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This was a pleasant and sweet surprise. I was offered a sample by somebody not on Steepster and thought, from the name, that it would be a bit bogus. I was surprised by its sweet fruitiness. I want to try more. The two cups I had were delicious—fruity and minty.

This tea has a je ne sais quois that makes it superior to the many fruit teas I’ve sampled of late.

I may have to drink this several times before I come to any conclusions. The dry aroma really highlights the tomato. Pretend that you are in a tomato garden and you can smell the more distant odor of basil and green bell peppers. And tea, of course.

The French store, from which I ordered this says that: “Many great things are born from the most outrageous ideas. So for which reason should a tea not be perfumed by the lush perfume of tomatoes? Flavor: Tomato and lemon. Base: Darjeeling.”

Sipping my first cup, I am having a bit of cognitive dissonance. This tea is so very summer salad and at the same time so very much a black tea. I could see it working more with a green tea, but I also think I need some time to lean into this tea. I might add a bit o’ sugar next time. I think that I am going to like it because now that the tea is finished, I want to do an immediate second steep.

I feel that I ate a very juicy and ripe tomato that was grown in a garden in the full summer. Some green bell pepper and maybe some basil were added. A couple of grains of salt and black pepper were sprinkled over it and then a squeeze of lemon juice.. And then some caffeine steroids were added.

Gratitude to The O Dor for their interesting ideas and I suspect that this tea will gain more points as I drink it more. I don’t think it’s for tea purists, but it’s probably for anyone who likes something different. It’s piquant!

EDIT:
This tea is very tricky, fussy, and moody although it’s worth it if you can get it right. Steeped too long, and it’s bitter quickly. 2 minutes and 45 seconds is perfect for me. It can be very astringent. It is highly reminiscent of gazpacho. It’s worth pursuing to try to get it right, in spite of its moodiness.

I got a sample of this (loose leaf) from Harney & Sons. With the loose leaf tea I know that I steeped a lot more leaf than one could get in a Harney bagged tea. While this tea was simple and sweet and not particularly impressive as I drank it, I started to notice that the after-taste was quite authentically pomegranate and very sweet and fruity.

It would not surprise me if I never think of this tea again.

It would not surprise me if I suddenly have a deep craving for it in the future. It’s made an imprint, at the very least.

I notice that they suggest this as an iced tea and I think that it would make a very tasty and flavorful one.

I am enjoying this tea. I suspect that it is highly similar to other almond teas, but there is a sense of nut “butter” which I don’t get from my other beloved almond teas. There’s not enough of a difference to assert that this tea stands out from other almond teas, but it is, like many of them, excellent for almond lovers.

Yes, I am enjoying this tea.

I think that I will always like to have an almond tea “in stock” (along with a vanilla and a coconut tea). So far I have not tasted the one almond tea that it must be, but this one is certainly a contender.

The California Tea House gave me very speedy delivery service on my order. That counts for a lot with me. As i drink more tea, I can anticipate what to reorder and when to reorder it.

Today I was a little more careful. I used only 4 ounces of water. I still don’t think I’m getting the full effect. I’ve noticed that the tasting notes are all over the place on this tea. I can smell the floral aspects which are pleasant but not to-fall-in-love-with. I can also pick up on a sun-shiny buttery aspect of the tea.

I think my palate prefers the big boom to the delicate touch. In terms of being a tea drinker, I feel a bit like Sir Walter Scott felt about Jane Austen: "The Big Bow-wow strain I can do myself like any now going; but the exquisite touch, which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting, from the truth of the description and the sentiment, is denied to me. "
The exquisite palate is denied to me but I certainly enjoy those Big Bow-wow teas.

My ratings, by the way, reflect my own pleasure in the tea and have nothing to do with the tea’s actual merit or lack thereof.

This tea is a tea revelation. If you read my notes, you probably think I have tea revelations on an hourly basis. At the rate I’m going, they happen no more than weekly.

This Keemun is a deeply rewarding tea. It has many moods, nuances, and overtones. It’s very rich and one does not need to seek out subtlety or wonder “could that really be a fleeing taste of chestnut?” or “is this deeply walked-in shoe leather a figment of my imagination?”

Ku Cha, which provides very speedy delivery and excellent service, has a real winner here. The full-bodied tea makes me want to stand up straight, starch my collars, and salute. The aroma and taste is a bit playful yet staunch at the same time: some very light smoke, some fruity grape (or is that wine?) some cocoa, some floral. This is a tea with a lot of character and depth. I know that Keemuns are not particularly old teas, but this one seems to have travelled ancient paths and seen many sights and made many sage observations.

