Chellybean

This is by far the strangest herbal tea I have ever tried. I bought it because it has whole flower heads in it, and I figured why not? I half understood the ingredient list (my German is improving) and the name seemed happy so I gave it a try!

Huge flower heads and leafs make this one a challenge to steep in my little travel tea ball, but are kind of awesome!

It tastes like…well… flowers. I guess that shouldn’t be surprising since its mostly flowers! Its neither good nor bad, just very earthy and herbal.

So to explain my long long absence, I have been on exchange in Europe! Still am actually, loving life in the beautiful city of Vienna, Austria!

Anyway, Europe has been an amazing adventure, but sadly lacking in the tea department. Cappucinos abound and Vienna has a huge cafe culture (although fresh ginger and mint tea has become my go-to!). Where I have found tea is Vienna’s Naschmarkt, but most of the labels are all in German and the translation not exact and from companies that I have never heard of, so I decided against doing reviews.

And then I stumbled across a Sonnentor tea store in Salzburg- definitely a happy coincidence :) There I found mate, which I had been craving but unable to find. This mate is a pure green mate that tastes amazing and stands up to multiple steeps. Plus, with one ingredient, I didn’t have any specialty ingredients to attempt to translate, so finally a tea worth getting back on Steepster for!

As a verifiable DAVIDs addict, the Spring collection newsletter killed me, since they don’t ship to Europe and all. That is the one thing I can say I am looking forward to at the end of my exchange term in June- a DAVIDs shopping spree of epic proportions (the fact that I will have spent all of my money travelling is besides the point right?).

Free sample fro Teavivre! Haven’t gotten around to reviewing many teas recently, have just been enjoying old favourites on the run.
This tea tasted very gingery to me, an interesting flavour but pleasing none the less. My first steep was very sweet, the leave barely unfurled. After that the colour got darker and the earthy flavour became more dominant over the sweet notes. A very yummy brew, definitely unique!

A long rainy day of studying and anxiously preparing for a job interview deserves an oolong. This was an excellent choice! Thank you to Teavivre for the sample!

I can basically describe this tea in one word: sweet. It was extremely sweet, almost like honey. I didn’t really get a milky flavour on the first steep, but it started to come out stronger with every steep. The smell was like raspberries mixed with honey, and the smell alone was quite the treat.

Overall, delicious and its going to keep on going (4 steeps and counting)!

Back to school, which also means back to tea because I have way more free time on my hands to brew and review. My housemate and I had a mini tea party with this one today. She loves black tea whereas I am picky so I figured that way I’d be able to give a more complete review.

This was my first black pearl tea so I don’t have anything to compare it to, but it was fun to watch steep! I decided it was a worthy tea to christen my cast iron pot (which didn’t make watching the unfurling all that easy in hindsight).

For a pure black, by my taste, it was good. I am usually turned off by the astringency of black tea, but this one was smooth and not at all bitter! To me it tastes like a combination of hay and chocolate, which sounds weird but tastes decent. I think that I may have let it steep for too long (3 minutes or so) and that could be where the earthy hay taste came from. Overall, for a black tea, I did enjoy it, but it won’t be a tea that I crave.

My housemate found it too earthy for her taste, compared to other dragon pearls that she’s tried.

Upon second steep, I have to up the rating! The second steep was much more sweet and chocolate-y and less earthy. I think I got the brewing time right this time!

Thank you to Angel at Teavivre for the latest round of samples! I cannot wait to try them all in the next few days!

Probably redundant to write a review for a tea that you can no longer buy, but I thought I’d do it anyway! Bought this tin at 75% off during their closing sale, rather happy that I did. My parents back to school present to me was that both of them had contagious colds. So, I am basing the rating of this tea on two things: how did it taste and did it actually prevent me from getting sick.

So far so good on the second criteria :) Being sick would be the last thing that I would want for frosh week/ career week! So it gets super bonus marks for managing to get me this far without some nasty cold!

On the first criteria, taste, I was pleasantly surprised. I thought that since it was first and foremost and immunity booster, it might not taste very good, but I was wrong. It has a very pleasant and smooth peppermint flavour. You don’t really taste all of the other ingredients!

This was the tea of the day that they were featuring iced. I’ve never had iced mate before, but it turns out well evidently. I have been searching for a chocolate mate to replace my beloved chocolate rocket. I am starting to find that the raspberries are overwhelming the chocolaty-almond goodness :(
Anyways, I think I may just have found it! Chocolate and cinnamon and roasted mate make an excellent combination. Hot, I think it will taste just like cinnamon hot chocolate!

I happened to be in the area of a DAVIDs today with some time to blow, which I qualify as a very happy coincidence. Had read about this one in the newsletter and I was excited to try it. I always need an energy boost so I gave it a shot.
Anyway, it was quite tasty. I can’t really describe the flavour of the Guayusa, its somewhat similar to a green mate… But the chai was good! A nice blend of spices that wasn’t too spicy, and the guayusa complemented it well.
And, what i was really looking for, the beloved energy boost, did happen!
I was told be the store girl to let it brew for a quite a while and so I did. The resulting colour was almost black, but the flavour was great!

