The Rabbit Hole Organic Tea Bar

This one has come highly recommended by Winter Salo, so lets see how its goes.

Did this one up this morning in my TImolino before leaving for work. Gave it about 6 mins in boiling water, added a touch of agave. It went quite pink while steeping.

Ok, just opened the Timolino. Smells really good, not sure what of though. Can smeel sweetness, and some tart. First sip – initial thought was “this is a bit like DavidsTea’s Bear trap”. There’s a similar tart flavour to Bear Trap, but less prominent. This one is more sweet.
Still getting the Bear Trap after a few more sips, hmm, very tasty! Getting a sweet after-taste now, a nice hit in the back of the mouth.

I’m going to hold off on a proper rating for this one, because I’m already sensing its going to come alive iced.

A note on RHTB teas – I’m finding that these teas tend to have a more subtle flavour to them, a more authentic taste which I’m quite enjoying. I can certainly appreciate the lack of artificial flavouring, unlike some other brands I’ve tried, it really makes a difference. Good job guys!

Had a bad weekend, medically, spent most of it on the couch under a blanket going through series 6&7 of one tree hill. This one was made for me by the other half when he got home from work.

Dry: you can smell all the flavours quite strongly, but the raspberry is the most prominent. Very genuine scents too, clearly no additional flavours here.

Steeped: wow. In case your weren’t sure, there are raspberries in this tea! But not just any raspberries, freshly picked raspberries, with that strong, sweet smell. Holey moley.

Taste: more raspberries! Also getting the sweet. Creaminess of the chocolate and coconut is definitely there too, and there is a hint of the white tea base. The aftertaste has a punch of the fresh raspberries I can smell. Wow. This is a wonderful tea! A great pick for yesterday afternoon, definitely changed my mood!

This is the first taste of the first tea of the first order I’ve ever done from The Rabbit Hole. So, yknow, no pressure guys! The boyfriend chose this one as he likes Turkish delight and has picked up the habit of wanting to try all my teas before I do. So we’re sharing.

Dry scent: I could clearly smell both the rich chocolate and the rose. The BF said he thought it smelled exactly like Turkish delight.

Steeped smell: Turkish delight!

Taste: lighter than I was expecting. I let it steep for around 8 mins. It does taste like Turkish delight, the rose flavour is prominent. It is very enjoyable. The other half thinks it would be good iced, that will be the next review!

Edit: on reflection, I think it tastes exactly like proper Turkish delight, yknow, the pink blobby stuff from turkey. So 100points for authenticity, but the proper stuff has never been my favourite snack. Will keep having cups though, see if it grows on me!

Special Thanks to LiberTEAs I was able to try this one :)
Thus far I have been a fan of Rabbit Hole Tea Bar…let’s see if this one follows suit???

Ahhhhhhh! This is wonderfully smooth and incredibly sweet. It’s VERY clean tasting and a gentle free-flowing milk oolong flavor! This is a terrific Milk Oolong!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED :)

Tart! As in TART! Tart tarty tart tart!

But, as much as I tend to reject tart flavors, this isn’t so bad as far as tart teas go. There are other flavors besides the tart.

The tart comes from the hibiscus, as does the deep ruby-red color. The tisane also has a nice body to it that comes from the hibiscus. I only steeped it for five and a half minutes, so it didn’t come out syrupy the way hibiscus can do sometimes.

I can taste the cherry and the blueberry, and these flavors are especially noticeable in the background where I get this really nice, fruity note. And the coconut offers just a hint of sweetness in the background, along with a slight creamy taste that really smooths out the flavor overall.

I did need to add a bit of turbinado sugar to this to help soften the tartness a bit, but I didn’t add a lot, and it wasn’t bad without the sugar, it’s just a lot better with it. It’s still tart … but it has a sort of refreshing quality to it too.

I cannot express how much I HATE Bananas. BUT…I’m really TRYING to be open-minded here. BUT I still wanted to state that upfront…my hatred for nanners…anyhow…

Thanks Liberteas!

This smells mostly of white tea…thankfully…

The taste is surprisingly sweet and not too banana-crazy! THANK the tea gods!!!! I can relate to Liberteas notes about it being comparable to banana bread. It IS creamy, too!

I don’t think this would have been the same with any other tea base. I’m so happy they used white tea!

As much as I can’t stand bananas – this flavored tea is NICE. Trust me when I say this is a HIGH rating and a positive review for this tea. If I were crazy for bananas I am sure it would be MUCH higher.

I have faced my fear for the day…sound the trumpets! :)

I really like this tea. Its really refreshing and sweet but its not too sweet like a lot of honeybush/fruit teas. Its quite nice.

Thanks LiberTeas!

This has some sort of bakey-cakey thing going on that grabs me just enough to question it but then it fades away into a super sweet and creamy taste presented by the cacao nibs with a hint of rose that I think is a nice touch.

