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Second matcha latte of the day, because when I drank it a few hours ago I REALLY needed to wake up. I have some sort of flu/bug and I am just bone-tired for no reason! I woke up at my usual time, was up for an hour, and promptly took a 4 hour nap. But you know I can’t sleep all day! Actually… I probably COULD but I don’t want to haha. So matcha to the rescue!

I loooove english toffee. I make it quite often, since there are 3 ingredients (if you don’t do the chocolate/nut topping) and I always have them on hand. I tend to just use whatever kind of chocolate I have on hand to top it, so I end up with wacky things like white chocolate coconut toffee. It is also AMAZING for making with tea—just steep the butter, and bam! Tea toffee! So of course, I have to try toffee tea. In fact, this has been really high up on my list for a long time but honestly I try not to get too many dessert teas per order. I don’t even know why, it’s not like they have more calories… but I try to balance it with fruity stuff. But finally, toffee matcha’s time has come! I got:

Size: 30 grams (small)
Grade: Basic
Flavor Level: Distinctive

I was super tempted to get this with the black base, since I love chocolate flavors + black matcha but I wanted to try something chocolatey with a regular old green base. Also, one of these days I’ll get a large… but I have to find “the one” first. Caramel and pumpkin pie are currently in the lead! But I think tonight they found a challenger.

This matcha is phenomenal! You taste the sweet, buttery toffee and the rich chocolate, even a hint of nutty goodness. And it really is good with the green base! These flavors are like magic, how did they stuff so many aspects of a tasty treat into matcha? I mean, this isn’t simply caramel + nuts + chocolate. It really does have that buttery smoothness and a toastiness that I associate with toffee. It’s magic I tell you, magic. Delicious, perfect magic. You can get some here… and if you like dessert matcha, you definitely should!

http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/english-toffee-matcha.html

This is one matcha I definitely didn’t think I would ever get. There are just SO many tasty flavors, and butterscotch has never really been one of my favorite things. Well, the candies: I do love fresh butterscotch syrup on some vanilla ice cream. Yum! But this has a little candy image, so I assumed it’d be like those. However, I ended up changing my mind because of two things: my bf loves butterscotch and expressed an interest in this flavor, and Azzrian made it sound absolutely irresistible! To be honest, I got the macadamia nut that I’ll be trying tomorrow because of her too. You’re an enabler! My matcha collection is getting so big! Anyway, my matcha was as follows:

Size: Small (30 grams)
Grade: Classic
Flavor Level: Delicate

I usually go for distinctive for dessert-type flavors, but I wasn’t so sure about how butterscotch-y I wanted my matcha to be haha. Plus, I had spent way too much by the time I added this one to my cart! I find that there’s not really a TON of difference in flavor levels: at least, the matcha is always going to taste like the correct flavor. Yeah, robust gives it a little more oomph, but it also masks the matcha a tiny bit so distinctive and delicate are the way I usually go.

I made an iced latte of this for the bf (and English Toffee for myself!) and WOW. I took a little sip (hey, I have to be able to review it!) and promptly gave the mug to him. I expected I’d have to finish it off: he likes matcha, but never actually finishes a whole mug haha. Tiny mugs even! But this one, oh man, he downed 2/3rds in one chug. The rest vanished minutes later! Successful? Oh yeah! This is his favorite of mine, and I think he’s tried almost all of them.

The flavor is so smooth and perfectly butterscotch-y. And not cheap candy. No, this is rich decadent creamy sweet gooey butterscotch. Ah, it’s so tasty! I really really want to make some frosting with this one, I bet it would be beyond delicious. You can get some here:

http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/butterscotch-matcha.html

When my mom was a kid, all medicine was grape flavored. To this day she can’t have any grape candies/sodas/etc, because no matter how well done it is, it reminds her of medicine. I am very much the same way with cherry: anything with real cherries (jam, ice cream, etc) is fine but candy… bleurgh. It could be the best cherry flavor in the world and I by association wouldn’t like it. However, I LOVE black cherries, so I took a risk and got this matcha anyway when it went on sale. As a side note, kids today are lucky: medicines are grape, orange, cherry, even mint! So they can pick the flavor they’ll grow up loathing for the rest of their lives.

My matcha was a small (30g) with the classic matcha base and the delicate level of flavoring. I wasn’t too sure how much I’d like this, so of course I went with the smallest flavor level! Also, it was a stand-alone order that I didn’t have a certificate for, so I kept everything basic. I do have 5 fancier matchas on my kitchen table right now waiting to be tried! But first, me versus my dislike of cherry. Start battle!

Okay, in the pouch this smells really nice and fresh, but I am still getting some weird medicinal vibes. Don’t get me wrong: the flavoring isn’t artificial or medicinal in the least. It’s just my stupid brain! I decided to make this iced in a tall glass of cold water (though I did the hot water + whisking base first along with sugar—what, I like my matcha a little sweet!). I thought this would be the best way to deal with my medicine associations.

