Matt

Been busy all weekend, so I have had no time to try any tea and it has been driving me crazy! So now that I finally have time I decided to make this up from the sample bag that Teavivre.

The dry smell is very pleasant, which was surprising to me for some reason. It’s probably because the last Pu-erh I had was very fishy. The wet smell is very interesting as it smells kind of spicy like chili peppers or cooked green peppers. The color of the liquid is interesting as well since it is kind of a copper color similar to Oolong tea or a light black tea. The taste is a little oily in the mouth with a nice plum flavor. I sort of like it, it’s interesting.

So my parents were visiting me this weekend and as usual we ended up at Adagio to pick my mother up some more tea and to get me a new tea pot (my old one was breaking and after look around and getting suggestions I decided to go with the VarieTEA.). Since I am a regular at the store, which it still weirds me out that all the employees know me by name and things about me from my facebook, they gave us several samples sizes to take home for free.

Now, that is how I aquired this and I am kind of glad that I didn’t have to pay for it. I have never had Honeybush before, only Rooibus which causes me to have weird nightmares and other things so I was kind of excited to try Honeybush and see if it would be different. Happily it was different and didn’t cause me any problems. I really like the under taste to the honeybush more then Rooibus, though I did not like the Chocolate taste. The Chocolate tasted way too fake and phoned in, which really kind of ruined the tea for me. I will probably try another Honeybush, since I seem to like it somewhat its just that this “chocolate” part is not doing anything for me.

Thank you to Teavivre for sending this wonderful set of samples! They finally arrived today and I can finally start digging in.

I am in a black tea sort of mood so I figured this would be a great place to start, that and the tea came in a little once cup pouch so I didn’t have to do any measuring!

The dry leaf smell reminds me of soy sauce with a hint of sesame seed, which is making me really hungry as well as get this tea going. The steeped tea is a nice dark amber color and smells a little soy saucey still with a hint of chocolate.

The taste is very nice. There is no astringency that I can detect, which is very nice and makes for a smooth tea. There are some nice chocolate notes that are coming out as I sip this as well as a hint of chili. I might try less water when I resteep this to try and make it a little more to stronger.

So, this is yet another tea that’s dry smell has been ruined by the smell of a tin I had something scented in before this. The good thing is that the liquor’s flavor and scented after steeping aren’t affected. That being said, the smell of the finished tea is similar to pasta sause or Spaghetti O’s and is making me hungry. There is a nice smooth taste with a little astringency at the very end that is almost unnoticeable. There are some light chocolate notes as well as a little vanilla bean.

So thank you to Pekko Teas for this generous sample!

The dry leaves smell just like the taste is described, like jam and toast. Wet the leaves smell like something I cannot quite put my finger on, though it is a familiar smell. It’s rather pleasant though it smells nothing like jam and toast. Actually it smells a little like what I remember Marmite smelling like.

Wow! tastes just like they say it will. There is a dry toast and jam taste that comes out right at the front. The lingering taste is of a nice semi sweet jam with a hint of clotted cream. I feel this would make a nice noon tea. There is a lot of british going on in this, odd but good.

On a cold morning, this tastes wonderful.

The dry leaves smell a little like bread dough. The taste is very light with a hint of grass and a smooth finish. Uhm…. yeah I like how soft the buds are, I just wish I had more then 2oz.

So after bashing my head in Stage Combat, I decided to fix up my head by trying my sample of this tea. After reading all of these reviews I cannot wait to get this going, I can only hope it lives up to the hype hahaha.

I have decided to follow the instructions on the site, which seems interesting. I hope this turns out well. So far the dry smells a lot like Matcha tea or peas, loving it.

1st: 20sec @ 175F. Tastes just like snow peas with a bit of sweetness similar to honey or rock sugar. Color is a nice pale yellow. There is a tail note of soy milk or almond milk

2nd + 3rd: 25 sec @ 175F. Taste is even stronger this time, in a good way. My mouth feels so fresh and clean right now and I love it.

4th+5th: 35 sec @ 175F. Very sweet this time and a little less peay.

So in all this is fantastic. Would order more, if only I had money.

I have ruined the smell of this tea. It used to smell so nice and fresh when I first got it but I put it in a tin that smelled like a tootsie roll from an old tea. On the plus side it still tastes amazing. Is similar to fresh vegetables from a garden with a smooth finish.

