LefTea

This tea is just what I needed to remove the exclamation mark after my Bah Humbug! I’m certainly not going to go around pooping Christmas cheer, especially not with a visit to my mother’s looming, but I probably won’t kill anyone either. Pretty impressive progress for just drinking tea.

I will warn those who err on the side of more leaf, I do the same and today the candy canes are REALLY strong. I’m sure my second steep tomorrow morning will be a little more mellow and more my speed.

Same story here, got this as a sample with an order from Adagio (I think my tea of the month club, actually). I forgot my tea mug at work yesterday and wasn’t feeling ambitious enough to make tea and find a different mug this morning so I figured I’d just dip into my bag stash in my desk. I used the keurig in my office to get hot water but I have no idea what temperature it reaches. Plopped the bag in and wha? There’s no string?!? Um, ok, that’ll be interesting in about 5 minutes.

5 minutes, one stirer, and a few scalded fingers later I tried the tea and there’s something off about it. I did add some sugar substitute, generic, from Target, which can sometimes give my tea a different flavor (I find splenda or another natural one works best) but I’m not sure that’s it. I get just a tiny hint of apple and then this other flavor. It kinda makes my face mess up for a second after swallowing but I keep drinking it so take it for what you will.

Finishing up my stash of this from last year. This was one of my first non-Teavana tea purchases because it smelled like their white chai. This tea screams Christmas. I know they have a Christmas tea (that they sell all year round), but this really should be it instead (disclaimer: I’ve never had the other one). This tea is bold and spicy. A little goes a long way here and I find that I can’t drink this for too many days in a row or my tongue gets a little tingly (and not in a fun way) from the cinnamon in it. The second brew is almost better than the first since you’re not socked in the mouth by cinnamon.

This tea WILL leave a very stubborn lingering scent in any tin you use so proceed with caution there unless you plan to stock this forever. Seriously, I’ve washed the tin 3+ times now, let it sit with a baking soda paste overnight, and had dry baking soda in it for at least 2 weeks now and I can still smell spice. Almost tempted to keep buying it just so I can use that tin again but it’s just too strong for me much of the year.

No notes yet.

Increasing my rating. Seriously love this tea. Why can’t this be part of their normal collection?

Let me preface this review by stating that I am not a blueberry fan. The berries themselves aren’t too bad but I generally hate anything with blueberry flavoring or actual berries in it; muffins, pie, etc. My husband got me two adagio tea of the month clubs for my birthday, herbal and black and this came with the last shipment. Given my feelings about blueberries I wasn’t terribly excited and figured it would go up for swap. Then I opened it and smelled it. Hmmmm…it doesn’t smell evil.

One night I was in the mood for tea but none of my typical desserty herbals and rooiboses (rooibosi?) sounded appealing so I figured, what the heck, and gave this a try.

It’s not the little cup of grossness I imagined. In fact, it’s kinda tasty. I’ll chaulk this up to the fact that it was made from real blueberries. I may even consider getting this again.

I’m the kinda gal where I may have one candy cane during the holiday season and I’m good. I even generally prefer they be the flavored candy canes as I’m not a huge peppermint fan. I leave the after dinner mints cuz to me they’re just meh. I wasn’t terribly excited when my tea of the month arrived with this tea in it but I’ve had good experiences with teas that I wouldn’t normally buy that were sent to be through this subscription (I’m looking at you blueberry one…).

I waited until after Thanksgiving (because it’s not cool to rush into Christmas) and had this over the weekend. I’m happy to report that the candy cane is not overwhelming (which will be disappointing to those who are looking for that). It’s there, but sweeter (might have been the brown sugar splenda I always add). Overall, the cup was very enjoyable and put me in about as much holiday spirit as I’m capable of mustering. I wouldn’t seek it out outside the season, but it’s a nice cup for the holidays.

I don’t know why but I’m drawn to coffee teas, which is odd, since I’m not really a coffee drinker. Maybe it’s because my husband’s coffee always smells so good and coffee can have a creaminess that’s often missing from tea. I had a Groupon to Serene Teaz and after a few I had planned on getting didn’t smell as good as I thought they would I decided to add this to my purchase.

