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Thanks to CHAroma for sending this to me in a swap!! I have wanted to try this one forever, but figured I wouldn’t be able to because it was limited edition over a year ago.

The tea smells quite mild and sweet. I was anticipating a bold, kick you in the butt, kind of holiday blend.

The brewed tea is a little but more than slightly sweet. It is very smooth, a little bit of malt. I have to admit, I am actually getting a little bit of chocolate taste. There is a little bit of vegetalness to the tea. More like a really dark oolong, without the roastyness. There is a slight metallic twinge to the tea which is actually pleasant.

I am finding this tea to be a little light. I thought it would be a lot more bold than it is. I will try using more tea next time. This tea is more than a year old, so even though it is in good condition, I have to take that into account.

I saying all the above, it is still a very delicious tea. Just not what I expected. Andrews and Dunham have never done me wrong :)

I am not a huge rooibos fan, but my mom gave me a little cardboard tin of this a long time ago and I actually didn’t mind it. I keep it on hand for when I want a quick bag of tea. It is definitely “warming”.

Well somehow I ended up with several cans of this tea. So I am trying to get rid of some of it. I even gave a few cans to a relative and still have a few left.

I would normally brew this tea quite weak, one bag for a 16 oz mug for 1 minute. But with the latest can I opened (I don’t know if it is a newer or an older can), the bags seem to not have as much tea. I also need to brew two bags vs the one I used to do.

I feel like Tetley is ripping me off…hmmm… Maybe it will be easier to sip it down. Anyway, it is a basic rooibos, sweet, with some cinnamon flavour. Sweet cinnamon, not spicey. It works.

I picked this up a while ago at Winners when they were selling some Fauchon teas. The box was pretty. This is a tea I could easily drink at work. I read the box (I thought anyway) and decided to pick it up.

So I am at work, I open the first individually sealed packet and there. Is. A. Smell. Hmmmm. What is going on. I put the bag into my cup and flip over the packet to read it. Oh no! My beloved Earl Grey has been…(dramatic pause)…Darjeeled!!!!

I am no fan of Darjeeling. I don’t know why. I have never ever like it. In taste and smell it reminds me of cheap cigarette ash. No matter what kind of Darjeeling I have tried, I just don’t like it. I find it worse when it is in a blend because that is usually the first and only ting I can taste.

Well…proceed with tainted tasting note, I guess. Even though I don’t prefer Darjeeling, I think I will be able to finish off this box of 20 tea bags. There is some bergamot in there. It is super light, all trampled and beaten up from the Darjeeling. Not as much as the package makes it out to be (“the zing of the bergamot oil…”), but it is just a work tea. I often don’t even taste the teas I drink when I am at work, I just quickly gulp and move on.

Upon closer inspection of the box, it does say this is a Darjeeling Earl grey, but it is kind of buried under all of the cute graphics and fancy writing. No wonder I missed it. Damn marketing…

This is one of the teas I got in my latest Nina’s Tea order. (To tell the story again, I was in Florida, and Laurent and Sophie from Nina’s Paris USA shipped my order to my hotel. This saved me a whole lot on shipping. Laurent stayed in contact with me the whole time until I received and was satisfied with my order). I had been wanting to try this one for a long time. It was only available in a tin but the tin is beautiful.

The dry tea is beautiful. The black tea leaves look nice, dried orange peel and bright blue and red flower petals are mixed in with the tea leaves. It smells super delicious. Like sweet candied orange peel. Almost has a bubble gum quality to the smell.

The smell of the brewed tea smells a little bit flat. Still candied orange but not as strong or as sweet and with a bit more pepper.

The brewed tea, like I find most Nina’s Paris Teas, is delicious. The tea base is just bordering on bold. There is a sweet, candied orange peel flavour, it is delicate and not overpowering. There is a slight pepper from the orange rind but it is very light. It almost tastes like there is a bit of orange juice in this tea. There is a slight sweetness, I would maybe add a bit of sweetener next time I have this tea. The flower petals give a thickness to the tea with a bit of a bread-y flavour.

The sweet orange flavours become much more prominent and bright as the tea starts to cool.

I am really glad I picked this up. I would like to know if there is a story behind the flavour of this tea and the name.

Received this one from Teavivre’s free tasting activity.

This one is an interesting oolong. I was expecting a normal Taiwanese oolong, but there is a bit of a surprise to this one.

It is a light green oolong, with some floral scents. It is smooth and creamy, almost like there is a bit of milk oolong in there. There is also a pleasant metallic taste, as well as a spice to it. On my first sip, I almost thought this was a ginseng oolong, but there is not real ginseng taste to it. The more I drink it, the less like an oolong it tastes to me. It is taking on a more bold, very slightly roasted flavour. I am hardly getting any sweetness. It is reminding me of a green and black tea blend. It is quite good. I am a little sad I have waiting so long to try it.

