Emilie

This was another of the teas that I won from Della Terra Teas (seriously, go like them on facebook, there are so many giveaways). This was also one of the teas I suggested when they asked for ideas for fall teas. Makes me feel special!

So, I made a very sad tea discovery last night when I was drinking this. I don’t like nutmeg in teas. I like it in cooking, but not teas. I first noticed this when I tried Forever Nuts. It had a weird smell and taste to me that I just didn’t like. When I opened this up, there was that same smell! I was hoping it would drown out in the taste, but no :( My mom tried it, and said it tasted just like pumpkin pie, so obviously it is a good tea. I just can’t get past the nutmeg :(

If you don’t mind or even like nutmeg in teas, give this a try. According to my mom it is really good. I was looking forward to this tea too. Silly taste buds :(

Della Terra Teas is a small company, and they’re very good about communication with customers and paying attention to their suggestions. Huge points for them in my book. Also, they have lots and lots of giveaways on their facebook page. That’s actually how I got this tea. I won a giveaway on their facebook page and received what looks to be about 2 ounces of this, and generous sample packs of a pumpkin pie tea, and a holiday themed tea. And they were all packaged up with pretty paper.

This tea smells like some delicious coffee concoction in the bag. My mom had to make me go make the tea and stop standing around sniffing the bag. The chocolate in here has a really nice taste. It’s creamier like a milk chocolate, but not overly sweet. I added milk to see what would happen, and it really enhances the chocolate. It started reaching into hot chocolate range. As for the chili part, I got just a hint of it on the back of the sip, especially as it cooled. It was a slight tingle on the back of my tongue. I’m thinking a longer steep time will bring out the chili heat more. At three and a half minutes, I had no bitterness, so hopefully it can handle longer steeps!

Thanks for this, Della Terra Teas!

I got about 10 grams of this in a swap, thanks for that! I recall trying it hot and cold before and liking it much more cold.

I iced it today and had to add sugar to drink it. With the addition of sugar, it tastes good. But there’s nothing really special about it that makes it stand out from all the other fruity hibiscus-y teas. It actually reminds me a lot of the Passion Iced Tea Lemonade from Starbucks that I used to be obsessed with. I’d definitely drink this if it was offered, but I’m not going to buy it.

I had enough of the sample left to try it cold brewed. I’m hoping that will bring out more of the non-hibiscus flavors

Thank you, TeaEqualsBliss! This is my first Verdant Tea, so I’ve been really excited to try it.

I felt today was the perfect day for this. I’m a bit stressed, as I got an order on etsy for a large number of knitted hats, and I need to pack for college AND everything else since my parents are moving. All in less than a month. This seemed like it would really help calm me down a bit.

Steeping, this smells so good. It makes me think of that feeling right when you get your blankets out of the dryer and just want to hide in them and be comfy. There is this slight scent in there that makes me think of baking bread.

I love how this tastes! So smooth and creamy. There’s this sweetness that kinda sticks on your tongue after each sip.

I look forward to trying more Verdant Teas…if I ever have the money! Maybe some free samples, eh? wink, wink But seriously, this tea is really good and it held up well to a second steep.

I can’t remember who traded this to me, but you know who you are and thank you very much! I’m assuming the little tiny berries in here are juniper berries? I’ve never had any, but hopefully they’re not too tart.

I made this iced, and I don’t think I made it quite strong enough. It was a bit watery. I went to put in just a bit of sugar to being out the taste more and a giant pile of sugar accidentally fell in :( Despite all that, the tea managed to taste pretty good. Nice and fruity without any tartness. I didn’t really taste any of the black tea itself though. I’m thinking it might be easier to taste that when this is hot.

My mom and I shared a pot of this today, it was here first white tea. It smells like green beans once steeped. It has a nice light nut flavor, not overwhelming. Nice and creamy, with just a bit of the “green bean” white tea taste.

One thing I found really interesting was that my mom didn’t notice the green bean smell until I mentioned it. She said she was so focused on tasting the hazelnut flavor that she couldn’t see it. I feel like this shows I’m getting better at noticing flavors in tea!

Thanks from my mom and I for this tea, Tigress_al!

I’m slowly trying to get into green teas, starting with flavored ones more. This one was cold brewed. I enjoyed the taste of the tea, but the pomegranate was more of a general tart fruit flavor. It wouldn’t make me think pomegranate if not for the name. I’ll see how the flavor is hot sometime.

I think I prefer dark oolongs like this to the lighter ones, though I enjoy both. I believe this is the first unflavored dark oolong I’ve tried. It has a nice smooth, roasted taste. Thanks TeaEqualsBliss for a nice large sample of this! I feel like this would be good with some spicy Asian food of some kind

This was the other tea I got in my package today! My mom was helping me pick a tea from all my new ones to try. She saw this one and said “This. One for me too.”

Her comments on it were “Mmmm, good” Nice, and simple!

To me, it’s a very nice Earl Grey. But I think it may be covering up the cheesecake though :( I added some sugar and milk, hoping to make the flavors pop as with the Butterbeer. Ok, I can taste a bit of the creamy, tangy cheesecake flavor. But it’s still really subtle. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be stronger or if I brewed it weird or what. I have noticed that with some 52teas, there seem to be really specific brewing parameters to get a good flavor. At least I have plenty to experiment with!

Got my 52teas in today. Sadly, I ordered three teas, and one was missing :( I sent an SOS out, so hopefully I hear back soon!

