Kittenna

This is another tea I nabbed during the grab bag sale. Not one I would have picked myself, but I don’t have any rooibos chais to my knowledge, so it can hopefully fill that void?!

For whatever reason, this one smells an awful lot like Cinnamon Roll Honeybush initially. So much so that by aroma, I mixed the cups up. The only thing that got me to put them in the right order was remembering that I steeped this one last, and used a smaller cup (that I had to wash) for it. So yes, the aroma is cinnamony and chai-like, but not a great deal different from CRH.

The flavour is definitely not of a cinnamon bun, and it does taste chai-y, but it’s not overly strong. No medicinal rooibos flavour though, which is a big plus, so as a caffeine-free chai, it works for me. I’ll try brewing it a bit stronger next time though.

Probably not a tea I’d pick up again, but it will be a nice addition to the evening tea rotation (since I need to get to sleep earlier, and cutting out late night caffeine is probably a good idea whether or not I feel like it makes a huge difference).

ETA: Second infusion good; more cinnamony, and a bit light. This is a good spiced tea, I must say. I wish I’d had it when I was with my aunt, because I think she’d like it, so I could just pawn it off on her…

My initial thought when opening this package (first one I’m reviewing from the grab bag sale), was that it seems to have the same sort of spicing as Strawberry Pie honeybush! That’s exciting, since I quite like that one. It keeps that same sort of cinnamony smells throughout the infusion too, which made me quite happy although slightly worried that it was going to taste like Strawberry Pie minus the strawberry. Luckily, I am wrong.

The flavour of this one is absolutely delicious, and rather unexpected! Yes, there’s the same cinnamon of SP, but I definitely tasted some delicious cream cheese icing on top of a warm doughy cinnamon bun. Divine. And the best part? I’m not having to imagine a single one of these flavours. This literally tastes like a liquified cinnamon bun. How on earth did the bun flavour get in here?!

Anyways, wow. Incredibly high marks for this one! I don’t think I’ve ever tasted a blend quite so amazingly true to its name! The only problem I’m having is that instead of satisfying a craving, this has created a massive one. All I want to do is eat a giant warm cinnamon bun right now. I may in fact look up recipes tomorrow because of it.

ETA: Second infusion mostly just tastes of cinnamon, not really at all like cinnamon bun. That’s ok, though, I need more teas that only last through one infusion! :D

Arrived home today to 3 boxes of tea. With more stuff on the way. Oy vey. I suppose I could have mentioned earlier that I am (sadly) back at home now. :(

Anyways, one such box was from 52teas, because I splurged and went for the grab bag sale, and picked up some additional SBT tea bags so I could try almost all of the flavours (the rest were purchased a while back and are en route from Amanda! And I say almost all, because I have zero interest in RadioactiviTEA :P)

Figured I’d give this one a shot tonight, seeing as it’s the only one I bought two of, based on the rave reviews.

Brewed one giant teabag up in 2 cups of water in a pyrex measuring cup at approx. boiling for 3 minutes. So my “concentrate” needs to be diluted 1 part tea:3 parts water. I tried a bit tonight (probably the wrong proportion), and I must say that I’m definitely getting more cotton candy flavour (even lukewarm) than I got with the actual tea. It smells like spun sugar. It tastes like spun sugar. Delicious strawberry spun sugar. With a nice black tea background that’s neither bitter nor astringent. Nor too strong. This is truly a treat. I can see myself drinking through this rather quickly. I think the cup I made for myself might have been about a 1:3 mix, so I might stick with that instead of 1:4.

I stuck the teabag in the fridge so I can give it a second round tomorrow, because 2 bags is probably not enough to have purchased…

ETA: Had some more today and inexplicably didn’t like it as much. Must be a mood/tastebud thing. How annoying.

This initially smelled a bit play-doughy to me, like some other not-great teas have smelled in the past. My cooled cup from last night tastes much the same, blech. The re-steep is moderately better, but still not very tasty to me. I wonder if it’s an age thing?

Anyways, I’ll try this again sometime and see if it improves. Perhaps I just don’t like dates in tea?? At least the rooibos isn’t particularly medicinal…

The smell of this one initially reminded me of 52teas’ Strawberry Pancake; mostly sweet strawberry flavouring coming out, with perhaps a green tea undertone.

The flavour is initially a bit tart-sweet, and the aftertaste is definitely of strawberries. Fake ones, perhaps, but I’m ok with that. The aftertaste is actually also reminiscent of the strawberry flavour from Butiki’s Strawberry Oolong, which is quite distinct from the 52teas flavour. Interesting. There’s also a light berryish flavour that I’m picking up, which fits in nicely. I’m actually rather enjoying this tea, honestly. It’s a touch too light for me, but I followed the instructions and used 1 tsp instead of the usual 1.5 that I would use, so I’ll change that next time. I am also getting some green tea flavour, both during the sip and as an aftertaste. Yum :) I don’t think I’d buy some for myself, but it was worth the taste!

