New Tasting Notes

An absolutely incredible tea. It smells and tastes like woodsmoke and forests, but unlike some smoky teas it isn’t at all bitter. Opening the tin is quite literally like walking towards a bonfire. Delicious on cold mornings – it really warms you up! Steep for just over 3 minutes with just-boiled water.

When you open the bag the scent of bananas instantly wafts up and smells absolutely lovely. Being that it’s an Oolong tea it brews nice and light. The banana adds just enough sweetness to cancel out any need for honey or sugar and isn’t at all overpowering. This tea is perfect for after a meal or to accompany a light afternoon snack.

A beautiful, medium/light fruity Earl Grey with hints of peach and citrus. The sunflower blossoms and rose petals complement the mallow flowers perfectly, producing an incredibly delicate and delicious tea. It’s my current favourite.

Lemon and ginger, what is there not to love here. When this came out last year I gave it the nickname Lemon Halls. Been fighting off a cold and the other go to teas were not helping. Tried it today and it worked wonders. Hopefully it will come back at some point…

I was starting to regret buying a whole 100g of this online. I only bought that much as I was worried it would be discontinued… I do like it, but since I haven’t had it in a few weeks, I was doubting whether I really liked it enough to have spent that much.

Luckily, it’s still good. I think Jessie’s Tea (which is mediocre for me) had replaced it in my head. This one has almondy and other intricate flavours though. And no off-putting overwhelming lavender scent. So while I don’t think I’ll be finishing it off quite as quickly as I had thought, it’s still a tasty caffeine-free treat.

Roomie used the teaball for a second steeping after me, so just one cup for me tonight :)

Definitely was craving this one like mad today. Sadly, I either screwed it up (steeped too long) or perhaps it was the sweetened yogurts I devoured around the same time, but it just didn’t have the subtle deliciousness as usual. Still very malty and comforting, though. I’ll blame this one on user error (as I’m pretty sure I’ll be having another cup tomorrow as a reward tea…)

I just don’t get the s’mores aroma from the spices alone or the chai… My first infusion was, a good chai, yes, but not the s’mores I expected. So of course, I set out to brew it properly with milk and a pinch of sugar.. It is a lovely chai. Its best features are a spicey smokiness, and a suggestive hint of chocolate.

My before bed tea.

See previous tasting notes.

I obviously don’t log this as often as I drink it; according to Steepster I last drank it at the end of January, but I make a cup every other day, maybe even more frequently. It’s my go-to tea for sluggish mornings, or any time I need a bit of sparkle in my life.

Love this tea! It’s so decadent and smooth, it’s like a desert tea that you feel no guilt for drinking in the middle of the day, or perhaps all day…
It’s a heavy hand of butterscotch and a touch of toasty coconut, very buttery and delicious.
I usually do not like flavored teas, especially ones with a strong scent but this one is well balanced and a new favorite of mine for sure when I need a sweet pick me up.

I was more than half-asleep when I made my morning cuppa. I brewed this at the same temperature I did for greens, and then forgot about it for ten minutes. I was sure that I had ruined it, but it was surprisingly not bitter! A little cold.

What else can I say? It was pleasant but forgettable, a nice little caffeine boost in a tasty package, but I didn’t linger over it.

One of my favorite desserts in the whole world is creme brûlée. It is so creamy and scrumptious… I felt I needed something delicious to make up for a long, busy, pretty productive yet very hectic and stressful Monday. This tea (received in a swap from Indigobloom!) seemed like just the thing I needed to relax.

The smell of the dry leaves was vanilla with a strong caramel component. The rooibos was a prominent note in the scent as well. This worried me. Not a huge fan of rooibos flavor. The rooibos was decorated with tiny yellow flowers, but overall did not strike me as a particularly picturesque blend.

While I brewed this tea (I brewed it for a long while) a caramel sweet smell was comming from the cup. I was busy enjoying the scent when my dogs decided it was a good time to brawl. I thankfully broke them up before anyone got hurt, but I was psychologically exhausted and not willing to deal with jealousy fits at the moment. So, once everything calmed down, I was ready to sip this.

First sip, increadibly unremarkable rooibos vanilla. Second sip, liked it even less. Time for sweetener. Sweetened it tasted sweet, ROOIBOS (note the HUGE caps) and chemical caramel. The aftertaste was the sadest part for me. Instead of having a smooth creamy after taste that I was looking forward to, I just gor a mouthful of chemical wierdness that somehow reminded me of Davids Tea Carrot Cake which I detested. I drank the cup down quickly hiding my disapointment from my dogs who were now staring at me curiously as a stared aimlessly at the empty tea cup.