So I agree with TeaEqualsBliss that the personality description is clever and hilarious. My thanks to Peony Tea S for the free samples, the sample bags they send me were huge! :)

Anyway, white tea isn’t among my favourites, and I haven’t had many, but I do indeed like Bai Mu Dan every once in a while. Its light, almost like drinking feathers in comparison to books that are black tea. I also found this tea to be incredibly smooth and definitely floral. The leaves are huge and fuzzy which throws me everytime, but definitely an enjoyable cup!

Thanks to Peony Tea S for the free samples from their shipping tests. Much appreciated and enjoyed!
This is my first Dong Ding (if any of you find this review familiar, I got my dong ding’s mixed up and accidentally reviewed this one first under Fong Mong tea and then realized it was actually Peony Tea’s dong ding that I had tried and reviewed…)
Dry notes: Smell is like dry grass or straw… Not my favourite dry smell but intriguing all the same. The picture is exactly what the dry leaves looked like, and I used half the sample package and a cup and a half or so of 90 degree water for 45-60 seconds (didn’t time exactly).

Steep 1: Smells like straw, pale green colour. The taste is very earthy, slightly bitter (like fresh grass) with a delicious mineral aftertaste, almost salty, like soy nuts or something I can’t quite put my finger on.I finished the cup and then immediately put water on for more!

Steep 2: Cloying sweet smell. Taste- there’s the sweetness I missed in the first cup. This tastes like the first steep, only a good deal sweeter, and therefore (in my opinion) better.

Steep 3: So smooth, like a third steep oolong should be

Steep 4: smooth, but the bitterness from the first steep is creeping back in

My work day ended before I had an opportunity to do the last two steeps that its probably more than capable of standing up to…

I have quite a bit of this one left in my tin and was running low in my stocks of the usual cold brewing suspects so I thought, why not give it a shot?
I cold steeper overnight for about 18 hours. The result is a rather ugly shade of yellowy brown, but the smell was the usual spicy smell so I got past the colour…
The result is good, but compared to this tea hot brewed, nothing special. The spice really comes through first, while the mint is almost an afterthought (and it kind of coats the throat wierdly…).
Overall, not a bad experiment, but I think that I will save this for hot brewing.

So I messed up… The original review that I posted for this tea was actually for Peony Tea’s Dong Ding Oolong (my bad). I got my dong dings mixed up like the ding dong I sometimes am. Anywho…

This is fantastic! I can really taste the difference between the charcoal baked oolong and the dong dings that I have tried that aren’t. This one really brings out some pleasant earthy tones and provides delicious smokey hints. I got a cute little teacup with a basket for my birthday (as well as a cast iron teapot, which I didn’t bring to work so have not yet tried…), and I made 7 cups with the same leaves and made myself pee 12 times today because I could not stop re-steeping this tea…

Of all the teas that I watched come out, this one was for sure the one that I was the most excited to try. It did not let me down! Salted caramel squares are one of my favourite treats, and this has exactly the same flavour, only less guilt! I get mostly toffee and a smooth on the first sip, and then a delicious salt caramel after taste like warm caramel pouring down my throat.
Also held up well to a second steep, which made for a more pleasant afternoon of fighting with my timetable…

So I have been in serious DAVIDs withdrawal since I left Kingston and moved home for the summer. It has been torturous watching as all of the new teas have come out and the reviews have been posted to steepster…
Therefore, when I found myself at FCP for work, I just could not resist visiting the FCP location. When the girl who was serving me heard of my plight, she said “you poor thing” and then proceeded to pull down every tea that I’ve missed for me to smell.
I decided to get this one iced to go, and was not disappointed. It was a super hot day and either the bamboo or ice did the trick. This tea is deliciously fruity and refreshing. Very pine-apply and peachy and a hint of some other fruit I can’t quite place (maybe the apple?). I think this one might make a good cold brewing experiment- I am rather sad that I didn’t buy any while I was there…

Thanks for Fong Mong Tea for this sample, I have been delayed in reviewing them because I want to ensure that I had a couple hours over which to do multiple steeps.
This tea came in lovely little balls with not too much of a fragrance.
1st steep: colour is a pale green, deliciously sweet smell. The main flavour is a sweet citrus-y flavour- almost lemonade-esque. Not too much in terms of vegetal flavours yet.
2nd steep: More earthy notes came through, less sweet but the citrus is still there
3rd steep: All sweetness is gone, earthy citrus-y taste, pleasant enough but I like my oolongs sweet.

Overall, this is a good oolong, but not among my favourites. It wasn’t sweet enough for my liking, but it was still a nice cup.