Just noticed that I’m getting a bit of throat scratchiness here, not sure if it’s random and unrelated, or a flavouring thing. Not worrisome enough to make a fuss about though.

Brewed a bit of this up to try, and although there’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just a pretty bland green tea. A bit nutty-ish, which is nice, but it mostly screams generic green tea to me, so not something I’d pick out for myself. It’s not particularly vegetal, nor seaweedy, and there’s almost a hint of astringency in the aftertaste, which is actually more pleasant than a problem. It actually reminds me a touch of a genmaicha.

I won’t be re-steeping this one; I’m drowning in tea as is, so I really don’t need to drag this one out.

Finally hit a tea I don’t feel like I’ve tasted before. The aroma is kind of peachy, and it carries into the flavour, which unfortunately is then marred by hibiscus. That said, the hibiscus isn’t overwhelming, so it’s ok, but peach and that sort of tartness don’t really go together in my mind. This tastes more or less like ‘Thank You Berry Much’ plus some peach flavour thrown in.

This tastes disturbingly like DavidsTea’s Bear Trap. Very similar. Tart from the hibiscus (but bearable in spite of a long infusion), and kind of like tart berries.

In other news, I’m feeling really down right now because I feel like I’ve made a bunch of social/relationship mis-steps lately, and am really worried that I’ve ruined things. :( Blah.

So, Amanda, if you happen to be reading this… I almost have a suspicion that this tea and Mahamosa’s Cherry Kiwi Coconut Fruit are the same tea. I guess I’ll be able to find out shortly. I’m definitely getting similar flavours here, and there are huge pieces of tasty cherry, and the ingredients seem to be the same… Again though, like with Roasted Almond, this wouldn’t be a bad thing, since I’m such a fan! And it’s nice to find alternate suppliers. I just would almost prefer to be trying something new and different instead of something I’ve had before.

The aroma is fruity and cherry-like, although definitely not cough syrup; it’s a real cherry sort of aroma (and flavour) here. Same with the flavour. Light cherry, general fruitiness, a bit of creaminess perhaps from the coconut. Can’t really taste the kiwi, but it could be doing something in there. I’d like this to be stronger though; already used 2 heaping tsp for a maybe 10 oz. mug, so will have to try more next time.

Yep… like someone else (Azzrian?) said, this one is pretty much the same as DavidsTea’s Forever Nuts, and a few other offerings from other companies. Less sweet than DT’s version, but tastily cinnamony, nutty, and good. So, a bit sad that it’s nothing special, but I’m not upset that it’s at least something tasty!

Er, I think this is what I shared with my mom tonight. Being away from my tea collection, it’s hard to remember which packet I actually grabbed. Anyhow, it was delicious and vegetal as always. Mom thought it was a bit on the grassy side (so it will be accompanying me home); aunt couldn’t taste anything at all, because of her messed up sense of smell that ruins greens for her (but at least it didn’t taste awful??)

I have no idea why I haven’t rated this one yet; I guess I’ll take care of that when I drink it again later, because I didn’t even get to re-use the leaves, since I’m chowing through a bunch of tea before essentially napping for a couple hours and catching the plane back “home”. :( So I need my infusers (all but the one I’m leaving behind for my mom) to be clean and ready to travel.

Anticipating ickiness, I am trying this tea because I want to leave it for my mom and not feel like I missed out on trying something! Even though I know I’m unlikely to like it, since it smells overwhelmingly of rose.

Surprisingly, either I brewed this well or the rose is not as strong as in other teas (or because I left out an actual rosebud from the infuser); I’m actually finding it to be bearable. And perhaps because of the white chocolate(?), there are other flavours taking away from the extreme floralness. That said, it’s not a tea I’d choose to drink if I had any choice. But it’s not drain-worthy. Thankfully, I’m leaving the remaining 8-9g for my dear mother. No rating because I went into this expecting it to be bad; it would probably rate in the low 60s for me.

Another sample from Alphakitty (with the appearance of coming by way of LiberTEAS!)

Just brewed a really small cup of this one to test out before leaving it behind. It smells just a touch smoky, and tastes likewise. Kind of like a bagged Lipton + smoke – astringency and other icky things that come with bagged tea? I do seem to like smokiness at a low to moderate level in my tea, so this works for me. But there are so many other teas out there that I’d rather drink, I will be ok leaving it behind. (I’m a poor descriptor; this is quite a nice tea, and really nothing like a bagged tea, there is just this particular flavour I associate with bagged tea that I’m catching. I need to figure out whether it’s a region or what, so I can stop making it sound like it’s a low quality tea!)

