Tea Sipper

Thanks to Darby for sending this as part of a trade! I figured this wasn’t JUST a chai as it is labeled since I saw a ton of black tea in it (more than spices anyway). It is also a black tea as the description above says. I have no idea why more chai isn’t mixed with black, since it seems it would make sense. But since it was mixed with black tea, the chai flavor wasn’t stronger. I couldn’t really taste the white chocolate though, and I definitely saw at least one chocolate chip go into my infuser. Not bad… I like it because it is probably the only chai/black blend I have right now!

Additional notes: How did I confuse this for a black tea before? Maybe it said that at the top of the description before someone changed it? It doesn’t taste like an oolong anyway. The other flavors stand out more. I could definitely taste the basil and a bit of lemon this time. The steep color was a darker yellow. And it still had a golden raisin flavor! Is that possibly the oolong? With my new oolong flavor rating where 1 is light and 5 has a stronger flavor, I’d give this a 1. Pretty tasty especially because my sample package isn’t too young now. It’s odd that the description calls this a dessert or after dinner tea though, since the name is ‘sunrise’!

I was drinking this lovely tea today, one of my absolute favorites. I just needed to write another note because Dhart1214 answered my call in the forums when I wished I had bought more of this before Element closed! It was last second that I ordered anyway. SO Dhart1214 sent me her package of Creme Earl Grey! I REALLY appreciate it! I could drink this every day so it helps to have more!

Thanks again to TeaEqualsBliss for the package of teas! I love jasmine! But seeing this as a green tea and thinking about it, I might have ZERO green teas in my stash! That is by accident, I think! I like green teas but I like the flavor of red, oolong and black teas better. This one isn’t bad. It definitely has that vegetal taste that the description above mentions. I can’t taste too much of a jasmine flavor or scent. I may have oversteeped. Even when it cooled I couldn’t taste it! But it’s nice to have a green tea in my stash for once!

Thanks to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me this and so many other amazing teas! I’ll be writing tasting notes for a while for them! This one was odd to me, since it didn’t taste like a typical black tea. It had more of a vegetal flavor.. asparagus? Not in a bad way. The second steep somehow tasted more like the usual assam. Good stuff!

Thanks to Rumpus Parable for this one! This is a delicious assam. It is a bit stronger than I thought assams would be for the first cup. The flavor definitely lingers on the tongue! The second cup was more milder, like I thought assams would be… like a sweeter black tea. But I’m not complaining — the stronger the better for me!

Thanks to Nicole for her stash reduction! I’m thrilled to try some of these teas I know I will love… starting with this one. I love this one. I had it the other day without reviewing it and I already wanted to try it again. I’m eyeing the bag and wondering how many more cups I can get. I think rooibos, blueberry and creme are perfect together and a great blend idea for a tea. The scent and flavor to me is entirely blueberry muffin batter! Yum! It’s very silky smooth! I really like it!

Wanted to add more here: the flavor certainly is more like a bitter black tea than an oolong. I couldn’t guess it was an oolong if it were a blind taste test. The steep color is an amber red. On my new scale of oolong flavor strength, 1 being the lightest and most floral, 5 being the strongest flavor, this one is a 5!

Hmm… I don’t get much of a sweet potato flavor here. It seems like it is just the natural flavor of the black tea. There is a slight slight marshmallow flavor. Just seems like a typical black tea to me. Not a bad black tea though.

Thanks to IHeartTeas for sending this as part of the fire sale, I got to try a ‘battle of the Earl Grey Cremes’ after getting three Earl Grey Cremes in the same week. I thought I wouldn’t like Earl Grey at all, since the bergamot doesn’t sound very good to me at all. But the creme makes it amazing! HOWEVER, this Earl Grey Creme loses to the other two (Element & SpecialTeas). The flavor on this one just isn’t as strong with either the black tea, bergamot or creme. And it also leaves my mouth a bit dry. If I had tried this one before the other Earl Grey Cremes, I would have loved this one more than I do, but the other two are perfect.

This starts with a nice black tea base. It shouldn’t have too much flavor, or it takes away from the flavors that are added to it. I steeped this the other day and there wasn’t much flavor at ALL. Today, I must have steeped it perfectly because every sip has a peach and cream flavor. YUM But I still wish there was more flavor to it. I never have actual cream, probably because I don’t drink coffee. I literally drank more coffee when I was three years old. But I’m starting to think I love all creamy teas! I keep wanting to steep my new favorite every day – Earl Grey Creme!

The leaves are longer and twisty. The color of the cup is a nice mellow yellow. I may have steeped this too long, since the flavor was a BIT bitter, but it still has that lovely sweet, floral and light flavor a good oolong has, and has a good deal of residual flavor for a while after. It also leaves my mouth a bit dry. But this one is very delicious. WAY better than the Element Tropical Peach Oolong I also bought with this one in their closing sale.

My level of light to strong flavor for oolongs – 2 out of 5 for this one.

I don’t care if it’s midnight, I want a chai. Actually, I just wanted to try this apple chai that Darby sent me in a trade (thanks!) It really has a delicious slightly bitter (in a good way) chai flavor. Very flavorful, nice & spicy. The spices really linger. Sadly, the most intriguing part of this blend seems to be absent: the apple. Maybe the other flavors are so strong they mask the apple, I don’t know. To be fair, my nose is a bit stuffy and I didn’t see any apple chunks actually going into my infuser. Actually, there seems to be a squashy flavor more than apple. I’m taking a few points off for not having a better apple flavor, but as a chai, it’s great. Now at least I know those Adagio chais that you can make some amazing blends with are tasty!

