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Huh, perhaps I have come across yet another old and dusty tea on the shelves of my local tea store because this tasted fairly bland and not robust at all. Perhaps I am expecting too much from the description, but I found it to be a rather weak tea that wouldn’t benefit from the addition of cream and sugar. Unless you are seeking hot sugary cream that is slightly tea flavoured, therefore you are also insane.

Chocolate is divine. Chocolate flavoured things however, tend to be that weird seemingly token “artificial chocolate flavour”, so I had rather low expectations for this one. The aroma is very much Proper Chocolate, but I having been deceived by the smell of dry leaves before, I kicked my expectations back down again. My poor mistreated expectations really needn’t have been abused so readily, because this my friends, is what all other chocolate flavoured black teas wish they could be. Rich in chocolate flavour and thankfully not artificially sweet tasting, I think this is perfect with a splash of milk and several pieces of buttery shortbread still warm from the oven.

I just can’t make up my mind about this one. On one hand, it is a decently flavoured apricot flavoured black tea. On the other hand, I’m not entirely sure this flavour actually works with a black tea base. Overall I found the experience confusing and unsettling…

I love chocolate, can just manage mint and absolutely loathe the two flavours together – so I was really bracing myself for this one. The smell is deceptively rich, you get a perfect mix of both chocolate and mint and it was like burying my nose in a box of after-dinner mints. Fancy after-dinner mints mind, not those crappy chocolate mint biscuits Arnotts put out.
Unfortunately, the peppermint completely overwhelms all the other flavours. I couldn’t pick out the tea base, let alone the chocolate. This made for a very strange cup…

Plum flavoured tea instantly makes me envision some fantastical exotic infusion, an explosion of brilliance on the palate, something probably involving druids and gold plates. You don’t (well I don’t) often come across plum, usually when one is creating a fruit tea or tisane. Far more lowly or common fruits are considered such as apples or berries. But plum! And blended with my Favourite Spice Of All Time: cinnamon? I knew it would be a winner before I even took that first sip. This is like a plum flavoured chai, with a surprisingly bold flavour – especially considering it is merely a herbal blend.
Congratulations Spiced Plum, you have the honor of occupying a permanent spot on my tea cabinet!

Ohhhhhh yeah. I have no other words, so it seems appropriate to leave you with this delightful ode that my best friend wrote for me:

An Ode To Bergamot
Oh bergamot, the one the true
So many things I owe to you
The mighty zing you give to tea
Enlivens something within me
Like crack or coke or maybe hoes
You make me smile from top to toes
And just like crack we can’t give up
That swish of joy within in my cup
If you were to be a man
I’d stalk you as much as I can
I’d marry you and bear your child
And in the bedroom be so wild
Oh bergamot don’t ever change
Don’t wear Ed Hardy and start a “band”
Because dear friend my love for you
Is so old fashioned, fair and true

For about the last two weeks, every time I brewed a cup of Earl Grey Excelsior aka The Fierce-est Earl Grey That Ever Earled, I made a mental note that I needed to buy another packet. Today the unthinkable has happened: I have run out completely!
A thorough and frantic rummage through my cupboard thankfully unearthed this sad wee forgotten packet with a single teaspoon left inside.
Perhaps I have an earlier version of this earl grey, as the ingredients only list bergamot and lavender in the blend. The resulting infusion makes for a very mild cup – too mild for my tastes and similar to a bagged earl grey with the smallest hint of lavender. At least I don’t have to wait too long for a proper bergamot fix!

I have been craving a cup of matcha since I watched that teashow.tv episode, but knowing that I really don’t like the taste of the only matcha I can get my hands on, I had a look around for different ways of drinking it. Of course the answer lies in adding two of my favourite things: Milk and honey (not Frank Sinatra and Christmas, I’m not that insane). Whisking warm milk and matcha together with a spoonful of honey made for a delightfully creamy, less grassy, sweet and comforting cup. It definitely gave me the kick I needed to make it through the rest of today in one piece.

The smooth and mellow characteristics of this really surprised me – I didn’t realize the peppery bite in the kawakawa version of this blend was entirely from said kawakawa leaves. I know its a classic duo, but much like Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, I prefer the ginger root and lemongrass seperately.

Dang, I totally thought my package in the post today was going to be the Mayan Chocolate Puerh. That pesky scamp sure is taking its sweet time to get to me!

As a cinnamon fiend but candy averse, its entirely possible that I have just overlooked the existence of red hot candies this entire time – though I will be upset if you can’t get them here! Confession time: I definitely had to stop myself from sifting through the entire bag just to pick out and eat all them.
Anyway, yes. The tea. This tea is gooooooood. A smooth black tea (that is so good it requires italics and extra ’o’s), which follows through with a loud whisper of cinnamon sweetness. Yes, I still love my punch-in-the-face jaw-dislocating facial-reconstructive-surgery-needed cinnamon black tea, but this cinnamon tea is perfect for those times when you need an upstanding flavoured black tea that makes you say “Mmmmmm!” rather than a string of expletives.