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This was a sample from Roswell Strange. I’ve tried the vanilla and maple versions of it, and this one is a “plain” version but it has a green tea base instead of black. I mixed the whole sample, which looked to be about two tablespoons, with 8 ounces of hot unsweetened soy milk.

I must say, it’s just okay for me. The level of sweetness is somewhat high, but I tend to like sweet things so it’s not really a problem for me. I do find the spicing to be a bit too mild, I would call it more of a mildly spiced creamy beverage than a chai. I also can’t taste the green tea, which makes me question the point of doing a green tea-based version. It’s perfectly drinkable and tasty and decadent, but I see no reason to purchase this version over the black tea one.

The very last untried Lupicia holiday tea! The tin features a trio of children – one singing, one playing a harp, and one playing an oboe or clarinet. Love the stained glass style art on these! The tea itself appears to be the mix of whole leaf and CTC that Lupicia uses in a lot of their flavored blacks. There are also pieces of red rose petals and small coconut shreds. Dry scent reminds me of those strawberry candies with the juice centers that are wrapped in the strawberry printed plastic.

Once steeped, the tea smells of strawberry candy and french vanilla ice cream. Hmm… This one is just okay. I can actually taste the base tea more than the flavoring, and it’s a somewhat earthy and woody black tea. There’s just a little bit of strawberry candy flavor and a tiny touch of cream. Meh!

So… I got my Taiwan Tea Crafts order yesterday. I was planning on waiting to try any of these teas until I had sipped down a few more teas from my cupboard, but I figured trying just one would be a lovely way to start the day, and Steepster chat agreed. I chose this one to try first because miss Ysaurella’s note makes it sound delicious, and I love strong honey notes. The leaves definitely have that creepy tree branch look – they’re very large and long and twisty in a way that looks gnarled. Their color is a deep brown that’s almost black with a hint of red. Dry scent is heavenly sweet and creamy honey with bread.

Mm, the steeped tea smells of sweet and rich honey with a touch of warm cinnamon. Yummy! This tea has a lovely thick and silky mouthfeel that makes it feel even more decadent. The sip opens with bread and a touch of hay, but almost immediately it transitions to tasting of sweet waffles with honey slathered over the top and just a sprinkle of cinnamon. The amazing honey flavor just lingers and lingers on the tongue, and the cinnamon stays as well. The two together are such a sweet, warm, and comforting combination. This is making me want stroopwafel! Curse you, Marzipan! :P

Last DF sample! Thanks again to the lovely and generous tea friend who sent these to me. This one is a mix of smallish black tea leaves and cream-colored dried flower petals. Dry scent is sweet and creamy and vanilla-ish, which makes sense considering it’s supposed to be a hazelnut/vanilla tea.

The steeped tea smells delicious – creamy, sweet, nutty with vanilla notes. Hmm… I’m actually slightly disappointed with this one. The vanilla flavor here is similar to bourbon vanilla or vanilla bean, which I think seems wrong for this blend. I feel they should have gone with a more creamy, confectionery vanilla flavor. It’s not a bad tea, just not what I expected from the aroma. Still yummy though.

Miss cookies was kind enough to send me a sample of this one (along with their Genmaicha powder). I must say, I was quite curious as to exactly how this would taste. The powder is very fine and it has a slightly greenish brown color, the same color I would expect to see in regular houjicha. It also smells extremely similar to houjicha and has a nice sweet roasted aroma. I used a half teaspoon of powder in 8 ounces of unsweetened soy milk.

Ooooh I could smell the lovely roastiness as soon as I popped the lid open on my Blender Bottle. Yum, this is delicious with the nutty and very slightly sweet soy milk! It tastes exactly as I would expect a houjicha prepared chai-style to taste. It’s roasty but not overpowering and the creaminess of the milk accents it perfectly. So good! :D

Cookies, if you’re reading this, try this one with milk! :D

Another DF tea! This one sounds like the quintessential “holiday” tea with a blend of spices, orange, and a few others flavors including almond. To be honest, I’m never a fan of these teas, as generally they’re too heavy on the spice and not heavy enough on the other things. Visually, the tea is a mixture of black tea leaves and yellow flower petals. Dry scent is sweet and cinnamon-y.

