Popular Tasting Notes

I cannot make this tea work. I think it’s the chamomile in it that makes it seem so bitter to me, which is a shame because it smells absolutely amazing.

My sister-in-law had the first steep, I got the second and it was actually pretty decent. More cherry than tea, but tasty nonetheless.

Try 2 for flavored matcha. Hmmm… what to flavor it w/? I sure don’t need anymore caffeine so a 1st infusion of true tea is out. I have a few herbals! I have spearmint, orange mint, lemon verbena, and ROT’s Get Relaxed! Matcha is a comforting experience for me so I think I’ll use that.

Boiled 8oz of water instead of my normal 6 for Get Relaxed! and steeped it longer as well, 9 min and 20 sec. It resulted in a dark browny orange liquor and smelled of light rose. Reboiled it, added a scoop (yes only ONE this time lol) of matcha to my bowl, poured the tisane over the matcha, and whisked.

SUCCESS! This is a WONDERFUL use of herbals which I don’t drink solo. The result was a light rose flavored comforty goodness. I know the texture of the matcha comes from the matcha itself, but it seemed to be smoother today. Maybe because of the rooibos? If anyone has other ideas of how to flavor matcha, PLEASE post them in the flavored matcha forum thread.:)

Day 14 of the 2016 advent calendar! To be honest, I never really got into ‘breakfast’ teas. I guess I must have just found them boring compared to what else what offered. And I don’t know how else to describe this tea other than that it smells like black tea? I mean, that’s… all that it is so I shouldn’t be surprised.

Steeped, it is a bit concerning. There are… a lot of bits that escaped by perfect mug’s steeper basket. I imagine that using the steeper might have prevented it, but the fact that it still escapes the infusers is not really good. Besides that, it actually tastes a lot better than I was expected. I find it mellow, smooth and a bit sweet.

Overall, this is a pretty decent straight tea. I like it enough that I might even start incorporating it into my own breakfast routine.

I love this and I often drink it when I want something caffeine-free. Regardless of the advertisement, the taste isn’t really strange – it is sweet and mildly spicey. I mostly taste coconut and cinnamon. Definitely worth the buy.

After having an allergic reaction to the last tea, I wanted something fruity & black to keep me awake after taking a Benadryl. Better with milk than straight.

I picked this tea up during Black Friday sale. I quite literally purchased the last ounce available at the time. You may notice that this review is very similar to my Golden Orchid review; I comment on that below.

Opening the bag and taking a whiff is a real treat! A rush of cocoa and vanilla, with nice maltiness to back it up. A bit like fresh brownies.

The tea steeps a nice dark brown, and retains the lovely aroma.

The taste is exceptional! Smooth and full, lots of flavors. No need for sugar, as the vanilla beans give plenty of sweetness. The black tea blend is excellent, and would stand up well on its own without the vanilla. No corners were cut in putting this blend together. I should note that this tea is flavored with actual beans, which gives it a nice smoothness versus a typical “flavored” tea using extract or other processed flavoring.

A second steeping holds up well, but I find that I need to about double the concentration to maintain the same strength as a first steeping. (In other words, I use half as much water in the second steeping.)

Overall, a superb black tea! It works well as a morning wake-up or an after-dinner dessert companion. This is going on my must-buy list. I don’t usually enjoy “flavored” teas, but this one is done very well. If you prefer “straight” black tea like me, and you’re looking for something with a fuller flavor profile, don’t hesitate to pick this up!

I tried this side by side with Whispering Pines’s Golden Orchid. If you’re wondering, this tea uses Tahitian vanilla beans, while Golden Orchid uses Madagascar beans. I think the difference between the two is that Ambrosia has a more pronounced vanilla flavor. Other than that, they are identical in my opinion, so their reviews will be very similar. Whether Ambrosia is worth the additional price over Golden Orchid depends on how much you like a stronger vanilla flavor. I give both the same rating.

This is one of my favorite blends. It’s basically a tempered Lapsong Souchong. It combines the best of that with the best of a nice rich black tea. It’s hard to mess this one up and it can stand alone or hold up to milk.

Tastes like a cup of cocoa, tea-i-fied. Loved it. Nice with two sugar lumps for ultimate chocolatey deliciousness.

What I love about making this tea is that it smells amazing!
But that’s about it. It just tastes like a bland green tea, which is strange since it is supposed to be sweeter. I’d recommend it only because of how it smells.

its black tea.

The taste of this tea is pleasant, I could hardly say anything else considering the fact that I like drinking Nannuo teas very much. I enjoy their combination of flavour, aroma and aftertaste.