This one’s a sample from LiberTEAS! Trying to get through a couple straight blacks tonight that I’ve yet to try so I can leave them for my aunt and uncle to drink, since I’m done my vacation in a few hours, and am headed home. Tear.

Aroma is reminiscent of bagged teas… of course, it then occurs to me that CTC nilgiri for iced tea is… common? I don’t know, those kind of associate in my head. Either way, a bit light (my fault), but no astringency, and really not too bad. It has that sort of fruity quality I associate with say, Lipton bagged tea, but is really quite a bit better.

I could drink this again, but instead I’ll leave it to see if the aunt and uncle may enjoy it more!

Thanks to Alphakitty for this tea!

The aroma is absolutely delicious. Like a creamy, sweetened earl grey, even though I know it’s not. The bergamot isn’t coming out too strongly, which is nice. Oh man… it tastes absolutely delicious too! I have a soft spot for earl grey creams, and this is hitting it very well. I’d definitely drink this one again. The bergamot is quite mild, there’s a lovely creaminess, and not really any astringency. If anything, I’m almost getting a bit of a berry flavour. This is really quite good :)

Sadly, I’m going to leave this one behind in the hopes that my uncle may enjoy it (if he doesn’t want it, I may regain it at Christmas), because he likes earl greys and I failed to bring anything other than this one. Hopefully he enjoys it too!

Brewed up for my aunt as she liked the smell. First infusion was absolutely delicious for me, but the second I had some problems with (probably because I don’t have an infuser big enough for a full pot, to let the leaves expand fully). Ended up putting the infuser into my individual cup, and left it too long, so it’s a bit bitter. One thing about this tea is that I get a very “green” taste from it that isn’t all that pleasant. It’s not too bad in the first infusion, but it comes out a bit more in subsequent infusions.

Mom enjoyed this one, but unfortunately my aunt, who has some taste problems, can’t taste it very well and gets an unpleasant aftertaste from it. She apparently has this problem with most greens now.

Haven’t had this in far too long, and my aunt is big into chai, so I hoped this one would be a hit, and I was right!! Everyone loved it, and loved the spicy kick. Project give away tea met with some success, as she liked it enough that I offered her the rest of the package (which she happily took). Will have to send some for my mom too, as she enjoyed it as well. This one is so good :)

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Haven’t had this in forever! Agh! It’s perfect tonight! :D

Brewed up for my mom, and tested out a sample. Definitely not a fan of rose in tea as a dominating flavour, but she likes it well enough!

Thank you to Peony Tea S. for this wonderful sample! I brought it along on vacation so I could try a few new things in addition to the old standbys.

I think I may have underbrewed this tea a bit (used 1.5tsp for ~8oz.), but I’m quite enjoying it. It tastes like a dark oolong, with a delicious woody sweetness, and no bitterness or astringency whatsoever. Very tasty to have alongside some overly sweet caramel corn I just made for my dad.

I’m eagerly anticipating the next few infusions of this one. My mom liked it.

This is the other pu’erh I brewed up tonight. Same method: 10 second rinse in water straight from the kettle, followed by the normal infusion.

This one smells mildly fishy, but it doesn’t carry into the flavour, which is remarkably mild and… straw-like? That kind of hay/straw sweetness is what I’m getting. I’m pretty new to pu’erh, so am still pretty awful at describing them, but it definitely tastes like pu’erh to me! I like it, but I definitely preferred the Farmer’s Cooperative one. And I dislike the fact that I get any fishy aroma whatsoever. It was a turnoff for my mom too (it’s unfortunate that we liked the same one, because I don’t really want to leave that one for her, but probably will leave a few cups’ worth because I have so darned much tea!)

In keeping with my mom’s interest in pu’erh, I brewed up a couple from Verdant to see what she thought of them.

This one was a winner!! She likes it much better than black tea, and commented that there was a bit of a smoky flavour. Of course, she didn’t try it until after midnight, so didn’t want to finish the whole glass, which works out well for me because I haven’t drank this one myself either!

I’m sitting in the kitchen and the TV is loud, so I’m having trouble focusing on the flavours here, but it’s really enjoyable. Somewhat sweet, mildly smoky. Nice sweet tea-ish aftertaste. I gave this about a 10 second rinse in water straight from the tea kettle prior to brewing it. Definitely a tea I’m glad to have tried! Can’t believe it took me so long, though. I might reduce the infusion time just a touch next time, as I feel it’s a little stronger than necessary, but still pretty good.