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This tea is in competition with being the worst white/earl grey/store experience I have every had the misfortune of purchasing and drinking.

Golly! This tea is bad!

Okay, I’ve officially tried ever manner of brewing/steeping this tea just short of gong fu and no matter what I’ve done, how short I steeped, how close I monitored water temperature and purity, this tea never failed to taste like bitter, acrid garbage. Wow. Just wow. Don’t let me get started on the overly pushy downright rude the sales associates were. They’re lucky I’m not Hannibal….

Its been over a year and I’ve finally managed to make the last of this blend -cold brewed over night as a last resort. Still just as overly sour, bitter and foul as the rest of it was. But I can’t bring myself to pour it and waste money, even if it wasn’t mine. Ugh.

I love tealux purely fir that fact that every tea I’ve gotten from them was good quality and fresh. Even the ones I didn’t particularity enjoy. This batch is no different. Everything from order smelled fresh and delicious, and the leaves were a great color.

Actual review: this tea. I don’t know if it taste exactly like butterscotch but to me this tea taste like a honey/cinnamon bun. Sweet without any sugar and just gorgeous in the pouch to boot. I love that it has a more delicate, vegetal base of white tea that keeps it light and refreshing. I steeped it overnight the fridge and not a hint of bitterness. It was also a hit with the family but this going in my “selfish” stash.

There is no balance in this tea. No harmony or joy. Just jasmine, jasmine, jasmine. I now know what it’s like to drink perfume. That is not something I ever wanted to know. Yet now I do.

Unlike the lucky reviewer before me whose sample tasted mostly of cherries, like I had wished mine would taste, my sample was predominately jasmine flowers, no cherry, a hint of vegetal bitter green and whole lot of NOPE

Frankly I’m thankful. Spring Fest was actually a huge contender among the teas I wanted to order in my last rivertea purchase. At the last minute, right before checkout I took it out of my cart with the hopes that, given RiverTea’s usual practice of picking out similar, thoughtful tea samples, that I would see it in my order anyway. My hoping paid off! In that sense at least. Unfortunately, and very fortunately -seriously, I can only imagine how upset I would be if I actually spent money on tea that makes me physically recoil in horror – I hate this tea. Okay hate is a strong word. Intensely dislike. Better. I intensely dislike this tea. And so does my nephew. But luckily my little tea snob in the making will drink anything. He drank the whole pot -with a bit of rock sugar – for me like a champion. Good lad.

Meh. I knew this tea wouldn’t hold a candle to my Rishi white peach blossom but I got it any because I had a gift certificate and it’s been on my wish list for months now. Glad I used my gift certificate. While delicious and refreshing cold brewed, this tea taste more artificially peachy and flat than I’d like. Similar to the oolong peach. Just not for me. Tuscan sun is another delicious slightly peachy -though to be fair I don’t recall there being any peach at all in river teas Tuscan sun – as well as mulberry white. I think I’ll try a few more white peaches before just giving in and grabbing a ounce online next time they have a promo or sale.

The roses overpowerd the actual sencha and rasberry in this blend. Which is a shame because while I don’t mind rose tea in general, I’d have proffered the raspberry and green combination. The vanilla is also there to help smooth out the rose. It’s a very creamy tea and I will enjoy finishing it but I don’t know if I’ll be repurchasing after summer.

Side note: I cold breed this tea in the fridge over night using warm water which resulted in none of the typical green tea bitterness. I might cold brew this particular tea for now since I have no luck what so ever in hot brewing a green that doesn’t come out a horrid bitter mess.

I’m tempted to say I’ve never met an earl grey I didn’t like, but that would be a lie. I’ve come across some earl grey that wouldn’t even save in a fire. However this grey is a keeper. Really sharp, coppery when overstepped and unexpectedly floral. A really nice mouth feel when in the mood for as loud black tea. It helps that everyone else hates it, because that means it get to have it all to myself. Hmm

I’ll adds full note later. Too sleep deprived.

This makes a killer sweet tea when ‘cold’ brewed. I have to remember the way I made this sweet tea. Best batch of the summer.

One bag peer cup using warm water in a clear mason jar. Brewed for ten minutes then removed. Little to no astringency, dark clear brown color, floral black tea scent. Perfect brew.

I was one of those precocious children with the tendency to stick my little nose, literally, physically into anything I found even remotely interesting. It was because of my innate curiosity, and inability to process a lesson until I’ve had to cycle through the worst of it some three-five times that I’m able to categorize so many different scents today. That being said, the moment I stuck my still little nose into this bag of Lapsang souchoung – a tea which I gave never even heard of until visiting this site – I was immediately brought back to the first time I’d hovered my face over my uncles barbecue during an annual neighborhood block party and inhaled a black lungful of burning hickory wood. I don’t recall actually liking that smell, something that naturally didn’t stop me from sticking my head in the barbaque some three more times before the end of the day. I still can’t pass by southern or Jamaican barbecue in Brooklyn in the heat summer with out taking in deep breath —just to smell that charred wood smoke. Memories.

Babbling nonsense aside; I haven’t tried this tea yet. I bought it with the sole purpose of creating a custom Russian caravan blend. So I won’t be giving this tea a rating, yet. -it’ll be far into the clutches of New York winter before I so much as glance at a black tea to drink again. shrugs Mostly I just felt like telling a story.

This was my first ‘big girl’ teapot. The first real one I’ve every had and I adore it more than anything. Plum and aubergine are my favorite colors and after struggling to find a purple pot at the right size that was sleek and modern I finally same across this little gal and feel in love. I also have the matching cups. One of which I broke while birth drinking a tea a hate and reading an HP Lovercraft anthology. I’m still not sure which one if these things to blame for that…..