Winter Salo

And Sencha Vanilla makes two.

So it looks like my whole disliking green tea thing is getting thrown out and I thought I was unsaveble in this area – what a relief to find out I was wrong and that there are green teas I like.

Sencha Vanilla is just opening up the box to get some out of the box is like sticking your nose into a honey pot and never wanting to leave – it’s such a fresh vibrant scent and the leaves are so long and green – adding the water makes them unfurl into these beautiful large deep green leaves that are so intoxicating to watch. And the aroma oh the aroma! Beautiful big waffs of vanilla as though vanilla essence has been sprayed in the room it’s just so inviting it’s like a vanilla cupake is awaiting you.

The taste is very light and sweet – it’s a lovely green tea that takes a long steeping well and takes a long time to taste bitter. The vanilla floats on top leaving you with a sweet after-taste but definitely not sickly or over top instead it simply invites you to have another sip. Very easy to never stop drinking this tea it’s so refreshing!

Highly recommend for people wanting to dip their toe into the green tea world and vanilla lovers everywhere.

This tea is awesome.

Dry the leaves are quite large are smell of a natural, soft, sweet vanilla definitely not overpowering or artificial.

Hot the smell is divine it’s a vanilla teacake cooling on a windowsill.

The ‘tea’ component is very light, and as far as away from bitter as you can imagine. I infused it for quite a long time and seemed it to make the tea sweeter rather than stronger which was awesome!

The vanilla is a sweet vanilla – very sweet and so tasty.

It’s the perfect afternoon tea. Absolutely delish! I highly recommend this to everyone. :)

Oh my this is good.

I am not a fan of green tea in general. There are very few green teas that I like and even fewer than I love so I never expected to like Gorgeous Geisha.

I was at Chadstone’s T2 shopping for my sister’s Christmas present and they had Gorgeous Geisha iced and it was oh my God so good. Iced it reminds me of T2’s Strawberries & Cream but without the sweetness. It smells and tastes like strawberries drizzled in cream with a refreshing after-taste of generic sweet fruit. The green tea element seems to make the tea less sweet and more refreshing without any actual ‘tea’ or ‘grassy’ taste making it a really refreshingly sweet iced tea perfect for a hot summer day. I think I would actually prefer this iced compared to Strawberries & Cream because it is less sweet and more refreshing.

Dry you are greeted by very large green tea leaves and small little freeze dried strawberry pieces – the smell is quite unusual it’s like walking into a strawberry field – very strong aroma of strawberries surrounded by an earthy-grassy scent.

Hot a very sweet (almost sickly sweet) strawberry aroma greets you with only the very slightest hint of a grassy smell. The taste is incredible it’s like drinking a strawberry Martini – a very strong strawberry taste with a coating of creaminess chased by a light bitter-grass after-taste.

Oh so good and oh so surprising.

I highly recommend this for fans of T2’s Strawberries & Cream and for people wanting to edge themselves into the world of green tea. It is yumilicious.

I LOVE this. Wow. wow. wow. wow.

When I heard there was a new Rabbit Hole Tea coming out I was so excited and when I found it what it actually was I went into immediate ‘must have’ mode. Cherries, I love cherries, to me Spring means cherries they might be the most expensive fruit on earth but they are also the most delicious and anything with cherries is an automatic must try for me – cherry crumble being the ultimate winner. So I placed my order and I’ve been checking the post since then and as always The Rabbit Hole delivers (and so quick too! easily the quickest tea delivery by far). I ripped open the beautiful postage to reveal Ruby Zing, I opened it up and …. the smell it’s like sticking your nose straight into a cherry pie it’s got a warmth to the dry scent and the cherries intermingled with the coconut is just amazing it’s literally like having a cherry pie in a packet.

The packet says you can infuse for up to 9 minutes and since I wanted the most from my cherry tea I did just that, but I must say this was a real test of my patience (which is non existent in this case). Finally the time was up and I opened the lid of my mug infuser to reveal the most divine aroma warm cherry pie with little pieces of coconut slivers on top it’s just amazing, it really is magical.

