Shadowfall

So I went through and resorted the teas I’ve tried into more specific bins, splitting them up between stuff I’d reorder/maybe reorder/just finish off. I find myself sorting pretty often, but hopefully this sorting will stay for awhile. Lol. There were a handful of ones left over that I wasn’t sure about, so I just get to retry them all again I guess. Lol. Which worked out since I realized that I never put up a note about some of them and I could now, this one included.
I love the smell of this. I could just put this in bowls around my apartment and let it scent my apartment if I didn’t want to drink it so much. Lol.
I also love the little silver candy balls that they have in this. My Mom used to have these in her baking cupboard (probly still does) and I remember sneaking a few now and then to crunch on when I was younger. She got so annoyed with me but never hid them away like she could have. So I’m very tempted to just pick them out and crunch on them like I used to. But I let them be.
Brewing this up it has the same scent as the dry which is awesome. My first sip I get the apricot pretty strongly, which is very nice. So is the subtle peach and the faint hint of pineapple I get now and then. Especially after I add a smidge of sugar to it. Makes everything pop a bit better.
I was curious so I pointed a flashlight into my teacup and had to grin at the sparkles that I saw there. It reminds me of DavidsTea’s Glitter and Gold that has the same sort of sparkle to their brewed tea.
Definitely one I’d keep in stock because the flavors are so nice together.

Edit – Second Steeping – 4 min/same temp – The second steeping isn’t that bad. A bit weaker, but that’s to be expected. I guess I shouldn’t’ve picked out the big chunk of apricot before doing the second steeping. Lol. Still, not bad for a second steep. I’ve certainly had worse.

So I’m home nursing a bum ankle today, so it’s a tea-splurging day. And this was the first I grabbed out of the pile I set aside.
Got this one recently and I loved the smell of it. Also the ingredients sounded interesting, though I wasn’t sure what half of them should taste like. Lol.
I get cinnamon right off the bat just from smelling it, but not much else. I definitely get the cinnamon in tasting it, maybe hints of something else, but unfortunately the cinnamon is pretty much all I’m tasting from this. I have enough for a cup, possibly two cups, left, so I might try either a longer steep time or more leaf to see what sort of result I get.
I’m glad I tried it, but if all I get is cinnamon next time I make this, this definitely won’t be going in the reorder pile. As it stands now, I probly wouldn’t reorder it at this time.

Edit – Made a second steep (3 min, same temp) of this just ‘cause I figured it wouldn’t hurt. The cinnamon definitely backs off, but lingers around. It’s gotten a bit sour/tart now, maybe from the berries coming through? I added a bit of sugar to tame that and it’s alright. Nothing spectacular or impressive and likely I won’t finish this cup. /shrug/

So I can’t quite remember where I got this from. I’m pretty sure I got it from Momo when she was selling some stuff, but don’t quote me on that. Lol. In any case, I didn’t realize it was rooibos when I got it. And I’ve pretty much determined that I dislike rooibos, so I had some major doubts when I opened the bag.

But it smelled so tasty that I couldn’t resist at least trying it before tossing it in my swap bin. It has the same smell as Davids Red Velvet Cake, which I love, but the rooibos gives it that particular minty-esque smell that I’ve come to associate with rooibos. Which also has the unfortunate side effect of transferring into whatever the tea is, if it’s rooibos heavy.

Anyway, it brewed up a nice reddish color that had the same smell as the dry tea. Without any sweetener it tasted vaguely similar to what it smelled like, kinda cakelike. Like a spice cake maybe. After adding sweetener, the taste was definitely much better, more like cake. But I could definitely tell it was rooibos because of the that dratted minty-ness.

Overall I didn’t mind the taste that much because it enhanced the overall taste of the tea instead of killing it for me. But if I had my choice between this and Red Velvet Cake, I would go for the Red Velvet Cake. Though in a pinch, this would do.

Rose petals. That’s the taste I get with the first sip. Like I’m drinking liquid rose petal smell. Very strange though not surprising considering the actual rose petals I saw in the blend.
I am surprised at how relatively sweet it is plain. It’s not like candy sweet, but more a subtle sweet with that light rose/floral note. Though if I didn’t know there was supposed to be black tea in this, I would never know. I get more of a white tea taste than anything else. Maybe the scoop I brewed was just light on the black tea or something. I’ll have to mix it up more next time.
The longer I sip it, and I guess the more it cools, the more I’m getting the grape-y taste to it, especially when I roll it around in my mouth a bit.

