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Stacy included this in my recent Butiki order as a free sample. I honestly don’t know why I didn’t order it, I really like Keemun teas. It must have been an oversight, but I am glad I at least get to try it!

I used my pre-measured sample and steeped for about 4 minutes (as the water at work isn’t boiling). The liquor is a warm orange and the aroma reminds me of sweet baked goods, I almost want to say cinnamon rolls. I get sweetness, black tea and almost a hint of cinnamon. Very appetizing and a little unexpected. I’ve been craving cinnamon rolls for a while, so maybe it’s all in my head. Either way, Mmm!

First sips retain that bakery aspect, I get a sense of yeasty baked goods with some innate sweetness and still something that reminds me of cinnamon. This is all very mild and complemented by the tea base which is flavourful and with a thick mouthfeel but no bitterness or astringency. All good things.

As I get further into the cup and it cools, I get a little less sweetness and a bit more of a bread/bakery taste. It is still good just a little less interesting. I think this is one that benefits from being consumed while hot at least if you’re looking for more flavours.

This was a really nice keemun and one I might stock up on if I were to catch it on sale. I can live without it, but it’s definitely no hardship to drink up. Yay!

Edit to add: Second steep was disappointing. This makes a good first cup but don’t even bother trying a second go roung.

This is the first of my batch of Butiki teas. The beau doesn’t like mint so I was allowed to bring it to work. Yay! This is where I get most of my tea drinking done so it is nice to have new things to enjoy. Looking at the leaf, I have a lot of chocolate chips, lots of peppermint and some fuzzy leaves as well. I am guessing the fuzzy looking ones are marshmallow leaf. Very cool!

Unfortunately the water available to me wasn’t boiling so I am steeping extra long to get maximum flavour. It got 10 or 15 minutes in the end, which is fine by me as I love mint. I have a number of pure mint teas and also a couple chocolate mint teas but I have rather fallen out of love with Read My Lips by Davids (the chocolate is too artificial) so I would love to have a new fave.

First sips are mint but tempered by sweetness, presumably from the marshmallow. Despite the plethora of chocolate chips, I don’t get too much chocolate, it is mostly at the end of the sip. The experience here is much like a mint patty with a bit of residual ‘burn’ from the mint. It is more sweet and ‘rounded’ rather than sharp mint and I am really liking it. I would almost like more mint but I could always add some or try again with boiling water.

So far so good. I don’t feel like I need to have it all the time, but I would definitely rather have this on hand as my chocolate mint than Read My Lips. A win!

EDIT to add: This one needs more leaf and more time than Butiki’s recommendations for my tastes, but is still a solid option. I think that doubling the leaf, leaving the bag in the whole time and potentially adding even more mint could improve it, but that seems counterproductive. Thinking that maybe this isn’t one to re-stock on, since I would have to do some things to it. We’ll see.

So it’s been a year or two since I last had this one and I figure my tastes have changed enough that I might feel differently about it. You never know. It’s a bad time that the smell from the bag makes me tummy do little flips though. I find Davids chocolate teas sometimes make me feel a bit queasy. Not good.

Steeped a little over 3 minutes, I have a brown liquor that smells of chocolate strawberries and liquer. So pretty much the same impression as always. The chocolate actually smells a bit more cocoa-y and not as sweet as I remember. Probably for the best.

First sips are dark and richm but with a sense of sugar underneath all that. I get dark chocolate and some cream. The strawberry has muted with age but I still get the chocolate strawberry smell. Or maybe just chocolate cremes, but either way it’s okay. Nothing to write home about and maybe a bit of struggle to finish but I’ll give it the old college try. I have some old tea that REALLY needs to be finished up. If I added it all up, I probably have a couple pounds of way old tea. Yikes.

EDIT to add that I am gifting the rest of this to a coworker! Schwing!

This is a sample I bought in my last Teavivre order. Or one of the free, I actually don’t remember which. Either way, it’s new!

Dry, this leaf has a powerful smell. The more I inhale it the stronger it gets, but I am having trouble naming the aroma. Something reminds me of fresh herbs, like my basil with some honeyed cocoa as well. There is a note of something sharp like lemon zest as well. It is interesting and appealing, though more complex than many others I’ve been drinking lately.

I used the full 7 g packet in my 14 oz mug with 90 degree-ish water (from the tap at work), though it was way more leaf than I usually use so I only allowed it to infuse about two minutes. The steeped aroma yielded more honey and cocoa than the sharp herb and citrus smells from before.

The liquor came out a warm yellow, and provides a much lighter taste than expected. It is still very present and enjoyable, just not as bold as anticipated. I get some honeyed sweetness, and a bit of a tingle on the tongue that reminds me of those initial herb and lemon aromas. It is nice and dark and really quite appetizing. I think the second steep on this one with more time will really be impressive. This is a good balance of leaf/temp/time/water, I’m glad I might I made the right call for my tastes.

I don’t get any green or grassy flavours from this (that’s important for me). The cocoa has largely subsided as well and as I get deeper in the cup/it cools I find the citrus sense is really developing. It is pretty interesting but I don’t think I will stock it regularly since I already have a couple roasted oolongs I enjoy. This is a really nice one though, maybe I will alternate between this and the big red robe?

