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Thanks go to iHeartTea for this one, it came from her sell off sale.

This is such a unique combination, I’m not sure that I’ve seen cucumber in tea before, but I sure couldn’t wait to try it. When I first opened the package I was hit with the wonderful smell of strawberries. It just smelled so good it left my mouth watering. I only have a sample of this, and I know it is older, but it still smells very fresh.

I made my first cup of this hot and once steeped you could still smell the strong scent from the strawberries. This instantly made me wonder how this would work as a cold steep and before I sat down to enjoy my cup I took the rest of my sample off to make a pitcher up for later.

This was really yummy and I’m a little sad that I’m already out. I can pick up the barest hint of cucumber hidden amongst the juicy strawberry and the white base. This was really good hot and I can’t wait to try my cold steep tomorrow.

Thanks go to wheezybee for sending this to me during our swap. She was great about sending me a variety of citrus teas to try out while I was on my hunt for a citrus tea that I like.

This is probably the best blood orange tea that I have tried so far, even if this one just isn’t for me. The blood orange flavor stands out immediately and is slightly sweet and slightly tart. You can taste the hibiscus, but the flavor doesn’t overwhelm the tea as it tends to do with many blends. I think this makes a nice iced herbal tea, but didn’t care for it hot or sweetened.

This was a pain in the rear end to clean out of my ingenuiTEA, for some reason it got really stuck in the mesh.

Thanks go to wheezybee for sending this to me during our swap.

I keep hoping that with the continuted exposure to citrus I’ll start to like it, but so far that hasn’t happened. My citrus hate aside, I really needed an herbal tea tonight. They’ve always been so relaxing to me and I’ve been really stressed (and tea deprived) the last few days.

I was pleasantly surprised when this didn’t turn out to be as tart as I had expected. The other ingredients manage to balance out the hibiscus, but I didn’t really care for it. I’m starting to wonder if my taste buds are on the fritz because this tasted like sage to me while it was hot, but I didn’t get that at all once I had iced it down.

The last two days I’ve had a grand total of three cups of tea and I think the lack is starting to affect my sanity (then again it could be the sick toddler, hard to tell.) I don’t drink much in the way of black tea anymore, but when I saw this one, which is a combination of black and white teas it intrigued me. I’ve never seen the two blended together before.

This certainly is a bold black tea and an interesting combination. It steeped up nice and dark and ended up being just what I needed today. It had the added benefit of making the house smell delicious. Taste wise the black tea comes across strong although it has a hint of bitterness which gets stronger as it cools. I think I might try a slightly lower temperature with the last of my sample and see what happens with that. While I love the taste of the vanilla and the creaminess it adds, I think the amount of bitterness detracts from the blend a bit.

The second steep was much less bitter and more to my tastes. The vanilla still stood out, but not as much as the initial steep.

Thanks go to Katiek for sending me this in her mystery box and introducing me to another new tea company.

The lilies in front of my house are finally blooming and because of this my allergies are absolutely killing me today. I’ve decided to stick with a plain tea for a change, this has been a rare occurrence lately, and hot tea should make my itchy throat feel better.

I’ve been mulling it over trying to figure out if I have had Darjeeling before and I’m not really sure that I have, or perhaps it just wasn’t a memorable experience for me. My first impression of this was that it tasted somewhat similar to an oolong and had just a tinge of astringency to it. Over all the color was on the lighter side and I was surprised by the low steep temperature. I’ll need to go do some reading up on Darjeeling later, I really know next to nothing about it.

I’ll need to be careful of this one in the future since I’m prone to getting sidetracked and oversteeping things. I could see how this could turn bitter fast. Overall, this was a pretty nice cup of tea and it made my throat feel better.

I can not for the life of me remember who sent this one to me, but whoever you were thank you! EDITED I remember now, this came from momo during her sell off sale.

I’m still on the hunt for a chocolate tea that I’ll fall in love with. I will say this one is not it and I’m starting to wonder if I ever will find one. I was immediately intrigued by the fact that it had rose listed in the ingredients, but let down a little when I didn’t taste even a hint of it. I was a bit distracted by the fact that this tea tastes just like another that I have had recently, and I couldn’t put on finger on which one it was. The more I think about it the more it bugs me that I can’t remember… argh!

Anyway, this blend tastes very similar to many chocolate teas I’ve had lately and maybe that is why I’m so bothered by it. I’m rather disappointed in the quality of chocolate used and the flavorings have that artificial taste that all chocolate teas seem to have. The strawberries didn’t really taste like strawberries, and the bugs me as well. I just felt really let down by this one. It also left me craving something sweet like you wouldn’t believe.