LiberTEAS

My order from My Sweet Honeybush arrived just a short time ago, I had to immediately brew some… this is one that I was really looking forward to trying because I really loved the Cherry Vanilla Cola from 52Teas and I’m hoping that Frank blended this one with similar finesse.

The aroma is very much like the fragrance (as I remember it) from the Cherry Vanilla Cola.

And yummmmmm! It tastes SO GOOD. It tastes very much like Cherry Coke. I don’t drink a lot of soda except when I happen to be eating out, and if the restaurant has Cherry Coke that is what I’ll choose.

This has a nice sweetness to it (although the flavor is greatly enhanced with a little bit of raw sugar) and the cherry and cola flavors work well with the honeybush. I don’t get a lot of the woodsy flavor that sometimes comes with honeybush – just a nice, sweet flavor.

I like this one… I like it a lot. And I’m betting this is going to be amazing iced!

I really like this Assam. It has a very pleasant malty tone to it. Sweet notes and very rich in taste. NICE!

I’ve missed starting my day with Earl Grey yesterday, so I grabbed this as my first tea of the day. (I slept in even longer than usual today!)

Robust and pleasantly floral. I think that what I like best about this particular blend is the subtle use of lavender essence. I like how lavender and bergamot play together. It seems to instill a sense of calm which is just what I need for the start of the day!

I really like the combination of chamomile and lavender. While rooibos isn’t my favorite “tea” – it works pretty well in this blend. The woodsy flavor lends a nice depth of flavor to what would otherwise be a somewhat thin tasting tisane.

There is a nice floral flavor to this blend (I guess that’s not surprising). Sweet and very pleasant to sip, especially later in the evening. (like it is right now!)

I need to brew some more tea for iced tea – and when I received this tea it screamed “ICED TEA!” to me. Since I hadn’t tried it at all, I thought I’d try a hot cuppa first, and then work on filling up my iced tea pitcher.

This has a very nice tropical flavor with a highlight on the citrus-y notes, and I can really taste the white tea here. Smooth, sweet, and fruity. YUMMY! The flavor is not so delicate that it will be lost when it chills either – it’s going to be amazing iced!

Thank you to Rachel for sending me a sample of this to try… I love chocolate, and double chocolate is even better, so I looked forward to trying it.

I have not yet tried Adagio’s Masala Chai tea – so I don’t know how it compares to some of the other chai teas I’ve had. And since this is a blend with the Masala Chai, I realize this is not a true representation of what the Masala Chai would be like. But, I’m kind of sad that the chai spice isn’t very strong in this blend… nor is the chocolate.

I can taste the spices (mostly the ginger followed by a bit of cinnamon), and I can taste the chocolate… but I feel like both are a bit subtle for something called double chocolate spicy chai. Perhaps my expectations were too high, after having tried several of Rachel’s blends and being very impressed? I don’t know.

This is a nice blend though. The spices and the chocolate are strong enough to detract from the Adagio black tea base which is a very good thing – which makes the blend a bit smoother and definitely more tasty than some of the other black teas from Adagio that I’ve tried.

This is the last that I have of this because I’m sending the rest of it to a friend.

Today I’m enjoying it latte style with a splash of milk. This really gives the chocolate a nice creamy taste. This is one of the better yerba mate blends I’ve encountered. It’s tasty!

This is a robust tea… one that would be perfect for a morning tea, especially on one of those days that you’d rather stay in bed but you can’t because you’ve got places to go and things to do. That is to say, this tea has that get up and go factor.

It is very full-bodied and well-rounded. A nice malty note from the Assam.

Wow, I really needed this today, too, I didn’t sleep too well last night and there’s a part of me that really wanted to stay in bed. I think I’m feeling much more awake now!

This is a nice Dragon Well. It has a very pleasant sweetness to it – it is not overpowering. It has a vegetative quality to it that is somewhat of a mix between grassy and lightly buttered, roasted veggies. A nice balance.

Decided to start my day with a chai latte and I reached for this one!

Serving it latte greatly improves the creamy cheesecake-y flavor of this chai. Yum.

Thank you to Doulton for the opportunity to taste this tea!

I can taste a strong almond note from the marzipan, and thanks to the biscuit flavor it tastes like almond cookies! YUM!

A very pleasant sweetness and depth of flavor. This may just be my favorite “almond cookie” tea I’ve tasted yet!

As a jasmine lover, I was a little surprised to see that this tea wasn’t yet on the website – I remedied that though!

(Thanks to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me this sample!)

The dry leaf has a very pleasant yet somewhat subtle jasmine aroma – The fragrance of the liquor becomes much softer almost to the point of being non-existent but not quite. I generally do prefer it when the liquor is a little more fragrant than this, but there is something about this aroma that is intoxicating, even though it’s quite subtle.

The flavor is so lovely. Sweet jasmine with a hint of sharpness (but in a good way). The Sencha is smooth and vegetal – slightly grassy but not too harsh. It has a very nice sweetness that makes me want to keep sipping and a beautiful feminine quality that makes this taste so luxurious and indulgent.

Enjoying my last cup of this tea.

Even though this is what is considered a lower grade of Sencha, this tastes quite a bit different from the Sencha teas that I’ve tasted.

It has a vegetative quality to it… but there again, it is a different vegetative quality than I’m used to. Usually, I either find a tea to be quite vegetative=grassy or it is vegetative=steamed (or) buttered vegetables.

