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Normally, I don’t care for chocolate-profile teas on ice, but I’ll make an exception here, since the tea itself is deliciously strawberry dominant. The chocolate in the background is still a little artificial tasting, but not obnoxiously so since it’s sitting way in the back of the bus.

This is a great dessert or little-kid tea party tea. Am I sharing it with my Sunday 10-year-olds? Not a chance ;)

It’s a rare and wonderful thing to be truly fond of your workmates, and I am. One of them knows I had an especially challenging workweek last week, and ended it Friday by leaving a bag with two lovely tins of Savoy on my desk. The problem is that the stinker chose to remain anonymous, so I don’t know whom to properly thank!

My sweet whomever made a couple of selections I normally wouldn’t have on my own, and here be one of ‘em. If it’s a dragon, it’s a tame one like Puff. (Or Piff. We love him.) The mallow flowers soften any vegetal sharpness in the green tea and the flavoring—mango, I believe—is juicy, not tangy, not fake. A perfect arrival at the outset of summer—this is going to be delicious on ice.

I don’t think I’ve ever snarfed up a 40-bag box of tea so quickly. The tin is looking like a long lonely tunnel with just a couple at the end. (Not to worry, some on order.)

Won’t add to what you already know, except for the fact that it makes a stellar iced tea. The “toast” part of the combo keeps it wonderfully stout (especially fridge-steeped overnight) and the rest, well…that’s my jam.

As with any tea embellished with chunky goodies, to analyze it accurately, you need to have just the correct balance of tea-to-goodies ratio when you’re spooning it out. My tin came to me so full, it was hard to woogle the spoon around without spilling the contents, which include dried pineapple chunks and dried cherry craisins.

So the jury is still out on this one. Anna Marie has the cake and brown sugar syrupy goodness thing down to a fine art. I am not sure the pineapple stands out enough, but multiple random samples will likely help me determine the median flavor profile soon. (Hey, I did remember something from college statistics!)

Anna Marie also recommends this as an iced tea. I can envision this holding up well on ice with a maraschino cherry on top.

Ashmanra sent me a little sample sachet of grapey goodness! Grape gummies seem to be the most frequent reference in other reviews and indeed, it’s got a sweet little personality. If you took a sweet red table grape and crossed it with a cotton candy grape, you’d have the beginnings of a vineyard full of what this tastes like. Being a decaf base, it’s a little milder than its counterpart (Jingle Bells, right?) but unless you tasted them side by side you wouldn’t know there’s a difference.

Perfect for toasting the end of a summer school box operation that reminded me of an Amazon Hub on steroids. (Normally, I sit at a desk. I’m getting too old to be a pack mule ;)

Happy weekend to you all.

We had one of those spring days that was warm and chilly all at once…perfect for yard work, especially when the riding mower is in the hospital on life support waiting for a new carburetor and you’ve got to use your own horsepower. Husband trimmed around our 100-plus-year-old maple; that’s a half mile in itself; it’s an Ent just waiting to break loose and trudge down the block.

I tackled the tilty, tippy, ditchy part of the yard with the push mower, and was walking about as slow as an aforementioned Ent by the time I finished. This light little cuppa, courtesy of derk, was perfect for putting up the aching feet and surveying the acreage.

While steeping, it looked a little like cooked spinach and mulch from the push mower, but the coloring and flavor palate was much lighter. Definitely some sweet hay in there. Ashmanra mentioned a little mineral in there—I got that, too.

Not one to wake up with; not one to wind down with; just one to savor when you have a few delicious minutes to put your brain on autopilot.

Rarely do I crave jasmine tea, but I was, so I did. I may have reviewed these cute little pearls under Random Steepings previously, but the notes under that heading are way too overwhelming to sort through. All I know about their provenance is that they came from the Waikiki Tea Room (souvenir from a friend), there was a silver Lady M Cakes label on the bag, and Lady M Cakes don’t promote teas on their website except for a green tea crepe cake that looks really intriguing.

Well, hello there, dashboard, I missed you!

The Anna Marie’s dessert teas I’ve tried up to this point have been superlative. I temporarily have to back this one off to really, really good, but I’ve only had one cup and I may have underleafed it. The strawberry is strawberry-hard-candy quality (but tasty) and the chocolate gave off a little chemical vibe, but I think there’s some room to tinker with the leaf ratio, and with milk or ice. Aw, shucks, I guess that means I’ll just have to make more…

Afternoon pick-me-up indeed! The scent leads with the chocolate, the sip leads with the pomegranate, not a bit tart or artificial or bitter (I’ve had many pomegranate flavored teas that quickly turned bitter and chemically.) I could just stick my nose in this cup and leave it there.

Just a little sample tossed in with a prior Anna Marie’s order—it captured yeasty almond pastry perfectly! I regret not being able to savor it properly, especially as it doesn’t appear to be available at the moment. However, I had been sweating, hauling, and checking incoming boxes like a longshoresman (it takes a lot of supplies to prep five buildings for elementary summer school!), and I never cooled down enough to enjoy the backside of the cup. Maybe in December…