Lala

Made this one as a cold brew mixed with Teavana’s Peach Tranquility. Brewed for about 12 hours. I thought I would mix this one because I am not the hugest fan of it on its own, and the opus rouge seemed to mix well with others. It was not so great with the peach tranquility, it wasn’t terrible either. It is basically grape mixed with peach, which just isn’t working for me. It is very juice like, and on the verge of being bitter, like when you get an unripe, bitter, grape. I will finish this one, but most likely not do this blend again.

Ok so I had this one hot a few days ago and commented on how the black base tasted strange. Then I made it as a cold brew yesterday and I did not get that strange black base taste. So I thought my cup or infuser may have been contaminated, therefore changing the taste of the tea. But I made it again today and got the same strange black tea base taste. Not strange in a bad way. Just strange as in something I have never tasted before. It kind of reminds me of a darjeeling but not quite. The Pure Aroma website says the base is China black tea. I have emailed them to see if they can be more specific on exactly what kind of Chinese tea/blend it is. I will update with results as soon as they reply.

UPDATE: here is the reply from pure aroma. I guess I was half right on the Darjeeling – happy to know that my tastes buds do work.

“Our Earl Grey blue flowers tea is blended with black Keemun from China’s Anhui province and Darjeeling from India.”

Made this cold in a water bottle today at work. 1/2 tsp in 6oz water. Albeit it was room temperature water. I found it was much more flavourful this way. Very creamy, buttery and strongly vanilla. It could be French butter cookie but I think I would call it vanilla birthday cake. I also add a sprinkle of white sugar.

Got this is a swap from Sil.

The dry tea smells like creamy cherry. Not authentic cherry but candy cherry.

The brewed tea has a very strong metallic rooibos flavour. There is a creamy flavour and an artificial cherry taste. You can taste the rose underneath the cherry taste.

I find this to be an OK rooibos. It seems to be quite artificial tasting to me.

Made this as a 6 hour cold brew.

It is not as “warming” as a cold brew, which is good. It tastes of ginger and verbena, and a strong pepper taste. There is a very tiny bit of sweetness. There is definitely a wasabi taste but without the heat/spice.

Very refreshing cold, almost the opposite of when it is hot. Hot it is warming (like runny nose warming), and cold it is thirst quenching and refreshing.

Thanks Sil for this one!

I have been wanting to try Kusmi for a long time. Glad to have had the chance to try this one. Before I double checked the description of this tea, I smelled the dry tea. It smelled like vanilla and cherries. Then I smelled the brewed tea and it smelled like a generic Ceylon breakfast tea. So my first thought was that there was some scent contamination. Then I read the description and thought, well I was right on the first smell. As the tea cooled, the brewed tea began to smell more of caramel, vanilla and cherries. After seeing the suggested brew temp of 195F, I think I might have used just too hot water, and that is why initially there wasn’t much smell. Happy it ended up working out in the end though.

The brewed tea tastes of vanilla and cherries. As it cools more and more, it has a thick, creamy texture. There is a very faint, sweet, citrousy type flavour, like orange campino candies. But I am not getting too much bergamot. This would definitely make a great after meal tea. It keeps getting better and better as it cools.

Got this is a swap from Sil.

The dry and brewed tea smells like those sour cola gummy candies. It doesn’t make me think like, Coke, and rum.

The brewed tea tastes like watered down dark rum. There is a very slight cola flavour in the aftertaste. I added some white sugar and it made the cola aftertaste a bit stronger. I am not tasting lime at all.

I will most likely try the rest of my sample as a cold brew.

Edit: Definitely more flavourful after it cools. Tastes more like that sour cola gummy smell I got from the dry tea.

Made this one as a cold brew, brewed for about 26 hours. This is super strong bergamotty Earl Grey, so obviously, I like it. Black tea base is smooth. I am not getting the strange black tea flavour I got when I had this hot yesterday. I am wondering if maybe my infuser or cup was contaminated yesterday when I made it hot. Happy I tried this one cold. Much stronger bergamot flavour cold than when hot.

Made this as a cold brew. Brewed for about 26 hours. Tastes like flat Barq’s rootbeer. I prefer to drink pop when its flat, so this is delicious. I could have added a bit of sweetener to give it a more pop-like taste, but it was good without sweetener as well. I think this one might be good steeped in soda water.

