Lindsay

Not a bad white blend, and I by no means dislike it. I just wish I hadn’t ordered the Black Currant Bai Mu Dan with this tea, because there are similarities, and I do enjoy the BCBMD much better. This will be my cold-steep tea for the week. The pomegranate makes this tea slightly tart, but that blends well with blackberry. The leaves are massive and reasonably well-intact. If you like tart and slightly sweet white teas, this is a great blend. If you like over-the-top juicy white tea that can re-steep forever, go with the Black Currant Bai Mu Dan.

Blech. Not a huge fan. Smells too much like booze in the bag, and literally only gets one good steep before it starts to taste like rubber. Davids Tea oolongs aren’t anything to write home about anymore.

Why, DT, why?

You want to make a white, sweet strawberry tea?

THEN DON’T PUT HIBISCUS IN IT FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!

WHY DO YOU PUT HIBISCUS IN EVERYTHING?!?!?!?!

gasp

This blend is an insult to the former Strawberry White. And the quality of silver needles isn’t that bad. What’s bad is picking out little bits of hibiscus in the dry leaf and having it still be super sour and NOT TASTY.

Sipped down. Forever.

End rant.

Matcha pancakes, matcha matcha pancakes, get some matcha and put it in a pancake, matcha pancakes, that’s what it’s gonna make, matcha pancaaaaakes!

This is everything I wanted it to be, BUT, I recommend going with distinctive over robust. All my matchas have been robust, but this one makes me realize some flavours are way too strong for robust or higher flavouring. It’s a tad artificial and a tad overpowering with robust, but it’s still damn delicious. I just use a smaller amount when mixing or using it in a smoothie.

This tea is growing on me. Today is just one of those days where anything with cinnamon will do. It’s still pineapple expressing outside, and everything is grey and hella wet. Even for Van city this is ugly weather. Not to mention this shift is brutal and I need a daggum nap and a snuggie. Pout.

The thing that bothers me with this tea is the sweetness. It’s almost cloying, but not enough today to make me dump it out. One more cup left in this sample. Upping the rating slightly.

Hot diggity. I am quite late to the exotica bus; this should have been in my cupboard ages ago. There is just something about the combination of sweet, spicy and creamy that is completely sublime. Lots of lemongrass too, which I can never get enough of. Also, this tisane made the WHOLE office smell AMAZING. Must buy more. This was a birthday present from the beau. He went on my steepster cupboard to find tea present ideas! D’awwwwwwww.

This tea has tarnished all other genmaicha, I swear. Laoshan green is an amazing base and the toasted rice is very complementing. I can’t wait for the spring batch of teas from Verdant!

It’s a fancy day for fancy tea. I’m a quarter century old! ACK!

This stuff is, as the kids say, amazeballs. Really one of my favourite blends by Frank.

I’m super excited to say I’m slowly converting co-workers to the world of “snobby tea” (that’s what they all call it). Currently a trainmaster is browsing 52 Teas and asking me for recommendations. And last week another trainmaster put in his first Red Leaf matcha order. Verdant Tea is always a hot topic when people ask me about tea. I’ve got about a dozen people hooked on Davids Tea in the last year, too.

Man i’m on a roll!

Yes, it’s THAT good. Brewed hot with milk and agave.

I might re-buy this tea for the sole purpose of cold-brewing it. I really REALLY REALLY REALLY love the scent of this tea. It’s a very powerful pineapple scent. I wish it translated better into the hot brewed tea, but I was satisfied enough with a cold brew. It’s not very tropical either, but I inexplicably would rather have this iced than hot.

A fantastic earl grey! Wow this is good. So well done with the flavouring. There is the perfect amount of bergamot in this blend, and of course it’s not bitter at all. I just put milk and agave in this cup, but I wish I had something to make a frothy latte with. This is the best earl grey in my books, so far. This will be a re-buy!

Enjoyable hot with a touch of agave, but tastes medicinal if it cools. No bad all-around. Very smooth base, no bitterness.

I’m losing my mind…this is all cocoa and vanilla to me. I had to re-examine the sample bag to ensure my sanity, and now I can kind of smell bergamot in the dry leaves. I had this for the first time last night and it was honest-to-god like hot chocolate (with milk and agave). I don’t know what’s wrong with me. It’s good though.

No notes yet.

Ok…Harney and Sons must be trollin’, cause this straight rooibos. Blech. This is not a good tea day.

This would be so wonderful if not for whatever sweetner is in the dry tea. This is instead really gross. Glad it was a free sample!

85 degree water with a 2 minute steep yielded plastic flavours with plastic undertones of more plastic. What the heck. This smelled like orange julius, and tastes absolutely nothing like it. I had to dump this cup unfortunately. Thanks Harney and Sons anyway for the free sample!

Not a remarkably tasty peppermint tea, but it’s all I have at work and my stomach is very, very mad at me. Brews up dark and quickly. I think I fished the bag out around the 1 minute mark.

As much as I try, I don’t really enjoy pu’erh on its own. But this blend is probably the one exception. I love it to bits. I’ll drink anything with ginger in it so that helps too. The spices really make the yanxin nuggets more palatable for my picky tastes. I will be working on this tea for the rest of the evening, since it goes strong after three or more big mugs. Not only is this blend a great tummy soother, I really want to believe that it is helping to lessen a nasty hive breakout from an apparent Amoxicillan allergy. It must be the tea!

90C, 1 minute steep to start.

Misc work tea. All my gear is at home, and I am desperate for something hot and tea-like. I enjoy the mildness of the honey in this tisane. It’s sweet but not cloying/in-your-face like Honeybee from DavidsTea. I don’t know what an elderflower is but it seems ok. Not much lemon balminess in my cup. 1 minute steep in an 8 oz mug; the bag re-steeps well. I might buy a tin of this, it’s quite relaxing and satisfying.

I bought this only to see if it would help me fall asleep. Friday nights I work until 10 and I have to be back at 6 on Saturday morning, so I am always looking for something to start winding down my system. Usually the only thing that works for me is beer. shrugs

In terms of taste, the valerian root makes this brew bitter when it’s lukewarm. Drink it hot and fast if you can. It’s quite minty and sour from the hibiscus as well. Truly, I won’t buy this again after I finish the 50g bag, but I can appreciate it’s calming effects. After 2 cups I start yawning a bit more (this does manage to re-steep once if you keep the first steep to ~4 mins).

Glad to have tried it. It seems to work better for some and less so for others.

(low rating is for taste)

Not impressed with this tea after trying two milk oolongs from TeaVivre. The milk taste is alright, but maybe the oolong quality is waning in this bag. At least 25 grams goes quick.

Thank you Steepster for introducing me to flavoured matcha. This latte is ah-may-zing! My life and spending habits will never be the same again.