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I’m not sure if I tried this tea before. It was part of the advent calendar of ‘12 and has been in my cupboard ever since. Right after it steeped it was full of little glittery gold pieces moving around in my cup. I see where it got it’s name! I took one sip when it was still hot and returned to the cup when it was cold. Sadly, the glitter show had ended but I was left with a nice caramel flavored cup. When the cup is low enough I’m able to stir it and swirl up the glitter again. The tea is very smooth and I enjoy it, but I’m not getting any cinnamon, clove or orange and maybe a bit of vanilla. If I had been buying this tea based on what I thought it should taste like with those ingredients, I’d have passed. I’m not sure if it is a result of the tea being old, but whatever it is, I like it!

The smell of this tea dry is a little deceiving and it has taken me a while to appreciate it. It smells strongly of very juicy strawberries, so I expected a bold flavor to come through. It is a sencha style green, which I guess translates to delicate flavor. I have had a cherry sencha before and the cherry worked to not compete, but match the sencha in strength. I think the strawberry in this tea does the same. It is a kind of creamy tea in smoothness, so the name seems appropriate. I tried cold brewing it over the summer and it was refreshing but failed to amaze me like some other greens did when cold brewed. It seems like a more subtle tea which is rarely my thing, but I can appreciate it for what it is even if it isn’t going to get a permanent place in my cupboard.

I was curious about purple tea and saw that Butiki had a few options. The blends sounded good, but I wanted to get an idea of the tea type on it’s own before trying it flavored. This tea looked black when I put it in the infuser, but looked green when it was done steeping. The leaves look ground and a bit of the powder settled at the bottom of my cup. When I first took a sip it felt sencha like at the front of my mouth but changed into something else in the back. I’m getting an almost wheatgrass juice feel aftertaste. It tastes a little greener as it cools and I think I like the flavor better when it is hot. So far I’m puzzled and intrigued! I’ll be trying more of this soon!

This tea smells delicious! Toasted rice and caramel! It tastes really good too! I’m getting toasted rice with the deeper black base and caramel flavors. I think I can pick out the chocolate, but it blends with the caramel so nicely they almost become a part of each other. It is a really smooth enjoyable cup. Next time I’m going to try it with less sweetener and see how I like it. I can imagine it being really good cold brewed as well!

I am actively trying to sip down all the remaining teas from my advent calendar from two years ago. This one has now been sipped down. Success! This one is actually kind of nice. It has a good coco flavor mixed with chai spices. Some clove, some cardamon and a strong enough flavor overall to make me not notice it is a rooibos. It tastes very similar to a cacao chai I have from Zhi tea except that one will get me pretty wired on caffeine. I like having tasty evening options for tea and might actually consider adding this to my cupboard if they still offer it for sale. I’m on my second steeping and it is still going strong!

I got a sachet of this tea in a trade with Skysamurai , thanks! It first smelled a little smokey when steeping, but now it smells more caramel like with a touch of smoke in the background. It was a little bitter at first, but that softened with a little sugar and brought out the caramel and vanilla notes. This cup is very nice and well done, but a bit plain for my usual preferences. I could see it as a wonderful base for a busier tea with multiple flavors. It is reminding me a bit of Mariage Freres teas actually. This one could grow on me.

This was the last tea with a description that sounds intriguing on the back of the advent calendar. I enjoyed the experience of the calendar and the chance to explore a new brand of tea, but I do wish they had put more of their regular or best seller teas instead of special holiday blends full of varying degrees of citrus.
This has the scent of a nice black base. At first it seemed cherry scented, but now I think I can pick out fig instead if I work really hard at it. A few sips in and the individual flavors just fade and I get a nice but indistinguishable cup. Nice but unimpressive.

This came to me in a swap from Chuckieroy!
This tea looks kind of girly in the bag, like a potpourri with the added touch of romance in the form of faux pearls. I am amused. The little pearls dissolve in the tea leaving a fairy dust shimmer in the tea. I can taste the earthy puerh base of the tea and faint strawberries. I’m not getting the mango, but this sample is older so I should go easy on the judgement. This tea is good, but it isn’t amazing me.

I got some of this in a trade with Whatshesaid a while back, thanks!
When smelling the tea brewed I can pick out cinnamon, rose and almond. It smells really lovely! It tastes nice and similar to the scent, but a little weaker than I expected based on the scent. The aftertaste is mostly rose. I have had this tea for a little while and it wasn’t stored very well, so I’m guessing it has lost some flavor along the way. It reminds me a bit of a more natural version of a Teavana tea that I love, so I mean the comparison in a very good way. I need to try a fresher cup of this sometime to get a good feel for this tea, but even in a weakened state it is still pretty delicious.
I came back to my second steeping cooled and it was even better and more flavorful than when hot! The third steep still had a bit of flavor in it too with the cinnamon dominating that cup. Okay Almond Indulgence, you have my attention now!

I got this tea from Whatshesaid quite some time back. A long overdue thanks is in order! I know I tried a cup before, but neglected to log it. It smells slightly lemony when dry, a little stronger when brewed with an added… wet cement smell?! It tastes a bit sandy at first, then the lemon hits me. No cream so far. Sweetening it makes all the difference, wow! Now I get lemon which turns into dried lemon peel with a little cream on the end and the lemon peel again in the aftertaste. So much better with sugar! Overall it is okay. It makes me think of a weak version of Della Terra’s Lemon Chiffon and I’d much rather drink the Chiffon than this one. It was nice to try tho!