I wonder how this would do iced? Might try it, though I have the uneasy notion that the rose might come right out and sock you in the jaw. Lol.

Edit – Unfortunately this tea made me just a bit ill later on after drinking it. Well, not even finishing the rest of my cup after this review actually. I’m wondering if it might be the rose? Possibly ’cause now all I think about is tasting what I see as a cloyingly sweet rose smell that makes me feel ill thinking about it.
Unfortunate because it was such an interesting tea before that.

I’ve had this sitting on my counter for me to brew for at least a week but never seem to have time. Mostly because I wanted to try a second+ steeping on it and I can only do that on days I’m off. But today was the day.
It has a wonderful peachy smell and chunks of fruits and such mixed in. As usual, I was surprised how much the leaves uncurled while brewing, but it’s always fun to watch.
I managed to get two infusions out of this. The first was pretty good. Nice peach flavor, but I had to add a bit of sugar to bring it out more. I was kinda disappointed it didn’t have more ‘oomph’ in flavor with as much stuff as was mixed in. But it was pretty tasty regardless. Had almost a mildly spicy-esque back taste to it, might be the safflower petals (which were pretty) or possibly the orange? I’m not sure. More testing required! Lol.
To be honest, I don’t think the almonds were necessary here. I didn’t think they really added anything, in my opinion, but I could just be overlooking the taste there.

2nd infusion – Brewed same temp but for 1 min longer. Not bad and I drank the whole cup, but it just wasn’t as good flavor wise as the first cup. Definitely weaker tastes overall.

At the price I wish I coulda gotten more steepings out of it, but two isn’t too bad I guess. I’ll consider keeping this around unless I find something better. But I do wish it was a bit cheaper to be honest. Lol. Though I guess that could be said of alot of teas. XD

I’m surprised that there’s no ratings on this/more reviews to it. Well let me change that. Lol.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted, but I knew I wanted tea of some sort. So I grabbed this out of the bin on a whim. It’s not a bad tea, but unfortunately not quite what I was in the mood for, so I probly wasn’t concentrating as much on it as I should have been.

It smells like a nice vanilla tea when it’s dry. I was surprised that the wet leaves had the same vanilla-y smell after they were brewed. Usually with black teas I find that they have a almost coffee-esque smell afterwards…Or maybe earthy is the word I’m looking for. Anyway, this one did have that smell which was nice.
Without any sort of sweetener, it has a nice mellow vanilla taste, though I found that adding sugar didn’t really change much. It seems like it would be a good tea to mix with other teas if you just wanted a touch of vanilla. Next time I might try it with some milk and see if that makes the vanilla come out more. Also, there’s really not that much astringency to me, which was nice since I’m finding more and more that I don’t care for the really astringent teas.
Not one I’d order myself, but then I’m fairly picky lately on what I’d reorder. I’ll definitely finish this one out instead of swapping it away though.

I haven’t had tea in a few days ‘cause the weather has been kinda nasty the past few days and I just haven’t felt like it. Not to mention by the time I get around to wanting any, it’s after 10 and I’m trying not to drink any tea after 10.
Anyway, with Verdant having that new roasted oolong in their shop I wanted to place a order and figured I should try some of the teas I got from their 5 for $5 incase I wanted to order any of them again.
By the way, I loved this deal, but I only wished they sent them in resealable packages. I dunno what I’m gonna do with this now that I have opened it. I don’t really have that many airtight containers at the moment. Lol.

So tonight I picked this out of my remaining samples since it seemed like a nice tea to have after dinner with a minimum of fussing. Opening the package it has a lovely jasmine-y/flowery smell and the leaves are very pretty to look at. Large, whole leaves that are silvery and fuzzy.
I don’t have a gaiwan, so I brewed it western style in my ingenuitea.

1st steeping – 2 min – 175ish – When I drained it, it was a very very pale color. At first I didn’t think I brewed it long enough, but then, I’m used to oolongs and blacks. The tea has the same jasmine-y smell and a very light taste. Again, it almost seems like I didn’t brew it long enough. But it was still tasty-ish.

