Paul M Tracy

This Tulsi tisane by Davidson’s is an unadulterated blend of the three varieties of holy basil that make up their Tulsi line.

The fragrance is a minty oregano that takes on a subtle lemon essence once steeped. The flavor is similar to a mint and lemongrass blend but there’s an underlying herbal and pepper base. The flavor quickly dissipates with no lingering aftertaste.

This was OK, but I think the Tulsi provides a better foundation for the addition of more full-flavored spices.

It’s a nice surprise when you find something at the back of the tea cabinet you forgot about. (I guess I can start hiding my own Easter eggs soon.)

The initial fragrance on this is smoky and very slightly acrid but with no pine or resinous aspects. The clean smokiness is retained when brewed.

The flavor is astringent yet this tea possesses a subtle sweetness in a lingering aftertaste. The important mouth-watering smoke quality is present but it doesn’t overpower the tea as a whole. This is actually on the light side for a lapsang.

I had forgotten how much I like this one. I’ll have to move it towards the front of the cabinet so I don’t lose it again.

I just received a sample of each of the six tisanes of Davidson’s Tulsi herbal line. Tulsi, or holy basil, is highlighted in each and is accompanied by a different group of complimentary herbs.

Signature Blend smells strongly of ginger and mint out of the package, but once steeped, lemon from the myrtle becomes prominent. The flavor is really interesting. Up front, there’s a bit of a battle between the mint and the lemon. The finish is warm from the ginger and cinnamon with a final burst from the black pepper. This is another great one for fighting cold; either outside or in your own head.

I don’t have a lot of experience with holy basil so I can’t speak to the quality. I’m hoping that I’ll come to recognize this component more as I work my way through the rest of the samples.

The leaves of this tea are large, adhesive and dusty with a sweet berry scent. Once prepared, this tea becomes very complex.

The brewed fragrance was slightly fruity, but had notes of warm squash and a slight salinity. The flavor was very delicate with a slight tartness, a bit of caramel, honeydew and corn. The berry didn’t become discernible for me until long into the aftertaste.

This is another tea that I received from LiberTEAS and it was, once again, an excellent choice.

I received a bit of this to try from LiberTEAS and it was quite unusual.

The initial fragrance was strong of licorice and berry. Once brewed, it became slightly citrusy and sweet.

The taste isn’t what I expected. From the name, I thought this would be sweet and fruity. Instead, it had the citrusy, astringent “snap” of a good darjeeling (+ points) and a slightly bitter and herbal taste from the anise. I didn’t detect much in the way of blackberry but you could sense the fig as a mellow, lingering subtly sweet fruit aftertaste.

Overall, I really liked this as it has an excellent base. However, the product doesn’t seem to match its name well.

Tart, juicy then sweet in both fragrance and taste. The green tea is of good quality and rich flavor and the apple was fairly defined. I would have liked this to be more plummy, but it’s such a subtle flavor that it’s difficult to get a strong plum taste without making it seem fake. Overall, not bad.

I don’t know if “cute” is a word often used for a tea but it fits this one. Opening the bag, you see a dark tea with little fluorescent orange flecks. Upon closer inspection, you see that they are tiny pumpkins. Hence the “cute.” These worried me at first because I thought they might be candies that would make the tea too sweet but they didn’t.

The tea also smells great. It’s slightly spicy and vegetative with an underlying presence of classic tea fragrance.

Prepared, this tea smells like freshly baked gingerbread with a touch of yam. It wasn’t discernibly “pumpkin” but you could tell there was definitely something from the veggie aisle. The flavor was slightly astringent and there was a great finish to the cup with a lingering squash/pumpkin flavor. There wasn’t much of a classic chai taste but there was just enough spice to make this interesting.

The fragrance on this out of the package is nutty and fruity (similar to pineapple, but not quite as sweet) and the tea is in very tight nuggets. It brews to a champagne color that darkens to honey over multiple steeps.

I steeped this tea a number of times, but didn’t make it to the suggested 8. At first, the tea smelled and tasted like nuts and honey. Subsequent steeps transitioned to more of a toasted cereal. What was surprising was the lingering sweet note. It wasn’t really an aftertaste, it was closer to an impression left on your taste buds.

Thanks to Jim @ Shui Tea who suggested this to a family member as a gift for me. It’s a keeper, Jim!

I’ve never tried a blooming tea before but having received a new glass teapot as a gift, I thought this would be a good way to show it off.

The description says it’s “awe-inspiring.” This brings to mind the scene in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation where Clark is making a big deal about the house lights, plugs them in…then nothing. The tight tea pod opens to unveil a small, pink clover blossom at the top of some scrawny black tea leaves.