As soon as I got this, I had to go make some. It smells so good when steeping, nice and creamy. I took a sip while it was still pretty hot, I just couldn’t wait! And…nothing. Just a normal black tea flavor. Hmm, ok. It’s probably one of those teas that needs to cool a bit for the flavors to come out.

I read everyone else’s updates while I waited for it to cool, the whole time the delicious scent teasing me. Ok, time for sip number two. And still nothing. I was getting worried, thinking it was butterbeer only in smell, not in flavor. I did something I normally don’t, I added sugar. Another sip, now and…. BAM. There is was! THIS was the flavor I’ve been looking for, this sweet root beer deliciousness. I decided to add in some milk, and that made it nice and creamy. Milk and sugar makes this tea into what I imagine butterbeer to taste like. I can imagine spending a day in the Hogwarts library, researching Nicolas Flamel with a cup of this to keep me going, or sitting in the Hog’s Head Pub with my friends.

Had a cup of this last night to relax, just as delicious as ever! I may as well just buy a giant tin of this in my next order.

I got in a giant envelope packed with teas from TeaEqualsBliss today! I’m so excited to try all these new teas. I even saw a Verdant tea in there! It’ll be my first time trying out a tea from Verdant. I’ll have to save it for something special.

I decided to start with this. This will be my first milky oolong. I meant to steep it for three minutes. I set my little mesh basket in my cup, and set the timer on my laptop for three minutes. I turned away to finish making lunch. When I turned back, the timer had gone off, but I never heard it! This could have steeped for three minutes and two seconds, or ten minutes! Either way at least it still tastes good.

While hot, this was creamy and smooth, with just a bit of sourness on the back of the tongue at the end of the sip. Now that it’s cooled some down to just warm, the sips are overall more creamy. Though while it was cooling, I did take a big bite of soup that I thought was a lot cooler than it was, and burnt my tongue some. Hopefully it’s not affecting my tastes too much. I’ve never really played around with multiple steeps before, but I think I’ll give it a try with this and see what I get.

Tried this last night. It smells sooo amazing. But as for the taste, I’m not really getting the strawberry flavor that everyone else seems to. It was more of a cinnamon flavor with a general sweetness. It’s very good, but not what I expected. I went with exactly 8 minutes, I’m not sure if more or less time will tone down the cinnamon/allow the strawberry to come out.

This one is very good cold brewed! It really brings out the citrusy flavors. Next time I’ll add some of my own mint, as it wasn’t very strong.

This is the first tea that I’ve tried and just thought NO at the first sip. It might be good hot,I’ll have to try, but cold brewed seemed to bring out the wrong flavors.

The dry smell seemed familiar, but I couldn’t quite think of it. After it was done cold brewing, it still had that smell. It didn’t hit me until I tasted it. LICORICE. I don’t remember seeing anything licorice in the ingredients, but perhaps something else has a similar flavor. The flavor is a sorta licorice medicine taste. I gave it to my mom, but she didn’t like it much either. I won’t rate, because it just seems to be a flavor I don’t personally like.

I’ve only tried a few chocolate mint teas, and this has been my favorite so far. I’m afraid to go out and try others when I have this security blanket good tea! It smells like a minty snickers bar when dry. I wish the chocolate was a bit stronger than it is, but otherwise, this is a delicious dessert tea.

I made up some for my mom and I. This is one tea that she always likes. I give her plenty of teas to try, but I think most of them she just goes along with because she’s my mom. But this one she really does enjoy. I think I’ll leave the rest at home when I go back to school for her

Another tea I shared with my mom, and another success with Persimmon Tree. If I had to go by smell alone, I wouldn’t like this tea at all. It has a medicine-y rooibos smell. Luckily it tastes nothing like it smells. I was a little worried this would be INYOURFACEBANANA, but luckily it’s just banana, nice and mellow. Not much chocolate though. Just creamy banana yummy flavor. My mom says it tastes just like banana pudding.

Cold brewed this. Less impressed with it compared to the other teas I’ve tried. The walnut flavor seems to take over everything else. So far I prefer this one hot.

I’m always careful with Jasmine teas. In general, I just really don’t like them, as the jasmine flavor has to be done just right for me.

I tried this previously hot and LOVED it. The jasmine is perfect. I’m not sure how well these kinds of things do with cold brew, but I decided to be daring and go for it. It definitely needs less time to steep than the other teas that I’ve been cold brewing, but oh wow is this good! I absolutely have to buy more of this, since I used up the last of my sample. This is delicious both iced and warm. I think this will become my go-to iced tea, for now. Raising the rating up, since it’s so good either way.

No notes yet.

This is much better with the cold brew! I can actually taste the chocolate! The cinnamon is still the dominant flavor, but I can taste the chocolate and it is a bit sweeter now, which is something I would expect for a tea named Super Chocolate. Overall, this isn’t one I would buy, as I don’t like it hot and there are other teas I enjoy iced much more. I’ll raise the rating though as it is good iced at least.

It seems that cold brewing this one kept the chocolate from dissolving as much and enhanced the other flavors while making the chocolate more of an accent to the other flavors. Interesting.

Apparently I never reviewed this tea when hot, even though I’ve had it plenty. Every time I smell the dry leaves, it smells like Bailey’s to me. It never quite tastes like that though.

I cold brewed this one, and it seemed to bring out the flavors better, and seemed closer to the smell. Another one that I probably prefer cold.

I’ve been cold brewing everything, and this was one I had high hopes for, as I LOVE mint tea. This tuned out really well, I think I may like it better cold than hot.