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My mom is turning fifty on Friday, but she had her birthday party last night. Because she is the mature woman, aging gracefully, she rented most of a pub, hired a musician, and dragged half of her friends up on stage at various times to sing or play ukelele with her. There was singing. There were thundermugs. There was the YMCA. There was a conga line while an Indian man sang ‘Guantanamera’.

I don’t drink (mostly) and I had to drive home, so I contented myself with diet Coke until I was on my way to the bathroom and spotted, beside the cupcakes that my sister had rearranged from “HAPPY BIRTHDAY THERESA” into “IT’S A TRAP”, a small tin of this tea and a hot water dispenser! Yes, at the bar, surrounded by loudly carolling drunks, I found tea!

The tin turned out to actually be a repository for a motley collection of tea bags, mostly Red Rose, some Bigelow, some Tim Horton’s. But there was one bag of the Tazo left, so I snagged it and brewed up a cup. My cousin Jo kept stealing sips until she asked, “Why does this taste weird?” “Because it’s Earl Grey.” “Ohhh!”

Okay, the tea: I don’t know what I was expecting from a black from a Tazo, since I’ve only had their herbal blends before. The first thing I noticed was that it brewed up very dark, very quickly, but wasn’t bitter when I finally snagged the bag. The flavour was mild and pleasant, certainly not the best but not the worst. There wasn’t much of an Earl flavour, more like an OP with a back-hint of bergamot. What flavour it did have had good staying power, though; I resteeped the bag three or four times through the night. As an alternative to beer it was just what I wanted, but I won’t seek it out again.

Boo, we have a lot less of this than I thought we did. Our tin is only half-full! But what a way to go. After the yerba mate mango got me on my feet, this kept be going. Tart zingy lemon and the delicious oolong base. When DT honours their oolongs but not treating them as a blank canvas, they do them really, really well, and this is one of the best.

Mmmm. My wife tried this yesterday and was raving about it, so after a too-long day and too-short sleep, I pulled it out of the sample box to kick me into action. I think I was a little too stingy on the leaves, but I wanted to leave enough of our sample so Rita could have another cup.

Yum! I can’t wait to try this again with more leaves. As it was, it reminded me of the fruit-infused greens that don’t try for perfume – a sweet and round taste that isn’t very bold or in-your-face, but still very pleasant. It was a great tea to drink at work. Not too sweet, not too leafy, not too much of anything but delicious. Looking forward to adding this one to the cupboard for sleepy mornings.

I’m still on the lookout for Republic of Tea’s Honey Ginseng on a store shelf somewhere, but in the meantime I spied this offering from Celestial Seasonings and thought I would give it a try. The lemon is the predominant flavour, but the honey sweetens the acidic bit of the lemon, and the ginseng is working to clear my sinuses. Luckily I can’t taste any of the licorice mentioned on the package. While this wasn’t the tea I was looking for, I’m glad I picked it up; it’ll make a nice caffeinated alternative to NeoCitran or homemade honey lemon tea for a sore throat.

I’ve been trying to save this tea, since it has been discontinued, but I needed all litre-plus of delicious raspberry bergamotty goodness today. Made the Big Bubba of tea to get me through the last half of work-shift-from-hell.

I still can’t get over how all-around good this tea is. The raspberry doesn’t overwhelm the Earl, but highlights it and enhances it. And the black base is so incredibly rich and full without a trace of bitterness. I ordered the peach Earl from Red Leaf the other day, I’m hoping it’s a similar full fruity Earl.

Horrible, horrible, horrible day at work. Came in to a half-dozen crises in progress, with no support. I felt like screaming and crying for an hour and a half solid. Alpine Punch to the rescue. It was a like a mini-break from madness with every hurried gulp.

Third (fourth? Seventh?) cup in two days. Can you burn out on a tea? I hope to god not, because this is wonderful for all my sicky icky.

Feel like crap. This tea makes me feel less like crap. Yay for this tea.

This review brought to you by my remaining functioning braincells.

Savouring my third cup of this for the evening. I can’t wait to get my hands on some of this dry and steep it from the beginning so I can taste all the subtle creamy variations. You know, DT, I was starting to lose faith in you a little. The last few blends have been a little iffy. But you have come back strong with this blend, even if it is light on the actual tea content for the price.

It was creamy and sweet, which seems to be a tea-theme for me today. Reminded me of Check Mate with less of the chocolate flavour, but keeping the sweet coconutty creaminess.

I really enjoyed this tea! I may hunt down TinaS for the rest of the sample that Jessie split between us.

