PatchworkSheep

Huh. Well I dug this out since it was Easter the other day and decided this was my most Eastery tea. I recall not much liking it last time I had it, but that was a long time ago.
I brewed it up and it smelled pretty nice at first. Fruity, not bad at all. This brew didn’t have a jellybean, but whatever, I was adding sugar anyways.
So, the thing with this tea is that it taste quite pleasant. You’re getting some citrus and sweetness, and it’s nice. But as it starts to cool, it starts to smell like stomach bile and/or vomit. Seriously. I have to go back in my notes to see if I smelled this the last time I drank it, but I seem to recall that it did smell off. If you just drink it without inhaling, it still tastes nice and pleasant. But if you inhale as you sip, God help you.
I just…yuck. Drink this one hot guys, real hot. And don’t inhale as you sip. Yikes. Would not repurchase and will be hard pressed to finish the bag I have.

I’m dropping my rating of this. The first time I tried it I was sick and gave it the benefit of the doubt.
Having it again last night, I can say that this is one of the most disappointing teas I’ve tried. It’s chock full of marshmallows (which is great!), however there is hardly any tea. It’s just marshmallows and little balls of allspice. The product is a murky, sort of vaguely sweet and nutmeggy water. I used double the amount it said to and still got an undrinkable mishmash of spices and melted marshmallows. Yet it doesn’t taste like marshmallows, it just tastes….watery and sweet and a bit spicy. It’s just not very good, it needs more tea and less spice/marshmallow! To use up the rest, I think I’ll just add some plain breakfast tea in when I make this.
If you want a well done marshmallow tea, try S’mores from Della Terra teas.

I just got to drinking this out of the 12 Days box yesterday.

So, I like white tea but haven’t really drank much of it because I love flavoured teas and you see the best flavours in black teas usually. So I was pretty pleased to try this one, especially since it smelled so juicy and berryish.
Brewed it up (with the fantastic Breville PerfecTemp kettle Mr P. Sheep got me for Christmas, the water temp was perfect and not scorchy!), and it still smelled fantastic.
This one did not disappoint, it tasted like it smelled, and that was juicy. sweet, and blackcurranty. The tea wasn’t at all bitter or grassy, and this was just a very pleasant tea overall. I would probably buy a bag of this.

I thought I had reviewed this before! I guess not. I think the time I was going to review it, I decided not to because I was so underwhelmed by it.
Okay, so the thing with this one is that the aroma is SO GOOD. Just fall-ish, spicy, orangey goodness. So delicious smelling!
Plus, it’s SO beautiful! The swirling gold is mesmerizing and just beautiful. It definitely got bonus points on the scale for that.
That said, the tea itself is some of the weakest I’ve tried. To get even a reasonable amount of tea or ANY sort of flavour from this you have to use double the amount of leaf. If you use double the amount of leaf like I’ve been doing lately, it will taste pleasantly like black tea with a hint of that orangey spice flavour. If weaker or less “kick you in the face” teas are your thing, then give this a shot!
I think the tea itself is tasty enough (again, if you use enough leaf) but the aroma compared to the flavour is disappointing.
Overall, not sorry I got it because I’ll enjoy the rest of it, but I probably wouldn’t repurchase unless I’m feeling particularly whimsical and want the glittery tea again.

Wow, got this in my 12 Days of Tea (which I’m just getting to now…December was busy).
Brewed it up on a snowy day off. Normally I’d go with something warm and wintery for such a day, but this little gem came out of the bag instead. It smelled very bubblygummy dry, but once infused that sickly sweet scent went away and left a nice fruity, sweet tea.
I added a little sugar, but probably didn’t need to as this is very sweet. This is very breakfasty and reminded me of some sort of tropical beach drink, which was a nice change from the weather outside.
The sweetness increased as this cooled, and the last few sips were just way too sweet (but probably would have been fine without my added sugar). Would I buy this? No, but that’s because I HATE banana. Hate it. This has quite a strong banana flavour, but has enough pineapple to balance it. It was enjoyable, but I wouldn’t drink it again necessarily simply because of my distaste for bananas. It’s still a very well blended tasty tea.

