Smells a little chocolatey.
Tastes like it would be a good dessert tea.
A bit of spice at the back of the throat.
Over all, a nice tea.
140 Tasting Notes
I awoke with a nasty sore throat this morning.
Which is kinda bumming me out.
After trying to ignore it all morning, and now its lunch time and it is being joined by a drippy nose, I have succumbed to the fact that something must be done.
TeaEqualsBliss sent me a few samples of different kinds of Chai, and this is one of them.
I am hoping this will help with my cold/allergy thing.
I do not smell any spices, just black tea and something almost honey-like.
There is a small amount of spice of the tongue, but very mild.
Not bad, felt nice on my sore throat.
Might try another Chai, since I was hoping for a kick of spice:)
My final sample from my Butiki order.
It smells just like Pumpkin Pie!
Spicy and cozy.
I must say I was dubious of this tea.
I mean, a tea flavored by pumpkin?
But, the scent envelopes you and comforts you.
It smells like Grandma’s house in November.
I burnt my tongue because I could not wait to try it.
Lightly spicy, a smidgen of pumpkin but then the black tea shines through.
Very tasty tea, indeed!
Sample from my Butiki Order.
I am hitting the black teas pretty hard this morning.
Another lousy night of sleep and woke up with a pounding headache.
Thankfully, the Earl Grey took care of most of that, but I am feeling like I want some dessert.
So, this tea appealed to me.
Once I smelt the dry leaves, I had to run over to the Butiki website and see what was in this tea, because I kept getting a violet flower scent.
There is no violets in this tea, so I don’t know why smell it, but I also smell the raspberry.
It smells like sitting in the garden after a rain, its lovely!
Light red in color.
I do not get chocolate when I taste this, but more of a creaminess.
This tea is very yummy.
Might just have to add this to my list I am preparing for my next order!
Sample from my Butiki order.
Dry leaves smell very nice, not picking up a lot of Bergamot.
Tea smells of a very good quality black, small amount of Bergamot/Citrus shining through.
Lovely dark red in color.
I can taste the citrus, the black tea and the bergamot!
Very nice tea.
If you enjoy a Earl Grey with a lower amount of bergamot I would say this is for you.
Generous sample from TeaEqualsBliss.
This smells like pipe tobacco!
The dry leaves, and wet, as well as the tea brewing.
But,good quality pipe tobacco.
Something my father would sit outside on a summer’s eve and smoke.
Beautiful red in color.
Tastes mainly of Rooibos, a twang of vanilla on the back of the tongue.
I might play around with this tea.
Maybe mixing some of this with a Chai I have.
Sample from TeaEqualsBliss
Not really getting any strawberry with this.
I am almost tasting something bread-like?
Liking it better iced but, still no strawberry.
Nice tea for this afternoon, probably not something I will purchase for myself though.
Another generous sample from TeaEqualsBliss
Leaves smell of a bright almost spicy lime.
The color is a nice dark red liquid.
The wet leaves smell a little like a cleaning solution, but the tea itself smells like a good black tea, a little smoke, a little spice and then a nice lime.
Surprisingly, the first thing I taste is the black tea not the lime.
The lime is there in the background, not overpowering.
A nice tea, a fun experience and because of the generous sample I was given I will be able to try it iced.
“Do you feel like a Zombie this morning?”
That is question that is posed in the description of this tea on the Butiki website.
Why, yes, I do.
Last night was so hot and stuffy that I barely slept, so I am groggy and grumpy this morning.
It did not help that my dog ran away this morning too (she is back safe and sound after I went running through fields after her)
This tea certainly evokes sunshine upon opening its bag, bright and citrus.
The scent encourages us Zombies along in the making process…turn on kettle…grumble grumble…measure tea…grumble grumble…pour water…grumble…WAIT 6 Minutes!! GRUMBLE!
Tea is a golden brown in color.
I have never drank a brown tea before.
I must mention that I have not drank a Guayusa Tea before either.
Once brewed the tea takes on more of a herbal scent.
It reminds me of a herbal tea my Mother would have made me drink for some ailment as a wee lass.
As for the sip, I was quite surprised at a dry like pucker that appeared.
The tea reminds me of a dry wine, it appears on the tongue and then evaporates.
I am finding this tea so interesting!
It is complex, light and bright, herbal yet slightly bitter, perky yet centering.
It seems to be shooing away my zombie grumbles though, so I think I will just sit back and contemplate this tea and maybe life itself.
Oh, Yum!
Smells like toasted nuts and dates.
Cozy, tasty and SO GOOD!
A bit of a agave aftertaste.
Nice red color.
The only problem with this tea is it makes me hungry;)
Thank you, TeaEqualsBliss
This is also my first 52 Teas Brand tea
Another bagged tea from TeaEqualsBliss
Again, with this brand I do not taste a lot of flavoring just mainly the Rooibos.
