LefTea

Picked this up early on in my pregnancy when my usual black teas weren’t appealing to me and finally got around to trying it.

This tea is pretty yummy. Nice, watermelon flavor to it, handled a second brew well. Not too sweet but just right with some brown sugar splenda. Overall, a nice tea. Used the whole packet for one 16 oz mug and then rebrewed the next day. Would probably be great iced!

Bought this during the heavenly sale and it’s another one that I’m now wishing I would have bought more of. I had smelled it before and always been intrigued but never pulled the trigger for some reason. When I saw it was so cheap I couldn’t resist.

I don’t know how to describe the taste really. It’s sweet and tart all at the same time. I get no rooibos or honeybush flavor to speak of nor do I really get the hints of nuts or chocolate. While I think the tea would be better with these accents brought out a bit more it’s still a pretty darn yummy compilation of flavors. It is sweet though, so be forewarned if you’re like me and just automatically sweeten your tea (when I make it in the morning for work it goes directly into the mug that keeps it super hot for a very, very long time so taking a sip before leaving isn’t exactly practical unless I want to burn off all my taste buds).

Figures it’s discontinued. I’d buy more.

I bought this during the heavenly sale as I’m always looking for new mate teas since I find them so helpful with my migraines and I tend to always only find chocolate-based mates (not that I’m complaining but sometimes you want to mix it up).

Opening the package for a smell…hmmm…not too sure about this one. But something intrigued me enough to try it this morning. It didn’t smell too offensive (it seriously doesn’t really smell good) so I figured why not.

I like my tea strong and I find that I generally need to add more than Teavana suggest. With this tea I felt like I was getting all fruit so I kept adding to increase the portion of actual tea. Before I knew it I had 5ish scoops in my 16 oz teamaker.

It’s possible I made it too strong (I don’t think I’ve ever said that before). I just can’t decide how I feel about it. Part of me goes ‘mmmm’ with each sip and part of me goes ‘ick.’ I’ll rebrew it tomorrow and hope that it’s mellowed a bit. I may even end up drinking the whole 2 oz bag. But the second bag will probably be put up for swap and I wouldn’t be heart broken if someone wanted all of it in exchange for something less ambiguously yummy.

Got some of this during the heavenly sale for under $2/2oz. Wishing I had added more than my sad 2 little 2 oz pouches.

My husband and I have very different tastes in tea (he likes unsweetened greens, I like flavored, sweetened blacks) but he asked to share a pot of this with me tonight and we both love it. About halfway through his cup he looked over and asked how much of this I had ordered.

I get quite a bit of caramel and chocolate, but like others said, the sea salt is a bit lacking. I may add some myself and see what happens. The liquid is a bit scary due to its murky quality but hot damn, this is a yummy tea. I’m currently 5 months pregnant and the baby seems to like it too. I get a little rumba in my belly after each sip.

My husband got me two pouches of this for my Christmas stocking and said he hoped I liked it since I had a lot of it. No worries there! I took one sip of this at work today and imed him with, ‘holy hell, chocolate bacon tea might be the best thing evah!" So yea, I think it’s fair to say I’m a fan.

I sweeten all my teas with brown sugar splenda so I think I’m missing out a bit on the bacon taste which I’ll try to remedy with the pinch of salt suggestion from another reviewer and a bit less sugar. I’m not sure I’m brave enough to go sugarless although my waistline would probably thank me.

Thanks Frank! And I second the request for the chocolate covered potato chip tea!

Got this as a surprise Christmas gift from an Aunt who picked it out on a whim. I’m very happy for that whim! This is fantastic! Sweet but not too sweet and smoooooooooooooth. I’ll have to try it with a dash of milk as the other reviewers suggest.

I would note that it does not rebrew well so adjust the cost accordingly if you bank on that when calculating the cost of the tea.

This tea is perfect on a fall day. Again, perfectly balanced between all the flavors and not overbearing in any way. Absolutely adore and very sad that I used the last of it up.