Yay, I can finally post my tasting note on this tea! I had it about a week and a half ago. Roughest. Day. Ever.
Got up early for a doctors appointment. Found out my MRI showed a small brain tumor. Apparently it’s not cancer and won’t kill me, but they aren’t really sure what to do with me and I have to see a bunch of specialists. Then that afternoon I had a stats final, and I’m pretty bad at stats and despite studying I anticipated only getting like 65%. After the news I got that morning, my mind was elsewhere and I went in and bombed it.
Walked home really bummed afterwards, and found my 12 Days box in the mailbox. I thought “Finally, something good!” I decided to tear into that sucker and drink the first tea.
Cotton Candy Black! YES! That was one I’d been dying to try! Steeped up a cup of that. The aroma was wonderfully sweet and cotton candyish. The black base was strong and present (I steeped for 5 minutes, next time I’d do 4). Over the black base was the sweet cotton candy flavouring. This one is very much like I imagined it would be, and it’s fantastic!
A little sweetener is great in this because it brings the cotton candy flavoring to life.
I think this would be really good iced as well.

Ah, the advent calendar countdown begins!
I’ve had this one once before (thanks for the sample, Kittenna!) I found it okay, but coconut and I don’t see eye to eye.
This one is the first tea of the advent calendar now! Quick note about the advent calendar: they give you the PERFECT amount of leaf for two generously leafed Perfect Mug-fuls. You could probably get 3 mugs out of it if you were more conservative with the leaf. I thought that was nice because you get enough tea to share with someone or try it 2-3 times yourself but not so much tea that it’s kicking around in your cupboard forever.
Okay, so the tea: It’s okay. Nice and sweet, which I like. Quite coconutty, which I don’t like. The black tea base is prominent, which is nice, and the colour is a pretty caramelly shade.
Mr. Sheep had a glass of this as well and enjoyed it. Both of us agreed that it’s a decent tea, but not one we would ever purchase or crave. I can see how this would be a tea that most people would enjoy, however I can’t see how it’s one of their most popular teas because it’s just not fantastic like some of their other ones are.
Both of us agreed that this would probably be nice with milk in it, however we were out of milk.

This is pretty decent. I feel like all of the elements are well balanced here; people who like their flavoured teas to still taste like tea may like this. The black base is nice, and the chocolate and strawberry are equally present, I’d say (which contradicts the next sentence, but I think I’m just better at picking up chocolate than fruit notes). I get more chocolate and only the suggestion of strawberry (there’s a tartness that lingers in your mouth, and upon first sipping it you get some berry flavour).
So yes, it’s good. A perfectly decent tea and very well executed, but not mindblowing for me. Of course, I don’t think chocolate covered strawberries are anything to write home about either, so your mileage may vary.

I don’t know, this one is yummy but tastes absolutely nothing like any oatmeal raisin cookie I’ve ever had. It reminds me a LOT of DavidsTea Glitter and Gold, because they share the same cinnamon/spice flavour. They smell identical, and brewed the taste the same too except this tea tastes like Glitter and Gold but “more”. G&G is a little weak on flavour for me, but in this tea the flavour is nice and strong. Of course, this one doesn’t glitter, so G&G still has that going for it.
There’s definitely an orange note in here, which makes sense because there are orange peels floating around in the leaf. It’s like that spicy-Christmas-orange taste. Very delicious, but absolutely nothing like an oatmeal raisin cookie.

In sum: Good, but disappointing in that its nothing like you’d expect it should taste. And if you already have Glitter and Gold, don’t get this. However if you WANT Glitter and Gold, get this instead because the flavour is better (although you do lose out on the sparkles).

So I threw this into my Della Terra order because it had good reviews. I was wary, because the Toasted Marshmallow tea from DavidsTea was fail for me.
I brewed this up one lazy afternoon because I wanted something new. First sip: OMG YUM! MARSHMALLOWS! It’s sweet and chocolatey in the sip, then as you swallow it’s like sugary sweet, marshmallow goodness. Like, EXACTLY like marshmallow. It’s uncanny; this is one of the most accurately flavoured teas I’ve had. I’m going through this bag pretty quickly because I just keep making it and forsaking all my other teas. I can’t say that I get graham cracker from this, but that’s okay with me. Chocolate and marshmallow are nothing to complain about, especially when done this well.