And then the first sip it’s like stuffing a whole lot of fresh ripe cherries into your mouth and gorging down oh it’s heavenly – it tastes so amazingly fresh & real – nothing artificial, no added flavours. If I was told that the cherries were just picked and popped in my cup I’d believe it.

Although this tea is in their ‘zesty’ range the coconut adds a real velvety creaminess to the tea which rounds out the taste nicely. It reminds me of condensed milk – like if you got some beautiful ripe cherries and poured just a little bit of condensed milk on top you’d get something near this taste. It really is lovely and so unique, also since cherries are so expensive and you’d be hard pressed to ever eat a lot at once this is a very nice indulgence.

As always the quality of the tea is beyond comparison – giant coconut slivers, huge cherries, hibiscus flowers (that don’t overwhelm the tea at all) and blueberries and as always with The Rabbit Hole absolutely no dust, no tiny pieces that have been through the wars – it’s the real deal and you can taste the love that’s gone into making it.

My only regret with this tea is that I didn’t bite the bullet and order a larger packet – it’s so good I can see it disappearing very quickly especially since I’m already on my second cup … only three more to go.

Highly recommend this to cherry-lovers everywhere and anyone in the mood for a real Spring-treat.

This tea is surprisingly and delightfully sweet and is reminiscent of lemon and sugar dusted pancakes.

Prior to having this tea the only T2 citrus tea I had tried was T2’s Citrus Punch, a fruit tissane that is way, way, too tangy and strong to have by itself. So when I was able to smell the heavy citrus smell wafting from the unopened box I feared it would be a black version of citrus punch. However, I was not to be put off and opened it up to reveal that the smell minus packaging is both sweet and tangy. So curious as to what was to come next I made up a pot for myself and wow… the hot version of this really impresses. The aroma that greets you is a mingling of lemon and sweet black tea it’s very inviting and not at all strong and signals what’s in store for you.

The taste is really special there is no ‘tang’ rather you are greeted with a sweet lemon and mild black tea taste and the after taste is more of the same it’s like swallowing a piece of a lemon and sugar dusted pancake. If I didn’t know better I’d swear I had added sugar to the tea because it really is quite sweet, it’s a natural sweetness that suits the tea and really makes this a quite addictive drink – I’m already onto my third pot for the night.

The black tea itself is quite mild and unlike a lot of T2’s black teas it seems very unfamiliar with the word ‘bitter’ I got called away from second pot and didn’t go back for about twenty minutes and it hadn’t turned bitter at all in, it was quite nice actually.

Dry the leaves are quite large and you can see small pieces of orange and lemon peel scattered throughout – there’s a very generous amount that’s not reflected in the picture it’s definitely heavy on the peel. Wet the leaves expand massively as does the peel it’s lovely to see them all unfurled.

This is a very good quality that tastes amazing. I thought it would be like adding lemon to a cup of black tea and while in some respects it is, it really is so much more than that the sweetness that accompanies this tea is really lovely and adds a layer that is both unexpected and welcome. Indeed adding a piece of lemon to this tea made the citrus flavour ‘pop’ out but still allowed the sweetness to remain intact. Delish!

I imagine this would taste wonderful iced.

I highly recommend this to people who already add lemon to their tea I’m sure you’ll fall in love with this, also to anyone who likes fruit flavours as it’s fruity without being overpoweringly citrusy.

• A big shout out thank you to T2 – I received this tea along with an Olipot and silly accessories as a prize in their fruity song competition. The competition was to name a fruit song to kick off the fruity iced teas of summer. I submitted Lemon by U2 and won, this is the first time I’ve won anything so I’m bubbling over with happiness.

I thought the happiness of wining might cloud my judgement of the tea but I’ve had three pots already so either my taste buds are as happy as the rest of me or I really do like this tea. ;)

Om nom nom…. berry goodness is what this is, delicious, delectable berry black tea.