2nd steeping – 3:30 – Same Temp – Same smell but maybe a bit stronger in flavor? But that just might be me. At the end of the cup it tastes like I’m getting a mouthful of that fuzz I saw on the leaves. The back of my throat is all prickly feeling. Very strange. Might be because the leaves are starting to uncurl a bit more, but I dunno if that’s how it actually works. Lol.

3rd steeping – 4:00 – Same Temp – The jasmine is a very faint taste now, but still there. Just light. And it’s gotten astringent to me now. Ah well.

Overall it was a very nice tea to try, though I was missing some of the undertones of taste that most of the other people’d reviews here talked about. But likely that’s my own palate.
I greatly appreciate the opportunity Verdant gave with this 5 for $5 deal. I might keep the rest of the sample to the side for when my tastes get a little bit more refined….And I master the art of gongfu brewing for a different experience. Lol.
But I’ll probly not order more any time soon. It’s just not in my current tastes right now.

Swap from Shmiracles (the big enabler. Lol!)
This isn’t too bad. The brew smells different than the dry in the bag, but not in a bad way.
All the flavors mesh together pretty well. The hazelnut isn’t overly strong, but I definitely know it’s there with a tasty nuttiness. Same with the tiger eye, just enough caramel taste to give it richness. I’m not really sure what the pu erh brings because I haven’t ever had it by itself but it certainly doesn’t detract from the tea.
I’ll eventually have to order this one for myself. One more to add to my Adagio ‘to-order’ Blends list since I have so many of them. XD

A friend of mine picked some of this up after we went to our first tea tasting at an Adagio store. She raved about it, so I asked her if I could try some. I swapped with some of my Fili blend (I think).
I finally got around to trying this and I don’t like it at all. Ugh. It’s got a leathery, musky taste to it with an undertone of bitterness. Or maybe it’s this yeasty taste everyone else is talking about. Whatever it is I really don’t care for it. I’m very glad I tried it before buying any of it.
Swap pile for this one, or I might just keep it around for when my friend visits. Lol.

So I open this sample, and there’s almonds mixed in….Almonds! There wasn’t any sort of indication that there’d be almonds in this tea. Unfortunately I’m mildly allergic to almonds (among other nuts), so I spent a bit of time sifting through and picking out all the almonds from the tea. I probably should’ve waited until after I had tasted it, but to me, a straight vanilla tea shouldn’t have almonds in it. /shrug/
It especially should’ve been listed as an ingredient in the tea on the website! I wouldn’t’ve ordered it if I had know. But I have it here so I figure I’d try it.
So after all that, I think I’ve decided that I’m not a fan of straight rooibos. Lol. It’s alright in a blend in small amounts I guess, but straight out it’s got a…strange taste to me. Kinda minty-ish in a medicinal way. In this tea, you can smell the vanilla, and taste it in the brew, but I just couldn’t get past that faint mint-ish taste to it.
Definitely not for me.

I wasn’t really expecting to like this. Got it in a swap because I wanted to try it before buying any, and paying $25 for just 2oz of tea is more than a bit ridiculous in my opinion. At least at this point in my tea drinking life. Give it awhile and I’ll bet something like that’ll seem like nothing. Lol.
Smelled kinda green dry, so I hesitated, but on I went. Tasted pretty green and veggie-like to me on the first couple sips. I very nearly poured it out, but I figured I’d add a bit of truvia to it just ‘cause I didn’t have anything to lose. Yes, that’s probly sacrilegious, but like I said, what did I have to lose….At least I didn’t try adding milk. XD
Boy was I surprised. I thought it would be strange, drinking sweet veggie like tea, but I actually ended up finishing the whole cup. The bit of sweet really brought out different flavors I wasn’t expecting. At the moment I can’t really recall what those were since I drank the tea last night and I realized I didn’t get to reviewing it until this afternoon. But it was pretty good.
Though in a lapse in judgement I ended up dumping the leaves without a second steeping. /headdesk/ I was trying to get a couple more teas in for the night, both of with were entirely unsatisfactory. In hindsight I should’ve just put the leaves on a little plate to rebrew later. Ah well, c’est la vie!
I’m not really sure I’d be willing to pay so much for this tea myself, though it’ll eventually sink in that there’s likely multiple rebrewings to stretch that further. But for the moment, I’ll savor what I do have and put it on the considerations list for reorder.