Backlogging. I’ve had this one several times now and got it quite awhile ago.
I love mint teas, and I don’t have a lot of greens in my cupboard so I thought this would be a good one to try.
It has a nice sweet mint to it as the main flavour. There’s also sort of a Christmasy spice note in the aftertaste that makes it more warm/cozy than refreshing. I like that the tea itself is mild and doesn’t compete with the mint. It’s really nice and soothing. This is my go-to this season for when I’m not feeling well (it isn’t too rich for an upset tummy, and it feels nice on sore throats). I also gave a few bags of it to a friend who had strep throat; she found it soothing on her throat as well.

Okay, this is extremely good.
I was a bit wary of the honeybush because I’ve never had it before but don’t really love rooibos that much. In this tea, the base isn’t all that apparent and what is there just adds a nice sweetness and depth.
The aroma of the dry leaf had me a little nervous. It smelled good, but more like ginger ale (sweet and gingery) than cinnamon rolls. Once I brewed it up it smelled more like one would expect a cinnamon roll tea to smell. It also had a really pretty clear liquor.
I had this sweetened and it was a very warm tea. There really are all the components of a cinnamon bun here! I didn’t expect frosting, but I got it! I also got sweet dough and cinnamon.
It’s got real warmth to it. The mister, who isn’t really big on tea but agreed to a mug of this, loved it as well. His comment was “this tastes like it’s meant to have a bit of whiskey in it”. He’s right, I actually got a somewhat boozy vibe from it too. It would likely be fantastic with a bit of alcohol, but we don’t really drink.
It tastes like sitting next to the fire in a big blanket. It’s very warm and comforting and I would repurchase this.

Wow, I had really high hopes for this tea. Also, I have a cold so my tastebuds might be off and impaired today. I will definitely try this again and change some things and hopefully increase the rating.

I used 2.5 tsp of tea for my Perfect Mug of this. Somehow though, this is still really weak tasting and is light in colour. There was hardly any tea bits; it was mostly balls of spice and a bajillion mini marshmallows (and yes, I ate one, and it was delicious and spicy and yum). Watching the marshmallows froth while pouring boiling water over them was rather satisfying (I caught myself going “froooooothhhhhh”, and then thinking to myself “good lord Robyn, you can’t even be normal when you’re alone”)

I will say that this is the first tea I’ve ever had that I didn’t feel the need to sweeten. Like I said, it was 75% marshmallows. It’s plenty sweet. It tastes vaguely of cookie dough spices and cinnamon. It’s pretty lacklustre to be honest. If I had to compare it to something, I’d say cookie dough.

Next time: Increase the brewing time to 6-7 minutes instead of 5. Use over double the leaf recommended. Maybe add some sweetener even though it’s already sweet. I’m grasping at straws here, maybe sweetener will bring out some of the flavours. Oh, and next time, don’t be a snuffly sick mess when you drink it.

Free sample, hurray!
The aroma on this is beautiful. If I could wear this as a perfume or as a bath and body product, I would. It’s appley and rosey all at once; very pretty.
As for the taste, it’s okay. I taste no tea in this, which is fine because I don’t usually love green tea anyways. What I do taste is a sweet, slightly floral apple. They did the rose nicely here, it doesn’t taste like a bath bomb. It’s more like apple slices that were soaked in sugared rose water. I would never guess there was pistachio in here, I can’t detect it at all even though there was a nut in my sample.
I’m drinking it hot because, well, I felt like hot tea. I can see this being absolutely wonderful iced too though.
It’s a very easy to drink tea. There’s not a ton of flavour, but what there is is pleasant. The scent is very uplifting as well.
I don’t know if I would buy a whole 50g bag of this, but if I could buy a smaller quantity to keep on hand I would.

Took my big new Bodum travel press to work the other day filled with this. It was a late closing shift and I needed all the energy I could get.

I was unsure how this would do in the travel press, since the leaves stay in the press until you’re finished the beverage. This seemed like a recipe for oversteeping to me. Luckily it actually melded the flavours together better than a regular steeping. By the time I went to drink this several hours after steeping it, the temperature was perfect and there was SO much berry flavour and the roastiness of the mate really came through.