Edit to add: After reading the other tasting notes I could see grape/currant/grapefruit in lieur of what I was picking up on as citrus-y. Someone else also mentioned IPA and I totally see that. Now that this cup is almost gone, I am really digging this one. Might be a contender for a future order, I’ll have to see what the beau thinks of it. It’s also a great deal at $12.90/100 grams. Okay, I’m putting it on the shopping list, even though I won’t be ordering from Teavivre for a few months.

I am sipping on this one today while at switchboard. It arrived unexpectedly yesterday – I had won a Sororitea Sisters contest a few months ago and the prize was meant to be this tea. After a few months I gave up on it, but lo and behold! It looks like it was shipped on May 20th, so it took a little while, but such is the price of being Canadian. :)

I do not know a whole lot about oolongs other than that I prefer roasted ones. This one looks pretty dark in the package with long thin twisted leaves. I thought it was a roasted oolong but it steeped up surprisingly green. It must be somewhere in the middle, maybe? Anyway, I have an amber liquor which has strong sweet and floral notes, like peaches and flowers. The taste echoes the aroma quite strongly with a bit of astringency lingering on the sip (my fault as I thought it was darker!) It is quite nice and surprisingly unassuming. It doesn’t reach out and grab you but when you pay attention it is an experience to enjoy. I would prefer it to be a bit darker but for what it is I think it is an excellent oolong, just not the best one for me.

I got a sample of this one on my Teavivre order a month or two back and am finally taking a moment to enjoy it. I am using the whole packet which is a bit much for my tastes but not nearly enough to split into two cups at work. Ho hum.

The dry aroma is light and sweet, seems floral and with some fruity notes but once steeped it comes across as astringent and bitter in aroma. Very reminiscent of standard bagged black tea. Darn you slightly too large sample!! I even decreased the temp and time to account for it. We’ll see how it tastes.

Luckily I don’t get any astringency in the sip, but neither am I getting a whole lot else. It’s black tea. Maybe some light floral behind it all, but nothing impressive. I am getting a lot of Red Rose associations here. It is drying my mouth a bit so I guess it is astringent, but at least it isn’t bitter.

I was hoping this might be a replacement for Keemun Mao Feng from Harneys which I loved but this didn’t do it for me at all. Oh well!

EDIT to add: Wow, am I the lone dissenter or what? I love black tea but this was a disappointment. I wonder if it was mislabelled or maybe a weird batch as there was no cocoa and nothing I typically associate with keemun. Weird. I know the sample wasn’t very old either.

I tried a sample of this in store and found it way too sweet. Nonetheless, the beau talked me into picking up 50 grams. We made it hot last night (I still don’t really like iced tea) and it was, once again, way too sweet. Davids, you need to cut back on coconut and stevia. Like now. The beau enjoyed it (though he preferred it cooled) but I would be happier to never taste that much sweetness in a ‘tea’ again. I am considering adding some lemon myrtle or maybe a bit of a tart tea to try to bring it from sugar water to lemonade but for now it is just an unnecessary sugar bomb. I should have known better.

Finished these off today. I had saved four of the marbles for one last hurrah and it is proving delicious. If this weren’t so obscenely over-priced ($14.50/50g) I would definitely re-stock but at this price I won’t be. I will remain contended with my dragon pearls from Teavivre even if they don’t have jasmine.

Anyway, this tea. The black base can go bitter so I like to keep it around 3 minutes steep or use slightly cooler water. I know it will go two steeps with solid black tea flavour and fairly dominant jasmine. The jasmine gives it a sweetness that I really like – I never knew I liked floral teas until this one. The black is bold enough to remain present and provide a good base for the jasmine to dance on.

TL;DR: Great tea, too pricey.

So this was my first tea as a married woman – we have been so busy with wedding preparation, setup, enjoyment, take down and aftermath that this may be the only tea I have had in a week. I love mint so it really hit the spot, and it was thoughtful that my mother-in-law made it for me. We have been together for nine years so nothing really changed but it was amazing to get together with our best friends and family to celebrate. It was a true Nova Scotia kitchen party – we are thinking of having a celebration every year in the same style. Happy tea!

Well, the name is accurate on this one. I had been referring to it as mango bubble gum but mango fruit punch works better. This is a very heavy tea that smells delicious, like something you should eat immediately. I ended up using the entire 26 gram packet for our 24 oz teapot as it was very heavy and hard to get enough to flavour up. That basically makes this 1.75 a cup. Yikes!

Steeped, it has a yellow colour and a sweet aroma. The taste matches it closely, with a POW of sweetness, some identifiable candied mango and then bubble gum/fruit punch under that. To be honest, I don’t like it. I am not keen to finish my cup and I definitely won’t buy any more. I don’t know what I expected but the smell was so amazing that I got carried away. What I would want here is to cut the sweetness and add maybe some tartness to round it out. Rare for me! I should probably have used less tea or less time, but I know how difficult it can be to get dried fruit to flavour up. Unfortunately I went the opposite direction. Not for me, but would probably be very good iced or if you’re a huge fan of sweet teas.