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Today, as my exciting tea adventures continued, I was introduced to Rooibos tea. I wasn’t sure if this unstimulated herbal experience would be good for me since I prefer the caffeine kick of bold black teas.

I brewed this loose leaf tea for five minutes at 212 degrees as Adagio recommended. While brewing, its aroma gave me flashbacks to the wonderful smells of my mother’s kitchen, when she would make sweet and delicious vanilla cake frosting from scratch using fine vanilla extract.

The brewed color of the tea is a rich, reddish gold. Having an insatiable sweet tooth, I enjoyed the very robust vanilla taste. Again, I would compare the flavor more to vanilla extract than to vanilla ice cream.

This tea has an extremely savory and sweet taste that lingers on your palate after each sip. There also is a twinge of spice. The vanilla flavor is so full that any bitterness would be well hidden if it did exist.

For the first time, I am starting an afternoon tea rotation list to accompany my morning lineup. This tea is currently numero uno on the new list!

This loose leaf English Breakfast selection was in my New English Teas gift pack that Santa brought me this year. I am sipping it now as I speak…uh…type.

I am enjoying this tea. It has a bold and full flavor. My tastebuds are reading malt and a hint of spice. I am not detecting any bitterness.

I brewed the tea for three minutes at 212 degrees. This method produced lots of flavor, even in the first cup.

All in all, this has the rich, complete, and signature flavor for which fine British teas are known. It’s still too soon to know how the caffeine content will revive my metabolism, but I do believe I feel my eyes starting to open wider.

Santa must have stopped off in London before he got to my house this year and picked up a New English Teas gift pack for me. I really like the cute little tins that are shaped like a British double-decker bus, phone booth, and royal guard station.

This London Tea has a nice mellow flavor. There is a taste of malt, as well as the familiar full black tea flavor that seems to be standard with most of the British blends. The tea has a light mahogany color after brewing for three minutes at 212 degrees.

This variety was phenomenal with the addition of a few cakes of genuine Scottish shortbread. Tea and shortbread are obviously made for each other. Like all of the British varieties I have tried so far, this tea is best described as pleasant and tasty.

Santa Claus was very good to me again this year (even though I wasn’t always a good boy). He brought me some Partridges English Breakfast Loose Tea.

I love powerful bold black teas in the morning to knock me out of my post-slumber stupor; the stronger the better. However, I may have found a black tea that is potentially too strong even for me. This is not a criticism of the tea, but rather, my brewing method. I steeped the tea for five minutes at 212 degrees. I think this tea would have a more mellow flavor with three minutes of brewing. I will try that next time.

This selection has a prominent malty taste. The flavor is full and enduring, providing a big bang with every sip. Even with my over-steeping, the flavor is not bitter, just very rich and strong. The color is like maple syrup.

I do like this tea. It reminds me of other robust UK black teas that I was offered when I visited Scotland years ago. This is the kind of tea that will slap you awake in the morning. I will definitely keep it in my daybreak rotation for those mornings when I need an extra shove to reunite with the land of the living.

Let me begin this note by saying the True Love Flower Tea by Teavivre is the most entertaining tea that I have experienced thus far. It was a lot of fun to watch the little tea bundle slowly molt into the pretty flowers and greenery!

I hadn’t brewed a flower tea before so I may not have used the proper procedure. I nuked (microwaved) water until it boiled and then I dropped the little bundle into the water. This method made the process very cool to observe. The nest-like ball immediately started to sizzle, open, and bloom, as it gradually sank to the bottom of the pot. I then let it steep for three minutes before I strained the tea into my cup.

If you have been following my tasting notes, you already know that I do not, as a rule, enjoy flowery tasting teas. However, this tea is a great exception to my standard thoughts about floral teas.

The Love Flower Tea has a soft, nice, semi-sweet, nutty flavor. The flowery attributes blend harmoniously with the taste but do not take control. I also didn’t feel like my mouth was full of perfume as I had with other flower power teas I tried in the past. I didn’t detect any bitterness. The flavor lingered pleasantly on my palate after each sip. The brewed color is a light orange/yellow.