I don’t know that this is either of those… even though I am noting a soft butter-like note toward the end of the sip, kind of creamy. It’s very intriguing, and very tasty.

I really like this particular Bancha Tea. It is very pleasant and even calming. Nice.

Thank you to Rachel for sending me a tasting of this tea!

Starting my day out a little unusual – not reaching for an Earl Grey this morning, but, instead I thought I’d try this.

I like how the white tea softens that edge of the black tea base (Adagio’s black tea is a bit harsh for my personal preference). The cherry and cream flavors play very nicely together… and the creamy finish is pleasant – I’m not getting as strong an astringency as I usually get from Adagio’s black teas and that’s a really good thing!

Thank you Rachel – this is really good!

This has a pleasant sweetness to it and a nice toasty note – it sort of tastes like Genmaicha – without the rice part. Genmaicha is slightly sweeter because of the rice, and slightly more “warm” tasting – roasty toasty tasting – because of the rice.

It has a strong vegetative nature to it as well.

I like it!

OK… I’m being EXTREMELY courageous here (yeah, I keep telling myself that whenever I start thinking that I’m about to drink a Lapsang Souchong tea)

I gave it a rinse (awakening of the leaves) with boiling water for about 10 seconds before I brewed it, I had hoped this would take away some of the smokiness that I find off-putting.

You may be asking why would I brew a tea that I know I won’t like? But here’s the thing, I didn’t like it years ago, around the same time I had convinced myself that I didn’t like Dragon Well tea and a few other things… and since that time my tastes have changed, and how do I know that I still dislike Lapsang Souchong? I may be missing out on something just because I thought I didn’t like it.

So when Enjoying Tea sent me this sample… I figured it was an opportunity for me to try it without having to actually go out and purchase it.

So… after that extraordinarily long introduction… here goes!

The rinse definitely helped. It’s still very smoky (of course) in aroma and taste.

There is a pleasant sweetness to it too… caramel-y. That is something that I don’t think I’ve ever really recognized about a Lapsang Souchong because I couldn’t ever get myself past the smoky part.

It wasn’t a terrible tea experience, but I don’t think that I’ll be buying any Lapsang Souchong any time soon either. I’m not going to rate it numerically, because I feel that would be unfair, because what I really dislike about Lapsang Souchong is that pine-y smoke flavor, and it is a characteristic that is Lapsang Souchong. It is what it is.

I brewed some of this last night to put in the refrigerator for iced tea this afternoon.

THIS TEA IS AMAZING ICED! YUM!

The flavors are all there, not muted because the tea is chilled. The green tea tastes slightly vegetative but not too much and the fruit flavors are well… very fruity! This is delicious!

Gonna raise my rating a bit because… I can!

I’m kind of on the fence about this tea, so I’m not going to give it a numeric rating just yet.

I like the idea behind this tea – because back before I discovered the joy of tea, I used to drink hot water with a squeeze of lemon and a drizzle of honey when I had a sore throat to help soothe it. This is kind of that same, soothing idea, but with some other ingredients to make it a little more interesting than a cup of hot water with lemon and honey.

It’s ok, but I can’t say I love this one. I will give it another chance in a few days or so and see if I like it better. It’s not bad… just not my favorite right now.

This tea is just perfect for this evening. I made a rather spicy stir fry for dinner, and this cuppa is calming my stomach and lifting my spirits!

There really isn’t a lot to say about this other than it’s pure peppermint – and it tastes like it! Minty and fresh. Nice – soothing – delicious.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a sample of this tea!

The aroma of the liquor is delicious – coconut and vanilla! My mouth waters as I smell it.

The almond, coconut and vanilla flavors are very nicely balanced in this cup. The black tea base is smooth and strong with some astringency. There is a little bit of bitterness to it as well, but it does not disturb the sweet flavors that are going on with this tea, and might even give it just a little more interest.

Overall, a very pleasing cup of tea.

Enjoying my second infusion of these leaves now. I think that the second infusion is even better than the first – the peach flavor is stronger now, the vanilla and almond sort of take a back seat to the peach in this cup. This is well-named because it is really a Sweet Peach Treat.

Very good!

Thank you to Rachel for sending me a sample of this tea to try! The aroma is delightful.

This is tasty! The peach flavor is sweet and juicy, the vanilla is smooth and creamy. The almond flavor is nutty and gives this tea more of a peachy dessert kind of flavor that I’m really enjoying.

Smooth and rich with a soft mouthfeel and very nicely sweet. YUM!

This is the very first time trying a tea from this company, and I’m liking it a lot. It brews to a beautiful, pale green color. It smells rather unusual, I can smell a vanilla note and a fruit note, but there is also a very strong… almost baked kind of aroma to the cup. Almost like cookies. It doesn’t smell like a typical tropical blend, that’s for sure. Nevertheless, it does smell delicious in its own way and it is a very intriguing sort of fragrance…

The vanilla flavor is strong here, very creamy and sweet tasting… The mango also holds its own in the blend. The green tea offers a light, fresh taste to the mix, I’m not getting a lot of what I would call grassy flavor but there is some vegetative characteristics to the cup. The combination of the vanilla, mango and Sencha is a very tasty one, indeed.

This is really good.

Very nice! A lovely sweet flavor with faint floral notes. Delicate and smooth.

This almost tastes like a yellow tea – almost, and by the color of the liquor, it looks a lot like a yellow tea.

It has a light, silky mouthfeel to it. Very luxurious… it’s like I’m being pampered by my tea. I like this one a lot.