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Sip down. Honestly it’s a pretty generic cherry-rose green tea blend very similar (if not the same) to others that I’ve tried. I suspect many places are getting it from the same wholesaler. Still it’s not bad even if there’s nothing original about it as I am a big fan of all things cherry.

Mmmm nutmeg. It’s good with milk and a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar for an extra treat.

Sipdown, I made the last of this into an iced tea with an equal amount of Pura Vida from Davids Tea. It made a very nice, fruity and refreshing iced tea blend. It really isn’t iced tea weather right now – we got a foot of snow and it’s currently -11C but at least the tropical-ish flavours make me think of warmer climes and warmer times. ;)

I found that the tea was difficult to sift properly as something, possibly the coconut nectar, made it clump up into tiny pebbles. I made sure to whisk the tea extra thoroughly which seems to have done the trick to dissolve the clumps at least. The colour of this matcha is sort of a dull, dark, muddy green – I’m not super familiar with how matcha is graded but I think I recall that it’s an indicator of a lower-quality matcha. The flavour is a bit disappointing, as it’s largely the sweet coconut nectar and the vanilla flavouring the come across, with the matcha serving as a vegetal background. The tea is just on the near side of being too sweet, though I’m glad that they at least used a natural sweetener, rather than something like stevia.

I honestly wasn’t expecting too much from a matcha from Davids Tea and this tea neither exceeded nor disappointed those expectations. I might try this as a latte or perhaps in a smoothie, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a straight matcha. I get the impression that this is intended to be a sort of a matcha-for-newbies who might otherwise be put off by the grassy, bitter flavours.

I have to admit that I snuck a few pieces of the marshmallows and brittle before I steeped this tea because they smelled just far too temping. DT’s pu-erh teas have always been a bit hit and miss for me (loved their Chocolate Orange but hated their Cinnamon Heart) but this one hit the spot. This is about as close as I have ever tasted to s’mores being replicated in a tea. It’s a bit lacking on the chocolate aspect but the sweet brittle matches the marshmallow and graham cracker taste pretty well. The base is perhaps a little bit light and I think they could pick a slightly stronger pu’erh and still be good, particularly if they increased the chocolate flavours. Overall this is probably only second to Pumpkin Chai in my ranking of DT’s chais and spiced blends.

While I’m not a huge fan of red rooibos teas, I enjoy this one for it’s cute little maple leaf sprinkles. Other than that it’s a maple tea – does what it says on the tin. It does combine nicely with DT’s Blueberry Jam – you end up with something tasting a bit like blueberry pancakes.

I’m enjoying the new incarnation of this tea. It has a nice, natural banana flavour and the base which is robust but not astringent works very well with these flavours and gives the tea substance and bread-like notes. The only thing missing is the nut flavours (I don’t know how you guys do it, but I always put nuts in my banana bread, either pecans or walnuts) so if you reblend this one maybe try working those in LiberTeas (but NO MORE sunflower seeds! ;p).

I was sufficiently intrigued by the idea of soup tea to buy a sample cup. I really liked the smell of this one, warm and earthy – perfect for those rainy autumn days.

I initially had it unstrained and my first thought was, despite the strong spices, that it lacked substance. It needs something like lentils or vegetables of some sort otherwise it’s basically just salty water with spices. All the spices were a bit too overpowering so after the first couple spoonfuls I strained it, which still left plenty of spices in the soup. I’m not sure if it’s the matcha but there was a strong bitter-herbal flavour that came out especially as the tea cooled that I found quite unpleasant. It shouldn’t be from scalded matcha because the water temperature was only 80C.

I did a bit of research and rasam (the Tamil word for juice btw) is supposed to have a tangy flavour profile as it’s made with either a tomato or a tamarind juice base which this tea most definitely isn’t. On the bright side, I had some cornbread left over from chili night and dipped in the soup it actually tasted quite good.

I’ll be honest and say that I’m not really impressed with ‘soup tea’ thus far – of course this is the only one of the collection that I’ve tried, so the other two might be amazing for all I know.