But, I do not mind rooibos:)
A bagged tea from TeaEqualsBliss
I am not getting a lot of a apple pie taste to this.
I mostly taste the the rooibos.
But, it is a pleasant after dinner tea.
A Surprise sample from Stacy in my Butiki order.
I really wanted to get this tea in my order (but to be fair, I wanted to get ALL the teas) so I am happy that I still get to try it.
The dry leaves smell heavenly.
Oolong and Strawberries together? (one at first thinks…)
Of course! How could it ever be different!
Pouring the water over the leaves transforms me to picking the sun kissed berries in the Strawberry Patch.
But, the best part is that I can still taste the lovely creamy oolong.
The strawberry does not overpower the tea whatsoever.
A very lovely tea indeed!
I received large packed envelope from TeaEqualsBliss
Thank you!
I was a little overwhelmed when I opened the package but excited because there is so many teas I have not even heard of! How Fun!
I spotted this tea right away and headed for the tea kettle.
I have wanted to try a Milky Oolong for awhile now.
The dry leaves do not have any distinct odor to them.
Add water and you get a delicate creamy oolong odor arising to your nose.
Mmmm…yummy.
I cannot think of the right word for the first taste that reaches my tongue but its bringing forth autumnal memories.
It reminds me of raking damp moist leaves, then a bit of astringency reaches the back of your tongue right before you swallow.
Very, lovely light afternoon tea.
Beautiful blond color.
Brewed in my Bodum.
Last night we had a massive storm, with thunder and lightening crashing around us and shaking the house.
Lightening struck near us and started a fire that ended up burning over 30,000 acres within 6 hours.
Needless to say, I did not hardly sleep last night because I kept jumping up to see how close the fire was to us and waiting to grab my pets and run.
Unfortunately, this morning I had some stressful type meetings, so I met the day groggy, and grabbing whatever strong black tea I could find and making it twice as strong and drinking 3 thermos fulls before my appointments.
When I was done with the meetings,it was around noon-ish so I decided I should eat since I had not really done that yet today.
I went to a cute little all American Diner that was around the corner and had been in business since the early 1900’s.
It is the kind of Diner where the waitress always calls you ‘Hon’ and I think her hand is permanently attached to a coffee pot.
I asked for Tea and she said that they had a little basket of choices for me and she would bring that on over.
I ordered a cup of soup and was brought a hot teapot full of water, a mug and a basket of mainly herbal Bigelow teas and a couple of Lipton bags.
It wasn’t much of a selection, but to be fair, I was not expecting much of one.
I picked this tea, because I thought maybe I should slow down on the intense caffeine intake.
This tea probably is not something I would purchase a box of, but it was not terrible.
It was slightly cinnamon-y and comforting and after the soup and a half a pot of the this tea, I started to feel semi-human again.
So, I thought what would complete it all, would obviously be a homemade piece of peach pie.
I left the diner feeling like I could conquer the rest of the day…or at least make it home to make more tea:)
Thankfully, the fire is mostly under control today.
When I was younger I had a very nasty Lapsang experience.
I only recently started purchasing them again, because it was a tea that my coffee drinking husband had shown some interest in.
I purchased this and then a Lapsang from Mountain Rose Herbs.
I enjoy the polite or elegant Lapsang from MRH over this one.
This one seems a tad rough or harsher to me.
I am glad I started with the other Lapsang though, because I can appreciate this tea and enjoy it when I am sharing a pot of it with my husband (who declares this tea..“Now this is a Manly Tea!”)
I just noticed that the smokiness in this tea almost tasted a little bitter compared to the last tea which the smokiness was smooth.
I feel rather silly doing this review since I have only three Lapsangs to compare too, and one of those was over 10 years ago and terrible (or my taste buds hated it at the time, maybe it was not all the tea)
But, this is not a bad Lapsang, maybe not one to try right away as a beginner of Lapsangs.
To all those Lapsang Lovers out there, I am supposed to ask you if there is any stronger Lapsangs than this one from H&S…apparently if there is a more manly Lapsang out there, my Hubby wants to know about it. (long suffering sigh inserted here)
Brewed in my Bodum for 4 minutes.
The color is a beautiful amber.
With sweet DaisyChubb cheering me on, I had teetering entered the world of Matcha Tea.
My first experience made me feel like a Cow in a Hay Barn, but I wiped the green mustache off my upper lip and powered on through to my second Matcha experience.
It was not till this particular Matcha that I finally understood what all the fuss was about.
From the moment I opened the very tiny little container, I knew this was going to be a very different Matcha experience than my first.
I smelled a deep grain odor and then something almost chocolate like.
It is very creamy on the tongue and also froths better than the first Matcha I tried.
But, there was still this malty chocolate smell and taste I could not place till this morning when I was making this, it dawned on me.
Ovaltine!