Smelled nice dry. Though I didn’t really care for this after it was brewed. It might’ve been just the way I brewed it, but this was a little too bitter for me. I could very faintly taste a bit of caramel after adding sugar, but I just couldn’t get past the bitterness. Ah well. Not bad to try from a swap.

No notes yet.

So I loved the smell of this in the bag. Chocolaty goodness.
Unfortunately I’m very much unimpressed with how it brewed. It tastes like weak chocolaty water and not even sugar helped it any. I would try to add more leaf next time I brewed it, but I really don’t want to even brew it again. It left my ingenuitea all greasy and clogged when I cleaned the used leaves out. Ugh.

Tea #5 of the day. I’m on a roll. Lol!
Wow. Fluffy leaves of awesomeness with fuzzy balls of something and pretty flowers. Lol. I’m always amazed at the quality of the leaves in Stacy’s teas. So much fluff in this one. I’m very glad I just got a new set of measuring spoons with long square ‘bowls’ since it made measuring this tea out alot easier than trying to estimate if I got enough in the round bowl. Lol.
Dried this smells like watermelon which astounded me when it first arrived. When brewed the tea had the same smell along with a very light colored liquid. I almost thought the tea hadn’t brewed at all it was so light, but then, I’m used to the darker colors of oolongs & blacks.
It tastes the same as it smells, especially after a bit of sweetening. Just a bit though since I didn’t want to overwhelm the delicateness. It’s kinda flowery which I guess is from the white base, though I’m not at all familiar with white teas, so I could be wrong.
It’s like drinking the juice that’s left over after you’ve finished a big slice of watermelon, mixed with a light floral back taste that’s almost more aroma than actual taste. Astounding and something I never would have expected in a tea.
Very nice and light. Something to enjoy when I want something different.

Tea number 4.
Nice with a pleasant astringency. Good strong black tea taste to it. This is the best way I can think to describe it. When I get more familiar with tastes and terms and whatnot, I’ll try to come back and update this review.
Not getting much honey, though adding a bit of truvia made it nice. I’m also getting the cedar as a back note, but it’s not as bad as I was thinking it was going to be. I could see this being a nice tea to have in the morning.

Third tea of the day. Got this one in a generous grab bag Amanda sent to me.
I think I finally found a chocolate tea that I can actually call a chocolate tea. I used about 1 1/4 tsp for one cup. Might try 1 1/2 tsp just ‘cause since this tasted just a bit watery. But overall it was pretty good. The smell out of the bag was very chocolaty, not exactly like milk, but not quite dark chocolate. It brewed similarly. Even the wet leaves smelled chocolaty.
Like I said, it tasted just a bit watery, but I think that’s probly ‘cause I didn’t use enough leaves. It was good without anything added, but I added a bit of brown sugar and it really made the chocolaty taste pop better. But then, I like sweet teas and think sugar improves almost any tea. Just for the heck of it I added a bit of milk to it but I don’t think it really improved anything so when I make this again I won’t bother.
Very glad to have gotten to try this one. I’ll most likely pick this some of this up when I run out and I’m placing a Della Terra order.

Second tea on the roster today. My first milk oolong and I’m on the fence about it.
1st infusion – The brew has a smell of cooked veggies, spinach-y greenness and it tastes the same as it smells. Normally I don’t care too much for such a taste, but this is one that I keep sipping at. Lol. I don’t get the peaches taste that the desc describes, but maybe that’s why I keep sipping it. To try and find that. Maybe on the next infusion I’ll get it a bit better.
But it is pretty smooth and I only get a smidge of astringency out of it. No sugar added to this. I don’t think it would go well with the veggie taste. Sweet cooked spinach. Ugh. Lol.

2nd infusion – Same temp/4 min – Definitely getting better. The veggie smell/taste is toned way down for which I appreciate. It’s gotten sweeter and I might be getting a hint of peaches or something similar. Not too bad. Again, no sugar added to it.

I’m not sure I’d reorder this one, but it was a good one to try and I always enjoy something different.
When I get around to doing gongfu style brewings this might be a good candidate for it. I’d be interested to see what sort of flavors come out of it.

