adagio breeze

Oh, yum. I think I managed to brew this one correctly, since Whittard was kind enough to include brewing instructions on their website for this one.

Dry leaf is deep green and wiry, with a scent that I can really only describe as “fresh”. The liquor is a medium-pale greenish-gold color with an aroma of buttery steamed spinach. Flavor is light, sweetly vegetal, with some butteriness and perhaps a hint of smoke.

This may be my favorite unflavored green tea so far. (Granted I haven’t tried that many yet, but believe me, it’s good!) I can see this becoming my everyday green.

Whoa! This is some powerful stuff. I took a sip at about 3 minutes in (1 heaping tsp for 8 oz water), and it packed quite a wallop. Not a tea I would drink black, though I’d err on the side of less milk so the flavors aren’t masked (I used 1/2 tsp sugar and just enough soymilk to turn it an opaque medium brown).

The write-up for this tea says it’s good for breakfast, and I would have to agree. It’s a better breakfast tea than their English Breakfast blend – fuller, more well-rounded, and less harsh. This might become one of my regular morning teas.

Thanks to Mike Turner for the sample!

Well, I did it again and used too much water for the packet, so no rating. Dry leaf smells appley & spicy, with the clove becoming more dominant during steeping. Taste is mostly clove, with a faint apple & cinnamon background, and I couldn’t detect the pomegranate or sage. The clove is a bit more gentle on the second steep. May try for a third.

Thanks Mike Turner for the sample!

I really liked how this smelled out of the packet – a distinct fruity tang from the dried raspberries without being overpowering. The creamy coconut scent came out during brewing.

I initially steeped it for 4 minutes in about 200mL water, but found it a bit weak for my liking. I let it brew for a total of about 6 and a half minutes, but it still didn’t get as strong as I would have liked, which just means I’ll have to order a bag of it so I can overleaf it :)

No rating at this time, but I liked the not-too-powerful, not-too-subtle raspberry flavor and the hint of creaminess. Will be trying this one again!

Backlog. Thanks to PureAromaTea for the sample!

The dry blend is emerald-green sencha mixed with chamomile heads and dried strawberry pieces, and very strongly scented of strawberry. The fragrance persists during steeping, but the flavor is surprisingly subtle, despite having a recommended steep time twice as long as the Japanese cherry tea. There was also much more astringency from this blend, very likely a result of the longer brew time, though it was only present in the first steep. I couldn’t taste anything that resembled champagne, but that’s not a problem for me. I got about 6 steepings out of this blend before it started to lose its flavor.

Not rating this yet, since I probably screwed up the steeping. I’m still a novice when it comes to white tea, but I don’t think it’s supposed to be quite like this (deep honey color, somewhat bitter/astringent but not enough to make it unpleasant). Note to self: 2 tbsp leaf for your 2-cup pot is probably too much. Maybe try a shorter steep or hotter water.

On second thought, maybe I’m not too far off… I drank the liquor that spent a little longer in the pot first, and now that I’ve gotten to the first-poured cup it’s a lot more enjoyable. It does have some astringency, but the sweeter flavors are much more present. One irritating thing about Whittard is that they don’t always give brewing instructions on the packaging or website, and the search results for brewing white peony varied quite a bit, so trial and error it is. Oh well, that’s why we have Steepster!

Based on the second cup I drank, I’d probably rate it somewhere around 78.

When I first heard about this tea I knew I had to try it, since the list of flavors pushes all the right buttons for me.

For the most part it lives up to its promise. The dry leaves have the unmistakable fragrance of bergamot with the coconut & licorice singing backup, and the coconut comes forward while steeping. Tasted all together, they meld harmoniously in such a way that I can’t easily tease out the individual flavors, and leave a nice long-lasting aftertaste.

This cup was a bit overly astringent and bitter (I steeped it for the recommended maximum of 3 minutes; will try 2m 30s next time), but this was easily remedied with a small squeeze of agave. It takes milk reasonably well (go easy, though!) but I prefer it without.

Overall, it’s a very unique, interesting tea that I’m sure I will buy again.

Tried this again tonight. Bumping down my rating because I definitely got a cardboard-y taste this time. I still don’t dislike it, but I’m sure there are nicer vanilla teas out there – not getting this one again.

It’s finally starting to feel like spring, so a sakura tea seemed appropriate.

