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Just opening my packet of pearls sent a dizzingly sweet and delicious jasmine aroma my way, and I knew I made the right decision this afternoon. Mm, so sweet and jasminey and fantastic; it’s really the epitome of the jasmine flavor for me. I could drink this all day. Or at least all afternoon, which is what I’ll be doing as I steep these pearls plenty of times.

Happy 200th tasting note to me! This was my overnight cold steep, and let me tell you, it was delicious. I decided to cold steep this one after my cold steep of Marco Polo eliminated the weird tart/acidic flavor I had gotten on both of these teas. It worked again, and this came out incredibly almondy with a bit of extra nut flavors added to it. The only drink I’ve had that is that almondy is an almond flavored bubble tea, which I love.

It seems like for this tea and Marco Polo I need to add cream/sugar or cold steep to take care of that odd acidic note I taste. I’ll no doubt try this one again hot and plain just to be sure, but if nothing else I can definitely always cold steep it.

So the way my tasting notes work out, my 200th note will be for my cold brewed lunch tea. I decided to go with Tower of London for my 199th since other people’s tasting notes of it have made me start to crave it. Tower was actually unintentionally my 100th tasting note as well. This was one of the teas I can credit to starting my tea obsession, so it’s only fitting.

Mm, still one of my absolute faves. I haven’t had this tea since April, but like Paris, my palate has not changed enough that I don’t still love love this one. So thanks, Tower of London, for being a consistantly delicious tea throughout my tea adventures.

Ok so this is officially the last of my “new teas” to try. I have this one thanks to QuiltGuppy! There are two things about this tea that kept me from trying it before: one, it’s decaf and I rarely drink non-caffeinated teas purely because I drink them during the day and the caffeine doesn’t really affect me anyway, so why bother? The other thing is I didn’t really know how I would like a peach tea. I mean, I like peaches, but I had another tea with peach in it that I didn’t like and I didn’t know if was the peach or what. Anyway, I’m in a peachy mood lately, so I’m now excited to try it.

The smell of the two sachets in their little pouch is so powerfully peachy, somewhere between a juicy fresh peach and peach candy. I like peach candy (it’s actually one of the few fruity candy flavors I do like), so that’s fine with me.

It steeped to a pretty dark shade of brown, and while still very peachy in aroma, it’s mellowed out and I get a whiff of the black tea now and then. There’s something about this particular peach aroma that is so familiar to me, but I can’t place it! I think in addition to the peach candy there’s a bit of peach juice (which I rarely drink on it’s own, but do in blends).

As for the flavor: I like it! It’s peachy in that way that I have tried and failed to describe above, which is very tasty. The black tea is present enough to ensure that the peach doesn’t get out of control, but it’s not the main show here. What I can taste of it is nice, and doesn’t taste particularly like a decaf (which I want to type as “decalf” every time). I’m sure it tastes delicious iced. I don’t see a great need for a peach tea as a cupboard staple, but if I did, I couldn’t go wrong with this one.

Cold brew overnight. This definitely has the strength to still give a flavorful iced tea when cold brewed. Very very vanilla-y, and the black tea base is nice and subtle but definitely present. I think it would make a good sub with added interest for plain black tea in a big pitcher of sweet tea (which would of course make the vanilla really stand out, I think!)

Ack, I forgot to log this one yesterday! This was actually the tea I cold steeped over the weekend. Yeah, I’m that girl that cold steeps Marco Polo. :D

It turned out very well, and I think I like this tea better iced, actually. Crazy! The strawberry was very strong, and it melded well with nice black tea base. The strawberry flavor was fresher, and less like a strawberry pie than juicy fresh strawberries. I don’t get the tartness with the cold steep (or maybe it just works better cold). I think I initially rated this one low because I was expecting more, but having it like this made me realize that it’s still a really good tea and really enjoyable. I know I still have to try it with milk and sugar as recommended, but I really like it cold, too!