Imagine a sweet summer berry tart – now imagine someone liquefied that because I swear that’s what’s happened here. This is an AMAZING combination of natural flavours – as a rule I don’t believe in ‘desert replacement’ teas because quite frankly no matter how good a tea is how can it really satisfy that craving for a good piece of cake? But this definitely works as a desert replacement because it manages to be sweet, tart and ‘filling’. It makes for an extremely satisfying cup of berry tart.

Dry you are greeted by big black tea leaves, freeze dried blueberries and raspberries and the smell – oh my – the smell is intoxicating – it is oh so good it’s like walking into blueberry and raspberry fields in the heat of summer where the fresh fruit is really ripe and you’re blown off your feet by the intensity of the fruit. I’ve actually got the opened packet on my desk right now because I can’t bring myself to put it away it’s making my whole room smell of berries and I love it.

When made up the berry aroma is softened somewhat and you are given a tight generic berry smell mingled with an almost soft floral fragrance and rounded off by the smell of shortcrust pastry; it’s different, a good different and gives you a hint of what’s to come. The initial taste is not as sweet as I thought it would be, but this turns out to be a good thing because what you get instead is a very good approximation of a blueberry and raspberry compote mingled with a tart pastry-esque taste thanks to the black tea, oils and apple juice which is just a tiny bit bitter in a very good way. The aftertaste is where this tea takes it off there’s no bitterness in the aftertaste at all, instead, the tea really packs a punch here delivering an intensified version of the first sip really amping up the sweetness and flavour of the berries. This carries over into sip after sip resulting in the tea tasting sweeter as you finish off your cup.

I think this works really well as an after dinner tea as it’s not particularly strong and can satisfy those sweet night time cravings. It would also pair well with a sweet cake in the afternoon.

I highly recommend this to sweet-toothes and berry lovers and particularly for those who are seeking a non hibiscus berry tea or a less sweet berry tea as it definitely isn’t as sweet as a lot of other berry teas on the market and the fact that everything is natural is really evident in the taste – the tea is of an impressive high quality.

I’m off to have my sixth cup of the night…

This tea suits its name it has a rustic feel to it and would be well suited had by a camp-fire on a cold morning – it’s a strong, full bodied black tea with a heavy plain black tea aroma with a slight hint of gingerbread.

The barely moderates the black tea taste creating a softer milder and not so severe generic black tea taste. It pairs well with with a sweet treat to temper the bitterness of the tea and would be well served by the addition of milk and sugar or honey. Had black, as I always have my tea it comes across as a bit too much – the barely and ginger seem to almost be competing for attention with the black tea with no clear winner and with me wanting a real ginger tea afterwards.

If you want to kick start a cold morning with a strong black tea that tastes a bit more mellow than English Breakfast than this would be a good tea to check out. However it doesn’t suit a sweet tooth or someone seeking a ‘pure’ tea taste.

Berries n Cream is something unique; it blends the smooth vanilla rooibos with rich red berry tastes of strawberry, blueberry, elderberry and black current. The result is a deep warming cup of berry goodness.

Dry you are greeted by small chopped up rooibos leaves, big rose petals, black currents, apple and a few others for good measure and the smell is absolutely intoxicating so much so that I can barely pull my nose away from the packet – it’s generic berry mingled with a strong, strong overtone of vanilla.

When made up hot the dry smell transforms into even heavier notes of vanilla with berry aromas floating around. With the first sip you taste a sort of generic mix up of berry flavours but as with any good rooibos it’s the after-taste that packs the punch and pulls you back for more – you’re left with a really smooth, really warm vanilla taste in your mouth and a sort of light lingering of berry. Each subsequent drink enhances both flavours with the after-taste adding more depth and flavour to each drink.

