Sil

Made this as a cold brew and it’s not too shabby at all. With a bit of sweetner added to it, it really accentuates the grapefruit flavour making it pop! Not a bad tea that seems to do a decent enough job hot and cold if for whatever reason i can’t get stacy’s grapefruit :)

Bumping the rating on this one as it’s grown on me a bit. I really like the way the caramel blends with the green tea. I’d order this one again from the persimmon tree for sure.

Another cup of this today and it’s not really a good cup today. the taste is all over the place and is most certainly NOT creme brulee. I think i’ll stick with the other teas from S&V since they are much truer to their flavours. Dropping the rating a bit even just since this doesn’t appear to be a consistent cup either.

SIPDOWN!!!! Yes ladies and gents, I managed to get through one of my bajillion teas. Of course I’m also planning on ordering more tea before i leave for china but that’s not crazy..right? RIGHT! FML i need an intervention lol. I’m sad to see this one god as it’s been delicious and thoroughly enjoyable but I will likely hold off before rotating this back into my cupboard for the time being. Only because i have so many other delicious black straight teas i need to drink up!

mmm yeah that’s right, I’m having this two days in a row! Now that I’ve found that sweet spot with milk, french vanilla matcha and this matcha i could drink this all day. It’s still not tastier than some of my other combinations but in a pinch this would be another of me go too matcha smoothies.

Sip down on this one as the last of it is going to a colleague at work looking for a decaf earl grey. It’s a good thing too because I am quickly coming to realize that if it is your typical earl grey bergamot tasting tea…..it is NOT for me. Appreciate getting to try this (thanks to the lovely nicole) as prior to this I had had much in the way of earl grey. It’s nice to cross that off my list of teas.

OK folks. this tea? this tea needs to be drunk as a cold brew. ‘nuff said. I had a chance to drink the cold brew of this that’s been in my fridge for a bit and it is delicious! It’s everything that i wanted the hot brew to be that it isn’t when it’s hot. I’m not bumping the rating on this one because I feel like a good tea should be drinkable both hot and cold, but the rest of my sample from Indigobloom is now earmarked for cold brew only. Cold, it’s at least a 75-80 :)

SIPDOWN! Thank you Kittena for sharing this one with me. I’m quite pleased with this one overall! I’m also planning on re-stepping the leaves as a cold brew to see how that works out. The strawberry and other fruits work very nicely together in this blend to give a tea that is that sweet and yet tangy strawberry taste. I also like that the tea base is still present and doesn’t entirely disappear in the fruity goodness.

Thanks for sharing Kittenna!

Had some of this in the afternoon in between all of the bustle of getting my chinese visa, work related things and other such adventures. I’m finding myself more and more stressed out every day over my impending trip, so I’m trying to do my best to take time out in the afternoon to sit and have a cup of something to try and relax. This afternoon it was mango lassi! In ym continuing quest to bring my tea collection down a bit, this is one of the teas i’ve set aside to try and have a bit more of since it’s been in my cupboard longer than some others. Today i was once again reminded of why i picked this up in the first place. This is a really nice mango tea! Probably my current favourite, though I continue to look for mango teas that are more about the mango!

Finally getting around to trying this one from our order with S&V. I have to say this is also a pretty damn good dessert tea. I’m not overly fond of almond baked goods but i do love me some sugar cookies. The scent of this tea reminds me completly of cookies…sweet and delicious.

Drinking this one is a delicious sweet cookie tea. It tastes like almonds but not, as Kittenna put it, Marzipan. Which is good because i really don’t like marzipan. I think this one is higher up on my list than the cinnamon chocolate brownie but I still prefer the uh other baked good tea whose name i can’t recall from S&V that we picked up. I find this tea sweet, without sweetner, but not so over the top that you want to find something less sweet to eat with it. Another good dessert tea from S&V encouraging me to order a bunch more :)

whee! This one is a little odd tasting today which i suspect is the result of not having had time to properly scrub out my travel mugs. Pulled the lid off and it’s back to my standard taste for this tea. Another one I’ve enjoyed trying and is almost down to the end of it’s life with me. I haven’t yet decided on whether I’ll restock this one, not because i don’t enjoy it but because I think the two that i REALLY want to keep in stock from Stacy are the premium tawainese assam and her new tea that isn’t up yet. Those plus the few verdant and teavivre teas and I should have my cupboard staples for morning blacks covered. then it’s just YAY try new blacks! until i find others to add to the list. I do love the smoothness of this tea along with the strength of it.

Oh man…so i initially wasn’t totally crazy about this matcha, but I appear to have found my sweet spot. A 2:1 ratio of pumpkin pie to french vanilla matcha and I am laughing all the way to crazy town. Seriously! The vanilla makes the pumpkin just a little sweeter and adds a creaminess that when combined with the spices is A-MAY-ZING! Love it! Bumping the rating a little even though it’s the combo with french vanilla to make it supercalafragilistically wonderful!

Bumping the rating on this one since it’s growing on me :) It’s in my sipdown pile for the week and I may just need to pick up a bit more once it’s all gone. Even cold the flavours are nicely balanced. Not a hueg fan of chamomile blends, but since it’s nice to have at least one in the house, this will be my go too since it’s the best one i’ve found so far!