This product changed my (tea) life in that I will now be open to trying other flowery teas in the future. True Love Flower Tea is an enjoyable tea, not just due to the delightful flavor, but also because of the great floor show!

Although I usually follow Teavivre’s brewing instructions exactly as recommended, today I deviated from them for this green tea. Teavivre states on the packet that you should brew this tea for one minute at 176 degrees. I didn’t have a problem with the temperature but I knew one minute of brewing was not going to produce flavor strong enough for my tastebuds to tune in. So, I brewed the tea for two minutes instead.

I am very glad that I added an extra minute of brewing for this selection. Even with the additional steeping, this tea does not have a lot of flavor. What is there is pleasant, light, and grassy, but there just isn’t enough taste to rouse me or make me count the minutes until I try it again.

If you prefer green teas over the bolder and more robust black teas, this tea may be just fine for you. Personally, the teas that get me most excited are the ones that flood my senses with flavor and linger on my tastebuds after each sip.

This morning I was having even more trouble than usual shaking the slumber off of my metabolism so I could face the day. I yearned for some potent black tea which usually does the trick.

However, fate dealt me a different hand as I accidentally, with squinting eyes, reached for the Teavivre Organic Silver Needle White Tea instead. Since, in my half-asleep state, I had already ripped the seal from the packet when I realized my mistake, I decided to make the best of the situation and go with it.

As I raised the cup to my lips and the first few drops of liquid trickled down my throat, my eyes popped open, not from the usual caffeine jolt of black tea, but from the incredible flavor that emerged from this amazing white tea!

I’m not a fan of flowery tasting teas, but the wonderful sweet floral flavor of this tea brought me back to memories of my childhood when I would suck out the sweet nectar of honeysuckle blossoms during the hot and humid New Jersey summers.

This tea has an extremely smooth taste to it. The floral and sweet flavors are in perfect harmony. There is no bitterness and neither flavor sensation overpowers the other.

The clean light golden yellow color of this tea, like white wine, is very inviting. You may want to serve this one in clear mugs to get the full effect.

Teavivre has once again broadened my horizons with another fantastic tea. I now see (and taste) the value and good in all tea colors. Black, white, green; they are now all equal in my sight (and tastebuds).

This is my first sampling of Pu-erh tea. If Teavivre’s Ripened Aged Pu-erh Mini Tuocha is representative of other teas of this type, I will be seeking out additional members of this club soon!

This tea is absolutely delicious! It has a rich, robust, and bold wood taste with a sweet edge to it. The color is a full-bodied dark brown, like maple syrup filtered through mahogany wood. The aroma reminds me of freshly cut fine wood in a furniture maker’s shop.

I found myself swirling the tea around my mouth longer than usual with each sip. I just didn’t want to swallow it and end the fabulous flavor ride.

As always, I followed Teavivre’s preparation instructions to the letter. I brewed this tea at 212 degrees for two minutes. That method seemed to perfectly produce one of the best tea experiences I have ever had.

If there is such a thing as a tea drinker’s tea, this has got to be it. I would enjoy this beverage at any time of the day or night. This tea is now listed at the top of my rapidly growing tea shopping list.

I’m very new to Oolong tea so I am not sure what to expect when I try each variety. Teavivre’s Tie Guan Yin “Iron Goddess” Oolong tea is fascinating by any distinction. I was struggling to put the wonderful flavor into words until I read the information about this tea on Teavivre’s web site.

Teavivre explains that this tea is from “an area with a mix of mountains, forests, and small creeks.” Bingo! That is also a great description of the flavors inherent in this tea.

The taste of nature is abundant in this selection. It is earthy, fresh, and woodsy. The flavor is not overpowering but just right. I steeped it for the recommended maximum time of three minutes and it was perfect for my tastebuds with no bitterness. It has a light golden color that underestimates the power of its flavor.

This tea would be great to sip all day. Teavivre says that it can typically be infused seven times. I probably won’t be putting that claim to the test today, but excuse me while I prepare infusion #2 for another four cups.

