Lala

Made the last of this tea as a cold brew. I found this tea to be a bit heavy on the hibiscus so I only brewed it for 3 hours. I find that I do not like cold brewed hibiscus. But it seems that 3 hours was still too long. The tea brewed up a beautiful dark ruby red colour. At the very beginning of the sip, I get an awesome blood orange taste, but then the bitter/sour hibiscus kicks in. I even added some white sugar as a sweetener, which did sweeten it up, but it is sweet and way too bitter at the same time. The blood orange taste kicks in again in the aftertaste. I think I will be able to choke this one down with a puckered mouth, but I will keep it as a hot tea if I ever purchase again.

So in full disclosure, I have never actually tasted real lychee fruit, mostly because I have do idea how you eat one. Do you peel it, are their seeds, do you eat the seeds – it stresses me out :) But I do like lychee flavoured things.
The dry tea smells of lychee flavour on top of a strong black tea base, but it is very perfumey.
The brewed tea smells of the same lychee perfume. The tea tastes like a medium boldness black tea base. There is a lychee fruit taste to it, slightly perfumey, but not bad. The perfume taste almost reminds me of rose petals. Overall a good tea, but I would have preferred a more fruity flavour. I may try to add some sweetener next time. It is slightly sweet on its own, but maybe some sugar would bring out more of the fruitiness.

The dry tea smells deliciously of green tea mixed with strawberry scent. The brewed tea smells of vegetal green tea with rose, strawberry and citrous scents. The tea tastes strongly of vegetal green tea, there is a slight buttery-ness to the flavour. There are light tastes of strawberry and citrous. The rose and sunflower are very light. There is a slight candy taste to the tea, most likely from the strawberry and fruit flavours. The fruity flavours become stronger and more dominate over the green tea as the tea cools. It becomes more citrous and lemon vs strawberry as it cools.

Made this one as a cold brew and it is delicious. I have discovered that I really like oolongs as a cold brew. This one turned out nice and roasty, slight hints of peach and citrous. This tea reminds me of how instant lipton iced tea mix tastes, but without all of the sugar. I did not need to add any sweetener at all because there was a slight sweetness to it on its own. It would have stood up sweetener though.

I am unsure what to think about this one. I made it hot, but I can imagine it is much better cold brewed. It is super citrousy, tastes like juice, it is sweet on its own but also quite tart/bitter. I taste grape, apple, lemon, pineapple. It tastes like someone dumped a bunch of juices together. Its not bad, but its like drinking hot juice. It is getting better as it cools, but still overly sweet even without adding sweetener.

Made this one as a cold brew. Brewed for about 12 hours. It turned out quite refreshing. The orange and bergamot are stronger in the cold brew than when hot. The black base is also distinctive but is not overpowering. I did not add any sweetener but I think it would have held up to some sugar being added. Even though it is a cold brew, it actually reminds me of an iced tea.

I blended this one equal parts with Teavana Apple Lemon Pomegranate. The Opus Rouge is the dominate flavour. There is a sour apple taste in the latter half of the sip. Overall it tastes like a melange of fruit, apples, lemons, grapes. There is a slight candy-like taste to the tea. I am not finding this one terribly great hot, but I am anticipating it would be a good cold blend. I think next time I would use more Apple Lemon Pomegranate in the blend.

The dry tea of this one smells like sour apple candy, like a jolly rancher.

After brewing, it smells more like super sweet apple juice. But not real apple juice, more like an imitation apple blend or apple drink.

The tea tastes like a watered down sour apple candy. I definitely get a strong taste of lemongrass and cardamom. Initially when I looked at the dry mix, I looked like it could be a fruity chai. This tea leaves a bit of a thick aftertaste.

I think this is decent for an apple tea.

This tea is not what I expected at all. First of all, there were raisins in the blend, I loathe raisins. But I looked past that and thought I should give it a try.

All I could smell was raisin in the dry blend. After brewing, the tea liquor is dark, dark red and smells like grape popsicle flavour. I read the description of the tea which says the blend was inspired by the best wines. I do not get wine from this blend at all, and I am addicted to wine almost as much as I am to tea. I am tasting what I would describe as unsweetened purple grape juice. There is a slight peppery taste, which I guess you could say would be similar to a peppery taste you can get from the tannins in red wine. There is a general fruity taste to the tea, orange, black current, blackberry. There may be a very slight hint of vanilla underneath all of the other fruity flavours.

I think this tea would taste more like juice if I had added any sweetener. I think it makes an ok herbal blend. I am looking forward to blending this with a few other teas to see what turns out. I would like to try it cold brewed and I guess I could use it as “pretend” wine.

I made this one as a cold brew. I find that I do not like hibiscus in cold brews so I only brewed this one for 4 hours, instead of my usual 12+. I found that even though I did less time, the hibiscus was just starting to get strong. There is a very light citrous, orange, grapefruit flavour. No peppery grapefruit taste. It would have been nice to brew for longer and have more grapefruit flavour but then the hibiscus would have been too strong. I like this one better brewed hot.

Last sample from a swap with Sil. I figured I should get through all of the stuff she sent me in our last swap before we do our next.

