Tea Sipper

No ratings yet? This has a cut-tear-curl black tea base, so it isn’t one of those chais with only spices in the blend. I steeped for 7-8 minutes just after boiling the water, but there isn’t as much flavor as I expected. Not as much flavor as Zen’s rooibos chai OR their Energizing Chai which I absolutely love since magically there is also pu-erh and yerba mate in that blend (also, chocolate!) but it is SO SPICY. I have no idea how it is that spicy if the spices have to share the spotlight with other ingredients. But even though this was steeped for 8 minutes, the black tea base doesn’t get astringent at all. I would much rather buy the Energizing Chai blend. Anyway, this isn’t terrible but I didn’t really make it the REAL way. It’s one of those chais that will get lost among the similar chais I have. I haven’t found the perfect chai yet, but I would say Zen’s Energizing Chai is close to it… but that one may be cheating/isn’t a genuine chai since it has pu-erh and yerba mate in it. Yes, I spent this review talking about the Energizing Chai more.

Another sample I bought from Zen! This had a blend of ingredients that sounded nice and healthy and also… NO hibiscus! Many halves of cranberries fell into my infuser. I steeped this for eight minutes, as recommended, and I was worried that the blackberry leaves would taste funky if steeped for that long, but it tastes fine. I’m not sure if it was the stinging nettle, but my mouth did have something of a sting to it. There is a tiny bit of a cranberry flavor. Otherwise, the rest of the ingredients like to combine to make their own flavor. It does taste a bit medicinal, so there are teas that are more interesting and fun. But I like this one.

I don’t know why I went for this one. I’m usually not a ginger fan. But this one is nice! I could drink it. It has a nice flavor to it with a deep dark red steep color. It’s tangy, spicy ginger and a lovely rooibos, so it’s simple. It will be a nice blend if you are a fan of both ingredients. But like I said, ginger is one of the three tea ingredients I don’t like, but this cup isn’t a problem. (Do I ever NOT like a tea? hmm..)

I’ve been on a new-tea-spree lately, so tons of tasting notes. Sorry about your dashboards, everyone! Hopefully they will slow down soon, but I can’t make any promises!

Additional notes: Azzrian sent me a sampling of this one a while back. thanks so much! I tried and loved a sample direct from Butiki a while back as well, so it was nice to revisit. I saw Azzrian’s tasting notes and was inspired to have a cup. I love this one. It’s creamy and nutty on a nice green tea base. I would love it if there was MORE pistachio flavor. BUT if you oversteep the green tea leaves to get more of the pistachio flavor, the tea will get bitter. But leaving the leaves in longer would give more of a pistachio flavor! Conundrum!

I had this one this morning. This is certainly what I consider the keemun flavor, and a very delicious one, too. I’ve had a couple keemun teas and this is what I expect a nice keemun to taste like. I must admit that the only keemuns I’ve tried have been from Butiki and Teavivre and this one is just as good! The first steep is a tiny bit smoky, dusky, plum-like. The second steep has more of a chocolate flavor and less smoke. I like either steep just fine! I’d keep this one stocked if I needed a keemun permanently in my stash. I think it might be one of the teas that Zen is discontinuing. oh no!

I really needed a comforting tea since this weather is really getting me down. It’s either snowing or raining.. now the ground will take forever to dry up. Then it will be raining again. Last year, the nice weather was so EARLY and it seems endless. ah.

Basically my entire Zen samples order was because I wanted a marzipan tea. And this sounded perfect. And it IS. The fragrance is super delish and the taste is exactly the same. It is almondy with a bit of cherry. Exactly like marzipan. Somehow rooibos is already very sweet and a bit like cherry and almonds. So it makes for a nice base! This hits the marzipan nail on the head, and perfect for my marzipan cravings. This is definitely second steepable since it is delicious in an entirely different way — the flavor morphs into something even sweeter. It kind of reminded me of marshmallows a bit but that might be the suggestion of the mallow blossoms… Sadly, I think this is one of the teas that Zen is getting rid of. I knew I should have ordered more than a sample. You have until April 20th to order some on sale!

I had to sample this one. Thanks, bluebirdteaco.com! Earl Grey and lavender! I’m trying to adjust to Bluebird’s black tea base. It doesn’t have a strong flavor, but their blends have such nice ingredients that it would be terrible to have a stronger black base to mask those flavors. After a three minute steep with just boiled water, I didn’t taste much earl grey, but there was a ton of lavender flavor even though I didn’t see much in the blend (they floated!). The lavender is delicious and it may have just blended really well with the earl grey. The second steep at four minutes had more earl grey and less lavender, which was a fun switch. I really like this one! It is simple and elegant!

thank you so much Dinosara! I had a tropical flavored tea once that tasted really weird and fake. Thankfully, this one is much much better. It actually tastes like tropical fruit on a nice yet mild black tea base. I didn’t see very many mango pieces in the mix though. It’s very juicy, if that’s possible. I like it!

