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I picked this up this weekend while restocking my fiance’s favorite tea. It smells like a pina colada in the bag! The seven minute recommended steep time kind of freaked me out, but I ended up with a dark maroon brew that tasted like … tropical LifeSavers with pineapple in the aftertaste.

Yum!

Backlog.

I was really excited about this one. Starfruit in tea! I remember having starfruit in elementary school and thinking that it was the most exotic, wonderous thing ever. It’s delicious and it looks like a star! I was probably seven and very easily amused (actually, still am…).

Anyway. This one smells like the very definition of tropical in the bag. There are a ton of fruit pieces and I don’t see any white tea whatsoever. Bummer.

Steeped, there’s a lot of tea debris at the bottom of my mug and the tropical scent is mostly gone. It tastes vaguely fruity and very very juicy. Seriously. I’ve heard teas described as being juicy before, but couldn’t imagine such a taste until I had this tea. That being said, it doesn’t knock my socks off. It’s kind of weird, which isn’t a bad thing … I’m just not sure I need this tea in my cupboard.

Backlog from yesterday’s sipdown.

I’m relieved this tea is finally gone. The last pot was all slightly-oversteeped fruit in desperate need of some sweetener, but the two pots before that had the same taste and mouthfeel as melted peanut butter. I really enjoyed this one originally – yay, fruity dessert tea! – but I think 2oz was enough for me.

The initial scent of this one is all delicious pumpkin … which then fades to something that reminds me of Mango Mate Pu’erh Punch. Yuck! I’ve been having mostly good luck with the teas I got from Teavana’s Heavenly Sale and I’d really like it if the few I have left aren’t drain-worthy.

Anyway, I really wasn’t looking forward to this tea today. The smell of the dry leaves was nauseating. I made two thermoses of this to take to work and added cinnamon creamer to both. And … this tea is actually pretty good! It reminds me of a watery egg nog with some pumpkin added.

Yay! Another breakfast tea I can be happy about drinking! I’m so glad this one tastes better than it smells.

I don’t think I like lemongrass as a tea ingredient. :-/ I didn’t like it in Exotica and I don’t like it here, though this tea doesn’t have the same oily mouthfeel that Exotica did.

I’ve had several pots of this over the past two days and there’s something about the combination of blueberries and lemon grass that doesn’t do it for me. It’s not sweet and berry-like, as I was expecting. It’s not even that it’s a bad tea … I just have no interest in drinking it again.

On the bright side, it’s one less tea in my cupboard…

Sipdown Sunday!

I used up the last of this tea to make a pot for me and my fiance. I made the mistake of letting him smell the dry leaf before I made it and now he’s like,.“We should get a bunch of this!” And, if it were still available, that would be totally fine. Maybe it will go on sale?

I added rock sugar this time around, and the tea is as light and lovely as ever. I don’t really get peach or strong fruitiness from this. It’s sweet and light, with an aftertaste of cream. Not a bad way to start the morning.

I was feeling fancy tonight and since I just got some small teacups, I decided to have a TEA PARTY!

Okay … it was just me at the tea party, but it felt like a special occasion, which I guess is the whole point.

I picked this tea because I wanted a dessert substitute and because I have so little left, I figured it would get me close to a sipdown. I also happened to have some rock sugar on hand, and decided tonight would be a good time to test it with this tea. You know, because it was a party, after all, and parties revolve around sweet things.

Hot, the sugar transforms this to Generic Chocolate Tea. Just above lukewarm, it has a very oily mouthfeel and leaves me with the sense that I’ve just eaten peanut butter — I can almost taste it. Cold, the berry notes are prominent and I really enjoy it.

I don’t think sweetening was the way to go with this tea. It was enjoyable enough, but just felt too weird to me. Though, points, I guess, for making it more desserty than usual.

Meh.

I’ve had this one a few times now and can say two things with certainty 1) I definitely like it and 2) it consistently puts me to sleep. I didn’t include this in my last order because I wanted to try it again to make sure I liked it enough to buy 50g and now I’m sad I didn’t just get it. This was an excellent before bed tea — the fruit was malty and thick, and the tea itself did a wonderful job of relaxing me.

Backlog from a few days ago.

I’m obsessed with Teavana’s Strawberry Grapefruit Xue Long. I love how flavorful it is, I love how the fruit is present and doesn’t taste artificial. I love that I don’t need sugar. What I don’t love, however, is that this tea is seasonal so, despite ordering half a pound of it, I might never be able to get it again when I run out.

So, there’s this tea. Which smelled fruity and sweet and effervescent in the store. This tea that is world’s cheaper than Strawberry Grapefruit. I was expecting a similar taste based on the smell of this one dry. Steeped, however, it’s very grassy and the grassiness of the green tea overpowers the fruit flavor. It’s possible that I didn’t get many fruit chunks in the infuser and that’s why this one tastes like a freshly mown lawn. I’m still disappointed that it doesn’t taste more like it smells.

On the bright side, Teavana did fix my shipping address and I should be getting my tea soon! Which means I won’t need to use this as a Strawberry Grapefruit replacement for a while.

Made this after the Mango Mate Pu’erh Punch fiasco. Ahh, sweet strawberry. Thank you for tasting like fruit and tea!