Whynotzoidberg

This is my first black tea I’ve ever tried (lipton tea bags don’t count :P) and as someone who has only drunken (drank?) whites and greens, I have to say that this is a really damn good introduction into black tea. Right when I opened the bag I knew that this was going to be a completely different tea experience for me.

The smell was earthy and it definitely smelled like I would expect a black tea to smell. The leaves were hard, thin, and wiry which was a lot different from the soft and green leaves of.. well.. green tea. Two teaspoons didn’t look like two teaspoons because of the different way it takes up space, but I just shrugged and put it in anyway.

The liquor is a deep red/brown and it smells just like its leaves. When I finally got around to drinking the tea, it was as if the tea gods slapped me across the face and said “welcome to the world of black tea.”

It’s not as strong as I thought it would be (this means nothing coming from someone with no black tea background) but it is still delicious. The best part is the fact that this heavenly and delicious tea is only $9 per 3 ounces. You can’t say no to that!

I just have to find out what this goes well with, I’m guessing cinnamon, the taste of this tea almost begs for cinammon.

So, Teavana has this tea called Caribbean Calypso which tastes exactly the same as this tea (except it’s half the price as this one). I’m not kidding, I have both of them, drank them back to back and there are very subtle differences. The problem comes from the Lemongrass. Yes, the Lemongrass, is what Teavana piles on top of weak teas in order to make them seem.. well.. less weak. And the con of that method shows in the fact that two of their teas taste almost completely identical. I’d love this specific tea if I wasn’t aware that I could get it in the same store for half the price.

No notes yet.

I liked this tea the first time I made it, but after a while it developed an extremely repulsive smell. Then the smell started to carry over to the taste and that’s when I actually threw out the tea after repeated instance of painful cups of tea. I really wanted to like this tea considering I love pomegranate, but it really fell on its face.

This is my backup for my Caribbean Calypso Maté tea when I want to switch things up for a bit. The smell is phenomenal but the actual taste feels like there’s something missing. Regardless, I never dislike drinking it or else I wouldn’t put it in my morning wake up routine hehe

Well priced and full bodied taste. Every morning I make a Maté tea and put it in my thermos and take it to school as my drink for the day to replace soda. This is my favorite breakfast tea especially when I steep it with a half stick of cinnamon in the pot while it’s brewing. I will recommend this to everyone I meet as a morning tea

Here’s what justifies the price:

$20 for 2 ounces. Seems really out of proportion, right? Well, as opposed to 1 teaspoon for eight ounces, you use half a teaspoon. This effectively cuts the price in half in relation to how teavana prices their tea. By using only half the amount of tea than usual, you have to attribute that to the price. In relation to everything else: only ten bucks for 2oz. Extremely fair considering the quality.

I just bought this tea today and I can’t get enough of it. It has a very vegetal and grassy flavor with a wonderful scent. The flavor is so unique to me that I can’t compare it to anything else. For an extra kick, I tried adding Teavana’s Morrocan Mint to it and it is a match made in heaven. Next I’m gonna try adding in jasmine and see how that goes :D