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My mother sent me some teas from this company. Highly unexpected since she usually doesn’t order her own tea, much less ship samples out. Though, I suspect she purchased it locally somewhere and not online. :)

I’ve never had an Octavia tea (that I can recall). I didn’t have particularly high expectations, but it turned out to be a better pu-erh than I expected. It’s not as sweet as some shu puerhs, but it has a pleasant stone, cold earth, and dirt flavor.

I’m used to Pu-er, in general, being able to handle multiple steeps well. This one only gave me two good steeps, imo. I did one 30sec and one 1min for the first two and they were the best.

Oh my gosh! I love this tea.

But let me begin with some backstory. I don’t like cheesecake. Ive said as much in my last review for a cheesecake themed tea. But I didn’t like that one for other reasons besides cheesecake flavor. This tea I ordered to send in a care package to my parents but didn’t try it for myself. I got a free sample in my most recent order and since my parents already tried it and one of the other samples I definitely want to share with my grandfather, i decided to try the cheesecake for myself.

For the first time I am going to apply the term ‘hug in a cup’ to a tea. this tea. Still not getting cheesecake out if it, maybe just a little if I try to think about it – but mostly its sweet and plumy and perfect without any added sugar.

Seems i like dessert teas that don’t match my real-dessert preferences (I like chocolate but not chocolate teas, hate cheesecake but love this tea).

I finished off the 1/2oz bag I had of this. I’m going to order more. Raising the rating now from 85 to 95.

I used less tea::water this time and I like it better this way. I can pick out more of the flavor notes listed in the description than when I used more leaf.

sorry for such a brief note – its mostly supposed to be a note-to-self :)

I think maybe I’m acquiring a taste for “those” black teas. The ones with that odd mix of musky-woody-smoke. . . flavors that I am so sensitive to that I notice them even when no one else does. Or, maybe it could be that me and the leaf hoppers are starting to get along. But probably not. I still don’t like overly honey-flavored oolongs. Perhaps it is the blend of musky wood with honey that turns into something entirely different that I find palatable.

I’m not in love with the tea, but I think it could grow on me. I’m tentatively rating is as 85, but will reconsider after my taste buds complete this confusing time of transition.

Sweet and delicate, but not too delicate. There are some hay notes, but not as strong as in some white teas that I’ve had. I don’t like it much when the hay takes over.

I have a couple of other favorite white teas at the moment, but this one is pretty good. I might purchase it on occasion.

I’m going to start out by saying that I second every word of The Tea Fairy’s review. Most importantly that if one endeavors to create a Rivendell tea, it absolutely must deliver! this is no matter to be taken lightly.

I had high expectations for this one and they were met. If someone told me that this tea came straight out of Rivendell for real, I would believe them. It tastes like a forest, but not just any kind of forest, one inhabited by elves, with delicate traces of magic, beauty, and elegance – if these things could be attributed to a flavor. The flavors all come together nicely, no one of them overpowers another. The vanilla, the roasted cedar leaves, the florals of the oolong base – just perfect.

I got this tea pretty much only because of the name. As for the tea description, I was worried about Keemun and darjeeling, two types of tea that I often don’t enjoy on their own.

When it first started brewing, I could smell the aroma of Keemun. I thought, well oh well, this was to be expected. Halfway through the brew time, the aroma became sweeter, more like the Assam that’s also in it. I didn’t detect the darjeeling so much except to notice that there were some green leaves in my steeper that threw me off at first – I thought maybe I didn’t clean it out well enough from the last use.

Anyway, the Assam makes this tea work for me. The Keemun gives it a robustness that makes it more suitable as a breakfast tea than Assam alone. As for the Darjeeling, besides the visual of the leaves, I can’t say that I notice it as much.

Overall, this tea is a lot better than I thought it would be. I am undecided about repurchasing, but I might do so on occasion just for the sake of variety in my cupboard.

I love this tea! THIS is going to be my Autumn tea this year. Sorry Almond Indulgence. lol. The apple and pear notes are so vibrant. The caramel is a bit more in the background, but I like it that way. The Gui Fei Oolong seems to be a perfect choice for the base. It’s roasty, but not so much to drown out the other flavors. I feel like I’ve had this oolong before, but I can’t find it listed in my records. I’ll have to get some with my next order. I might have avoided it because of the leaf-hoppers. I’ve had a couple of leaf hopper teas from Butiki and I didn’t like them, but maybe I gave up on them too soon.

Anyway, in case I didn’t make it clear at the beginning. I LOVE this tea. Im going to have to buy lots of extra to share it with everyone I know.