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Headed over to Davids Tea for my usual 2nd cup of the day and found it was the launch of their new carnival flavors! Their cups, brewers, flavors, packaging, was all super colorful and adorable and if the pitcher came in a smaller size I would have bought one. I got to smell all the new flavors (root beer seems intense!) and tasted a few that had been brewed. I settled on Caramel Corn for my cup to go. All of these flavors are very sweet, even without sugar or honey. I opted for Caramel Corn because it had a nutty, toasty flavor in addition to all the caramel and pink-fruit flavors (and it brews up pink to match!). I wonder how the dry blend ages with all the caramel bits, fruit, and actual buttered popcorn in the mix? You can taste the smooth buttery taste in addition to the sweet caramel, and it is just a touch salty. It is an herbal blend, and the flavoring is heavy. Things like caramel and cotton candy don’t really seem to occur in nature. The experience of drinking this is sort of like eating popcorn jelly beans, sweet, salty, nutty, and a bit odd. This was definitely a fun brew on a hot day, but too sweet for me to invest in on a regular basis.

This tea is an excellent blend of sweet and sour. In the bag the pu erh chorange is strong, but gets more subtle when blended, quietly adding to the overall weight and smoothness. The assam melody holds up as a strong base of delicious black tea, intertwined with the almost vanilla-lemon of the herbal lemongrass. The lemon is very fragrant, but the tea itself is definitely more assam in flavor. I take my tea black, but with added milk or sugar this could definitely become a more decadent bold blend. I tried this blend iced recently, and found it is best with some milk and ice cubes, like a faux late. Overall, I’d recommend it hot. Chocolate teas iced are a little off without some creaminess to pair with it.

This was my choice for the David’s Tea iced summer refill deal today. There is a distinct creaminess or some other additional flavor that makes this tea beyond just a fruity tea and into a more “lassi” flavor. I would like to try it back to back with their other mango flavor to compare, but as a fan of all things mango, I’m happy with the taste. It’s a light orange/yellow tea and naturally sweet (I drank it without any sweetener and it still feels like dessert). Drinking it iced certainly feels like the way to go on this. The barista?brewer? working at David’s Teas recommended this flavor as a tea pop. I bet with some milk it has the potential to be even creamier.

It is hot out and this flavor is an iced tea of the day brewing happily at the David’s Tea store. I think the forces are just right today for this tea. The watermelon is very apparent, maybe even a little bit like a Jolly Rancher. I take my tea unsweetened, so it’s not too candy-like but I bet it would be like a cup of dessert with sugar. The brew itself is a gentle pink, girly and pastel-colored. The mint is a nice pairing with the calm melon flavor and really sells it as an iced flavor. I wouldn’t suggest this tea as a hot cup and I know when cooler weather hits I’ll look back on this review with skepticism, but today watermelon mint is keeping me cool, calm, and collected.

This is the best-seller of all my blends on Adagio, perhaps due to moderate fame when the actor, Anson Mount, playing the character of Cullen Bohannon tweeted about it a while back. Still, its reputation is a good one and the tea is fitting and delicious. This tea is a good flavor for everyone’s favorite rugged antihero, Cullen Bohannon. Strong mate flavors from the mocha nut mate and spiced mate, coupled with the specific nuttiness of hazelnut. The warm blend is accented with cinnamon and cocoa, reminiscent of the earthy, dusty life of working on the railroad. Someone described its scent as pipe tobacco, and the rich, almost-floral of the dark chocolate mate lends itself to this description. The chicory tones mimic coffee, so convert your friend to tea with the help of this blend. I recommend drinking it hot, and trying it before you add any sweetener.

I started drinking more honeybush tea as an alternative to caffeinated black teas. For me, they did just the trick. Their flavors are warm, caramel-like, and the hazelnut makes this tea almost like a favorite coffee treat. It does tend to be a bit light on flavor and color, so I tend to steep for several long minutes or use more leaves. When I can have caffeine this blends well with other black teas, lending the barky, nutty, sweetness to a deeper flavor. I don’t think honeybush is related to rooibos, but I could be wrong; the honeybush is a nuttier tea, and has none of the medicine-like flavor rooibos tends to have. This flavor is best had warm and in the evening.

This was one of the first loose leaf teas I really drank in great quantities. Now, one of my all time favorite teas. Tasty cold or hot, good for a vitamin C boost, and drinkable at any time of day since it’s caffeine free. I bought the biggest bag of it and am quickly devouring this bright, colorful, flavorful tea. It’s a strong element in blends, and can be a bit sour or overpowering if brewed long, but I prefer a heavy flavor. If nothing else, it is a glorious red-pink color when brewed. Probably my favorite orange tea of all time, and a really delicious, juicy herbal.

This is everything I wanted out of a mango tea. It’s herbal, juicy, smells and tastes like fresh fruit, and not like flavoring. I’ve been drinking it iced, but either way is great. Love using it as an element in minty, green, iced blends. Caffeine-free! So far, this has long been my most favorite mango tea around and the best iced mango of the summer.

I’ll admit that I’m a bit of a blend geek when it comes to teas, so I haven’t gotten a taste of too many high-brow teas. That said, Sleeping Dragon from Adagio was one of my rare excursions into quality tea and I was not disappointed. Gunpowder green is one of my favorite teas from Adagio both on its own and in blends. Sleeping Dragon is a smokier version of this great tea. This has a more toasty, nutty flavor than grassy green, but still lighter and brighter than any black teas. As a fan of hojicha, this is like the perfect union of that roasted nuttiness and the rich greens of gunpowder. Not too strange or challenging but hugely complex. I’m due to brew it again and give you some more adjectives.

I was hoping this tea would be a bit crazier and more unusual, but it is still tasty. Smells like lemon christmas in the bag, and when steeped, reminds me of a lemon ginger tea I used to drink. Spicy lemon is the dominant flavor, with a little sharp zing that might be the peppercorns or might be the ginger. I don’t believe this is caffeine free, which makes it tricky as to what time of day I might drink it. Overall a bright, lemony, pick me up