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I’ve had this tea in my cupboard for so long that I’ve forgotten where it came from. It must have been from a trade as I don’t recall ever buying from Mark T Wendell.

I really enjoyed this blend, it’s a great afternoon tea that’s light and smooth enough to be drunk without milk, but is still full of flavour. It’s not nearly as smokey as, say, a lapsang souchong, instead being more like a light Russian Caravan. It’s more than just a one note tea as well, there’s a fruity sweetness that blends nicely with the smoke and gives the tea more body and character.

Thank to whoever sent me this one!

This is my first time trying guayusa and I’m both curious and a bit leery of the caffeine content. It smells like wet cut grass, which isn’t the most auspicious beginning, but what the heck. The flavour is also reminiscent of wet grass…at least at first. It then turns into something that manages to be slightly savory and slightly spicy and something I really can’t put a description to. There’s a nice hint of vanilla tucked in there and some bright citrus note. I finished about half the cup and put it down to do some laundry and promptly forgot about it. That half cup was still enough to give me a mega jolt of energy – luckily I had lots of stuff that needed doing, otherwise I would have been bouncing off the walls!

Thank you, Rachel, for giving me a sample of this tea – it took awhile but I’ve finally got around to trying it!

This turned out to be a fairly average-tasting green tea. I am getting a bit of the sencha grassiness but other than that it really could be any generic green tea for all I can tell.

This tea isn’t as bad as another Steepsterite made it out to be, in my opinion, but it is a rather whimpy chai. It mainly seems to be cardamom flavoured but the base needs to be more robust as this one is too weak and makes the chai seems a bit watery.

It’s unusual to see apple flavours paired with a black tea – usually it’s with a green or white tea base, I’ve found. It smells quite fragrant like a sweet ripe, freshly cut apple. The flavour is interesting, starting and finishing with apple notes and in between is the black tea which is a tad astringent. Pretty tasty all told.

Perhaps my sense of smell and taste aren’t keen enough, but I’m not picking up the magnolia or anything else flowery really. It’s basically like a plain pu-erh although it is on the lighter side and quite smooth. The flavour is earthy/peaty though unlike some it doesn’t bring to mind eating dirt, and it also has some sweet hay-like notes. It’s pleasent enough as far as pu-erhs go, particularly a bagged one, but the name feels like false advertising.

I haven’t tried many flavoured oolongs so this is something of a novelty. The base appears to be a standard rolled green oolong mixed with what looks like dried cherry (?) blossoms. I was rather cautious about this tea at first, but as it turns out it wasn’t necessary. The strawberry flavours were just right for this oolong and the end result was slightly sweet and deliciously fruity without tasting artifical. Damn, what a good tea.

The second steep (@ 5 min) held onto its flavour fairly well too, although I got more oolong than I did strawberry. This is another tea I would totally order again given the chance.

I’d love to try steeping this tea gong-fu style one of these days but since I don’t have a scale sensitive enough to weight out 5 grams nor an appropriate teapot/gaiwan, this time I had to do my usual method of 1 teaspoon in my strainer mug. I did follow the directions that recommended a quick initial rinse and short, high temperature infusions.

I have a soft spot for Tie Guan Yins and in my opinion when they’re good they’re really good.

This is a really good oolong.

It starts off sweet and floral before changing into a richer roasted or baked flavour with some nice fruity notes. I’m not tasting the smoke that other people seem to be, or maybe I’m just interpreting it differently, but given how good this tea is I’m not fussed. It has good staying power too – I did three infusions and could have done more if it wasn’t getting so late. It’s quite good at keep its flavour, though I noticed that the second steep was a bit more floral and the third one was a bit more fruity.

A+ for this one.

I’ve drank a lot of earl grey blends, but never an oolong-based one before. The dry tea just by itself is interesting to look at with loosely-rolled green oolong tea leaves, bits of orange peel, jasmine flower buds and what I at first thought were juniper berries but later I realized were actually schizandra berries (thankfully).

The first steep brewed up quite a light gold colour with a delicate citrus-floral odor. The flavour was quite smooth though tangy with a subtle floral finish that isn’t too perfumy. I’ve never tried schizandra berries before so I have no idea how they tastes and I really couldn’t say if they’re influencing the flavour at all.

The second steep wasn’t any darker in appearance and there was an odd sour note (from the citrus maybe?) that made it not as palatable as the first steeping. I’m also not getting the usual sweet flavour I tend to taste in green oolongs as they cool off. So not a good re-steeper in my opinion but an intriguing novelty over all.

I visted the Tea Desire store in Vernon last week and I picked up a bunch of little two-cup samples that they were selling quite cheaply. This one smells like an Italian spice mix – appropriate since tulsi is in the same genus as the sweet basil many of us cook with. It has that same basil flavour but mixed with some peppery notes. I’m not sure the "lemon’ part of the name is entire deserved as it isn’t very noticable, though what’s there meshes well with the basil. Very interesting – it makes me curious about trying other tulsi teas.