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The only variety in the weather forecast for several days has been the adverb: treacherously hot, dangerously hot, miserably hot, torturously hot, painfully hot….which means I start with an iced version of whatever I yank out of the “old bags” basket and continue to add scraps of whatever else is on hand, watering it down during the day until there’s nothing left.

However, this little specialty tea from Basilur held up pretty nicely under abuse today—started with a quart that had been fridge-steeped overnight; sweet, but not in that curl-your-tongue stevia way. Once it was half gone, I threw in a bag of Murphy’s Irish Breakfast, and ended up with a very pleasant iced blend with just a teeny bit of cherry finish.

Y’all enjoy a hot cuppa for me. I’ll catch up with you in a few days. September’s coming.

Martin, is this the one I’m drinking? If so, I’m enjoying it greatly! For a Ceylon tea, this is surprisingly smooth with very little of the coppery-brassy notes I usually associate with the variety. It’s a little bit sweet, but still has enough bite to get your eyes open—two qualities I value highly.

I was saving this little treat from Martin for a sleepy morning, thinking it would activate some lazy brain synapses. Wow, did it ever! It is definitely tea-THYME, pun intended!

The dry leaf is about half-and-half black tea to herb, and the thyme comes through first. It’s refreshing—sort of like lemon with pine, but the unusual combination keeps making me think about spaghetti sauce. Probably because my uneducated Midwest palate never seasoned anything else with thyme.

Martin, thank you for broadening my horizons! We aren’t done with hot weather yet—I bet this is doubly zingy on ice.

Rain! Two delicious mornings waking up to it. You can just hear the ground going ahhhhhh. We celebrated with a lunch out and a dessert at a little hometown ice cream gem (everything made-in store) that offers you the option of sitting inside a salvaged railroad mail car (the labels are still on the sorting boxes) or outside on the porch in rocking chairs. We rocked.

I’m so glad I had a little bit of this left to enjoy, derk, on an evening that finally didn’t require AC going full blast. I had no new revelations as I enjoyed it again, but it is a simply enjoyable, not fussy, sweet and gentle little green tea. As you mentioned in one of your reviews, it is a good evening cup—doesn’t mess with your rest. Thank you again.

Because of the citrus notes, I anticipated Here Be Dragons to be smashing on as a cold bevvy. Having just tried my first pint, I think I’ll back that off from a smash to a good, rousing pillow fight. Since my luck with cold-steeping green teas is so-so, I prepared it according to package parameters, then chilled it all day. The citrus which is so prominent when it’s hot is less so now. Still, it’s a tasty flavored green and is doing an adequate job of helping me chill.

Martin sent a beautiful little packet of these leaves my way—the kind that are so long you can’t get them on a spoon properly, so you have to guess at proportions just a bit. With new-to-me teas, I tend to err on the side of “don’t overdo it,” so my first cup of these beauties was a touch on the light side, but still malty and sweet.

I’m convinced that this will hold up well to longer and slightly more heavy-handed treatment.

This has made its way to the “just make iced tea out of it and get it out the door” queue. It’s a roasted oolong, but a finicky one: there is about a quarter degree and nanosecond sweet spot to keep it from turning bitter. Life is too short for finick.

That said, bitter-ish is better-ish when it’s on ice. We’ve got a nasty stretch of hissing weather ahead (thank you, Rosehips, for the turn of phrase!) so there’ll be plenty of opportunity to sip this one down.

Martin, this one’s amazing! I tend to be leery of rose teas because they can be improperly blended and taste like the soap Grandma kept in her nightie drawer to make everything smell good. However, the rose gets a really nice citrus counterpoint that keeps it from being too cloying. This is another one I think will be really lovely on ice. Thank you!

Another treat from Martin’s Intercontinental Box of Happy Tea! The only unflavored Basilur tea I tried previously was an English Breakfast that was pretty so-so. This one was a pleasant step up. Less brassy, a little more malty, and it still has potential to improve … I used a little more mug and a little more water than was necessary. Looking forward to a more concentrated version.

Is there anything better than a box of tea treats waiting for you at the end of a long day? Even better when they’re from a tea friend; thank you, Martin!

This was the first packet I broke into. The basil/lime combination is sweet and refreshing, and the combination of citrus peels and flavoring pumps up the flavor without a bit of painful tartness. The total combination smells like the tomato plants in our little container garden after a good rainfall! Fragrance is a fitting name.

I’ve got a second steep recycling in the fridge overnight. Garnished with a little fresh basil pinched from our plants, this should be equally refreshing on ice.