When I travel I have a trifecta of things I must acquire; tea, cupcakes, and jewelry. This last trip, I only got the tea but, then again, I was a wee bit preoccupied with meeting and cooing over my new niece.

After being somewhat disappointed in the tea options in the Minneapolis area I stumbled upon Mrs. Kelly’s tea at the farmer’s market and decided to branch out a bit from my normal dessert tea and try this, a white tea, and a green (which you can see from my tasting logs are rare for me). I’m glad I did. I haven’t found a ton of fruity black teas that I like but this renews my faith in fruity black teas. It’s got a really nice balance between the fruit, the tea, and the vanilla and cinnamon, and, most importantly, the fruit flavors aren’t artificial and gross.

Happy I have family in Minneapolis who can bring me more of this.

I always scope out tea places when I vacation in order to complete my vacation trifecta of things I must acquire from new places (tea, cupcakes, and jewelry). I found Tea’s Me Cafe through yelp and knew I had to go there when I saw this tea. I’ve reviewed the cafe on steepster as well so I’ll just focus on the tea here.

I liked it when they brewed it there, enough to take 4 oz home with me. I like it even better when I brewed it as I tend to use a little more leaf than suggested. This tea is creamy and heavenly and now I’m wishing I had gotten more than 4 oz. Thankfully I have relatives in Indy who may be able to procure some before family gatherings.

Resteep isn’t quite as flavorful but still good and I may be able to squeeze a third brew out of it too.

I recently vacationed in Indy and happened upon this place. You can see my review of it under places. This was what I choose to buy with just a tiny, trying not to be rude and sniff all the bags that will eventually be sold to other people, smell.

I love mates. I love their taste and I love how they seem to calm my migraines. We’ve got a heat wave moving through that’s hell bent on destroying my head so I grabbed this one this morning hoping it would help.

It’s possible my taste buds are messed up from the migraine, sometimes that happens, but there’s just something off here for me. Some flavor that doesn’t sit well with the blend and ruins it for me.

I’ll likely be posting this up for swap shortly and just stick to the tiramisu mate I got at another Indy tea joint. Ick.

Thanks Emilie for swapping with me and sending this to me!

If you follow me you know I am by no means a tea purist. If it’s got a dessert-like name it’s probably going to make its way into my mug and belly.

Storms knocked out our power for nearly 24 hours and took work’s power with it for nearly 48 hours. Unfortunately work got power back early enough this morning to make us all come in but not early enough for the AC to work until at least halfway through the day. Did I mention there’s also an excessive heat warning today? So yea. Ice cream tea? Sounds fantastic and would have sounded better had I thought to brew it and ice it.

I did make the critical mistake of sweetening this tea because I sweeten all my teas. With this one though, I don’t believe it necessary. Never one to let a little extra sugar dissuade me I will persevere even though it’s currently a little too sweet, even for me.

I can see where people are coming from with the neopolitan ice cream comparisons as I do get a hint of strawberry somehow. Very smooth and creamy taste. I’m not getting the cake notes but I may have squelched them with the extra sugar.

I’m guessing this will rebrew well too.

I get migraines around a pretty predictable schedule and have found mate tea to be helpful in reducing the severity so I’m always looking for mate teas so I get a bit of variety. What I’ve found is that there isn’t a ton of variety when it comes to mate. Most have some sort of chocolate base, which, if you know my tea preferences at all, you know I’m ok with.

This tea is a little bit more mellow than other chocolate mates and the vanilla gives it a different note than most. It’s less roasty-toasty and more cookies and creme. Very pleasant and I’m glad I got 2 bags with my groupon.

I’ll be doing a cost analysis on this vs a few of my other go-to mates to see which is the most cost-effective and hopefully adding this to my regular rotation.

