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Tried this for a third time. This time, I brewed 1 tsp of this plus 1 tsp of rooibos with 1 tsp of rock sugar in 16 oz of water. It was vastly more drinkable than the previous times I had tried drinking this tea alone.

The almond flavor is definitely still present throughout the tea, and the sugar enhances the rooibos and the other flavors in the Amandine Rose.

I think I’ve finally doctored this tea in a way I actually like it. I’m bumping up my score for this tea a bit in reaction, tho I wish I hadn’t had to nearly jump through hoops to make this drinkable.

This tea is so pretty to look at in the little spice jar I put them in. The pearls are large about as wide as my thumbnail, and patterned brown and black. The smell is lovely too. The jasmine comes right to the front.

Steeped three pearls in 16 oz of water for five minutes, per the instructions on the label.

This is amazingly smooth and mellow for a black tea. Jasmine taste first, and as it rolls over my tongue, I taste a little woodsy/earth, and then a hint of bitterness as I swallow. This is just a beautiful tea.

I made this iced with a 1:2 ratio of sugar to tea.
This is lovely. Not overly sweet. I can definitely taste the nuts (less so the fruit). I refreshing summer drink.

I was sent an oz of this free with my order. This was a reserve tea that they were giving away as part of a promotion.

I will caveat my review by saying I’m not the world’s biggest black tea fan.

The flavor is very subtle. It starts off tasting like what I’d consider a typical black tea to taste like, and then the nuances start coming out. There is almost a bitter taste that fades into almost sour. It plays on the border between drinkable/undrinkable for me but never quite crosses over the line.

I imagine black tea drinkers would love this one. Unfortunately, that’s not really me.

Calm, relaxing — I am feeling so mellow right now after drinking a cup of this. It’s a bit spearminty (again, I have to question if this is contamination from the other teas in my order but it’s yummy as all get all). I can see myself sinking into a bubble bath while enjoying a cup of this and just blocking out the world. Bliss.

I tried this again tonight with a tsp of rock sugar. Steeped 1 tsp of tea in my 16 oz IngenuiTEA steeper for 5.5 minutes. I remain unimpressed. All I can taste is the sugar.

I am not terribly impressed with this tea. I had been drinking rooibos all day and wanted some real tea to cleanse my palate. I threw a 50 g sample of this into my cart when I splurged at DAVIDsTEA the other day on an ice tea pitcher. I love oolong, and I love vanilla – I should love this tea, right? Meh.

The vanilla flavor is oddly enough both subtle – I can taste it but the is is not tasting overpoweringly of vanilla – and not – it masks the oolong flavor. Since I drink oolong mainly to drink oolong, this was a disappointment.

I’m glad I only got the sample so I don’t have a ton of this to go through.

My quest to drink more rooibos to see if it will help carpal tunnel continues.

2 tsps of tea in 16 oz of water, with 2 tsps of rock sugar.

I think next time I will cut the sugar in half. It’s cloyingly sweet. Other than that, I like this tea. It’s chocolatey and bananay without being overly much so.

The steeped tea smells awful, though. Fair warning.

Steeped 2 teaspoons in 16 oz for 5.5 minutes. Added 1 tsp of rock sugar.

Dried, this tea smells like bubblegum. Steeped, the smell is less intense. The taste is also less intense but I can taste the almost Froot Loops taste underneath the rooibos. Maybe it needs more sugar?

My overall reaction to this tea is: Meh.

I had to go to the urgent care clinic today because of stabbing pains in my arm joints, and was tentatively diagnosed with carpal tunnel (I type very very fast for a living so yeah, I can see that). The doc gave me drugs, but I remembered hearing somewhere the rooibos had anti-inflammatory properties. Now, I have not been a rooibos fan but I figured if it helped my arms become less borked, that was a good thing. So I toddled off to Teavana and made the clerk bring out all the rooibos, and I selected four to purchase. This was one of them.

I was pleasantly surprised by this tea. It smelled lovely, but wasn’t very flavorful until I added a spoonful of sugar to my mug. The sugar really brought out the other flavors. I can see myself drinking this.

The lack of caffeine will take harder to get used to. Ugh, crashing right now without my nightly cup of oolong…