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While matcha lattes have started to catch on in the cafés of Canterbury and London, I don’t have any matcha of my own to try. At least, I didn’t until the Teapigs twitter account started giving away sample packs of this, so I opted in. After all, their matcha lattes (which, incidentially, I always order without the latte) seemed pretty good! Let’s give this a whirl!

And… uh… hm. Naturally, having tried a proper, tea-ceremony style matcha before my hopes for this were already quite high… But having used the 1/4 teaspoon amount of tea as recommended, the flavour is rather weak. There’s the slight dryness and some of the vegetal earthiness in the scent has made its way into the taste, but not by much.

I imagine this needs to have more matcha powder, or maybe it’s just tasteless…

Trying this sneakily as I bought it for my housemate over the summer to replace his Lady Londonderry tea (our favourite local stockist no longer does it!! I’ve managed to source it somewhere else, nonetheless… a tragic loss!) – it’s not exactly the same, obviously, this has vanilla and caramel and more berries, but I’m intrigued.

This tasting is off a mug brewed to a deep orange, although I tried it a clear pale orange in a teacup last night. It smells intensely floral even though the flavours are mainly fruit – is this a Dammann Freres feature? In the first sip there is very little actual floral taste, however, and the first fruit to jump out is… cherry, with a hint of caramel, and a vanilla aftertaste.

Despite being brewed so strongly this isn’t as dry as other black teas. The further I get into the mug, the more raspberry comes out, too… It’s all delightfully sweet, I wouldn’t mind a splash of milk or drop of lemon in this!

From experience, Whittard’s rose teas tend to lack something… rose flavour. There’s one rose tea by Demmers Teahouse which is unspeakably amazing, though, but I’ve not had any good rose tea in between the two! So this is a try of the next tea up from English Rose.

The scent is appropriately… black with a strong hint of rose. A good start, because I’m getting a little tired of teas with only a weak flavour in them from this company! And, yes, the rose is definitely noticeable in this one! Not in any overwhelmingly perfumey way, just a “hello! I’m flowery!” in the cup. There’s a nicely sweet lingering aftertaste too which in itself seems slightly more floral than the first taste on the tongue. It’s a little dry, but good… Seems like it might go well with a hint of honey!

My Milky Oolong, how I’ve missed you. It’s been absolute agony to be wrenched apart from you for so long… but now you’ve returned to me, 100g of you, twice as good as the original 50g that hardly tided me over half a year.

Suffice to say I’ve decided this is now a tea to remain a staple in my collection! Lately it’s been tempting to switch my morning sencha with this (just because it tastes so fab that it starts off my day perfectly); the other day I took a 0.5l flask of this to the library with me while I studied. I am utterly in love with this tea.

Today’s tasting is of a half-mug, leaves directly in the mug as they unfold so large I can just scoop them out with a spoon. Just the scent of the leaves is amazing and… I can’t even think of an english word for this, so “gourmand” will have to work instead! And the aroma of the brew, so rich and milky without being dairy- that’s what I love about this tea.

This time round it’s been left to brew a little longer than usual so the butteriness is washing off and turning it into a greener oolong; fresh and ever so slightly astringent with a sweet end to every sip. Needless to say I love this tea in all its forms… Maybe once I run out of this I’ll try a different company’s milky oolong. For now, I have enough of this to last me a while :D

Drinking this right now before bed with a chocolate yoghurt! On Monday I’m doing a shop in London (Covent Garden again, yay!) since I happen to be visiting for other reasons, so hopefully I’ll get some new, intriguing flavours to try. For now, an all-time favourite.

First thing I noticed about this before buying it is the distinct scent of strawberry laces from the rooibos itself, before brewing. I kid you not, it smells EXACTLY like strawberry laces sweets. If that’s what you’re riding on then you may be a little disappointed to find that it does not in fact taste as sweet as a strawberry lace, but if you’re like me and are very keen on finding great fruity combos with rooibos, this is one for you.

The rooibos is very malty and somehow that just works perfectly with the strawberry- rather than overpoweringly sweet the strawberry blends into the rooibos and takes the edge off the original pungency that rooibos tends to have, and the tea definitely makes the strawberry sweetness wind down some. And oh, it’s just so fruity! Leaves a strong taste in your mouth after each sip, and just warms you to the core.

