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I want to say I have tried a sample of this before, but it was so long ago that I don’t remember. Feeling a little blah today and figured it would be a good time to give it another go. It has a nice deep menthol like feel, likely from the eucalyptus. The first cup was okay, but not amazing. The second steeping was getting close to awful. It has this savory taste that makes me think of broth, not tea. It has a weird smell that makes me thing of meat a second before I sip it. I have no idea what the association was about, but it is a bit of a turn off. Mmmmmm meat tea!

I have been drinking cup after cup of this tea today! I decided to try steeping it at a higher temp (195) and it evened everything out, giving the tea that depth I felt the lower temp cups lacked. This tea is fantastic! Now to figure out how much more to buy! Is 6oz overkill?

I nearly lost my mind when I saw David’s had a green Kashmiri Chai. Years ago Zhi Tea had a green Kashmiri Chai that I adored and very sadly was discontinued. I have searched for an equivalent for ages. I never wrote a tasting note for it, so I’m going on memory of what it was like… strong, lots of cardamon and delicious. David’s version comes pretty close.

I can smell a lot of clove and get a good mix of clove and cardamon in the sip. The spice level is pretty good and intense, but it isn’t a pepper sort of spice which I think would be really nice. It has good mid and top notes, but is missing lower base notes that would really round it out for me. It makes me want to steep it longer to give it more depth, but I don’t think that is really the answer. I tried adding cream, but that doesn’t really do it either. I would like to try it both cold steeped and steeped in warm milk like traditional chai. I’m holding this tea up to the impossible memory of another tea I considered damn near perfect, which is a pretty high bar, but it is the closest thing I have found and it does a pretty good job at meeting my tastes. Now I have to figure out how long David’s is going to keep this around and hoard it appropriately.

Such an intense floral mix dominated by rose in this tea! I’m surprised that I didn’t break it out at all this summer for some cold steep! I’m not sure what my summer obsession tea was this year, but I’m glad that this one is holding up.

Trying this again. It has a nice alcohol like scent full of tirimisu, but when I sip it ends up a little flat. There is a little sweetness to it and then it all goes away. Weird tingling at the back of my throat. Kind of sad.

I agonized AGONIZED over which tea to choose for my 666th tasting note. I’m delighted that I hit that number during October with Halloween coming up, but what to choose?! Graveyard Mist? Black Cat? Smaug? Something with pumpkin? The pumpkin matcha I had the other day? I was torn for hours trying to decide. I ran across a sample of this and not remembering if I had tried it before, I thought with the name having “dark side” in it, it was a good match. I now have the appropriate Pink Floyd album playing in the background as I steep.
The aroma coming off the cup is a light sweet melon scent. Mellon is on the sip and although it is bright, there is something deeper to it, earthier. The melon is able to carry it’s flavor without the needed addition of sugar, something I find necessary to round out the flavor for many fruity teas. The espresso seems to work behind the scene propping up and complimenting the melon. I never would have guessed the two flavors would work so well together! Drinking this tea and listening to Pink Floyd is making for a really great afternoon. I do wish Butiki was still around so I could grab more of this, but it kinda makes it special that it is a limited thing too.

I just read a post in the disscusions that Tealux had changed their name to Tealyra. This package is labeled Tealyra, so I’m guessing this is the right tea to review this under, but I’m not 100%.
This is super bright green in the bag and turns into a really deep green color when mixed in water. There is a little bit of a bitter tang at the start of the sip, but it gets less as I continue to sip. It is really smooth, but doesn’t seem to have much of the matcha taste. It is a little grassy, a little floral, but just by a hint. This isn’t really doing it for me. There isn’t enough flavor happening for m taste.

Trying this from a TTB.
It looks like coffee when made and tastes like meh. It is very earthy and flat… the aftertaste isn’t enjoyable. I’ll pass.

I wish matcha came with better instructions on how much to mix with how much water. I had to add creamer to mellow out the bite I was getting, which I think is a result of adding to much matcha. Once I work through that issue, I’m getting a fairly decent cup. The aftertaste might be my favorite part. It lingers with a pleasant fragrance. The sip is pretty mellow and smooth with a light matcha flavor. I get the floral notes on the sip. It is really nice, but I’m not head over heel for it like I am with Red Leaf’s cheesecake matcha.

I keep doing the same thing and making my matcha to strong! I end up with a bitter mess of flavors and have to add some creamer to mellow and even it out. Once I get that issue worked out, I can taste the pina colada. I also pick up on a little bit of soapiness which I’m wondering is the coconut flavoring going bad. I’m trying this from a traveling tea box, so there is no way to tell how old this sample is. I can’t really pick out the matcha flavor, but I bet this would be great in a vanilla smoothie.