Dylan Oxford

This is sort of a bread and butter tea, it’s nice and cheap, it’s comforting, and the sweet rum flavor on the tea itself is very calming. It’s a great kick-back-after-a-long-day tea.

We brewed this up today to compare it to the Pot O Gold from 52teas. It falls a little flat in the flavor comparison. It’s still good, and it’s still probably going to be a permanent collection tea, because of the price. It is an awful lot of enjoyment for $0.94/oz.

This a very creamy, smooth butterscotch black tea. Odd choice for an 80 degree day, but oh well! The butterscotch flavor is first and most apparent, but I want to say there’s something… I don’t know… caramelly, toasted nutty on the end of that flavoring in there. Something a little more deep. It’s quite tasty.

We drank this next to our Buttered Rum tea from MarketSpice, and the MS version definitely falls a little flat in comparison. The flavor is a little more distinguished, more solid.

A big thanks to Azz for the sample on this one :)

This tea is fairly good steeped at about three minutes. However, it is a very artificial, overpowering lemon. If you’re an Arnold Palmer drinker, you’d probably enjoy this (maybe). It’s really quite lemony.

Thanks to Sandy for sending this home with me :)

This tea is quite amazing. It’s also kind of strange. Let me explain.

Missy made a batch of this in one of our 64 oz Takeya pitchers (which I’ve highly recommended elsewhere, and will recommend again!) yesterday. The normal method of brewing it hot for three minutes in a pitcher full of hot water, adding some sugar, and tossing it in the fridge. Today, we drink!

I take a drink of it today, and WOW does it taste like cotton candy! Not just sugar, but honest to goodness spun sugar, with a little bit of caramelized sugar flavor in there. Behind that, way in the distance, I could taste a little bit of the tea base.

However, once it warmed up a smidge, still well under room temperature, but no longer fridge cold, the cotton candy toned down a bit and that smooth tea base had a chance to shine a little more. I don’t know if that trend would continue the warmer it got, and I never really tried the Cotton Candy black tea.

So anyway, that’s what I’d say. If you want super-in-your-face cotton candy flavor, do yourself a favor and put a mug in the freezer, and pour this tea into it. If you want a more melded experience with the black tea, pour it into a normal cup and wait until it’s ~50 degrees before you drink (anecdotal, made up number based on the fact that my fridge sits at about 40 degrees).

And that’s in Fahrenheit! So no getting confused and heating your iced tea to a sweaty 50 centigrade, blech!

So good! That is all.

Just a quick note on this one -

Missy brewed this side by side for us to taste against Teavivre’s Yun Nan Golden Tip. There is no discernible difference between the two. So, for any fans of this teas flavor profile, as opposed to the cute presentation, that tea would be a viable alternative.

Click here for the skinny:

http://steepster.com/teas/teavivre/21629-yun-nan-dian-hong-black-tea-golden-tip

As part of our ‘try every black that Teavivre has’ thing, we also were hoping that this Golden Tip was going to be a replacement for the discontinued Teavana tarantula tea that we had picked a couple packs of when they discontinued it.

Side by side, I cannot make a distinguishing difference between this and Teavana’s Golden Imperial Lotus (though, obviously, it’s not held together by a string in a round formation).

The tea is smooth, but with a very rich, malty flavor to it. There is a sweet, caramel undertone that really finishes off the taste. It doesn’t feel quite as thick on the tongue as say the Bailin Gong Fu, but it still has quite a bit of weight to it. It’s a very, very enjoyable black tea.

We’re definitely going to keep this one around, me thinks.

The other side of the coin, yet again my friends!

The full leaf yunnan brews into a notably lighter colored beverage than the ‘standard’ black tea (now referred to as half-full). To match, the flavor is lighter as well. Less bold than the half-full, it still has some of the same maltiness, but where the half-full leaf ends in a very apparent smoky finish, this has a light fruitiness at the end of the sip. A little sweet, somewhat indecipherable flavor that kind of creeps in while you’re drinking.

A little less economical, at about $3/oz, but could be preferable to folks that like more refinement and subtlety from their tea. We brewed these both a little on the strong side (7g for 16 oz), so I’m not entirely sure how that would change the character.

