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Snickerdoodle/Sweet Apple Cider in a 50:50 mix again. Made this morning in my new travel mugs so I could have something yummy to take with me to work. (Side question: At what point are you bringing too many travel mugs of tea with you to work? I usually bring two, but have started bringing three … mainly because I don’t like the tea I make at work as much as what I make at home. In any case, I’m feeling like I’m being a tad obsessive.)

This was SUPER apple flavored in the travel mug — no sweet notes from the Snickerdoodle at all, just tart apple. Not bad, but it felt like a waste of the Snickerdoodle – which I like a lot better than Sweet Apple Cider – to be honest.

Tried this again and reduced the steep time from the recommended 4 minutes to 2 minutes. What a world of difference! It’s definitely tart cranberry, but less overwhelming with the lower steep time. The spices are more present, too, but in a generic way. Like, you know that they’re there, but not which ones are there. This is so much better than the first time I had it, and I get the feeling this might be good cold. Sadly, that’s an experiment I’m probably not going to carry out. This one is really not my favorite and I’d rather be done with it in a way I know is palatable than play around.

Raising the rating because it is a lot better, though.

Got this as a sample in my last DavidsTea order and used the whole sample to make a teapot full. I really like this one — the dry leaves smell like bourbon vanilla, the steeped leaves smell like frosting, and the tea itself tastes like … pure vanilla. (Haha)

That being said, I’m not sure I’d want to have this on hand in anything more than a sample size. It’s good, but I find I get sick of it by the end of the second pot. Too bad I can’t just order sample sizes from Davids … and that the closest store is like two hours away.

First time having this tea by itself and the taste is very similar to when I mixed it with Sweet Apple Cider. Very tasty, just lacking the apples.

(This note would be longer, but I fell asleep halfway through drinking this and chugged it when I woke up. I’m not super observant when I just wake up!)

Sipdown! And of an older tea, too. I think I’ve had this one for a year now?

I have a love/hate relationship with this tea. My favorite tea shop sells it and I very much enjoy it there when I get it as a to go cup. It’s smooth and lightly sweet, though a bit forgettable. A good tea to drink unconsciously and a very comforting cup. At home, however, it’s very woody. I want to use words like “harsh” or “abrasive” but they don’t really fit the taste. It’s not bad, but it’s also not sweet or comforting. Initially, I thought that this was because I steeped too long (5 minutes) but even reducing steep time (3 minutes) yielded similar results. The cup brewed for only 3 minutes, however, did sweeten up as it cooled down.

Not going to rate this as I feel too conflicted on what an appropriate rating would be. Maybe this will just be something I enjoy in-store.

I love the smell of this one dry — tart fruit, warm cinnamon, and eggnog. It smells creamy and delicious. Steeped however … well, I couldn’t finish the cup the first time I made this.

I tried this again last night, hoping I’d enjoy it more. The first steep is very thick and extremely tart/sour. No cinnamon, but I get the sensation of having eaten something creamy after each sip (maybe this is my desire for a creamier tea clouding my senses?). Second steep is mercifully free of all the tart flavor and it’s approaching creamy. I’m reminded of Teavana’s Strawberry Cream, which was also unbelievably tart. Only difference between these two is that, if you chugged Strawberry Cream, the fruit flavor would mellow out into vanilla cream … and that just doesn’t happen here. It’s either all tart or mostly flavorless.

Picked this up yesterday while at Teavana. I’ve been curious to try it for a while and, when the salesgirl mentioned that this tea tastes really strongly of chocolate, I was sold. The last time I was in a Teavana, I’d tried their Chocolate Chai, was impressed by how chocolatey and rich it was, and was so hoping for the same thing here.

Tangent: I brought my kettle over to a friend’s house yesterday and forgot the base there. So my kettle is home and totally useless without a way to get power to it. I don’t know if I should be embarrassed to admit that I contemplated buying a temporary kettle to tide me over until I can get my base back. It’s only a day, right? That’s not so bad. A little tea made with microwaved water never hurt anybody. Hell, that’s how I was heating my water when I first got into tea and that turned out okay… (I miss my kettle!!!)

I brewed this up using microwaved water, steeped for 5 minutes. Without sugar, it’s brothy? I want to say this is the salt dominating things. Not bad, but unexpected from a tea with caramel and coco in the name. I added sugar to the second steep and found that the salt and coco were both missing, but the aftertaste was scratchy/sweet like after you eat a chewy, gooey caramel candy. Mmmm.

It’s not what I was expecting – don’t say a tea is chocolatey if it’s not! – but it’s not bad. I really want to try it again with actually boiling water and see if that helps things. In any case, it’s another off the “To Try” list … progress?

Got this as a tea to go yesterday. I’d seen it on Teavana’s site and been curious about it — s’mores seems like a flavor several tea companies have tried their hand at and this one was the most accessible for me to try out.

I’m not sure if it was the sample of the pumpkin brulee tea I had prior to drinking this or if it’s Teavana’s oolong base but … this tasted like pumpkin to me. Not pumpkin pie pumpkin, though, Teavana’s pumpkin tea pumpkin. About halfway through the cup, the pumpkin faded and this tea seemed sweet in an artificial way (I want to say cloying but that’s not right…) and I really didn’t enjoy it. It’s definitely not s’mores and it’s utterly forgettable.

Per Katrina Hadley’s suggestion, I brewed up Sweet Apple Cider with some Snickerdoodle — a 50:50 mix — in an attempt to get more of a apple cider flavor from Sweet Apple Cider. The result was this incredible apple-cinnamon-molasses(?) drink that was a perfect replacement for my favorite fall drink. Yum! Guess I know how I’m finishing off the last of my Sweet Apple Cider.

From the Fall sampler, which my friend was kind enough to gift me (along with the tea chocolate) when she came to visit!

Dry, this smells like apples and thick, gooey caramel. Very promising. Steeped, this tastes like apple juice, which is great because that’s close to its intended flavor. That being said, there’s this weird fluffiness to the taste that I couldn’t place until I got to the last few sips in my mug.

This tea tastes like apple juice Jello.

Not that that’s a bad thing, it’s quite pleasant. It’s just … not cider?

Too bad too, because apple cider is one of my favorite things and this tea is a lot cheaper than buying jug after jug of it.