It is probably not fair for me to review this tea because I have to confess that I just do not like tea that tastes like flowers. Jasmine flavored tea almost makes me gag. However, since I took the time and made the effort to down a whole cup of this tea this morning, I guess I have earned the right to put my two cents in (you can decide if my two cents are worth that much to you).

I tried to clear my mind of all prejudices as I took the first careful sip. I knew immediately that I did not like the taste of the Malva flowers. To me, flowered tea is like drinking perfume. I like flowers in the garden and perfume on my woman, but neither down my throat.

Even more disappointing to me was that I did not taste even a hint of Bergamot. Perhaps the Bergamot presence was so weak that the Malva beat it into submission.

The advertisement on the tea bag wrapper states that the “Bergamot and malva flowers add an innovative twist to traditional Earl Grey.” Personally, I think the Malva flowers twisted the life out of the Bergamot.

I went into the office today, which sadly meant I had to be away from my Breville loose leaf tea maker. Even sadder, my only tea options were those of the bagged persuasion. My fiancee gave me a sample tea bag of Sorwathe Rwanda black tea to try so I decided to turn my misfortune into adventure.

This tea is Fairtrade Certified and an Ethical Partner Participant. It is also certified by the Rwanda Bureau of Standards. I wasn’t sure what all of that signified, but I was hopeful that it meant good things inside the tea bag.

I steeped this tea for six minutes at approximately 200 degrees. I figured that was about as high a temperature as the hot water button on the office Flavia machine could muster. The tea that resulted was very dark and almost brown in color. It had a thick appearance and taste. The flavor was overwhelmingly malt. Despite the strong malted dominance of the taste, I didn’t experience any bitterness. I like malt to be PART of the flavor of my tea but I don’t want malt to be the ONLY flavor of my tea.

In my humble opinion, the tea would be much more enjoyable and interesting if there were at least undertones of other tastes within. This tea isn’t terrible, but it is a one horse ride to Mediocreville.

Yesterday, while we were out Christmas shopping at the local mall, I was again magnetically drawn to the Teavana store. My tried and true Teavana routine is to let the staff recommend what I should buy next. This time it was the Golden Monkey black tea.

After steeping this tea for three minutes at 195 degrees, a dark golden brew emerged. This tea is said to contain cocoa. I didn’t recognize chocolate in the flavor but this tea does have a nice sweet and malty taste. This is not one of the strongest black teas that I have tried, but there is sufficient flavor to satisfy my preference for the bold and beautiful.

While I enjoyed the milder but sweet and pleasing experience of this blend, I found myself longing for a scone or some tea biscuits to accompany it. This might have just been due to the throbbing of my sweet tooth. Or, maybe it was due to Christmas, the time of the year when sweetness fills our senses and our hearts.

This tea is fascinating before you even brew it. The leaves are flat and green like shards of fresh palm leaves. The pre-brewed leaves also have a fragrant grassy aroma.

After brewing at two minutes (as recommended) using a temperature of 175 degrees, the tea had a pale yellow color. At first taste, I thought I was experiencing some bitterness. After several sips, though, I realized that this was just a floral and reedy aftertaste.

The more I slurped this tea, the better I liked it. The grassy, nutty flavor is light and strong at the same time. If you close your eyes while sipping, you can imagine yourself sitting in a lush green grassy meadow, surrounded by flowers and a thick forest, while a soft breeze swirls around you.

Although I’m not a huge green tea fan (I prefer the bolder black tea blends), I find this Teavivre tea likable and engrossing. For a green tea, it has plenty of flavor to hold my interest.

I have to admit, I was a little skeptical about this tea. I never had white tea before and I shied away from it. My impression was that white tea would be weak and watery and not as robust as I prefer tea to be, particularly in the morning.

When I brewed this tea, I was still suspicious. Teavivre’s instructions to steep it for a maximum of two minutes made me think that I was going to have to really focus my tastebuds to find enough flavor for me to appreciate. I followed their instructions anyhow because the Teavivre black tea samples I tried were perfect after I went along with their recommendations.

After brewing for two minutes, the tea had the color of a nice white wine. When I tasted it, I was very surprised by the sweet floral flavor that flooded my senses. Although I can’t say that the flavor is strong (and this may just be a normal characteristic of white tea), I can say that the tea is delicious. A very pleasant sweet aftertaste was also left on my palate after each sip.

