Maria

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Another sample from Teavivre! I haven’t had Jasmine Pearls before. I have almost been staying away as I had a Jasmine tea that I very much disliked and I assumed I just did not like Jasmine. However, this tea is divine – aromatic like the Jasmine flower, sweet and light. Just a nice tea to drink over and over again.

One of my samples from Teavivre. Thank you!! What a generous company.

This is my first Milk Oolong and what a treat. Dry, this tea looks like little rolled leaves, quite darn in color. However, once brewed, these leaves open up. You can appreciate the whole leaf and see how it was picked. The liquor is pale greenish-yellow. The taste is velvety, sweet, faintly vegetal/mineral. I can taste traces of honey. All and all a wonderful cup.

This is the second pu erh mini tuo cha from a swap. Thank you CharlotteZero! I am quickly falling in love with Pu erhs. I love how the dark liquid appears after a short infusion time, I like how the leaves open up. Anyways this tea is so good, mildly smoky, faint smell of rice cakes, not bitter at all. I did 4 infusions with this and I could have got more, but it was time to CHHAAANGE PLACES! (I assume a place such as this gets its fair share of Alice in Wonderland jokes).

I am really enjoying the two genmaicha’s I’ve tried. This one is more mild than the one from Den’s Tea, but equally enjoyable.

Meh – I just don’t think I like black teas with fruit flavors. Whatchagonna do?

This is yummy. The bergamot shines through and the honey adds a bit of flavor. I had it just like I have my EG’s with a bit of milk and honey. Really great breakfast tea. Those who love EG will probably love this.

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Smooth, lightly sweet and creamy. My first try at a Harney’s tea and I was not disappointed. Convenient and it is decaf :) I am always wanting some black tea in the evening.

Hello delicious. This is my first genmaicha which came in the Green Tea for novices pack. And what an incredibly generous pack that is. I brewed it as per directions. Boiling water, first infusion 30 seconds, second infusion 15 (although that felt backwards, is one not supposed to increase the steep time per infusion?).

This smells just like rice cakes – and this is a good thing. It tastes sweet and vegetal. Great tea for the evening, no astringency or bitter notes. I was not able to discern what flavor the Matcha added as I have never had Matcha or genmaicha before.

I won this when Kally Tea ran their last contest! I have been not enthused by the last few flavored blacks I’ve tried, however, this was OH SO YUMMY! You can see the shaved almond slices in the tea, and it brewed into a delicious medium body black tea with a nice brisk base and definite almond flavor. I added a bit of honey to enhance the natural honey flavor and sipped on it all morning.

This is not the tea for me. It has a cinnamon spiciness that mixed with the mint and it is just kind of the opposite of my taste palate. I know other’s are loving it, so I will refrain from rating.

I got this in sample size in my last order from Persimmon Tree. This tea lands in my acquired taste list. I find that with some teas, I do not like them right away, but I do not dislike them. I often find myself craving these teas later at times over a tea I liked at first try.

This brews into a yellow-green clouded liquor and tastes grassy and vegetal.

Subtle vanilla taste with a black tea base. For some reason this tea left me wanting more vanilla – but then again I always want more vanilla!

Very mild taste – vegetal and a little bit like green tea.

A very yummy fruity tea! So far I have found that most fruity teas are too tart, but this is just right for me. Sweet and refreshing without feeling like I am drinking juice (in my opinion I do not want my tea to taste like juice).
I frequent a Pho restaurant where they give you these guava hard candies as an after dinner mint type of thing, and they are so delicious – so, I was very excited to try this tea when I saw it was guava flavored. Did not disappoint!

Yummy! Nice chilled or hot, the mango flavor is mild and the green tea grassiness shines through. Makes me want to try other flavored greens.

Thanks Yssah for this sample. I brewed a pot of this when I came home early from class today. It smells like a flowery (especially the lavender) EG – very lovely. The bergamot comes through in smell mostly as I do not notice must of the bergamot astringency in the brewed product. A milder EG nice for an early afternoon pick me up.

Earl Grey cremes are my favorite type of EG. This was from a sample order that came in a few days ago. I put it in my tumbler as I was going out the door this morning with a bit of honey and milk. Creamy and delish. The bergamot comes through as well as the vanilla but the vanilla presents to me more as general sweetness. I usually keep Teavana’s EG creme because theirs smells so intoxicatingly well, and compared in smell profile this was less odorous (I did also have a smaller quantity).

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I am still trying to figure out pu erhs. This is the first loose leaf type pu erh I’ve ever had. I brewed it as per the instructions from Persimmon Tree – 3 minutes (western style). The liquor is dark – just like black coffee. It smells like burning leaves or cigarette ash – but not in a bad way at all – woodsy and smoky. It is not bitter at all but rather a little smoky. This is the first steep (I did a short rinsing). I do not get any fishy smell at all. This is the first infusion.

This green tea behaves much like a white tea imho. I steeped it for the recommended 1 minute the first time but found it much too mild. I steeped it again for a bit longer and got a more flavorful cup. It tastes very light and the liquor is only slightly tinted yellow. Because I do not have much experience with green/white teas in general, and tend to enjoy harsher flavors, I will reframe from giving this one a rating.

This was my creation for one of the Design a Tea sample. This tea was so drinkable, sweet and aromatic. The combination smelled to my like the jasmine flower – although neither the honey nor the hazenut where necessarily distinguishable. While personally I might look for a little bit more of identifiable flavors, the combination was very pleasant.

I picked this up for two reasons, well three really:

1. I love vanilla
2. I am really getting into rooibos as an alternative to black in the evenings
3. I very much enjoy Teavana’s Vanilla Honeybush and I am looking for others similar to it.

This tea smells like mellow vanilla, nice and warm, not so strong that it overpowers everything. It brews into a dark color. A full bodied liquor that smells nice and tastes sweet but not at all overpowering. It is enjoyable as a dessert treat or a late night yummy.

It is less sweet/strong smelling than Teavana’s but then again no surprise there.