Sil

thank you Scheherazade for this swap! I’m sad to say that we, for whatever reason, decided that rearranging our entire house again was something we wanted to do late into this evening. I blame the purchase of 5 new board games on that.
In any case, as a result i wasn’t able to focus on this tea as much as i wanted to. Overall, it came across as a pretty great cup of tea. Fruity with hints of smokiness from the assam. Luckily i have enough for at least another cup, maybe two, so that i can spend a bit more time focusing on the tea.

thank you raritea for this interesting tea. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this one but i’m always up for trying new teas.

After having a few steeps of this, i’m still not sure how to describe this. It’s woodsy and not really like any green tea that i’ve had. The leaves look much like brown sticks :) There’s an after taste to the tea that’s vegetal and sort of gritty in my mouth. There’s a bit of dryness as well. Overall, really interesting and something i’m glad i got the chance to try!

Thank you to Teajo teas for this sample!

This one hurts my nose. There’s a floral and cinnamoney, spicey scent going on. I can’t entirely say with any accuracy that i’m smelling mango. In sipping this, i don’t taste mango whatsoever. I suspect that this might be a better cold brew than hot, but hot is how i tried it. I do really like the tea base for this one. But in terms of the flavouring, it’s just not what i was hoping for.

wow…not sure what to make of this one. there’s a lot going on in this one. I don’t think the jelly beans add much of anything to this. That being said, it’s a totally candy like blend that this creates. However, there’s quite a bit of hibiscus in this which turns it into a really sweet but terribly tart brew..sounds contradictory but it is. the initial sip is sweet and very nearly strawberry delicious but then it quickly goes tart in my mouth.

soooo this isn’t terrible for an oolong. Most of you know how much i “love” oolongs. It’s not an overly peachy tea as the oolong balances out the flavour. I’m pretty sure others who favour oolongs would find this to be a nice addition to their cupboards.

stupid sprinkles.

Yeah. that’s right. I DESPISE YOU SPRINKLES! I really can’t stand the sorts of additions to teas that add nothing to them. Tea is pretty enough on it’s on without adding crappy artificial sprinkles and stars and lucky charms into the mix. sigh

So this tea? Doesn’t really remind me of grapefruit at all. Now, for perspective, i love the grapefruit dragon that Stacy created. I have no doubt that somewhere out there, another grapefruit tea exists that isn’t a dragonwell base that might be almost as delicious as Stacy’s Dragonwell.

This tea? it’s not it. It’s got a weird limey orange smell to it that makes my nose wrinkle up in disgust, and the taste is this weird citrus like flavour that turns my stomach. I do not like, though maybe cold brewed it would be better? maybe?

So the nice thing about splitting try me packs 3 ways is that it’s pretty much enough for 2-3 normal people cups or 1 of my cups since that’s all i really want, and can then leave the “extra” for the other 2 people heh. So today, i’m trying to go through the last of the della terra teas we split three ways. I guess technically these are all sipdowns except they’re more like “haha i didn’t have to add this tea to my cupboard” :)

I suspect this tea would make a decent cold brew. Hot? It’s not too shabby. What i like most about it, is the lack of stupid candy, sprinkles or other assorted crap that della adds to their teas that drive me batty. I’m not getting much in the way of kiwi in this – it’s largely a mango, passionfruit tea. However, i think this would truly shine as a cold brew.

Not a fan of the flavours in this one. They kind of jumble together to create a melange of fruity sort of kind of going on thing. I does remind me, as miss lena mentioned, lychee but not the kind of lychee i enjoy in a tea. Overall glad to try this but happy it’s a split with 2 other people :)

SIPDOWN!

I still find this to be a rather unexciting black tea. There are far better black dragon pearls out there that i’ve tried, though these aren’t the worst.

190! Sip down!

Woot woot! Of course there will be teas added shortly increasing that back up again but at least now I feel like my cupboard is under control. Now to spend some time drinking up my larger bags of tea. May have to do a butiki week or marriage freres week lol

Still digging this one. Ill likely keep at least one of Della Terra’s rooibos blends in the cupboard permanently. :)

Sipdown! On our way out for board games and relaxing tonight and I packed up the last of this and my lime chiffon to complete my sip downs. Haha. Wish I could have brought more tea with me but my travel mugs will have to do.

This one is keeping me warm on the subway ride and making me dream of summer with fresh fruits and delicious sunshine…yes sunshine is delicious! :)

Sipdown!

The more I have this, the tastier it seems. I may pick some of this up again after all if only so that I’ve got if for when I have a hankering for that delicious creamyiness.

SIPDOWN!

IB – this is actually pretty tasty cold brewed, plus the coluor’s awfully pretty, a pale pink :) Totally running late for getting out of the house today so incoming tasting notes while we’re in transit but yeah. I still prefer this hot, but cold it’s a nice refreshing glass of tea as well. I like how the cilantro and mango come out a bit more in the cold.