That malty chocolate beverage Mothers use to get their children to drink more milk when they are young (My Mother tried this with me too:)
It obviously is not strong in the Matcha, but there is hints of that malty goodness on the tongue, I think the creaminess of the matcha also adds to this particular memory as well.
I like this Matcha, and it makes me want to delve more into the Matcha world and spend money on all things that surround this green powdery substance:)
EDIT
Ohmygoodness!
I just made a iced matcha latte/bubble tea thingy with this Matcha.
When you add the milk to the Matcha, the Ovaltine flavor REALLY emerges.
Very tasty afternoon treat:)
This is the first Matcha Tea that I have ever had.
I made this about a dozen times and I still never really loved it.
At first, I think the water was too hot and it was terribly bitter, finally got that figured out.
Over all the best taste I can get out of this one, is when I am on the tractor when we are baling and alfalfa particles get in my mouth.
Which is not terrible, but I am not sure I want to drink that regularly.
I was not overly impressed with my first Matcha experience.
Thank goodness I am all about second chances…
I try to always have a Chai around the house.
I believe that there is not a better tea for fighting a cold or warding off nausea than a Chai Tea.
I prefer traditional Chai Black Tea, but if you are ill you are not supposed to have too much caffeine, so I when I saw this Chai with a Rooibos base I thought that I would give it a try.
I have been drinking it the last few nights as a dessert tea.
It is a very spicy Chai, which I personally like.
Last night I did a bit of experimenting and actually added a sachet of Vanilla Comoro to the teapot.
I thought that was a very nice additive for a dessert experience.
Overall, a good tea to keep around the house.
I usually am kinda iffy when it comes to Chocolate Flavored Teas.
Sometimes, they just feel like they are trying too hard to be chocolate-y.
This one I very much like.
It tastes a bit more Mocha-like to me.
A very lovely tea that leaves you feeling like you just had a decadent dessert.
This richly flavored black decaffeinated tea.
It is a sachet tea, which can be nice in the evening for a quick cuppa.
For some reason this tea reminded me of Honeybush Caramel Tea from Revolution Tea.
Not quite sure why, since both are very different from each other.
However, I think this is a very nice tea to have after dinner to accompany a good book.
Pineapple!
It almost shouts at you when you open the tin.
But, once you pour the hot water over the leaves it mellows out a bit and there is a floral note in it that I cannot quite place that emerges.
I have traveled to a few tropical places in my life so far and this tea brings me back to them.
I am not sure why, but the wet leaves kind of smell of a wet wool blanket or a wet dog.
But, for some reason this makes me smile too!
Maybe it is the memory of sunning on the beach and a rouge Golden Retriever came up to me all soggy and smiley and plopped a drool covered stick in my lap and barked, I threw the stick over and over again into the ocean till his owner came panting up to me and thanked me for keeping the dog put till he could find him.
When you go in for a second infusion there is not “wet dog” taste or odor to the tea, but this tea really only hangs on to its flavor for about 2 infusions.
This tea I actually bought for summertime cold brewing, and it cold brews up well, the fruity flavors are a bit more mild and the actual green tea shines through.
What I find so interesting is the color of the cold brewed tea, its a light, bright green.
How fun is that!?
I find the cold brewed tea refreshing on a hot day.
But, I think what I will love is brewing up a hot cup of this tea when there is snow and ice piled up outside, so I can be transfered to a warmer, sunnier time.
Fruit teas frighten me.
I am not quite sure why, I actually have never had a terrible experience with one as of yet.
But, I was almost afraid to try this tea, but seeing how it is summertime/ice tea season, I thought even if it was too sweet it would be good as a iced tea.
I was so confident that this would be better as a iced tea, that is what I made first with it.
The tea is good, fruity and light.
Very nice.
This afternoon I tried it hot.
Boy, was I surprised!
It goes from a polite iced tea to a slightly sophisticated hot tea
I particularly like it because you can smell and taste the black tea in it.
The fruit has not masked or disguised it as a good black tea.
Nose is black tea with Cherries and Apricots.
Taste is black tea with Plums and Cherries a slight note of a brandy or port?
I find this tea very pleasant and enjoyable hot or cold.
I don’t know what I am doing.
So, is this Matcha or Genmaicha?
Well, I had my Matcha whisk out and had already played around with some Matcha this morning, so I prepared this like it was a Matcha tea. (good grief, apparently I was seeing how many times I could mention Matcha in one sentence)
Well, I do not think that was quite right.
But, as I sit here, admitting to you all how green I am at this (Haha! Green! Matcha…get it? ahem…) I am enjoying the flavor of this murky blend of what appears to be something I might scoop out of the cow pond.
It is nutty and yet fresh and actually quite sweet.
I am happily chewing on the little rice bits with green tea leaves stuck to my teeth.
At least I am enjoying my ignorance.
