Miss Sweet

A milder green rooibos than the Green Peach. I would probably brew this a lot longer, leave the leaves stewing in the pot as I drank it, or just brew Green Peach instead. It needs more strawberry, more jazz hands, more razzamatazz.

Honeybush has that same piney aroma that rooibos has, both in the dry leaves and resulting brew. But the taste is smooth, sweet and honey-like, as well as being full-flavoured enough to stand on its own without milk. This self-confessed honey addict gives it a semi-colon and an uppercase ‘d’….. ;D

Oho, a tea with an amusing name, how delightful. This brews up to a shockingly pink color and is quite tart. In fact after drinking such watery teas today, the first sip of this made me have the same reaction as when I first saw the other hippy redhead, Joan from Mad Men: “WOAH”. This tea kicks your ass hot but I think it really shines iced. Bit of gin, bit of soda and you’re good for the rest of the afternoon!

A similar blend to De-stress, in both taste and ingredients. The notable difference would be the inclusion of vervain in this one, which as we all know protects you from vampires. This in addition to the strong citrus flavour, makes it great for drinking before you go to bed, in case you get attacked in your sleep.

Well, thats a vague description! This is another herbal blend that has an ingredients list the size of a really long list, but isn’t too bad. This brewed up to a dark golden color and smells of something minty. flavour wise, you get lemon and apple with a hint of mint and a bite of cinnamon. It still tastes crowded though. I would rate it higher if the ingredients list was culled, but then I wouldn’t be regenerating my body and mind!

Something that tastes this bad has to be good for you, right? Gah. This brews up to a medium yellowy color and the aroma is very leafy. Which is understandable when you check the ingredients list: ginko, nettle leaves, blackberry leaves, St Johns wort, vervain, mistletoe, white thorn leaves, lemongrass, green tea, willow herb, cornflower blossoms and safflower blossoms (the last two probably for decorative purposes only).
So what does it taste like? It tastes like most herbal teas I hate, so packed with leaves it tastes like drinking a wet garden. If I’m drinking a herbal tisane, I prefer uncomplicated blends, regardless of the health benefits!

This is surprisingly drinkable, though definitely not my favourite. The flavour is dominated by that artificial lemon taste while still remaining pretty light all-round, but I guess you only drink herbal tea for the “health benefits”. Actually this would be rad iced with soda water…

Me and Pear Temple have had a tumultuous love affair, punctuated by unbridled passion, threats of suicide, and metronomic doses of violence… oh wait thats Frank Sinatra & Ava Gardner. Pear Temple used to be my favourite tea until I got sick of it – I sipped my last cup about a year ago when I decided we were through. Which is a shame because as I’ve rediscovered today, its a deliciously sweet pear flavoured tea that is excellent both plain and with milk. And even better when paired with pear & walnut cupcakes that were baked for you by a friend…

This tastes strange. Well for starters it sounds strange, but I digress. The only actual ingredients in this aside from the teas are vanilla and tea blossoms – the “earl grey” and jasmine are just flavouring. I can’t discern the jasmine or bergamot, it tastes more like the cornflowers etc you usually find in earl grey. There is a strange sharpness that may be the green tea or tea blossoms? Hmm. Its better plain, adding milk just makes it taste stranger!

You win Taylors of Harrogate! A full-bodied and lush vanilla flavour without being overly sweet, they recommend it plain but it is still delightful, delicious and de-lovely with milk.
This is the second excellent tea I’ve had from this company, I wish they weren’t so poorly stocked here!

Huh, I’ve never had a decaf tea that didn’t taste like nothing so this was a pleasant surprise! A lovely smooth, light and sweet black tea, with just the right amount of vanilla to be delicious both plain and with milk. The milk gives it this amazing creamyness and really brings out the vanilla. A perfect accompaniment to some Dorsey era Sinatra, like “East of the Sun”…

I don’t know, this tea is really lacking. To me a vanilla black tea should be rich, creamy and great with milk. This was pretty bland and the vanilla had a weird taste. I tried it with milk but it just took away the flavour too much.