There wasn’t much fragrance of note. The flavor wasn’t too bad. There was a slight cereal quality and it was very light. Overall, I wasn’t really impressed.

I received an industrial sized box of this as a Christmas gift so I was really hoping to like it-and I did!

Using the individually packaged traditional tea bag (not the sachet) the tea didn’t have much fragrance. There was a subtle orange-cinnamon presence but it wasn’t overpowering.

The prepared tea is incredibly sweet. So much so that I had to reread the package to make sure it didn’t contain a sweetener. The cinnamon really stands out and it is a bit warm. The orange is subtle and helps round out the flavor. You can make out a bit of the underlying tea, but it’s the sweetness that’s prominent throughout. If you have a sweet-tooth, this would be a great dessert replacement.

This has a great fragrance that’s subtle, yet well defined. It’s nutty and peppery with a bit of citrus and honey.

Prepared, this is a really well balanced darjeeling. It’s nutty and slightly astringent but is far more mellow than others I’ve had in the same category. Waking up to this tea is more like a small bell as opposed to the gong of a darjeeling I normally drink.

Thanks LiberTEAS for the sample!

The tea smells great in the bag; it’s heavy of pineapple and coconut and there’s a subtle quality of baked goods. None of the green tea is discernible. It’s an attractive tea. The leaves are bright green and uniform, there are whole pieces of walnuts and flecks of coconut and pineapple uniformly distributed throughout.

When prepared, it looks similar to chicken broth both in color and density. There’s even a faint oil slick from the coconut and walnut oils. The brewed tea really didn’t have much fragrance to note.

I haven’t been having great success with DavidsTeas in regards to flavor recently. This one turned out tart and grassy. The lingering coconut aftertaste is nice, but this wasn’t the easiest cup to make my way through.

This had a creamy, sweet, buttery fragrance. Overlying the more subtle notes was a strong, zesty lemon.

Once prepared, the fragrance lost some definition and just the lemon remained. This was true of the flavor as well. The lemon in this was not only strong, but it tended towards tart. It was like drinking hot lemon juice.

This would be perfect with some honey for soothing a cough or taking the edge off a cold so I might keep some of this around just for medicinal purposes.

This is another tea from this purveyor that has an incredible fragrance but the flavor is a off.

It smells sweet and strongly of berries, cinnamon and a touch of brown sugar. Once prepared, this takes on more of a tart, green fragrance.

The initial flavor was sour and tart. It eventually developed a bit of spiciness from the cinnamon and there was a subtle, lingering strawberry aftertaste. The tea in this, however, was completely obliterated. The lack of any tea presence and the initial sourness made this a mediocre cup for me.

This tea smells great. When you open the bag, there’s a heavy almond presence then roasted coffee. There are huge pieces of each mixed into the tea.

The tea brews to almost black. The initial fragrance was “burnt” and the first sip was extremely bitter. I almost threw the whole cup out. However, I let it sit a minute and it started to behave. None of the almond ever came through, but the coffee and chicory made this pretty bold. So bold, that you could never tell there was any tea in the cup.

As the cup sat, the bitterness returned so there’s a finite window in which this tea is enjoyable.

Ho Ho Ho-my-gosh! I bet this is what the kitchens at the North Pole smell like!

When you first open the bag, there’s a really complex fragrance that’s a mix of butter, sugar, lemon and underlying spice. I imagined just a touch of cherry as well. These blend together to be reminiscent of sugar cookies and ginger snaps.

Once brewed, the fragrance takes on a totally different profile. There’s still a subtle sugar-savory play, but the vegetative and malty fragrance of the tea itself actually comes through. Nice!

The flavor is an initial combination of butter and spices. This fades quickly so you can pick up the malt and mossy taste of the tea. There’s a final warmth left behind by the spice. As the cup cools, the initial baked goods aroma returns.

This is the last of three limited holiday edition teas that I recently purchased from Shui Tea. I’m glad I decided on a larger bag of this one! (I wish I had also bought a larger bag of Cinnamerry Christmas- aka apple pie a la mode. Maybe Santa will remember?)

This is one of Shui Tea’s best sellers so I had to try it.

The fragrance is very mellow, woody and vanillin. The appearance is “earthy” but there was a bit of color which surprised me.

The taste was a bit unusual. As expected from the name, there were notes of caramel and vanilla. However, I got a strong impression of toasted bread and it was also slightly peppery. All of the flavors are very subtle which made me think at first that this wasn’t very flavorful. However, the lingering caramel aftertaste which seems to become progressively more pronounced was pleasant.

