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So I went into this fully knowing it was going to be some kind of syrup slushie. But all I can say is: Yuckie.

Definitely way artificial. And it doesn’t taste much like green tea to me at all. It is super duper sweet and actually quite bitter. I will choke it down but definitely not purchase again.

I think I’m going to stick to the “syrup masquerading as tea” drinks that I already know I like.

I have been trying to post this since Friday. But steepster was not behaving. So I emailed Jason to get it fixed. So thanks Jason for fixing the bug, and also thank you Angel at Teavivre for this awesome sample!!!

The dry tea looks perfect. Beautiful dark green leaves. They are all uniform, minimal breakage or tea dust. The smell is so delicious and fresh, I just want to eat the dry leaves. Smells strongly of fresh green cabbage.

The brewed tea brews up very light straw colour. There is a string sweet spinach and cabbage smell. The taste is sweet spinach, green leafy vegetables. It is smooth and creamy. Definitely tastes very fresh.

My taste buds are vey happy I had a chance to try this one. I have liked all of Teavivre’s long jings that I have tried. But this one is definitely the best. The freshness of the harvest makes a huge difference in taste.

Thanks so much Angel (you are my Tea-Angel)!

Apricots are my favorite food group.

But it is so hard to find an apricot tea that is not artificial or weird tasting or bitter. I am sure most fruit flavoured teas have this problem but I love apricots so much that I want a genuine flavoured tea.

I picked this one up hoping that the French would be able to stay true to my beloved apricot. The smell of the dry tea reminds me of thick and pulpy freshly made apricot juice.

The taste is ok. A bit lacklustre. But I did make it at work and although I think I have a pretty good set up at work, it is still a work set up. I am definitely getting real notes of apricot. But it feels and tastes artificially sweetened. The apricot flavour it working really well with the black tea base that is am finding very subtle.

I think next time I need to use a bit more leaf. But otherwise, this is the closest- to -apricot tea I have ever had. I bet a bit of bergamot would make this tea divine. Mmmmmm. Apricots and bergamot…

This is the last sample, I think, from my super secret surprise sample pack from Dexter3657!

I am unsure what to think of this one. I just ate some super duper spicey potatoes. I definitely over did it with the chili pepper flakes and lemon pepper. It was delicious though. But my mouth is still burning from the aftertaste while I drink this tea.

What I am tasting in the tea, is it is moderately thick liquor, even with a short steep. It is sweet and not bitter or astringent. There is a little bit of malt. The more I sip, it is starting to “clean” my palate. The spice tasting buds on my tongue are still on fire, but I am starting to taste a lot more dark chocolate with rice crisps notes.

I am surprised because I didn’t think I would like this tea but it is not too bad. It was certainly a good choice to drink for after my “hell on fire” potatoe breakfast :)

I have been wanting to give this a try as it seems there has been a recent marketing campaign for it in my area. Even though the reviews for Pure Leaf were pretty poor, I still thought I would give it a try. I like cold/iced tea about as much as (maybe even better than) hot tea.

I was quite surprised to walk by the display for Pure Leaf te and see the advertised "NEW’ unsweetened version. So I picked up a bottle. It is called “Pure Leaf” and the ingredients list tea, but also citric acid. So much for the “pure” part. But I guess there could be worse ingredients in there.

For what it is, a bottled tea, it is not terrible. It is not great either. The tea is pretty flat tasting. I know it is an unsweetened version but I was expected a bit better base tea. (I should have known better though). I can definitely taste the citric acid. It just gives it that tinge of artificialness to it.

I have definitely had better bottled iced teas, but nothing is as good as a homemade iced tea!

Just a quick note, to add to my previous notes.

I countertop brewed this. Essentially cold brewed but left it on the counter. Brewed up beautifully. I found this one didn’t brew well as a cold brew in the fridge. Ready after about 8 hours. Tastes much more like a traditional iced tea.

Made this one iced, double strength tea, then cooled in fridge until cold. I added a bit of 2% milk and then mixed half and half with Perrier. It is pretty good. Tastes almost like a cherry cola float, or a brown cow. Will probably drink the rest of this tea like this. Not sure the calorie count but I am assuming this is better than an actual cherry vanilla cola float. I also feel a Paralyzer coming on. Mmmmm.

Dexter3657 was so kind to have sent me some wonderful surprise samples of teas that I like as well as teas that were on my wishlist. Thanks so much!

This Fujian black is AMAZING!. The smell of the dry leaf is very thick and malty, almost as if there was a bread-y quality to it. The brewed tea smells very similar to the dry tea but with the addition of scents of wild honey. The brewed tea tastes like any Fujian black should. It is thick, with a thick malt. Some notes of wild honey. It is bold but I am getting no astringency. It is very smooth. I think Fujian blacks are my favorite. This one does not disappoint.

As a sidenote for anyone that was following my ridiculous tasting notes/stories yesterday, my company came down, got ridiculous drunk and threw up all over the bathroom, and spilled Burger King poutine all over my couch. Is now sleeping so I have to be dreadfully quiet because I am scared to wake “the hangover”. Yesterday I angrily proclaimed that I was not going to be the one that was cleaning the bathroom, and all I got was giggles in return. So much for my recluse weekend. Next time, turn off phone, close windows and blinds, lock doors, don’t respond to any attempts of contact, and hope no one calls the police because they are scared something happened to me.

It is raining. That is all.

Ha ha.

OK, I did come here to actually type something distantly related to tea. So I went to a local frozen yogurt place because I got a coupon in the mail for 10% off. They also advertised bubble tea, so I thought I would give it a try.

I ordered a lychee bubble tea. It was ok. Not the greatest. In hindsight, lychee may not have been the best flavour to order at a chain yogurt shop who is trying to get customers through coupons. It was quite perfumey and artificial. The pearls are quite low quality and the texture is weird. But it is still drinkable.

I never quite understood bubble tea. It is not really tea at all. So I did some research, by research I mean I typed it into google then clicked on the Wikipedia page. It appears that bubble tea did originally have tea in it. But it seems through commercialization that it is now some sort of milk product with flavouring added. There are also several kinds of bubble tea. I shouldn’t complain, I did get this at a yogurt shop.

Of other interesting note, there is a little comic on my bubble tea that points out the bubbles are actually the foam on the top of the “milk product liquid” and the tapioca/gelatin balls are the pearls. But on the wiki page it says the pearls are the bubbles, so who knows.

I also got yogurt and I would say my experience with that was very poor, but that is for a different review site.

Made this one again to use up the last of my sample. I added some 2% milk this time and that really seemed to bring out the cinnamon toast crunch flavour. Quite delicious. Although I am still going to maintain that I am still allergic to pu’erh. ;)