I really like that the rooibos is used to add depth to an otherwise fruit / herbal tissane it gives the tea a real edge above other berries n cream infusions on the market. It is not a particularly sweet tea in that whilst the vanilla rooibos gives it a sweetness it is very much a natural sweetness and therefore by no means a ‘sickly sweet’ taste. It’s different to what I have come to expect from ‘berries n cream’ in both a good and a way bad – the rooibos makes it more deeper and more tea like but at the same time that means it isn’t as sweet as I’m used to experiencing from sweet fruit teas and I almost found myself wanting to sweeten it up a bit (I do have a big sweet tooth).

It says there is apple in it and while I can see some apple I didn’t taste the usual ‘tang’ quality that you normally experience with apple but I think that’s good because the berry and vanilla overtones of this tea are enough and I never found myself wanting to taste the apple.

I highly recommend this to berries n cream lovers as while it’s more of the same it’s more of the same and then some with the rooibos adding a different take on a much loved classic. But if you are a sweet tooth like me just be aware that this isn’t as sweet as berries n cream normally tends to be, or at least tends to be in my experience.

If you have been to one of those lavish chocolate high teas like the Langham have where there’s a chocolate fountain and oodles of goodies to dip into it then you will be delighted with this at home special. There’s no mistaking what this is – white chocolate drizzled over raspberries – simply divine!

This tea is exquisite – the white tea is light and delicate, not at all grassy, just the way a good white tea should taste and the flavouring is sublime truly sublime. I feel as though I’ve got a stack of beautiful fresh ripe raspberries in front of me and with each mouthful I’m dipping them ever so slightly in high quality white chocolate and finishing it all of with a drop of ever so light white tea. This really is the perfect afternoon tea.

When dried the leaves, chocolate pieces and raspberries smell exactly as you’d expect – sweet, raspberrish, white cholatish and leafy. The aroma when made up is of sweet raspberries and a whiff of white chocolate in the air and the taste is well seriously there’s no other way to describe it but each sip is a raspberry drizzled with white chocolate. You know you’re drinking white tea, it’s light and carries the flavours well.

If you love raspberries like I do you are going to fall head over heals for this beautiful cup it’s really something special. Also if you’re wanting to try white tea and aren’t sure where to start then you can do no wrong with this one, it really is complemented perfectly by the flavours.

Warm Apple Pie anyone? Come on, you know you want to! The smell of this is absolutely divine – it’s like warm apple pie, there’s heavy apple, an almost pastry kind of smell and a strong wave of honey-vanilla. The taste is something else entirely it’s like a sweet oven baked apple that’s been drizzled with honey.

This is so incredibly good, it really is desert in a cup it’s amazingly satisfying and it’s not over sweet either; it’s the perfect combination of apple sweetness and apple tang. This just blows away all the other apple and Turkish apple teas I’ve had before. The Honeybush gives this real depth so it doesn’t feel like you’re drinking warmed up pieces of fruit, it tastes like a full bodied drink which is really, really delicious. I can totally understand why the tea is called ‘Red Delicious’ because that’s exactly what it is. Although it’s not a brilliant red it’s more a browny-red but that’s totally nit-picking.

I bought this tea without trying it and I am always so apprehensive about doing that, but the picture is so captivating I just had to try it. And I have to say I’m sold- the quality of the tea is very impressive and when boiling water hit the infusion all the leaves, berries and apple pieces expanded fully revealing their true natures. Big and I mean BIG berries are in this and they look just amazing.

I HIGHLY recommend this for anyone who likes apples and especially to people who enjoy Turkish Apple but are trying to avoid the sugar intake because not only does this taste better than any Turkish Apple I’ve had there’s no sugar in it (or at least it’s not made of sugar and what sugar there is occurs naturally).

This is just incredible – seriously incredible.

I have been looking forward to this ever since I read the reviews and the beautiful picture is just so intoxicating.The quality of the tea is impressive beautiful big leaves and visible pieces of apple – the smell is sweet and really does have a toffee apple scent.