This milk oolong smells very pleasant. Like a creamy oolong, I wanted to say there was a jasmine smell to it, but that must be the orchid.

The tea tastes creamy, milky, lightly oxidized oolong. There is a flowery taste to the tea which I would assume to be the orchid, but it tastes similar to jasmine, in my opinion.

The tea nuggets unfurled nicely during the steep, but looks like there could dbe many more steeps out of it.

Another tea from a swap with Sil.

This is a bold breakfast blend. The assam is malty. I want to say its robust, but I would not normally have used that term to describe it until I read the description. There is a roasty taste to it and there is a very slight sweetness to the tea, but it does leave a bitter aftertaste.

This does make a good breakfast tea, gives a kick to start the day.

Thanks again Sil!

Thanks to Sil for this one.

The dry tea leaves are beautifully twisted in to small braids. There is a strong sweet floral jasmine fragrance.

The tea tastes like a slightly sweet jasmine tea on a base of mildly creamy green tea. Very delicious jasmine tea.

I steeped for one minute. The jasmine braids only slightly unfurled. Many more steeps to come of this one.

The product description on this tea says it is excellent iced. So I actually made a cold brew. Brewed for about 5 hours.

This tea is excellent as a cold brew! The jasmine notes are still present but very blunted. It is only very slightly sweet. There is not much orange blossom flavour, but I do get hints of flower petal type flavours. The oolong is smooth. It is very reminiscent of real unsweetened iced tea.

I might just have to replace my current iced tea recipe with this one.

I have been drinking this on as cold shaken in water bottle. But I thought I better try it hot, not sure why. Just so I could fully appreciate it I guess.

I brewed it traditional, in hot water, and as a latte. Hot, this matcha tastes much more nutty. There is a very light watermelon taste. It is still sweet without having to add any sweetener. There is much more of the green tea matcha taste when it is hot vs. cold. The latte and the traditional brew taste almost the same, with the latte obviously being more creamy.

I prefer this one in a cold shaken method. To me, it just doesn’t seem right to have watermelon hot.

The dry tea smells almost nutty, more like almond and vanilla, a bit of hazelnut.

The brewed tea tastes very nutty and creamy, a bit of vanilla. There is a taste of apricot underneath the nutty flavour. The black tea base tastes of medium boldness.

This is a good tea, but it is not what I could consider a true apricot tea as there are more flavours than just the apricot. Although it is not what I am looking for, it is still a good tasting tea.

I made this one as a cold brew. I only brewed it for about 4 hours. It turned out really good. Very light fruity, mango taste, also light notes of apple. Did not need any extra sweetener added. By brewing for a short period of time, the rooibos taste was really mild.

I thought I would try to make a tea mojito cocktail. I steeped this in rum overnight. I added sugar and club soda. It turned out ok. Not genuine mojito but a good enough tea version. It could have used a bit of fresh lime.

Got this is a swap with Courtney.

The dry and brewed tea smells exactly like pistachio ice cream. Pistachio nuts and creamy. Mmmmm. The brewed tea also has a buttery, vegetal smell from the green tea.

The tea tastes just like it smells. There is a smooth, buttery, creamy texture with the taste of pistachios on top. I can lightly taste the green tea base.

Super delicious tea. Tastes just like the name implies. Thanks Courtney!

Last time I made this one, I brewed it as a black tea, instead of a white. So this time I brewed it at the proper temperature. I also added a few peices of rock sugar.

The spiceyness of the tea is a lot stronger with the proper brewing temperature. A mix of licorice and cinnamon, with cinnamon being the predominate flavour. There is definitely a strong citrous flavor, its creamy and peppery. I would say it is more tangerine this time around.

This tea seems to be good at any temperature, forgiving to using too hot water to brew. But I think it is best when brewed at the proper temperature for white tea.

This is a mildly oxidized oolong. Tastes slightly vegetal, there is a bit of a roasty flavour noted in the aftertaste, but is not very strong. There is a strong jasmine taste, especially at the end of the sip. There is a very slight orange blossom flavour with a bit of sweetness, and a mildly citrous flavour. This is a really good tea, but I wish there was less jasmine and more orange blossom. I would describe this one more as a jasmine oolong vs. an orange blossom oolong.

Cold brewed this one for about 12 hours. Did not turn out terribly delicious. It is super minty. Bordering on toothpaste. I could see Crest coming out with a limited edition line of toothpaste flavours, including green tea with mint. I would totally buy this toothpaste, but I do not want to drink it. There is a slight lime flavour, giving it more of a citrous taste. I think I will stick to drinking this one hot.

I cold brewed this one for about 12 hours. It turned out decent. The lychee is quite a bit stronger cold brewed vs hot, but you can still taste the ginger. The ginger taste is spicey but also sweet. I think this one would make a refreshing drink for a hot day.

This came to me in a swap from Sil.
When I first smelled this brewed tea, it reminded me of apple crisp. There was a tart smell with cinnamon. It reminded me of apple, but it could have been rhubarb. The brewed tea tastes like strawberry and rhubarb. But again it could be strawberry and apple. You can also taste a pastry flavor, almost like pie crust. There is also a peppery taste that I would associate with rhubarb. Delicous. Thanks to Sil and Butiki for this wonderful blend.