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A Natural Grocers opened in town a while ago and I’d bought some teas there that aren’t in my normal grocery stop, this being one of them. I have been out of tulsi blends and didn’t read the packaging very close, thinking this was a tulsi rose blend, and while it does have those things, it’s actually on an assam black tea base. Which I wasn’t too bovvered about, as I like rose black tea as well.

The blend, however… is a little weird. The rose flavor is nice, it’s pretty strong and I wouldn’t recommend it to those averse to florals, but it doesn’t taste perfumey (at least to me, but I love strong rose tea). I’d put it on par with the rose flavor of Kroger Private Selection’s rose black tea. But I don’t think I’m as much of a fan of the tulsi mixed with a black base, because while I normally like tulsi on its own, it leaves this really strange aftertaste to me on the assam. Sometimes it just comes out kind of minty which is pretty pleasant, but other times it just comes off with this weird oaty/hay note that just isn’t playing nicely with the rest. It’s not bad, but I think I’d prefer a rose-on-tulsi or a rose-on-black more than this amalgamation of both.

My favorite rooibos chai is West Cape Chai from Rishi, but because they only sell it in large bulk amounts (it doesn’t matter how much I like a tea, I do not need a pound of it at any given time!) I usually have to hunt it down through resellers. I believe at the time I was making a Tea Runners order and they carried it, but it was sold out so I went with a different rooibos chai they had at the time, which was this one sourced from SerendipiTea.

I love the aroma of this tea, both dry and steeped, and while it has a nice flavor as well, it still doesn’t edge out Rishi’s West Cape Chai for me. The spice blend is very good — they blend together nicely but at the same time can be picked out distinctly — but I feel like the base rooibos isn’t quite as flavorful as I’d like? The spices in the tea are pretty warming… it just borders on being “too much” for me (I am the world’s most sensitive spice-wuss) so it leaves a bit of a peppery/gingery kick at the back of my throat after the sip, which I’m not the biggest fan of but I imagine would be quite flavorful and pleasant to others. I suspect this will hold up to milk nicely, so next time I’ll prepare it that way and then I think it’ll be just right for me.

This is a perfectly fine caffeine-free chai option and very nice against the brisk winter winds we have at this time of year.

Opening the bag, this tea has such a strong and pleasant nutty aroma, which thankfully carries out into teh brewed aroma and flavor. I get a strong sweet nutty flavor which stands up well to the earthy pu’erh and really drowns out a lot of the dirty notes in shou that I don’t care for. The earthy tones of the pu’erh do come out a bit more as the tea cools and is very present if the cup goes cold… for me at least, this is a “drink it while it’s hot!” tea. I decided to experiment with a latte, using 400ml of brewed tea and 100ml warm frothed sweet vanilla almond milk with a teaspoon of maple syrup, and it is outright decadent. More work for the preparation but it really pays off… the added sweetness and creaminess really makes the tea taste like a nutty dessert. For anyone worried about the rose petals in the blend, don’t be. They seem to be just for asthetics and I don’t get even a hint of rose in aroma or flavor. Personally, because I’m a fan of florals I’d love to see a strong rose note incorperated into this flavor profile… perhaps I’ll have to experiment and steep this tea with a bag of rose-scented black tea and see how it goes. But it’s really a treat as-is, and I’d happily grab more of this.

This is a sweet strawberry-leaning hibiscus fruit tea. There is a lot of juicy strawberry flavor, it’s a little candy-like though the tanginess of the hibiscus helps with that a bit. There is a sweet almond flavor in the background. I don’t taste the lavender in the blend at all, despite the fact it is pretty prevalent in the ingredients listing… maybe it was luck of the scoop and it all fell to the bottom of the bag? Will have to reassess as I work my way through this. It is a pleasant tea, but there is nothing really unique or remarkable about it… I know I’ve tasted strawberry hibi fruit teas from T2 and Adagio and probably other places that pretty much had this same sweet strawberry flavor on a hibi fruit tea base. It is a Dethlefsen & Balk blend so I’m sure the deja vu is warranted.

This tea is basically a chai with an oolong base, which I don’t think I’ve personally seen before (and feel should be done more often!) The base oolong is a darker variety with lots of roasted, earthy, and nutty notes, which I think is really complimentary with the spices. The spices are gently warming, with the cinnamon coming out a bit more on the front of the sip with the ginger and clove lingering pleasantly afterwards. The tea says it includes “pumpkin spice flavoring” rather than “pumpkin pie” flavoring, so there are no notes of pumpkin or vanilla. I think the closest tea I’ve had to this one is a houjicha chai, though this doesn’t have the woodiness the houjicha chai had. It’s a very enjoyable cold weather tea! I’m not sure if it would hold up to a latte the way a traditional black tea-based chai would (I haven’t tried it yet!) but it makes a perfectly fine plain cuppa with cozy roasty notes and warming spices for a winter day.

This is one of those “hibiscus and spices” teas that I know are pretty universally disliked on Steepster, but happen to pretty much be my favorite thing ever. While I normally prefer my hibi/fruit teas coldbrewed, I just find something incredibly cozy about warm and syrupy hibiscus mixed with spices… and the extra hydration and Vitamin C at a time of year where my nose seems to constantly drip for three months straight is an added bonus. The hibiscus base is very prevalent in this one with a pleasant tartness, but the pear flavor keeps it from tasting like a generic fruit punch like many hibi/fruit teas. It’s a decent pear flavor, even if a bit subdued. There is a lot of sweet, warming cinnamon that lingers after the sip. I’m really enjoying it, but could not recommend it to those that find hibi “too tart”… there is some apple and pineapple in the blend but I don’t find it adds a lot of sweetness. It’s more akin to a “mulled wine” sort of tea, just with a pear-leaning direction.