I can’t really pick a clear winner between the two, they’re just different.

Continuing on with Teavivre Black Tea today… Yunnan! It’s like we’re taking a tour of Chinese tea, ha!

I did order a sample of basically every black tea they had at the time (they’ve added two since). It’s great of them to offer samples so you can get a good sweeping view of their product line.

This is the Black Tea, the most economically priced yunnan black they have, at a little less than $2 an ounce. The flavor is bold and malty, with a hint of smokiness to it. Not a lapsang, and probably not as strong as the keemun I tried from Teavivre, but there’s definitely smokiness to it (which surprised me a bit).

Compared to the yunnan full leaf that Missy brewed next to this one, there are striking differences. This tea is bold and malty, where the full leaf is refined and mellow. It is definitely an interesting comparison.

We brewed these both a little on the strong side (7g for 16 oz). Made the flavor pop out good and strong for comparison ;)

Oh, the winner? Hrmm… hard to say. They’re just different.

The other end of the epic taste-off between Bailin Gongfu and Organic Bailin Gongfu!

Much like the non-organic version, this tea is very malty, with a decidedly grainy flavor and texture. It has a slightly more pronounced caramel flavor that develops into a little more chocolate-y of a flavor with a teensy bit of sugar added. It’s an absolutely delightful, earthy experience similar to a very stout, dark beer.

Compared to the non-organic BGF, I find the organic version to be a bit bolder and more flavorful, but at the cost of some of the fantastic smoothness. It’s stronger, earthier, and a bit heartier.

So who wins? It’s a very close call, but I’d choose the non-organic for myself. I could see how the organic version could easily be someone’s preference.

Either way, you’re looking at a remarkably good cup of tea.

So, in honor of receiving our Teavivre packages yesterday… we’re having our first taste-off! Bailin Gongfu vs. Organic Bailin Gongfu!

Henceforth, references to this tea will be abbreviated to BGF. Act like you know ;)

This tea is malty and smooth, a very grainy flavor and texture. Beneath it all is a caramelly sweetness, and when you add a little bit of sugar it develops into an almost chocolate kind of flavor. This remarkably interesting flavor combination only reaffirms my association of this to a good, dark beer. It’s earthy, and delightful.

So how does it compare to the Organic BGF? Well, to anyone that has drank this tea before, this isn’t going to make any sense… but the non-organic version is… more subtle. The flavor, as deep and rich as it is, pales a little bit in comparison to the Organic BGF.

However, this strength comes at the price of smoothness. The stronger, earthier organic version lacks a teensy bit of that polished, malty smoothness that the BGF has.

So, I think the blue ribbon goes to the non-organic version. As a daily drinker kind of tea, I’d choose the non-organic for myself. But, I could see how the organic version could easily be someone’s preference.

Either way, you’re looking at a remarkably good cup of tea.

Holy puckered fishface Batman!

This should come with a warning to not drink after dental work. This thing is wicked tart. I am, on occasion, very partial to sour candy. This, on occasion, could be a replacement for a good warhead or lemondrop. I’m also curious about getting a handful of these and making some iced tea out of it with 37 cups of sugar. It would be a very refreshing lime-aid tisane (which they spell teasan?), I’m pretty sure.

It also has a strangely dry, peppery smell to it. This must be the eponymous ‘desert’.

Proceed with caution, my unpuckered friends.

This is the first Harney & Sons tea I’ve ever had, courtesy of Sandy.

I’m not the biggest fan of ‘green’ oolongs as of yet. It’s not that they’re bad, they’re just kind of subtle, and not exactly that… you know… awesome.

However, the pomegranate flavoring of this tea just seems to be the flavor that tea guan yin needs. It’s not overpowering at all in this tea, but it is very apparent. It works very well. Although, I don’t taste any of the ‘juniper’ taste that I normally get with a TGY or assorted green oolongs (high mountain, monkey picked, etc). I’m not sure if that’s just a matter of it blending with the pomegranate, or if this particular TGY doesn’t have that quality at the back of the taste.