I’m not going to change the rating since I really do enjoy this tea hot
BUTTTT
This isn’t good cold brewed!
I found the taste to be very artificial and bitter when cold steeped for about 16 hours.
Didn’t even finish the pitcher :(

This is a pleasant enough sencha, but despite a very strong fruity smell (mainly pomegranate), the actual brew is very light on the fruit flavour. I was expecting a little more fruit, but it is still a pleasant sencha, just nothing special..

I was on a Fusion Teas kick today! Slow day at the office so I just brought my box of samples with me. Did this one for my morning pick me up! The chocolate and mint blended with the mate was fabulous. Exactly like a mint chocolate bar.
I didn’t taste the coffee at all, which personally probably made me like it better but if you wanted a coffee flavoured tea, this one might not be the one.
Overall- delicious! I am very impressed with the Fusion Tea samples so far!!!

This was a surprise thrown in with my requested samples, and I am very grateful that Fusion Teas decided to include it! The dry smell was very strongly peach, overpoweringly so, and I was a little bit wary… Brewed the peach smell mellowed considerably, and the brew came out a deep brown.
For a mix that was about 95% black tea and only 5% fruit pieces and safflower, I didn’t even taste the black, in fact, I could have sworn I was drinking a peach herbal! No complaints from me, as I am not a huge black tea person, and I still got the caffeine boost along with a lovely peachy tea. Mild, light, and yummm. I think I shall try it cold brewed next!

My first tulsi, and definitely a good note to start on! I wanna say that the tea tastes like basil (being as its known as Holy Basil, I guess this makes sense), which sounds like it would taste weird but when blended came out delicious.
I was a little bit worried that the tropical fruit flavour was going to be IN YOUR FACE tropical, but that wasn’t the case at all. Instead it was a delightful and subtle fruity blend. As someone who has never actually tried a papaya, I can’t really say that it had a papaya taste, but it was definitely sweet and smooth and fruity. I was heartbroken when I reached the end of my cup, and was delighted when it stood up to a second steep well.
I feel like I’ve given a terrible description, but this tea can really be summed up in one word- YUUMMMMM!

Thank you to Fusion Teas for the samples! Stay tuned for the rest of my reviews :) They even came in beautifully labeled bags!

Many thanks to Fong Mong for the samples! I have a feeling that I will thoroughly enjoy them all! I received the box last week but have not had a chance to truly appreciate an oolong until work yesterday. Armed with my Teaopia Teamaster (probably not ideal but great for watching the leaves unfurl) and an eight hour workday I set out to sample this tea.

The result- ahh-mazing! Oolong’s like this almost make me want to never drink anything else. So smooth, so sweet, so deliciously yummy…

Before steeping observations: Not really any smell to the leaves, leaves are curled tightly but white tips are evident.

1st steep: Tea came out to a deep brown colour, which I wasn’t really expecting. The smell is mostly sweet, like honey or baked goods. I am getting gentle earthy tones and a lot of natural sweetness. After the first steep the leaves had fully unfurled and were almost shiny.
2nd steep: Unbelievably smooth with a sweet kick at the end, almost tastes fruity, but I can’t put my finger on which fruit… Definitely some lovely honey notes in there!
3rd Steep: This is where I turned into a tea criminal… I left it steeping for way too long as I got busy at work, and then proceeded to let it get cold in my mug, and you know what? It was still amazing! This tells me that this tea doesn’t need to be babied to taste amazing, which is something that I absolutely look for in a tea!
4th Steep: took it home so that my dad could have a try- he loved it, said he couldn’t believe how sweet and smooth the taste was. I couldn’t agree more! I probably could have easily gone for 7 steeps, but I ended it here.

Overall, the best oolong that I have tried and it will definitely become a staple on my tea shelf!

I wasn’t going to bother with the hot tea tonight because it is about 40 degrees (Celsius) outside and the last thing I wanted was a hot beverage… BUT then I saw what came in the mail, my free custom samples from Design a Tea! So I changed my mind and brewed up my first one. Their samples are so cute, they come already in some sort of tea sac (so you only get one bag of each) and they enclose a note with a $2 off your next order coupon.

I haven’t been a fan of many vanilla teas I have tried but the vanilla in this one comes out to play! It is the overwhelming flavour of the tea, and I find it a very nice full vanilla flavour. The chai is really rather muted, which is slightly disappointing, I was expecting more of a kick. Overall, the two flavours work well together and well with rooibos, and I will definitely be trying vanilla in future design a tea blends!

Yum. I am a sucker for sweet black teas (Love Tea #7 being my favourite). This one didn’t disappoint! I was looking for a sweet and mild black blend to add to my morning repertoire and I found it! The caramel comes through nicely but doesn’t overwhelm, its like a seductive tease at the end of the sip. I will definitely have to stock up on this once all of the Teaopia teas start going on clearance sale!

I am not usually an earl grey fan, and this tea did nothing to change my opinion. Whatever they used to make the creamy flavour tasted very artificial. I finished the cup and will probably drink the rest from my tea tower, but definitely not a go-to and was just alright overall.