Made this one as a cold brew. Brewed for about 26 hours. It is very strong bergamot. There is definitely a lemon taste (like lemon juice) and I get a peppery taste that you get with the rind of a grapefruit. I am super happy with this one hot or cold.

I bought this one as classic grade matcha and robust flavour.

On smelling the package before even opening it, it did smell like french butter cookie to me. When I opened the package, there was a very strong astringent almost chemical smell, on top of a buttery matcha smell. So I got a bit worried.

I brewed it up traditional style, with just hot water. The smell of the brewed matcha is a very strong green matcha smell. There is a light buttery, vanilla smell as well. None of the astringent, chemical smell that I smelled in the dry matcha. It tastes like green matcha with buttery and vanilla notes. There is a light pastry taste. Moderately creamy. After adding some white sugar, it tasted a bit a cookie. I would not say it tastes like a french butter cookie but more like a generic vanilla cookie or vanilla cake. If I think about it hard enough it could be french butter cookie.

The flavours start to become much stronger and much less green matcha taste as it cools.

Finishing off this swap from KittyLovesTea.

Made it as a cold brew. Brewed for about 6 hours. The tea smells so awesome, like strawberry juice.

I am happy I stopped brewing after 6 hours, because the hibiscus is just on the verge of getting too strong. I can taste the strawberry. I would say it tastes similar to other strawberry kiwi flavoured drinks I have had, but I do not distinctly taste any kiwi.

Definitely a good fruity, juicy cold brew!

Thanks KittyLovesTea for this in a swap!

This tea smells of beautiful bergamot. The bergamot is super strong, and I love it. The tea is also very pretty with whole black leaves, mixed with bright blue flower petals.

The brewed tea smells very strong of bergamot as well, but there is another smell I cannot place. It is the black tea but I can’t tell what kind of black tea it is.

The taste is good. Not as strong bergamot as it smells. The black tea base is throwing me off a bit, I wish I knew what kind of black tea it was. It is still good though, just not a familiar taste. Cornflowers always adds a flavour of pastry/crust/bread to me. So there is a faint taste of sweet bread underneath the earl grey taste.

Delicious Earl Grey, definitely something different to mix it up a bit!

I made this one as a cold brew. Brewed for about 12 hours. I used equal parts of each tea. Turned out really good. I think anyone that does not like either of these two blends straight, may like them together. There is much less of a champagne flavour. There is a strong peach flavour over top of the strawberry flavour. I do not taste the oolong at all. This is quite a nice thirst quenching, cold drink.

Made this one as a cold brew. Brewed for about 12 hours. It tastes very similar to the hot brewed tea. The green tea base is very light, slightly buttery and nutty. There is a stronger citrous and strawberry flavours. There are undertones of a light rose flavour.

Made this one as a cold brew. Brewed for about 12 hours. I have cold brewed a lychee blend before and I didn’t like it too much. But Harney and Sons recommended this one iced so I thought I should try it. It turned out delicious. There is a very light lychee flavour, not overpowering and not perfumey. There is a slight sweetness to the tea. Very good.

Please be advised – this note contains a rant, you can skip it if you like.

This is not a tea I would have normally bought for myself. It was given to me as a gift, which I am grateful for. Stepping out of the box!

Let rant begin: I hate it when a tea blend contains a sweetener, this one has stevia. If I wanted a sweetener in my tea, I would add it myself. Now I totally understand teas like pineapple upside down cake and pankcake breakfast, that contain a sweetener in the blend. But that is because they are mimicking a food. But there are teas that add sweetener, whether it be stevia or rock sugar or whatever, that don’t necessarily need it, like this tea. I will make my tea how I like it, please don’t force your sugar on me!

End rant.

On first smell, I wasn’t quite sure. To me it smelled like fermenting fruit/berries/grapes, like if you have ever smelled the mash that is used to make wine (and no, I am not a moonshiner).

On first smell, I got a sweet, tart smell, much like Sweet Tarts Candy. But underneath, there is that fermenting fruit smell. It almost has a carbonated drink smell to it, like pop/soda.

