Peter Azak

A teaspoon and a half of tea leaves to a teaspoon of rock sugar makes for a milky smooth and sexy brew to close out the day.

Starting this cold and wet Wednesday morning sipping cookies with coconut yogurt.

This is also my first 2012 cup of tea at work.

Still as delicious as it was in 2011.

What better way to bring in the new year of 2012? With your favorite Teavana blend.

After trying Adagio’s pumpkin spice tea, coming back to a proper pumpkin tea is very refreshing and satisfying.

The pumpkin and spice flavors still dance in your mouth, the aroma of a delicious pumpkin pie fill your nostrils as you sip this wonderful brew.

My second cup of candy cane tea, this time at work.

This tea is still very minty and still smooth, and with the right amount of sugar can be nicely sweet as well.

I’ve had pumpkin spice teas before, and this does not taste like pumpkins or spice.

The pumpkin flavor is nonexistent, as is the spices; what we do have is sub-par black tea with a bland spice somewhere.

It also has a strange aftertaste that gives off a vague banana cream pie flavor, which is very weird.

There is a bit of creaminess to the flavor, but because it’s called pumpkin spice, this tea is a real disappointment.

Like Adagio’s candy cane tea, the delicious scents of cranberry fills the room once you open the canister and once you start steeping.

The taste is very fruity and sweet, with a slight tartness.

The black tea and fruit have blended well to give a very soft brew with a deep red tint.

I am very surprised with this tea, as I did not expect to like it as much as I have.

This tea is very minty.

While steeping, the aroma of peppermint filled the room.

The flavor is very fresh, with a smooth black tea accenting the candy cane and peppermint.

Although not outstanding, because of how minty this tea is, it is wonderfully festive and enjoyable.

This is a very easy drinking green tea, as it is surprisingly smooth, a little buttery, and very light, with a planty taste.

Let’s get this straight: this is not Teavana Almond Biscotti tea.

What this is is organic tea mixed with almonds and cinnamon to attempt to taste like Teavana’s Almond Biscotti.

My first steep was with 1 teaspoon of leaves to 3/4 teaspoon of rock sugar. The taste was a bit off, like it was missing something very crucial. It didn’t have that exact cookie flavor, but it did have almonds and cinnamon mixed with some decent black tea.

My second steep was with 2 teaspoons of leaves to 1 teaspoon of rock sugar. What a world of difference more leaves makes for this tea, as it gains more flavor. The black tea isn’t strong enough to overpower everything else, so the almond and cinnamon dance.

Despite the improvement in taste, this still isn’t Teavana’s Almond Biscotti. The buttery taste is trying to get there, but it doesn’t seem like everything is enough quality to have that harmony of flavors blend together properly.

Because of this lower grade in quality, I don’t think you can steep the leaves more than once either.

This is a very interesting take on lemonade, as the ginger gives the juicy citrus flavors a light spice.

Hot, it’s a satisfactory tea, but it would seem much better cold, as it seems meant to be a more iced tea lemonade.

With a beautifully deep clear golden honey color, this tea is a very floral bouquet of earthy flavors, rich and thick with a delicate bitterness.

The aroma is a light and complex freshness that seems to linger long after your first sip.

Now this is Darjeeling tea, with the nutty wooden flavor and a slight floral taste.

Very rich in color, flavor and aroma.

This is a very floral oolong tea.

I typically prefer the more earthy wooden oolongs, but this is nice and fresh.

Indeed, the description also describes a smooth flavor, with a smokey hint in both taste and aroma.

Very light, smoky and smooth flavor.

The taste mimics the light yellow color, with a tinge of green.

The scent is very sweet, very earthy.

I really like this tea.

A very soft yet bold chai blend, it is less about the spices and more about the strong black and cardamon.

I believe the ginger softens this with a tinge of sweetness, bringing out the teaspoon of rock sugar, to lessen the bold taste of cardamon; very complex, very interesting.

I’ve had many chai blends that tend to go a little overboard on the cardamon, but this works with it and then some, delicious.

This will be the last of the Almond Biscotti, as Teavana has changed it to Amandine Rose, which they have promised is exactly the same tea.

This tea is still a very buttery dream, with an equal amount of rock sugar it is still like drinking a very delicious cookie.

This morning I have been in almond Teavana tea heaven.

And this is the last of my Spice of Life tea.

I really enjoy this tea, there is a magical blend of flavors that seem to fit in every season, I think the orange makes it so versatile.

But the almonds and hazelnut really strengthen the body, with spices that is more reminiscent of the Christmas holidays.

Now that it’s properly snowing with no sign of rain, hopefully, I can now fully enjoy the last of this tea.

I love how the second steep just makes the brew much creamier, while still keeping the coconut flavor prominent.

At the end of the week, this tea is a divine dessert.

With Mayer Hawthorne’s cover of Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmas time is here” playing, this seems to be perfect right now for a holiday tea.

Lightly spiced with citrus, almonds and pistachio, its slowly easing me into the Christmas spirit I barely have right now.

I am now starting to double the tea leaves from chai teas.

The result from this tea? Heavenly. Because of the thicker brew, again, the rock sugar seems to embody instead of fall to the bottom of the cup, giving the tea a much sweeter, creamier flavor.

Doubling the tea leaves from 1 teaspoon to 2 allows for a thicker brew, which in turn allows the rock sugar to stay throughout the body and not fall to the bottom of the cup.

It also gives it a much fuller flavor, not so much spicier as it is a richer woody oolong taste entwined with the spices.

More tea = better experience

I think I am getting to a point where the flavor is reaching an almost buttery texture, similar to Teavana’s Almond Biscotti.

The black tea and almond still harmonize, but the taste is now getting comfortably creamy.

I wish it could taste like biting into a cookie, as the almond biscotti always does, but this is as close as I’m going to get for now.