Caitlin

Facing my fears tea 3! This one I don’t have anything against roses but I have only ever gotten them as presents never had them as a consumable item. I have never really had any floral teas. Thanks again Rachel for the opportunity to try another new tea!

I really like this tea. I am not sure I can exactly describe what about it I like. It is like a nice black tea with a smooth undertone that I am assuming is the rose. Anyway it is a really nice relaxing while at the same time energizing cup of tea. A real mood lifter!

Also this is tasting note number 200 – Woot!!!

Tea 2 of facing my fears day! Unfortunately this one isn’t as much of a pleasant surprise as the first tea. This smells like SPEARMINT, like really hits you in the face with it. I really dislike spearmint which is weird because I love mint, but spearmint, just ick!!

In addition to smelling like spearmint this tastes like spearmint (kind of like spearmint orbit) and it has this weird feeling when I drink it. It kinda makes my mouth numb like mouthwash. So even if I liked spearmint that alone would be a major ick factor. I think I may have to give this tea away because I don’t know how I am gonna polish off 2oz of this. I can barely finish this cup.

But oh well…having fun trying teas I am scared of anyway!

Today is face your fears day! I am going to try a bunch of teas that I have been apprehensive about tasting. I decided to start with this one.

I am really not a fan of grapefruit, the real thing or things flavored like it. So obviously I was worried about this tea. The dry leaves smell like…no kidding… oregano? I have no idea why but its not an unpleasant thing for tea to smell like. The steeping tea smells like something I can’t quiet put my finger on maybe tomato. I don’t know why I am getting so many savory scents from a fruit flavored tea but oh well.

The tea tastes like a standard black tea with a hint of something. I wouldn’t guess it to be grapefruit. Again it seems more of a savory flavor. Luckily it doesn’t taste anything like grapefruit to me so I was able to enjoy the cup. Hopefully the rest of my experiences today go this well.

I decided to have this with some oreo cheesecake! It was an awesome pairing! Really improved my night :)

Never had this kind of tea before. Thanks Rachel for letting me try this!

This tea smells and tastes like liquid rice cakes. I am really enjoying the savory flavors of this tea. I need to save the rest of this and let my boyfriend try it, because I am trying to get him into more tea and currently he only like lapsang souchong. He likes salty things better then sweet and considers most tea sweet so I think this would be right up his alley. I might need to buy more of it. Its very different then anything I currently have and its yummy!

I really enjoyed this tea. It smelled like a vanilla pumpkin pie I made for Thanksgiving one year. It tastes creamy and spicy and a bit like pumpkin. The only problem was for some reason the bottom of the cup was extremely astringent, just like the last 2 sips. Very weird. Maybe I over-steeped it but the rest of the cup was perfect. I did accidentally for get to set the timer so my timing was more of a guess but there was no it steeped more than 5 and a half minutes. hmmm. Well I have more so I can try again another time because minus that I throughly enjoy this tea.

Yummy – I was in the mood for something like this, this morning. It is midly spicy and a little bit citrusy. I really enjoyed it as my morning cup of tea.

Need a little afternoon pick-me-up and this was it :)

Not as good cold as hot, but still yummy :)

The dry leaves smell like black tea with honey and the steeped tea smells like black tea with honey and the tea tastes like black tea with honey! It tastes very smooth and mildly sweet. I am not someone that sweetens my tea but hey I’ll take it if the honey is pre-added. Yum :)

OMG! This tea is awesome!!! Thank you Rachel for sending me some of this! I love this tea. I am pretty sure I am gonna have to purchase this at some point because I am always looking for a good night-time caffeine free tea as I currently only have one good one!

I made a pot of this last night! First off the dry tea was very pretty and it had real apple chunks in it which was pretty cool. I was actually a little afraid to try it based on the smell because it smelled kinda like apple juice and I really dislike apple juice.

This tea tastes awesome, very appley and sweet but not overly so. I actually first thought caramel apple, and I just found out it has caramel flavor in it so it really nails the flavor in that department. I was actually so excited to drink the second cup that I burned my mouth – haha.

Can’t wait to finish off my pot that is in the fridge, I hope it is as good iced as it is hot!

Had some of this with my afternoon snack. Still nice and fruity with a hint of green tea. This cup was better than my first thanks to my new wonderful electric kettle. This cup was brewed to perfection – yum :)

Thanks Rachel for sending me some of this!!