I made a large mug and figure that it probably costs about $1.00 TOPS. Possibly more like 75 cents. It’s a little more costly than the average tea, but the extra price is worth it. I could most certainly buy this again.

I’ve got to thank Soccer Mom for sending me this tea. I have parted ways with Rooibos teas, but this steep was a timely admonition: I should not make sweeping categorical break-ups with all teas based on a rather small sampling.

Firstly, the coconut aroma is deeply enticing. Secondly, steeped, this is a smooth sweet coconut with no woody or sawdusty rooibos overtones. The aftertaste was excellent. I felt that I had been drinking a nice creamy coconut drink. No tell-tale woodiness! It was nice to have a tea-like beverage to drink in the evening. I may have to order this.

Thank you very much to Ricky for sending me a sample of this. I was quiet overwhelmed by the aroma of the dry leaves. They really smelt like a rose bush. It didn’t smell overly synthetic at all.

And it tastes like a rose—just like a rose. I like strong flavors and I like it when teas defy expectations. No daintiness at all here: it’s really like a rose. The tea gets lost amidst the rose.

I had a bunch of conflicting contradictory thoughts. I wanted more tea in my roses. Yet this tea was heavily evocative. I could imagine it being drunk by the Pre-Raphaelite painters. I could imagine it being on foot lotion or in perfume, as others have noted.

Most of all it made me really miss my mother. It’s one of those times when I really wish I could call her up and say “You wouldn’t believe what I just drank!” And she’d get excited. And we would have a long talk ranging from roses to beverages to a special bush that somebody planted in 1904.

So it is certainly an old-fashioned experience for me although I imagine that the ability to infuse tea with such exceptional flavor must be a newish technique.

I have no idea if I will wake up in a few days or a few weeks or a few months and NEED to buy a full container of this or if it will waft away into oblivion like yesterday’s perfume. I’m certainly glad I tried it but I wonder if it isn’t simply a novel-Tea.

David’s Tea has a most delightful habit of including several free samples with each order I place. I had an order come in today along with three free samples and one of them was Senchamental. I don’t mind a bad pun. I don’t even mind a ridiculously bad pun. I don’t mind a reference to Star Wars either. It takes me back to the days when my children insisted that we constantly play Star Wars. They were Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, respectively. Their father was Darth Vader (alternating with Obi Wan Kenobi). And I got the best role of all—I stepped in as the Princess Leia, as Jabba the Hutt, as Greedo, as Boba Fett, and as a jawa. My own private young Skywalker is a balding middle-aged man and he hasn’t come at me with his light sabre in decades.

So this tea begins as a sentimental journey for me. The dry aroma is pronouncedly orange. And a delightful orange with a true flavor. Nothing synthetic here. Orange is the predominant taste as well. And it’s vigorous and strong. The mint makes its way though but it’s clearly a supporting member of the orchestra while the orange is the soloist in this concerto.

I like this blend because it’s an original to me—I’ve never had such an intriguing marriage of mint and green before as back-up players to orange. The aftertaste has more mint, but remains quite orange-y. The orange – mint blend is strong to the point that I don’t taste the vegetal elements of the green tea coming through. I’m enjoying this hot, but it might make the absolutely perfect iced tea for the summer (I’m doing iced tea auditions right now and this one has made the cut). Now I’ll have to put in a full-order with David’s Teas. Was I compliementing them on the free samples? Now I say it’s like the old dope peddler giving a free sample to a gullible child.

Super-nice tea.

23 days ago I wrote a rather luke-warm review of this tea. I got it out today to send a sample to Lena and decided to give it a try. It’s not been the most successful tea day for me for various reasons and I thought that an uncomplicated, unblended straight-up tea would be a good cure-all for whatever it is that ails me (Who saw “Office Space?” “Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays?” Well, that’s me. I recommend this movie highly. Put aside any reservations you might have about Jennifer Aniston and see this now! “Office Space,” however, did get me into some flabberghasting moments with my students. I told them I wanted them to add “pieces of flair” to their writing. A student’s idea of a piece of written flair is to say that something is “very unique”.

I apologize for the bad digression. In any event, I’ve finished my mug of Black Frost and my opinion is revised considerably. Since I first tasted this tea, I’ve been exposed to too many blends; to quite a few bad teas, and to too many meek and shy little teas.

Black Frost is a bold single note Nilgari. It brews up into a good strong cup that does not play around. It does have some taste overtones—slightly vegetal for a black and a bit sweet but not in a bad way. I don’t think it has the taste complexity of Dawn, also by “The Simple Leaf” but it’s a good no-nonsense tea. I think such teas should win higher accolades. It has made me perk up from my cast of the “Mondays” (not to mention that the clock is right at 3 PM).
Nice to get some real caffeine here, too.