As a snack with this tea, I ate a cranberry almond granola bar. It was a perfect complement to the tea.

As for the “rocket” part of this blend, I did feel more awake for the rest of the evening (even once I got home and wanted to go to bed, haha)

Just continuing the Blueberry Jam love.

Giant glass of it iced this afternoon. Yes. SO good.
I won’t wax philosophical about it, because I just did that yesterday.

EDIT: No, I am going to wax philosophical because what’s the point of making a tasting note at all if you don’t talk about what it tasted like?

The thing I like about this iced is that typically when you ice a beverage its because you’re thirsty/its hot out. In other words, you want to be able to gulp down large quantities of whatever it is. The beauty of this is that it isn’t sickly sweet, or overly tart, or overly anything. It’s delicious, refreshing, and naturally sweet.
There. NOW I’m done.

Whew, it’s been a few months since I last had this one. I wasn’t blown away by it early on (it was my first red rooibos and I wasn’t sure about it), but I can enjoy it now. It’s good, but I can’t say I’d buy it again.

This is a funny tea, it smells delicious but not really all that much like cake or frosting. Definitely more mapley. It smells sticky rather than gooey and cakey (okay, this is the most nonsensical description ever written). It’s super SUPER sweet smelling, and even a tiny bit of sugar added amps up that sweetness to 1000%. If you add sugar, the only flavours there are sugar and rooibos. Still not sure that I like rooibos, but I don’t dislike it as much as I did the first time I tried it.

TL;DR version: It smells delicious, but has much less flavour than you’d think. Tastes pleasant but not like cake particularly.

This has gradually become a favourite of mine. The reason?

Jammy, jammy goodness.

It doesn’t taste like fresh blueberries (which is fine, because I’m not a fan anyways) but it tastes like a homemade blueberry jam. At least it does once you add a little sugar (sure it still tastes blueberryish without sweetener but when was the last time you had a not-sweet jam?)

Those who have said this is equally good iced and hot are spot on. I’ve had this tea many times now and while I’m enjoying it hot today, I keep having half a mind to make some iced too, just so I can gulp down the jamminess more quickly (stupid hot tea and its ungulpability…). This is the only tea that I’ve ever tried that is truly equally good iced or hot.

It’s perfect for today too, when it’s warm and sunny outside, too warm for a fall flavoured tea but too far into fall for a citrusy or tart tea. This is really hitting the spot today and the more often I drink it, the more I love this one.

Trying to clean out my tea cupboard a bit, and the best way to do that is to make iced tea since it uses so much leaf. My Teavana stuff is getting on in age, so I’m trying to work through that. I figure there isn’t much time left this season for iced tea and I was thirsty today, so iced tea it is.

I would have brewed an entire glass of Sevenberry Sangria but only had half the amount of tea needed, so I used High Grown English Breakfast Tea as well (it’s a basic, unflavoured black; I figured that should be safe). I think I should have used much less Breakfast Tea or a different mix tea entirely. The Sevenberry Sangria is bright and fruity (this one makes a pretty decent iced tea on its own, like I said) and the Breakfast Tea just added an awful bitterness to it. Maybe a plain white or green would have been better here, but I didn’t have anything like that.
I added 2 heaping teaspoons of agave (!) and it’s drinkable, but it’s definitely got a nasty bitterness to it.

I hot steeped this and poured it over ice, which could also be why the black tea is more bitter.

And with that, I’m finished my bag of Sevenberry Sangria.

Since it’s a chilly 15 degrees and rainy here today, I decided to whip out this tea this afternoon. I had exactly enough left for one glass, which is fine because I’ve got another 100g on the way to get me through the winter.
I knew that I loved this tea, and I know it’s my favourite but I hadn’t had it in a few months and kind of forgot what it tasted like.

IT TASTES LIKE AFTER EIGHTS MELTED THEMSELVES INTO A CUP, THAT’S WHAT IT TASTES LIKE!