Also, if you should happen to be able to pick up a sachet of one of these… I recommend it for nothing else other than the comical value of the post-brew sachet. Missy was giggling so hard at the way the sachet expanded from the TGY almost to the point of bursting. She said it looked like a tea balloon, haha.

Just a quick tasting note… I got distracted by Diablo and drank all the tea before I could give it a proper rating. This is definitely one of the best kangaroo chai I’ve had. Very, very enjoyable. The cardamom is really more of a star than you get in most chai blends, which I think really took some of the edge of the woodsy-ness of the kangaroo flavor.

So, a definite thumbs up. :)

A big thanks to Azzrian for this sample!

I kind of have a love/hate relationship with chocolate mint tea. I really, really like chocolate mint, mint is easily the second best thing you can pair chocolate with (Vanilla being the first, and a lot of people don’t quite consider that fair).

Now, take this tea for example. It’s quite tasty, the flavoring is good, the chocolate is well done and has a definitely chocolate liqueur taste to it, with the mint flavoring coming in afterwards to cool everything down. There is a smooth black tea flavor that comes in just slightly at the end, but it isn’t strong enough to really play much into the beverage experience. Definitely a solid tea that I could keep around, if I wasn’t such a snot.

But I am, and here’s why: just chop up some mint leaves and put them in the darn tea already. Flavoring is fine and dandy, and really I don’t pick sides on the whole natural vs artificial flavoring thing, as long as the taste works out. But for me, with mint, it never really seems that the taste does work out.

Small detour: I wanted to talk about the weird mint flavoring here, and why it didn’t taste like, you know, mint-mint to me. But my enter key got stuck, and was inserting a billion new lines into my review. So I did what any sane, rational thinking man would do: grabbed the nearest metal thing and pry it off with brute force. This worked well, and my enter key popped up with a nice, satisfying snap and a solid propulsion arc… directly into my tea cup. Seriously, this is comedy gold.

Anyway… plus, mint is so much prettier, and seems to meld in with the tea flavors a lot more than mint flavoring does. This is quite likely psychosomatic, but it seems that I’m much happier with my mint experience in tea if there’s actually shredded up mint leaves, as opposed to mint flavoring which has been applied.

That’s probably enough out of me tonight folks. Have a good first of July ;)

We got this tea as a sample from the always wonderful Sandy!

I remember trying this some time ago hot, and while it was enjoyable, it didn’t really strike my fancy.

Iced though, this thing is a sparkly, sparkly gem.

The cinnamon and clove are the dominant flavors, definitely the stars of the show. The orange flavor is sweet and very natural tasting, melding in with the very, very smooth ceylon tea.

This thing I find most remarkable about this is it doesn’t make me think of Christmas, at all. I don’t get it, it should. The description and flavor combination screams Christmas like a heavy metal rendition of Here Comes Santa Claus. But the way the flavors blend together comes off a lot more distinct than I expected. Or, maybe it’s just because it’s iced, and I’m crazy. Both are distinct possibilities.

Anyway… this is still magically sitting in TropicalTeaCo’s $1.00/oz sale selection, and it’s a beaut of an iced tea. Probably one of their best. Double plus good, at least.

Someone left a bag of this at work for me to try. The hint of lime with the mint flavor is kind of interesting. I might try adding a little lime to my next batch of moroccan mint, see how that turns out. Though this seems to sacrifice some mint in search of lime… and less mint is always less bueno, Mr. Mojito!

Still magnificent. Absolutely the best fruit tisane I’ve ever had. Upping the rating on this one, not sure why I gave it a lowly 94 to begin with!

We received this tea from Rachel as part of the iced tea swap from DaisyChubb’s blog (daisychubb.com). So thanks to both of you!

The whole point of the swap was to get iced tea blend… but we’re being rebels and brewing it hot:).

This is a very fruity blend, and would probably be GREAT iced, so we may have to try that a little later. The most predominant fruit flavor that I taste is the orange peel, followed by the papaya, apple, and some tart that must be the cranberries. Add in some cinnamon to warm everything up, and it’s a pretty enjoyable brew.

