Miss Sweet

Why do companies insist on giving their teas misleading names? The aroma of this is divine creamy-spicy-chai, but the flavour is a lot more muted and is more like a basic vanilla cinnamon tea. Still tasty, but I wish more of those chai spices would come through in the cup!

Ohhhh this blend smells incredible. Everytime I’m in my kitchen I have to grab the packet and take a whiff like some I’m crazed tea huffer. Its like dipping your nose into a honey pot! The almond gives it a little sharpness and stops it from heading into the too sweet category, but aside from that you don’t really notice it. Honey honey honey oh honey! Decandant on its own but I love it with a little milk before bedtime, I don’t think this packet will last me very long at all!

Having previously shunned Stir Tea after some incredibly disappointing experiences with their blends, I was wary of dropping $16 for a bag of their earl grey. If it wasn’t for a good tea fiend friend of mine raving about it, I wouldn’t have given it a second look.

Needless to say I have been drinking this by the gallon! The aroma is a deliciously strong bergamot and orange, with the flavour coming through in the cup just as powerful. Great with milk or without, I think I’ve found a back-up for when my precious Earl Grey Excelsior is out of stock!

I was surprised to see such an ordinary blend from 52 Teas, but my disappointment was only limited to the lack of crazy – not the flavour! A deliciously strong cinnamon vanilla tea, a cup of this is just begging to be drunk alongside a pile of snickerdoodles fresh from the oven. I refuse to drink it any other way!

I’m sure I’m not the only one wanting to see a blend with gummy bears or more importantly, something along the lines of this: http://twitpic.com/2qf42y. Whaddya say Frank? ;)

T2 do a lot of breakfast teas that aren’t what I’d envision to be a breakfast tea at all really, they’re just flavoured teas with the name ‘breakfast’ slapped on them. Sydney Breakfast is actually a weak earl grey masquerading as a breakfast blend so its disappointing if you want either, but a cup of this makes for a really nice light afternoon tea with a ghost of bergamot. Best enjoyed plain (and if you ignore the word ‘breakfast’).

No notes yet.

Oh how I loathe banana flavoured things, so I knew I sadly wouldn’t enjoy this blend! It tastes like a creamier version of those banana lollies you’d get in $1 mixed bags that I would always pick out and give to my friends. My fellow banana-flavour-loving friends (who I gave the tea to) assure its deliciousness!

Luckily I wasn’t “looking for a legendary experience” as the description asks, otherwise I would have been sorely disappointed. A little fruity, a little floral, all around a “nice” tea. Nice in that inoffensive and uninteresting way though, and far from ~ legendary ~. SIGH.

After a hectic week of work, studying, late night movies and flinging my beads around till the wee small hours of the morning… I’m in desperate need of some rejuvinating today. This Australian grown CTC (from the looks of it) brews up almost black in color and really holds its own among the array of chai spices, which has a sweet little kick of liquorice root. I’m not sure how rejuvenating this blend truly is, but I definitely feel like I can face the rest of today without keeling over.

I only had a small sample of this so I really need to track down some more, because I know this would be fantastic brewed stovetop in milk!

The dry leaves smell like those cinnamon lollies, as does the resulting brew. This blend packs a pretty weak cinnamon lolly taste though, plus I could do without the sugared syrupyness coating the back of my tongue and making me want to throw up – both from the sensation and the heavily sweetened flavour. Way too sweet, where’s the spice?

Well yes. The aroma of the dry leaves is indeed chocolate strawberry, with the liquid smelling of mostly chocolate. But not good chocolate. Nor is it the step down from good chocolate which is the cheap but edible and wildly available stuff. Its more like the weird stuff that you find in $2 discount stores that isn’t really chocolate but some weird stale chocolate colored imitation. Imagine that with a faint hint of strawberry and you have experienced this tea.

You gotta admire tea blends with stupid names, because if I had a tea company all the blends would be named after inside jokes and dead celebrities I’m in love with.
Anyway, the aroma has that imitation lemon essence smell I’ve come to expect with lemon teas with hint of mint. This blend tastes exactly how it smells really, but I really don’t find the lozenge-esque lemon and mint an agreeable combination in my mouth…

This blend of coconut, lavender and rooibos both intrigued and disgusted me. There is no flavouring added either, so it really just tastes exactly how you’d think: lavender and rooibos with a sweet coconut aftertaste. Interesting sounding but ultimately pretty bland, much like the men my friends try to set me up with.

The only notes I had jotted down for this was “Bleh. Slightly berryish taste. Good intro to tea for savages.”

I knew this would be awful just from its name (and also due to not finding a decent earl grey during the entire World Tea Expo).
I really can’t think of anything worse than sullying the greatness of bergamot with weird dried berries and flavouring but I was willing to give this a go. The aroma of the tea is strangely fake strawberry, like lollies, with a hint of citrus. And unsurprisingly the flavour is much the same, a poor strawberry black tea with a finish of light (cheap?) bergamot.

It could be my imagination, but this doesn’t taste as sweet as the other caramel rooibos blends that I’ve tried – which is a good thing! Comfortingly caramely, this makes for a delicious dessert drink if you add a splash of milk.
Take note rooibos haters, that woodchip/piney/some-part-of-a-tree taste mostly takes a back seat for this one, so drink up!

I’m feeling really cranky today so instead of punching people in the face, I brewed a pot of this and put on The Smiths.
Oh yeah. The lemon in this is really perfect. You get that buttery-lemon-slice goodness of the lemongrass, the puckering-citrus of the lemon peel (enhanced by the hibiscus) and before it all gets out of control the chamomile helps the honeybush mellow everything out. Including me.
And with all the people who’ve come in and started singing along to my music today, its hard to continue feeling grumpy. The magic of Morrissey and Lemonbushomile!

Yes! Hot, this tea is all lemon and lime wrapped in a coconut hug. And not one of those weird lingering hugs from someone you don’t like. Thankfully the lemon isn’t that nasty plastic lemon flavour either (which I have previously ranted about).
Chilled is when this yerba mate really shines – specifically the lime – making me long for those warm desert nights I had poolside in Palm Springs all those weeks ago…

I feel kind of wrong for liking this, because I know I shouldn’t… but theres something about the cherry lipbalm notes in this tea that I’m inexplicably and ashamedly drawn to.

A consistant blend? A consistantly bad blend, really. Even with a mere 2 minute brew the astringency still takes over, just like that annoying brunette chick in every episode of Glee. Who is drinking this and why are they wasting their time with this when they could be filling their cup with a decent single estate Darjeeling?

No notes yet.

Attention everyone, this is how you do a creamy strawberry black tea! When you open the bag, there are huge chunks of strawberry pieces throughout and its like dipping your nose in a strawberry smoothie – the smell is that incredible. On the first sip you get that creamy-custardy-strawberry (or Zabaglioney) taste, which rounds off nicely with more strawberry. More strawberry! Heaven. And the tea base just kinda sits back and lets the flavours do their thing, which is grand. Can this tea last forever? Please? Please!

Dreamsicle Darjeeling, you dream! The orange creaming soda overwhelms you as soon as you rip open the foil bag, which instantly made my mouth water. Of course the flavour of the brewed tea didn’t disappoint at all, this is perfection in a cup! And how delicious would this be iced? I don’t know as its currently 5 degrees outside, but I imagine it would be just as good (if not better).
As an aside, I wish darjeeling was used more in flavoured blends. I think the characteristics of the tea could lend themselves well to certain flavours. Especially this one!

No notes yet.