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Well….it’s good? I guess? I don’t know. I had such high hopes for tasting rhubarb because I thought that would be neat, but the hibiscus really overshadowed that for me. Then, I thought at least maybe I’d get enough good peach flavor to make me happy, since that’s one of my favorite tea flavors….but…not so much. Oh well. I’ll try another Tea Forte sample the next time my co-worker gets some, but I wouldn’t buy any myself.

No kidding about the sweet part! Since I almost never sweeten my teas, it was a little startling just how sweet it is. Luckily, I don’t mind the taste of stevia and got over it pretty quickly. I WILL be trying this with a little almond milk as soon as I get some because I think that’s going to bring out the pumpkin-ness.

I love this tea so much more than I expected to. Turns out I like citrus (?) even though I’ve avoided it for a long time. I can’t say I taste it strongly, although I’ve heard from others that the citrus is nearly ALL they taste. I’m beginning to wonder if I simply don’t know what citrus tastes like when it comes to being in teas because I don’t think Earl Grey tastes citrusy in the least. Anyway, I love the mint and chamomile in this way. So relaxing.

Now, the real business….valerian. Holy Bananas, Batman….this stuff is weird. I swear it makes your body feel heavy….like dead-weight, uber-relaxed muscles heavy…..like you-just-ran-a-frickin-marathon-so-no-wonder-all-you-want-to-do-is-sleep kind of heavy…I actually slept on my back because my relaxed breathing was so shallow that when I was laying on my side, I was worried the weight of my arm laying on my side was going to make it hard to breathe. It was really trippy but super awesome at the same time and not as scary as I’m probably making it sound. I’ve had this tea 4 nights in a row just to see if maybe I WAS just that tired the first night, but no. It’s the tea. I also find that I sleep better because I don’t move around (I’m usually a world-class wiggler). So…yeah. Whoa.

So…I may or may not be broken…..this is supposed to have guava and strawberry in it and smells DIVINE but….why don’t I taste guava or strawberry? I feel like all I’m tasting is the black/green blend. Perhaps I need to add sugar? I’m so used to NOT adding sugar to teas that I never know when it would be better if I did. Usually, I brew this cold and really like the overall taste. I still can’t say even when it’s cold that I get all that much fruit flavor. But, I had it hot for the first time today and will probably only brew it cold from here on out.

Also, how bad would it be if I stashed the last sachet under the driver’s seat of my car? I bet the smell would last halfway til forever!

I drink this quite often as my cold tea during the work day. I’ve had it hot but can’t say that I am a huge fan of hot hibiscus. I usually prefer it cold. I appreciate the tartness and almost never sweeten it because of that. When I do sweeten it, it’s usually just by adding some lemonade. The hibiscus flavor is so strong that I usually use one bag for a 32 oz bottle and I’m good to go.

I’m not just sure how I feel about this overall….

Not usually one for banana-flavored things (since they usually can’t help but taste artificial), I grabbed a sample of this when I ordered a sampler box just to see if it was possible to do banana tea. Upon drinking this hot, I was quite pleasantly surprised with how much I liked it. I had no milk or sugar to speak of (apparently everybody at my workplace drinks black coffee?) and would probably like to try it with just a bit of milk and maybe even cold. I imagine that it would be reminiscent of a frozen chocolate-covered banana if served cold. I may not get a chance to try it that way though since I don’t know that I’d buy a whole tin of this and only had one sample pack to try.

After trying this, I am looking forward to trying a couple of the other Cuppa teas that I chose samples of.

This was fun to try! I haven’t had lavender in a tea before. I think the Darjeeling in it lightened it up a bit, while the lavender made it smell good and feel more complex. I definitely wouldn’t mind drinking this often. Now, if only I could find an Earl Grey that had a naturally caffeine-free base that still fulfilled all of my Grey hopes and dreams so that I could drink it at night, too……

I have an Earl Grey with a white tea base coming this week…perhaps that will at least be going in the right direction?

Not in love with this Earl Grey but my dad brought me a couple bags of this when he came over for coffee with my grandmother and I the other day. I like some of the Bigelow teas, but I definitely want to try more brands.

I actually used to hate Earl Grey because I always thought it smelled like anise. A mother whose child I tutored used to bring me Earl Grey every morning regardless of the fact that I never drank it. I finally drank it one morning when I was sick, and I think I’ve sort of associated it with soothing every since then. I forgot about it for a long time after that. It wasn’t until about a month ago that I got tea one night when I wasn’t feeling well and this was my only option. After reading the package and finding that there wasn’t any anise in it, I had to look up what bergamot is to see if that was what the smell comes from. I still don’t smell or taste citrus when I drink this even though that is what bergamot is. Anyway, I have been craving it so much lately and drinking it often.

This is definitely better cold, in my opinion. I first sampled this at a street fair and immediately had to have some because it was so amazing. It has such a wonderful coconut flavor when cold and just feels so refreshing. I happen to have tried it warm tonight and wasn’t loving it nearly as much.

On a side note, the bag had a sort of alcohol-type smell when first opened (the coconut oil I guess??) that was off-putting. It goes away after being brewed for a few minutes. Also, the bits are quite small and seem to come out of many of the tea balls I have. My mesh strainer is the only one that this stood a chance in.