I’ve been a fan of Kerikeri’s earl grey for a while, but only recently found a stockist handy to me – Esquires coffee shops of all places! Its basically a cruddy NZ version of Starbucks, so I’m amazed that you are able to buy decent loose leaf from them.
I picked up an EPIC size cup of this earlier and drank it black – its definitely my favourite earl grey after Excelsior! Really smooth and light, with a good citrusy bergamot kick. I can’t wait to try their other blends :D

Just when I was getting bored of t leaf T teas, Tung Ting decided to be all totally awesome and make tea exciting again! I’ve been curious to try this tea for a while, its $35/100g and touted as “one of the finest oolongs in the world”. Watching the the leaves unfurl from these small rolled bits into massive leaves in my glass teapot was fascinating, it was as if they’d just rolled up an entire tea bush! The taste was buttery and herbacious, smooth and full-bodied. It reminded me of a less green gyokuro kabuse. This oolong is definitely worth the extra money if you’re oolong-inclined!

2nd steep, 6 mins: Slightly less astringent, still full of flavour
3rd steep, 7 mins: Almost sweet, reminds me of a silver needle white tea
4th steep, 8 mins: Has an underlying sharpness to it, like a second steeping of silver needle. Still packing a decent amount of flavour!
5th steep, 9 minutes: A mild cup now, I give up!

Perfect, fierce, amazing, etc. If I logged this every time I drank it, it would be embarrassing. The one true earl grey, all others pale in comparison!

Less terrible than I thought it would be, the citrus pieces help push aside that perfume taste I dislike so much. Definitely best plain with a bit of lemon!

Embodying everything I hate about earl greys, sickenly floral with a gasp of bergamot. Terrible to drink but fantastic to use in baking! Yeah, I said it. This is my cheap baking tea.

This tea is to delicate for my tastes, I like my earl grey to be a punch in the face.

More “strawberry” than “strawberries and cream” unfortunately, it has as much razzamatazz as the raspberry black tea I just tried. Adding milk does bring out the creaminess a little bit more, but overall I am underwhelmed by this tea.

What a sinister looking blend! Those whole raspberries are creeping me out. Anyway, this looks more exciting than it tastes. I’m not big on the idea of fruity black teas at all but I think this would be better with more vanilla or something to punch up the flavour a bit. It’s just like “Oh hey, I’m a raspberry black tea…” not “WAHEY! I’M A RASPBERRY BLACK TEA!” with jazz hands etc. I would definitely drink this plain because milk just mutes the flavour too much. Yeah.

Does what it says on the packet really! The tea is smooth, sweet and aromatic with a strong lichee flavour. Similar to China Rose, it is best plain though if you want to drink it with milk I’d brew it for longer. Would probably be delightful iced and topped up with a bit of gin…

Stupid name, yummy tea! I distinctly remember trying this a few years ago and it tasted almost as awful as the creme brulee, so they must have changed the blend. A rich and creamy caramel tea with a hint of nut (thanks to the macadamias), that tastes even more decadent with milk. A true dessert tea, perfect for satisfying your sweet tooth!

Revenge of the dried yoghurt pieces! The common ingredient in all my most hated teas, I’m not sure if they are the problem but I’ll go ahead and blame them anyway. All you get from this is “burnt”. And not the caramel kind usually found on creme brulee, more like if a bunch of hoodlums committed arson on a building that had a few ramekins of creme brulee sitting in one of the kitchens. The aroma of the leaves, the aroma of the brewed tea, the taste in your mouth with or without milk: all overwhelmingly burnt.
I’m really disappointed in this because creme brulee is one of my favourite desserts. If only it had a creamy caramel flavour with just a hint of that burnt taste, it’d be perfect!

This is actually being discontinued, I was just curious to try it to see if it was as awful as I remember. Yes. Yes it was. In fact my tasting note I jotted down for this just said “Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy???”. This tasted like burnt coffee, with that ingredient that seems to be in all the teas I hate: dried yoghurt pieces. I thought I could bring out the creamyness by adding milk, but it just made the bitter coffee taste more pronounced. A fine example of when gimmicky flavoured teas go horribly wrong!