Paul M Tracy

This is a really attractive blend with a nice balance of shapes and variety of color. Picture a drinkable potpourri.

This is all about subtlety. The fragrance is a light citrus with a hint of cinnamon. Brewed, this is only slightly warm from the Indian spices and has a faint licorice aftertaste from the anise adding just a bit of sweetness.

One point where subtlety gets thrown out the door, however, is in the power of the Maté. Mistakenly, I drank this too close to bedtime and didn’t sleep that night. This is a morning only beverage.

The Teavana used car salesmanship really irks me but I have to admit that I’ve been really impressed with a few blends I recently received as a gift. This “red tea” may quickly become a favorite.

This is really fragrant. In fact, you can smell the ginger and cardamom through the sealed pouch. There’s a nice balance between the spices and coconut.

Prepared, this takes on a really unusual character. I expected it to be hot and spicy like a chai. What you first notice is the creamy fullness of the coconut oil, then a brief flash of heat from the ginger but then this ends with an interesting, lingering apple and cardamom flavor. It’s really cooling and calming.

If you look at some of my past tasting notes, you’ll see I’ve been underwhelmed by what many tea blenders have done with chocolate. This is an exception!

When you open the pouch, you get a blast of orange-chocolate fragrance with just a hint of the dusty earthiness of the pu-erh. The tea contains HUGE chocolate shavings; an indication that this is going to be better than most “flavored” teas.

When you prepare this tea, make sure you use a method that allows the water to envelop and wash the tea so the chocolate fully dissolves. In other words, no “tea balls” or steeping baskets on this one; get it right in the water.

This brews to a red-gold and is full of chocolate and orange flavor. Unlike many flavored pu-erh’s, the tea holds up well in this blend and adds body and richness.

This one goes on the (very) short list of teas containing chocolate that I’d drink again.

I’m not a rooibos fan. I’ve found the methyl salicylate in “red tea” can be too pronounced for me and adds a mint flavor to everything. This one was different.

The fragrance was a soft, spicy coconut and it held through to the flavor. This was a warm, not hot, chai and the spices balanced with the coconut well. This is decaf so it’s a nice selection for fall or winter evenings.

This has a strong pineapple and coconut fragrance and taste. It’s really sweet and fruity and very easy to drink. While H&S Bangkok tends more towards the coconut side, this one leans heavily towards the pineapple and guava. It’s listed as a black and green blend but I’ve found that it tastes better if you treat it like a green tea and use a mild temperature and shorter steeping time.

This is a fringe post for Steepster since this requires no steeping but it does have tea so it wins a place here.

I just discovered Wild Root a few weeks ago. All the health benefits of kombucha aside, this stuff tastes great! It’s a combination of an old time sarsaparilla and root beer but there’s no sugar and the flavors are very subtle.

I stick to a gluten-free diet which means no beer for me. I’ve found that this drink, with its carbonation and spicy-bitter flavor, is actually a passable substitute for ale.

This had a light fragrance of coconut and pipe tobacco. This is a bulky blend so I used 3 tsp to ensure I had a representative mix of all components.

This brewed to a very light champagne color with a faint slick from the coconut oil. This tea has been compared to chocolate a lot but I didn’t get that at all. I found the flavor to be simply coconut with a slight tart, grassiness from the teas.

This was really mild and would pair well with a light dessert but would be lost in traditional American or English breakfast fare.

I picked up a matcha set that Teavana had on 50% discount and it included a can of their Imperial Grade Matcha. I’ve had adulterated matcha in drinks and I drink a lot of matcha-iri genmaicha, but this was my first try of the straight stuff.

I used the bamboo whisk and bowl provided in the kit. The powder mixed very well but I couldn’t build much froth. I’m guessing that’s a skill built over time. The flavor was strong, grassy, clean and somewhat creamy. The powder suspended very well so there wasn’t any grit to ruin the flavor.

I’m sure I’ll discover better matcha over time but this was really quite good for an introduction.

Some blenders throw in a handful of cinnamon and call it “chai.” This one is a powerful blend of traditional chai spices with a heavy hand given to the ginger and cardamom. Visually, the tea appeared to be less than 20% of the mix.

I was surprised by how well the assam presented itself after steeping. The tea made a considerable contribution to both fragrance and taste, speaking well for the quality of the black tea used.

The gingery heat has some staying power making this a great choice for a cold night.

In doing my semi-annual tea bin reorg, I came across a sample of this sent to me by @ashmanra that I had misplaced. Fortunately it was packaged well enough that it held up after all these months.

It was sent to me to compare to a tea that I liked from Shui Tea. Unfortunately, Jimmy recently closed the doors on that endeavor and I now need to find replacements for his blends. (Some, like his Moscow After Hours, can never be replaced I’m afraid. Sorry, I’m still in the denial phase of mourning.)

Ruby #18 is a mild yet flavorful black tea. It has a fragrance of dried raisins and vanilla and steeps to a mild, well balanced, and moderately astringent tea. While it’s not quite Black Ruby from Shui Tea, it does come awfully close.