I made up a nice pot of it and was enchanted by the smell when hot it really does smell like a hot toffee apple unfortunately the taste did not match the smell or the expectation. It tastes like an apple tea – the oolong component is very light, while you know you’re drinking an oolong it comes across more as an apple tea with a hint of oolong rather than an oolong tea with apple.

The taste also didn’t come across as toffee or creamy-like it tastes like a light tea.

As a huge fan of oolong teas and particularly of creamy and milky oolongs I was disappointed by the taste of this tea it seems very lacking in the oolong taste department and far closer to a herbal tea taste than an oolong taste.

If you like apples you’ll like this tea, and if you’re trying to edge into oolongs from herbals this would be a good tea to try. But if, like me, you love oolongs I wouldn’t recommend this.

Yumo – there’s just no other word for it.

This tea is definitely a good chocolate tea, in fact it’s so good that it confuses the heck out of me. When I took my first sip I actually thought I was drinking a hot chocolate – it’s that chocolatey – and that was without milk. The only tea I take milk with is Chai so I didn’t put milk with this but I imagine it’d pair very well with milk for a ‘fuller’ experience. I didn’t add any sugar and found it to be the perfect amount of sweetness, it was sweet enough to not taste any bitterness of the black tea and not over sweet. If you like your tea sweet you could put sugar with it but I’d recommend less than usually do.

While that carob is probably heavier than the cocoa I didn’t see that as detracting from the taste. Without milk this is a light chocolate drink that tastes like a ‘standard’ hot chocolate so it’s in no way overdoing the act and leaves you feeling that you could easily eat a desert with this – in fact I had it with a home made double chocolate fudge cookie and it paired up very nicely.

I don’t think it works as a desert replacement tea as this made me want more chocolate not less, but it definitely does work as a chocolate tea, a very delicious chocolate tea that tastes natural. It does such a good job of approximating a hot chocolate that I would actually rather have this tea than a genuine hot chocolate, which I always feel quite icky after having because of all the milk.

You know you’re drinking tea, but you don’t have bitterness and the chocolate quality is very heavy – you could almost get away with giving it to a non tea drinker and probably more so if you added milk.

I would definitely recommend this to those on the hunt for a good chocolate tea and anyone wanting to have a hot chocolate without the sugar & milk.

Okay so I decided I should give this another go, having tasted good rooibos I wanted to go back to this to see if it was an initial shock that lead me to disliking it or if it was a genuine and lasting dislike.

I tried this blended with T2’s Sweet Spice and Just Cinnamon – and wow it was yummy, a very warm cup of Christmas. Sweet Spice was used last year as T2’s Christmas blend, it has no ‘tea’ in it and is a fruit tissane, as a result it’s very light and so suits well the hot Australian Christmas but every year around June I get a hankering for a warm Christmas flavoured tea and by itself T2’s Sweet Spice doesn’t hit the spot so I added Cinnamon and it’s close but still lacking with Red Green Vanilla it felt like a well rounded ‘full’ cup of tea.

The Red Green Vanilla didn’t taste bitter at all instead the rooibos strengthened the other ingrediants, the vanilla and cinamon blended well but didn’t overtake the Christmas vibe of Sweet Spice.

I was impressed with the way Red Green Vanilla carried the blend, so I would feel confident using it again. However, by itself it still fails to impress me and I would only recommend it for blending purposes.

I’m lifting the rating from last time (which was rather harsh) but still not taking it too high as it really needs more to become a satisfying cup.

WOW… wow…. WOW….

Raspberry Rush where have you been my whole life? I am in love. Never before has a tea grabbed me, drawn me in and made my senses swoon. This is tea perfection – this is why coffee will never win – move over water raspberry rush is taking tea to first place.

The dried leaves smell like freshly picked raspberries a little berry, a little earthly and a whole of sweet and it’s one of those lingering smells than even once you’ve closed up the container it just seems to remain with you.

