Rachel Sincere

I had received this in two different swaps, first of all, so I have two people to apologize to because I didn’t write down who sent them to me. Sorry, awesome people!

I brewed this one with a little trepidation. The only other oolong I have tried smelled and tasted like manure. It kind of ruined me for oolong. However, I LOVE hazelnut anything so I thought if I’d like any oolong, this would be the one. And it was!

When brewed, it smelled of yummy hazelnut and vanilla and slightly of hay. I’m OK with hay, when the alternative is manure. It had the smooth taste combination of hazelnut and vanilla, no hay to be found. I enjoyed it very much. As to the future of this one, I’ll happily drink up the oz. I have left, and I might swap for more in the future, but it’s not necessarily one I’d worry about keeping in my cupboard.

Weekend Sample Sipdown #2: This Is Going To Be A Long Year.

Yet another sample from a lovely and generous tea trader, and I don’t know who it was. I’m going to start labeling my samples so I can properly credit swappers in my reviews.

On to the tea. I didn’t look it up before I drank it, and I couldn’t tell what the flavor was supposed to be. I kind of got raisin/strawberryish, not very strong though, and a little almond. Imagine my surprise when I finally looked it up and saw that it was blueberry vanilla! Yes, now I see when it is really hot, I get the vanilla, and as it cools off the blueberry comes out a little bit. It’s fine.

It’s also discontinued, so even if I had fallen in love with it, I couldn’t have any more anyway. So it’s all for the best!

Weekend Sample Sipdown, #1! It’s time for me to start using up my samples that I have gotten in so many lovely swaps. I’ve decided that weekends are for samples only.

So, today I drank a pot of this. I can’t remember who sent this to me…my apologies to the generous giver! I didn’t get any scent from the dry leaf, and that worried me. Once brewed and sweetened, I could smell raisins. When I tasted it, I got the raisin, dough, spice flavors. At first when hot, it was delicious. As it cooled, the black tea flavor seemed to thin out a little bit, but it was still good. This is definitely a tea I would drink again. Thank you, mystery sender!

Hey! I love it! I’m so excited! And kind of mad because I didn’t think I’d love it so I only bought one package.

See, I was worried about this one because although I liked Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha OK, I thought it basically tasted like Super Golden Crisp, which is a sweetened breakfast cereal that I don’t really like, so I traded it away. I bought this one on curiosity alone, prepared to trade it as well, especially since I’m not that fond of smoky teas.

So this tea has that Super Golden Crisp scent when brewed. I sweetened my 8-oz. cup with two Splenda packets. And I was in love at sip #1. I could taste the marshmallows, the graham crackers, the chocolate, and it wasn’t really smoky in my opinion. I even loved the sweet roasted rice taste that reminds me of that rice cereal.

This one is a winner. I’m going to buy more when/if it’s reblended.

Mmmmmm. This tea lives up to its name completely. The scent of the dry leaf is of baked pumpkin with spices. The flavor when drinking is of pumpkin pie, and there is a delicious custardy finish. I’m really sleepy and am typing with only one eye open so I’m going to have to end this review right HERE.

I was glad when I smelled this one and got a nose-full of black currant scent. I love black currant, and I was feeling bad about panning three 52Teas offerings in a row, so the fact that I would probably like this one was heartening.

And I did like it. I found it refreshing. To be honest, I mostly tasted the black currant and the white tea and a tiny bit of sourness. I didn’t taste bergamot at all, which was OK with me, because I’m not really a huge fan of it. I did sweeten the 8-oz. cup with 2 packets of Splenda. I’ll probably make a pitcher of iced tea with this one this summer, I think it will be really refreshing.

I didn’t put the preparation details because I can’t remember them—whatever the Breville setting is for white tea is what I did.

