Tea Licious

This is really lovely…juicy and fruity with OUT Hibiscus LOVE that about it! It’s a very nicely flavored Oolong! YUM!

I had some problems with consistance early on in my sample of this tea, but this cup seems very similar to the last cup I had, so maybe I just wasn’t getting a good mix the first times around. This cup is rosy and lemony with a hint of ginger, all with a pleasant green oolong base to back it up. I’m really, really enjoying this one and if my last cup of the sample is as good as this one, I think I might have to order some more… this flavor combination doesn’t seem that common!

SIPDOWN!
This will be missed! I should have started my day with this one :)
Slightly Peppery but also a little fruity. Medium-strength-Malty-Goodness!
YUM!
See previous notes :)

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me this Oolong! Yay for Oolong!

This is really good. The pineapple flavor is significant but doesn’t overpower. The green Oolong is sweet with hints of a creamy-ish taste in the background goes nicely with the sweet and tangy fruit flavor, almost coconut-y, just as TeaEqualsBliss mentioned in her tasting note.

This one just may be my favorite from Tea Licious yet! It’s really good … for those of you who are interested in flavored Oolong teas, this one is not to be missed.

Thanks LiberTEAs!

Whereas this isn’t bad…it’s not overly minty…and you guys know I LOVE my mint! I was left wanting…but…it is a refreshing and relaxing mellower mint with green tea :)

Just what I want from a Rose Earl Grey! Lovely! Juicy Orange, gentle rose, nice black tea, and that ‘given’ EG flavor! Very Nice!

Firstly, thank you to Tea Licious for having sent me this sample months ago. Secondly, I’m sorry Tea Licious, that I took so long to get to this sample. I’m terrible for that, on occasion.

This one is surprisingly pleasant. I don’t have much experience with Ceylons, so I am not sure of the nuances, but it is a wholly drinkable (and enjoyable!) black tea, if a little forgettable. I know this may be blasphemy, but it doesn’t seem terribly diffferent from my bagged Bigelow Ceylon (which I enjoy!). I get something approaching plum or raisin on the end of the sip, quite a sweet taste left in my mouth almost as if I had added a drop of honey. I could imagine this being a wonderful way to convert bagged black tea drinkers to the wonders of loose leaf. It almost has a hint of astringency, but it hasn’t developed any bitter impressions. I imagine it would easily take milk and sugar without being totally washed out, but I think it is fine as is.

This is really good, chiefly because the blenders didn’t think it was necessary to mess up the blend with a lot of spices. Just good, sweet fruit.

The source is a bit of a mystery…I had intended to write a longer review for this one for www.itsallabouttheleaf.com, but I can’t seem to land on the correct Tealicious website to pull up more complete product info. It was a sample that chased us around Southwest Missouri while we were refugeeing, and I think it came from Singapore. Any leads?

I used the rest of my sample of this tea for a cold steep. My goodness if it wasn’t rosey! The first sip tasted like I had bitten into a fresh rose turkish delight. Like the hot steep, the bergamot just can’t compete, and this tea seems primarily like a rose black. The bergamot gives a little bright note, but nothing that I could positively identify as bergamot. The rose is very sweet, like Harney’s Rose Scented. As tasty as it is, I’m afraid it just doesn’s succeed as Rose Earl Grey, so I’m marking it down a bit based on that. It is a decent rose-scented black, however.

This was a good flavored green. It seemed to be just the tea and real tangerine pieces – I didn’t sense any funky flavoring.

This is a really nice rose Earl Grey. The rose is a strong note – in fact, it overpowers the bergamot at first. By mid-cup, the bergamot emerges as a stronger flavor, but in the first couple of sips, it is all about the rose, and the bergamot is more of a hint of a flavor.

Definitely a good tea if you are a fan of rose flavored teas. It is crisp and sweet and delicious.

I’m not feeling the greatest today, so I was looking in my stash for something soothing. I actually don’t have any primarily ginger tea right now, which is odd and needs to be remedied. This is described as a rose oolong, but it also contains ginger and lemongrass (and the lemongrass seems to be the primary flavor), so I went with this one.

This tea is crazy because every time it tastes different. First time I had it, it was strongly lemongrass and ginger. Second time, it was only faintly lemony and mostly the green oolong. Today, it’s actually very rosey! With a nice, light hint of lemon underneath, adding a bright note that pairs well with the rich, sweet rose. This iteration is definitely an oolong I’d buy again, but I’m unsure I’d ever be able to replicate this cup.