Dry, the leaves didn’t smell overwhelmingly of much at all, but once steeped it lived up to the name in a big way, a mellow tea with a smooth and sweet white chocolate creaminess. I wanted to just hold each swallow in my mouth for a while until it melted. Next time I might steep it a little shorter to bring out the sweet chocolate without the white tea getting more astringent. There was a kind of oily film on the top of the cup, I guess from the milk drops, but it didn’t put me off at all. Overall, a deliciously dessert tea.

Yum. Smokey, minty, just what my headache wanted. If it had the same caffeine jolt as a Red Bull, I would have found the perfect migraine antedote.

When I was in high school, I actually worked at Tim Hortons for almost a year. I wasn’t a tea- or coffee-drinker at the time, but I would make an extra-large hot chocolate almost every shift. Two squirts of cream and a peppermint tea bag before pouring the hot chocolate made a divine drink.

To me, Tim’s peppermint will always be the addition to a rich cup of hot chocolate. On its own, as I had it today, it’s just underwhelming. Not quite enough of anything to be satisfying, but good in a pinch to deal with headache or tummy troubles.

Dug a bag of this out of the Mystery Box of tea on our counter, I don’t know from whence it came, but I was craving something for headache-busting and the ginger sounded good.

This started off as a surprisingly tasty, robust tea. The eponymous ginger and peach balanced each other out for a taste that wasn’t too spicy or wasn’t too sweet. I probably could have steeped it for a little longer to bring out more of the flavour, but I read the bag of the packet as it was brewing and I discovered that there was hibiscus in it, and hibiscus steeped too long becomes the Day of the Triffids of tea.

Unfortunately, as it cooled, the Triffids had their day. The more I drank it, the more I got a back-hint of hibiscus and rubber balloon. Don’t think I’d go for this one again, even though it started out so promising.

Big Thermos. Was delicious, as usual. I moved this tea to another tin, on a lower shelf, so hopefully I’ll find myself reaching for it more now.

Needed an anti-headache pick-me-up today (and, apparently, ALL THE HYPHENS) so my lovely wife made me a cup of this to take to work. It made it all the way to the bus stop with me and was quickly gone. I have so much love in my heart for the peppermint tea. It’s just so blissfully unadulterated.

I got more of an Huh La La from this than any specific Ooh.

It was very fruity, no disappointment there. The scent of the dry leaf definitely lived up to the tea, but the overall flavour was very heady and overwhelming; I’d say “oppressive” but it’s only oppressive in that way that an old lady’s perfume is oppressive when she’s standing right beside you. Very off-putting. I don’t know if I would reach for it again.

Finally got around to trying this, combating a bit of a headache and mint and a bit of caffeine usually helps. Red Leaf does an amazing Earl, but I have been underwhelmed by the rest of their offerings. The mint was very mild and the green tea tasted stale and dusty. It was better than a kick in the teeth.

No notes yet.

This came out a little bit bitter, but it’s still got a fuzzy peach ripple through it, not even a mild back-hint of ass. Not the overwhelming peachy flavour I was expecting from the smell of the dry leaf, but an enjoyable black all the same. It will take some experimenting to find the proper steeping time and temp.

Dry, this tea is outstanding. Just an incredibly heady smell of fresh fruit and light sencha.

Unfortunately, even after a steep at the correct temperature for much longer than I would usually do a green, checking every thirty seconds, the flavour remained stubbornly that of a lightly vegetal green. There was a faint aroma, a back-hint of the fruitiness of the dry leaf, of berries, but the tea was clear and light. Very underwhelming. Very unimpressed. Very disappointed.

Wow! Tealish occasionally pulls a bizarre combo out of the bag and dazzles with it. Citrus and coconut, paired with the spice blend more commonly found in chai? Say whaaaat? But it was tasty! A very good black tea at the first taste, with the sweetness of the citrus, cream from the coconut, and a tingle and zip from the spices. I snagged a sample of it from Indigobloom for a second and third steep, but this may be sneaking into the collection.

I took my life into my hands unintentionally by making this, as we only have enough for one cup in the house.

I like this, it’s sweet and citrusy, with just a hint of the good-for-you stuff of the more medicinal teas without, well, the medicinal part. I usually find mates a little astringent for me, but the citrus does a lot to balance that out. I definitely want to pick some of this up to add to my wake-me-up rotation.

No notes yet.

Finally tried this from our Toronto Tea Party and mmmmm, very sweet and fruity without any sugar. I don’t taste any hibiscus, but I only steeped it two minutes, which seems the perfect length for most blacks. I like the berry in this one; reminds me of Tealish’s Bella Berry without the tartness of the melon added in.