You know, I am NOT down on 52teas at ALL. Graveyard Mist is my #1 favorite tea. I adore Shamrock, Butterbeer, and Spiced Brandy Shou Mei, to name a few. I just ordered two packages of White Christmas. But here is another one which disappointed me, hopefully much to the delight of Steepster traders everywhere. ;-)

The first two cups I had, I didn’t get Red Velvet anything. In fact, I thought that the mate’ smelled a little unpleasant, and I like mate’s. Then I put the rest in a Thermos and came back to it later when I was a little more awake. This time I did get Red Velvet Cake in the aroma of the tea and even in the flavor, but it was just there. It wasn’t super duper creamy extra delicious or anything. It was just OK for me. And I have limited shelf space.

I bought this one because my 16-year-old son just loves Dr. Who. I thought it would be fun for us to drink it together when he comes to visit. So we’re sitting here watching Dr. Who, and I brewed it up. I have to say it doesn’t live up to its delicious scent. It has a smooth base, and if I really, really try, I can taste the caramel—especially after it has cooled down a bit. My son just thought it was OK. I think I really could have sold him if I’d brewed the Butterbeer instead.

I really like blueberry teas, and I really like Assam, so that’s where this one stands. I seem to have a relationship with the teas from Zoomdweebies/52 Teas where I either REALLY get it or I don’t. This is one of those where I don’t really get that cream cheese Danish blah blah blah but the blueberry is nice enough.

This tea is verra verra minty, yet smooooth. You have to reach to taste that vanilla, but it’s there. It flirts with being almost too minty but it never gets there. My partner is reminded of the Moroccan Mint we had at Dobra Tea in Madison, WI. That was some yummy stuff, sweetened with honey. I would keep this Shamrock Tea in my cupboard all the time if it were possible!

I had high expectations for this tea. I love blueberry teas. And blueberry crumble? YUM! However, for me, this tea failed to deliver. It had a pleasant scent when brewed. I sweetened it and drank it at my normal temperature but for the whole cup, all I got was a pleasant, slightly cinnamony tea. Not a note of blueberry at all, ever. No cake or crumble. Nothing to write home about.

I even left it in my closed Breville overnight by accident, and when I opened it up the next day, I didn’t get any blueberry OR cake smell at all. The only time I got a scent out of it is when I smelled the wet leaf, then I got the cake scent. Normally if I leave a tea sitting in the Breville I have to rinse and rinse to get the smell out. I didn’t have to do that in this case.

I don’t know what to say, except those who like this specific tea should keep an eye on my swap list. ;-)

Ohhh, yeah. This is amazing. It tastes exactly like an oatmeal raisin cookie. I have no suggestions for improvement. I told one of my friends that I had Oatmeal Raisin Cookie tea this morning and she said, “You are spoiled!” Indeed!

I thought this tea was delicious. It smelled amazing and was really fun to scoop into my teamaker, because of all the moist chunks of pineapple and cherry in the blend.

However, when I drank the tea, while it was wonderful, I didn’t get the pineapple flavor or the cherry flavor. Neither did my partner. We both agreed that we got a hint of maple and a strong taste of brown sugar. So while I definitely got the “crumble” part of the upside-down cake flavor, I didn’t get the actual fruity part. Either way, I enjoyed this tea and will perhaps experiment with time and temp to see if I can’t get that fruitiness to come out.

Thanks to Teajo Teas for the generous sample! When I first took a whiff of the Black Manas, I thought it smelled sweet, and it reminded me of the types of English Breakfast teas that I like.

I brewed it in the Breville and added my usual two Splenda that go into every tea I drink…it was delicious, but you know, it was pretty sweet to me. Strange for an unflavored black. I thought that I could drink a second cup and only put in ONE Splenda! And I did! That is HUGE for me.

This tea was so nice and smooth I think I could probably even like it without any sweetener at all. I enjoy it best nice and hot, but it was just fine after it cooled in the cup as well. This would be a good first black tea for someone to try and it would be a good everyday tea for an old-timer like me. ;-)

This is a second tasting note. My first was for the hot preparation. Now I’m taking another step in my iced tea exploration. This time, I didn’t use a SBT but brewed a loose-leaf tea I picked out of my cupboard!

So arctic raspberry is a real winner iced. I didn’t even have to sweeten it as much as I did for the SBTs. I was so proud of myself for making it all on my own and having it work out. I recommend this fresh tasting raspberry tea for any iced tea enthusiast.