Well… it is really good. It tastes like fresh, ripe black cherries. But. Ah, I hate that there’s a but! I am having a REALLY hard time getting over my cherry = medicine thing here. I think iced was the wrong choice, so I am going to go with a latte next time and for now I am holding off on a rating. Because I know this matcha will be fabulous if I just make it the right way! And if you don’t have a secret hatred of cherries you will adore this matcha, I think it’s by far one of the best of their fruit-flavored ones (that I’ve tried, of course!). You can get it here:

http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/black-cherry-matcha.html

I could have sworn that I wrote something about this tea already! Upon further inspection it appears I haven’t, even though I drank it about a week ago. Curious indeed. I don’t know why I would have put it off: this was really a great tea! I also got the Coconut Oolong from them, basically for the sake of comparing and contrasting two coconut teas. I love coconut and would really like to find one that 1) I love and 2) is affordable enough to make big pitchers of. Now, their Coconut Oolong was fantastic but first off too expensive for everyday use (not a fault, of course, oolongs just tend to be pricey!) and was also similar to a tea I already have (GMT’s Coconut Pouchong.)

Right at the start, this tea has a lot of the things I am looking for in a nice iced tropical blend. Reasonable price, actual coconut bits, and it smells great! Of course, the time for iced tea here has come and gone, in fact I’m sipping an iced green right now and shivering… yet I continue to drink, because I just love iced tea so much! I swear, it’ll be the dead of winter during one of those NY blackouts and I’ll be drinking iced tea while freezing my butt off under a pile of blankets.

Anyway, onto the tea! It’s definitely quite coconutty—not the same super strong upfront coconut as the oolong, a more delicate and somehow relaxed tea. It isn’t super fancy or frilly, it’s just a great everyday tea. Most of my absolute favorites are in the same category: as nice as it is to have fancy, special occasion teas I am very loyal to the ones I can have all the time and find myself reaching for over and over again. And this… yes, it definitely delivers on that front. It’s light, sweet, fresh coconut, with a strong but not overly dominant green base. Which is exactly what I was looking for! Sadly, I have to wait until it’s October to order any more tea since I have to use my debit card 10 times a month (or face the wrath of banking fees). But this and the Orange Grapefruit will definitely come home with me!

I got some of this from Amanda and decided to try it “blind” aka I had no idea what the ingredients where when I drank it. Honestly, I started the cold brew late last night and was too lazy to look it up, but let’s pretend I had some fancy reason.

This tea is… weird. I am getting apple/pear, mint, something citrus-y, maybe a little tart hibiscus? And then at the end, coconut and caramel, I swear to god. It’s creamy and rich, totally different from the beginning of the sip. It tastes like someone mixed a minty tea with a fruity tea and threw in something sweet to go along with it. My mouth is confused!

Upon looking at the ingredients, there’s no coconut OR caramel. Is there vanilla? That might be it, but doesn’t explain the coconut vibe. Mysterious! I honestly don’t know how to rate this tea (it’s good, but SO weird) so I will just hold off on that one. Suffice to say, this was an intriguing drinking experience.

On a related note, it is COLD today in New York. Like, mid-fall cold, yet it’s only the end of September. Brrr, why am I drinking iced tea!

As you may know, I am on the quest for the perfect grapefruit tea. There are a lot that I love, but many of them have other flavors added that while they do go well with grapefruit (like Zen’s Orange Grapefruit) prevents them from being the one. You know, the one tea I’ll give my heart to and we’ll run away and live happily ever after in a castle by the sea in France. Uhh I really like grapefruit. And I also love Butiki, so I have been eagerly awaiting this tea for months, as soon as Stacy announced she was working on it! Of course tragedy struck and I shipped my order to the wrong place so I was supposed to get it LAST Tuesday but had to wait until yesterday when I could take a trip up to my parent’s house. Stupid paypal, why do you default to my billing address! Depriving me of tea!

In any case, I was ridiculously excited to open this one up and made everyone around me smell it including… one of my cats. My little girl (well, she’s my mom’s cat, but we handraised a group of kittens from 10 days old so I consider the three of them “mine” haha) LOVES tea leaves and was very fond of this blend. She’s always trying to eat them but I think the citrus prevented her this time, though she did take a big whiff. The smell is delicious, like fresh grapefruit. It’s not as strong as I assumed it would be, very subtle and nice.

I cold brewed this one because, come on, I can’t drink grapefruit warm! It’s like… a travesty against all that is natural. Grapefruit must be ice-cold with just a teeny teeny splash of sugar. I can’t drink sweetened grapefruit juice to be honest, it has to be the regular stuff (which no one else in my family will drink haha), BUT I did put a pinch of sugar in as this was brewing, just to bring out all the flavors.