I’m always on the search for nice and tasty new black teas, but this one isn’t very unique. The flavor isn’t very delicious or noticeable. This one would suit if you just wanted a black tea to go about your day, not really something to sit and savor. The dry leaves are very black. After a four minute steep, there is a medium body but it is a bit astringent with a tiny bit of a smokey flavor… not really much else to comment on. This isn’t a terrible blend, but there are so many more interesting black teas out there I would rather drink. But maybe a different steep would result in a much better cup…

My order of many Zentealife.com samples came in today! Nice. I could probably try all of their teas, which would be bad, because I would love all of them and want to stock up on all of them. I started with this one, since it’s nice to have a rooibos chai around when you want something to drink at night without caffeine but still has that spicy attitude. This one is amazing. I love it. Very spicy and it also has oranges in it though they were not in the ingredients list. The oranges add a lovely sweetness to the blend. I like the nice variety of spice ingredients. There isn’t as much of a rooibos flavor, but that may be because when I poured into the infuser, more spicy goodies fell out than rooibos. This one is very flavorful and comforting!

Additional notes: I’m having a couple steeps of this one, as Dinosara was nice enough to send me a couple teaspoons! This isn’t quite as magical as the first cup I tried, sadly. I wish I remembered how to steep it exactly the same. It is still very delicious and I think my favorite chocolate tea. I’ll definitely stock up at naturestealeaf.com when I run out!

All these awesome ingredients in this blend and then oh why bother since there is hibiscus included too. The deep red cup is like a warning. Then the hibiscus flavor overpowers EVERYTHING. I can’t tell there is anything else in this cup at all. Maybe my infuser had mostly hibiscus in it, but I did notice at least one huge mango piece. So disappointing! But this might be the most disappointing from the twenty or so teas I tried from Tealux. I’ve got a couple left to write tasting notes for and then I’ll list which ones were my favorites of the bunch…

thanks so much Amanda! I wanted a Yunnan at the moment, and I thought of this one I haven’t tried yet. It’s pretty decent. It’s Yunnan like anyway. ha. Though I wish there were deeper flavors after a five minute steep. A bit malty and chocolatey and peppery.. I’d say it has a medium body. I’d really love to find a yunnan that looks like a cup of coffee! I’m not sure they exist though… This might be the favorite I’ve tried from Teavana, but that is probably because this is a plain black tea and they can’t really mess it up by adding splenda or something.

thanks again, Bluebirdteaco.com for the samples! There are plenty of coffee beans in the mix here! After steeping for four minutes, the fragrance is telling me it’s a pu-erh but the flavor is a delicious coffee! It’s such a nice change. I’d say that coffee beans like this could turn me into a coffee drinker, but I love my tea too much! A fine example of a pu-erh and a good one to start with if you want to try one, since it is also mixed with black tea. It’s a nice mild pu-erh but you can tell it’s a pu-erh and it blends very well with the coffee. The second steep went for six minutes but there is less of a coffee flavor this time around. Very happy with this one. I’d buy this one as a tea-that-tastes-like-coffee tea. It’s like a triple threat: pu-erh, black tea and coffee!

thanks again Bluebird for the samples! I poured all of my sample into the infuser. It was probably a teaspoon and a half. I think I’ll start steeping that much with all my teas, since I have so much right now. I didn’t want to steep this one for four minutes because I saw a TON of raspberry leaves in it. I think it steeped for three minutes. I’m not sure where the name comes from.. this doesn’t taste like cake. I don’t think raspberry leaves would taste like cake anyway. The black tea isn’t a strong one.. and it would probably need something like vanilla or something to taste like cake. That is probably what the coconut is for, but it isn’t enough. There is a nice raspberry flavor though! It is certainly DELICIOUS, just not what I expect from a black tea or a CAKE tea. I’d order this one!

Momo sent me a sample of this one a while back. thank you! It’s one of two I haven’t tried yet! For this one, I couldn’t do my usual 52 Teas quick steep taste test, since I knew that to get the most flavor out of the cinnamon it would have to be boiling. So I just steeped it for six minutes. This may have sat mingling with other teas too long, since I mostly just taste cinnamon. I feel like I’m not doing it justice, since it isn’t as fresh now!

thank you again, Amanda, for the lovely package of teas. Of anything, I’d love to try more teas with walnuts in them (The 52Teas Date Nut Muffin is a particular favorite.) I read recently that the walnuts in a blend might get old earlier than usual in a tea. So I thought I would try this one asap. Sadly, the walnuts are a bit bitter. Oddly enough, I like it anyway (maybe that’s just the walnut fan talking). I don’t know if it is the walnuts that are a bit salty. The black tea base isn’t too strong and I barely tasted any banana. (The flowers were a nice accent though… and the mix itself looks like it has a ton of bananas and walnuts.) I probably would have loved this when it was just blended. I appreciate being able to try it anyway. I’ll still be on the lookout for other walnut blends, but I will know to drink them quicker from now on!

