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Sometimes I think I might be turning into a darjeeling snob, because as a darjeeling this tea is…okayish to me. But removing it from that scope and it’s pretty tasty. It’s a delicate black that brews up a lovely copper brown color and tastes of flowers and grapes. There’s very little astringency or bitterness. It’s so much I like in a tea, but the resteep, however, seems to lose a lot of the characteristics I liked in the first and that’s where this tea fails me. :/

The tea itself smells like dark craft beer. No joke.

It didn’t have an actual chocolate flavor either, but in a way that’s not a bad thing. It tastes just like a porter I like with the malty profile and very slight cocoa note. It just wasn’t at all what I was expecting!

I can see this becoming a fast replacement for any coffee addiction I have though as it’s strong and full-bodied.

This was my second sample from Shelley_Lorraine :)

This tea smells amazing! So maybe I had my expectations too high based on that or the chocolate in this one just wasn’t working for me. It’s not bad per se, but it’s not good

The raspberry notes were better. They did seem artificial as other’s have said, but still tasty and it grew on me. Just not enough to really like this tea.

My fiance liked this tea far more than me, so it’ll be heading off to work with him most likely.

SIPDOWN!

Finished my sample from Shelley_Lorraine today. Did the last cup as a latte. No regrets, just what tastes like an extra creamy, marshmallow-y S’more.

If tea tartness had a scale, for me it would look something like this:
10-5 — almost undrinkable, sugar needed stat;
4 — I guess this is okay, but sugar would be better
3 — Now we’re getting somewhere
2 — Just a little bite
1 — Wait. Tart?

So, obviously my tart tolerance is kind of low. With a 2-3 being the sweet spot range. This tea confused it.

The initial flavors weren’t tart. I get apple and raspberry, but both mellow enough that it was smooth and tasty. And then, as I was swallowing, the tartness hit. At probably about a 6/10. Boo.

The good news is Stevia here saved the day. It made all the flavors blend so the tartness hit with the sweetness and the flavors of apple and raspberry and settled everything at about a 3-4 tart level. It’s most definitely still there, but it reminds me more of a fruity, juicy type of tart instead of a slap in the face.

Without sugar, this tea is probably further in the 45 range, but with sweetener saving the day here, it bumps up closer to 65.

This is what smashed up almond cookies as a drink would smell like, I swear it. One smell and you get hits of sweet and buttery and so, so much almond. The taste itself is buttery and a little like marzipan. A sip and I can imagine flaky sugary deliciousness. The green tea isn’t a prominent flavor so much as the glue that holds everything together, and it doesn’t need sugar or milk (but it becomes much more decadent if you do use them). Just divine~

Super tasty. Sweet, roasty and nutty balanced on a bed of grassy and smooth green tea. Has a creamy mouthfeel that I love and well as what tastes like just a small touch of vanilla. Seems to leave a little almost waxy residue feeling in my mouth afterwards that I don’t like though. As the cup cooled though the after-feeling decreased until it no longer existed (though my tea was tepid)

I got my trade from Shelley_Lorraine today (thank you!), so of course I had to try it.

This tea smells like a little bag of crumbled up S’mores. I really like S’mores but normally I’m too impatient to roast marshmallows to perfection and end up with a scorched something something and half melted chocolate, so really anything here was probably going to be an improvement from that.

Honestly, though, I wasn’t super pumped on this without sweetener. The chocolate and marshmallow goodness seemed to get swallowed by the tea itself. With a little rock sugar here though? BAM. The chocolate was chocolately and the the marshmallow came through as a sweet creamy afterthought all held together by the mystical powers of a smooth, not bitter tea. I missed the graham cracker completely yet, but let’s be honest I got the two best parts of a S’more.

I’ll probably be purchasing some of this because wow :)

This tea has a really artificial smell and my brain keeps wanting to associate it with Play Doh. Luckily it tastes a little better, and is just a mild black tea with a tart, fruity flavor that doesn’t necessarily remind me of cranberries, but isn’t offensive. It’s smooth and I don’t pick up any bitterness, but it’s not remarkable in any way. I’m more excited that I’m down to the last 2-3 cups and then I can reuse the tin.

Well, finace says it tastes like drinking a pine needle tea, but as he’s never had pine needle tea, and it’s definitely more grassy and toasty than that, I’m inclined to discount the thought. There’s a nice aftertaste of something chestnutty that lingers here too.