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I think this gets four March scavenger stars and the last couple check marks on my list: woman-owned company, sleepytime, not currently available, and floral (chamomile). Despite the hint of pumpkin, it’s still got a cheerful enough flavor profile to be acceptable for early spring and it’s a nice break from minty sleepyteas.

I had a particularly rambling but poetic note written for this one that just went poof. You may be glad it did, because now you get the short version.

Dragonwell is my favorite straight-up green tea and Palais des Thes has captured a particularly nice one. It’s the color of sunshine on my golden oak windowsill and tastes a little like dried sweet clover and fescue hay smells like. Little sugary finish at the end. Perfect for an early spring afternoon.

A little sample of this came my way from ashmanra (thank you kindly)! I’ve never tried buckwheat tea in any configuration, but after smelling this as it steeped and tasting it afterward, I don’t think there could be a better combination. Scented just like fresh chocolate chip cookies! The flavor is milder, but certainly carries the cookie vibe well.

Conditions being what they are, and this originating from a Russian company, I’m thinking the opportunity to purchase this may be limited in the future, but for this moment, I’m sitting here smelling the empty mug and smiling.

I scavenged for this, not because it fits the March list (discontinued—this is an original with a Frank label on it), but because last night I wanted to melt the glop in my throat with something extremely lemony. Due to its age, I doubled up on the leaf, but it was still as pleasant as I remember it. The rooibos didn’t interfere with the lemon and vice versa.

Back to work tomorrow. If I hadn’t felt so lousy, the past several days would’ve seemed like a mini-vacation: feet up, rocking chair, crocheting, binge watches (That Girl and Moonlighting), finished a couple books…and finally, enough going on in the tastebud regions to enjoy a good cuppa this afternoon.

I wouldn’t have pegged this as a Darjeeling had I not read up on it first. The leaves were a nice melange of brown and green, and it steeped to the color of a new penny. One of my office favorites is a Tetley’s black and green blend—this reminds me of a fresher, more elegant version. The Palais des Thes description mentions “planty notes,” which come across nicely in the flavor and “floral notes,” which are more evident in the scent.

Aha! Another scavenger hunt threebie: French, green, spinach and artichoke notes. My tastebuds are a little wonky after four days under the weather, but as I was sipping it, the fresh spinachy greens element was so strong, I was craving sliced strawberries and vinaigrette to go with it. Nice, crisp garden vegetable vibe.

Let’s see…I was trying to figure out how many hits on the scavenger hunt list this one fits…I guess just three: Green. Woman-owned company. Makes me happy….it certainly did this afternoon. Our first calm, sunny start-to-finish springlike day; I had my feet up in the backyard glider soaking up sunshine and hoping it will tide me over—weather change and a week of gloomishness ahead.

Review-wise, it is light, pleasantly fruity, not too tart, and you can pick out both fruit flavors separately. A really nice blend.

Now, all I need is a discontinued French green floral sleepytime tea that evokes asparagus, pancake syrup, and Girl Scout cookies. (At one time, Bigelow did a line of Girl Scout flavors and I could’ve sworn I still had a rogue bag of the chocolate caramel delight one, but I can’t find it.)

I don’t know why I let myself toss this one into the basket when we visited the Spice and Tea Exchange back in November. The dried fruit bits were just so pretty in the packet. If you like cranberry and tart, you’ll be fine with this one, although there’s not really anything else noticeable in the blend. I couldn’t find a whole lot of apple, either.

But I bought it, overpaid for it, so I am bound and determined to drink it. Tonight’s attempt was aided by additives—an extremely generous glug of vanilla syrup from a sample sized bottle, for which I have now lost the lid. I think I absentmindedly cut off the protective sleeve around the lid, then threw away the lid and left the sleeve in my hand. You haven’t ever done anything like that, have you? I didn’t think so.

This is a delicious tea. Just the right notes of sweet lemon and vanilla to make it taste like the real dessert instead of like chai with a comforting name slapped on it.

This is also a pricey tea, so I’ve been milking the last bits of my ounce with multiple steeps and stretches. This morning, I took second steep leaves, added some Tao of Tea Assam, and came up with a pleasant, albeit not especially strong, treat to pour into my work tumbler.

As I have droned on for the past several reviews, the novelties of winter have long lost their twinkle and we’re cold and tired, and for another day or so, more or less iced in. Even the cats have claws-trophobia. (You knew that was coming, didn’t you?)

This is just the season for comfort tea. Constant Comment takes me back to the farm kitchen—back in the days when it didn’t seem so small—drinking a cup out of Mom’s Corelle coffee cups and then curling up under two or three quilts to watch whatever February miniseries was hot that season (Shogun!)

You don’t see the decaf version on store shelves around here very often, so I was glad to grab a box. It mirrors the warming orange rind and cloves of the original very nicely, and unlike the fully leaded version, doesn’t have a tendency to get pithy and bitter. (Unlike the writer of this review ;)