Ugh. I can’t drink this anymore. It’s just a bitter astringent cup of blech. thank goodness for sipdowns! yay! be gone foul tea!

Had this with dinner tonight and it wasn’t bad. Sill not a favourite of mine but I like the cinnamon and glitter :)

mmmmm Another sample that NTL was kind enough to send my way. I probably won’t get to the third tonight but it’s on my list for this week. This tea is another wonderful tea from NTL. If you like cherry flavoured things, this is a pu-erh for you to try! The aroma even before the water hits the tea is CHERRY! What i also like about this pu-erh is that it’s more like a deep rich black earthy base to complement the cherry flavouring. Pu-erh newbies need not be afraid! I’m not nearly experienced as others with pu-erh but this is a wonderful blend of the deep pu-erh taste that I’ve come to associate with the puerhs that i’ve tried, and the fruitiness of the cherry tea.

Thank you so much Nature’s Tea Leaf for this sample!

The only thing that really confuses me about this tea is that there are strawberries in here. Which I can see, but that’s as far as it goes. So i have to say, I’m in agreement with everyone who has mentioned that this is NOT a tea for you if you don’t like coffee. I on the other hand, am a fan of coffee type latte beverages and so this? This is wonderful!

There is a nutty, sweet, caramel taste to this that I can really get behind. I’m sure if i added some milk to this is would taste eerily similar to a latte. I wouldn’t drink this every day but I am game to keep this in my cupboard for those days when i want something a bit punchier and more reminiscent of a coffee latte. :) mmmmm thanks to Kittenna for inspiring me to get around to trying this heh.

Nature’s tea Leaf was amazing enough to send me some samples of their tea via my friend in the US. I’ve had them for a bit now, but wanted to make sure my taste buds were back to normal before trying them.

I have to say, if this is a hint of things to come, I am really looking forward to the other teas from Nature’s Tea leaf…even if i do have to get them via my friend in the US. I am totally down to do that! This is a really nice “every day” black. The tea is smooth and slightly sweet, though not so much as my earlier teas from this morning. it’s not an overly malty black but that’s ok because the sweetness and the flavour going on is great. The back end of the sip really is reminiscent of honey.
Thank you Nature’s tea leaf for letting me try this one! I’m looking forward to the others :)

Sipdown! heh Stacy was kind enough to send this to me with my last order and since I seem to be on a black tea comparison kick this morning, I figured I’d add this to the list.

This is a really great black. It’s neither malty, nor chocolaty but it’s delicious! I’m looking forward to the re-steeps on this one AND being able to pick up more of this from Stacy!

The aroma of this tea is a sweet, not quite fruity but almost kinda could be fruity only it’s not. Sipping this it’s like a sweet candy. There’s no bitterness to this and it’s not robust and rich….it’s unique. I am digging the after taste in my mouth as well.
Stacy! You found another winner!

Edit: Resteeps of this have proven equally enjoyable and delicious.

Verdict is out, I much prefer the non upgraded version of Stacy’s premium Taiwanese Assam. That’s not to say that the upgraded version doesn’t taste yummy, but the notes that come alive when the tea is brewed are to my preference in the non upgraded version. This version is a bolder, stronger cup of tea that is less fruity and chocolate that the first version. It is malty and i do get the cocoa notes, but the sweetness in the non upgraded version isn’t in the upgraded version. Still a fine cup of tea that I’m glad i tried, but final verdict is that i prefer the other version :)

Doing a bit of a comparison this morning to see whether i prefer this version or the upgraded version from Stacy. This tea is one of my favourites. I love that there are notes of chocolate as well as a sweeter fruitiness almost. I just recently restocked this one and I’m so happy it’s back in my cupboard. I love having this one as part of my morning rotation of straight black teas.

Thank you indigobloom for sharing your custom blend with us! I’ve been wanting to try this forever since i love me some mango. I figure my tastebuds seem to be back to normal so this came out. I have to say, this is pretty darn delicious! I’m not getting much in the way of cilantro but i AM getting the mango and that makes me super happy! Even cold (since i got distracted) this is still delicious!

This might be the very first tea of stacy’s that i’m just not loving. Besides the random ones that are because i don’t generally like X kind of tea. This is a flavoured tea which has my favourite blend of things – orange and chocolate! This time it tasted better than before but there is still that bitterness at the end of the drink that i can’t get past. Asked my other half to try it and see if i was imagining it and he tasted it worse than i did. leisgh I have one more cups worth of this to try…going to add a bit of rock sugar to it to see if that helps. Milk didn’t. :(

SIPDOWN! Thank you raritea for this one.

I don’t even know how to explain how disappointed with this one i am. lol both kittena told me to re-steeps this and watch how the flavour changed. So i brewed this. and damn near gagged when i smelled the aroma of the first brew. I tried to drink it, but the artificial coconut like flavour was just too much. Funny story though? If this tea tasted like the aftertaste left in my mouth? I’d totally be in love with it!

So i resteeped this a bunch of times, and gradually the coconut went away and i was left with a creamy cherry coconut tea…that was tasty…but all previous steeps were pretty much down the drain lol.

Ah well…at least i tried! Thank you raritea for letting me try this one :)