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Sipdown! Thanks to Kittenna for a share of this tea. I may have brewed this a little funny but it’s not really caramel tasting to me. Well it’s like burnt caramel. This is more what i think of when i think of creme brulee. Not to say that this is creme brulee tea but it’s got more of that initial taste like the burnt topping on cremem brulee. There’s an aftertaste though that makes me unsure oh how i feel about this tea. Maybe with a bit of milk it’d make this a creamier tea.

I’m not sure how i feel about this tea yet. I have to repeatedly say, Kally Tea has excellent customer service. I had a really negative experience the other day and it just reinforced how much i apprecite those companies that take the time to think about their customers even when problems are minor. :)

So on with the tea… i really picked this one to try cold brewed as i thought it might be an interesting iced tea – i tend to really enjoy fruity iced teas. this one is like a tea that can’t make up it’s mind. am i lime? am i pear? am i blackberry? the result isn’t so much a random “berry” flavour..but a flavour that changes as you drink it. There’s a taste in there that this reminds me of…but i haven’t been able to place it yet. I’m hoping i’ll figure it out before i finish drinking it all. Overall an “interesting tea.”

I think this might be one of the first flavoured teas that I have craved after tasting it. Don’t get me wrong, i love my flavoured teas and really look forward to drinking a lot of them. But this one? I had a small sample of it from Stacy and then spent the next 10 days that it took for an actual order to get to me…waiting for it. I got my package yesterday with my very first gaiwan from stacy and so i was SUPER excited to be able to have some of this today. It hasn’t diminished since i had my sample. I am still loving this creamy delicious tea! so happy to have this in my cupboard.

So I have to say, I didn’t brew this IN milk, but i added just a bit of honey and milk to the cup after it was brewing and HOLY this is a different cup of chai. While it was wonderful before, the milk and honey smooth out some of the spices and blend the tea even better together. I am really digging this today. I know part of it’s because i haven’t had any chai in a while (for shame!) but i’m inclined to bump the rating of this up a bit given the beautiful taste with the addition of milk.

Morning smoothie! Having a bit of a rough time this morning but this is starting to do the trick. there’s a bit of a bitter/tart taste at the end of my sip so it’s possible that I put in a bit much of the matcha this morning. It could use a little sweetner. Otherwise still an enjoyable smoothie this morning so far :)

I’m being pulled off to something so really quick note on this one for now. SIPDOWN! thanks to kittenna and then technically Azzrian for letting me try this. I’m enjoying this one for sure! more to come!

Sipdown!

Another sample from raritea She’s single handedly trying to expose me to as many david’s teas as she can i think :) This one isn’t too bad. there’s a bit of a floral background to this, but it’s not so strong as to turn me off. I wish the cherry was a little less artificial tasting and a bit stronger, but over all it’s not too shabby. Not my favourite, but something I could drink and enjoy occasionally! thanks Raritea

mmm cold brew of this one is pretty darn tasty! What i really like is that the cinnamon becomes muted and the plum flavour becomes much more dominant. I can taste the hibiscus as well, but it’s not overly present, nor is it making the blend really tart. pretty darn tasty!

So ladies and gents, I was able to wrangle a small sample of this one from the lovely Kittenna who is hanging on to the last of her bag for dear life :) I have to say that I’m really glad I did. Not that I can get any of this again from Frank unless he magically brings it back, but i’m happy to have at least been able to try it!

I’m often not a fan of nutty teas. I’d rather eat them than drink them i guess :) This isn’t exactly a sweet tea, and yet it is. There’s a good caramel chocolate flavour going on here (dark, not milk imo) and then you taste the nuts. Delicious cashew nuts. Yep. I am enjoying this one and can certainly see why Kittenna was hesitant to part with it!

Thanks for the great share Kittenna! I’m sure i’m going to enjoy sucking as much out of the resteeps as i can :)

Thank you Hesper June! Another H&S tea that I’ve been wanting to try that she was kind enough to send to me. I am also really loving this one, which makes me a super happy camper since that’s 3/3 that I like! I can’t wait to try this one out as a cold brew one of these days as well, since i think that iced this would really bring out the flavours even more.

Sipdown! though technically this was never logged into my cupboard. I know. I’m a baddie :) Thanks to Indigobloom for the sample of this one. I had two sachets so i shared one with someone at work today because somehow i’ve had all the teas in my work stash now and this was the only thing left! gasp My hopes weren’t terribly high for this one anyway since it’s a very green oolong. I’m really not getting pomogranate from this one either. it’s more of a floral type oolong. blech.

Appreciate the sample though Indigobloom as the more I taste, the more I figure out if i like things :)

Hmmm I think that either we got a bad batch of this one or it’s just not up my lane. I’m getting the cinnamon in this one but not so much with the chocolate or the “baked goods” kind of taste. I’ll have to give this one another shot when i’m at home and can focus on it (and i’ll check the resteep out tonight as well) but it’s nothing i need to drink again so far. I much prefer the other teas we picked up from S&V so far. This one is just kinda…meh in terms of the flavouring.

oh man…. thank you so much Hesper June! Seriously…this makes me want to go place a Harney order now. I love this one even more than the florence that Hesper June was SO AMAZING about sharing (seriously folks, she’s pretty damn awesome). I’m not sure if this is exactly what i needed this morning or what but this is a damn fine mug of tea. It’s rich and smooth and chocolatey and malty and delicious! There’s another flavour going on in here too…almost like a breadier taste than the malt taste you get in say laoshan black. I don’t pick up on the “spice” notes that harney says are in this tea, or maybe it’s just that when i read the world spice my mind wanders towards things like chai. yep…i could easily move this into my morning black rotation with some of my other favorites.