I do agree – overall speaking – it’s a gentle creamy flavor and I would LOVE to taste what MORE Chocolate flavors would do to it, but it’s a comfy, cozy cuppa – that’s for sure!

Yum! Milk Oolong! So deliciously creamy and smooth. Sweet!

There is a lightness to this, it isn’t too heavy or creamy or cloying. It tastes like a natural milk Oolong rather than one of those artificially flavored ones. It has a delicious hint of vegetation that melds with the milk creaminess to give it an almost “creamed vegetable” kind of taste. It is sweet and very pleasant to sip.

Another winner from The Rabbit Hole. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve tried from them.

Awesome!

This is simply cacao nibs and rose petals … but it is oh-so-lovely! I recommend infusing this for no less than 10 minutes and if you can see your way to add an extra scoop or two of the leaf in your teapot when you infuse this, your cup will be all the better for it. The chocolate is a bittersweet chocolate kind of flavor, and the rose gives it a very exotic kind of flavor. It is a very pleasant flavor, I like it very much. My only real complaint is that when brewed according to suggested parameters, it produces a thin flavor, and that is the reason for the rating of only 77 … I do think it would be better with more leaf, and a richer chocolate flavor would have elicited a higher numeric rating not to mention squeals of delight from me. (after all more chocolate = better)

Oh my goodness this is AWESOME!

It smells amazing, like warm banana bread. And the banana flavor tastes like real banana, not like banana runts. It is a sweet banana taste, but it doesn’t taste like candy banana. It is sweet and creamy and comforting.

I love this.

This is really quite tasty … but it took a few sips to get to that point. At first, the flavors seemed really difficult to discern, I could taste hints of Oolong and apple and sweet toffee, but, it didn’t really come together and say “toffee apple” to me. It was tasty enough, but, it just wasn’t quite what I expected.

But then, after about my third or fourth sip, I said (out loud): WOW! This is good!

The flavors have really come into focus. The Oolong tastes sweet and buttery, with a creamy kind of flavor that melds quite well with the apple and toffee flavors. The apple tastes sweet with a hint of tartness to it, and then there is the sweet, sticky toffee flavor – so incredibly YUMMY!

I really like this!

I can’t believe I haven’t logged this tea before. I am such a slacker. I made my final pot of this tea today (sob) to christen my new teapot (yay!). I have had a rather itinerant lifestyle for the last few months and it has wreaked havoc on my ceramic with several breakages. I am trying a stainless steel pot until things settle out plus it has the biggest infusion basket I have ever seen.

So back to the tea. It has large pieces of cinnamon, whole start anise, cardamom pods, cloves and black pepper. It smells like a heavenly combination of all those spices dry. I brewed for 5 min with boiling water. The wet leaves smell similar to the dry. The tea smells similar. The tea has a very good base. I don’t really taste bubblegum but I do have a nice mix of cinnamon, anise and clove. Adding milk and honey makes it more smooth & sweet but I think it is just as good without.

No notes yet.

My bundle of rabbit hole tea arrived this morning. I decided I would try berry bomb first. To be honest Ive thought of buying this tea for a while (based on so many glowing reviews) but havent because I’ve tried so many either disappointing or just plain awful berry flavoured black teas before (for example berry fruit from the tea centre).

I actually really like this one though. I can smell the different types of berries in it rather than the whole thing just being a random generic “berry” flavour. I can detect the raspberries and blueberries as distinct flavours rather than just rolled into one.

The black tea itself seems to fit perfectly with the berries with neither flavour, the berries or the black tea overpowering the other.

The only bad thing about this tea, I only bought a sample size.

Yum!

I LOVE the combination of chili peppers and chocolate … spicy and sweet. Such a wonderful contrast. So I was pretty sure I’d love this tea. And of course, I am loving it.

After my first couple of sips, I couldn’t really taste any of the spicy flavors, initially, but then I started to notice the chili at the back of my throat. After a couple more sips, the chili had developed to where I could taste it throughout the sip. Awesome! The same is kind of true for the chocolate, as well, I didn’t really notice the cocoa flavors until about the third or fourth sip, but now, it’s there. So yum. Very very yum!

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this! I love it!

AWESOME
Pure Awesome
SIPDOWN
I miss it already…see previous notes…

There are 3 individual reviewers for this tea so far and they are all positive…I was the only one to actually RATE it as I don’t think the other two people rate teas as a rule of thumb…anyhow…this is very awesome! VERY AWE-SOME…I love it! It’s tropical-fruity but smooth and makes your mouth water! I upped my rating too! This is a SIPDOWN from me and one of these days I will try and put in an order for some! I LOVE IT!

Backlogging and a sipdown! So sad to see this one go!

Happy Thanksgiving to those Steepsterites here in the US. I’m actually not celebrating Thanksgiving today, we will have it on December 4th (Hubby has to work today).