The tea tastes nothing like it smells. To me it tastes strongly of stevia (you will know what I mean if you have tasted the leaves of a stevia plant). I can taste the metallic notes of rooibos and the lemon verbena. A faint, slight generic fruity undertone, but I would not say it was raspberry. There is the aftertaste that I get with drinking carbonated drinks.

It does not taste anything like it smells, but I am still overall not a fan. I think I was jaded by reading the ingredient list, and thus, going on a rant. I think I will try is as a cold brew as I do with most of my herbals, and see what happens.

Made this one as a cold brew. Brewed for about 12 hours. Turned out pretty good. It tasted very similar as it does hot. Cold, there are strong notes of vanilla and cake. I feel like I am getting a lot of cherry flavour. Slightly creamy. Delicious.

Edit: I had a glass of this today while I was painting, my parents came down to help. I hate painting, and my mom loves painting, so that helped. Dad just lounged and “directed” us while painting. When I turned around, my glass was half empty. Dad tried denying it was him. Anyway, he was caught, and he said it tasted like jasmine tea. I explained to him what it was and what the tea tastes like and he responds “No, it tastes like jasmine”. I had another glass later in the day and for the life of me could not taste any jasmine. To each their own. From now on, I am guarding my drinks!

I have been making a lot of cold brews, and I decided that I really, really, like oolongs cold brewed. I had been using flavoured oolongs, so I thought I would try something straight.

But I failed to take into account that I had been using quite roasty, more oxidized oolongs. This one didn’t turn out so great. Don’t get me wrong, it tasted like a delicious greeny oolong, buttery, nutty, smooth. But something about it cold just didn’t work.

Would be happy to drink this one hot any time, not so much cold.

Thank you KittyLovesTea for this in a swap.

I have never much liked pu-erh, but I also don’t think I have ever had really good pu-erh.

Each mini brick is individually wrapped and looks to be in immaculate condition. They smell like dark chocolate, cocoa and burnt caramel.

I so much wanted to like this pu-erh, but sadly after it was brewed, I was getting the same tastes I didn’t like from the other ones I have tried. I decided to cold brew this one to see if it made a difference in the taste. Sometimes cold brewing can change the taste profile of the tea, so I thought it was wise to try. The one mistake I made, was I put the new brick into some water, when I should have made some hot tea, then re-steeped the leaves as the cold brew. After 41 hours, the brick has expanded, but has not broken apart. It took a long time for the brew to steep.

It was a medium brown colour, slightly red tinge. It has the cocoa, burnt caramel tastes but there is also that earty, dirt-like taste that I do not like.

I was able to drink most of this brew, but not something I would enjoy on a regular basis at all. I am most likely willing to try more of this tea. Will see what happens.

I cold brewed this one for about 7 hours. I could have brewed it for a bit longer but I wanted cold tea and didn’t want to wait. It is pretty good. Similar to the hot brew. I found the the opus rouge did take over the blend, even though I used 2/3 citus lavender sage and 1/3 opus rouge. There is a strong grape type taste, and then underneath that there is citrus and sage. The lavender is very light, which I don’t mind at all. It is very juice-like and refreshing.

Cold brewed this one for about 11 hours. This one is much more strawberry and guava vs. dragonfruit. It smells more dragonfruit than it tastes. There is a light dragonfruit flavour and possibly an extremely faint rose scent in the background of the tea. This tea is fairly sweet on its own, there is a slight tartness at the beginning of the sip. I am happy I stopped brewing this one when I did, as I think it could have become bitter with too long of a steep.

Made the last of my sample as a cold brew. As a reminder, this blend came to me pre-mixed with a tonne of rock sugar. I brewed for about 12 hours. It is much better as a cold brew. More juice like, orange, pineapple, apple juice. It is super, super sweet from all the sugar. I personally would not add as much or maybe not add any sugar at all if I made this one my own.

Made this as a cold brew. Brewed for about 12 hours. I found this one is much more nutty, and not so much fruity as a cold brew. It smells like strong almond butter, with faint notes of fruity flavour. The taste is very nutty. Very creamy, almond, hazelnut flavour. Almost slight hints of vanilla. There is a very light taste of apricot underneath the nutty flavour but I have to think hard to pick it out. The fruity flavour is moreso in the aftertaste. It makes a decent cold brew, but because it is tasting creamy, I would prefer it as a hot brew.