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Giving this another shot. The dry leaves smell so nice – clove and cinnamon, with just a touch of cocoa. I let it brew for a good 10 minutes this time. Lovely amber color. Same smell as the dry leaves. This tastes a little sweeter than I remember. The clove is still too strong though.

Maybe next time I’ll remember to use apple cider!

Honestly, I thought this was chamomile when I asked for this sample. So I didn’t quite know what to expect once I realized it wasn’t. The dry pieces smell like sweet, toasted rice. There’s something else, too, that I can’t quite describe. I assume it’s the persimmon identified in the Teavivre description, since I’ve never actually had persimmon.

This tisane brews up a nice, lemony yellow. And the taste is fantastic! Nothing at all like chamomile, for sure. Closer to sencha. Toasted rice, sweetness, a touch of corn… and again that something else that I can’t articulate. I think the lesson here is that I need to hit my local Chinese market and try some persimmon!

This is a nice sleepy-time tea.

This is a nice, round, floral tea. I am not familiar enough with oolongs (yet) to really describe the base properly, but the floral aspect is both dominant and pleasing. The dry leaves smell like roses and, well, tea. The serving looks small, but the leaves unfurl beautifully in hot water. The brewed tea has a more delicate rose scent that I am really enjoying. It reminds me of rose perfume. The initial taste is also very rosy, though the jasmine comes out more as the tea cools. Unlike most of the other reviewers, I’m not picking up the violet at all. Oh, well. This is pretty awesome as a rose tea. Thanks to Stacy at Butiki Teas for the sample.

I love the smell of this, though I can’t quite pin it down. Seems to primarily be black currant, rose, and hibiscus. Color is a very pretty red, though I think I understeeped this (and threw out the teabag, d’oh!). Flavor’s fairly light because of that, but I’m picking up a lot of strawberry, rosehip, and passionfruit. Aftertaste is definitely strawberry.

Overall, pretty tasty but not a staple tea.

Drank this when I had a migraine and people recommended mint tea. I put it in my travel mug and brewed for about 3 minutes, and it was much better than last time. Maybe not being able to smell it through the mug made the mint less offensive? I don’t know how much it helped my migraine, but it wasn’t an absolutely awful tea drinking experience like last time.

Just got a new Della Terra order in! Yay! I just couldn’t resist their Earth Day sale – who doesn’t love a free sample, and a generous one at that?

So this is the sample that Della Terra thoughtfully picked out to send with my order. The decision might have been influenced by the fact that I ordered a sampler including lemon chiffon, lime chiffon, lemon lime cream tart, and strawberries & cream :) I hereby officially declare my love for Della Terra’s cream flavoring (anyone know for sure whether it’s vegetarian/vegan?).

The dry leaves of this tea smell exactly like the lemon chiffon, only orange-y. Absolutely lovely. Brewed, the tea smells like a creamsicle. At first, it tasted very creamy and the orange was barely coming through. As the tea cools, the orange really pops out and it tastes like orange ice cream! I don’t have much analysis – this really is just a lovely evening tea if you’re in the mood for something creamy, sweet, and less tart than the lemon or lime chiffons. Yum.

This was a sample with my last order. I was really excited to try it, admittedly in large part because of the novelty. I like it, but I’m not blown away – though that might be because I haven’t experimented with it enough.

The dry leaves smell fruity. The brewed tea also smells fruity, though I can’t quite articulate what fruit. This brews up a light pink-purple, very pretty. It tastes of toasted rice and a hint of jasmine. Like others have mentioned, this tastes similar to sencha, only sweeter and maybe not as dry. It has a light, smooth mouthfeel. Pleasant enough overall. Glad to have tried it.

Meh. Not feeling this today. The fruit is too strong, the green tea just completely gets lost. Just doesn’t quite taste like tea. Moving on to something else.

BACKLOG

This entry has been long delayed, mostly because I like this tea in the evenings and I am often too tired to write up coherent notes. I do, however, take shorthand notes.

I’ve had this tea three times now and thoroughly enjoyed it every time. The dry leaves have a lovely lemon cake smell. Brewed, the tea smells like citrus and cream (though I pick up more of a lime scent than lemon – I have the lime chiffon coming in my next sampler, so I can compare).

As for the taste… well, here’s the note I made right after I took my very first sip: “omg tastes exactly like lemon cake I love it must have more was skeptical despite all of the positive reviews but they are so dead on I love it thanks to the board for suggesting it!” Now you know why I don’t just post my preliminary notes. :) However, I don’t think anything but my first impression note can adequately convey how fantastic this tea is. Granted, I no longer feel the same level of awe every time I brew a cup, but nothing is ever the same as the first time. This is a solid and thoroughly enjoyable dessert tea. I’ve already ordered more!

This can be resteeped, but the flavor isn’t at all the same. The rooibos taste comes out, the lemon recedes, and the creaminess becomes very faint. I like rooibos, so I still find the second steep tasty, but it’s just not the same experience.

This is a free sample provided for review by Angel at Teavivre. Thank you!

The dry leaves are so pretty – little pearls with streaks of white – that just putting them in my tea strainer feels like a special occasion! The pearls smell wonderfully like jasmine perfume.

I don’t have the equipment to make this perfectly, but I did my best. I brewed one serving in 8 oz of water at approx. 180 degrees for 1.5 mins. The first steep comes out a nice golden color and smells very intensely of jasmine. It’s actually almost too strong. The flavor is a beautiful, delicate green tea with a strong jasmine element. Again, the jasmine is very nearly overwhelming, but doesn’t actually cross the line. This tea is very smooth and leaves an almost minty aftertaste. So far, very enjoyable.

Second steep for 2 mins, approx. 180 degrees. The grassy green tea flavor comes forward, though the jasmine is still strong. Incredibly smooth mouthfeel. The slight dryness of the green tea base and sweetness of the jasmine balance each other nicely.

Third steep! 3 mins, approx. 180 degrees. Still quite a good cup. Tastes about the same as the second steep.

I actually got a good fourth steep out of this, too. It should be noted that this tea is very energizing – more than I have found most green teas to be. Which is awesome, unless you start drinking the tea at 8pm. So I stopped after the fourth cup, but I saved the leaves and will try to make more tea with them later.

If you like jasmine, this is the tea for you. If you don’t, this isn’t a tea that will ease you into it. Personally, I quite enjoyed it and am looking forward to the rest of my sample.

update: I ultimately got SIX good cups out of this! Granted, the last one had to be steeped for a long time and was a tad weaker than the previous cups, but it was still quite good. Very impressive.