Like Dinosara I also got this through a groupon purchase (great minds groupon alike?). I love everything about this tea! Unlike Dinosara I use the full recommended amount and probably a scootch more than that because I like it STRONG! I was a little leery of the 5 min recommendation since it had black tea in it and went for 4 mins the first brew, 5 the second, and 6 the third. No difference in taste for me between brew 1 and 2 with a slight decrease in flavor in brew 3. I may be able to get another brew out of it.

I have noticed that the more I brew it the more of the coconut I taste to the point where at the third brew it’s really more of a coconut tea with hints of chocolate. Since I like both this metamorphosis is welcomed.

Overall? YUM!

The description is right: you won’t miss the chocolate in this one!

I made a mug of this this morning to bring to work and on the drive in my husband asked what kind of tea I had because it smelled really good. He could really smell the chocolate.

I hoped that the flavor would pack as much of a punch and it does not disappoint. There is a strong chocolate flavor followed by a subtle cherry. The cherry is very very subtle and could be easy to miss so I do wish they’d bump that up a bit. On the whole though, this is a very enjoyable tea for those who want a little twist on the classic chocolate tea.

Yea, this one is not for me. When I smelled the dry leaves I was concerned that it would be too cinnamony and make my tongue do that weird thing where it feels like my taste buds swell. Brewed, however, there’s hardly any cinnamon flavor at all and there’s some other flavor there that I don’t care for, something vaguely savoryish? I don’t even know how to describe it but I don’t care for it at all. It’s almost as if the 4-5 minute steep time that scared me with the other two black teas I’ve ordered from them finally impacted the tea and made it an odd bitter. It’s going up on the swap wall if anyone wants to try it.

This was another tea from my recent amazon deal. The smell of the tea smells like what it says, an orange cookie. I made it over the weekend and, while it was good, it lacked the punch of flavor that I got from the bon bon tea from ESP. It was pleasant and good and I could taste the orange but I was missing the cookie. Overall a good tea but I don’t think I’d order it again.

I got this in a swap from Nina (a swap in which I was a terrible swap partner and kept forgetting to bring money to mail her tea – Sorry Nina! It’s on it’s way!). I’m a big fan of Teavana’s Cha Yen Thai Tea and I love chai so I thought this might be a good combo.

In the bag it smells like most chais do. I didn’t get a ton of coconut aroma.

First brew was just ok. Something seemed too strong and it came off a bit bitter. I was gonna toss it before rebrewing the following day but decided, based on its smell, to give it another try. I’m glad I did give it another try. The second day the flavors meshed much better than the first and I did get chai with a twist. Not sure it was still terribly coconutty, but it was certainly good.

Unfortunately I made the mistake of going for a day three brew and the flavor was all off again. Too much of the spice came through and was, again, bitter. This tea seems to shine on its second steep so much that I may brew it once, toss that, and go for it again.

I cannot resist a tea deal so when ESP Emporium popped up on my Kindle, I had to go for it. Before ordering the deal I scoped out the tea and made sure there was stuff I’d want and this tea immediately caught my eye. If you follow me you know I’m a bit of a chocolate teaaholic. AND I love coconut so this was a no-brainer.

I opened the bag this morning and the tea smelled so fantastic I was expecting it not to taste as good. Holy heck though does this tea deliver! It’s fantastic! It’s almost like a combo of chocolate tea with Teavana’s Cha Yen Thai (another one of my favorites).

Like the other reviewers mention, the black tea base is very mild. I was a bit concerned about the long steep recommended on the bag because I often find black tea gets bitter if you do a first steep longer than 3 minutes but not this one.

It’s smooth and delish and wonderful. I even ended up putting in a bit too much brown sugar splenda, which can often ruin tea, but this weathered it well. Looking forward to a second steep tomorrow.

Teavana, you’re not fooling anyone. Amandine Rose is just Almond Biscotti with a less appetizing name and a slight hint of something different (probably the rose).

