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Holiday TTB

Sampling a few more things from this TTB before I send it on its way tomorrow. I love a good peach tea, so decided to give this one a go. The dry leaf is lovely with lots of big pink peach blossoms mixed in with the crinkled oolong leaves. It steeps up to a very pale green color with a light floral peachy aroma. Sipping, I do taste some peach (very natural-tasting, not that artificial candy flavor that too many peach teas have), along with floral notes and a hint of the base tea peeking through. Although I would have liked a stronger flavor, this was a very smooth, pleasant cup of tea.

Holiday TTB

Although Lupicia makes numerous amazing fruity-flavored blends, I’m not a huge fan of their black teas. Unfortunately, this one was no exception. The aroma was an enticing tropical fruit sweetness, but the flavor came across a bit artificial with a slight sourness that reminded me of gummy candies.

Holiday TTB

Lupicia is so good at these fruit-flavored teas and they really nailed it with this blend! The scent and flavor are dead-on sweet, ripe honeydew melon with nothing cloying or artificial about it. The silky-smooth oolong makes a perfect base. This was a refreshing taste of summer on this snowy winter day and I’m willing to bet it would brew up a to-die-for iced tea as well!

I received a sample of this in my Christmas card from Haveteawilltravel. I’ve never heard of this company before, but I’m impressed by this particular tea! The leaves are BIG (tough to measure accurately; this is one of those teas that makes me wish I had a scale) and have a nice malty aroma when you open up the bag. Steeped, the tea is smooth and rich with a nice plummy flavor. A great tea to start the day with!

Haveteawilltravel kindly sent me a sachet of this one in his Christmas card. For a Twinings tea, this one seemed suprisingly high quality! The leaves I could see through the sachet were fairly large and unbroken, with a few golden tips. And the flavor was robust and full-bodied with lots of malt and honey notes. There was a bit of astringency, but with milk added, it was just about perfect. I just may have found a new favorite bagged breakfast blend to take on the road!

Holiday TTB

Mmm, I like this one! Smooth and lightly floral, with hints of almonds in the aftertaste. I see from the ingredients list that there are apples, rosehips, and some kind of flavoring in here as well, but this is one of those blends where the flavoring mingles so perfectly with the base tea that you can’t tell where one ends and the other begins!

Holiday TTB

This one was nice, but it didn’t knock my socks off. Could be the age of the sample, but I’m really not picking up any pear flavor…just a nice, smooth black base with a bit of sweet/tart cranberry layered on top. Nice, but forgettable.

I received a sample of this tea along with the infuser mug my sister gave me for Christmas. I’m thrilled about the mug (it will make drinking loose leaf tea at work so much easier!) and was excited for a chance to sample this tea as well. It was quite similar to the milk oolong I’ve had from Teavivre: sweet and creamy with a rich, silky mouth feel. It also stays smooth and flavorful through multiple infusions. Definitely one I’d consider purchasing in the future!

Holiday TTB

Although I see nice big pieces of coconut in the dry leaf, I’m not getting anything that even remotely tastes like coconut from the brewed tea. Actually, it tastes like some kind of muddled fruity flavor! I’m guessing this is a result of contamination in the box, so withholding rating.

Holiday TTB

Republic of Tea is pretty hit and miss for me, but I love a good vanilla tea at bedtime, so I decided to give this on a try! The vanilla flavor doesn’t come through as much as I was hoping it would; this mostly tastes of sweet cinnamon with just a hint of soft vanilla. However, I’m not getting any of the unpleasant woody taste I often run into with red rooibos blends and this does make a rather cozy bedtime tea for the wintertime. I’m thinking I’ll hang onto this one!