Thank you again Hesper June

Had this again this week, with peaches! :) I’m really enjoying this, though I am very near to a sipdown on this one. Luckily some of my restocks should be here soon and i have some free matchas from the referral program I’m thinking about cashing in soon. :) I’m digging the blueberry and peach combo this morning as it’s nice and refreshing on my throat.

SIPDOWN!

Thanks to Kittenna for the sample of this one to try. While i don’t mind this tea, it’s not a great tea. it’s a peachy tea with a hint of ginger, and there is an artificial taste to it as other have mentioned.

aaaah I understand now why kittenna likes this one. It really is a nice pear tea. Ginger? Not so much. However, that is MORE than ok with me since all i’m really after is the pear. I don’t really get the perfumey-ness, instead i just have a strong desire for the pear to be a little more OOMPHY! It’s not that it doesn’t taste like pear…it does..but the tea as a whole seems muted a wee bit. That being said, I’ve been drinking it all night and it re-steeps really nicely, without losing much in the way of flavour.

Thank you kittenna for sharing your precious pear tea with me! S&V DOES have a green pear tea so we may need to check that one out next :)

Oooh i like this one :) Again, i either went in on it with Kittenna or she gave me a taste. Either way thanks to Kittenna who arranged things!

I REALLY am enjoying this one even if the apple is totally subtle. It is totally tasty cake like and delicious. I let a friend try this without telling her what it was and she was like “caaaake!” I am for sure going to look to try more of the S&V teas – at the very least there are likely a few more dessert type teas that I want to try.

Edit: mmmm this resteeps really nicely!

mmmm I can’t recall if this was one of the teas I purchased or just one that kittenna let me sample. I know…that’s bad lol In either case, thanks go to her for getting this into my life :) One thing i’ve learned about S&V teas is that they are SMELLY! haha I’ve had to lock all the ones i received into tupperware containers so that they don’t dominate the entire house. However, they also, appear to taste exactly like they smell.

This one, is quite yummy, though I’m not sure i’d call it creme brulee exactly. It’s sweet…and caramelly and there’s a vanilla/custardy sip at the end of this. But it doesn’t scream creme brule to me. it IS however a delicious tasty dessert tea. :)

I figured i’d better give this a shot since it’s out to at least Kittenna from the weekend and i haven’t even tried it yet. I can’t remember what prompted me to pick this one up when i was in sanfrancisco as i wasn’t even really sure about my tea preferences, but pick it, i did.

I must say that i guessed on the amount of tea to put in this one since i don’t have a scale (shush kittenna!). Whatever the case though, it’s turned out quite nice. This tea is unbelivably sweet, but not in an artificial way. It’s not a strong, bold black…instead there’s a fruity, breadiness? to the tea. There’s no bitterness. I’m not entirely sure how to describe this…in part because we’re having system issues at work again and i’m focused on that. I’m looking forward to a few additional steeps tonight when i get home though. I also really want to do this in a gaiwan when it comes because i think this will be a much more interesting experience that way.

Sipdown! :) So another tea that i’m glad i can cross off my list of 52 teas that i’ve tried. Thanks to Kittenna for sharing!

Not impressed with this one at all. Could be the age of it but it’s bitter, astringent and there’s not a whole lot of cherry going on. Even with a bit of milk and sweetner added, the taste wasn’t much improved.

Heh sip down! Thanks to raritea for this one. It’s one that I missed out on picking up when it was reblended and I always regretted it. Raritea was nice enough to let me satisfy my curiosity. I can safely say that I’m glad I didn’t pick up a package of this. While its a pleasant enough tea, I’m not really feeling the whole cotton candy or blueberry in the intensity that I’d like for this kind of blend. Instead it comes across as a a tea stuck trying to be both and not really succeeding in doing either really well. Now, that being said, its still an enjoyable tea that im glad I got to try :) plus its a green tea!

This was a little bitter today, or at least had a bit of bitterness behind the tasty caramelness of the tea. I may have steeped this a bit long though since it was at work and I was distracted. Still a decent blend and something that i’m going to enjoy figuring out how to best brew.

My tastebuds seem to be back to normal, or at least mostly back to normal for black teas so I thought i’d chance a bit of my sample from Hesper June today because I’ve been dying to try them since they arrived!

I have to say this is a pretty tasty tea. I’m digging the chocolatey hazelnut flavour that’s not too in your face but is still strong enough to appreciate. There’s not “artificial” taste to this tea which is great. I think i was expecting a bit more chocolate than is present but it’s still a great cup of tea!

Thank you so much Hesper June for letting me try this one! I’m excited to try the others that you sent me :)

I absolutely will not do this justice wiht this tasting note as I’m at work and brewed this western style. I fully intend to do more steepings tonight when i get home, as well as try this gonfu style once my gaiwan arrives..but for now, this is what i have!

This isn’t a malty tea for me. There’s a definite chocolate feel, but different from laoshan black or some of the other black teas i enjoy. As i sip this, there’s a note at the end of my sips that’s almost fruity, but i suspect is just the honey note coming through. (I’m still not sure my tastebuds are 100%) It’s not as rich and bold as other blacks, but it’s wonderfully smooth and delightful as i sip through this. It makes me wish i’d packed my leaves to bring to work for resteeps.

Edit: Some tasty re-steeps tonight that have really been enjoyable.