This is another terrific tea from Teavivre. Even though I thought that once I went black (tea), I would never go back, I would definitely select this white tea again for afternoon drinking. I’m also now curious about other white teas.

This is Teavivre sample #3 of 5 for me today. I’m already sad that I only have two more samples remaining.

One word describes the Bailin Gongfu Black Tea: EXQUISITE! This is another exceptional black tea. The flavor is full yet light and airy. A very pleasing fruity and flowery zing is at the forefront. Behind that is the presence of malt and a hint of sweetness.

This tea is a kaleidoscope of great, well-blended flavors. As with the other two samples I have tried so far, there is a terrific freshness to the taste of this tea, as if it were just harvested yesterday.

I continue to be amazed by the fabulous flavors and quality of Teavivre teas. I’ve already added two Teavivre teas to my Christmas Wish List. Bailin Gongfu Black Tea is about to make its appearance!

This morning I was excited to try another sample of Teavivre tea. The Yun Nan Dian Hong Black Tea – Golden Tip did not disappoint me one bit. It has a wonderful, light, flowery, fresh fields taste to it.

So far, Teavivre’s black teas have amazed me with the great amount of flavor they produce at low brewing temperatures and short steeping times. I brewed this one for three minutes at 185 degrees as recommended. The result was plenty of flavor, although I think my worn out tastebuds may need about three and a half minutes of brewing to obtain the full flavor effect. Regardless, this is another excellent tea.

This tea has a bright light amber color like wildflower honey. There is also a hint of sweetness to the flavor that makes this selection refreshing for black tea.

I continue to be very impressed with Teavivre teas. They have skyrocketed to the top of my favorites list. I’m already counting the hours until tomorrow’s new sample!

This is my first taste of tea by Teavivre. Samples of this and four other Teavivre varieties came in the mail yesterday all the way from China.

I have to say, I am blown away by the great complex flavors of this bold yet very gentle tea. It’s one of the best black teas I have ever tasted!

This premium tea has a wonderful woody and smoky taste that is fully realized, but not overpowering, after just three minutes of steeping at 194 degrees. I find that worthy of note because I usually have to brew black tea for five minutes at 212 degrees to wring a level of flavor strength from it that even approaches this fine gem from the East.

The rich flavors of this tea are very clear without any bitterness creeping onto your palate. The bright amber color foreshadows the outstanding tasting experience that awaits you.

I am excited to try another tea offering by Teavivre…TOMORROW!

Yesterday I found myself back at the mall and once again I was drawn to the Teavana store “just to look”. I don’t know if the sales people are very good or I’m just an easy sell. In any event, this time I purchased the Slimful Chocolate Decadence blend. All you have to do is mention chocolate and my wallet seems to pop out of my pocket. This is my first experience with oolong tea. Following Teavana’s instructions, I brewed it at 195 degrees for three minutes. The flavor is an agreeable combination of chocolate and ginger. As Tamm commented, I did not see or taste the presence of rose petals in my selection. Maybe it’s because I’m not used to oolong yet, but the flavor power of this tea is weaker than my preference, particularly early in the morning when I’m trying to slap awake my brain and tastebuds. Am I sorry I purchased it? No. Do I like it? Yes. Will I drink it again? Yes. Next time, though, I will experiment with brewing it a little longer or adding more tea.

UPDATE: I blended Azteca Fire with Matevana yesterday morning. I used 1.5 teaspoonsful of each variety per cup. Wow! After my first sip, I heard music playing, birds singing, and sweet voices! Then, I turned off my radio. Seriously, though, the two varieties go together better than Abbott & Costello. It was like drinking a rich and sweet cup of hot chocolate with a fine tea chaser. The multiple flavors complement each other perfectly! So, I’m raising my rating for Azteca Fire because it is a great friend for other blends.

