Shadowfall select Send Message

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