If you like mate, I can see how this would be a great variation. The roasting gives it a smooth flavor and the touch of caramel adds a hint of sweetness.

I opened the pouch, stuck my nose in and took a big whiff. Oh, mistake…singed my nose hairs. The cinnamon in this is bordering on atomic! OK, let the bag sit open a bit and try again. Ahhhh, sweet apples, berries and spicy cinnamon!

This tisane brewed to a really festive cranberry color. The fragrance mellowed out and became fruity with a hint of cinnamon. While drinking, the taste kept shifting between tart, sweet and spicy. This really keeps your attention!

What I liked best was the lingering apple-cinnamon taste. The apple in this was exceptionally good. It seemed really fresh and had a very clean apple flavor. There was a creaminess to this too so it was like hot apple pie a la mode.

Maybe Shui Tea can come up with a second name for this and keep it year round?!

When I first opened the bag, I was surprised by the size and quantity of the dried orange peel and chocolate nuggets. The fragrance of both the orange and chocolate was really strong.

Once prepared, everything mellowed and blended really well. You could taste the underlying rooibos and the orange was prominent. The chocolate became more noticeable as the cup cooled. I actually liked this best right before it reached room temperature.

As an added benefit, the pot was left sitting in the kitchen for a few hours prior to being washed and now most of the house smells like orange and chocolate!

I received a sample of this from LiberTEAS and I’m really appreciative.

From the name, I thought this would be predominantly floral in character. Upon opening the packet, my first impressions was “wow, not what I expected.” The fragrance is strong of peach, almonds, apricots and dates with very subtle chocolate notes. The leaves are tightly curled.

Upon steeping, the leaves unfurled fairly well and yielded a deep gold tea. The fragrance became more coconut and date and that sense of chocolate was still there. In flavor, I picked up date, coconut, apricot and honey.

Oolongs continue to surprise me with how varied they can be in flavor and overall complexity. This is a great example.

This doesn’t even really qualify as a tisane- it’s trail mix! It’s made of huge pieces of dates, raisins, dried banana chips and nut bits. This may also be one of the most expensive products I’ve rated here on Steepster so far. A 25g pouch was only enough for 2 modest cups.

The fragrance was sweet and nutty. There was only one banana chip in the pouch, so that didn’t contribute much. The dates really stood out.

Once prepared, this made a drink that was essentially a fruit soup. The liquid was a light muddy brown. With the nuts floating in it, you don’t want to look at it too long.

The taste wasn’t too bad. The dates were sweet and the slight oil from the nuts gave it a bit of creaminess. There was a very faint note of banana, but I would have liked it much stronger.

Overall, I was a little disappointed with this one. The flavor wasn’t as balanced or deep as I would like and it was a bit expensive. I guess it was fun to try it once but I won’t be reordering.

I don’t have a lot of experience with lavender as a flavoring component so I was going into this one blind.

The fragrance is strong of coconut and very subtly minty. Since mint isn’t listed as an ingredient, I’m guessing that’s how I was interpreting the lavender.

When prepared, there was a faint slick at the top of the cup which I’m guessing was coconut oil. There was a creaminess to this and the coconut flavor was very strong. I picked up a very faint wintergreen or peppermint note and a tart-floral finish. There’s a lingering coconut aftertaste.

I received a sample of this with my recent order. It definitely isn’t something I would have selected on my own but I was pleasantly surprised by how good this turned out.

I just received a huge, generous batch of samples from LiberTEAS (thanks again!!) and this one jumped right out as being special. I’ve never seen a tea so green and uniform. I imagined the harvester using tiny nail clippers to individually collect just the smallest tip of each leaf.

The fragrance is clean, slightly grassy and briny. I even picked up subtle notes of sesame. Once prepared, the sesame rises to the top and this acquires a toasted oat background.

The tea brews to be relatively pale but has a substantial heartiness. It’s slightly vegetative with a bit of kelp and finishes with a mildly sweet toasted sesame. The cooling cup works towards a honey finish.

What was really unexpected was the overall body of the tea. For a green tea, it has a very rich, almost buttery mouth feel. In just a few cups, this has moved into the top tier of my green tea list.

This was a free sample I received in a recent order.

The tea has a sweet, clean, traditional “tea” fragrance. For a majority of Americans, this is probably what they imagine when you say “tea.”

Prepared, it’s slightly sweet and vegetative with a moderate amount of astringency. This would be a good everyday and all-day-long tea. If I get a chance to make another purchase from DavidsTea, I’d probably throw a bag of this in as a staple item.