I’ll make this Tasting Note short and sweet because that is how I feel about this herbal tea blend. The chocolate taste is sweet but the rest of the flavor falls short. It is similar to hot chocolate, with either four times the apppropriate amount of water, or only one-fourth the amount of recommended hot chocolate mix. Take your pick. It smelled so misleadingly wonderful in its unbrewed state in the cannister. I’m disappointed with this one on its own. However, I have a feeling that it will be a great complement to another blend. Next time, I will mix this selection with Teavana’s Matevana blend. Hopefully Azteca Fire will then sigh, turn to Matevana, and whisper seductively, “You complete me.”

I was extremely psyched this weekend when I discovered that the mom and pop peach stand down the road sells Charleston Tea Plantation teas! Now I know how Columbus felt in 1492! I had just learned about these teas during my trip to Charleston last week and I figured I’d have to wait until my next trek to that great city before I could buy more. What made my discovery even sweeter was when I found that I can buy the teas locally for about 25% less than what they cost me in Charleston! So, needless to say, I picked up an additional variety of this wonderful tea.

The Governor Gray tea, like the other selections from this company that I’ve tried so far, has a very smooth and full flavor. The bergamot presence is light, but you know it is there by the citrus undertones that exist in every sip. Perhaps it only seems light to me because I am accustomed to the supercharged double bergamot tea blend produced by Stash. In any case, this is a very nice and tasty tea. I steeped it for four minutes at 212 degrees. This seemed to result in a hint of bitterness, but nothing to detract from my pleasure in drinking this tea. Next time I will lighten up and cut a minute off of the steeping time.

UPDATE: I did diminish the steeping time to three minutes to see if the slight bitterness that I experienced at four minutes would disappear. The results are in. To quote Goldilocks, “This one is just right!”

I said I was going to just enjoy the loose leaf teas I have now and not buy more until I finish what I have. But…I was at the local mall last night and passed a store that I hadn’t noticed before…TEAVANA!!!

TEAVANA became NIRVANA for me! The incredible aromas that filled the store, as well as the many free tea tasting samples, were just too much for me to resist. I didn’t want to go crazy (yet) so I only bought two types during this stop. I know I will be back…soon.

I was very excited to try the purchased MateVana tea this morning. The odor that arose from the cannister contained the only thing that I like about coffee, its great aroma. I hate the taste of coffee and have always wished that coffee tasted like it smelled. This tea does just that and more!

The sweet, almost chocolaty, aroma that wafted from the tea maker while brewing, again screamed out the qualities that I always envied in coffee. This divine smell was not even slightly diminished in the cup that followed. And, the bold, sweet, and polished flavor of the tea is beyond adequate accolades. It TASTES exactly like fine coffee SMELLS without the harsh and often bitter flavor of coffee. It is tremendously rich, vibrant, and smooth. I drank three cups of this wonderful nectar this morning. I can’t wait to pop open the cannister again soon, just to sniff it, if I don’t have time to brew it.

Now I know why they give you so many free tasting samples at Teavana. It’s to get you hooked on the fine stuff! In my case, stay tuned. I’ll let you know how things go at my TA (Te-a-holics Anonymous) meetings.

This is another one of the Charleston Tea Plantation loose leaf teas that I picked up while I was in Charleston, South Carolina, last week. Although I like several strong cups of potent black tea in the morning to get my remaining brain cells chugging, I decided to give this green tea a try today. I am so glad I did! I set the Breville One-Touch Tea Maker for medium-strength green tea, with a brewing time of three minutes at 175 degrees. The flavor of this tea is smooth as silk. The taste of mint is cool and refreshing without overpowering the light but steady essence of the tea. Bitterness is not part of this tea’s vocabulary, even 40 minutes after brewing. I drank three cups this morning and still yearned for more!

I was in Charleston, South Carolina, last week and just couldn’t resist picking up some loose leaf tea grown on the Charleston Tea Plantation, the only tea plantation in the United States. The Charleston Breakfast Tea variety brewed for four minutes, resulting in a vibrant amber color. The flavor is pleasant, although not multi-dimensional or particularly bold. The taste is slightly nutty but lacks sweetness that my worn tastebuds are able to detect. All-in-all, this is a kind and gentle breakfast tea that will softly stir you from your slumber.