Missy

I tried this one plain to start off. I really didn’t like it plain. Add some creamer and sugar and it’s pretty good.

Pekoe makes a bold entrance with the first sip. Ginger, cardamom and clove make the next appearance. These three blend nicely together. Cinnamon and pepper just flirt with me a bit towards the end.

I never knew what CTC was until I got this tea. It resembles instant coffee crystals. Except the tea seems cute where as the coffee is just shiny bits. It also reminds me of a bunch of tiny rolly polly bugs.

The first time I tried this I really didn’t like it. The astringency it had was more than I was willing to allow in a cup. There was also a flavor I can’t name that I didn’t enjoy. While I was drinking, I thought I may have prepared the tea wrong, after all I am a tea newb. So I changed a few things and here we sit today with a cup that is totally enjoyable if not a tea staple. Some vanilla sugar and creamer, and my cup of tea was good! Honestly at the price I got this for, I can’t go wrong.

With the above additives, I no longer find the astringency I had before. I think that brings out the other flavors better. Vanilla, ginger, and cardamom present right off the bat. I get a hint of pepper late, almost an aftertaste. A pleasant floral after taste finishing this tea off.

This feels almost like a morning cup of coffee. I take cream and sugar in my coffee. Maybe I should say, “I like my coffee like my women, sweet and blonde?” Heh, I can’t even remember who used to say that. I do remember that they liked their coffee plain. Not a bad tea as long as you remember cream and sugar.

Best part of waking up are spices in your cup! Yum Yum.

I really like the balance of this blend. The tea is a pleasant addition to the cinnamon, clove and cardamom. I can’t say that any one flavor is more evident than the others.

An excellent cup to wake up to.

I think I like this tea more the more I drink it. The vanilla balances the rooibos perfectly. Despite the cinnamon being tame, I feel it’s a good addition to the vanilla and rooibos.

Very comfortable to curl up with late at night.

Not a bad Irish breakfast.

I would normally say, “I’m not one for fruity teas.” Except this time I really like this fruity tea.

BLUEBERRIES! That’s pretty much I noticed. The rooibos is a mild accent to the blueberries. Really strange that the rooibos doesn’t take a more dominant role. I saw a blueberry in the tea. Now I wonder if I will get a plump blueberry out of my infuser.

I’d keep this tea around as a treat. My daughter really likes it too, score! Another tea I think will be great iced.

Not a bad tea. I honestly don’t know how to describe this. It’s your basic black tea. Good to wake up to.

My favorite way to imbibe black tea is iced and sweetened. Might have some thing to do with growing up in Nevada. Iced tea is excellent in the summer. I didn’t think I was going to enjoy this tea hot because of my preference, but I did.

The first thing I notice is the hint of some mysterious spice. It reminds me of cardamom or cinnamon. It’s surprising enough to make a person take notice. Orange pekoe is a rich full-bodied accent to that mystery spice. I like the texture, very soft and smooth on my tongue.

One word of caution, it is very easy to make this tea super strong. I used my standard measurements. I was surprised to see it looking “done” with in a minute. I think I can probably use a smaller quantity. I’m guessing this one will be excellent cold brewed.

This smells just like orange creamsicles. It also happens to taste like them too. Score! Very interesting that I can’t taste the tea much.Mostly I taste the orange and the cream.

I think I am used to teas that over power me with added flavors. I felt this was a smooth tea, but good!

I felt the vanilla was more apparent than the cinnamon. Lots of creaminess with this tea. I think it’s definitely one I would like to keep around.

I’m having better luck with this tea company now. Today started off a bit rough.

I find the hazelnut pretty mild. I actually taste it more right at the end, like an after thought. I see in the description they use buttery like taste. I get that but it’s not quite butter. It lacks the creamy component butter has, but it’s not oily. What ever it is, it’s pretty good.

The tea base really shows up. It’s a little woody. Like maybe it was stored in a wood chest. Akin to the way clothes smell when they’ve been next to cedar balls for a while.

I feel this is a pretty good tea. Especially when I consider we paid 65 cents an ounce for it.

I love chai tea because the spices are a heady mixture of “come and get me.” I’ve never had a chai that really needed milk and sugar before though. I always brewed them just like any other tea, until today.