The black tea itself is kind of lost in this whole mixture, I can’t really say that I taste it at all. This probably has something to do with the steeping parameter being 185 degrees, which took me a little by surprise (black tea and fruit, can’t I just boil it to death?).

A big thanks again to both Rachel and Daisy :)

Yeah, this one is going to have to stick around too.

I’m finding I prefer roasted mate to normal mate… pretty much… always. The roasted, toasty goodness really makes everything nice.

This tea from 52teas is no exception. The roasted base mate is strong and flavorful, with the sweet, almost bitter dark chocolate flavor coming in nicely afterwards… finishing with a hint of banana? Yes, it definitely seems to be banana at the end.

I think if I ever had to try to lure someone away from coffee, I might start them with this tea. It has a lot of similar characteristics that you would find in a good cup of coffee, and that creaminess that really makes the morning kind of come together. If I could trust myself to boil water in the morning without causing myself serious damage, I might use this instead of my typical cup of Mr. Coffee. I don’t, but that’s besides the point.

With my first order from SerendipiTea, they sent me a sample of Persian Nectar, which is their peach black tea. It was good, remarkably good, as I didn’t really consider myself a fan of peach flavored tea. But it was sweet, and tasty, and… well, it just seemed right coming in to summer.

So, I decided to hit up Amazon for this one, which is their peach ginger tea. And it totally paid off.

The peach flavor of this tea is just at the perfect level… it definitely knows who is boss, and saunters its way all around the house while it’s steeping. But in the flavor, it isn’t too overpowering. Oh, it’s dominant, but it doesn’t offend. The black tea rounds out the soft sweetness of the tea, with just a hint of the ginger at the end to add a little spice. Truly a fantastic tea.

I’m on my second glass of this iced, I grilled some burgers, topped with swiss, some fresh tzatziki sauce, and sprouts on a toasted whole wheat bun, paired with this iced tea… it was heaven. Neither the burgers nor the tea lasted very long. So now I’m taking my time with the second glass…

…maybe.

This tea was really quite excellent. It has a sweetness to it that overlays the light vegetable flavor to it very, very well. Absolutely delicious.

However…

Once this tea cools down, it’s downright undrinkable. I had given a little cup of this to Sandy at work, and she really didn’t like it. I’m guessing that has something to do with the fact that she let it cool down… because it’s really taking on an unpleasant, rubbery taste. So yeah, absolutely fantastic tea when drank warm.

There’s a great story about this tea. My boss is absolutely in love with it, and since her bushel of this came in recently, she gave Missy and I a sample (in a cute little hand painted tin as well). Thanks Sandy!

After she had ordered it the first time, she brought it over to my desk and we were chatting about it. My olfactory sense is not what one would consider superhuman. Considering it subhuman would be graceful, and probably more than it deserves. One of the places that this becomes really, really apparent is with cherry or almond flavoring. As far as I can tell, they are the exact same. So a lot of things that are supposed to be almond taste really fruity and weird to me.

While we were discussing this, another coworker (who we shall call Bob for as to protect his anonymity) walks by. Never one to allow a guinea pig to walk by untested, I stop Bob, and ask him if he has ever had an issue differentiating these two should-be-less-similar-than-they-are scents.

Bob’s answer? Of course not! So we hand him the tea, and he confidently responds that it smells like cherries… and I burst into laughter. Totally made my day.

Anyway, this is a nice, dark oolong with a light fruity/nutty flavor from the almond/cherry flavoring. It really has a good compliment of flavors, without either being overpowering. A nice, flavorful tea.

Hrmm… not sure what’s going on with this right here. This is supposed to be a fairly typical chai… but it’s… not.

The concept of a savory tea is a little bit confusing to me. I’ve seen references to Frank’s tomato and basil tea, and it turned me a little green. This? Well, it’s also turning me a little green.

The two most predominant flavors I’m getting from this are pepper and… pine? I don’t know what to say, but it tastes like pine. I really have no idea why. It is truly bizarre.

This might be a case of ‘we need to try this again before we make any decisions’. I’m really not sure how it came out tasting the way it does… but at the moment, not too terribly impressed. Maybe I’m just having an off chai day ;)