Backlogging this one! Surprised I haven’t done this one yet but then I don’t drink it all that often; being the first tea I bought on my pilgrimage (yes, my cultural, romantic, artistic, linguistic, idealistic pilgrimage) to Paris, and to Mariage Frères beneath the Louvre, I tend to guard it preciously and use it only for special occasions.

Hooowever my manager asked that I complete the last exercise of my tea training workbook today, which involved comparing two teas of different grades, so I compared this one to Whittard of Chelsea’s Afternoon Earl Grey, also with cornflowers. But French Blue will always come out on top, for me!!

Something always tells me not to brew this one for too long but it’s never come out badly for it; the floral scent is consistently amazing without being terribly pungent all through the steeping and, with the leaves carefully measured, never brews to any darker than the richest amber. (I do feel like I’m writing a love letter to this tea.) It’s dry on the tongue but so, so good for it- the bergamot and the china black tea and the cornflowers all come out separately, strongly, and so deliciously, none of this merging of flavours that tends to make the ingredients indistinct from one another. Being able to taste all the different harmonious elements here really works to its advantage.

I’ve had this one with milk before but unless you’re not a fan of the dryness, I’d recommend it black, to be treated as you’d treat a First Flush Darjeeling. This one is such a great classic!

For someone who doesn’t like eating apples or drinking apple juice, I’m a complete sucker for apple tea. Up until my friend gave me this some months ago I’d only known about Turkish apple tea as a myth, but I was surprised to find out it’s not ‘tea’ but an infusion… still, delicious!

Most apple teas I try are usually a sweet, candylike green apple flavour, but this one is much more red apple! Stronger than most apple-based infusions in my opinion, sliiiightly malty, so strong and bold and juicy that it’s not entirely far off from eating an apple… Without the nasty bit where the skin gets stuck between your teeth.

As far as night-time brews go, this is definitely one of the sweeter ones! <3

Feeling like I need something fruity and tasty and mellow, but not weak this afternoon… I went for a black breakfast tea rather than my usual green which was a strange experience, reminded me why I always have a green tea first thing. Ah well! On to the tasting.

I have so little of this tea that using it feels like I really need a good excuse and a long time to savour it. The colour in the cup is bright and golden and the aroma is nothing but cantaloupe, whole and delicious. Despite how soft the flavours are this tea is a tad dry and astringent on the tongue, but I can overlook this for the beautifully smooth fruit flavours. It’s like eating a cantaloupe melon and peaches (the peach isn’t as strong as the melon), it’s nothing but delicious. Another high score!

Hi all! Yet another Whittard tea but this time, because I was looking for something to replace my Milky Oolong, and I had the chance to visit a Whittard of Chelsea in Cambridge that stocked this tea. (The staff there are lovely, I recommend a visit!)

Some months ago the gentleman in the Covent Garden Whittard store gave me some of this to smell and it smelt gorgeous, at the time- alas, I wasn’t looking for another oolong for my collection! The leaves are large, a roasted dark brown, whole; again, it’s difficult measuring out quite how much I need of this when the leaves are like that. This time I gave myself a heaped teaspoonful or so, enough to make an acorn-brown brew. And wow… it smells suspiciously like ho-ji cha. I’ve had some bad run-ins with ho-ji cha, as tasty as it is, so already this makes me a little worried…

And… what do you know, it tastes remarkably like ho-ji cha! Thankfully it’s mellower to the end of the sip, a fruitier finish, but the immediate taste is definitely all from roasting. The further I get into this the more flavours are coming clear (slightly floral more than fruity, a mild earthiness like pu-erh, a warming, soft astringency developing)… Sadly, though, I was expecting something a little lighter and the initial ho-ji cha flavour has stuck. I miss my Milky Oolong dearly— I’ll just have to get some next time I’m in London!

Bought this on impulse today purely because… well, Melissa plant? It’s got my name on it! (spelt differently but! still!)

Melissa or melisse is a lemon balm herb, I think, so named because it attracts honeybees (melissa in Greek) so. . . it’s a herbal tea, that’s about it.

Didn’t brew it for as long as I should have done but then I have this terrible habit of judging a brew by its colour. I tend to freak out if my peppermint tea starts getting brown in colour so I popped the teabag out after maybe three minutes…

It tastes a little… well, herb-y? But also earthy in a way that reminds me of pu-erh. Earthy, with a mellow, warm tea-y taste, and a little bit of citrus. I think it must smell more lemony than it tastes.

Interesting to try my namesake, nonetheless!