I’m not terribly impressed. I’m sure it’s a fine tea, but it’s just not for me, much in the same way that I wasn’t impressed with Teavana’s Javamate. I want to like them but they’re just okay to me and end up sitting in my tea cabinet until I admit defeat and put them up for swaps, I begrudgingly drink them, or the mood hits me just right for them. I think I need to admit it: I’m no longer a coffee drinker.

Got this in a swap from Daisy. Mate seems to work wonders when I feel I might be getting a migraine but for a long time the only one I liked was Teavana’s Matevana (which is still amazing!). Then I added one from Adagio but mate seems to be a bit hard to find so I jumped at the chance to try this from Daisy.

What I’m finding now is that a lot of mates are basically variations of the same thing. This one is nutty and a bit chocolately and reminds me of a cross between Matevana and Adagio’s Toasted Mocha Nut Mate. That’s not to say it’s not good, it is, but could we get some variety up in here?

It’s held up well for 3 steeps and is fantastic with some almond joy creamer (but really, what wouldn’t be?).

Got this in a swap (I am terrible at keeping my swaps straight) at just the wrong time to be able to tear into it right away. But I think my tea cabinet had a plan. It knew that today would be the day my husband would try to get us out of the house on time. It knew that another cold front would be making its way to us giving me a headache. It knew I would have a 2 hour meeting at 9 am that makes me want to bang my head repeatedly against a dull rock.

This tea might be enough to pull me out of this Wednesday slump. Sugary and wonderful this really is like creme brulee in a cup.

What’s nice about this tea is that a little goes a long way. This would have been useful knowledge before I dumped the entire baggy into my teamaker. I tend to err on the side of using too much tea because I like a really strong brew and knew that there was more there than I needed, but not quite enough to get two pots full so I just dumped the whole thing in. Then again there are worse things than having your taste buds smacked on their hypothetical faces by creme brulee flavors so I’m certainly not going to complain. No, instead I’m just going to close this review and click on the ‘add to shopping list’ button, then add it to my wishlist.

Finally, a black coconut tea! My first time brewing this was at a hotel using their “hot water” karafe. Turned out pretty well, nice coconut flavor to it. I overbrewed it a bit this morning since I added more tea to the used leaves from yesterday. Oops. I think when brewed properly it’ll be really nice.

I tried this at Adagio’s birthday party not really knowing what to expect. I was intrigued by it but, never having had chestnuts, probably wouldn’t have bought it without tasting it first. One sip and I knew a bag of this had to come home with me. It’s nutty and wonderful and the perfect cup for a cold, raining, windy, no-good day like today.

I am a bit obsessed with chocolate tea ever since I got a sample of some from another tea retailer. That tea has been my favorite of all the chocolate teas I’ve tried but it requires shipping costs which I hate so I’ve tried to find something similar everywhere I can. This tea, while good, does not displace that as my favorite. First steeping was nice and chocolatey, but I think this other tea uses milk chocolate rather than dark chocolate. I love dark chocolate but found the balance between the black tea and the milk chocolate to be slightly more pleasing. The disappointment with this tea came on the second steeping which turned out extremely weak. I had considered bumping this one to my chocolate tea default considering cost and ease of procurring more but with no second steep I don’t think I can do that. So the quest continues. I guess there are worse ways to spend one’s time.

I had been wanting to try this, but had pegged Matevana as my mate of choice from Teavana. There was something about this tea that was interesting, but the description for Matevana won out and I went with that instead. But still this tea begged to be tried. Since Teavana only sells in 2 oz bags or more I figured I’d just never try it (Javavana got it’s turn already with mixed results). Enter: the swap!

It’s not a bad tea but I cannot really understand why this is considered to be “the coffee kicker” especially over javavana or matevana. It’s fine, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t stand out to me. To me it tastes a bit like a mix of many teas making it a bit nondescript. There’s some mate flavor in there, a bit of vanilla perhaps, and maybe a dash of cinnamon?

Bottom line for me: it’s fine. Nothing more, nothing less. Glad I got to try it without committing to a full bag.

150 degrees? Oops. I didn’t realize that it was supposed to be steeped at such a low temperature until I came here to review and read the other reviews.