This tisane has really chunky pieces of dried fruit and nuts but this blend doesn’t go far because of the bulk. A 25g pouch only makes three cups and that’s pushing it. The recommendation is 2tsp per cup, but when a single teaspoon contains one banana chip and an almond, you have to use more.

The fragrance is great. Because you only have dried fruit and nuts with no artificial flavoring, it’s very clean and fruity. The brew results in what is essentially trail mix soup. It’s tasty but you could get the same effect from throwing some dried fruit into a teapot and it would cost much less.

Don’t stick your nose straight into a new bag. The amines/amides had really built up from the pu-erh and the initial whiff was strongly fishy. After letting the package breathe, it had a mellow, creamy, nutty cocoa fragrance.

The tea brewed to a bright rust. I’ve only tried a few flavored pu-erh teas and they were disappointing but this is pretty good. The cocoa and coconut are discernable but they don’t overtake the subtle flavors of the earthy pu-erh.

[From some other notes, it appears this blend is no longer available? I’ve had this for a little while and just discovered I hadn’t posted a tasting note for it when I was cleaning out the tea bins.]

The fragrance is sweet and biscuity with a faint note of smoke. Once steeped, there’s a slight stone fruit presence. The flavor is both malty and astringent which makes for a great morning tea.

This is a well balanced and artfully blended tea.

OK, this has “coffee” in the name but technically it’s no different from some of the tisanes that have been reviewed here on Steepster as it’s really just a herbal blend. I wanted to share this here because of how freaking good it is!

I prepared this using a steeping basket and it turned out awesome. The fragrance is rich and chocolaty and there’s an indescribable depth. The flavor is bold, malty, full of body and the chocolate is very pronounced. There’s also a subtle heat from the chili peppers which enhance the chocolate flavor.

This is the best caffeine free chocolate beverage I’ve ever tasted. It’s a little pricey, but I’ll be keeping this in the pantry for the winter ahead.

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This tisane is composed of large, colorful pieces of dried fruits. The fragrance is tart and citrusy and there’s a subtle dusty or aged quality.

This steeped to a deep red so it might contain some hibiscus. There were visible pieces of cranberry but this was far deeper than what could be imparted by just that fruit.

The flavor was very tart but also had a clean citrus base. It wasn’t very complicated being mainly bitter-orange and apple.

I took half of a cooled cup and poured it over ice. I find that a colder temperature makes the fruit stand out more. The chilling gave this more character so I think I prefer this blend iced.

A co-worker of mine is originally from Ireland and she brought me a few bags of this to try.

This tea is packaged in the traditional white, circular filter-paper teabag. The fragrance is light but definitely creamy with notes of pepper.

Upon adding the boiling water, it was immediately black which foreshadowed the strength of this tea. It was highly astringent with an underlying malt. I don’t normally add anything to my tea, but this one needed a little sweetener and cream to get through.

The power of this tea took me off guard at first, but it grew on me. If anything, it will wake you up!

When I first opened the bag, I was hit with a very sweet, almost fake tea fragrance. The contents also didn’t look like tea leaves. Instead, the bag contained small dried particles similar to instant coffee.

This brewed to a deep black cup of tea. OMG, this stuff is strong! I’m not a cream and sugar guy, but this one almost needs it- it packs a wallop! The tea is of medium body and the astringency is moderate but it becomes more pronounced in a lingering aftertaste.

While it’s one of the oddest looking teas I’ve ever had, it’s really not bad. It’s a good first cup as it literally kicks you into gear but some may prefer to add a sweetener.

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I was really excited when a friend in the UK sent me a tin of this tea. It’s been on my wish list for a while.

The leaves are highly mechanically processed. The leaf fragments are very uniform and almost appear to be ground. There’s an even mix between dark and light leaf particles. The fragrance is clean and crisp; almost citrusy.

Once steeped, this tea produces a very dark, almost black cup. The fragrance takes on a more malty and caramel character. In flavor, this has a medium body and astringency and is well balanced, but the finish leans more towards a darjeeling.

I don’t dress my teas, but this could take some additives. It also stands up to multiple infusions. Pick some up if you make it to the other side of the pond.

Let me start by saying that I’ve enjoyed a number of the teas/tisanes I received in my first order from ESP Emporium. (Their Ceylon Blackwood, Darjeelings and Monk’s blend were all very good.) However, they don’t appear to do chocolate flavors well.

This rooibos smells strongly of orange peel and that carries over to the brewed product. You can see small chocolate chips but they are simply not potent enough to impart flavor to the beverage. I will say that this particular rooibos was fairly good. It didn’t have the menthol-like breakdown product that is present in some cheaper stock.

This was OK. It didn’t elicit a negative reaction but it won’t make it on the reorder list either.

This is an even mix of bright green mint and dark choppy tea leaves. It smells just like a York Peppermint Patty but slightly heavier on the mint side.

The light copper colored tea smells of mint but no chocolate. In flavor, the mint is initially subdued. I can’t fully describe the initial taste but it’s not chocolate; instead, it’s just a flatness. The lingering mint aftertaste is typical of any other mint brew.

H&S does so well with the chocolate flavor in Florence that I would have expected a greater presence in this tea. It was really just a mint tea with a little something extra.