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I decided to dig my hand into the traveling tea box and select randomly this morning, and this is (supposedly) what I came up with. I’m not entirely sure this is actually the tea its label says it is. From the description and other reviews, this tea doesn’t even LOOK like what it’s supposed to, much less taste like it. There are no fruit pieces, just very dark tea leaves and a few flakes of something olive green, perhaps a dried herb??

Anyway, I steeped it for about a minute and a half, and sweetened it with a scoop and a half of sugar. The first sip was very smoky, with a big hit of astringency. At first, I thought I’’d over steeped it, which means one of either two things: it’s got lapsang souchong in it, or it’s a poor quality tea, to have become astringent so quickly. Blech. I added some milk and a little more sugar, and that masked the astringency to a degree where I could drink it. The smokiness was still there, but I could handle that, as long as it didn’t taste like metal anymore. There’s definitely no fruit in this, and no cream flavor. I really think it was mislabeled, but I don’t know how that could have happened.

I checked the little journal that was included in the tea box to see who put it in, and it turns out this was in there from the beginning, put there by momo. Maybe she would know more than I do about it.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 1 min, 45 sec

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I very clearly remember my first experience with tea. It was in a Target near my house, and my best friend handed me a cup of chai from the Starbucks inside the store and said, “Try this.” I believe I was about 12 at the time, and from then on, I was completely hooked.

Anyway, as my increasingly weirded out family will tell you, my obsession with tea has (almost) steadily escalated since then. I discovered the world of tea slowly, first with just chai, and then with bagged teas I could get from supermarkets and specialty stores, and then with loose leaf teas. I mostly shop for tea at Teavana, but I also patronize other local shops that I’ve discovered within the last couple of years. I’ve ordered a smattering of teas from a few online places, but I’m always leery of buying tea online, since most of how I select teas in person is by smell… unless I’m at The English Tea Room.

My favorite types of tea are blacks and flavored blacks. And oolongs. Right underneath that are rooiboses and whites, and then greens and herbals, and then mates. I’m always looking for a new favorite, but I appreciate rediscovering old favorites. I like to blend teas, but I never store them that way, mostly because I like to leave myself options.

I prefer nutty/sweet/rich teas to fruity/light-flavored teas or bold/full-bodied teas, but I do try to drink some of everything to widen my palate. I’m always willing to try any tea at least once (except this one tea that Teavana mercifully discontinued… the loose leaf smelled like cheese, I swear). I do perhaps rate teas a little leniently… because I’m not very picky. I will try a tea at least three times before I pronounce that I hate it, and I will always focus on the good aspects of a tea rather than the bad. That’s just how I roll. :3

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Colorado, USA

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