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This is an excellent morning tea. I keep the brew time to 3 minutes in order to ensure no bitterness comes through, so the tea is just somewhat astringent with a rich, malty taste. It’s so incredibly good with a little milk and honey, and just as good with just a little milk.

In my cup, it’s almost a milky red ochre colour. So pretty. Definitely something I’d like to keep around, although I think I’ll try some other versions of English Breakfast before I make a final decision!

I had this tea on my list to try, so when we went into David’s today I decided to get a cup to go. It smells amazing – lots of strawberries! However, it’s not as full as strawberry flavour as I had hoped. The white tea base went a little bitter, which is something I can’t stand. After sitting in my (new!) mug for a few more minutes, I think the stevia helped the strawberry flavour come out more, but it just isn’t what I had hoped for.

I did add a little honey to the tea to see if it helped, but it didn’t really. The result is that this is a tea that I’ve taken off my shopping list, but if I received some as a gift I would probably drink it.

I cringe at the thought of how old my container of this tea is. I think I bought it in 2006 or 2007 when I was working full-time at a contract job. My container is still mostly full, probably because the lemongrass is cut fine enough that the tea was difficult to strain through my teeth, and I hadn’t discovered the delightful Finum strainer yet (My favourite tea at that job was Golden Phoenix.). Now, I may be wrong and I may have purchased this on a more recent visit to Victoria, but… I’m probably right, and yet I’m still going to drink this stuff.

Dry, the tea still smells a little citrus-y, and a lot lavender-y. Wet, it has a smoky smell that essentially smells like old lavender blossoms and pu-erh… so, old lavender blossoms. Sipping on it is still delightful, though. There’s a bit of sweetness from the rosehips, a lot of citrus from the lemongrass and orange peel, and the smokiness comes out as lavender. There isn’t enough lavender to make it soapy, even though the tea has… been well aged.

I remember I used to think this needed sugar, but evidently my palate has matured. This is good, and I’m excited to finish what I have (!! I know!) and plot for a new order from Silk Road. Maybe I’ll go visit, or maybe I’ll bribe someone to come visit me! Or maybe I’ll just stay at home in my PJs and order online. Tough decision. :)

This is the tea I made first thing today, with a little milk and honey. I really enjoyed it, but following it up with DavidsTea Nepal Black may have been a mistake.

Between the two teas, I prefer Nepal Black. I think I’m going to have to do a comparison tasting soon, to see if I can identify why I prefer that one over this one. And then comes the fun part of trying to articulate the differences, when I don’t know much tea lingo.

I had this one in my travel mug today, with quite a lot of honey (for me) and some soy creamer. Oh, it was so good. Reading other peoples notes helps me identify the flavours, and there is definitely maltiness, and the tea itself lends a sweet flavour that actually makes sweetener unnecessary. Well, unnecessary unless you’re going to a 4 hour long seminar class and you need to stay awake and also be alert enough to participate.

I recently put in an order at DavidsTea, and got 100g of this one. I really like it, partially because the flavours survive so well in my travel mug!

Yep, I like this one. Again, it’s amazingly milky with just a bit of that green grassy seaweedy flavour that I’m coming to associate with oolongs. Since I had a disaster with my Cuppow lid this morning, and had to dump my tea out before I wore it all, and I’m studying at home today, I’ve decided to work on steeping one tea as many times as possible.

Steep 1: I’d still prefer to steep less than 1 minute, but I don’t have a timer that does seconds. I bet there’s an app for that. :)

Steep 2: 45 seconds. Better than the first steep, because I found a timer app. Yay! It’s kinda caramelly, kinda milky, sweet, and has a little grassiness.

I’m really enjoying exploring the teas at this wee local shop. If you live in Vancouver (or even visit), I totally recommend checking them out. Their menu is posted on Facebook.

This one is apparently from the same place as their 2012 Oats ‘n’ Honey, but it is much less prone to bitterness, and less astringent. The tea is somewhat delicate in that its flavours really don’t come through in a travel mug. However, in a regular mug it’s amazing.

As always, I add a little honey and milk, but this is another black tea that I add things to more out of habit, rather than actually needing to add things to it.

I don’t really know how to describe this tea, but wow-oh-wow, do I like it a lot. (I’d actually make some more right now and sip at it to see what I think, but I recently woke up from a 7 hour.. err.. nap, and need to be able to sleep at some point tonight.)

I received a sample of this today (instead of buying some based on the AMAZING smell) as I’ve been having horrible luck with hibiscus based herbal brews.

This one, this is fantastic. I steeped for only 4 minutes and possibly didn’t use enough tea for the amount of water I used, but although it feels a little watery, the flavour is really good. It’s actually quite sweet as-is, with a bit of a sour tang that goes really well with the pink grapefruit flavour. I’m excited to try this cold (both hot and cold brewed) as this has potential to be an excellent summer tea.

This tea just isn’t nearly as good as some of the others in my cupboard right now. Yes, it is flavoured with lemon and strawberry, but mostly what I taste is the lemon, with a little floral berry going on in the background.

I do not care for the black tea base in this one. I steeped for only 3 minutes, and it’s already a little bitter and quite astringent, and that’s even after adding almond milk and honey. Sadly, the rating is dropping on this tea. I probably won’t be getting much else from Granville Island, as their smallest package is 50g and I’d rather try a bunch of smaller samples, then get larger quantities of the stuff I really like.

I wanted to try something different, and this is extremely different. The black tea base is really strong, and tends towards bitterness and astringency. It’s taken a bit of playing with to get a good cup out of this.

The flavours are really neat – I especially enjoy the twist of the bay leaves. As pretty much every chai, it goes very well with milk and sugar.

I will enjoy this tea as I drink it, but definitely won’t be purchasing more. Unfortunately, it’s too finicky for me.