So I tried it without sugar and that was less than pleasant, very astringent. Add a little sugar, and it gets better. Not quite as good as with a bit of creamer in though. Milk and I have a love/hate relationship, we love to hate each other.

In the final mixture, ginger and cardamom are most apparent. Clove takes the middle ground here. Pepper and cinnamon break through timidly at the very last.

Not bad over all but remember to dress this one up.

Now this is much closer to sleepy time tea.

Citrus is the takes the lead in this tea. I find to it to be less tart, so no face puckering. Chamomile and peppermint show up to play now. Relaxing and soothing.

Well worth the $1.00 an ounce!

I love the grenadine and vanilla together, just enough vanilla to make it a bit creamy. The tang balances the sweet rather well.

This tea smells much like it tastes.

Pear is the dominant flavor here. I like the cinnamon and clove together. I’m not sure what star anise tastes like but I think it may contribute to the sweetness. Although I notice they have stevia in here.

I like it. I wonder if will be good iced as well. Time will tell.

I was super excited to see this come in today. I’ve been wanting to try a vanilla chai for a while now.

The vanilla is present but not as strong as I expected. Each of the spices give a shout out for a moment. Then I find a floral taste, almost like incense with all these spices combined. I wonder if the sunflower petals are responsible. If so, I don’t think I want sunflower petals again. A bitter after taste makes me think I may have prepared it wrong.

I’d drink it again but I wonder if it would be better with milk. I typically don’t use milk, as it hates me. We’ve been enemies for many years now, for well, as long as I’ve been around.

Not a bad tisane. I had to double what the directions say to get good flavor out of it though.

Lemon dominates the strawberry. In fact, I picked up more apple than strawberry. It seems they’ve added pear as well.

I recommend this iced instead of hot. Once it cools down the flavors are more apparent.

I love Sleepy Time tea, so when I saw this in Teavana, I thought I had found the loose leaf sister to my beloved tea. The ingredients appear to be the same but in a slightly different order. I made a big mistake with the above assumption. That will teach me…

The first thing I notice is tart, tart, tart. Then the citrus rears up and smacks me around a bit. I totally missed out on the mint I was expecting. I think my face actually puckered on this one.

This is a very pleasant mate blend. Although I’m not exactly sure what mate tastes like, I feel its completely hidden in this tea.

The chocolate and nutty taste balance really well with each other. I catch just a bit of spice here, some thing like allspice or nutmeg. It feels like a nutty cocoa, but smooth and mellow.

I like the almond cookie taste here but the rose just doesn’t seem like a good mix with it. Perhaps it’s the hint of cinnamon that the rose doesn’t blend well with. I found there is a strange after taste that is quite sweet but unpleasant.

I can see why some people really don’t like rooibos. I think it’s an acquired taste. I used to drink “squaw” tea instead of koolaid as a kid. Now if I tried to offer that to people they’d probably kick me, but it is quite yummy to me.

This is one is pretty standard. It brews up really dark and strong in the rooibos fu. Woodsy earth and tobacco are what show up strongest. It ends with a sweet note like raisins. I think the sweet note pops more if I add a bit of sugar in the raw. I’ve tried it with creamer but it’s really smooth enough on it’s own. I’m going to lower the rating because there are too many flavored rooibos out there I would drink first.

This is the only other green tea in my cupboard, for the time being. I enjoy the sweetness that the spearmint brings to the bite of the peppermint. This particular blend has done really well at keeping the actual tea in the flavor profile as well. High marks for that.

The old Thai tea from Teavana was, by far, much more impressive in my opinion. In fact, I only picked this up to see if was some thing close in taste.

I find it very sweet perhaps that star anise. The almonds are a nice touch to the hint of spice I taste. The rooibos doesn’t seem to be present in this flavor profile.

I thoroughly enjoy this tea. I find it rich and inviting. The lovely, vanilla aroma is very relaxing. I pick up a bit of the chocolate but the vanilla is the dominant flavor. The tea shines through in the end. It has an interesting feel on my tongue, a smooth almost velvety texture. That seems silly because it’s just water flavored by the tea leaves. I think this one shall be a staple tea.