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I’ve been drinking the ML Collection version of this tea for a couple of evenings this week, trying to work towards a couple of sipdowns. I’m fairly convinced that this is pretty much the same as the Mighty Leaf version, except with a touch more bergamot. For that reason alone, I prefer the “standard” version. Although I like earl grey in general, bergamot is not really my friend. This one’s just a touch on the punchy side for my linking, and a little too bitter in the aftertaste. Okay, but not one I’d keep around.

I’ve had a couple of cups of this one today in my large teapigs eco mug. I used a little more leaf than I usually would, to compensate for using a bigger cup. I left it to brew longer, too, to see if I could coax out any rhubarb and custard flavour. Or at least, more than I have previously. I managed, pretty much. Both my cups tastes like rhubarb and custard boiled sweets. What surprised me was the sweetness. I know my tastebuds are still a bit off, but both my cups today were seriously overpoweringly sweet. Even milk didn’t really help to tone it down. The flavour was nice, though, once I got passed the initial teeth-achingly intense sweetness. Not bad, but probably not a restock. There are many Bluebird teas that I just like better!

I’m drinking the ML Collection version of this tea today, although, again, to all intents and purposes it’s the same as the Mighty Leaf version. Maybe a touch more bergamot, but that might just be my imagination. It’s quite creamy, and the base is substantial enough that I can add milk if I want to. Given how I feel at the moment, I do want to. The bergamot flavouring is like an overlay on a cup of solid black tea — the flavour swirls through the top notes, but when you really get down to it it’s just a solid tasting, malty black. Apparently golden tip, according to the little pouch these teabags come in, and I can believe that.

After a single day’s respite on Monday, when I started to feel a bit better, my cold is now back for a second go. There are few occasions in my life when I’ve felt this lousy for this long. I’m not really enjoying any of the things I normally do, and tea is one of those. My throat is sore, I can’t breathe very well, my tastebuds are all wonky. Bleugh. Maybe it’s because I’m tired and a bit stressed, but I just can’t seem to shake this one off. Hopefully I’ll be back to normal soon, but in the meantime bagged tea is pretty much fine with me.

I’m drinking the ML Collection version of this tea today, but I think it’s pretty much identical to the standard Mighty Leaf version. To my tastes, anyway! There’s a lot of lemongrass here, and I’m getting a touch of tropical fruit. It’s fairly juicy, and a pleasant herbal for a warm summer day. I’m not getting ANY ginger, though. Nor am I getting any ginseng or mint. I find the ginger the most surprising omission — surely it should be pretty prominent in a tea named ginger twist? It’s a pleasant cup, nonetheless, but it really doesn’t live up to its name. For that reason, my initial rating stands.

This is the other tea I’ve been sipping on at work today. It’s light and fresh tasting, and my stomach didn’t object to it too strenuously! I’m still not getting much oolong from this, which I think is a good thing. I do get lots and lots of lovely elderflower, though — I really like the sweet, distinctive taste, and it’s such a summery flavour for me. Perfect for a hot day like today. I have one more cups worth of this left, so it’s now residing in my sipdown box, waiting for another weekend extravaganza! As it’s potentially a repurchase, I probably shouldn’t be feeling so pleased with myself. But I am, because I haven’t had much to be pleased about these last few days :(

Well, I am still alive. I’ve been majorly MIA, I know, but my cold has just dragged on and on, and I haven’t actually felt like drinking much tea for a good week now. Largely because I can’t taste anything. I’ve been drinking Twining’s English Breakfast, but not much else, and that’s an average tea at the best of times. I still feel crappy, but I think I started to perk up a little today. I brewed up a cup of this at work this afternoon, and I was rewarded with one of the best tasting cups I’ve ever had from this tea! I actually got raspberry, which has always evaded me previously. It wasn’t strong, but it was there, albeit fairly candy-ish. Although this isn’t a patch on my beloved 52 Teas Raspberry Cream, I have to admit it was pretty good. As my first “proper” tea in quite a while, I think I did pretty well!

I actually drank this yeaterday, but I didn’t have time to log it. I’m not usually a big fan of jasmine tea, as I find it too heavy and floral on the whole. This one is actually pretty nice, though. Possibly it doesn’t contain as much jasmine as some I’ve tried — it’s not a pearl tea, which is what I’ve usually tried. The green base is actually the main flavour, and it’s light, sweet and buttery. The jasmine is almost an afterthought, and adds an almost creamy, delicately floral edge to the end of the sip. Looking at the leaves in the bag, they’re small and a little twisted looking. That’s probably why I was expecting a dark, maybe slightly bitter green base, but it’s so much better than that. I wouldn’t keep this one around all the time, but if I was going to drink a jasmine tea, this would be firmly on my list of choices. A pretty decent cup!

Before work this morning I bought my emergency cold supplies from the campus shop; Strepsils, Lemsip, Twining’s English Breakfast, and milk. I’ll be drinking this pretty much all day, I imagine, since my tastebuds are shot. I just want something plain and straightforward to drink, and this fits the bill prefectly. It’s a pretty average tea — strong, a nice malty sweetness, and great with milk. It’ll be my saviour today, and I love it for that alone.

On reflection, I chose a bad day to try a new SBT. I was fine in the early evening when I brewed this up, but I inexplicably delevoped a cold and a REALLY sore throat overnight, and now I can’t really taste much of all. Admittedly, I’ve probably ruined my own tastebuds with strepsils and lemsip, but I’m such a wimp when it comes to colds. Still, it’s done now, and I’m at work so I can’t be feeling that awful. Yet.

I first tried 52 Teas Root Beer Float in last year’s 12 Teas of Christmas box, albeit the black, “normal” tea version rather than the SBT. I was pretty impressed, and I actually have a full pouch in my cupboard now, so I have high hopes for this one. I gave it the standard SBT treatment — 3 minutes in 1/4 pint of boiling water, topped off with cold to 2 litres and into the fridge overnight. Brewing, I could smell mostly sweet, creamy vanilla and not much in the way of root beer. I like a root beer float tea where the “ice cream” element comes out strongly, but that’s not all I want it to be. Fortunately, I needn’t have worried with this one. It’s fair to say that the ice cream flavour is what I get first — it’s creamy, it’s smooth, it’s sweet, and it tastes strongly of vanilla. I also get root beer, though, although it’s pretty mild in comparison with the “float” aspect. It’s a little bit medicinal, a little bit reminiscent of chicory. Root beer is one of those flavours I always have a hard time describing, but it’s there.

It’s nice to have something cool to sip on today. I usually run straight to hot drinks when I have a sore throat, but this is pretty soothing too. Another great SBT!

This is one I’ve tried often before and really liked, and today is no different. I love the clean, sweet spearmint notes, and the light, slightly nutty green base. It’s a great pairing, particularly iced on a hot day. It’s rainy today, so I’m drinking this one hot for a change and it’s just as pleasant. I know it’s traditional to drink Moroccan mint teas with lots of sugar, but I absolutely don’t feel the need with this one. Maybe it’s the spearmint, but it’s plenty sweet enough for my tastes already. I think I overdid this one slightly today — I got distracted by a phone call and forgot to take the bag out. There’s a slight dryness at the back of my throat, but it’s nothing terrible. This is one I really could be pursuaded to keep around in the summer — it’s one of the nicest green teas with mint I’ve tried so far!