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Thank you to my SororiTea Sister, TeaEqualsBliss, for sending me a sampling of this chai.

I’m in agreement with TeaEqualsBliss … this is really one of the least flavorful chai blends I’ve ever tasted. I also do get the pumpkin-y taste that she mentioned … kind of weird for a chai that doesn’t call itself a pumpkin chai, but, whatever…

The black tea base is kind of blah. Not really strong, not really much of anything… it’s just kind of weird. I taste some fruit notes in the background. The spices are really kind of boring. I taste ginger and fennel, and other than that, it’s just really kind of a boring tea … which is in itself rather odd to me, because it is also quite unlike any tea I’ve had before, so it’s boring yet unusual, which seems an odd combination to me. Lackluster. Not bad … really, just very dull and flat and uninteresting.

I’ve been enjoying this over the course of the last couple of hours, it’s really nice. Nice and creamy with lovely notes of cinnamon. Very nice way to enjoy the evening.

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea.

I could have sworn that I had tried this tea before, but I suspect it was a Pink Sonoma from another company.

Anyway… this is really quite lovely. Beautifully floral … but not too much. A nice sweetness … fruity. I’m not a big fan of wine, as I’ve mentioned on other occasions, but, if I were to take a sip and the wine tasted like this, I could definitely – happily – finish the glass.

The white tea is not hidden beneath the flavors and I like that. A really lovely tea.

Wow! This is crazy good Puerh. If you’re someone who loves coffee but can’t drink it for whatever reason – this is the tea you need to try. It TASTES like coffee. That was my initial reaction … I took a nervous sip (like I do for all pu-erh because of residual bad puerh experiences in the past), and I expected some earthiness, maybe some brine-y taste, but none of that. Instead, I get coffee. Sweet, roasted flavor, nutty, like chestnuts. Deep, toasty flavor, somewhat like tobacco, and a distinct overture of coffee.

This is the weirdest puerh I’ve ever tried. But … weird is not bad. In this case, weird is REALLY really good.

Backlog: I started my day with this chai. Rich and smooth and even creamy – even without milk. Spicy too, but, not super spicy-hot. The spices have a good balance to them, peppery but, not so much that I felt as though my mouth was on fire as I sipped it.

The black tea base is robust enough to stand on its own with the strong flavor of the spices, the ginger and pepper are the strongest notes, followed by cinnamon, with cloves and cardamom filling in the background. The vanilla seems to even everything out and give the flavor a smooth, creamy taste that I really enjoyed.

A really enjoyable chai.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a bit of this tea.

This is a really pleasing Sencha … as I sit here, sipping on it, I am trying to recall the last time I consumed a pure Sencha, and I can’t do so. I’ve had so many other green teas, primarily flavored, in the past weeks, but, I haven’t had a pure Sencha like this in a while. It’s a nice change … very refreshing.

The aroma of the dry leaf initially reminded me of seaweed, but after the package had breathed for a moment, I noticed more of a freshly cut grass kind of smell.

The brewed tea smells a bit more like mild, steamed vegetables … reminding me a bit of the broccoli that I steamed last night, only this is a bit more on the “grassy” vegetable side, smelling a bit more like spinach, I think. The flavor is not spinach-y though, or even broccoli-ish. It is sweet, grassy, and crisp. There is a very fresh, vibrant sort of taste to it. Very smooth. Nice.

I love Alishan. Of the many types of Oolong teas available, Alishan is probably my favorite. I can’t think of another Oolong type that I enjoy more than Alishan. But, I didn’t know how the charcoal roasting would affect the delightfully floral, sweet, crisp flavor of the Alishan that I know and love.

I am glad that I can taste those notes of the Alishan, as well as a foreground of toasty, charcoal-y, earthiness. Sweet, roasted nut flavor melds so beautifully with the floral notes, giving this Alishan a more rugged flavor, more masculine in a way, but still keeping in touch with its light and flowery side too.

Truly a delight … deliciously different.

As I mentioned in my previous note, I visited Steven Smith Teamaker in Portland today … my husband was surprisingly affable earlier this week when I asked him if he would take me to Portland to visit not one but TWO tea shops. He usually grumbles (loudly) when I make such a request, and these grumbles are usually followed by comments such as “you have enough tea” or “you don’t need more tea” or “you’re going to spend more money on tea?” … something like that. Basically stating that he isn’t going to take me shopping for more tea.

But, this week, I think he may have had some residual guilt over spending a lot of money on his Christmas gift (an early gift) – a new PS3 because his old one went kaput – so, he was, as I said, surprisingly agreeable to taking me where ever I wanted to go. And I wanted to go to Steven Smith because they had a new holiday blend – this blend – that I had to try!

First of all, this is a bagged (or should I say sacheted?) tea. It wasn’t made available in loose leaf, and if I had any complaint about the blend at all that would be it. But even as a sacheted tea, it’s amazing. I like that it’s a silky sachet and not a paper bag, because … well, I don’t taste the paper bag in the finished product.

This is incredibly yummy. The black tea blend is rich and smooth … even a tad creamy tasting. Nutty, malty, sweet, and comforting. Some astringency, yes. And then you have the touch of Douglas Fir needles … and this adds a hint of refreshing, exhilarating, pine and mint taste. It’s so crisp and wintery, and yes, very Christmas-y.

I love this and am so glad that my hubby took me to get it. He’s a keeper.

OMG! I am completely in love with this tea! Yes … yes … yes! (Imagine Meg Ryan in probably her most popular scene ever there)

As I am sitting here slurping on this tea, I tried to think of an Assam tea that I might have enjoyed as much as I’m enjoying this … and only one comes to mind. (And that would be No. 49 from Steven Smith … and I just left that store about two hours ago without some of my beloved Assam, what was I thinking? I was too excited over the other, new teas that I had not yet tried that I had forgotten to restock No. 49 and No. 55)

Anyway… this is amazing. It is a strong Assam… rich, malty and flavorful. It will assuredly kick your butt right out of “sleep” mode and into get-up-and-get-em mode. It starts out smooth and caramel-y, and there is a fair amount of astringency to this that slowly dries the palate after the sip. But, I don’t find the astringency to be out of bounds or too much. It is the perfect finishing touch to this really robust Assam.

Everything about this Tiger is amazing. What else should I have expected from Andrews & Dunham. They rock.

Oh goodness, this is good.

Rich and slightly smoky, malty, smooth, slightly astringent, and really just good. Yeah, this is just what I needed to kick start my day.

I was going to take a moment or two to write a full-length review, but I think I shall do that on another day. For now, I’m just going to sit back and enjoy this before I need to get busy with running errands and such.