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Next Design a Tea sample is Blueberry Chestnut with a black base. The black leaves are very small, and there are pieces of some kind of dried fruit-like thing along with decorative flower petals. Dry scent is very sweet and nutty, I don’t get much blueberry but it still smells really good! Once I poured the water over the leaves, I got a nice whiff of blueberry aroma. Steeped for 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

Brewed aroma is still very sweet and rich with lots of nutty scent. I do get a bit of blueberry jam, but it’s in the background. Hmm… I get a lot of the black base (malty, generic) with some nuttiness mixed in. The blueberry mostly shows up at the end of the sip. Tried it with a bit of sugar added, and while it definitely helped to bring out the blueberry flavor, I think I’m just not a fan of white sugar in my tea anymore. It adds a weird aftertaste that reminds me of artificial sweeteners… Maybe next time I’ll try brown sugar. Overall, a decent tea, and I imagine it would be good with milk. Rating would be mid-70s.

Time for another Design a Tea sample! This time, I’m trying Apricot Caramel with a green tea base. The green tea leaves are smallish and steamed flat. For some unknown reason, there are rosehips mixed in (and flower petals). I must say, I am getting pretty annoyed with the unnecessary added ingredients (that I didn’t ask for) in these blends. I do not enjoy rose hips, I find them tart and not much else, similar to hibiscus. So please don’t put them in my sample when I didn’t ask for them… Grumble. Anyway… Dry scent is tart apricot with something else I can’t place. I steeped for 3 minutes at 175.

Brewed aroma is apricot with a strange powdered sugary scent. Meh the green tea base is pretty much just grassy and kind of tastes like leaves (imagine that, lol). There’s not enough flavoring here for me, and I mostly just taste the base. Tried adding sugar, and while it did help it taste more like caramel, it muted the apricot. It’s now only present as a sort of apricot jam aftertaste. Meh! Rating would be in the high 60s.

This sample came from Blodeuyn! I’ve been craving pumpkin spice tea, but the last one I tried was very disappointing. Luckily, I got this sample in our swap and she included a surprise sample of Republic of Tea’s Pumpkin Spice. Yay! Visually, the leaves of this tea are quite lovely. They’re a dark reddish brown and are rather thick, but short. For some reason, the smell of this tea dry reminds me of potpourri… I’m not sure if it’s the cinnamon or what, but it’s an odd association since there’s no floral here. Otherwise it smells like caramel and pumpkin pie spices. I steeped mine at 200 degrees for 2.5 minutes.

Wow, brewed up it smells very pumpkin-y! This makes me happy because a lot of pumpkin teas tend to lean more on the spices and don’t have enough pumpkin flavor. I also smell a bit of caramel sweetness and some malty black tea. Meh, this came out a bit weak for me. I can taste a bit of pumpkin pie spice, but the pumpkin and cream aren’t really there for me. There’s a touch of caramel sweetness. I mostly taste a mellow and slightly astringent black tea base. Even with added milk and sugar, this isn’t pumpkin for me. :(

This lovely black tea “sample” (aka entire pouch) came from scribbles. Thanks dear! Now I don’t have a lot of experience with Keemun, but I have enjoyed those that I’ve tried and I’m always on the lookout for more. The leaves of this tea are super tiny! They’re short and wiry and quite broken up. Dry scent is sweet bread with some hay-like notes. The first time, I steeped it for 3 minutes, but it came out a tad bitter. So I made another cup and shortened the steep to 2.5 minutes. Perfect!

This tea is very tasty! The main flavor I get is tasty bread and raw grains (oats?) along with an almost hay-like flavor similar to white tea. There’s the smallest hint of mineral or smoke in the background which helps to ground this tea. Then in the aftertaste, I get a mouthful of honey! Om nom nom. Definitely a very light-bodied and refreshing black tea for the afternoon or early evening. :)

Thanks to Blodeuyn and scribbles, I have a ton of new black tea samples to enjoy in the mornings! Thanks so much ladies, I really appreciate it! This one is from Blodeuyn. Clearly it’s a completely different animal from the only other black pearl tea I’ve had (from TeaVivre). The pellets are tiny and not really spherical. They’re jet black and somewhat shiny, which makes me think of little beetles and reminds me of the part in Harry Potter when he’s in Diagon Alley and the apothecaries sell scoops of beetle eyes… LOL. Sometimes associations are weird, no? Anyway! The dry scent of this tea is powerful! Strong malt and earth with a little sharp scent that almost reminds me of eucalyptus? Who knows? I steeped mine for 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

When I opened my brew basket, they just looked like normal black tea leaves. Amazing! The brewed aroma is still very strong and earthy with definite mineral/smoke notes. I can see this is going to be a kick-in-the-pants kind of tea! The aroma reminds me of shou with its strong earth/wood notes (and it’s very dark in color so that helps!). Wow, this is earth city! And the taste absolutely reminds me of shou as well. It’s very earthy, but with a bit of sweetness. There’s a very present mineral/smoke note along with a touch of wood. It’s a shou masquerading as a black tea! :o

OFF-TOPIC: I miss you, Stephanie! There’s no one here with me in chat in the mornings! D: Hope your vacation is going well though!

