don’t know what I did wrong, but it was very weak. This time though it was delicious! Creamy, velvety cake taste. I’m not a big fan of red velvet cake in person, but in a tea, I love it. Glad my momma got me this for christmas :)

Oh YUM! Thanks to Bonnie for the sample, this is delicious. The marshmellow and chocolate flavors really come through. The graham flavor is a little understated, but still it very clearly reminds me of s’mores. Given that I am a little on the chubbier side, I can’t exactly eat s’mores ever five seconds. But now, I can drink them :)

Drinking this sample from Bonnie makes me wish that I could move back to Colorado. I lived there was a kid and I would be excited to have a tea house around the corner from me, although I am sure there are some in NJ. (Any recs would be awesome) I seem to like a nice strong black tea when I wake up. To be honest, I am not the friendliest person in the morning. NOT a morning person.

I organized my tea stash last night and I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to go through all of my samples, I have way too many. This one called out to me because it comes packaged in the cutest little pearls of tea. Bonnie’s instructions were to use 4 or 5 of them for one 8 oz glass of tea. I dutifully followed her instructions…and boy am I glad that I did!

A beautiful dark brown liquor with a little sugar and milk. Delicious! Has a hint of cocoa but is nice and smooth. Easy to drink and probably get addicted to. I would definitely buy this :)

Yummmy. Thanks Stacy for the sample! I really like this. Another one that suprised me. For some reason I always expect peach to have hardly any flavor. It was very light and sweet. I easily drank the whole pot.

So apparently I had hated Oh Canada by David’s Tea because it smelled and tasted like cigars to me. I think its the rooibos that smells like cigars because this one has the scent of it also. Except, I don’t taste cigars when I drink this so it gets an A+. Malty taste with a hint of coconut. Very creamy. Delicious dessert tea. I’m falling in love with Butiki Teas.

Thanks Stacy for the sample! I never would have ordered this on my own. For some reason I was under the impression that I didn’t like oolongs too much. I liked this though! It was light and sweet, airy. I imagine that it would taste delicious iced. I feel like it took me away to a tropical island. I would definitely purchase this. :)

Decided to try this, hoping that I could find a bag tea that I kind of liked for work. Smells very strongly of chamomille. It wasn’t terrible for a bagged tea, but I really didn’t taste much of the underlying fruit notes. To me it tasted more like chamomille. Still searching…

No notes yet.

Ah, I am extremely cranky. There is nothing like nursing. They love to short staff so that all the nurses work 60+ hrs a week while sick and patient care goes down the toilet. Apparently they don’t care if people live or die…only if they make money off of it! I hate administrators. No heart.

Anyyway, I woke up cranky, knowing I’d be going into an overnight shift of this, so I brewed a cup of this hoping it would not only wake me up but cheer me up. I’ve never had an Irish Breakfast Tea before. Honestly I ordered it simply because it’s a black tea and has the word Irish in the title. I love everything Irish :). Smells beautiful…like raisins and earth. I already felt myself cheering up.

This was a suprisingly nice black tea, malty and raisiny black tea goodness. I drank the cup slowly letting the caffeine wake me up and put me in a slightly better mood. Now that I remember why the heck I go into work every day to begin with.

So far everything I’ve tried from my order from Butiki teas has been a hit…working its way into my favorites.

WHOA! hah! This came as a sample with my Butiki order, and I smelled this tea before I even opened the box. Holy citrus :)

I honestly had no idea what guayasa was so I did a little bit of research as I sipped this. Wow. This packs quite a punch. Citrusy and strong it really wakes you up. I probably would have never bought this before but now I think I have to place a second order and this is only my first sample :(

Finally got around to tasting one of the samples that Kallie sent me. I was unsure of trying this as it was a custom blend and I’ve never tried them before. But this was a black tea and had a nice fruity pleasant sent. On first sip I thought it was delicious, but couldn’t figure out what the heck it tasted like! It took me half a cup to realize it was vanilla and berry. Delicious!

sigh I’ve fallen in love…with a green tea. Who would have thought? Finished the last of my sample, which makes me sad even though my own order should be arriving tomorrow. Yumm.