Also, snow bunny! Here is hoping starting on April 7th we have seen the last of the snow for the year! I think it is supposed to be in the 70s all week!

I wanted a creamy tea this morning, but not an earl grey, and I remembered that Yssah kindly sent me a sample of this one with the Harney teas I ordered from her! thanks so much! This reminds me of the Della Terra Blueberry cream, just without the rooibos and maybe with a bit less flavor. It’s good though! I think the black tea, blueberry and cream flavors all share an equal balance. It’s very sweet! I wish I had ordered some of this with the other teas!

thank you so much bluebirdteaco.com for the samples! The samples come in little velum-like pouches, sewn shut, with the bluebird logo. I’m not sure how long the tea would stay fresh, since, you know, the thread holes don’t make the package air tight (or smell contamination tight), but the little packages sure are adorable. I guess you’re supposed to drink them fast anyway!

I really wanted to try some of these amazing blends. They all look so good and so inspired — this one especially. I thought it would be like a mojito. Such a delicious sounding mix of ingredients. This is refreshing! My sample had about a teaspoon and a half, so I threw the whole thing in the infuser. I steeped for three minutes and got something super tasty! I first got a fruity flavor (but not hibiscus or rosehips that are mentioned… don’t be scared because I did not find them here at all, at least in this cup.) It’s a mix of fruit… lime, orange, passionfruit, mango and apple, and then the spicy hot chili kicks you in the back of the throat! Yowza. I love it. The fruit taste isn’t specific.. it all kind of blends into its own unique fruit flavor but I am noticing the lime. There is a bit of slight vegetal flavor too… I’m thinking it is from the green tea or the lemongrass, but only a little bit! I love that mix though: fruit, spicy chili, and a bit of a vegetal flavor… with no hibiscus to be tasted! I knew I would love this one and it’s a great start to my Bluebird samples. I can see this company quickly becoming a favorite of Steepsterers!

Additional notes: I’m having more of this one today, because I just wanted a plain black bready tea. (craving.) I guess I’m getting overrun by samples both from generous Steepsters and companies sending them to me. All very appreciated! (I will definitely be overrun by samples when my Zen order gets here.. I only bought samples for the sale going until April 20…many many samples!) But luckily I have a list of all the new-to-me teas I have to write tasting notes for, so that helps! But for now, I’ll just go for the simplicity of this tea…

thank you again Amanda for the super generous tea package! I really appreciate it! I knew this one would be tasty when I saw it! I think I need flavors in my white teas to like them more anyway. Coconut cream sounds good! And it is. You can still taste the flavor of the white tea behind the flavors, so it’s a nice balance. The white tea here is delicious anyway, so it doesn’t really need the flavors to be enjoyable. But I really like the coconut cream too. The coconut isn’t one of those odd chemical flavors — it’s sweet! Very yum! The flowers are pretty too. Probably a favorite white tea… I said I didn’t have many flavored oolongs the other day but I don’t think I have many flavored white teas either!

I bought some of Harney’s teas from Yssah, since I only wanted to try about an ounce of some of them, rather than buy many ounces of each. thanks, Yssah! I love small amounts of tons of tea! This one immediately reminded me of the Harney’s I had the other day: Valentine’s. They are both chocolate but this one was supposed to have more of a hazelnut flavor that I didn’t really find. The only way I could tell that this one was hazelnut was that it was slightly less sweeter than the lovely milk chocolate flavor that Valentine’s has. I’m a bit disappointed, since I LOVE Adagio’s hazelnut flavor and sometimes wake up craving that one! So this would be tasty if you don’t expect more of a hazelnut flavor.

Sipdown! Mainly because I’m making room for more teas and the last old bag of this had to go. There were three left so I threw two in a mug. That may have overdone it on the stevia though. I’ve liked this better in the past. It usually has a nice peach flavor. I’m also just tossing an old box of CS berry zinger which I never liked anyone, since it’s mostly hibiscus. Ah well, moving on!

thanks so much Erin, for sending a couple of these Bigelow Charleston Tea Plantation teabags to try a while back. Bigelow is one of the teabag brands I like, so I expected to like these! This pyramid bag seems to have more leaves than their other teabags. Sadly, I think I overbrewed it by a couple minutes. The taste was still fine, but I think it might have been better and with more raspberry flavor if I didn’t have it brewing for so long. There is a nice sweet raspberry scent and slight flavor, but not much. The black tea is definitely a step up from Bigelow’s usual bags, but I don’t think they are usually anything to complain about. I’ve been trying to write tasting notes for teas people have been kind enough to send me… I’m slowly making my way! I really just have a list of teas I haven’t written tasting notes for though.