Picked this up at Adagio’s birthday celebration because it smelled so wonderful in the jar. Mate has been wonderful for me in preventing my migraines so I drink it when I know I might be prone to one but so far I’ve only found one that I liked enough to be my go-to mate. I brewed this the same way I brew that one and it didn’t turn out any worse for the wear. This is certainly nutty and toasty but I’m missing the chocolate notes. I don’t mind the missing chocolate but I certainly wouldn’t mind if it was there either.

This tea is yummy, chocolate or not.

Another swap adventure! This one does taste like amaretto, at least what I assume amaretto tastes like since I don’t drink much. My husband has been making amaretto coffee and it smelled so good that I had to give this one a try.

Apparently I like the smell of amaretto but not so much the taste. It’s not a bad tea, but it’s not something I’d order for myself. Didn’t hold up for a resteep which doesn’t make me terribly sad.

Glad I got to try it, but it won’t become one of my must-have-at-all-times teas.

“This smelled heavenly at the shop and my husband (who normally drinks only greens) dropped a bag of this in my basket. I love O’Conner’s Cream from TeaGschwender and was hoping this was similar since this store is easier for me to get to. I normally brew my blacks in 200 degree water since that’s the temperature my husband uses for hiss coffee but since it was just me I used boiling. I think that may have been responsible for the slight bitter edge to it as my second steeping today was much smoother. Overall, even with the second steeping at a lower temperature this tea was just okay for me. I wish the smell translated into the taste more but I think this will be great to blend with other teas, perhaps chocolate chip.”

Thanks again to Tea Forte for these samples. Unfortunately, I haven’t had anything from them that I would purchase on my own.

Admittedly this was likely my fault this time. I should know better than to rely on a keurig to produce water that’s the right temperature for green tea but at work I don’t have many options and I bring any and all bagged tea to work.

I decided to have this one because I feel like I might be coming down with a cold: scratchy throat, runny nose…fun stuff.

There’s just not much flavor here. A slight sweetness (that went weird with the addition of calorie free sweetener) but that’s about it.

Thanks Rumpus for the swap! This smelled so heavenly when I opened it that it jumped the line of new swapped teas to try. I seem to have forgotten how to make tea in my beehouse teapot (how many cups is it again? 2? 3?) so I tend to err on the side of using more tea rather than less. I think the pot holds three cups, but my mugs are technically 12 oz so I only get about 2 mugs full. So normally I’d use 3 tsp for a black tea and between 4 and 5 for a mate, but holdup, this wants 1.25 tsp per cup? Sheesh David’s Tea, I don’t think this early in the morning and I certainly don’t do math so it’s possible I didn’t brew this right (I put in about 4-5 tsps just to be safe).

This continued to smell heavenly as it was being brewed. I’m working from home today to keep my dog from trying to scare the bajeesus out of the guys installing carpet outside our condo so I poured myself a cup and sat down on the couch to get to work. First sip…yum…but weak. I get no real coconut or vanilla notes from it, mainly just rum. At least I think it’s rum. I’m not a big drinker and when I do drink it’s usually things that do their darndest to mask the alcohol flavor.

As it cools I’m getting more of the flavors and enjoying the tea more. Not sure yet if I’d purchase it myself, but I’m happy I tried it.

Thanks again Rumpus!

Another TG Groupon purchase (got three teas out of that groupon!).

My husband is a big marzipan fan so how could I pass this tea up? Add to that that it smells yummy and I was sold!

In the bag it smells like a marizan factory, steeped I noticed less of that scent. I can kind of see where the previous reviewer was coming from with the black base being a bit too strong but I still do get the taste of marzipan from it. Will I confuse myself and think I’m actually eating marzipan? Probably not, but the taste is there. I added some vanilla coconut milk and brown sugar splenda so perhaps that helped bring the flavor out a bit more.

If the other two I got from TeaGschwender are any indication a resteep will be lacking in flavor. That’s my only beef right now with TG. Cheaper than teavana but doesn’t resteep as well.

Overall an enjoyable tea but not knock your socks off amazing.

Another TG Groupon purchase!
Salesgirl suggested this after I inquired about chocolate/dessert teas.

This is pretty good. I think I’m finding though, that most rooibos tastes like rooibos, flavored or not. There was a hint of chocolate, although it’s pretty subtle. I kinda wish I had seen some of the other amazing sounding teas on their website but I was feeling a bit rushed (that’s what happens when you put all the tea behind the counter). This is nice and all, but I have plenty of nice teas, I want AMAZING teas and a few of them that I missed sound AMAZING!