This past weekend we went back to Coney Island to find our super rare Gray-hooded Gull again. If anyone is interested in seeing the gull, my pictures are here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjvGy7Wq
There’s a NY Times article about the gull today, but the reporter was pretty lazy and didn’t even try to contact any officials or try to find the person that reported it originally (me!). http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/01/nyregion/gray-hooded-gull-rare-bird-in-us-is-apparently-on-coney-island.html?_r=1

ETA: Here’s an article from the American Birding Association, which actually does give us credit: http://birding.typepad.com/peeps/2011/07/gray-hooded-gull-coney-island-new-york.html

As the heat wave continues, so does my experimentation with Ozark-y fruit teas. Steeped a pot this morning and chucked it straight in the fridge to cool.

Huckleberries, so says Wikipedia, are eccentric cousins of the blueberry—scent and taste remind me of a cross between blueberries and black berries. So the flavor is strong, especially when I got a trifle generous with the amount of leaf I used. Tossed in a couple of sugar cubes and that helped immensely.

Thanks for this one LiberTEAs! I agree – the BEST taste for this tea is HOT tea – slightly cooled for a few moments at room temp. It’s reminiscent of gun powder but with floral and fruity notes! D-lish!

I first came across this delicious Ceylon Tea while traveling in London. While shopping at Harrods, I came across the TWG Tea Booth, and the teller introduced this lovely Ceylon. I was so very pleased by the intoxicating aroma…the sale was instant. I enjoy this elixir in the later afternoon, before the evening meal. I love my black teas with milk and without the added flavour, but I also enjoy this particular tea pure. It is lovely to look at, and lovelier to sip and enjoy.

This is much like a black tasting black tea than an oolong and I really like it! It’s sweet yet slightly woodsy and rich – near malty even! Very nice!

I finished off my sample of this today. I liked it, but although the dry scent was quite chocolatey and not very minty, the taste was almost all mint. I would have liked quite a bit more chocolate in this blend, but it was certainly pleasant the way it was.

This was a free sample I received from Tealicious a while back. The samples I received, particularly this one, were very generous! I found this to be extremely pleasant. The base, a mix of kenya and what I suspect to be ceylon, supports the flavours well. The peach is more prominent then the apricot here but both flavours are clearly evident. This tea gives an almost juicy aftertaste, as if I were actually eating the fruit. Very natural and not at all artificial-tasting!

I finally got around to trying one of my Tea Licious samples! Yikes.

This one reminded me a lot of DAVIDsTEA’s Long Life Oolong, flavouring-wise. That is a peach-flavoured oolong, so it will be interesting to try the Tea Licious peach oolong I also have. However, the oolong is much nicer. It’s fresh and green and stands up to the flavour really well. The flavouring is alright. I’m not a huge fan as I get a bit of the same slightly soapy quality from it as I do from Long Life Oolong. Overall, good but not stellar. I’m looking forward to the peach.

Ginger – peach – orange – spice – and white tea! Very nice! All ingredients were noticeable and they all played well together! I enjoyed this one! Backlogging! Thanks LiberTeas!

backlogging…thanks LiberTEAs!!!

I really REALLY enjoyed this! The perfect combo of Lemon, Mango, and Black Tea! YUM! Very Aromatic, very pleasing to both the nose and tongue! I got 3 good sturdy infusions from this! I would order this again and again!

Refreshing! The peppermint is cooling and fresh, but it doesn’t overpower the green tea, which tastes lightly grassy. It is a great after-meal tea, it is quite soothing on the tummy and freshens the palate too.

I’m off to write a review for the SororiTea Sisters blog, and then I’m going to send the rest of this sample to TeaEqualsBliss…

I was looking through my basket of samples this morning for something to inspire me when I happened across this. The beau and I developed head colds over the weekend, so an immunity tea seemed ideal, though a bit late. Unfortunately, that means this tea won’t get a proper review because I can’t smell things and accordingly can’t really taste them. I only had enough to make a pot for the beau and I so there is none left over for another try later on. I remember being really enticed by the ingredient list (probably because of the apple…I’m a nut for apple in tea, if it’s done well). I tried smelling the dry leaves but couldn’t get anything at all. Sorry, sports fans!

As for taste, keeping in mind that I have a cold, I can pick up vague hints of fruitiness. Maybe apple? Nothing I could define. There is a slight taste of licorice, but I don’t mind it for once. I also get a bit of the green rooibos flavour that I’ve never been able to describe but can finally identify…Not going to give it a rating as I can’t taste it, but hoping it does something good for my head. If nothing else, it soothed my throat!

This is a fantastic Keemun. One thing that I would have to disagree with is the description of this tea on the website, I don’t find the flavor to be light at all. This is a very robust tea with a somewhat smoky presence to it. Very nice baked, biscuit-y quality in there too. An undertone of sweetness that is caramel-y. It also has the wine-like qualities one would expect from a Keemun, with a plum and currant flavor in the background. This tea finishes dry and pleasant. A very delicious Keemun.