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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.

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.