The leaf is perfectly separable with bear hands, you don’t need a knife or a pick, it goes apart itself as if it hasn’t even been pressed. It smells intensely and the leaf seems to be of high quality: long, clean and dark green (not too dark though). When you see the sample, you must admit it definitely is a very nice cake that smells after blossoming flowers.

The smell however, again as with 2010 YiWu Zheng Shan, reminds me of fresh green tea which does not belong to my most preferable characteristics. Despite the fact that I nearly overstuffed my teapot with the leaves and therefore expected a higher level of kuwei in first few infusions, I was surprised by its unchangeable and rather weaker character. Since there were no bitter highs, there were no sweet lows either and the huigan was nice but absolutely in tune with the flavour of the tea. It just tasted the same from the very beginning to its very end.

I identified a strange presence of astringency in the first infusion and was expecting its higher intensity later, it however turned out to be that special kind of “numbness” people often describe when drinking ancient tree cakes. In this particular tea this tongue-paralyzing effect as if you were chewing mint leaves is quite high. It therefore as if suppressed the rest of other taste traits and it was quite hard to feel anything else. The tea got suddenly weaker around the tenth infusion and with the intention to squeeze the leaves up a little bit I was getting very similar results for the rest of the session.

To read the whole review, see my blog:
http://teadropping.blogspot.com/2011/10/2010-yunnan-sourcing-nan-nuo-ya-kou.html

I have been drinking Dragonwell for years now, I have decided to stick with this tea. The reason I have sticked with this tea for years is because it has a roasted flavor and is one of the aspects I like about Dragonwell. I wouldn’t recommend drinking this tea after 6pm because it does have caffeine and it can interfere with your sleep. If you love green tea this is a tea for you.

Not in my cupboard as this is the last bag, I haven’t bothered to review this consistently performing tea because I was sure someone else had. What I would call moderately caffeinated, it has just the right amount of kick to get you going or keep you moving. Like all my black teas, I take it with a bit of milk and sugar, and it’s really a lovely morning treat. Mild and well-rounded, I really can’t wait to get another box (at the right price though, heh-heh).

I am sipping on this hot right now and to be honest, I could really mistaken this tea to be a herbal instead of an oolong. This is mainly due to the ingredients of mint and lemongrass with little to no taste of the oolong tea—however, oolong is supposed to be a lighter tea anyway.

The mint and lemon come through really well in this tea. I was hoping more of an oolong tea with a hint of mint and lemon. Not entirely disappointed, but not one I would purchase a tin of.

I won this when Kally Tea ran their last contest! I have been not enthused by the last few flavored blacks I’ve tried, however, this was OH SO YUMMY! You can see the shaved almond slices in the tea, and it brewed into a delicious medium body black tea with a nice brisk base and definite almond flavor. I added a bit of honey to enhance the natural honey flavor and sipped on it all morning.

I’m kind of gutted about this tea, I was actually so excited to drink this but I couldn’t really taste much of the pumpkin. It tastes more bland than the smell. I think I’ll try this again but add a dash of milk.

A good solid darjeeling. I need to look up how much these cost, because it’s a pretty nice no-nonsense tea.
I find with some Darjeeling that it is too bitter without milk and yet so weak that the flavour gets drowned by any milk you add. This tea seems to get a compromise so that it works with OR without milk, amazing!

I bought this tea at the Toronto Tea Festival, since they had gotten third place in the North American Tea Championships, and I wanted an Earl Grey because its one of my favorites. Its one of the best Earl Grey’s I’ve ever had! It tastes really refreshing and I don’t even add milk to it like I normally do.

This one is really sweet and tastes alot like maple. I find roibos teas to sometimes be quite woody thats why I was a bit hesitant to try such a sweet flavour with that base. I would definetely classify this as a dessert tea and I find you really have to be in the mood to drink it for it to be good.

This tea is remarkably good steeped multiple times. It’s also a very good tea to replace a morning coffee. Can feel the caffeine and it can be brewed strong enough to even rival coffee. Can also be steeped less time for a lighter lift in the morning. Delicious in general.

woodsy/fruity. YUMMY. Hit the spot this afternoon!

I didn’t like this tea. My son, my little tea tasting buddy, also disliked it. However, it is what it says it is – a smooth cream tea, so I cannot rate it badly. Just completely not my preference. Very creamy and tastes convincing. Without or with sugar not our style. We ate with some cookies, slices of mango, and Ham & Cheese Croissants. Food was good, tea not so much.