Dry leaves have a very heady, sweet cherry-floral fragrance, and appear to have flower petals (rose?) mixed in. Liquor is greenish-gold and cloudy with a similar aroma to the dry blend. The vibrant cherry flavor is well balanced between fruity and floral, and doesn’t overpower the smooth sencha base. I got three infusions out of one teaspoon. Very pleased with my first PureAroma experience!

For my first cup of the day, I prefer strong, malty black tea blends with milk & sugar. Breakfast blends generally stand up well to milk, so they’re usually a good standby for me. This, unfortunately, is not one of them.

The dry leaves are very pretty, with several golden tips scattered throughout the chocolate-brown leaves and twigs. The liquor is a deep coppery brown, and when brewed for 3 minutes is actually quite good drunk on its own, like a slightly more astringent Russian Caravan. It’s just not what I would consider a breakfast tea.

I steeped the rest of my pot for an extra minute for my milky cup. It wasn’t bad, but it was dull enough that I was drinking it begrudgingly about halfway through.

Because this tea is so different with and without milk, I feel compelled to give separate ratings.
With milk: 50
Without milk: 82

Thanks to Mike from Bluebird Tea Co for this sample!

This smells really good out of the packet – very rich and dessert-like.
While steeping, I could clearly detect the tart, fruity flavor of the rhubarb as well as some creaminess.

I wasn’t sure how long to steep, as there weren’t any instructions on the website, so I figured 5 minutes was a reasonable amount of time.
The taste seemed somewhat artificial-chemical, which could have been due to the stevia, which I’m not completely sold on. I really expected and wanted to like this blend, but that aspect of the flavor hampered my enjoyment of it.
I added some soya cream and a small squeeze of agave to see if it would take the edge off. It sort of worked, but dulled the flavors somewhat.

Now that I’m finished, I don’t really know what to think. There was a very pleasant, long-lasting aftertaste to this tea that made me reconsider my verdict. Maybe I’ll try it again someday and experiment some more.

Thank you KittyLovesTea for this!

Dry, the leaves have an appealing roasty, chocolaty aroma. Steeping, it smells almost as if there’s a cake in the oven!

I tasted it at 3 minutes and there was a definite cacao flavor with a sweet aftertaste, but I left it in for another 2 minutes to see if it would enhance it at all. It seems only the black tea flavors were strengthened, and now unfortunately the chocolate is a bit lost. 3 minutes seems to be the sweet spot for this one.

Added 1/2 teaspoon sugar: astringency is toned down, but the chocolate isn’t much more prominent.

Added soymilk: even less astringency, but chocolate flavor is still quite subtle.

Overall, I think it has promise – it’s like a deluxe version of the black breakfast teas I have every morning. I’m a big fan of roasty/baked flavors, which this tea has in spades. Luckily for me I have several more servings of this to play around with :)

Had this from a hotel room I’d stayed in a year and a half ago, so I figured it was about time I drank it. It was my first cup of the day, which is usually not conducive to a clear-headed tasting & review (even the “gently pull tab to release string” gave me problems). Brewed up it had a tangy astringency that was still present after 1 teaspoon of sugar was added. I drank it with my morning toast and didn’t add milk until I was almost at the bottom of the cup.

In sum: I drank this and thought it was decent but wasn’t paying enough attention to really say anything about it.

I don’t have much experience with Darjeelings, but I think I like this one! Floral & grassy with pleasant astringency and hints of muskiness. Don’t have much more to add because I drank it a bit too quickly.

This is quite posh-tasting, if that makes sense. I tend to gravitate towards big, bold flavors when it comes to tea (tempered with sugar & milk as needed), but every once in a while it’s nice to have something a bit more delicate. Bergamot is usually pretty in-your-face, at least in most of the Earl Greys I’ve tried, so I was surprised how subtle this one was. It’s an EG more for relaxing after a busy day out than for perking yourself up. Soothing and very drinkable without any milk or sweetener, and lovely with a bit of orange poppyseed cake.

ETA: 5+ minute resteep is pretty good, too.

Ooh, this is very nice. Probably my favorite out of all the Clipper herbals I’ve tried. It was rather weak at 2 minutes (and even after 4 and a half), so I left the teabag in the cup the whole time. It seemed a bit dull at first, but it grew on me as the liquor became more pleasantly viscous and the flavors came out and melded together harmoniously. Not the most exciting tea, but then again it’s good not to have too much excitement before bed.