This is my second try at an iced tea, and I’ve already had almost two pitchers of it. It is wonderful! I am still so amazed that I can like iced tea after so many years of hating it. And this one tastes more like tea than it does like bubblegum. The bubblegum flavor does come through at the end, but it’s faint, in my opinion. Nothing like the Neopolitan which I found to be much more aggressive. I drink from a 16-oz. cup and I add 2 Splenda to the cup before I add the tea. That helps bring out the sweet candy flavor but really, this tastes good without a huge WHAM of bubblegum anyway.

I’ve tried so many times to like iced tea. I’ve bought and given away at least 3 different versions of the Mrs. Tea iced tea maker. I gave up trying for a really long time. Then I realized that I am so slow in drinking my high quality hot tea that by the time I finish it, it’s pretty cold and I still like it. Hmmmmm, maybe it’s the quality and flavor of the tea that makes the difference!

So I bit the bullet and bought some Southern Boy Tea, the Neopolitan flavor. I wanted to try many other flavors but they were out of most of them. Boo. I brewed the bag in 16 oz. boiling water for exactly 3 minutes, poured it into a pitcher, and added water to make 2 quarts. Then I filled my 16-oz. cup with ice cubes and three Splenda and poured the tea in. Wow! It’s so good! I don’t even mind that it’s not carbonated! Usually that’s the first thing that bugs me. This is delicious. It really tastes like Neopolitan ice cream. I taste all three flavors equally.

How do I save the wet bag, if I want to re-steep it after I am done drinking this pitcher? It could take a couple of days. Is that even feasible?

I am pretty sure I got this generous sample from Azzrian. Thank you so much, this Laoshan tea has intrigued me since I first heard of it!

I think I oversweetened it. I always throw two Splenda into the infuser basket before I even measure out the tea. I don’t think this tea needs that much sweetener. Basically, what I got was smooth, overly sweet, and an aftertaste of mini wheats. I calls ’em like I sees ’em. LOL

I will try this again with one sweetener, and might re-rate it then.

Bleeeaarrrgghhhhh. I got this as a sample, I am not sure but I think it was in Traveling Tea Box A? I had so many envelopes full of samples I dumped them all into a plastic container and now I don’t know what I got from whom. :-(

Anyway, the scent of the teabag was promising enough, I have nothing against orange. I didn’t realize it had jasmine in it too, about which I will quote Heidi Klum on Project Runway, “I don’t hate much, but dat I hate.” What it doesn’t have is anise or licorice, yet to me that is ALL I can taste! It seems overwhelming! And I usually like anise. The only thing I can figure is that since I didn’t know I was drinking a jasmine tea, my mind went to anise instead and was grossed out by too much anise instead of the true gross ingredient which was the jasmine? I don’t know. I’m confused.

Thank you, Sare, for this sample!

This one smelled really good right off the bat. Maybe I didn’t steep it enough, but all I got out of it was chocolate flavored water with a carob aftertaste. I have more, and I’ll try steeping it longer because of all the great reviews, but I don’t have high hopes.

My girlfriend had a cup of this tonight so I asked her to make a tasting note! She says good flavor, and it didn’t need any sugar, which she usually uses. So it must have been pretty good. :-D

I took this one out of Traveling Tea Box A. It smelled so much like fresh blueberries, and I like green tea, so I thought it would be perfect for me! I’m not edumacated enough to know what makes it a gunpowder, but it is. Anyway, it’s blueberry-y enough, I guess. There’s a slightly bitter/astringent thing going on, though. It’s not as good as the organic blueberry jam tea from DavidsTea. Nothing I would go crazy over, but decent.

I love English Breakfast. It’s the first unflavored tea I tried so long ago, and I remember being surprised that I liked it! But some English Breakfasts just don’t do the trick. This one is perfect. Not too strong, not too weak, a perfectly equal blend of everything that makes English Breakfast so good. I feel kind of like Goldilocks but seriously, this cuppa tea is “just right”!

This is a second tasting note. This tea is delicious. I only bought an ounce because I was short on cash that day, but this is going to be a permanent part of my stash for sure!