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Got some of this from The Tea Sipper in trade, so trying it out.

I agree with most of the posters that I really don’t get much flavour out of this, mostly faintly in the aftertaste but it doesn’t linger. What I do taste doesn’t really do anything for me. I’m not sure if it’s that I don’t really like the black base or what, but something just seems a bit off in this tea for me. Can’t say I like it much at all.

Trying this one now, my last sample from the Nina’s Paris catalogue. The cherry flavour in this is a bit overwhelming to me. It’s really really there, and I can taste hints of rose too but it’s very faint. The cherry on the other hand, I mostly taste the sour cherry, which is fine, I love sour cherries, but it’s faintly artificial tasting to me and although it doesn’t taste exactly like a cough drop, it does remind me of one. That sounds more terrible than it is, really. I like this some, but not a lot. Glad I got to try it, but I won’t be ordering it.

Got this sample from Nina’s Paris during their sample promotion. Just enough for one oversized mug, plus another steep after as soon as I finish this cup.

This is SO STRAWBERRY! And in a good way, not that terribly artificial stuff that plagues a lot of strawberry tasting teas. This is really good! I was a bit disappointed with my first Nina’s tea, but this one totally makes up for it, and I heard that it resteeps well too, though I haven’t tried it yet. But I will in a few minutes! This tea is pretty brilliant. I pick up faint hints of vanilla, but mostly just strawberry and that’s interesting, but not a bad thing. Mostly the vanilla just leaves a creamy edge to the taste. I approve of this tea.

Having this again, though I brought it into work this time for some tastiness at work. Good way to get a nice taste in my mouth. First steep came out very burnt-caramel with hints of vanilla and I’m steeping it a second time right now.

Drinking the second steep right now, I think, for the first time ever that I have experienced in flavoured black teas, that the second steep is better than the first. The first steep, the caramel flavour was overwhelming. Nice, but a bit POW IN THE FACE and tongue and the second steep, the flavours are a bit more nicely balanced and delicate. Overall, this a tea that holds up well to two steeps, though I won’t go for more than that.

I think I got this sample from momo but I’m not entirely sure. I opened the envelope from her last week and then it got mixed with other stuff.

Anyway, I didn’t realize this was a pu-erh tea. Generally I do NOT like pu-erh teas, but I haven’t tried a flavoured one before now so this may be what the doctor ordered. Possibly a gateway drug into the world of pu-erh? I had another sample of this directly from The Persimmon Tree, but since I got this sample from my trader friend, I sent that one off to someone else. The sample I got was just enough for a normal sized pot for me, maybe a little weaker than it nominally would be, but that’s not a bad thing.

I’m drinking this now and while the coconut and cacao work well together and taste good, I’m still not liking the base tea very much. It adds a flavour to the taste and especially to the aftertaste that is musty and earthy and very pu-erh if that makes sense and it’s just not to my taste. It is an interesting tea though. Definitely weaker than I might be expecting otherwise but I’m pretty sure that I’m not going to finish this pot. Just had a big gulp and it made the pu-erh flavour worse.

Glad I got to try this but it just confirmed my feelings on pu-erh tea.

This is an extremely pretty tea to look at, with the nice little golden curls. It’s named appropriately. And I am a HUGE fan of Yunnan teas in general, I loved Yunnan Jig and Yunnan Gold from Adagio, so this is the next logical step. It was out of stock when I wanted it the first time so I put in an order then and then forgot about it until last week when I got a random email from Adagio saying my order had shipped. What order? But it all made sense again when it arrived. This one actually comes in a tin, which is nice. I will probably be going through it pretty quickly though, which is unfortunate, considering the high price, because Adagio recommends 2 level teaspoons for a cup of tea, rather than the one I usually use. I think I’ll be able to get a TON of resteeps out of this though, considering how absolutely dark the first steep came out. And Strong.

The flavour is pepper and malt and tobacco and leather and sweet potato and other things I can’t identify. A very complex brew with a full body. This is something of a POW IN THE FACE tea, so probably best for in the morning rather than in the afternoon when I’m drinking it right now. And in the morning lets you resteep it all day so there’s more time. I’m always a bit wary of letting tea leaves sit overnight after a brew. I know there’s nothing really wrong with doing that, except it turns the brew basket brown eventually, and I’m not even afraid of germs but for some reason I get the oogies when I think about it.

Anyway back to the tea, I really like this tea, but compared to Yunnan Gold from the same company, I’m not sure it’s worth the increase in price. Actually I’m pretty sure it’s not. But it was worthwhile to buy it to try once. This is my first tea from Adagio’s Master line of teas.

I think this is the right tea. It says Nina’s on it (it’s a sample from a promotion they were doing) and I can only assume it’s Nina’s Paris. It looks prettty much the same so I’ll just go with it.

The steeped tea smells strongly of orange and not much else. While I wait for it to cool down enough to drink, it’s definitely all orange.

Wow, I really should not have eaten a Samoa before taking my first sip. Compared to that sweetness, this is really quite bitter. I think I should let that taste in my mouth die down a bit before I take any more drinks.

As I wait, and this cools down further, I can taste it again. I can taste the fruitiness of this tea and while it is…nice…it is really just okay. The fruit definitely overwhelms the base tea. I am just not liking this very much. I’ll try the rest of my Nina’s tea on Monday when I get back to work. Hopefully I will like them better.

So I got this tea in a little baggie from one of my coworkers a while ago and while I have almost no idea what’s in it (besides some sort of chocolate flavour, almond slivers, and whatever those little round red balls are (peppercorns?)). It’s got more ingredients than that, but I’m not going to go tasting each one to figure out what it is. I’m just going to steep this in my Breville. Made a wild guess at steeping parameters.

This really smells very chocolatey along with some other dessert-y flavours that I can’t identify very well. Caramel perhaps. Something else, definitely. The taste doesn’t really live up to the smell at all, even with a bit more sweetener than I normally use, still not sweet. The initial aftertaste is quite nice, though it fades very quickly. I think this is going to be a quick drink after the second cup cools down as I can’t see myself sitting here and savouring it. I have about a cup’s worth left, I think, so this is not a sipdown of…whatever this is.

I wanted to log this because I drank it and I think that’s important, but I really have no clue what this is.

Thanks to The Persimmon Tree for including this sample in my order. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have ordered it myself so this must be a freebie.

The jury is still out on whether or not I actually like jasmine. I had some Jasmine Phoenix Pearls the other week that were pretty good, but I’m liking the jasmine in this one much less than that. The passion fruit is nice and the green tea is strong but bearable (I only like a few green teas so far). I can’t really taste that there is black tea in this at all. The jasmine is quite strong though.

I guess this is a good blend. I don’t hate it and I’ll drink the rest of my pot.

Gift from ToiToi in our trade. This tea is surprisingly good, considering it is a bagged tea from a company I’ve never heard of. Possibly I’m just exposing my ignorance to the world of tea companies. But really, I can definitely taste the caramel and it is a surprisingly strong flavour. Not nearly as good as my Vanilla and Caramel Black from Ovation Teas but this is really good for a bagged tea. The Ovation Teas tea always leaves a complete sticky mess in my steeper. This is much more convenient. And I can try it 2 more times!