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My boss bought me a tin of this for the holidays, which was very sweet of her. I tried a bag today at work. The ingredients looked interesting but nothing really holiday-ish about them. Maybe I’m imagining things, but I swear this tasted slightly peachy but the description on here doesn’t mention it and the tin is at work. It’s nice, but not especially interesting or season appropriate. Still, a nice gesture certainly.

So I finished up the last of this today at work. My stomach has been bothering me today and that usually calls from rooibos! I know it’s kind of interesting that I claimed the rest of this was going to my swap box, but I decided to use it up myself. Although, I found some weird stuff in the remains of my steep that is a bit troubling, but I’ll reach out to the company before making any conclusions. Nonetheless, sipdown!

I finished up the last sachet of this at work a couple of days ago. I was sad to see it go, but I’m sure it will eventually come into my life again… just not anytime soon, since I just received my massive Teavana order.

Seriously, what am I doing wrong? I used 4 heaping teaspoons this time and steeped for nearly 10 minutes and unsweetened it was slightly sweet water. Sweetener improved the flavors and it is really tasty, but nothing like the other reviews. For the record, the 4 tsp also makes it look darker and almost thicker in a way which leaves a pretty nice mouth feel. Still, I’m not sad that Teavana likely discontinued this blend. I’ll enjoy while I have it, but eh.

And I think I’m going to try combining this with another one of my chocolate-based teas and see if that helps gives the chocolate flavor more oomph. It certainly can’t hurt!

So I somehow found a lone tin of this blend at Tjmaxx today. There was another Fauchon tin but it was cracked and open so I passed. This was sealed so I thought why the heck not. It was $9.99 and French and I’ve heard so much about Fauchon on Steepster.

Granted, it seems a lot of the blends that get a lot of raves on Steepster don’t hold up for me for some reason (most brands too). Maybe it’s that my expectations are just more than it’s reasonable for tea to be?

In any case, I was even more pleasantly surprised with this blend. It smells beautiful. I’m not a huge fan of chocolate and orange because the orange can sometimes seem artificial. This is like real orange. And real chocolate and it is just delightful. And, the end of the sip is creamy deliciousness with none of the fake-vanilla taste that some rooibos vanilla blends have.

I used 2 tsp in my 16oz steeping mug and added sweetener. Instant favorite.

I followed the instructions to the “T” even though 4 tsp in my 16oz steeping mug seemed a little ridiculous for a chai.

It was pretty good but got a little bitter towards the end of the mug. I probably could have gone with less leaf. It resteeps pretty decently but might be because there was so much leaf.

Still, I can’t complain much since I got the jar for all of $4.99 the last time World Market put all of their tea on sale (50% off yay). It’s pretty freaking adorable, it’s glass and comes with a little scoop!

I’ve been really bad with posting my tasting notes. Work has been absolutely crazy and then by the time I get home, I just want to go to bed.

Tonight though, I would like to mention that I almost got my husband to try some tea. I told him it tasted like raspberry jolly ranchers and I offered to make him a cup with sugar and he still resisted. Sigh.

Anyway, this does taste like raspberry jolly ranchers once you add sweetener. I use 3 tsp in my 16oz steeping mug. Yum.

Eh.

My brother got me the kosher teas set for Hanukkah this past year and I tried the ones I was excited about and now I’m left with the scarey ones. Once I read the ingredients to this one, I was a bit frightened. I don’t really taste coconut. I mostly taste the ginger. I added sweetener because I was hoping it would help, but it doesn’t really.

It isn’t bad per say, but it’s not a version of chai I enjoy and I’ll likely swap the rest of the tiny cute tin of it.

Another purchase from my Tiesta Tea haul. This is nice, but I’m not really getting pancake from it, as it’s not bready. What I am getting, is a slightly creamy, sweet maple and nut taste. It was faintly sweet on its own but I added some nonetheless and it really brought the flavor out. While this is nice, it isn’t quite blowing me away; however, I will say that I prefer this maple flavor way more than the one from Davidstea, so there’s that.

Will reserve further judgment/rating till I’ve had it a few more times.

3 tsp + sweetener in 16oz steeping mug

I steeped it a bit longer this time and it resulted in more almond and less rooibos. Not nearly as delicious as Davidstea Alpine Punch, but it’s better than my first cup!