Being pretty much done trying new teas means that I’m starting to think about cleaning out my cupboard a bit from all the older samples I still have lying around. This was one that had probably just barely a cup of tea left in it. I added a few Jasmine Pearls, also from a TeaFrog sample, to fill it out a bit.

The brewed tea still smells a bit fruity, but the jasmine pearls have gone a long way to up the jasmine content of this tea. I got rid of most of the tea “dust” that was left before brewing it, so thankfully it didn’t brew up too bitter, though there is the faintest hint. I like this tea for all it’s florals, but I’m not quite as enchanted with it than I was before. I can definitely see myself looking for blends like this in the future, but I the indistinct sweet-tart candy fruity flavor in this one is throwing me off a bit. Still, it’s an enjoyable cup this morning.

This is truly one of the last tea samples I’ve gotten recently that I haven’t tried yet. Guess I’m going to have to go back to drinking all the teas I actually have, oh the horror! But seriously it will be good to go back to some of my favorites again.

The dry leaf of this tea smells a bit fruity, and definitely like green tea, but it also has some unexpected minty notes. Brewed, however, those minty notes disappear (thankfully), and it’s a much more straight up green tea with fruit in aroma. The fruit smells not like pear or apple individually, but some kind of hybrid pear-y apple-y fruit. Like, it’s not berry, and it’s not citrus, and it’s not tropical, so what’s left? Apple-pear.

The taste is much the same. It’s pretty light; a bit of green tea and a bit of fruit, but not much. I really prefer my tea to be more flavorful than this, so perhaps I will up the leaf or steep time next cup to see if I can improve it. Otherwise it’s pleasant enough, but not very satisfying.

The handle of the steeping basket of my Kati cup just broke off! Boo! Getting that thing out of the cup now requires a knife and hot fingers. :P

I really loved the sample I got of this tea before; the lavender and the Earl Grey were in a good balance, and the addition of the jasmine really rounded the whole thing out. I ran out a while ago but it was always on my list, so I ordered 2oz of it with my last Tea District order.

Upon opening the package I was a little concerned. This didn’t really smell like the tea I had before! The dry leaf smells very very lavendery, in a very herbaceous way, but there’s also a lot of other things going on in there that I can’t quite place (but don’t really smell like just bergamot and jasmine!). The brewed tea is similar: lavender, yes, but also almost spicy?

Um, what?? This is horrible!! WTF is this?? This is totally not the delicious Lavender EG I had before. It’s bitter and kind of like a spicy lavender, but overall just terrible to me. Like they mixed in a chai base instead of an Earl Grey. There is no hint of bergamot whatsoever. What on earth happened?!

ETA: I have sent this package of Lavender Earl Grey back to Tea District for replacement by another tea. They claim that there could be no error as far as the blend goes, so I’m going to have to remove my previously high rating of this tea.

Ahh, floral oolongs: my latest obsession. I’ve always loved jasmine teas, and then I discovered rose-scented teas, but my world opened up when I discovered that other flowers can also be used to scent teas, and that high quality oolongs can be incredibly floral on their own, and the combination of the two is often spectacular. This is another courtesy of the lovely QuiltGuppy!

The dry leaves smell slightly floral, but it seems like it’s a very different floral than the brewed aroma. I think I’m getting mostly the oolong itself: vegetal but darker and richer than a green.

It’s definitely a very floral tea, but it’s not overpowering (for me at least). In the aroma of the steeped tea you still get the green, vegetal notes of the oolong base, which also come through in the flavor. The orchid flavor reminds me of the magnolia oolong I had recently, and thus reminds me a bit of jasmine as well. This tea isn’t one of those florals that is so floral that it’s sweet; that’s tempered a quite a bit by the oolong notes. I think the two play off each other well, delivering a floral tea that isn’t too overpowering. Overall I’m really enjoying this tea; thanks for another awesome experience, QG!