Greg Zink Send Message

Totally generic tea. Quite bland, no distinct flavors, nothing particularly good or bad about it. I guess there’s a touch of sweet that could be the mango, but otherwise, just very average and nondescript. Might be good iced, or with food but not something to drink for its own merits.

I dislike the way this tea smells – it’s kind of earthy and musty. Admittedly, it tastes better than it smells, but that’s mostly because the flavor is so nondescript. It’s clear I’m drinking something warm and flavored, but it’s hard to say exactly what it is – or even if it tastes like tea. There’s a hint of something sweet at the finish, but not much else. Not a good tea.

Very nice aroma and minty flavor. I don’t know that I detect any of the other spices distinctly, but it’s not just straight mint so there must be something else lurking there. It’s nice, used to be a favorite. One trouble is it must be drunk quite hot to taste good. My mug has gotten a bit toward lukewarm and it’s much less pleasant.

Overall this was pretty decent, although not as balanced as I would have liked. Ginger comes through pretty strongly with disproportionately less citrus and the other flavors (hibiscus, licorice). The spice of the ginger dominates, which is okay but not the best.

Really incredible aroma that is peaceful and soothing. I love that. Flavor is pleasant but muted, even playing with steeping times. Mostly chamomile I think, with some brightness from the mint. It’s nice but doesn’t quite live up to the promise of the smell.

Yuck! Not for me. The lime flavor in here just does not taste right, even though I’m sure it’s real. I tried this hot and iced, and either way I struggled to finish a glass. Sorry Stash – this was a neat idea but I just couldn’t do it.

Hot, this is a decidedly average tea. Smells like blackberry, tastes like generic black tea. However, I made some iced and it is great! Some of the best iced tea I’ve had. Somehow that preparation brings out the flavors much better and it’s a very refreshing drink. I thought I wanted to just get rid of this tea, but now I may have to buy it again!

Seemed like kind of a bland, generic oolong to me. Perfectly decent for drinking with a meal or mindlessly at work, but nothing particularly noteworthy to make it distinctive or a favorite. There are oolongs out there that I like better and will buy instead in the future.

I really like the idea – to preserve old-growth tea “forests” by harvesting their uniquely-flavored tea leaves. But this was simply not the tea for me, unfortunately. I’ve stated before I’m not much of a black tea drinker, but I do typically like Earl Greys. This one, however, had a far too dry character, and much too little bergamot to be among the few black teas that I enjoy. I hope others like it to keep the preservation project going but I won’t buy it again

UPDATE: By adding a ton more leaves per cup than recommended and steeping it for a very long time, you can discern a little green tea flavor with a slight citrus note. It still doesn’t seem like anything special to me though.

I don’t know what’s going on with this one, but I’m getting almost no flavor of any sort out of it. I have tried steeping per the recommendations from Tao, I have tried adding more leaves per cup, and I have tried upping the steeping time to nearly 10 minutes. Yet every time I somehow end up with what feels and looks like a mug of plain hot water. It’s maybe like an exceedingly light white tea. No sign of citrus flavor or aroma either.