flowering

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If the scent of this rooibos was a perfume, I would wear it constantly.

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I bothered to steep this twice for once. I detect a bit more fruit flavor in the second steep, but it could still do with about twenty times more.

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Love this, it’s a pretty basic mint tisane but sometimes that’s really all you need. Sometimes I open the bag just to sniff the awesomely powerful minty scent! Today I threw in some lavender, which made it even more delicious.

However, it does occur to me that you could recreate this fairly easily if you garden and/or have access to a store that sells the ingredients.

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This one is growing on me — I used to hate it so much I couldn’t finish a cup — but I still can’t say I’m a huge fan. I know rooibos often has what one might call a “woody” taste, but this takes things too far and almost feels like I’m drinking unusually flavorful wood. I think what bugs me the most is the weird underlying sweetness that I assume comes from the stevia and doesn’t suit the rest of the tea at all.

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I added some rose petals and a generous amount of honey this time. It was a good choice.

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It’s probably worth mentioning that the smell of this is extremely strong and orange-y; when I got it I had a friend of mine sniff it and they practically jumped away. I happen to love the smell, though.

This is yummy! I love the combination of the various fruits here, and the mint adds a little something special. I only wish that I had more of this, or that I’d gotten it a few months ago. It seems like it’d be a perfect summertime iced tea, and it’s highly unlikely it’ll last that long!

After a little bit of experimenting with steep times, this doesn’t seem like it benefits from steeping more than the recommended 5-7 minutes.

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This currently stands as my favorite tea as well as the tea I’ve drunken the most of — I’m about halfway through my second 4oz bag, and relieved that even though Specialteas is gone, there seem to be several companies with similar or identical blends.

The almond and cinnamon flavors are a perfect combination. It doesn’t remind me of a cookie, necessarily, but I can see the resemblance. I like to add sweetener or brown sugar for extra oomph, but someone with less of a sweet tooth probably wouldn’t need to. Unlike some flavored teas, the taste doesn’t need to be coaxed out, and even when it’s made poorly it’s still yummy. It’s amazingly soothing, perfect for a cold day. Joy and warmth in a cup.

Absolutely crazy about this tea. If it sounds even remotely intriguing to you, get some, you won’t regret it!

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This one smells pleasantly spicy dry, and rather almond-y after steeping. But once again, the taste isn’t half as nice as the scent. It’s more flavorful than my other sample, but that flavor seems very fake, even chemical-y.

Two samples from Design a Tea, two failures. It’s a shame; it could have been such a wonderful and unique option for tea shopping.

Design a Tea sounded like fun, so I decided to try a few of their samples! This one is the first of two.

This one has a pleasant smell both dry and after steeping; I was happy to be able to pick out the scents of both chestnut and hazelnut. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about the taste. It was difficult to taste any flavoring, and as the tea cooled it became impossible. In fact, the cooled tea barely reminded me of tea at all; it seemed more like warm water with a vaguely tea-esque taste.

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I adore lavender, so it was only natural that I try drinking it by itself one day. Unbrewed, the familiar lovely scent is fairly strong, so I was surprised that the resulting tea didn’t have a very distinctive scent (or color — I was hoping for purple!). When it first touched my tongue, I was very disappointed by the mild flavor, but I soon found that the true treasure of this as a tea is in the aftertaste. If you could drink an afternoon of rolling around in a sunny field sniffing flowers, this is how it would taste: light, floral, and soothing. Lovely.

And of course, this is also perfect to have around for livening up other tea!

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