Blech. I usually love David’s Tea and I also usually love fruity teas, but this one is NOT for me. It’s tolerable, but leaves some sort of weird aftertaste in my mouth that won’t seem to go away. Ugh…I feel like I need to brush my teeth about 10 times…

Oh…YUM! I’ve been dying to taste nsome of Butiki Teas, mostly because they seem to have great reviews and they are NJ based, which makes me happy. Thanks to Bonnie, I was able to sample Pistaschio Ice Cream. I love pistachios and ice cream, but wasn’t sure how I would like either of these transferred to a tea. I have fallen in love with black teas as of late, and I thought that I despised green teas. I was wrong! This is absolutely delicious, and there’s hardly any vegetal hint which is what I don’t enjoy too much in green teas.

I think Bonnie just swung me over to ordering from Butiki teas once I’m a little less poor.

The first time I tried this tea in a sample from Bonnie, I had no idea that this was a difficult tea for Verdant to obtain. So, my first cup was consumed without knowing how difficult it would be to get. What a shame! Beautifully flavored tea and as someone before me stated, has the oddly beautiful scent of mushrooms.

After Christmas, I finally had time to get back into my tea collection and enjoy a few cups with my new tea kettle. This one was the first one I decided to try again. There’s nothing like sipping a beautiful cup of tea while watching the snow fall. This tea is delicious and I’m tempted to buy out the remainder of Verdant’s supply, despite the fact that I am poor. Thanks Bonnie for parting with some of yours. Now that I know what I had, I definitely appreciate your sending me some. You’re the best!

Another sample from Bonnie! I have never tried a Vanilla tea so I was a little hesitant to try it. It was delicious though. Nice, sweet, and creamy. The only downside to me is that it’s decaf. I need caffeine! Otherwise, my second taste of Harney and sons is a hit…would def buy again!

Thanks to Bonnie for the sample! I’ve been away unfortunately for quite a few days now and haven’t had one cup of tea since. A nice package was waiting for me when I got home. I brewed this as per Bonnie’s preferences, at 194 degrees for 4 minutes. First sip, this was wayyy too strong for my liking. It sure woke me up :). I added a little bit of milk and sugar, and it was instantly something I could love. A nice strong black tea. Would definitely buy considering I’ve never tried Harney and Sons before.

Hmm brewed this for a quick tea so that I might possibly wake up a bit for work. At first taste, I thought…oh..this is oddly bland. But after a few sips I suprisingly sort of like it. Not overwhelmingly so, but it has a light pleasant vanilla taste. Not bad for bagged tea…

Another sample from AlphaKitty. Eh, this one didn’t do much for me. I think the blood orange has something to do with that, its very overwhelming. Not my cup of tea unfortunately.

Oooh!! Alphakitty sent me this without my even asking..how did she know I would fall in love? Before I even opened her package, I smelled this one. I was like a tea addict sniffing at the box. It smells amazing…all tangy grapefruit with subdued orange flavoring. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about such a tea, but I’m excited. I followed her directions to brew at boiling for 5 to 10 minutes. Chose the longer time limit of 10 minutes. The smell is amazing and rejuvenating. A nice citrus scent that reminds me of lemonade and summer days, which is odd since it did snow in Jersey last night.

The taste is lightly tangy with an underlying hint of orange and apple. I absolutely love it and the smell alone refreshed me before drinking it. I never would have bought this on my own, so I’m so happy that I had a sample!

I received this in a swap with AlphaKitty, thanks! The dry smell is amazing. It smells like a light hint of marshmellow with a doughy kind of scent, which I attribute to the brown rice. I’ve never tried a genmaicha before and I didn’t even know what it was. All I know was that is said Marshmellow so I was excited. Brewed, the scent of the rice and the green tea stands out more to me than the marshmellow, which made me nervous. I don’t know how I felt about having rice in my tea. On first sip, it really is quite good. It sort of has an earthy flavor mixed with the light sweetness of marshmellow. I was pleasantly suprised by the rice taste. It’s soft and earthy without making me think of rice floating around in my tea :). Quite delicious. A nice, gentle dessert tea.