It seems the trend lately is caffeine-free coffee teas (which, don’t get me wrong, I quite enjoy!) but sometimes what I am really craving from a coffee tea is the stimulation of coffee as well as the taste, and I have to say this one holds up pretty well. It has a very strong black coffee flavor, which mimicks the flavor well but also comes off just a tad artificial. The dry leaf smells strongly of the cocoa elements but I don’t really taste that in the cup… it just tastes like black coffee with a roasty undertone, as well as a strong hit of cinnamon. I really like the cinnamon, and somehow paired with the black coffee flavor it tastes more like nutmeg to me on the tongue (still very pleasant!) I also like that the base is a combination of roasted yerba mate and black tea, doubling down on the caffeinated potential.

I’ve mostly been drinking this tea plain, but this morning opted for a sweetened vanilla almond milk latte since I’m trying to use up the carton. Adding the sweetened vanilla almond milk really brings out the cocoa notes that were hiding otherwise. Very delicious! A very good coffee alternative for those that like the taste but may have other issues preventing a morning cup o’ joe (for me, the acidity of coffee beans really does a number on my GI!)

Happy New Year, everyone!

Happy holidays to those celebrating! (And to those that don’t like myself, have a great day regardless, yeah?)

As per usual, the person that loves all the things on Steepster everyone else hates like hibiscus and licorice root, and loathes the universally loved “banana teas,” seems to have the exact opposite opinion as everyone else on here regarding this tea. All advent season, every post on this said, “It doesn’t taste like gingerbread, just a normal chai.” To me, this is the first gingerbread tea I’ve had that does taste like gingerbread to me rather than just a chai! I bought this pouch a year ago, so if anything, you’d think the flavoring would be even less potent for me than all the advent folks, but the second I finally cut open the vac-seal the dry aroma was rich, sweet, molassy cookies.

Steeped, the aroma isn’t quite as potent but is still very apparent, coming off as very sweet and cookie-like. The Chinese black base used for the tea really works, as I get notes of malty dates and just a subtle hint of smoke that really accompanies the flavors. The chai spices are very nice and not overbearing… for me I mostly taste clove (another ingredient I enjoy that seems to be disliked around here) followed by sweet cinnamon, with a bit of ginger, just enough for a slight kick but not enough to make the tea uncomfortably firey (a problem I’ve had with other gingerbread teas). The cup is overall pretty smooth and sweet and easy to drink. It’s fine hot with no additions, but yesterday I prepared it as a latte with some warm sweet vanilla almond milk which was very nice.

My taste buds approve, even if the common consensus says otherwise. I’d happily get another bag of this, especially since I haven’t yet had a gingerbread tea that nailed the flavoring quite as well as this one.

Rating: 50

Today is Festivus, and while I’m fairly certain I’m the only person on Steepster that observes it, I’ll throw a “Happy Festivus for the Rest of Us!” out there anyway.

And now I’m going to air some grievances about this tea. Sometime in the past I needed to put some extra things in an Amazon cart to get free shipping, so I decided to add some roasted buckwheat (sobacha) and roasted barley (mugicha). The packaging for this says “Black Tartary Buckwheat” by Ulthmok… the listing claimed it was Himalayan, but everything on the actual package says it is from China…

Not that I expect a lot from cheap Chinese tea left in an Amazon warehouse, but this is just nothing like the sobacha I had in the past from Japan. Is it just a different type? A different roast? The unfortunate victim of being a cheap Chinese product in an Amazon warehouse? All of the above? It is just sooooooooo flavorless! If I try brewing it hot with boiling water, one teabag left to steep indefinitely in the cup, it just tastes like slightly roasty hot water. Adding a second teabag doesn’t help much, either.

It is alright as a hot cuppa if I make green tea and throw a teabag in to steep with the green tea, producing a slightly roasty/nutty cup not that unlike genmaicha. The green tea adds the needed body and a bit of flavor backbone. But this came as a pack of 50 teabags, and I felt I’d have this in my cupboard forever at that rate, so I started throwing 4-6 teabags into a liter of cold water overnight and drinking the cold brew, which is also pretty decent. The super long steep brings out more flavor and the thinness of the brew isn’t so noticable in an ice-cold beverage. So hopefully I’ll use these up within a few more pitchers.

It was meh all around, and I couldn’t be arsed to make a full Steepster database entry for it because that felt like more effort than the tea was actually worth.

While I enjoy turmeric, that enjoyment is typically based around the accompanying spice blend, which often times is far too ginger-heavy for my liking. But this tea is quite nice, with a sweeter cinnamon coming forward on the nose and in the flavor, so the tea isn’t an annoying cup of mouth-burning. The rooty/earthy turmeric note is there and is definitely an acquired taste, but there is a nice orangy note in the background and the cinnamon and licorice root tame any aggressive spiciness of the turm or ginger without being too sweet. And though it may not be marketed as such, this is a pretty effective sleep tea, with lavender, valerian, and passionflower, and it works pretty well for me. It’s both a good and a bad… bad if I just want a turm/ginger-heavy tea for tummy troubles but don’t want to be knocked out, but great for a wind-down before bed (and tastier than I often find “sleepy teas.”)

There’s probably too many contentious ingredients in this blend to really recommend it, but I’m that weird person that likes most contentious ingredients and have been pretty happy with this tea, as a non-aggressively spiced turmeric blend and as a sleep aid.