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The problem I’ve had with some of Frank’s previous pumpkin teas is that they’re short on actual pumpkin flavour and overdose on cinnamon to compensate. This blend neatly avoids that pitfall and I can clearly taste the smooth, slightly sweet and nutty flavour of the pumpkin. Other people have complained about too much cardamom and cloves in this blend but I personally prefer more cardamom in my chais and I think cloves and pumpkin are a fantastic combination. I’m just drinking it plain right now but I could see this being a great latte as well. Much love.

I figured it was about time to change my icon – Go ’nucks! ;)

I was expecting something a bit sweeter and more cookie-like, to be honest. LiberTeas was correct in saying this comes across as more like a mild chai, I’d say. The most noticeable flavour is the ginger although it’s relatively low key compared to how it’s been in other blends. There’s also a nice little citrus-orange undertone with a hint of cinnamon. As the tea cools it develops a touch of sweetness, but it’s nothing that really brings to mind ‘cookies’. Still on it’s own it’s a quite a warm, pleasent tea.

Everyone loves this blend but all I can taste is hibiscus, bleh. It might have just been that the small sample I got had a larger than normal amount of hibiscus but I didn’t get much almond or vanilla or any of the rest. I maybe got a bit after I dumped a bunch of agave nectar in it, but that was it. Yeah, no.

So the boyfriend-creature and I went to San Diego for a week in mid-February and I only brought a few teabags with me thinking I could always buy more tea while I was there. Unfortunately I soon discovered that San Diego. Does. Not. Do. Tea. At all.

The hotel we stayed at didn’t even have so much a crappy Lipton teabag in its continental breakfast. And good luck finding something as basic as a Starbucks. My tea stash quickly ran out and this was becoming a serious problem because I need my caffeine otherwise I get cranky and tired (FYI coffee makes me sick so that was out).

Lo and behold I came a cross this cute little tea house in Balboa Park called the Tea Pavilion – it’s attached to the Japanese Friendship Garden (which is a lovely place by the way). This was the tea I picked out to try and damn was it good – rich, lightly sweet and bursting with creamy coconut flavour. It was so good that I asked them where they got their tea from and it turns out they’re supplied by a shop called the Tea Gallerie. The tea house owners were willing to sell me some of their bulk tea which saved me from having to track down their supplier myself. So I walked away with 100g of this lovely blend. I made myself a another cup this evening and it was every bit as good as I remembered it.

Thanks you Marzipan for giving me a sample of this tea to try. It smells like fruit punch or maybe Kool-Aid. Flavour-wise, I’m getting more grape than cranberry from this tea but the white tea base goes well with both these flavours.

The initial smell of this tea is sweet and fruity but as it steeps the warm scent of ginger really comes to the fore. The flavour is an interesting one as initially I can taste the fruity strawberry flavour but the warm bite of ginger quickly follows. It’s an unusual combination but I think it could really grow on me.

The dry tea smells very minty like Trident gum but I found the flavour to be curiously bland. The mint was present and not much else as the gunpowder base seemed rather weak. I think I prefer the black-green mix of the Vanilla Mint blend which gave the tea more body. I find this blend to be only okay.

I was looking for something to perk me up in the late afternoon and something minty was perfect. I’d say this tea is more mint than vanilla but it does give the tea a creamy, sweet undertone. The mixed black/green base is an interesting one and it gives the tea more body than what you’d get a from a straight gunpowder green. Nice and refreshing it hit the spot.

There’s definitely vanilla in this tea but there more to it than that – there a toasty, almost pastry-like scent and flavour, possibly due to the base, making this tea very dessert-like. It’s a very smooth tea with nice, creamy undertones and slight hints of fruitiness in the aftertaste.

I was caught off-guard by how strong the melon flavour in this tea was as I’d been expecting something more tart given the hibiscus. I can taste a bit of tartness after the initial sweet-melon flavour, though I’m not sure if that’s just the hibiscus talking or if the goji is getting in on the action too. Personally, I think this blend should be called Melon Pop or maybe Melon-Berry Pop rather than Goji Pop as the goji isn’t really the main focus of the tea. Still it’s a great blend and it’s definitely going to get turned into iced tea sometime in the near future.