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Spectacular. Complex mix of scents, including currants, vanilla, chocolate, orange, caramel. This would make a great gift, it really is something special. If all Harney & Sons teas are as good as this, I will be in heaven. Very pleasant tasting, a delight for the taste buds. Will definitely have to buy a pack of this to savour.

I tried this in a tea shop. Definitely lives up to its name – it has a distinct peppery taste. Under different circumstances I might like to try more of this. However I’m trying to lose a few pounds (and drinking lots of tea to hydrate) so a peppery heat is probably not what I’m after. Did some research, amongst other things the herb in this tea is an appetite stimulant. But I like peppery/chilli heat (in food at least) so I may revisit this tea at some stage in future.

The dry tea smelled nice in the shop, and I love licorice tea. Scent of anise and licorice root got my hopes up high. But I was expecting a more intense licorice taste, so there was that initial disappointment. My supermarket licorice herbal tea bags have more flavour than this. However this is a flavoured black tea, not a herbal tea. In hindsight I should have bought Licorice Star (from the same company) instead, which is herbal. Bought a 100g bag so will try it again stronger. It’s nice to sip away at while I work from home, not when I’m after a strong sweet licorice hit.

Flavourful mild earl grey. Slight bitterness left on back of tongue when unsweetened so I drink it with half a teaspoon of honey to counteract that (I also add milk). Not sure how New Zealand this is tho – package states it’s packed here but from imported ingredients. It’s nice enough that I would buy it again but have plenty of other tea to get through first. Would probably go for Twinings Lady Grey next time.

My first ever matcha purchase. I picked this up during an impromptu trip to a local Asian grocer (Korean store). Got a small sieve and a wire whisk – couldn’t find a bamboo chasen. I was sooo excited to try this but am a matcha newbie so don’t know what it’s supposed to taste like. First try at making it I was in a hurry to taste it and didn’t pay close attention to exactly how much to use. (The instructions are in Korean). I made it too weak, and couldn’t get it to froth with the wire whisk (wrong utensil I know). Second time I used 1 metric teaspoon to 1 metric cup water – still too weak and no froth. After researching some more, my third try was a kind of matcha latte. I used 2 metric teaspoons matcha, 1/2 c milk, 1/4 c water and 2 teaspoons sugar. And lo and behold it frothed up! End result was a delicious milky hot matcha latte. A little too sweet so will halve the sugar next time. I am going to experiment further and try it with: – no sweetener, – soy or almond milk, – stronger matcha tea with a dash of milk only (maybe 1 tsp matcha to 1/2 c water), etc till I find something that most pleases my taste buds.

As for the product, the price suggests it is culinary grade – I didn’t want to spend too much as a matcha newbie. It tastes fresh/grassy, but don’t feel qualified to comment further as to quality as I don’t know a good from a bad matcha. Didn’t notice any bitterness (made sure not to use boiling water). I know of at least one other place to buy matcha (Japanese grocery store) and that will probably be my next matcha review.

I had high hopes for this tea as I love feijoas. But it’s just a supermarket tea with only 1% feijoas in the ingredients and some “nature identical” flavours. The taste is very artificial to me and not like feijoa at all. Tried mixing it with Healtheries blueberry green tea (1 bag of each in a cup) but no improvement, just a stronger artificial taste. I take a lesson from this to only buy real tea from a tea shop.

Just an average peppermint tea. It has a refreshing taste and probably would be nice to round off a meal. When brewed, the colour is light brown rather than green, odd as the only ingredient listed on the packet is “peppermint”.

This fruit tea is tangy, the strawberry comes through a little but the mango, what mango? I do prefer this tea to the Cranberry/Raspberry one by Twinings. Will try making iced tea with it as it’s probably nicer cold, and I can use up these tea bags more quickly!

Twinings cranberry/raspberry is quite tart. I add a teaspoon of honey to help reduce some of the sharpness. It’s drinkable with a biscuit or other sweet treat. There are other Twinings fruit teas that I’d like to try, so won’t be buying this one again.