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Thank you, TheTeaFairy for sharing a little of your favourite oolong with me. This came before you found out I’m not into floral teas. I’ve avoided this for long enough, I have new tea coming in and although it’s not a lot of new tea, it’s enough tea that I feel guilty for still dragging around some samples.

So knowing full well this is not my cuppa I steeped the entire sample into my pot. Very pale coloured tea, so much so that I wondered if I understeeped. floral on the nose, both dry leaf and more so after brewed. I actually like the aftertaste better than the sip!

TheTeaFairy says “light flowery notes”. If one is not into floral he/she will pick up on the slightest flowery note anyway. It’s not bad and it’s not jasmine thus is shall drink it just fine but am not rushing to bring any more into my cupboard.

Thanks again, tea fairy. More for you, I guess!

I won’t say I’m disappointed with this tea, it is good and it smells a lot like caramel corn. I wonder if it would be better to just eat it. :) the smell once brewed is also overwhelmingly caramel corn — once they suggest that for you it’s hard to see that it might be something else.

Once steeped, I get a lot more apple and some Cinammon than anything else. In fact, although it’s been a while since I tried forever nuts, I’d say they two are not far from each other. Forever nuts disappointed me because I expected nuts and got pink Cinammon apple, really.

Also, however flavourful, I find this to be a bit thin tasting. You can steep longer but I suspect you just get even more apple that way. I used the entire 24 gram bag for our 3-cup pot and will attempt a resteep but that will be the end of caramel corn.

Yay, coconut! It’s the closest to SoHo Blend I could get locally. I had a Harney cart filled out but then I was reminded of the $15 shipping… I knew about the fee as I ordered before but I guess when you see it written down there at the TOTAL it’s kinda, well, jarring. :)

But this came to me courtesy of the lovely salesperson at the Church St. DAVIDs Tea, Toronto. I went with a long list and told her I had a budget and kinda didn’t want to go over, asked her to keep an eye on the total. We went $2 over, which I was ok with, but it meant I had to abandon the sample of chocolate macaroon I was going to add to my list. And you know what she did, totally gave me 16 grams free of charge. She said she knew I really wanted to try it and so she gave me some. How’s that for customer service? :)

I like the tea also but I agree it is thin tasting. I also knew it was sweet and only added a pinch of sugar (it’s gotta be psychological at this point, what’s a pinch of sugar to a 8 oz cup?, I should just leave it out).

The first few sips were very much coconut, yummy coconut, reminded me quite a bit of the SoHo blend in that respect. I then made the mistake of adding almond coconut milk because I wanted it creamier. Unfortunately now all I can taste is my almond milk. Maybe because this is so thin tasting, it can’t take much addition and still maintain its own flavour.

I have enough for another cup and I will likely buy more but I have to figure out what to mix it with for stronger base — don’t have many str8 black teas in house — I don’t want to just use more because it would become too expensive that way.

One more sample from TheTeaFairy bites the dust. I am running out of lots of favourites so this weekend when I’m downtown doing gay things during World Pride (yay, toronto!) I plan to use up my tea budget for a couple of months and stop at DAVIDs. In the meantime, no favourites means go through these samples I have around the house.

I left this toward the bottom of the pile because:
“cranberry: bleah.
chai: could be bleah, depending on mood”

I read someone’s tasting note and the person liked it cold better. I decided to go for broke and use the entire 2-cup sample. I tried it hot in a mason jar. Then I put a couple of ice cubes in to attempt “warm” and finally more ice for the “cold” version. I added sugar, it is a bit astringent. I’m also not getting much chai in the traditional sense, but that’s bonus tonight.

Really, a somewhat cranberry tasting astringent average black tea. Meh.

Thank you TheTeaFairy for your generosity!

If you guys saw all my samples that are unaccounted for in my virtual cupboard… I think I have 200 teas. And while I should be drinking mostly those, I seem to be in the mood for more flavoured stuff. This sample came to me courtesy of TheTeaFairy . She’s been very generous with me on more than one occasion so my house is littered with these baggies. Not a complaint, merely an observation. Please don’t stop showing me tea love, Fairy! :)

Although this is a very tasty chocolate mint tea, it still doesn’t take away the #1 spot from DAVID’s “read my lips.” I think there is more chocolate there, whereas here I am getting more mint. I should do them side by side but I’ve never had the time or inclination for those sort of experiments.