Oooh man, this is grapefruity heaven. Sweet, tart, citrusy. And nothing else is competing with it, so it’s all grapefruit all the way! Well, of course there’s a lovely dragonwell base which adds some interesting nuttiness and grassy freshness. It’s perfect, sweet grapefruit. Ruby grapefruit! The tartness is right on point, not overpowering but also still there. In my book, grapefruit teas need a little bite. They’re just not right without it! And this is perfection. Oh grapefruit tea, I’ve found you! Never leave me! Thanks so much to Stacy for coming up with this amazing concoction. If you like grapefruit you NEED to try it. But no I won’t put samples of this in a swap, it’s mine, all mine, bwahaha! One of those treasures you guard carefully and savor every last leaf.

Another Earl Grey Cream to check off my list! Seriously, I am on a mission to try them alllll. I got this in my envelope from Amanda and was excited since, well, I love EGCs but I am also becoming quite fond of Della Terra. Their Mother of Pearl and Walnut Brittle are totally unbeatable teas, and everything else has been yummy too.

To be totally honest, I kind of have trouble telling EGCs apart at this point haha. Aside from a few standouts, they do tend to blend together. This one is heavy on the vanilla with less bergamot, making an exceptionally creamy cup though it’s not as Earl Grey-ish as some others I’ve tried. I had it both hot and iced and preferred it hot, even though I do love a good cold brewed EGC. It’s good but not WOW blowing me away good, a nice offering but too similar to others for me to really want to stock it. However, if you’ve never tried an Earl Grey Cream I think this would be a good place to start, it’s got a nice balance and isn’t heavy on the bergamot!

I got this in my Try Me pack and for some reason held off on trying it. I don’t know why, maybe I wanted to be in a fall mood? Well, it’s cold today, plus I really want a cookie but I don’t have any.

When brewing, this tea seriously makes the kitchen smell like baking cookies. Mmm! Of course, it’s kind of impossible to totally replicate a cookie taste in a tea, but this comes darn close. The black base has some bake-y notes, and combined with the vanilla and brown sugar flavorings it really seems like some sort of cookie or sugary bread. Delicious! The raisin really comes through, adding nice earthy fruity notes. I didn’t get a WHOLE lot of oatmeal, in fact not much at all but the vanilla/brown sugar combo pretty much covers the baked good base well enough. The cinnamon brings everything together nicely, though my one complaint is that I think there might be a little bit too much in my cup. It’s very strong and not quite but almost overpowers some of the subtler notes.

That being said, this tea is fantastic! A really good, warming cup for a cool fall evening. I think I am definitely going to have to stock this one.

I made this one hot for the virtual tea tasting and liked it but didn’t love it—it was very cinnamon-y and a bit lacking in berry flavor. Since all the flavoring elements here are natural ingredients, I thought they’d benefit from a long cold steep since that would really draw out all the berry flavor. Cold, this is much better!

The color is so pretty, a nice rosy pink. Which means lots of berry flavor! And indeed, it’s a lot stronger this way. A little tart, with distinct raspberry and goji berry notes. The cinnamon comes in at the end instead of overwhelming the cup, and it really adds to the green tea/berry combo to make this very cobbler-ish but still fresh & fruity.

Mangoes are my favorite fruit. Or at least, I think they are! My opinions seem to be divided, and watermelon (any melon, really) and pomegranate are close contenders. Man, you know what would be amazing? Honeydew Matcha. I could see that ripe melon taste going SO well with a grassy green base. Oh man, I am drooling at the thought. Not, uh, literally drooling, but I might if honeydew matcha was a real thing! Ummm back to the matter at hand. Mangoes! I love ’em! Especially when they reach that perfect peak of ripeness and are fall-apart juicy but still with a great texture.

Of course I had to try mango matcha. I especially got it to mix with my coconut and rose (separately!), but regular old mango has to be tried first. I got a small with green matcha and distinctive flavor—my preferred for fruity matchas. The smell in the bag seemed particularly strong/artificial, but I’ve found that’s usual for matcha and it doesn’t reflect the taste.

I have to say, this really isn’t a straight mango flavor. The mango aspect is quite interesting—it’s not juicy mango flesh, but more like… you know, when you’re cutting a mango and there’s some flesh left after you peel it so you scrape your teeth on the rind to get it all? You get mango flesh, but also some rind-y goodness as well that adds a woodsy, almost tangy taste. Well, that’s what the mango is like here! Rind-y. It’s kind of nice, quite different from other mango teas I’ve tried.

But… and sadly, there is a but. This tastes like lemon! Not a hint, a little whiff of citrus. It’s really lemony! I would guess this was Mango Lemon if I didn’t know better. Another review mentions citrus too (I didn’t read them first, just perusing to see if I was way off-base), so I guess it’s just how the mango flavoring is? Now that I know it, it won’t be such a surprise when I make it next and I think I could really get to like it. You can find it here:

http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/mango-matcha.html