I had this tea with almond cake probably not as good as with coconut cake but it was still pretty darn delicious! This tea smells amazing like homemade whipped cream! It smells like cream and vanilla and just a touch like coconut. It tastes like that too only with black tea thrown in the mix. I think this tea would be great with milk or as a latte. I just may have to try that with what I have left. Anyway quiet a delicious tea!

I just had the leftover iced of this from last night. I think I like it even better iced!! The maple and cinnamon really shine through! It was awesome!

Birthday breakfast tea!!

First off thanks Rachel for the opportunity to try this tea!

This both my last tea as a teenager and my first tea using my brand new utiliTEA Kettle!! I considered picking my favorite red chai but I want to save that one for fall since it makes you feel so warm and toasty!

I have never had an electric kettle before so I am amazed by the ease with which I made this cup of tea!! This tea smells mostly of maple and looks different then any tea I have ever had. I wasn’t really sure how much to use but I think I used the right amount. When this tea is steeping it smells amazing!! Like apple cinnamon oatmeal!! That what my boyfriend identified it as too.

My first sip of this tea was like POW maple! It reminded me of one of those valentine’s candies that has the maple-walnut filling. Then the next flavor I couldn’t identify but then I figured it was almonds. Then I was finally hit by apple. Overall a solid cup of tea.

I have a whole pot of this made I think I will have one more mug and then stick it in the fridge to have it iced tomorrow. I am not really sure that this is exactly an iced tea, but I am gonna head to bed soon and don’t think I can finish the pot before then. So I guess it will be an experiment whether or not it works iced!

I was in the mood for something citrus-y this morning so I figured I would give this tea a try. It has lots of pieces of what I think are lemon peel in it. However my cup mostly tasted like a standard black tea with a hint of lemon. It was good it just didn’t scream lemon meringue. I want to try this back to back with the lemon tea I have to see if I can taste the difference.

So I was really scared to try because I don’t like chocolate flavored teas and I don’t like the combination of oranges and chocolate, but I was in the mood for something weird tonight so I figured I would give it a shot!!!

The dry leaves are very pretty lots of chunks of fruit and such. When the tea is steeping it smells very much of chocolate with a hint of orange. The tea itself was a very bright orangey color.

I was pleasantly surprised by the taste of this tea. It has a tart orange flavor with an aftertaste of chocolate. I made a pot of this and ended up enjoying 3 small cups and putting the rest of the pot in the fridge to try this tea iced. I don’t think I can do this tea all the time but it was perfect for my current mood!!!

I had the last bit of this iced with dinner tonight. I throughly enjoyed every bit of this part of tea. It was positively delicious! I am really looking forward to the rest of this tea!

Had this tea again this morning! I was craving it when I woke up! Unfortunately I discovered after pouring myself a bowl of cereal that our milk had gone bad. So it was dry cereal and tea with out milk :(. Not that I am a die-hard milk in my tea kind of girl, I actually rarely put milk in my tea, I just happen to like milk in this type, but oh well it was still delicious.

Anyway this cup was more cream and less caramel. It was a great cup of tea. It started my morning off right! Thanks again Rachel for giving me a chance to try this!!!

I made a pot of this iced today and it’s awesome. Both the dry leaves and the steeped tea smell like raspberries. The dry leaves also smell a bit like honey. The tea is really good iced the raspberry flavor and honey flavor really shine through. It really has a classic iced tea flavor!!!

I was really curious about this tea the other day when it was the steepster select, so thank you Rachel for the opportunity to try this!!

I decided to make this today to make folding laundry more enjoyable! It tastes very similar to the coconut pouchong I have from adagio tea, but a little more grassy. I really don’t taste the ginger at all. It was a very delicious tea and it was very relaxing and made the laundry folding better. But I wish it had more ginger flavor. Oh well it was yummy.

Thanks for sending this to me Rachel!!

Mmm… I love adagios caramel tea so this tea is right up my alley. It is a little less caramelly and a little more creamy than the plain caramel tea. I am really enjoying it! I had my first cup with milk which brought out the creaminess and I am about to have my second cup plain. This was an excellent first tea of the morning. And really is an excellent tea for anyone with a sweet tooth like myself – haha!

Thank you Rachel for sending this tea my way. I have recently discovered I love roobios and I have really been on the look out for a line up of night time teas. Tonight I decided to try this one and was not disappointed.
I believe that this tea smelled delicious (there was a skunk somewhere outside smelling everything up so I was having a hard time getting a good whiff of the tea). And it tastes like strawberries, vanilla and roobios in that order. It is quite lovely! I might consider ordering some of this when I am not overflowing with teas.