It’s discontinued though so it’s probably best that I didn’t get too attached.

Who says you can’t drink at work?

I had a Groupon to TeaGschwender (I can only spell that because it’s listed at the top of this box) because I simply cannot resist a good deal on tea and it gives me an excuse to try something new. This place is not terribly easy to get to….well, strike that, it is easy to get to if all you want to do is drive past. My husband let me out and went to find parking so I ventured into the store alone. It was smaller than I imaged (that’s what she said) but cute with a few smelling jars along one wall and the majority of the teas behind the counter (a pet peeve of mine). We were on a bit of a timeline so I had to quickly pick out my teas and the gal was bagging it up when my husband walked through the door. Good thing too as he was only able to find parking in a 15 minute loading zone that was a 5 minute walk away…

I asked if they had anything chocolate since I didn’t see anything with that moniker behind the counter and the girl brought me this and a few others to smell.

I’m not a big drinker. I’m not even a little drinker really so I wasn’t wooed by the thought of a whiskey tea (when I do drink it’s more of the frou frou, hardly taste like alcohol drinks but this tea had a nice aroma to it. Mello, chocolately, but subtle.

I picked this one out last night to make this morning (mainly just so I could make the drinking at work joke) and it still smelled wonderful. It was one of “those mornings” so I didn’t get to smell it while steeping and it’s currently in my thermos travel mug but I’m sure it smells pretty good. The taste is mellow and smooth with a chocolate aftertaste. I never thought I’d be one to call a tea full bodied, but that’s exactly what it is. I don’t know if it’s the whiskey, the cream, or the chocolate, but whatever it is, I’m liking it a lot. I hope it’ll hold up for a few resteeps because I really don’t want to have to make my husband park in a loading zone again.

Thanks to Tea Forte for sending out these samples! I was a bit sad to see that these were bags but I dumped in my bag to take to work knowing that they’d come in handy some day when it’s not quite cold enough for the office to turn on the heat but certainly not warm and cold enough for me to freeze all day. Little did I know that day would be the day I brought them.

I made this with water from my boss’ Keurig so I have no idea on the temperature of the water, probably too warm for white tea, but you make do with what you have, eh?

Like others have mentioned, it brewed up much darker than I was expecting. I got no real aroma to speak of while steeping and as I have no idea what lychee tastes like I cannot comment on whether or not I get that note from the tea. I get a hint of coconut, but not a ton.

For me this tea is just kinda meh. It’ll keep me warm for a little while here, but I certainly wouldn’t purchase it. Then again I’m a black tea fan because I like bold flavors so take this review for what you will.

It’s like it was meant to be. I was just exclaiming to my husband how there needed to be a pumpkin spice latte tea equivalent and BAM! Frank offers up this. So like the pumpkin spice-lovin fiend I am I ordered this and anticipated its arrival.

And then it arrived and I eagerly opened it and gave it a sniff and it smelled….kinda like the vanilla caramel chai…uh oh (go and read my review on that one). Hmmm, I don’t know about this.

After 3 days of Matevana (I swear it helps keep migraines at bay so I drink it when I am prone to them) I decided to try this this morning. Per Ashley’s suggestion I was going to add a bit of milk with my go-to brown sugar splenda but alas, my husband and I finished the milk with our caramel frapaccino cupcakes last night.

Got to work and took a sip, praying that it didn’t taste like dirt (again, seriously, go read my caramel vanilla chai review) and…..

Phew! No dirt taste.

But no pumpkin.

Or cheesecake….

What kind of wizardry is this? Not that it was bad but I’m the kind of person who gets upset that her red velvet cake yogurt doesn’t actually have pieces of red velvet cake in it. And just as I was about to let the disappointment settle in…

What’s this?

Pumpkin?

Cheesecake?

Where did you come from?
I don’t know how it does it but, for me, the pumpkin cheesecake taste develops slowly on the tongue about 30 seconds after you swallow.
I’d obviously prefer it to be there from first sip but I wouldn’t kick this tea out of bed (if ya know what I mean ). And the sudden emergence is like a party trick in my mouth. It’s possible that my job is just really that boring, but I’ll take what I can get.