I am trying this chai out today, and it really is delicious. The spices are incredibly smooth and seamless. I agree with TeaEqualsBliss who sent me some of this chai (thank you!) there is definitely a bubblegum-like scent going on with the dry leaf. Different, but, certainly not off-putting. It smells really good actually.

The flavor is rich and warmly spiced without being spicy-hot. I had some of this as a latte and some with just a little honey, and I prefer it non-latte. I like the way the spices represent themselves without the milk. But it’s really good either way.

A really nice chai! Warm and cozy!

I LOVE this. Wow. wow. wow. wow.

When I heard there was a new Rabbit Hole Tea coming out I was so excited and when I found it what it actually was I went into immediate ‘must have’ mode. Cherries, I love cherries, to me Spring means cherries they might be the most expensive fruit on earth but they are also the most delicious and anything with cherries is an automatic must try for me – cherry crumble being the ultimate winner. So I placed my order and I’ve been checking the post since then and as always The Rabbit Hole delivers (and so quick too! easily the quickest tea delivery by far). I ripped open the beautiful postage to reveal Ruby Zing, I opened it up and …. the smell it’s like sticking your nose straight into a cherry pie it’s got a warmth to the dry scent and the cherries intermingled with the coconut is just amazing it’s literally like having a cherry pie in a packet.

The packet says you can infuse for up to 9 minutes and since I wanted the most from my cherry tea I did just that, but I must say this was a real test of my patience (which is non existent in this case). Finally the time was up and I opened the lid of my mug infuser to reveal the most divine aroma warm cherry pie with little pieces of coconut slivers on top it’s just amazing, it really is magical.

And then the first sip it’s like stuffing a whole lot of fresh ripe cherries into your mouth and gorging down oh it’s heavenly – it tastes so amazingly fresh & real – nothing artificial, no added flavours. If I was told that the cherries were just picked and popped in my cup I’d believe it.

Although this tea is in their ‘zesty’ range the coconut adds a real velvety creaminess to the tea which rounds out the taste nicely. It reminds me of condensed milk – like if you got some beautiful ripe cherries and poured just a little bit of condensed milk on top you’d get something near this taste. It really is lovely and so unique, also since cherries are so expensive and you’d be hard pressed to ever eat a lot at once this is a very nice indulgence.

As always the quality of the tea is beyond comparison – giant coconut slivers, huge cherries, hibiscus flowers (that don’t overwhelm the tea at all) and blueberries and as always with The Rabbit Hole absolutely no dust, no tiny pieces that have been through the wars – it’s the real deal and you can taste the love that’s gone into making it.

My only regret with this tea is that I didn’t bite the bullet and order a larger packet – it’s so good I can see it disappearing very quickly especially since I’m already on my second cup … only three more to go.

Highly recommend this to cherry-lovers everywhere and anyone in the mood for a real Spring-treat.

Sandy brought this home from Australia for our tea tasting marathons as we try to cath up on what we have each tried while she was away!

I didn’t look at the ingredients before preparing, but when it was steeping I knew there was ginger in it! I had a bad experience with ginger once, before I knew that candied ginger is sweet for a minute and then it gets really REALLY hot. Well, this tisane redeems ginger if you have had anything like that happen to you. We are drinking it because it is late and we didn’t want to take in more caffeine, but I can tell that this would be a veritable life saver if you have a sore, scratchy throat. I am drinking it plain, but I bet it would be fabulous with honey.

Edited to add: The more I drink this the more the ginger is coming out to play!

This is one of the more delicate Earl Grey teas that I’ve tried… delicate but very nice too. Not a strong bergamot flavor, and I generally prefer my bergamot good and strong, but I like the gentleness of the bergamot here. It is so soft and lovely, while the black tea provides a robust, delicious background of flavor.

Very nice, and a perfect Earl Grey for those looking for something on the softer side of bergamot.

Tea Mishap #1 for today
Sipdown #3 for the day

Here’s what happened…

I went to open this little gem and the whole batch I had left fell into my strainer…so…I left it there and decided to infuse the whole big batch of loose leaf! I’m used to doing double shots but this was over a triple shot! I decided I was GAME for it tho! I only infused for a minute because there was so much loose leaf infusing…I didn’t want it to be bitter…and it wasn’t bitter at all! The chocolate and chili are perfect together even in a triple shot case (as long as you don’t over infuse). So – this seems to work!

I might try and do a 2nd infusion before saying goodbye completely as I see some chocolate left in my strainer unmelted…we can’t have that! LOL

I’m really trying to SIPDOWN and de-cupboard as much as possible as I have well over 600 different teas in my stash. So…I thought I would try something…For each person to comment on this specific tea log entry I will send a business size envelop of samples…up to 5 samples at random from my stash. If you are interested in a larger swap please PM me with BIGGER SWAP in the subject line and I will try and swap with up to 10 people LARGER Mystery Boxes.

So…yeah…I mean business! LOL – Let the games BEGIN!