Cavocorax

Oh yeah, I did it! Once I saw the free shipping I realized this would probably be my only chance to order from AD&D and so I picked this tin on impulse.

It’s such a pretty tin too!

Happily the tea is also very nice. To be honest I expected it to be a bit bolder from the description but it’s not SUPER bold. It’s quite strong but drinkable with a slight astringency at the end of the sip. There are a few fruity notes in there too, which I associate with Assam tea.

This is very good. I think I prefer Butiki’s Taiwanese Assam, but this is a close second! (It really dries out the mouth though!)

That’s the end of this – sipdown!

Della Terra threw this in as a free sample which is great because I was curious about it, but not really willing to actually buy it. It’s so sweet and tart!

When I first sipped it I immediately thought of wine, which is odd for a “kid’s” tea. Then I got hit with the hibiscus backlash. Yowza!

All in all, it’s an interesting experiment, but it’s not for me. Della Terra can make some great blends, but this isn’t one of them…

(Oooh – I’m at about 85 teas in my cupboard. I’m hit by a sudden impulse to buy a billion samples from Teavivre or Upton but that’s irresponsible and also, I’m afraid to. Seriously – when you’ve got 20 types of Assam to choose from how do you know what to buy? I might just do it randomly if I do it).

Goodbye, goodbye! I had such high hopes for you, sweet little tea. I’m sorry, but I don’t think it will work out for us.

This is my last cup, so I guess I’d better rate it once and for all. I used extra leaf this time around as I didn’t have enough for two full cups, and that made a difference. I can taste the marshmallows a bit more, and a slight chocolatey note at the end of the sip, but I’m not blown away.

I am enjoying this last cup but there are so many teas out there to enjoy that I feel no regret moving on.

This is my fourth day in a row drinking this tea! Is it love, or just a passing fling? I will savour it either way. (Mmmm….spongy berry cake)

I drank this while I was out on a walk and I had to note that this tastes great in my timolino. I need to remember that!

This tea is just amazeballs. I wish I could describe it better but it blows me away every time I have it. Ideally I would have it every morning, but my little bag is already half empty… I’m also afraid that I’d take it for granted if I drank it so often so I rotate it in for a treat!

Mmmmm. This is perfectly balanced between the chocolate and the mint. Is there rooibos in this? I love it. I think I’ll need to keep this in my decaf drawer forever…

Yum! I had some misgivings about ordering this tea after reading some of the reviews, and they only had 2oz bags in stock, but I’m happy I did it!

This is strong! My bf said that it made the room smell like cookies, but he wouldn’t try any, that silly butt. I love this malty taste, and the heady aroma. It’s not even bitter.

I was disappointed with this one – probably because I had it at the same time as the Cantaloupe and Cream which just blew me away. It was good, but not exceptional and that was likely because I’m not so into cilantro.

Butiki has so many great teas that it’s better for my wallet this way.

I hope whatshesaid enjoys the rest of this!

I think this is my favorite tea from 52Teas! I love it because it supports my love of Harry Potter, and I love it for being a tasty tea! (albeit, a slightly odd i.e. magical one)

So good! So sweet!
I realise there are lots of similiar teas out there but this one does the job.

ETA: I shouldn’t drink these in my timolino’s… It’s just TOO strong.

I probably shouldn’t review this on here because this is just a mixture of the leftover samples from the beta taste test or whatever you call it, but I wanted a record!

I don’t know what I’m doing so I just threw a bunch of powder in a water bottle with some milk and shook it up like crazy. And now I’m drinking it. And it’s delicious! I can’t really describe it.

Someday when I feel I can justify ordering from Red Leaf, and paying the shipping to Canada, I will have to grab a pack of these. Maybe as a treat?

(If I do order more, I’ll probably make it properly and bump the rating up to reflect that!)

Happily, when it comes to real matcha, I’ve got a few samples coming from CrowKettle and Sil. :O Woo!

It’s sipdown Saturday! I’m not quite ready to sipdown anything else but I’m getting oh so close with a lot of these.

I think I’ve got one cuppa left for this one!

Another sample from Shadowfall!