Ahem. It’s very chocolatey but also noticeably cool and minty. I like that it’s cool and minty yet the mint doesn’t push everything else out of the way. Once I smelled this steeping, the reasons that I love it all came rushing back in a hurry. I foresee myself drinking a LOT of this and Pumpkin Chai this fall and winter.

Backlogging. Can’t believe I haven’t reviewed this yet, I’ve had it so many times.
This, my friends, smells VERY much like Lush’s It’s Raining Men shower gel/Honey I Washed the Kids soap (both of which are amazing, by the way). I get honey from it rather than caramel.
Brewed, it’s a slightly bitter black tea that does retain that honey/caramel flavour that it smells like. This is one of those teas that tastes very much like it smells, which doesn’t always happen. I like this one sweetened with sugar rather than agave (I don’t know, sugar just works better in very gourmand teas I find). I can’t imagine it without sweetener simply because I can’t imagine caramel not being sweet. Also, the appeal of salted caramel is the salty/sweet contrast, and if you don’t sweeten this tea you lose the contrast.
The salt part isn’t really noticeable when this is hot, it’s as it cools a bit that the back of the sip has a salty quality. At first it was neat, but quickly became kind of strange. It’s kind of as though you used very slightly salted water to brew your tea. It wasn’t a sea-salt taste (because again, part of the idea of salted caramel is the texture of the salt), but more of a salt-water taste, and only slightly at the end of the sip. It was a little weird, but I’m not sure how else you can do salted caramel in a tea. I think they did a good job incorporating all the elements without making some super salty tea abomination.

Once I mixed this with DT’s Chocolate Cake. THAT was excellent, and I would repurchase both teas again just to mix them that way. This is still a solid tea on it’s own though.

The first thing you notice about this tea is how incredibly juicy and berryish it smells. YUM!
The second thing you notice is that because of all the berries, it’s pretty heavy and therefore kind of expensive. Especially considering that it’s most delicious iced, because it takes so much more tea to make iced tea.
At any rate, I’ve done this both cold brewed and hot/concentrated/dumped on ice. I got more flavour out of the latter method, and found it much better that way. I added a little bit of sugar as well and it REALLY brought out the berry flavour. It was absolutely delicious and really got me through the day at work. It was so packed with flavour it was like drinking actual JUICE, like berry juice. It’s not often you come across a tea/tisane with that much flavour.
There’s also the fact that on the website, the picture for this tea is a really cute bear. That may have played a key role in me taking a hard look at this tea in the first place…
I will repurchase this when the weather turns warm next year, but until then my bag is finished.

Made this iced using the brew hot and concentrated/dump on ice method. Added some agave because I had read that it was a bit tart. Tart doesn’t begin to describe this. This is straight up SOUR. Now, my fiance who loves sour candies found this tea pleasant and said he would drink it again. I took one gulp, started flapping my hands around and going “Baahhh NOPE!”
No rating because I couldn’t drink enough to analyze the flavour. That said if you like sour candies, this might work out for you.

Forgot that I had picked up a small sample bag of this at the store when I was on holiday. I already have a bag of Earl Grey Creme from Teavana (and only drink it when I have a cold), but the scent of the dry leaf was just too delicious smelling not to try this.
I’m not sick, but I was in the mood for an Earl Grey tonight. And this is the first time I’ve had this, but the second it hit my tongue all I could think was “My GOD that’s beautiful”.
I was afraid this might be overly floral or bitter. Not so. Used boiling water and a 5 minute steep. The Earl Grey and bergamot are definitely present, however the berry is also very much there too. There is a little bit of floral in the back of the sip, but it’s not overwhelming and really adds to the experience. Added a little sugar and it really brought out the sweetness of the berries.
This is SO much better than Teavana’s Earl Grey Creme. I absolutely love this tea. It reminds me of Victorian ladies in gloves and gowns sipping tea in a garden in the afternoon. I’ll be getting a tin of this the moment I get through my current bag of Earl Grey (if I get this now, I’ll NEVER use that up).
This is a great “drink anytime” tea. Any time of day, any time of year, any mood. So many teas are “summer” or “fall/winter” teas, or “morning” or “evening” teas, or are for when you want to sleep, or when you want something sweet, etc. This one is just good for anytime, and it’s beautiful.