Infused is… is… bliss. The aroma is very sweet and all raspberry there’s no “tea” smell at all. Then there’s the taste, when I close my eyes I am sure I just gobbled down a whole packet of frozen raspberries. You know that taste you get from the frozen ones, that’s what this is like a syrupy-sweet overpowering burst of raspberry flavour backed by a very light black tea. The after taste echoes the initial taste only the black tea is even fainted.

I find this tea very, very addictive and cannot recommend it enough! I really think this would suit people dipping their toe into the world of black tea who’ve sampled fruit tissanes and are ready to take the next step. This is the closest in taste to a fruit tissane that I’ve ever sampled from a black tea – it’s a very light brew that is quite hard to over-infuse (although it can be done so just watch out).

Because of the lightness of the black tea and the fact that the raspberry flavour tastes more natural than flavoured it lends itself to great all day, all night drinking – although it’s hardly likely to wake you up in the morning, but on the bright side it’s also just as unlikely to keep you up at night.

Yum, Yum, Yum!

This is a highly scented floral green tea that seems at home as an afternoon tea a little pick-me-up when the brain starts to get a little fuzzy.

For me the floral aromas seem to be competing with one another and it does come across as a very busy tea with a lot going on – if your like floral teas you’ll love this as floral aroma and taste is very pervasive – subtlety is not the name of the game here.

Although the rose is plentiful the jasmine seems to be the dominant scent and flavour reminding me far more of Green tea with jasmine than Green tea with rose. Being more of a rose lover I found myself wanting more in this area.

I’m not really a big fan of highly fragrant green teas and this tea hasn’t made a convert of me. Would recommend to floral green tea lovers but wouldn’t recommend as a starting point if you’re wanting to get into green tea as it’s very overpowering.

Unfortunately, my crush on this tea has ended, it really has not stood up to the test of time. I find that it is far too easy to over brew it leaving to a very bitter tea with a sickly sweet aroma that doesn’t translate into the tea.

When made right it is still a deliciously sweet tea that really is quite divine but given that a couple of seconds make the difference between delightful and having to be thrown out I feel like it’s not worth the bother anymore.

That being said the addition of milk does seem to negate the over-bewing and create a nice milky desert tea. Given that I’m not a fan of milk in tea though it doesn’t really help me much.

Mmm… that’s a nice brew. I’m really enjoying the rooibos from teas.com.au and this black tea blend is no exception.

Being a vanilla tea lover I was excited to see if this black and rooibos tea would really taste vanillary and to my delighted surprise it does I’d say it is probably closer to a vanilla rooibos than a traditional vanilla black tea. The tea itself seems on the light side of a medium strength and so would suit a lazy sunday brunch or as an after dinner tea. I don’t think it would quite satisfy as a weekday morning tea as it is very light.

When the leaves are dry they smell of a very faint vanilla aroma with solid black and rooibos coming through. When infused there’s an almost floral aroma to the tea that seems to fade as the tea cools down and turns into a heavy vanilla rooibos scent.

I found my initial sip of the tea was very bitter but as the tea cooled down the soft vanilla rooibos became the stand out taste. After each sip I was left with a very brief, very light sweet black tea after-taste which made me feel like it was a well rounded cup.

I would say that you get the most from this tea both in terms of aroma and taste when it’s cooled down a little because when had hot the black tea notes dominate heavily.

This tea is definitely closer to a rooibos than a black tea so if you’re looking to sedge-way into rooibos this would be a good starting point. Also if you’re like me and like vanilla anything than this is worth a try.

I love this white tea with rose it makes for such a delicate tea that to me it is the perfect afternoon tea to accompany something sweet as the tea itself is so light with no lingering aftertaste allowing you to really savour what you are eating along with it.

I was disappointed when I opened the packet to see so much ‘dust’ and very chopped up leaves but in saying that it hasn’t distracted from the taste and it still delivers a very beautiful cup of tea.

