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Trying to catch up on tasting notes for the past few days! This is such a unique tea. It’s a very pale color when steeped, just the barest hint of yellow-green, and it smells delicious. Really creamy with a warm touch of nutmeg. The taste of the tea is buttery and rich, with lots of egg/cream notes. (I don’t quite taste any vanilla from it, per se, but that may just be me?) It’s very smooth, with a natural sweetness that evokes the flavor of eggnog.

The nutmeg is present, but I would say it’s subtle. All the flavors are balanced, and I can taste the green tea base, too—it’s vegetal and buttery and complements the egg note well. I don’t know how different this tea is from Creamy Eggnog, but I love this version! I’m looking forward to drinking it during the holidays.

Tried this tea while staying at a friend’s house! I haven’t had much success with red rooibos lately, so this was a nice surprise. The dry leaf has a very sweet smell, with lots of thick honey notes. After I steeped it for three minutes, the aroma changed to mostly berries (strawberry, I think?) and apricot. The taste is somewhere in between— a touch of honey, a touch of apricot, and a splash of berry flavor, all mixed in with rooibos. The rooibos seems pretty light here, and not too medicinal—but I’m not sure whether that’s due to the short steep time or the blend itself. Either way, this was a pleasant tea to start my evening. I’m not sure that I’d purchase it, but it’s better than most rooibos blends I’ve tried.

This tea is exactly why I love roasted oolongs—they’re both delicate and strong. Delicate, because the taste is so smooth and soft on the tongue (with notes of peach, my favorite!). Strong, because the roast gives them more heft than a greener oolong.

Also, this particular tea is strong in another sense— I overstepped today’s cup by several minutes (poor leaves!), and it’s still delicious. I’m kind of stunned by how good it is, to be honest… It tastes very similar to the other cups I’ve made, with maybe a little more dryness in the aftertaste. (Shockingly little, given that I steeped it twice as long as I meant to!) The aroma of this cup is more floral, with the orchid note I often smell in oolongs.

This is a simple, beautiful tea. It reminds me why I fell in love with roasted oolongs—and with loose leaf teas in general.

Thank you to carol who for my sample of this tea! And here’s where I get to reveal my weird side as a tea drinker… This is an herbal tea, but it has a lot of chicory root in it, so it gets really dark as it steeps (as in, darker than some black teas). This blend also has lemongrass and ginger. Once it’s steeped, the infusion smells really spicy and earthy, with a light lemon note. It pretty much tastes that way too: all dirt and ginger and grassy lemon.

And I’ll be honest: I like it. For some reason, I seem to enjoy earthiness in herbal teas, at least more than tartness. (I’m looking at you, hibiscus!) Plus, I love ginger, even when it’s showing its bitter, sharp, won’t-play-nice-with-others side… Which is exactly what it’s doing here. I can taste the ginger mid-sip, and the aftertaste is grainy and dry, with a dirt-like flavor. (The roasted chicory root, maybe?) There’s supposed to be hibiscus and cinnamon chips in here too, oddly enough, but I don’t notice them. I should also note that I tried to avoid scooping too much chicory root into this cup… It seems like a finicky ingredient, and I think if there had been more of it, this would have been a lot harder to drink.

So, yeah. I like this one! It remind me a lot of autumn. Roasty and earthy and dry, with a strong ginger bite… But I definitely understand why it’s not to everyone’s taste.

Sampling this one at a friend’s house! This is one of Lupicia’s exclusive Hawaiian blends, with cocoa powder and macadamia nuts. To me, it tastes a lot like The Au Chocolat—except I might actually like this one better? Which is odd, because I’m not that into nuts. (I don’t mind them, but I don’t usually crave them in a tea blend. Or in chocolate generally!) I think it’s because I find Lupicia’s chocolate flavor to have a certain nutty taste, so it goes really well with the macadamia.

This is a rich tea, with a strong black base and a great dessert-like flavor. If you like chocolate with nuts, you’ll enjoy this one. (Or even if you don’t! I certainly liked it.)

Thanks to carol who for sending me a sample of this! I enjoy Adagio’s apricot flavor; I’ve tried their apricot black tea also. Here, the flavor is bright and sweet, without being too overpowering. Plus it goes well with the peppery-sweet taste of the honeybush. I generally prefer honeybush over rooibos, and this is one of the better honeybush blends I’ve tried. (I haven’t tried many yet, but still!)

Thanks so much to carol who for a sample of this tea! The dry leaf is really pretty, with lots of blue cornflowers and rose petals and raspberry chunks. This tea is a pale peach color when it’s steeped. It smells mostly of rose and hibiscus, with a hint of raspberry. I used a pretty generous amount of leaf, and I steeped it for a little under eight minutes. Then I let it cool, since I usually find herbals to taste better when they’re not too hot.

I have to admit, I don’t usually enjoy hibiscus in herbal teas, so I was pleasantly surprised by how this tasted. I mostly taste the raspberry and the rose, alone with some light tartness from the hibiscus, which actually complements the other flavors. This is how hibiscus should taste in an herbal tea—not so tart that it’s hard to drink, but just strong enough that it adds to blend. Overall, the flavor of this tea is very light, but I’m enjoying it. I wouldn’t have thought to try it on my own, so I’m glad I got the chance to sample it!

This is a nice herbal tea, with a light flavor that captures the essence of a summer garden. It’d be especially great for fans of rose and raspberry, as long as you don’t mind some hibiscus in there!

I’ve sampled this tea twice, but I’m not sure what to make of it… It’s supposed to be an Earl Grey with a base of black and green teas, plus a hint of vanilla. I can definitely smell some bergamot in the dry leaf, but not much vanilla, maybe a slight hint of something creamy.

Once it’s steeped, though, I only taste the base (which seems to be more green than black). There’s maybe a little bergamot here, but it’s very subtle, compared to the flavor of most Earl Greys I’ve tried. It’s a nice blend, as far as the base teas go, so I’ll drink the rest of my sample. Maybe I’ll try using more leaf, and see if I can taste more bergamot and vanilla in future cups.

Had a cup of this with milk and sugar today! It’s my favorite gingerbread tea so far. (I’ve tried three; the others were from David’sTEA and Adagio.) The dry leaf smells delicious, with lots of sharp ginger root, plus notes of cinnamon and allspice. There’s also chicory root and roasted carob, and vanilla. (Plus something called crystal malt? Interesting!) Once it’s steeped, the notes blend together well, and give the tea a sweet “baked” sort of flavor. I like that it has a definite dessert quality, instead of being just another holiday spice tea. I wouldn’t say it tastes exactly like a gingerbread cookie, but it has a good mix of spices and sweet notes that remind me of that.

I also like that this is a black tea. The spices work well with a strong base, and it’s nice to be able to add milk and sugar. Both of which are delicious with this, by the way… I’d like to experiment more with it in the future, maybe make a latte. I also tried a cup without anything added. It wasn’t as dessert-like, but very balanced—not too spicy or too dry.

Overall, this is a great tea! I’m a fan of gingerbread (my family has Russian and German ancestry, and we make the cookies every Christmas). So far, this tea is the best I’ve found when it comes to capturing that flavor. I’m excited to enjoy it during the holidays.