So I decided to do another tea drinking marathon. This was first up. And it’s not to bad. It’s a pretty standard black tea with pineapple flavor. Got a giant chunk of dried pineapple when measuring out a cup’s worth.
Tried it plain and you couldn’t really taste too much of the pineapple. Decided to try a bit of brown sugar in this instead of my usual truvia. Next time I might try the truvia, but I really liked it with the brown sugar. The pineapple came out nicely, though for a pineapple tea I wish it would’ve been a bit stronger. It’s just very subtle and tasty. The black base is also pretty nice by not being too bitter or overly astringent for me. I want to say it’s a Ceylon base, but I’m not entirely certain so correct me if I’m wrong. The dry leaves are a curled like little balls if that helps. Lol.
I’m not sure this would make a good iced tea. I have a feeling it might turn bitter and the pineapple wouldn’t really come through very well.
Overall (yes I like saying that. XD) I’d reorder this unless I find another pineapple black tea that I like better.

Second mini sipdown of the day. Green/Black tea mix which I had high hopes for since I’m always on the lookout for a green tea I’d enjoy. Granted this is a mix, but I figure small steps.
It’s got a very fruity smell dry (yes I know I say this alot, but it’s all I know. Lol). Brewed the leaves keeps their tasty smell with just a hint of what I’m guessing is the green tea. And the tea smells like pineapple papaya goodness. Drinking this unsweetened I wasn’t too impressed so I added a bit of truvia and it made the fruit pop. Definitely get the pineapple with a hint of papaya but no strawberry that I can tell. Also I don’t notice the green tea that much if at all more than support to everything else. The same could be said of the black tea whatever this base is. Astringency isn’t too bad overall, though it’s noticeable enough.
Might try this iced to see how the fruit holds up. Possibly cold brew it just because.
When I get the rest of my stash down, I’d definitely consider reordering this one.

Decided to do a mini sipdown of a handful of teas since I suddenly have an overabundance of tea that I still haven’t tried. Pretty much I wrote down all the untasted teas I have on strips of paper and tossed them in a jar, then pulled a few out. Otherwise I have a hard time deciding what I want to try.
So this was tea #1 for today, thanks to Shmiracles for the swap!

It smells fruity and just a bit flowery-ish in the bag. Brewed…I’m not really sure what to think about this. If I had to identify something, it’s got a smell kinda like overripe bananas, which is a bit odd to me, but it’s the first thing I can think of.
A fruity taste, maybe a bit nutty but there’s a taste in here that I’m not really sure how to explain. It’s all a bit mixed together and I don’t have much of a desire to keep drinking it to see if I can figure it all out. I’ve never had whisky since I don’t drink at all, so maybe the taste that I’m not able to identify is what’s supposed to taste like whisky. /shrug/ It also might be the stevia that’s been added. I’ve never had a tea with it added so I’m not sure what to expect.
Overall, I’m pretty sure I don’t like this. I certainly don’t care to finish off this sample or order this myself. It’s just not for me.

So I mostly use a teapot with a removable filter whenever I make tea since I like to make at least two cups, then drink it over a period of time. Unfortunately this isn’t a good practice if you’re wanting to go through multiple teas in relatively short period of time. Mostly ‘cause my teapot’s filter doesn’t reach all the way down to the bottom so the leaves expand out of the water while brewing. And I wasn’t about to just dump the leaves in the pot and brew it that way since it defeated the purpose of being able to have a pot of tea sitting there since it would continue to brew and get bitter.

Enter this little gadget. I had wanted one since seeing it on Adagio’s website and after seeing it used in one of their stores, but it had always been out of stock and really I never saw the need since my teapot worked so well. To me it was just a gimmick that looked like fun to have. It was by chance that I was finally able to pick up a used one a few months ago. It had to be heavy duty cleaned ‘cause it smelled like Chai and the plastic was all stained. But it was surprisingly easy to clean. Everything comes apart pretty easily, though you have to be careful not to lose anything or it’ll all be pretty useless. Lol.
I used straight baking soda made into a thick paste and a paper towel to scrub all the discoloration on the plastic away. The little filter was a bit harder to clean, but after a soak in baking soda water and more scrubbing, that finally came clean too. Washed everything in soapy water and let it dry completely before putting it all back together. Then it got stuck in with my tea stuff to sit in lonely disuse for awhile.

