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I tried this hot and was not a fan. I don’t recall why, but I thought it would be good cold steeped so I dumped the entire bag into a mason jar and stuck it in the fridge for a few days. This mix is really frustrating because the pineapple bits are huge and light, so they rise to the top of the bag and all the other ingredients fall to the bottom. It was hard to get my spoon past the pineapple and get an even mix of ingredients, so I think the dump it all in the mason jar was really the right way to go.
It’s has a very bright and cheery taste. The sip is juicy, fruity and tangy. Pineapple is woven with the lemongrass. As those flavors fade, the cinnamon pops out. I wasn’t getting cinnamon in the hot cup at all. I didn’t think I really liked it at first, but the more I sip the more I appreciate this. I’m not sure if it’s something I’d buy again, but it is something I’m enjoying. My only regret is not saving it for warmer months when I want something cool and refreshing to enjoy.

I’m surprised I only ever wrote one tasting note for this. My first note doesn’t reflect on how fond I grew of this tea. It has such a good mix of smoke and depth with citrusy notes. I had a tragic sipdown with it today. There was a good amount of dust in this oversized last serving and I decided to dump it all in making a strong and overpowering bitter cup. This tea doesn’t take well to over leafing which is exactly what I did. I’m going to be hopeful and say that I’ll be in Paris again someday and when I do I’d like to restock this. You know… when I get through a few more of the currently 32 Theodor teas I have and can justify tea shopping there again.

I reordered this tea a while back. It didn’t taste very good at first. I’ve found that some fresh teas need time to sit and age for the flavors to develop and was hoping that would be the case for this one. It sat for several months (eight to be exact) and it’s never developed into the tea I recall loving. It’s not terrible, but the sip is tart in a very distracting way. Did they over orange it? is it a different base? Something is different. I’ll have to add cream and see if that improves the situation for the rest of the 4oz bag.

Just picked up my last tea order of 2022. Almost feels like cheating to get new tea in a new year that doesn’t go on my totals for the year!

I’m not a huge fan of oolongs, but this sounded interesting. It smells very anisey and that is the dominating flavor in this cup. The coriander comes out in the finish a little where it turns a little more savory. The oolong seems to blend well with the anise, to the point that it’s hard for me to separate the two in my mind. This is very well balanced while being complex and is interesting, but it’s not jumping out at me right now either. I’m hoping this one grows on me.

Ran across this tea shop near where I was staying in Lisbon. I was so excited to find a Portuguese tea company and rushed when I stopped by that I didn’t even look at the logo on their sign out front. When searching for a company website I found the Yelp page that pointed out how racist the sign is with old unflattering caricatures of Chinese and African men. Suddenly something that didn’t even register when I had my tea goggles on came into clear focus. I have regrets.

The tea shop it’s self was pretty inside. The woman who worked there looked like she wanted to be anywhere else. They didn’t have a large selection of tea (maybe 8 blends), but I chose one green and one black tea that sounded and smelled interesting. They were 15 euros each, which is a lot for a moderate amount of tea packaged in a plastic pouch that doens’t lock in flavor and is then stuffed into an oversized cardboard tube packaging. I had to ditch the tubes in Portugal to fit them in my luggage.

Dry, this tea has a very rich red berry scent. Very heavy, like chocolate covered berries, but without the chocolate, just the depth. Once steeped I took a few sips and was really disappointed. It seemed weakly flavored compared to the scent and had this almost tart hibby like tang at the end of the sip. I kept sipping, mostly because I’m stubborn and it paid off! The flavor starts to build the further I get into this cup. The sip is way more perfume like and there is a flash of something alkaline, but the finish is really nice. The deep berry flavor comes out again and lingers. I don’t know that I would pick this out as Port flavored (which was the description that attracted me) as Port has a much more raisiny profile IMO, but that depth of rich fruit is there.

Would I buy this again? No. Not at all. It’s weird that the company has no online presence for their only eight teas, making me think it’s a front for something else. Also… racism doesn’t taste good in tea, or anywhere else for that matter. I feel like there are way more interesting teas flavored with rich berries that taste better when sipping and are a fraction of the price. My beloved French teas aren’t usually this expensive and if they were as expensive they would taste phenomenal or have something very unique and special about them. This feels like a store trying to be really fancy with mediocre products.

Finally got around to day 24 of my advent. It’s the last one that isn’t a rooibos and I don’t have it in me to drink rooibos right now. I steeped this cup, took a few sips and dumped it. It was boring generic spice, disappointing and I needed a comforting cup to start a hard day in one of the most challenging months of my life. Advents are always a fun and good way to discover new tea brands and expand my horizons. Sometimes I find companies that I end up loving, like David’s and Theodor and sometimes I learn that I’m not that into a company like Dammann Freres or Brutaliteas. This one falls into that later category of just not my thing.

This smells deeply chocolatey and very much like a rich brownie. The flavor in the sip is a little muted and that is amplified as the cup cools, but the finish is where it is at. It tastes very heavily of chocolate and I can totally picture brownie. I’m liking this chocolate flavoring better than a lot of other tea companies attempt at chocolate. I bet this tea would taste fantastic as a latte! I might try that with my second bag.

Not into this one. There is something I don’t like about the sip. It’s a weird flatness that almost comes off as a salt free broth sensation with the dull woody flavor of rooibos. The finish leaves me with that dry rooibos mouth feeling, but I do get the apple cider flavors showing up and lingering.

This tea is really oily. Lots of cinnamon. It has a cinnamon stick taste in the sip and a dried and powdered cinnamon taste in the finish with a light almost baking soda like sensation flashing by. The rooibos flavor isn’t bothering me here! There is a sweetness to this tea from the licorice root. There is also partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil in this, which is a first in a tea for me and also a HUGE turn off. I try to avoid all partially hydrogenated oils in my diet. Maybe that’s what is floating on the top of my tea. I feel like I can pick out the toast part if we are comparing this to the similarly named breakfast cereal. I’m getting a little bit of rooibos dry mouth in the finish, which I dislike. Flavor wise this tea is enjoyable, but the ph oil is a dead stop for me.

This is hitting a little flat for me, especially at the start of the sip. There is something extra artificial about the raspberry and it seems a little sour. It relies a little too much on being perfumey and is a really hard flavor to pull off in a tea. The fudge part is just background noise and the caramel part is really hard to pick out. Adding sugar just made the entire thing worse. Not into this one.