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Cold brewed this overnight since we’re supposed to be under a heat advisory today. I got this from the Strawberry Festival at Bean and Leaves in Long Grove, IL because it smelled AMAZING! I’m not normally a huge green tea fan as I find they always smell amazing but are less flavorful than I would expect from the smell but I couldn’t pass this one up. I’m not sure that this is the exact tea since they don’t share who their suppliers are but it looks like it so I’ll just go ahead and rate this one.

There’s something…off…here. I can’t put my finger on it but something just tastes a bit off. It could be a combination of things: my palate is currently sullied with some Apple Jacks (dry, my breakfast of choice at work), I could still have a bit of toothpaste mouth, I added some splenda and that sometimes interacts with tea in a weird way, or my perfect teamaker might need to have its filter cleaned since I primarily make blacks and mates in there.

Aside from the off-ness, I do like aspects of the tea. My last sip there was an almost textural change to the feeling of cherry juice (makes sense, right?). I think the flavor is there, but I may have messed it up a bit. This is only my second batch of iced tea too so there may have been some user error in there.

I think I’ll like this one better warm. Perhaps I’m just not an iced tea person.

Guava and pomegranite? Count me in!
This was another vacation tea (it’s possible I have a problem). After spending some considerable time trying to figure out which bag of tea to take home from Local Coffee and Tea, I picked this one because it sounded more exotic than what I’ve found in Chicago. I love guava and pomegranite so I thought it would be perfect. I was slightly sad that I couldn’t smell it (duh, I could have just opened the bag) but I figured I’d take a chance.

Here’s my beef with non-black teas: I like flavor. White and green teas always smell heavenly and strong but they always seem to disappoint when it comes to taste because the smell just doesn’t seem to translate. This tea is nice, but I wanted something that had some more flavor to it. Yes, I realize that this makes me a tea pedestrian, but I don’t care, it’s my tea and I’ll flavor if I want to.

Nice tea, but too subtle for my tastes so this will end up sitting in my cabinet much longer than it would have it if were a black tea.

This is another one of my vacation Groupon purchases. In the store I wasn’t completely sure I would like it as the smell was a bit off, but, since their selection was a bit small and I was having trouble finding ones I thought I’d like, I decided based on the ingredients to give it a whirl. Opening the bag last night, it smelled much tastier, almost making me wish I had gotten two bags.

Taste-wise it’s pretty yummy! A nice, nutty flavor with a hazelnut finish (nicer than Tealicious’ Hazelnut Black which tastes a bit coffee-y to me). Added some brown sugar splenda blend (my go-to sweetener as the agave experiment did not work out – seriously, what is that stuff?!?) and we’re good to go.

Two bags of this followed me home from Sarasota Florida thanks to a Groupon. It kinda irked me that I had a $15 Groupon and everything in that store was $4.79, but that just meant I had to buy more tea.

This smelled soooooo good that I just had to get 2 bags. I’ve been looking for a good coconut tea and was hoping this would be it. Sadly, it’s not, but that’s probably a good thing since I live in IL.

This is a good tea, just not enough coconut flavor for me. It’s there, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a little too subtle for my tastes. What I really want is a good coconut black tea as I tend to find that they’re a little bit bolder. I might try a little higher temp (my kettle has oolong at 190 instead of 195 with the next setting being 200) next time to see if I get more punch from the coconut.

Got this as a sample from Tea Licious (thanks again!) primarily for my husband (he’s a green tea guy, me, not as much), but was in the mood for something different than my usual flavored black teas yesterday. It smelled heavenly in the pouch so I decided to give it a try.

I like my tea strong (since I’m used to black tea) so I used the whole sample, a bit more than the typical 1 tsp per cup.

The taste is subtle, like most flavored greens, with a pineapple finish. It’s odd to me how tea can almost taste juicy on the back of your tongue, but it’s happened with this one and an apricot one I have as well so it must be commonish. There is also a slight taste of coconut. Since I’ve been looking for a good coconut tea, I’d love for that to stand out more.

My husband liked it too.

I’d still prefer it to have a stronger flavor, but that’s just my personal preference.

Ever since I had Chocolate Pot du Tea from Joy’s Teaspoon, I’ve been searching for other chocolate teas (mainly to tide me over until I can justify ordering some more from them).

I happened across a little tea shop in Long Grove, IL during Chocolate fest and, of course, had to stop. I picked up several teas from there, including this one.

My first time drinking it I found it to be good, but slightly bitter. Not overbrewed bitter, but more like they had used pure cocoa nibs instead of sweetened ones. It was good but a bit “stiff” for me that particular morning.

I decided to give it another go yesterday but this time I added a splash of milk and my usual brown sugar splenda blend. Tasted like tea hot chocolate! Yummo!

Today is a resteep of it with the same additives and it’s not nearly as strong (so it doesn’t hold up as well to resteeping as Joy’s Teaspoon’s one does) but it’s still really good.

Considering that my additives still keep this under 50 calories, I think this may be a great chocolate treat for me, especially when the weather turns cold and I want hot chocolate but not all the calories.

Note: the tea flavor does still come through, so it’s really divine.

I got this from Dark Moon Tea during their closeout sale (30% off!) and figured I’d be SOL if I liked it since they’re now out of business. Upon closer examination I realized that while the tea had the Dark Moon Tea logo on it, it mentioned that it was from the Tea Guys! Huzzah! I can get more! I think that makes it even more delish!

So, on to the tea itself. Words fail me this tea is so yummy. I’ve had the Red Velvet from Republic of Tea and while it’s yummy, I will never finish drinking it and have to look down at my shirt to see if there are any red velvet crumbs on my shirt. This one? I just might have to.

Perfect with a touch of brown sugar splenda blend.

I even got a second steep out of it and might have been able to go for a third had I not reached my self-imposed 2 day limit for used tea leaves.

Picked this up at a little tea shop in Long Grove, IL (Beans and Leaves) during Chocolate Festival (it’s exactly like it sounds). It smelled heavenly in the jar and I was sad they only had an ounce left.

I don’t know if there was something about the bag that smelled but when I got it home it started smelling a bit chemically and I’ve put off trying it because of it. Today when I tried it I got a little of that flavor, not enough for me to write it off completely, but it might be a while before I try it again. Some days I’m just sensitive to chemical flavoring as my Earl Grey Creme tasted off to me as well. Hoping it gets better.

First cold brew attempt and may I just say, holy cup of yummy tartness! This tea is nearly perfect, although not terribly tea-y. Great alternative to sugary lemonades. Added a touch of splenda (well, generic splenda) just to cut the tartness a bit.

Very refreshing and the mate caffiene is a nice addition, especially during long, boring meetings.

Could use a bit more tea in there, but other than that it’s nearly perfect. Easy to cold brew too.

I was nervous when I got this because it had the exact same ingredients as the Amaretti Cookie I got from Todd and Holland. The Amaretti cookie has been sitting in my cabinet because there’s something off about it – some flavor that just doesn’t sit well with me. It’s ok if I blend it with some Matevana, but I just didn’t like it on it’s own. So when I got this I thought I had a larger bag of iffy tea. Goody, love spending my money on tea I don’t like.

But upon closer inspection (and some side by side sniff tests) I noticed that the Teavana blend smelled a little different. That off smell wasn’t there. It still made me nervous which is why I put off trying it for a while. I didn’t want to make it for work and then have to endure icky tea all day while enduring icky work. But my spidey sniffer was right on. Whatever was wrong with Amaretti Cookie is right here and oh, so yummy. Glad I bought this!