Siberia

I was in the mood for oolong today, so I picked this up while I was at work, because it seemed to be Teavana’s only unflavored oolong. It’s not bad, but it’s a pretty average tea for the price. The aroma of the dried leaves is fairly nice and does have some of the promised orchid aromas, but the flavor is similar to restaurant tea or bulk oolong that can be had much cheaper. This has none of the complex green, spicy, caramel, or buttery flavors of the better (and much lower priced) oolongs in my cupboard. I’m rating it a bit lower than I might otherwise because of the price and (in my opinion) dishonest marketing of this tea.

The dry leaf has a really complex malty-green-slightly peppery aroma. I’m not a tea expert, just an enthusiast, but I’ve not smelled another tea quite like this. The brewed tea is stronger than many oolongs, and reminds me quite a bit of a good single-estate Darjeeling. This is a really interesting and satisfying tea.

This is beautiful! It has a strikingly beautiful honey-floral aroma, and a delicate, barely honey-sweet flavor with no bitterness. Love this!

Stash Portland Blend has quickly moved into my top 10 every day teas. It has a wonderful aroma of chocolate, rose, and citrus, and is bold enough to wake me up on weekday mornings. Perfect tea for the cooler months and times of day.

I bought this after sampling it in the store. I agree with the other reviewers who found that they could not get the same flavor brewing it at home. When I brew it, it is a fairly watery chai that tastes most strongly of cloves. I think the secret must be large quantities of tea with a hefty dose of sweetener to bring out the other flavors. It’s not terrible, but it’s not the best chai I’ve had. I prefer Tao of Tea’s Mate Chai – it has a more robust and complex flavor, and costs almost a dollar less per ounce.

This is good, but it’s more like a spiced hot chocolate than a chai. Very chocolate-y and not overly spicy, I’d recommend this for when you’re in the mood for a hot chocolate, rather than tea. This looks like hot chocolate powder with whole spices – I did not see any tea leaves at all in the bit that I used.

This tea is robust and tastes pretty good with sugar and a splash of milk. Once brewed, the aroma is nice, but something about the smell out of the tin is off-putting and I don’t reach for it too often. It is a nice autumn tea with the aforementioned milk and sugar, though.

In the tin, Hoku is a tightly rolled green oolong with yellow flower petals, pineapple chunks, green sugar bits, pink peppercorns, and tiny silver balls that represent the stars that are Hoku’s namesake. The scent is pure tropical fruit, and the visual and the scent together are perfect for a Hawaiian tea.
This makes a medium yellow brew, with a lovely tropical fruit aroma. Unsweetened, the flavor is a medium oolong with a little fruit – most of the fruitiness is in the scent. Hoku practically begs for a little sweetener to accentuate the tropical fruit flavor. I think this would also be nice iced.

This is one of my tea staples. I like peach teas, and this smells like a ripe, juicy peach. The peach flavor is strong but doesn’t overwhelm the excellent oolong tea. The peach flavor is much more pronounced here than in Lupicia’s regular Momo tea. This is a “big” tea, in that the leaves are loosely rolled and unfurl to enormous size. Like most of Lupicia’s teas, it’s very pleasing to look at in the tin – rosey flower petals against large, deep green leaves of oolong.

This tea is fantastic served Moroccan style with a generous helping of honey and a splash of orange flower water. The jasmine combined with mint makes for a wonderful aroma, relaxing and refreshing at the same time. Nice afternoon tea.

I probably rated this tea lower than I would have if it had been less expensive or come from a tea shop that I dislike less than Teavana.
I don’t really know what possessed me to buy this, other that I’d been in the shop for a while and, and perhaps my olfactory receptors were burnt out. Anyway, I was in the Mall of America, so I probably don’t have very good judgement anyway. At any rate, I bought some, resisting the aggressive sales pitch to buy overpriced tea tins.
The tea is pretty, but it smells and tastes exactly like Luden’s cough drops. I love Luden’s cough drops, but not in tea. The artificial “cherry” flavor completely overwhelms any taste or scent of tea. This tea might be nice with a lot of honey if you have a cold. Otherwise I’d recommend avoiding it entirely.

This tea makes a fantastic chai. This tea is really to strong for me to drink without adding milk and sugar. This is how I prepare it –
Bring to a boil 2 cups of water and 8 tsp turbinado sugar (more or less, depending on your taste).
Add 2-4 teaspoons 500 mile chai and simmer for 3-4 minutes.
Add two cups of milk and gently simmer for 5 minutes, or until the milk makes a bit of a skin.
Stir, strain and enjoy.

This tea has been my unchallenged favorite for several years. It’s the perfect blend when I need a little caffeine boost – just about every weekday morning. It’s a strong black tea mixed with wonderfully-scented rose petals. I’ve had other flower-scented teas, but they were always too floral and cloying. This one somehow manages to convey the scent of roses in foody, non-floral way. This tea is lightly sweet even without sugar, but is robust enough stand up to extra sugar and a splash of milk. It’s also wonderful on its own.

Based on description alone (Lupicia used to describe it as having a “nostalgic” taste, whatever that is), I probably would never have purchased this tea. I received it in a Fukubukoro New Years’ bag two years ago, and it is now a firm favorite.
The green tea looks like a Japanese Sencha with chunks of white chestnut. The chestnut flavor lends the tea a very toasty and slightly sweet aroma. It is wonderful and soothing with a little honey or agave syrup. I drink this tea as much for the scent as the flavor – almost daily in fall and winter.

This is one of my top three teas. This tea has a soft peach aroma, sweetened by vanilla. The intensity of the flavors is just about perfect with the green tea – not too subtle or overwhelming. The peach smells and tastes like natural peach. The tea itself is beautiful with tiny squares of lavender-colored sugar, red and blue flower petals, and tiny flower buds that looked like heather against the shiny, dark green leaves of the tea. Perfect for cool spring days.