No real tea review here.

I overleafed this one just a little bit because I was at the end of my sample and there wasn’t enough for two cups but a bit too much for one cup. There was also quite a bit of leaf dust, being the end of the package. I shoulder have steeped for less time due to this but forgot so it is a bit bitter. Still drinkable but not as enjoyable as it could be.

So I had plans today, tea plans. And nothing gets in between me and my tea plans. Except a water main break which will have my water shut off for 5-6 hours. cries.

I can’t even be too upset about it. I was at home and saw all the city trucks driving down my street, then a man came to my door and told me I have 15-20 minutes before my water gets shut off for minimum of 5-6 hours. So I got all flustered. I filled up the bathtub and sinks, and all my pots and pitchers and cups with water (just in case). I was in the middle of laundry but the washer was on the last rinse so that had time to finish.

In my flusteredness I filled my kettle up to the top with sink water, instead of the filtered water I normally use. So I went to make a cup of tea and had to boil the entire 1.7L kettle of tap water. My tap water is not even bad, but I usually use filtered water for the kettle, so it tastes different.

And how do you clean your tea implements? Well you can’t really. I wasn’t planning on doing the teas with multiple steeps today, but I guess that is what my plans are now :(

And don’t even get me started on the toilet situation.

I shouldn’t complain though. At least I was home and had a chance to prepare. My neighbours with kids aged 4 and 1 are not even home, so they are going to get a surprise when they get home for supper.

#teaproblems.

The last time I made a note about this tea, Tabby commented that it is great iced. So I thought I better try it iced before I decided to get rid of it. I don’t really have much left anyway, I sent most of it out on the GCTTB.

I brewed this one up 2 tsp for 1 cup water for 2 minutes. Then poured over a 20oz mug filled with ice. Added 1.5tsp of white sugar and then cooled in the fridge.

I actually wasn’t as horrible iced as it was hot. (This one is not good when you brew it hot, then let it cool). So whatever it is about the chemical reaction, or whatever, when it is made from more of a concentrate, it is better. Still get a very strong floral, perfumey and chemical taste, but it is very blunted. Drinkable as a flavoured tea.

After I drank some down, I filled the top 1/3 of the mug with carbonated water and voila! Even better. The carbonated water either blunts or hides some of the perfumey taste. I probably have enough of this left to make a full pitcher of iced tea. I think I will be able to drink it down that way.

I had this earlier today, and it tasted really good after it had cooled. So I popped a cup of cold brew into the fridge for a few hours. But it wasn’t as good. It was a bit sharp as a cold brew, not as creamy. Definitely more vegetal than floral. I think next time I will brew it hot and just let it cool to room temperature.

Another one I received from Angel at Teavivre for the free tasting activity!

This is a great black tea. It is complex, dark, roasty. I always seem to get a different taste every time I try it. It is re-steepable. I brewed this one up my usual western style. I actually used the whole sample to make a pot of tea. Which is unusal for me as I usually go cup by cup because I always want to try something else. But I knew I would enjoy drinking this one today.

The dry tea is small leaves, uniform, quite airy. It smells of roasted potatoes. The brewed tea is dark in colour, reminding me of black coffee.

Today I am getting roasted nuts, potatoe-french fry-carb notes in the brewed tea. There is a slight, natural sweetness to the tea. I feel like there is some dark plum or black current notes hiding in the tea somewhere. I know a lot of people get chocolate or cocoa out of this tea, but I don’t. There may be some slight dark cocoa notes in the aftertaste but I think I am just looking really hard for it. Its still good either way. It is thick and bold with no astringency.

Received this one from Teavivre’s free tasting activity (back in November). Thanks Teavivre for being so awesome!

I have had this one before and quite liked it. The dry tea is varying shades of dark green. The leaves are rolled into small but loose balls. I brewed this one western style, 1 tsp per 8 oz for 1 minute.

The brewed tea smells sweet and floral. There is a dairy-type smell. I associate it with fresh unpasteurized milk. It smells creamy.

The best way I can describe this tea is fresh, bright and sunny. The liquor is thick and creamy. There are definitely sweet, floral notes. But it is not perfumey or bitter floral. It reminds me of edible flowers that you get in baking or salads. There is a very slight vegetal component to this tea but it is very slight and sits underneath the floral flavours. I would not say this tea tastes like milk, but it has the sensation of creaminess in the mouth. It is thick, slightly sticky in the aftertaste.

I took a sip after this one cooled and the first thing that came to my mind was green tea milk shake. I want to drink more of this cold.

The leaves have unfurled but not completely with the first steep. Definitely will be able to get more steeps out of this.