Lala Send Message

I have been waiting forever to try this tea. I have wanted to try A and D for a long time but their tins are so large, I didn’t want to make a purchase before trying. Thank you Sil for helping me out on this one!

Assam is my all time favorite straight black tea. It doesn’t matter how it has been processed and whether it is loose leaf or bagged, it is always the best.

This tea is delicious. It is bold but still smooth. There is only a very mild malt-like taste to it, also a slight roasty flavour. It is medium thickness. I am only getting a very, very mild aftertaste and is not astringent at all. There is a slight natural sweetness to the tea.

Definitely worth the wait to try this tea. Now I am going to try to wait for another sale to pick some of this up, and most likely get some of their other teas too!

So I made this one as a cold brew. Not remembering that I made it as a cold brew back in February. And re-reading my old tasting notes, I didn’t like it then. And guess what, I don’t like it now. Ha ha.

I brewed it for about 10 hours. I did not notice until I stopped brewing it that the first ingredient in the tea is hibiscus. I do not favour hibiscus, but it really depends on the blend. I do not like hibiscus hot, but I really do not like it cold brewed at all.

This one turned out a beautiful red hibiscus colour. At first it was extremely tart, I couldn’t taste anything other than fruity tartness. I added a whole bunch of sugar. I didn’t measure, just dumped it in from the sugar bowl. That definitely helped. Still tart, but quite toned down with the sugar. The sugar did not make it too sweet because there was so much tartness. There is a strawberry taste to it, but not a sweet strawberry, like a tart, not quite ripe strawberry. It is not as creamy cold as it is hot. Like I said in my previous tasting note, which I forgot about, I prefer this one hot.

Made this one as a cold brew mixed with Teavana’s Peach Tranquility. Brewed for about 12 hours. I thought I would mix this one because I am not the hugest fan of it on its own, and the opus rouge seemed to mix well with others. It was not so great with the peach tranquility, it wasn’t terrible either. It is basically grape mixed with peach, which just isn’t working for me. It is very juice like, and on the verge of being bitter, like when you get an unripe, bitter, grape. I will finish this one, but most likely not do this blend again.

Ok so I had this one hot a few days ago and commented on how the black base tasted strange. Then I made it as a cold brew yesterday and I did not get that strange black base taste. So I thought my cup or infuser may have been contaminated, therefore changing the taste of the tea. But I made it again today and got the same strange black tea base taste. Not strange in a bad way. Just strange as in something I have never tasted before. It kind of reminds me of a darjeeling but not quite. The Pure Aroma website says the base is China black tea. I have emailed them to see if they can be more specific on exactly what kind of Chinese tea/blend it is. I will update with results as soon as they reply.

UPDATE: here is the reply from pure aroma. I guess I was half right on the Darjeeling – happy to know that my tastes buds do work.

“Our Earl Grey blue flowers tea is blended with black Keemun from China’s Anhui province and Darjeeling from India.”

Made this cold in a water bottle today at work. 1/2 tsp in 6oz water. Albeit it was room temperature water. I found it was much more flavourful this way. Very creamy, buttery and strongly vanilla. It could be French butter cookie but I think I would call it vanilla birthday cake. I also add a sprinkle of white sugar.

Got this is a swap from Sil.

The dry tea smells like creamy cherry. Not authentic cherry but candy cherry.

The brewed tea has a very strong metallic rooibos flavour. There is a creamy flavour and an artificial cherry taste. You can taste the rose underneath the cherry taste.

I find this to be an OK rooibos. It seems to be quite artificial tasting to me.

Made this as a 6 hour cold brew.

It is not as “warming” as a cold brew, which is good. It tastes of ginger and verbena, and a strong pepper taste. There is a very tiny bit of sweetness. There is definitely a wasabi taste but without the heat/spice.

Very refreshing cold, almost the opposite of when it is hot. Hot it is warming (like runny nose warming), and cold it is thirst quenching and refreshing.

Thanks Sil for this one!

I have been wanting to try Kusmi for a long time. Glad to have had the chance to try this one. Before I double checked the description of this tea, I smelled the dry tea. It smelled like vanilla and cherries. Then I smelled the brewed tea and it smelled like a generic Ceylon breakfast tea. So my first thought was that there was some scent contamination. Then I read the description and thought, well I was right on the first smell. As the tea cooled, the brewed tea began to smell more of caramel, vanilla and cherries. After seeing the suggested brew temp of 195F, I think I might have used just too hot water, and that is why initially there wasn’t much smell. Happy it ended up working out in the end though.

The brewed tea tastes of vanilla and cherries. As it cools more and more, it has a thick, creamy texture. There is a very faint, sweet, citrousy type flavour, like orange campino candies. But I am not getting too much bergamot. This would definitely make a great after meal tea. It keeps getting better and better as it cools.

Got this is a swap from Sil.

The dry and brewed tea smells like those sour cola gummy candies. It doesn’t make me think like, Coke, and rum.

The brewed tea tastes like watered down dark rum. There is a very slight cola flavour in the aftertaste. I added some white sugar and it made the cola aftertaste a bit stronger. I am not tasting lime at all.

I will most likely try the rest of my sample as a cold brew.

Edit: Definitely more flavourful after it cools. Tastes more like that sour cola gummy smell I got from the dry tea.

Made this one as a cold brew, brewed for about 26 hours. This is super strong bergamotty Earl Grey, so obviously, I like it. Black tea base is smooth. I am not getting the strange black tea flavour I got when I had this hot yesterday. I am wondering if maybe my infuser or cup was contaminated yesterday when I made it hot. Happy I tried this one cold. Much stronger bergamot flavour cold than when hot.