Had a little too much to eat at Easter dinner (postponed until today because we helped my sister-in-law move into her new house), so I wanted something to help settle my tummy. This seemed like the most suitable tea in my possession.

I’m not super keen on this. I like mint and fennel most of the time, and you can definitely taste both, but I can’t help thinking that the flavor suffered because it’s a bagged supermarket tea rather than a loose blend you’d get from a tea shop. My stomach does feel better than it did before, so that’s got to count for something.

The bagged version of this is what I’ve taken to drinking at my in-laws’ house. It’s rather old (best before date was 18 months ago), but it’s still better than Twinings Everyday!

This is what my in-laws stock at their house. I’ve been drinking this stuff every time I come to visit for over five years, and I still haven’t figured out how to make it taste good. It doesn’t taste bad, per se; it mostly tastes like nothing. I guess it’s okay if you just want a comforting warm beverage and there’s nothing else available but it’s not like there’s a lack of options – we’re in England, damn it! No supermarket bagged black tea I’ve tried is as insipid as this one.

At least I managed to find a box of English breakfast that must have gotten lost in the cupboard :)

This was on clearance at a local health food store, so I went for it (to my partner’s chagrin, seeing me come home with yet another box of tea).

Upon opening the packet it smells exactly like a vanilla pod, no doubt owing to the ground vanilla beans it contains. I took a sip after it had been steeping for 3 minutes, but found it a bit weak and left the bag in for the full 5. It was okay plain, better with sugar, and about the same level of tastiness with a splash of soymilk toward the end of the cup. The vanilla flavor was quite herbal – almost medicinal, but not in a way that made me dislike it. Should make a nice addition to my stash of bedtime brews.

Just received my Eteaket order today! I was going to try the Sailor of Hamburg blend, but what arrived in that caddy did not match the photo on the website (I think I got coffee leaf tea instead).

I went for my second choice, Highland Fling, a CTC blend that smells like it has quite a kick to it. The leaf bits are smaller than I was expecting and surprisingly dusty – there was a little shadow of fine particles left on the counter when I moved my filled infuser into my cup.

It’s punchy, like the description says. Straight up it’s quite similar to my usual morning black bagged tea – strong and bitter, but with a bigger astringent twang, and somewhat more drinkable, oddly enough. The drinkability improves with sugar (though the 1 tsp I added was probably a bit much). I then added soymilk, thinking a tea like this would take it very well, but it covers up a lot of the appealing flavors. When I was almost finished with the cup I was met with some more particles that had escaped the infuser and expanded to the size of coffee grounds. Blech.

It’s a pretty nice tea on the whole, but it seems a little unnecessary to keep on hand when I have bagged black tea that I like – they take milk better and don’t leave gritty sludge in the bottom of my cup. Maybe I’ll get some paper infusers for this one.

Lately I just haven’t felt up to evaluating tea, so I’ve been sticking mainly to my old reliable strong bagged black + soymilk + sugar. But now we’re in the throes of a cold snap and I’m drinking cup after cup to keep warm, so I figured it was about time I tried a loose tea from my stash that I haven’t reviewed.

I still don’t have the vocabulary to describe this one, but I really like it! “Earthy” is probably a good word for it. It’s smooth and kind of sweet and savory at the same time, and it went nicely with the sourdough rye toast I had with it. I happily drank the whole cup without even considering adding milk or sweetener. I think I would prefer it a bit stronger, so I’ll just have to watch how much water I put in my cup next time.

Opening the packet, it smells like ripe red fruits; steeping, it smells deliciously juicy. I can taste both the white tea and pomegranate, as well as a bitter/astringent edge that grows stronger as the tea cools. Reasonably good for what it is, but I wish it tasted more like it smells.

Feeling a little woozy this afternoon, possibly from too much caffeine. Perhaps a full pot of that English breakfast is not the best way for me to start the day. So I figure now is as good a time as any to try an herbal.

Aroma while steeping is apple-y and somewhat grassy, with a floral note. I don’t really know how to describe the taste, though… there’s the definite sweet aftertaste from the licorice root, but everything else seems to be blending together. I’m not too impressed by it, but it is helping to ground me a bit (contrary to the name, hurr hurr). Next time I’ll go for a longer steep.