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I got this from a Bestore across the street from my hotel in Chengdu. Just opening the pouch it came in, I got a blast of artificial peach smell. The brewed tea smells of it, but not as strongly.

I admit I can’t taste the tea very much. If this were served as an herbal peach, I would believe it. It tastes strongly of peach, with a little sweet.

Another cold brew. This is very lavender-forward… I’d say lavender with a little sencha. There’s lavender at the start of the sip, lavender and sencha in the middle, and a strong lavender taste at the end of the sip. A bit after the sip, I can pick out more vegetal sencha goodness. Does lavender cause a cooling sensation like mint if you have enough? Cause it seems like that. Actually, trying it again, I think there is a bit of mint flavor too. Maybe spearmint. As a lavender lover, I do love this. If you don’t like to go crazy with the lavender, I would avoid this. I can imagine plain sugar cookies tasting great with this!

Pretty sure I bought my fancy tin of this at the PDX Tea Fest with Sara in 2018. I tried cold brewing it, and mmm, it’s crisp and clean and… almost sweet, I’d say. The roasted brown rice flavor is definitely there, and I can smell it too. There’s a hint of the matcha flavor, but it’s not as strong as the roasted rice. Very nice genmaicha, would buy again!

Oops, I apparently never reviewed this tea before! Now I’m doing a sipdown, cold-brewed. It’s licorice-forward, and I love how the other flavors come together to support it. I loved it hot-steeped and love it as a cold brew too. I’m glad to see Portal Tea still makes it! I remember hearing they changed their name from Tea Chai Te, wonder how long ago that was.

Excellent tea, would buy again!

I got this from Martin and lost track of it, finally brewed it today. The brewed tea smells citrusy. Wow! With so many flavors, I’m getting an overall fruit punch flavor or a mulled wine flavor. I’m not picking out the aloe flavor, but I’m not sure what that tastes like. It pairs well with dark chocolate. Thanks, Martin!

The brewed leaf smells heavenly, all pure and vegetal and green. I let it cool down to 51 C / 124 F so I wouldn’t burn my tongue.

I got this at a tea festival in Portland with Sara in 2019. We both really liked it.

Oh, it has been a while! A slight bitterness and astringency, vegetal notes at the end of the sip, something almost leathery, and I swear candy. I’m really vibing with this tea for the extended winter here. I might keep at it and sip it down.

Four years after I first tried this hot, I finally tried it as a cold brew. I want to drink only this for a week, LOL. I imagine this would be great sitting in a garden in Portland, Oregon, with a bright white Oregon sky. Or, instead of a garden, in the parking lot of the abandoned Fry’s Electronics building in Wisonville, Oregon.

The flavor really pops with a cold brew, about as well as hot-brewed. The vegetal/grassy toasty green tea balances nicely with the rose flavor.

This was blended by a neighbor here in Boulder Creek and presented to my daughter-in-law Emily in a re-used glass pudding jar, with no list of ingredients. Emily runs a home bakery and occasionally gets thank-you tips/gifts. She quickly offered it to me as someone more willing to try such things.

I can see and smell chamomile in the dry leaf. I brewed it grandpa-style in a mug, then poured it into a travel mug. As I poured it back, I did so through the lid, filtering out most of the leaf in the process. Back and forth again, and it was a drinkable temperature. I prefer to drink plain tea at 51 C / 124 F, or about 53 C / 127 F with milk.

This blend is very licorice-forward. I wonder if it has anise and/or fennel, but I definitely taste some sweet licorice root in there. The chamomile flavor comes in at the end of the sip. I can still taste licorice well after a sip. It’s overall pretty nice, and probably good for an evening herbal brew. I’ll have to ask which neighbor made this.

I usually brew this hot, and it tastes really good, especially with a little oat milk. Just a really good black tea. But this time, I cold brewed it overnight, three tagless bags in a pitcher. And it’s really different brewed that way! It’s got a strong vegetal note that reminds me of green tea. I can also pick out a malty note, not as strong as when I hot brew it, and some light bread and citrus notes. So, delicious either way! I’m told cold-brewing black tea leads to a lot less caffeine, but I don’t care either way on that either.

So, I suddenly craved Earl Grey hot cocoa tonight.

I pulled out my unopened one-of-a-kind box of Douglas Adams Earl Grey by Rosie Lea Tea, a custom box I ordered through Etsy in 2019, with the quote: “A cup of tea would restore my normality.”

I decided not to review this tea quite yet, as I don’t know yet what it tastes like on its own. Also it’s a bit past the best-by date in 2020.

I microwaved some oat milk, steeped 3 grams of tea in the oat milk with my gravity steeper, then poured it into a blender with some 81% chocolate pieces. I waited a little for the chocolate to soften, then blended it up. (I usually make hot cocoa this way but w/o any tea)

This is everything I had opened for. The bergamot taste pairs nicely with the chocolate without overpowering it. Mmm!