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I was doing so great about finish off some of my tea samples and decupboarding but then TeaEqualsBliss just had to send a stuffed envelope full of goodies! Okay, so my cupboard doesn’t look near as slim now, but I’m totally not complaining!

With lots of nifty things to choose from, for some reason I decided this one spoke to me. It just seems so odd! Mate scares me on a good day but to blend it with so much other stuff? I’m scared but also intrigued.

The dry leaves smell horrible. Like chocolate and death. Okay, not quite that bad. Maybe like chocolate-flavored medicine? I can’t really peg what that weird note is but it is something that makes me think of the doctor’s office and other funny-smelling-but-sterile locations. Yeah, scared is winning right now!

Ah ha! I think I just realized what that smell is when I was sniffing the brewed tea! Alcohol! It smells like what a scotch with chocolate notes would smell like. And now that I’ve made that connection, scotch is all I smell when I sniff this. The husband is a big single malt fan and while I detest the taste of the stuff, I find the different flavors and smells interesting. Right now I feel like I’m about to down a hot cup of scotch.

OMG! This is horrible! Hahaha! I’m cracking up but this is really not good! OMG! It’s like drinking watered down whisky or a hot toddy! AHHHH! I keep sipping it to see if I will get anything else but I seriously feel like I’m drinking booze at work! Dude, even the aftertaste has a bit of the whooshy, dragon breath feeling to it that strong alcohol does! OMG, THIS IS SCOTCH TEA! And I detest scotch! HA! OMG!!!!!!!!

We interrupt this log for commentator crack up.

Whew, okay, better now. Seriously, this tea is not my friend. Like, at all. HORRIBLE! Hah! But honestly, the experience of it has been a total blast, which is where most of the points in the rating come from. So HUGE thanks to TeaEqualsBliss for this delightfully horrible experience! Whee!

Huh. I think I might like this. It strikes a note somewhere between munching on a lemon tree branch and lemon candy, like one of those old-fashioned candy sticks. There might be slight hints of Pledge, but really, the sweetness keeps it away from that too much. And as the tea cools just a tad, the lemon tree branch is going away and I’m getting lots more lemon candy. It’s really nice. I could totally see myself buying some of this.
~2.3g/7oz

Sadly, I am decupboarding this one today. This tea (and Troika) will definitely be repurchased once I am allowed to buy tea again. I really enjoy the rich feel of this tea – the feel of it plus the fruity, creamy, caramel-y sweetness just makes this tea a treat to drink.

The jasmine magnolia oolong just wasn’t what I was looking for so I gave it to the husband (who enjoys jasmine teas more than I do) and decided to bust open this sample. Mmm, good choice. This is buttery and has notes that remind me of a milk oolong – that sweet, creamy, almost fruity taste (that I sometimes read as Juicy Fruit gum). As it cools, there’s even a faint kettle corn like tastes. I would totally buy this one.
5.1g/10oz

If I didn’t know better, I would think that this is a jasmine tea. It tastes just a little darker than the typical jasmine fare but otherwise, jasmine. I don’t get peach or anything else like that. Just jasmine with a slight astringency. It just seems kind of normal to me – there’s nothing bad about it but there’s not anything special about it either. It’s fine. If I liked jasmine more I’d probably like this more.
6.1g/12oz

Will rate this when I am able to give it a bit more attention but it reminds me a lot of MF’s 1854 – a soft, gentle, floral tea with very faint EG hints. The taste profile went: rose, jasmine, hint of bergamot, jasmine. Some astringency developed as it continued to cool but overall I did enjoy this tea. Nicely soft and sweet.

Wow. Seriously, wow. This is sweet. Really sweet. It tastes a bit like eating honeysuckle nectar and chasing it with a bite of thin, newly-sprouted branch. The woody branch bit is fairly similar to the woody/reedy taste from last night’s ginseng oolong. So branch plus the honeysuckle is what I’m guessing Osmanthus tastes like? Anyway, the sweet, light honeysuckle taste is a bit contrary to the green branch taste but at the same time the branch taste grounds the sweetness, keeping it from being too extreme.

The second steep (3:00) has the flavors meshing better so it taste more like a darker floral taste and not quite as sweet. It doesn’t taste anything like rose, but for some reason that’s the comparison that now pops in my mind.

Anyway, I think I prefer last night’s ginseng oolong over this one, but just by a hair or two.
3.6g/7oz

Mmm, I like it. Light, a bit woodsy/reedy, with a hint of something that is almost like licorice. Oh, I just read the company’s notes and it does have licorice in it. So that makes sense! Anyway, I’d totally buy this tea – it’s tasty.

The only other ginseng oolong I’ve had was King’s Oolong, which I also liked. I can’t remember that quite enough to accurately compare but I think this one is a bit milder but perhaps a little rounder flavored? Maybe.
5.2g/10oz

Sorta mixed on this one – it’s got a great, true-to-life orange flavor but the end note and aftertaste is on the edge of icky sour wood with little darts into perfumey. As it cools to lukewarm there is less sour wood so I really just get the tasty orange. But ultimately, there are other flavored rooibos teas out there that don’t have to get so to close to room temp to not have that sour wood taste.

This tea was a gift from my lovely SIL after her trip to Seattle. Given that I am still on my breakfast blend kick, I was pretty excited to try this one! I’ve never been to Seattle but being the land of coffee, I would anticipate any blend made for the city to be a bit stout, maybe a little foggy, too.

When I first sniffed this last night, it smelled liked boiled peanuts. Which was pretty cool ‘cause I’m a Southern girl and do love me some boiled peanuts. But this morning it smelled like straight up Keemun (which is a little disappointing because of my boiled peanut love, but at the same time comforting because I’m not sure if I’d love boiled peanut tea). The first sip, though, was full on Assam. Subsequent sips were predominately Assam-y (with a slight hint of cardboard and fair amount of bake-y) but with a smoothness of a Keemun, though not the smokiness.

The overall taste was something that I could totally associate with Seattle – on the stout end (but not to the point of meanness) and with a nice, dark, fuzzy, comforting taste (I’m calling that one fog, k?). It is somewhat like a smooth and slightly milder Irish Breakfast. If future cups are as tasty as this one, I could totally see myself wanting to keep this in stock.