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The card that came with this touts it as an “unparalleled” example of darjeeling. I have to admit that I simply don’t have the darjeeling experience to know if this lives up to the advertising.

But it does have strong muscatel flavor, and the sort of papery teabag flavor that I’ve found in previous darjeelings is happily absent. So high marks for that. I thought that darjeelings usually have just a touch of grape flavor, and I don’t find that in this, so maybe it’s not as common as I thought. It has nice olivey-brown whole leaves, and steeps up quite light for a black tea.

David’s sent a sample of this in my order. I was mystified when I first tried it, because it tasted SO familiar and yet I couldn’t recall where I’d had it before. It didn’t taste anything like cider, despite its name. Finally it came to me; this is the exact flavor of Quaker instant apples-&-cream oatmeal.

I can see from the other notes this tea hasn’t been a huge hit, and I think if you are expecting cider, you will be disappointed. I am kind of nostalgically fond of that oatmeal though (I don’t think I could get something so sugary down now, but I loved it as a kid) so I am enjoying the flavor in this new form.

I’ve always avoided pu’ers because they seemed more than my meager tea-making tools could handle (and because I have no idea what to do with those big cakes). But fortunately this one doesn’t seem too daunting. The small clump broke apart easily and the directions said use a teaspoon, so I just steeped it like normal tea.

BUT unfortunately, I accidentally left it for 5 minutes when it was only supposed to get 30 seconds. It’s definitely stronger than it ought to be. Wow. I’ll just have to try this again some time when I’m paying more attention. Fortunately there’s enough for a few more attempts.

A very fresh, vegetal dragon well, with mostly green bean notes, but also a hint of sweetness and nuttiness. Very good!

I got a pitcher packet of this in my last David’s order because I just needed to spend a couple more dollars to get the free shipping, and I absolutely love it. The sarsaparilla tastes amazing. I don’t get any cinnamon, supposedly the main ingredient in the tea, but I guess it’s doing it’s doing it’s job because the blend tastes great, all that root beer flavor without the sugar overload. But now that the whole packet is gone in this one pitcher, I’m faced with a restocking problem. Drinking this hot sounds kind of nasty, and with cool weather setting in, I don’t think I’ll be making many more iced pitchers. Should I just buy it now and save it till next summer? What are the odds that David’s will offer it again next year, since it was a special collection tea?

Pondering this deep philosophical riddle.

This reminds me of the Nepali silver, in that it is an oolong with olive and musk melon notes. This is a smoother, milder take on those flavors though. The leaves are small but whole, slightly bronzed. They look a bit like Russian olive leaves. The liquor is a light golden brown. While this isn’t my favorite style of oolong, it tastes very wholesome and natural, and now and then it makes for a nice change from the floral oolongs.

There’s an unusual amount of natural sweetness in this unflavored black tea. Bold plum and wine notes. Honestly, I was so surprised at how fruity it was that I kept wondering if I had scrubbed the steeper out well enough after previously brewing herbals, but I find the fruit flavor mentioned in several other notes, so it’s not just me. I love fruit, so very pleased with this one!

H&S sent me a sample sachet of this; I’m not crazy about darjeeling but neither do I hate it. Unfortunately I screwed up my one shot to try this as immediately it was done steeping, I got distracted by people and dogs and didn’t remember the tea till it was decidedly tepid. At that point it tasted like very standard bagged darjeeling, nothing special. And maybe it IS standard, but I’ve no way to tell now, so I’m just noting the fact that I don’t know. This is a non-note. A note of what wasn’t noted. (Sorry guys, some people always have to take a thing too far.)

Ditched the Snickerdoodle and steeped up some of this. Much much nicer! For some reason I was expecting an emphasis on watermelon, whereas mint is actually the dominant flavor. The two make an interesting and refreshing combination. I am drinking this hot and it’s good, but such summery flavors just beg to be iced, I think, so I will probably try that tomorrow.

Got this as a sample in the David’s order, because they never fail to send something rooibos. This is the kind of over-spiced nightmare I try to avoid. I have to second MooKiwi’s comments about cinnamon hearts and cinnamon gum. It tastes EXACTLY like cinnamon gum, even down to the weird xylitol flavor. Also, it’s sickeningly sweet.