Smells like caramel! Also, surprise, it tastes like caramel too! Rich notes of it in a mellow amber base. I’m not getting any chocolatey notes though but I bet this would be nice with bits of brown sugar.

ETA: This tastes a lot better with a dash of milk. The base is mellowed out further and the caramel steps aside and lets some of the chocolate notes in.

So maybe this isn’t QUITE as awesome as I thought it was yesterday, but I dig the fruity raspberries and creaminess and I’m still getting a bit of sponginess too. For some reason this tastes a bit more tart this time around, yet it’s still sweet. I wonder if I should have mixed the bag up a bit more? Maybe I drank up a lot of the coconut in the top half and am missing it now?

But you heard me – I’m halfway through this bag already! :O

Goodbye O’Sullivan’s!

I think I spent $1-2 for this sample so I regret nothing. It’s ok, but it’s not my cuppa. I thoroughly enjoyed it this morning with a hefty amount of milk and sugar, but at the same time if I wanted milk/sugar I could have just started the day with coffee.

I said it tea peeps! Coffee! :O
(It’s funny that I spent so much time trying to tell the difference between Keemum vs Ceylon vs Darjeeling etc but I couldn’t even tell you what kind of coffee I like.)

My package just said “Nina’s” on it, but judging by its smell, I think it’s Nina’s Paris.

It’s a very subtle blend where I mostly taste citrus fruit, sweetness and then a bit of tartness. Interesting, but so far je t’aime is my favorite of their teas.

It’s funny how we can all try the same teas and have such a wide range of reviews.

For me, this was one else of those teas that make you drop whatever you’re doing and start packing samples of the tea you are currently enjoying because EVERYONE has to try it. Everyone. It’s just so spongy, and fruity and light. I want to eat it up.

Sadly I finished all 12oz before reviewing it,so I can’t remember anything else right now. I resteeped it too but it’s just a sad shell of its awesomeness… The good news is I bought an 80g bag of this so I will have plenty of chances later on

I hope Ozli and CrowKettle enjoy it too and that my tastebuds weren’t just being crazy.

Another free sample!

Sad to say, this one isn’t for me. It tastes so much like perfume that I can’t even imagine there’s apples in it. I guess there’s only a few teas with rose in it that I truly can handle/enjoy.

Looks like I’m the first to review this tea. So, no pressure? :O

I wasn’t sure what temperature to steep this one because it has black and green teas, but I think the rule is that you steep at the lower temperature…

It smells mostly like cinnamon, but when you sip it the almond slides right it. And, oddly enough, I think I can actually taste the green tea in the blend too, which is amazing because I have a hard time noticing the bases under a lot of flavour. To me that is a sign that this blend has been balanced quite perfectly.

This doesn’t taste like it’s too strong either so it would be perfect for the afternoon or evening.

I’m not hugely into almond flavours, but this is very nice. I’d buy a sampler size of this!

Hmmmm. This is vanilla chai with cream? I’m not getting that at all. There are some chai spices, but it’s pretty muted. Maybe I needed to steep this for longer in order to get the full flavour.

I know Mycroft is mysterious, but this blend requires too much puzzling for me. Let’s see how I do with my second steep.

I probably shouldn’t have steeped this the same time as Mycroft as they have similar ingredients. I was worried I’d mix them up but the almonds in this gave it away.

I can taste the almond/marzipan goodness over a basic black base. Some people don’t like Adagio’s black bases, but I find that if I steep it for 2.5 minutes at slightly less than boiling, they taste quite nice.

I can take or leave this tea. Sadly, the same can be said for the namesake character too. He had some good moments in Doctor Who, but not enough to get me to try Torchwood.

Thanks for the sample Shadowfall

This is my first sample from Nina’s tea – I chose it randomly from the envelope it came in.

Before I looked at the ingredients in this I thought it was a chocolate tea – wishful thinking perhaps? This tea has a smooth base, and the caramel and vanilla add a bit of character to the profile. It’s simple. It’s sweet without being artificial. Like the girl-next-door of teas?

I’m pretty happy with it!

Another sample!

I’m not getting cake in this – mostly rooibos with a bit of almond and some sweetness. It’s very tasty though, and the low caffeine level makes it a nice evening brew.