First of all, I’m drinking this stone cold because I got distracted while making ramen for dinner. It came out really tasty! Anyway, this is mostly a mild cinnamon tea. It’s a little bit sweet and there’s perhaps a tiny amount of nuttiness, but otherwise it’s a cinnamon tea. Ho hum!

Good evening, dear tea friends! This is my first note of the day (at 8 PM my time) because I’ve been mostly working on sipping down some of my samples before trying new ones. However, I saw how few flavored tea samples I have and figured I should try to get through them, since I don’t crave flavored teas lately and I have several favorites in my cupboard already. So, time to finish off these Dammann Frères samples that a very generous tea friend sent me! This blend appears to be simply black tea leaves and flavoring. Dry scent is mildly fruity and sweet.

Hm, this seems to be a subtly flavored one. Mostly I taste the vanilla, and it’s nice and creamy and dessert-ish. There’s perhaps a little red fruits flavor, and overall it comes off as a decent “berries and cream” sort of tea to me.

Yay, back home from an exciting day of eating dim sum and going to the Asian market! I just recently got a Japanese cookbook and needed to stock up on dried noodles, miso, sauces, etc. This was my only tea purchase from the Asian market, which let me tell you, is impressive. They basically had an entire aisle of tea in various mysterious packets and I wanted to check them all out, but I didn’t want to subject the boyfriend to that when he was already being sweet enough to go shopping with me. I just happened to see this package in passing, and since I love kukicha I decided to give it a try. It was only about $7 for the 150g packet, after all. The stems have that familiar straight and stick-like appearance with a mix of rich green and lighter cream colors. Dry scent is a touch grassy but really sweet.

I would say this tea is definitely worth the price! The beginning of the sip has more of an umami presence that I normally find in kukicha and almost tastes like sencha. However, the middle and end have that unmistakable sweet flavor that just says “kukicha” to me. It’s also very smooth with no astringency or bitterness whatsoever. Definitely worth the price at just over $1 per ounce! I’ll have to make another trip to the Asian market sometime soon just to check out all of their teas.

Happy weekend, everyone! I hope you all have fun weekend plans, I’m going to head to the Asian market today and then try my hand at making ramen. Excited! I felt like a nice smooth Chinese black tea this morning, so I plucked this little packet out of my pile of What-Cha samples. I’ve tried a couple of other Golden Monkey teas, but it’s been a few months and though I remember liking them, I don’t remember specifics about the taste. The leaves are medium-sized and rather thin and twisty, and they have that fragile, brittle look about them. They’re a dark chocolate brown in color with just a few golden tips included. Dry scent is quite roasted and has strong rye notes.

This is pretty yummy! It has a definite Fujian taste, with that rye bread and caraway seed flavor and strong roasted notes. It’s also very malty and smooth with a thick, silky mouthfeel. I can pick up a bit of unsweetened dark chocolate. However, the most interesting part of the sip is near the end, where an interesting fresh fruit note comes out. It reminds me of fresh, slightly tart cherries or plums. Yummy. :)

Ahhh time to relax for a bit after lots of kitchen time. Randomly chosen Upton tea turned out to be a Lumbini Ceylon! I know that I tried a Lumbini Ceylon from Capital Tea Limited, and I remember it being mellow and smooth. We’ll see if this one is similar! The leaves are very thin and small but not at all broken, and they’re very dark with a few silvery-golden tips mixed in. Dry scent is somewhat malty and savory.

I didn’t get a good grasp of the steeped aroma, because I was distracted and now the cup is warm as opposed to hot, so most of the aroma has dissipated. Still tastes good though! It’s thick and a touch meaty and there’s an intensity that borders on bitterness but doesn’t quite get there. Near the end a little bit of Assam-ish molasses/raisin flavor rears its head, as does a touch of astringency. I think there’s possibly some bittersweet cocoa flavor here, but it’s always so hard for me to tell when there’s no sweetness. Pretty good, but not too special.