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The smell of this tea dry reminds me of strawberry candy and spinach. It has a nice shape, and I would have used less to brew, but the website mentions using 7 or 8 oz – I can’t quite remember which, but my sample is 7 oz, so I used the entire sample.

My kettle doesn’t heat much higher than 203ºF so I brewed it at that temperature for three minutes. Because I didn’t steep it very long, the color was a light green color, and it smelled earthy and sweet. It has a nice, mellow taste, but it might be stronger if I brew it for five minutes or more.

This is a very lovely tea, and smells almost like a dessert when you open it up, with just a hint of sweetness. The sample pouch was still golden on the inside after I transferred the tea to the tea bag. THe tea itself is just like the picture above, though I think I have a slightly higher black to gold ratio. I used the whole sample bag, because I’m not that comfortable with tea measurements yet, and the website recommends 6 grams.

As soon as I started pouring the water into my teapot, the tea started brewing – sadly, the lid to my teapot got stuck, so to get it off I ended up breaking it. Now I have ceramic in my tea… I did salvage most of my tea, and it does have a lovely smell brewed, like sweet potatoes.

It has a very mellow flavor that reminds me of green tea or maybe even a clear broth. It’s rather soothing. Maybe next time I brew it, I won’t end up with a broken teapot, but regardless of that the tea tastes delicious.

Smell
Dry: It smells like blueberry yogurt with a strong berry scent. It smells sweet without being artificial. It’s almost an addictive scent.
Brewed: Syrupy, almost medicinal smell. Not so much of a blueberry scent as a mild hibiscus scent.

Appearance:
Dry: Dark, dried berries – looks like trail mix.
Brewed: Deep, transparent carnation red, with a hint of purple.

Taste:
Brewed: Sour, citrusy – tastes a bit fruitier than hibiscus, and has a more balanced flavor profile. Not too different from a lemon tea as far as flavor goes.

The variable temp kettle I purchased won’t heat all the way to 212, so I could only heat it to 203ºF. I also used the entire sample, because I wasn’t entirely certain about the measurements, and didn’t want to have a weak tea. It has a nice flavor, though I wouldn’t say that it’s significantly different from the other hibiscus-type teas that I have tried. It does have a nice color.

This tea is rather mild unless you steep it for a long while, mostly due to the type of spices in the tea. I left this to steep for over an hour, and that hint of sweet that comes from the ginger now has overpowered everything else. It’s now cold, but it tastes like candy. It’s weird in that you can’t really taste it until it reaches the back of your mouth. Then it’s in your face. It’s pretty good.

One thing I noticed about this tea as well as my other black tea from the London Tea Room is that they have overwhelmingly sweet scents. This one smells almost like caramel, but what it really reminds me of is condensed milk. I was almost turned off by how sweet it smelt in the bag, and even after brewing, it had a noticeably sweet smell. Luckily this isn’t all that sweet. You get a hint of sweetness after you brew it, but it’s very mild. I don’t know if I pick up any citrus notes, other than that a slight lemon cookie kind of scent from the dried leaves. It has a slightly floral taste, but that creamy taste is there too. I wasn’t as fond of it at first, but it’s grown on me. It’s not very bitter at all, and I’ve even found that it tastes pretty good cold, not that I’m recommending that you drink it cold. It could replace my current favorite tea, I don’t know.

I wouldn’t say it’s the best tea out there, and it’s certainly not the worst, but I would share it with friends, and I think I will be buying more in the future. It’s worth trying it at the very least, and the price is fair.

The tea has a vegetal scent like spinach or hemp powder. The tea itself is rather powdery, with a leaves dispersed. There is a hint of pink, but there are only a few cherry blossom petals in the tea.

The brew is a light spring green color, you know, like the crayola color. It doesn’t have a strong smell and tastes… like spinach water. So much for that. It’s interesting, but far too pricy for me. I will probably avoid this tea in the future. I’ll still drink it, of course. The only tea I avoid is tea made from thyme.

I do enjoy this tea. It is refreshing, and though I feel the most prominent flavor is citrus, you can taste the cinnamon. My bag doesn’t have the ingredients, so I can never quite remember the ingredients, but it definitely has a fruity taste without quite overdoing it.

Since I haven’t brewed it in a while, I will cut my post short and put something more descriptive next time I brew it.

This is my second order of jasmine pearls, the first of which came from Mighty Leaf. The two teas smell about the same, though when you open the Tao of Tea Jasmine Pearls, you can tell that the jasmine is more subdued, without that saccharine smell that the Mighty Leaf Jasmine Downy Pearls have. The smell of this tea is a little less overwhelming. Both teas steep well, but this one also has a less pronounced Jasmine taste. There is something different about the taste as well if you leave the teabag in to steep, but I haven’t quite figured out what it is. Perhaps it’s just slightly more bitter.

I would assume that most jasmine pearls would have a similar flavor. The green tea in this version is light, so it doesn’t overpower the jasmine. It’s a good tea, and less pricey than some of the other options. This also comes in a tin, which is nice in my opinion, and 4 oz should last a long time.

Not the biggest fan of this tea. While it has the potential for tasting great, it reminds me quite a bit of lipton black tea and seems to become bitter far too quickly. I haven’t brewed it to my satisfaction yet. I might need to mix it with a lighter black tea to get better results.

Used less hibiscus this time, resulting in a translucent pink color that looks more like tea and a tea that smells like lemon hibiscus. The taste is more mellow and it tastes more like orange and mint. The amount of hibiscus really affects the flavor. One tbsp and you may or may not taste it; one and a half to two tbsps, and all you taste is hibiscus.