I gaiwaned this today and forgot to take notes while steeping. I have to say though that it evolved very nicely and is still giving me flavor even after 3 hours of steeping. In all, it tastes very similar to a nice gunpowder green.

Since I saw this was going so fast I placed an order for a sample size of this and a few of the others teas that Verdant was getting low on that I had heard a lot about. The leaves of this look beautiful and they smell like a nice summer garden. Wet they smell very similar to a strawberry poptart, which amazes me. I am brewing in my gaiwan today so I will just list my notes for each steep.

1st: No rise as suggested and steeped for 3 sec. I can really taste the Cashew notes that are mentioned on the site.
2nd: 3 sec steep. Once again their is Cashew notes but its a little subdued since there is something else coming through, I’m not sure what.
3rd: 3 secs. Alright so what I was getting is a creamyness that compliments the cashew flavor.
4th: 6 sec. Along with the creamyness there is a bit of a sugary sweetness to this one. The cashew flavor is more blended with all the other flavors now so its like cashew butter.
5th: 9 sec. See above and image its blended even more.
6th: 12 sec. nothing different.

There will be other steepings but I don’t feel the need to post them since they seem to be staying the same from here on out.

It smells a lot like strawberry mixed with raspberry, which is good because that is what is in it. Now the taste while warm is like a low quality jam. There is a strong astringency that is very distracting from the real flavor of it. Now once it has cooled these problems leave it and the berry flavor really comes out and it ends up being very smooth and enjoyable. So it seems iced would be the best thing for this.

It’s very tasty. Today I feel the Jasmine is very over powering but this usually isn’t a problem so I think today is just an off day.

When I am having a bad day I usually go for this tea. It tastes very similar to Teavana’s Golden Imperial Lotus but a little more chocolaty. It is not too astringent and I am able to get at least 4 16oz cups out of about 5 balls. I would be drinking this right now if it want for the fact that I have to be up early in the morning and it is already early in the am.

This is one of my favorit green teas. There is a very small hint of smokiness that is not very noticeable and a nice smooth taste. I would almost say that it tastes very similar to an Oolong tea.

I enjoy this tea every now and again. You can really taste the chocolate in it and it all comes together to taste similar to a mocha capuchino.

So I have had this tea for some time now and have just been way too lazy to add it to the site. I won it in my first contest at Adagio and had no idea they even had it until they handed it to me. Apparently it was one of 3 special mixes that they sold in-store for fathers day last year or something.

This is one of my all time favorit mixes from Adagio. There is a very nice mix of tastes with the Almond and Hazelnut that they have added to the tea. It is also very smooth and the scent is reminiscent of leather, like a nice new leather jacket or couch. You can really tell why they named it what they did and you end up feeling very manly after drinking it.

So…. yeah…. not really a fan… It’s not really all that Vanilla-y to me and it smells a little harsh. The after taste is nice though. Probably wont be having this again though once my sample is done.

Smells amazing! You can really smell the orange they added to it and it mixes very well with the scent of the grapefruit.

The taste is that of fruity pebbles. It makes for a great breakfast tea and I could see that with maybe a little sugar it would make a nice dessert tea.

I enjoyed this. You could really taste the almonds in it which was really nice. It reminded me of sweetened almond milk, which I suppose would be a good thing since it is supposed to taste like almonds. Only thing I didn’t like is there was a bit of perfumey taste to it.

The dry tea smells like raisins with a hint of plum. Steeped the leaves smell like Chili, more specifically turkey chili from hormel. The taste is kind of boring, there is a little smokeyness to it with a little bit of the raisin taste. It is mostly boring to me.

So it took a few tries for me to actually make it right but I have finally, after a year of try, been able to make a near perfect cup of Matcha tea. Now that it has been made correctly, I love it. There is a very light taste in the mouth of vegetables freshly washed and the bubbles on top add a nice texture. I actually really like using this as a face mask when my face breaks out every so often, for some reason it just seems to really clear out my face.

Once again, another free sample that I received either with an online order or from a contest. I think I’m not really a fan of the flavored teas from Adagio. I think this is because they seem to be vary astringent and I just don’t feel like changing how I brew it. In small batches I really like it because I am able to get the full flavor of Passionfruit out, though for the most part I have not really been able to get it to stay that way. I probably should just try harder, but don’t really feel like it. Oh well.

Well this is the final free sample I got from Davids Tea. I have to say I really love it. You can taste the apples and the pistachio nuts in the brew. I feel like it would be wonderful to eat.