Lala

I received this tea as a free sample from Teavana with my last internet order. I was super disappointed to see it was pre-mixed with rock sugar. The instructions recommend steeping the entire 1oz sample for 16oz water. I thought this was way too much so I used 1.5tsp.

The dry tea smells like orange juice. There are large pieces of dried fruit, a very small amount of white tea and unfortunately, tonnes of rock sugar.

The brewed tea tastes like hot juice: apple, pineapple, orange, and I am tasting black current but the ingredients only list red current. It is much, much more sweet than I would have liked. There is a weird aftertaste which I associate with the sugar.

Overall, I think the blend would be good but without all of the rock sugar. I am going to try the rest of my sample as a cold brew.

I know I have had this before, not the tea, but the cake. This tea smells and tastes just like a raspberry sponge cake with custard. Mmmmmm. Not sure where or when I have had this, but it is bringing up memories of a small individual sized round sponge cake topped with thick custard and a raspberry sauce.

The dry tea is a beautiful mix of dried raspberries, black tea, and chopped raspberry leaves. It smells like sweet and tart raspberries. The brewed tea smells much the same. The brewed tea tastes just like a raspberry sponge cake. There is a creaminess to the tea, but not so much like cream, more like custard. There is also a light sponge cake or angel food cake taste in the background. Sweet enough on its own, but not overpoweringly sweet.

This is my first Bluebird Tea and I am SUPER impressed. Definitely going to try this as a cold brew as well.

Thanks so much Kittylovestea for sharing this with me!

Made this one as a cold brew. Brewed for approximately 12 hours. It turned out wonderful and I am glad that I tried it as a cold brew.

To me, it tastes like peach iced tea. The black tea base is very mellow with notes of peach. There are lighter notes of mango. There s also a very light note of vanilla. The tea has a slight fruity sweetness.

Very refreshing cold brewed tea.

Made this one as a cold brew. Brewed for about 12 hours. I was a bit disappointed because it was not as “juicy” as I expected. This one was much more juicy and thick/heavy when hot.

I am getting tastes of apple, lemon, pineapple, lemongrass, pomegranate and strong cardamom. It is still good. Seems to be quite complicated in taste when cold. Not something I think I would enjoy often, but I am glad I tried it so I could realize how complex this tea really was. While drinking this one, I spent most of my time trying to figure out what exactly I was tasting.

Got this in a swap with Kittylovestea.

This tea smells like luscious strawberry. Super sweet and fruity.

The packaging recommended a 4 min steep but I was a bit scared of the hibiscus so I kept it at a 2 min steep and think it turned out wonderful. The brewed tea smells very much like sweet strawberry. The tea tastes like sweet, juicy strawberry jam. There are notes of kiwi underneath the strong strawberry taste. There is a slight hibiscus taste which works well with the fruitiness of the tea. It doesn’t overpower the tea at all. This tea does remind me of strawberry kiwi drinks or candy.

Definitely going to try this one cold brewed.

Thanks so much Kittylovestea!

Cold brewed this one mixed with Teavana’s Apple Lemon Pomegranate. I did 1/3 opus rouge and 2/3 Apple/Lemon/Pom. Brewed for about 12 hours. It turned out super delish! Tastes like lemonade mixed with apple, orange, and grape juice. There are hints of vanilla and I almost feel like I get a bit of cookie at the end of the sip. This one is better cold than it is hot.

I’m dying.

This is my tea to drink on those days where you have no sleep. It tastes gross but usually gets me moving at least. Not sure how today’s going to go.

Well my day started at 12:30 am with my carbon monoxide detector going off. I thought for the first minute someone had broken into the house and it was the house alarm going, I lay frozen in bed. Once I figured it out, I got up to investigate. The darn alarm was malfunctioning and kept going off like there was a gas leak but it was reading well below normal levels of carbon monoxide. Resetting it only worked for about 2 minutes. I tried removing it from the power source but it didn’t like that and started screaming at me so I had to rip the back of the detector off and remove the battery. After thoroughly inspecting my house, I opened all the windows and went to bed. But then I couldn’t sleep, I was imagining I had nausea and headaches for the rest of the night/morning.

I even drank a red bull at 6am on my commute to work, but it isn’t working. I find this tea tastes gross. Very roasted mate. Super strong and bitter aftertaste. No fancy flavourings to cover up the taste. But I am hoping it does the trick because I have a long day ahead of me. I need some thunder today.

So I had this one hot brewed today, and I also stuck a cup in the fridge as a cold brew. The cold brew turned out super good. It is definitely thirst quenching, slightly sweet, there is a creamy texture to it. You can definitely taste the roastiness of the buckwheat but it is a bit more blunted than when compared to the hot brew. I would like to try blending this one with a fruity or sweeter blend. I think this cold brew is going to be a summer staple.

This tea is super roasty – and I love it. I love all grains. So this tea is right up my alley. I have tried other soba cha’s before, but this one is the most roasty I have tried. This tea reminds me of the half popped popcorn in the bottom of the bag, DELICIOUS!

I tried a bit of the dry buckwheat, and I also ate the steeped buckwheat. Just like cereal, Mmmmm.

The tea tasted like roasty buckwheat/super toasted but not burnt brown bread/half popped popcorn. This is turning into one of my favorites.

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.