SIPDOWN! thanks to whatshesaid for letting me try this one. Still on the hunt for a perfect caramel tea but it was nice to cross this one off my list. It also confirms my suspicion that i’m not a huge fan of kusmi tea bases since most of their teas that i’ve tried i’ve been feeling pretty “meh” about.

SIPDOWN! ok seriously? as a hot brew this tea kind of sucks. However as a cold brew??? YUMMY! it’s totally like a lime mojito sans alcohol. If my rating were based solely on the cold brew, it’d likely be a 75+ but i’m not going to change it since hot, it’s a disappointment. Cold it’s got the limey tang that kicks in with the mint and YUM!

apparently vanilla + rooibos = no thank you for me unless there’s something else going on in the tea. On the plus side, that means i get to leave all the rest of the sample pack for kittenna hahaha! :)

It’s not bad, but i much prefer creamy vanilla + something else rooibos.

sipdown break! lol I need to try some of my della terra teas so that i can figure out IF i want to place another order this weekend or wait for the next sale.

This tea smells like maple syrup with a hint of blueberries. I can see why folks are enjoying it, but it is not quite on the same oh man, i need to have this, level as the upside down cake that della terra has. That being said, this is a lovely tea, but it’s much more maple blueberry pancake than it is blueberry crumble. my other half actually asked if i was drinking that pancake tea again. I’ll have to try brewing this at a lower temperature next time to see if that changes anything. For now, this is a decent tea, though not quite what i hoped it would be.

sipdown!

This is a nice little black tea. It’s smooth while not feeling “wimpy” or light…I could see this being sort of an everyday breakfast kinda tea for me if i do a reorder with upton sometime. There’s almost a sweetness to it that’s hiding in the background but not like some of stacy’s teas. It’s really is like a keemun without the smokey notes, not that i mind those in my keemuns :)

SIPDOWN! yes that’s right…until i have to leave we’re going to see a bunch of these lol I planned out all my teas last night so that i can get to 190 or explode trying haha

Dropping the rating on this one a little since the last time i drank this as there’s an astringency here that i don’t like that much especially when comparing it to the other black im also drinking (just for you whatshesaid)
I really like the aroma of this tea and the initial sips, but then there’s a taste in the back end that isn’t all that wonderful and ruins the sip for me.

I have to say though, that this is why i love upton samples. They’re great value since even me and my giant cups can get 2-3 cups out of them and while the packages aren’t resealable, they keep the smells out very well with just a bit of tape to hold them closed. While i don’t love most of their flavoured teas (the tisanes are ok) i really like that i can try out a HUGE list of straight teas. I also love that they put the packaging date on the lable AND if you’re doing a shared order you can add the names to the labels so that when they arrive you just put the teas away according to the name on the label :)

SIPDOWN!
I tried this cold to see if i love this any better and while it’s not as bad as it was hot, it’s still no winner. Again it’s mostly a generic bland sort of tea that has kinda of a fruity, grassy taste to it. oh well, glad to have tried it!

sipdown! and thanks to raritea for this one. While this IS a green oolong, it’s also jsut kinda hanging out being a slightly flavourful water. This is a tea that i could take or leave but will never drive me to hating it OR loving it. it’s just kind of there…

SIPDOWN!

Dropping the rating on this one a little as it’s not nearly as delicious as i remember from my first run through it. I think as i’ve tried more and more teas, i’ve come to grow fonder for those dark robust blacks, while the “lighter” blacks have less appeal for me. Not that this is a bad tea, but it’s not going to be my favourite ever. :)

So i REAAAALLLLLY wanted one last cup of tea before bed and Della totally just put their teas on sale (again) so i couldn’t help it, i had to go sit down and measure out my portion of this tea in the shared order with the girls. Mostly, in case i decide i need to order more. So uh up one in my cupboard sigh You know what though? totally worth it. I don’t love this more than the lemon and lime chiffon but i do really enjoy this for it’s own reasons. I still think i prefer the orange lapacho tea Indigobloom found BUT this might be a decent substitute.
The orange isn’t as strong as i want it to be, but it IS still present and still has an almost creamy taste to it. mmmm yeah, i could have a bit more of this in my cupboard.

pssssst guess what? 200 teas! that means i just need to find a way to sipdown 10 teas tomorrow haha Not sure if that’s actually doable but we can see :) If nothing else, i’m still pretty proud of myself for getting down this far in 3 weeks. After the weekend with the girls i was at something stupid like 320+ and now i’m at 200. That being said, I have incoming swaps and orders, but there’s no mail until monday haha.

This one? I’d probably order it again. I rather enjoy the creaminess of the rooibos and it’s a nice change from the other fruitier rooibos blends that i like and love. It’s just not a tea i see myself wanting all that much in summer, so maybe i’ll hold off until the fall again.