This could have been delicous, sadly, it barely made the “meh” points in my opinion. I might drink this if shared with me, but I would never go out of my way to buy it. There are much better caramel vanilla teas out there…

Trying this tea, BTVSgal was kind enough to give me a sample of it. I really wasn’t in the writing mood BUT this tea is so good and I found the heaviness of the “cream” so interesting, that I had to give it a quick review.
The tea has a floral scent almost like the water in the middle of boiling a jasmine rice.. The first infusion was wonderful, the leaves unfurled nicely in a gaiwan. It’s so thick on your tongue, slight milky flavor, little touch of spinach, great toasty oolong flavor. The second infusion was just as heavy to sip, same milky and roasts oolong flavor but less of the green type flavorings.
It’s so pleasant, I hope to get one or two more steeps out of these leaves. It really reminds me of an intriguing white tea almost, but the oolong is definetly there.
Yum!

I have finally found the best tasting oolong tea. It’s so smooth you can steep this 5 times and it still holds its flavor.its not bitter and is great iced took definite buy for fruit oolong lover.

I am tired so this first tasting won’t be as detailed as my other first tastings, but I love the Queen. Slightly smokey with an undertone of chocolate. This would make a very nice morning tea and I can’t wait to get home so I can have another pot of this. It has to be my favorite out of the Harney & Sons tea samples Ashley gave me. Yummy!

Backlog. 6 days ago – Tuesday morning.

I’ve had a sample of this that I borrowed from my mom, I just haven’t tried it yet. I wanted to try something new and flavored this morning and this caught my eye.

The tea looks like plain black tea leaves with nothing in them as far as pieces of stuff. On first smell, it was fruity. On further sniffing, I could detect nutty in the background. If I thought about could I smell cranberry and almonds as I sniffed, I found I could. But I don’t think I would have guessed that based on sniffing.

The steeped tea also has the same lovely aroma. I tasted it and loved it instantly. The taste was also a lovely fruity and nutty taste that matched the smell. It was cranberry and almond if I thought about it when I drank it. I drank my first cup down rather quickly and resteeped.

The second steep was on the weaker side, but drinkable. If I increase the steeping time of the first steep as I plan to try because I think I could like the flavors stronger, then the second steep could well end up too weak to drink enjoyably.

I’m rating this tea an 83 (great range 80-90) right off because I liked it so so much. I wish I had more then the small sample I stole from my mom’s house.

First steep of this, I was not impressed. It was WAY to gingery for me and lacking in the fizz. but… the second steep, was pretty darn great!!! Just the right amount of ginger, not too much agave, and a little pop for the fizziness. Wow. If I can get the first steep like that, I might actually buy more of this one. Which surprises me given that I generally dislike ginger. and greens.
Next time, I must remember to give this a little wash before the real infusion and see if that helps. and iced, I need to do this baby iced!!
So… I’m grading this based on my second cup here. It feels a little wasteful but then I have so much tea I can’t really judge!!

I have improved my rating of this one because I found that the chocolate came through a lot better this time and mixed perfectly with the mint to taste like a mint chocolate bar (of which I am undeniably a fan). I made it with boiling water and 1 and half teaspoons and it was excellent, very full bodied and flavourful.
I will be making a trip to DAVIDs tomorrow to grab some of this before it is removed from the stores and only available online!

I love jazz. I love Monk. I did not however love this tea. I felt like the smell was overpowering and the taste was weak and vaguely artificial-tasting.

Thank you to Kashyap for sharing this with me, you certainly know good tea!
Looking at the packaging, I saw that this is a Ceylon-eque tea and wondered how “black” it would turn out (am I the only one that thinks of Cylon’s from BSG here? Makes me giggle every time!)
Well, it is very much a black tea! surprisingly so. I know it’s processed like an Oolong, but it really does not taste like one. Which I do not mind, I just find it fascinating. I love hybrid teas!!
My second steep, I tried with milk and it was an entirely different flavour. Almost like a Darjeeling. I suppose that was the influence of the Oolong and Ceylon coming together. Still, I could not stop thinking “Darjeeling” with every sip. So that makes three distinctly different teas within one cup! cool :P
I see that you (Kashyap) recommend this iced, so perhaps I’ll try it that way next!! thanks again for the neato experience! x

Fruity and tart. I’m not sure how strong the raspberry flavor is because I don’t have a great reference of the original flavor—all of the raspberries I’ve ever eaten were a little bland. This tea though, quite nice!