The taste is of a very, very light tea – no bitterness, only a small amount of grassiness and an overshadowing of crisp rose. I enjoy the first infusion of this tea and prefer to start over again if I ever finish off a teapot but I find it lends itself to protracted drinking and I can make a teapot of this tea last a good hour, I also don’t find I’m put off if I let it get lukewarm which is handy as I have a tendency to really drag out my drinking of this.

It is one of T2’s more expensive teas but they often have it for sample in store in the summer months – I think because it’s such a light tea – so I’d recommend keeping an eye out for it.

White rose tea is the tea that got me drinking tea and this is a good white rose tea so I really recommend giving this to a friend who has yet to turn to the tea-side. :)

To me a good oolong is one that you never want to stop drinking and that gets better with each new cup. For me a bad oolong is one that satisfies with one cup because really good oolongs taste so much better on the second and third infusion so if you aren’t reaching for your third, fourth and sixth cup then you’re not getting the most out of your tea.

This is a good oolong – this is aptly named and makes for a very satisfying post dinner tea. When I opened the packet for the first time I was very impressed to see distinct oolong leaves, beautiful large read-pink rosebuds and dottings of peppermint. No dust fragments or chopped up leaves. AND THE SMELL – mmm…. very nice rosey hues with little hints of peppermint enticed me to get out my good teapot. I infused the first lot for about 2 and a half minutes and the second time for another minute longer. The leaves when they’re infused expand out massively – they are the largest oolong leaves I have seen so far and are just beautiful to look at.

I love rosebuds – I’ll put them in everything so the domination of the rose is a major plus in my book. The tea smells more of a mixture of rose and peppermint than ‘traditional’ oolong and the initial taste is of a smooth sweet rose with little hint of the peppermint to follow. The after-taste is when the crispness of the rose kicks in along with the peppermint which at first seems quite light but with each subsequent drop dominates a little more each time while keeping the dominate tone squarely on the rose.

The second infusion amps up the more buttery oolong balancing out both the rose and the peppermint and turning into a well rounded sweetly refreshing tea.

There was no grassiness to the tea at all and I agree with the previous reviewer, Luthien, that the first infusion yields a more herbal than oolong taste. I also think this tea is someone how ‘better’ after tea – when had after tea it seems to cap off the eating and provide a nice relaxing way to start the evening. I had my further infusions much latter at night and I kept feeling like I should have eaten first but maybe that’s all in my head!

I would recommend this tea to people who like rose and ‘buttery’ oolongs.

Okay a big shout out thank you to teas.com.au for making this exquisite vanilla rooibos tea. I finally understand the obsession with Rooibos. Everywhere it seems people are raving about this tea-type but when I’ve tried it has been bitter and with a putrid smell. This, however, is the complete opposite of what I’ve tasted elsewhere.

When you first open the packet you are greeted by an earthy sweet vanilla scent and the sight of some beautiful red leaves. I infused this for about two and a half minutes and then waited for it to cool down slightly. There’s an earthly smell with just a hint of almost chocolatey-vanilla to the tea that I wasn’t sure if I liked or not. Then I had a sip and I was even more confused but then I had another and another and as I kept drinking I liked this tea more and more.

It is probably the closest thing to black tea that I’ve tasted (out of green, white, oolong, etc), while having none of the bitterness either in taste or scent. The initial taste is something like a generic black tea mixed with soft vanilla sweetness. It is really the after-taste that makes this tea so additively appealing – you are immediately left with a very warm and quite intense honey-vanilla taste in your mouth and throat. If you have the next sip straight away you’ll find it enhances the taste providing you with the honey-vanilla taste immediately and an even stronger after-taste. This is why the more you drink the better the tea tastes and more the you want. I had two mug-fulls one after the other, I literally couldn’t help myself.

It is a very special taste and quite satisfying so although the subtlety of the taste and smell could lend itself to be drank with food I enjoyed having it on its own and savouring the tea.

