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I wasn’t really planning on drinking this one hot again after trying it cold, but it just sounded good today. I’m trying my best to get used to drinking tea without sweetener, and this one is very easy to drink. I can’t help but think I would enjoy it just a little bit more with sweetener added, but I’m holding strong! Very refreshing – the mint and the green tea balance out perfectly. I think I might need to try a plain gunpowder green tea at some point.

This one was a little too strong for me (and apparently my nose) last time I made it, so I decided this time I would cut open a silken sachet and measure out a teaspoon. There’s not too much more than a teaspoon in there, probably about one-and-a-half total. Steeped it for 5 minutes as per usual.

I’m finding it even more pleasant this way. I could see it being a tiny bit stronger, I might try a slightly heaping teaspoon in the future. And it’s not making me sneeze!

So now, the fun begins. Cutting open all of those sachets and putting the loose tea back in the tin. XD

I’m having this one chilled today. I cold-brewed it for six hours, and it’s been in the fridge for a couple of days since then. I added some syrup and I’m finding it very refreshing after a short workout (we have a rowing machine). It tastes of vanilla and a little bit of wood in the background. The amount of spice is perfect, it’s definitely there but it’s not a starring role. I could see this being my cold-brewed black tea of choice this summer! Oh Vladimir, how I love thee…

I’m sipping on this while lazing about, watching cooking shows and waiting for it to be time for me to go get my depo shot. I added some honey to it this time and I must say, I feel like it really complements the flavors in this tea. In particular, I’m tasting the lemon and lime a lot more than I remember from previous steeps. I know a lot of you prefer your tea without any sweetener but I find bergamot teas to be too harsh or something without it. Yum. :)

So today I’m up for round 2 of me versus Paris. I decided yesterday that I wanted to drink it straight and then had some unsuccessful attempts at brewing it – they all came out either bitter or unflavored. So after some advice from TheTeaFairy I am trying again today.

First try, I cut open a silken sachet and measured out a teaspoon for 8 ounces of water. Brewed it at 195 degrees for 5 minutes. This one tasted underleafed to me, both the tea and the flavor were extremely mild. So I tried again with a full sachet at the same temperature and time. This came out much better. It seems to me the flavors in this tea are very subtle, and for this reason I much prefer it with a little bit of sweetener to bring them out.

The only conclusion I can draw from all of this is that this tea comes out bitter when it’s understeeped. Does that even make sense…? I guess anything is possible.

I need a little spice this morning to pep me up a bit. This definitely does the trick. Amusingly enough, the amount of cinnamon in this tea seems to be affecting my nose this morning, because I keep sneezing as I’m drinking it! I find with this tea that it’s best to keep a spoon in it and stir it every so often to keep the flavor distributed. Yum yum red hots! <3

I got this tea as a swap from TeaBrat (thank you :)). She even included the cute little sample tin it came in. Dry, the tea is a mixture of dark and light green dry, flaky leaves of various sizes. There are also dried jasmine buds along with a few loose petals. It has a slightly musty, light vegetal scent with hints of sweet hay or straw; there is also a mild jasmine aroma. I brewed it for 2 minutes in 175 degree water.

The brewed tea has a generic “green tea” smell with some jasmine and a little bit of woodiness. The taste is similar – the green tea is vegetal, woody, and quite astringent with a lingering bitterness in the background. The level of the jasmine is quite nice; it’s easy to find but does not overpower the tea itself. Overall, I find this to be a pleasant tea, especially with a touch of honey to counteract the slight bitterness.

After loving this tea yesterday, I was really excited to find it at the store this afternoon! Truthfully, I was considering the decaf version, but I don’t see myself making an order from Harney & Sons anytime soon (too many other retailers I want to buy from!) and I don’t think I’ll find the decaf sachets for sale anywhere else. So another lovely white Harney tin came home with me! This one has deep orange and copper accents.

I think there may be something to the tin’s suggestion that you use one sachet for two cups, because this one is definitely zestier than the cup I had yesterday (which was a traditional style paper tea bag while these are the silky sachets). However with this tea, I like the strong cinnamon flavor so I probably wouldn’t bother.

This cup is making me much happier after all that frustration with Paris earlier… <3

I’m having a really hard time with this tea today, and I’m not sure why. I decided I wanted to drink it straight, so I brewed it for only 3 minutes and for some reason it came out pretty bitter. So thinking maybe I should try it at a lower temperature, I brewed it at about 190 degrees or so. The bitterness was gone but so were all of the flavors – it tasted like plain black tea. So then I tried the 205 degrees again, thinking maybe that one sachet had been a fluke, and it came out bitter again and it seemed like it had little flavor. I pored over the tin, and it says somewhere on the side that you should use one sachet for two cups of tea. This doesn’t make much sense to me and I’ve never had a problem with this tea before, though I usually take it with some sugar. I had to add condensed milk to these brews to even be able to drink them…

Does anyone have any experience with this tea in the pyramid sachets? I don’t understand what is going wrong with this or how it’s coming out bitter with a shorter steep time. Any advice would be amazing… :(

I brought a couple of tea bags home from the brunch restaurant this morning (don’t tell!) and this was one of them. The dry tea bag smelled pleasant enough, tart raspberry with some mint notes. I brewed it for 5 minutes.

As soon as I smelled the brewed tea, I knew I was going to hate this. It smells and tastes like almost pure hibiscus and it’s extremely tart to the point of being unpleasant. I can also taste rosehips and a little mint. The raspberry is probably in there somewhere but I think it’s being masked by the hibiscus since they’re a bit similar in flavor. I drank this instead of dumping it, but I had to add an inordinate amount of sweetener for it to even be drinkable. Gross. >.<