That said, I preferred the almond biscotti, but this is close enough that I’ll mix the two just to save storage space.

Final verdict: yummy, but not as cookieliscous as it used to be.

I can’t decide about this tea.

I drink mates primarily during what’s known in my house as ‘migraine week’ because they help keep the migraines at bay. I’ve been sticking with Matevana and Mocha Nut Mate but have always wanted a little more variety for those times as mates seem to be variations of the same flavor. Granted, I didn’t expect this one to be terribly different, except that it has coconut and cinnamon.

I just can’t decide. The roasty, toasty mate flavor is there, much like the Mocha nut mate but there’s a sweetness there too and I can’t decide if it’s cloying, wrong in combination with the mate, or totally right. It at times wants to taste vaguely pina colada-y, sometimes rooibosy, and sometimes matey. It’s quite confusing.

I do know I don’t dislike it, but I probably wouldn’t order it again, at least at this time.

I’m trying to clean out my tea cupboard as it’s the only remaining cupboard that didn’t get an obsessive ’I’m trying to sell my condo and maybe this will help’ cleaning frenzy because there’s not much in there I want to get rid of so my strategy now is to drink the stuff that’s in bags instead of my cute little tins so it looks neater (yes SpecialTeaz Chocolate chai, this means you’ll be mingling with Adagio’s Chocolate chai to save room, I think it’ll do you both some good). This little guy is in a bag so I went for him this morning.

I used more leaf than I normally would and that appears to have helped bring out the marzipan flavor. I have to say, it’s pretty darn yummy at the moment. I wish TG’s stuff resteeped better, but I guess it’ll help me clear out my cabinet a little sooner.

Got this in a swap, I think from Daisy, perhaps? It’s been sitting in my cabinet waiting for a day when I just wanted a cup instead of a full pot. I caught the cold from hell and spent the last two days at home, sleeping until 1ish. Upon waking, I figured a full pot of black wouldn’t be the best idea if I wanted to sleep more so I made a cup of this each day.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love 52 teas and all, but I sometimes find they use a spice in their chai-type teas that I don’t like. I have their pumpkin cheesecake but it had that same spice that bugged me. I like this much better. It really hits the spot that I was looking for in terms of the tea equivalent of the pumpkin spice latte. I’ll have to order this sometime!

For some reason I had a hankering for a fruity tea this morning. It’s freaking freezing out which normally makes me crave desserty things to start my morning. In order to keep myself from going to crazy with this sudden taste change I decided on a compromise and got to mixing.

3 generous tsps of Adagio’s raspberry, 2 tentative tsps of Tea Guys’ chocolate parfait. I was tentative with the chocolate because it tends to be quite strong and dominate when I add it to Teavana’s cocoa mint, but I suppose that’s probably because there’s already a chocolate element at work there. I could have, and will next time, increase the chocolate presence.

This is a little bit of heaven on this cold morning and making my morning navel-gazing meeting slightly more bearable (some of that may be attributed to the fact that I have my laptop and am writing this but look like I’m totally taking notes on all of the “important” things being said). There is a smidge of an aftertaste that I get every so often that I’m not digging but otherwise, this is an amazing combination that I’m sure I’ll drink more often.

I wonder how the chocolate parfait would mix with adagio’s mango…

Got this in a swap, can’t remember from whom though. Thank you, whoever you are!

I want to like coffee tea, I really do but I cannot seem to find one that I fancy. I’ve tried JavaVana and Serene Teaz’s Cafe Latte and they’re just not for me. This one is no exception.

Granted, this probably would have been better had I not ruined the first steep with some creamer of questionable freshness (I don’t think there are supposed to be chunks in there!) but it was just meh to me. I think the first steep would have been better but I’m pretty sure I still wouldn’t have been a huge fan. Perhaps that’s because I only like “coffee” beverages loaded with sugar and other flavors.

The Serene Teaz cafe latte is up for swap if anyone’s interested.