The vanilla-honey taste and scent is grounded in the earthiness that surrounds this tea so in no way is it overpowering or sickly sweet. The vanilla taste comes from the combination of carob and vanilla pods and so both smells and tastes natural, they also seem to be in a good balance with the tea itself and so don’t come across as an afterthought or flavour enhancement.

I highly recommend this tea as after only my first tasting I went back for more.

I recommend this tea to people who enjoy vanilla, honey and chocolate flavours in the tea and particularly to people who have yet to come over to the side of rooibos. After having this I am definitely going to add rooibos to my rotation of teas as it really is something special.

This is a really beautiful Chai that has all the right proportions – black tea with high notes of ginger and cinnamon and low notes of cloves and star anise. The tea itself is really lovely no bitterness at all and although the packet says it’s a light strength I’d say it’s at the high end of light and probably more of a medium strength brew.

I made this by infusing the tea bag in half a mug of boiling water for 4 minutes whilst I heated milk with a teaspoon of runny honey and half a teaspoon of sugar, I added this to the tea and hey-presto a truly decadent drop of chai – the honey and sugar highlight the ginger and cinnamon. Made this way it makes for a cup of desert and is a very good satisfying replacement to a cafe store late and much nicer also.

Compared to other chais that seem to focus on the spices at the expense of the tea Twinings do a brilliant job of keeping the black tea as centre and enhancing the taste of the tea rather than replacing it with an overload of spice. The focus on ginger and cinnamon is perfect allowing you to enjoy the other spices without feeling like they’re taking over the tea.

Very impressed with this and highly recommend to Chai lovers and to those who have tried chai and felt overwhelmed by spice.

Floral and peachy overtones guide you into this tea and leave you with a distinctly peachy after taste. This is a more fragrant and more fruity version of the standard Earl Grey and could easily be described as a step up if you want more of a similar type of flavour. Alternatively you may like this if you’re not a fan of Earl of Grey but are a fan of peach as it strongly resonates in this tea far more than any of the familiar Earl Grey tones.

I found this tea very off-putting as the smell is extremely overpowering and although I like peaches it turns out I don’t like peach flavoured tea – the smell is overpowering and the taste is even more so leaving a very strong after-taste.

If you’re more English Breakfast and less Earl Grey then I’d steer clear of this tea. Vice versa than this is the one for you.

This is an invigorating sweet herbal tissane that makes for a great ‘pick-me-up’ in the afternoon. If you find your mind tiring and want to get back on track than this really is the perfect tea.

The smell is overwhelmingly mint with a nice hint of the vanilla to come. The first thing you will taste is the mint and then you will be left with a delicately sweet vanilla aftertaste. It is a light tea and not overpowering in any way, it makes for a very nice treat by itself. However, I do find that something about it makes me hungry, most likely the vanilla – I’ve found gingerbread accompanies this beautifully.

It is quite addictive, I usually have a good two mugfulls at a time and with each day I have this I increase the infusing time to get the most flavour out of this as possible.

I wouldn’t recommend having this if you are trying to substitute a snack for tea as it will make you want more.

The smell of the tissane in the packet is a very good indication of what it will taste like so if you like the smell when you pick it up you’ll most likely love the tea if however it puts you off then it’s a good indication you won’t like it.

If you love vanilla like me then this is definitely for you – it makes a great caffeine-free vanilla hit and reminds me of vanilla cupcakes (with a shot of mint).

This is a truly beautiful Oolong – it tastes creamy and indulgent while being very light. The aroma reminds me of a light caramel and is very strong – you will find it will make your whole room smell of caramel which I love. The tea itself is closer to black than green, there is no hint to ‘gassiness’ whatsoever and has a satisfyingly medium strength flavour to it. It will provide you with a nice milky/ caramel aftertaste.

Great before bed, very calming and relaxing like velvet caramel in a cup. Makes for a beautiful desert tea without being overpowering.

You can re-use the leaves up to three times by increasing the brewing time by a minute teach time. By the third re-use you’ll find the beautiful aroma has faded but the taste is still divine.