When I finally had a Saturday to myself, I wanted to give this Saturday/Sunday Sipdown thing I keep seeing people doing a shot. This little gadget was perfect for it. I used a rubber band around the outside to mark off one cup since I’m horrible at eyeing a measurement. Then I just put one cup’s worth of tea into it, poured the water in and let it brew. Then I just drain into my chosen mug and voila! I have one cup of tea. Afterward it’s very easy to scoop out the old leaves, rinse briefly (I let the water run through the valve at the bottom as well) and then reload with a new tea. I was able to quickly go through 3 or 4 teas before I got tea-ed out and went to bed. Lol. I made sure to pop the filter out and give the whole thing a quick scrub and rinse before letting it dry since I’m afraid of the plastic absorbing the smell if I let the tea sit in it for too long.

I haven’t used the full 2 cup capacity since I barely have a mug big enough for that much tea or else I’d have to let it drain into a teapot, which I then should’ve just made the tea in in the first place. Lol.

One warning when using it. The bottom release is very sensitive to being touched (at least mine is). I managed to scald my hand awfully and spill tea all over the place the first time I used it. I made the mistake of touching the bottom slightly on one edge before I had it over my cup (I think I wanted to watch the tea drain into the cup or something stupid. Lol!) instead of just picking it up and setting it on the cup. Definitely learned from that experience.

Overall I’d definitely recommend this as something to have around. I only wish I could find where to buy replacement filters if I ever need them.

Wasn’t sure if I was going to like this or not. I had passed up getting this in the DavidsTea store I visited awhile ago, but was able to get some through a swap with Shmiracles.

I brewed it in my new Ingenuitea (I got it cheap ‘cause it was used) which made it awesome to watch the leaves unfurling and brewing. It also was alot easier to brew a single cup since my usual teapots don’t manage one cup well at all. If you have a chance to pick one up, I highly recommend it.
But I’m getting off subject.

This tea smelled wonderfully vanilla-y with a smidge of floral/green-ness when it’s dry. Brewing it came through a bit more green so I was a bit hesitant since I find I dislike most ‘green’ tasting teas at the moment. Taking that first sip I did get that green-ness, but it wasn’t too bad. I also got the vanilla nicely mixed with the floral sense that didn’t really overpower. I did add some of my usual truvia that made it much better. The vanilla and floral came through more than the green-ness and I enjoyed the cup much better.

I went for a second steep since it’s an oolong and I figured why not. I steeped it for a minute longer at the same temp, and I almost didn’t drink it when I smelled the wet leaves after draining. They smelled awful, though I can’t recall exactly how since I shut the lid back. Wet rotten spinach comes to mind. Lol. Now that it’s cooled a bit, the vanilla has come back making me consider a third steep.
Anyway, I took a sip of the second steep and found it wasn’t all that bad either. A bit more muted, but still tasty, especially after adding sugar. I found that the vanilla came through more as it cooled, though not necessarily in a good way. Much better hot.

Tried for a third steep at 5 min total steep. It’s alright. Certainty drinkable, but nothing overly noteworthy or impressive. Maybe a bit more green and not as vanilla-y. /shrug/

Overall I might keep this around for when I want something lighter, or until I find a better replacement (read cheaper). Lol!

Not too bad. Smells strongly of raspberry when dried, and the same comes through when brewed. I had to resist picking the choco chips out to munch on though. Has a nice raspberry flavor though I wasn’t getting much chocolate. Which doesn’t surprise me since I haven’t yet found a tea with chocolate that I can really detect the chocolate in it. I guess I’m too finicky. If I want chocolate, I’ll just have to make some cocoa or something. Lol.

Tried it straight and it was alright. But adding a bit of brown sugar to it made it much nicer. I was considering trying it with some milk, but unfortunately this tea set off my allergies so I wasn’t able to finish a full cup before having to pour it out. Bummer. Still, it was a tasty tea while I could drink it.
At least now I know to add raspberry to my list of tea additions that I can’t have along with mango, pomegranate & coconut. x.x; /sigh/