Alas, time for another terrible note due to game-playing while drinking tea! :P This one came from scribbles’s giant generous swap package of awesomeness! It looks like a mix of a bunch of tiny pieces with some blueberries mixed in. Dry smell is mostly cinnamon with some sweet berry notes. I steeped for 5 minutes in boiling water.

This is actually quite tasty, even though I suspect hibiscus! It’s pleasantly tart with lots of berry flavor, but then the cinnamon really helps to sweeten it up and balance the sour. Very tasty, thanks scribbles!

This sample came from mj. Another vanilla dreams tea to try! Now, I’m not generally a fan of green oolong, but I still wanted to try this one since vanilla is my favorite flavor. The oolong pellets are a dark green/yellow and medium in size. There are also roasted cedar leaves mixed in. Dry scent is very sweet with pear and floral notes, and a smidge of vanilla. I steeped it for 3 minutes in 190 degree water.

Brewed aroma kind of reminded me of a wet dog… HAH. Once I got past that it was strong floral and pears. Hmm… I’m kind of underwhelmed by this one based on the amount of hype it’s gotten and its high rating. It mostly just tastes like the usual green oolong to me – very lightly vegetal, mineral notes, peach, floral, etc. I don’t really pick up on a ton of vanilla, maybe a little bit. The cedar leaves give it a nice roasty aftertaste. So overall, it’s good, but I don’t love it.

Thanks so much to Blodeuyn for sending me samples of the Vintage TeaWorks teas that she ordered! I’ve been curious about this line for a long time, and I’m not exactly sure why, since I’m not a wine drinker. I decided to start with this one because a light tea sounded nice after having a strong black, and because I actually do like some Riesling wines. :) The tea itself looks like bai mudan – pieces of leaves of varying color and size with some silvery buds mixed in. I also saw a peek of a red flower petal in mine. Dry scent is somewhat sweet and fruit with a floral edge. I let it steep for 3.5 minutes at 175 degrees.

I was a bit worried by the aroma, mostly because it was highly floral. Luckily the taste is delicious! I taste mostly lovely creamy and buttery white tea with grain notes. Then there’s a little bit of white grape flavor, which goes nicely with the cucumber notes of the white tea. Lastly, there’s some floral presence, but it’s not overly offensive to me and comes out mostly at the end of the sip. Overall, this tea is very tasty, and I actually do find it similar to Rieslings I’ve tried! :)

I picked this tea up on a whim. I was at the mall because I needed to go to the DMV and change my driver’s license to NY, so I stopped by the health food store to check out their tea selection. Honestly, it was pretty disappointing… Mostly Republic of Tea and similar bagged brands, but this cute little handmade box caught my eye, so I bought it! I must say, the box is stunning. The scene on the front/sides is actually made of individual paper cutouts that are pasted on. So cool!

The tea itself is a CTC black, which is a new one for me. It resembles coffee grounds. Dry scent is very strong and malty, with maybe a bit of bread? I’ve tried brewing this tea a few times and it always comes out too strong for my tastes, so I’m giving it one last chance and finally writing a note. This time I did a scant teaspoon of tea for 1 minute at 200 degrees.

Brewed aroma is strong and malty with a sharp, almost sour note. At first sip, I am reminded of miso soup. Eh? Strange but there it is. Definitely very malty, with a hint of seaweed or some other savory green. It’s somewhat drying on my tongue, but not enough to be a bother. Definitely not like any other black tea I’ve tried! :P

This is my last untried Butiki tea! Hooray! Visually, it’s mostly red rooibos with a few yellow flower petals and some pieces of candied mango. Dry scent is very strong medicinal rooibos! There’s a little bit of cardamom there too, but I don’t smell any mango. I steeped 1.5 teaspoons for 5 minutes in boiling water.

Brewed aroma… still mostly rooibos with some cardamom. I must say, I’m quite disappointed with this one. I definitely expected a lot of mango, and I’m barely getting more than a little hint of it. I did try it with sugar as suggested, and I didn’t find that it improved the mango flavor or the tea in general. I guess this one’s not for me. :(