Vanilla and jasmine are two of my favorites, so I was really looking forward to this one! (thanks Nicole for the package of tea!) The vanilla and jasmine aren’t too strong, you really should wait until it is cooling a bit to drink, rather than when it is piping hot. After it cooled, I could smell and taste the vanilla and jasmine much better. Even though the base of green tea wasn’t that strong, it still didn’t let the flavors shine as well as I would have liked. Hoping future infusions are better! But I like the idea of vanilla jasmine!

I bought this one because it sounded interesting and very patriotic! (it’s a fun tea to have around July 4th, Memorial Day, etc.) The base is a rooibos and white tea with blueberry and raspberry leaves (I don’t know if raspberry leaves would taste like raspberry, but why not just have raspberry instead of the leaves?) First off, I can tell there might be stevia in the teabag, even if it isn’t listed in the ingredients, which I’m not too happy about. The steep color is red with a hint of the blueberry. I’m not sure about the blueberry scent. It smells good, but not too authentic. I think because it is a mixture of white and red teas, the white diminishes some of the sweetness of the red tea. It is a bit bitter. BUT I’m glad the hibiscus flavor isn’t too prominent. Not a bad tea from Stash!

I made a cup of this the other day. It seemed a bit weak tasting. BUT this one is better. Higher temp and longer steep time. Much of the tea fell through the infuser, so that is probably helping the flavor too. I don’t know what distinguishes this from an Irish breakfast tea, as it just says ‘assam’. But the flavor is slightly sweet, with the usual stronger black tea flavor, and a bit oaty. Sipping it leaves my mouth a bit dry. It’s pretty good, but nothing really makes it memorable.

I like this one! The flavors are great together. I thought the black tea base was sweet tasting and a perfect match for the banana and coconut. I’m guessing there is a bit of an artificial banana flavor, but it isn’t bad at all. And it does seem kind of tropical! The blue cornflowers add a nice touch. Another great tea from the Element tea closing sale purchase I made.

I don’t love chamomile, but I feel like I’ve been spoiled with teas I love lately! I’ve had this in an older Numi sample box. I was actually expecting more of a lemon flavor, as the other Numi with lemon myrtle I had (Rainforest Green Mate Lemon) had so much lemon it reminded me of a sugary lemon donut I had a while ago. This has barely any lemon myrtle with on odd tasting chamomile. Not bad — I guess I needed a chamomile tea more then any other kind of tea. It has been one of those days. But maybe spoiling myself with more tea I loved would have helped.

Edited to add: Second steep: I steeped it hotter and with a longer steep time and both the chamomile and the lemon myrtle were much better. It might even be my favorite chamomile. I’m upping the rating.

This is in teabags. How could a vanilla rooibos be bad? The vanilla flavor isn’t as strong as I’d like, but that might be because it is organic? The Suffuse vanilla rooibos I have, I just love. But that one might not be as organic. But the more vanilla flavor the better! The rooibos is always a delicious base for anything. A deep red color, too.

What I like about this tea… there isn’t a strong hibiscus flavor! But the rest of the flavors aren’t too strong either, and this isn’t really a tea you can resteep (which I usually do with every tea!) The flavors sound like they would be great together (Strawberry, kiwi, apples, rose petals…) but I just wish it was a stronger flavor. I’ll have to put more in the infuser next time, not try to get a second cup out of it and go full flavor for the first cup.

I love love love love Creme Earl Grey! It’s my new favorite! I somehow have in my possession three blends of earl grey in the last month! This was sent to me by Rumpus Parable (thank you!). I love the perfect mix of creme and bergamot and a black base. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t even like bergamot by itself. I could drink gallons of this stuff. But this is why you don’t try the horrible tea bag labeled ‘earl grey’ and then assume you won’t like any other earl grey. As far as my Battle-of-the-Creme-Earl-Greys goes (see the Element Creme Earl Grey), this one is pretty darn similar to that one. Is it possible it is the same blend? But the more I have of this, the better. I won’t ever get sick of it! (I think I’ve already had six cups of creme earl grey in the last two weeks!)

Actually, I’m not sure if this is the tea I have. It’s one steepster select gave out but it is labeled Creme Earl Grey. Can someone confirm if it is the right tea? I couldn’t find Creme Earl Grey and I figured it would be on steepster somewhere, as it was part of Steepster Select…

This is the second favorite from the big batch of teas I bought from the Element closing sale (the first was Creme Earl Grey). It has such a unique flavor! I love the idea of a red and black combined tea. Yum! It has a subtle spearmint flavor and a subtle lime flavor… and some other mysterious flavor.. that must be the rum! It’s all sweet and not bitter at all.

Despite always wanting a roasted tea, I didn’t really have any in my stash. Rumpus Parable sent me some tea (thank you!) and this happened to be one of them! I really like it! I wonder if it has caffiene though? The steep color IS a beautiful amber color. I like it for the steep color alone! The flavor is roasty, toasty and surprisingly sweet (and I steeped it hot and for a while). Good stuff!

Yes, there is a reason ginger is in the name of this tea. I’m not a fan of ginger. It’s really all I can taste here. The lemon flavor isn’t too strong. I had a lemon tea from Numi a while back, the lemon verbena in that one reminded me of a sugary lemon candied donut I had years ago. So this is a disappointment. There is barely any honeybush in the bag either. It isn’t bad — it should just have a better flavor. I think lavender in the place of ginger would have been better.