I drank this tea yesterday, added sugar and dairy-free creamer. It really is a nice dessert tea. If you haven’t had DAVIDs and you can’t compare the two you are better off. Kinda like seeing a movie before reading the book it is based on. If you liked the movie, stay away from the book.

On a side note, chipmunks are running laps in my backyard. I knew there was one but I have never ever seen him this active. And I think he brought a friend. I wonder what happened?

Many thanks to Laurent at Nina’s Paris USA for this sample.

It seemed from previous notes that it was the green tea to try. (yes, I know there’s black tea too but anything with sencha and genmaicha is green in my book). Caramel and genmaicha, both of which I enjoy, are supposedly present here. I brewed at 175F for fear of burning the leaves and rendering the brew too bitter to enjoy. It works fine at 175F. No additives.

It’s a nice colour, reminds me of apple juice. Clear liquid, I love those. So nice when you don’t get cloudy muck. Flavour wise I get a sweet sencha mostly. Buttery and sweet but sencha is not on my to-die-for flavour list. I also pick up something floral-y. I resteeped and it does well for a second go around.

Sadly I am not going to jump on the bandwagon of Japon lovers. To each his/her own. I enjoyed 2 out of 3 of these samples from Nina’s so pretty good I’d say!

Thank you to Laurent @ Nina’s Paris USA for this sample. I have been curious about these teas for a a while now.

At first I wanted to write that I liked Ma Passion better than this. This is strong at first, punchy base. Seeing this and realizing it isn’t what I had in mind I combined the two steeps in a 16 oz mug and added a touch of raw sugar. I also started goofing around on the iPad and the tea had a chance to cool. The end result is that I like this tea better than the other now.

I can’t taste any of the fruits individually, nor can I tell there’s pu’erh leaves in here, which is fine by me. The smell of the dry leaf reminds me a lot of H&S Fruits D’Alsace. And something in the taste also reminds me of it but a little less so.

I do have one comment to make and it has not to do with the tea but with the length of time it took for the samples to reach me. More than 3 weeks. In case I want to order some, three weeks is more than I like to wait for my stash. Anyone in Ontario ordered from Nina’s USA? How long did it take, do you remember?

Thank you for this sample, Nina’s Paris! I had it iced and have to say I enjoyed it quite a bit. Resteeps well too, which is always a bonus.

I’m writing this from memory, had it yesterday. I loved the base and flavour balance, it was not a “juice” tea, it was definitely black tea with some passionfruit throughout. The wet leaf as it cools is all fruity goodness in smell, which is what made me resteep. I mean, if it smells so good still it has to have more to give. And that it did :)

The colour was what I would expect of a black tea, a deep brown and there was not a lot of aroma at first. Good lingering fruit aftertaste. Purchasing this would be considered for sure, it makes a good summertime beverage!

I have this sample from Dexter3657 from a while back. I tried it when I first got it, didn’t like it hot that time but kept it just in case. I made some iced chai latte a couple of weeks ago using a different chai, and it worked great, so this morning when I read that TheTeaFairy made herself some iced chai latte I thought to myself "yes, yes, that is what I am going to do right this moment. "

So I used the remainder of this sample. Ok, so what I found is that I liked this one iced with almond milk way better than I did hot. Alas, maybe sugar and coconut or almond milk is the great equalizer. That, and a breath of cardamom was the ticket this time. Same steeping method I always do. Steep the chai in hot water as I would any other black tea and then pour it over ice. 1/2 cup almond milk, 1/2 cup sweetened chai. Bam!

Can I get a “Wooo!” This drink I made is making me do that and I haven’t gone “wow” in a while.

I haven’t had chai in a looong time but I bought almond coconut milk yesterday and I have been itching to make a cold drink of sorts with it. As I pondered for a beverage again this afternoon the idea struck me: iced chai latte. Now this might have to do a bit with Oprah — that woman knows how to make money, eh? — because I’ve been going to Starbucks a lot these past few weeks and there’s the giant sign about Oprah and some chai. So maybe my subconscious took a chai battering all these days because it came screaming out this afternoon.

So I dug out this sample from Dexter3657 that came my way during a period when I was interviewing chais for a regular spot and dumped it all in the steeper. Overleafed a little because I knew I’d be going in with ice and milk and after 4 minutes I dumped in some sugar in the raw, ice cubes halfway in a mason jar and then filled half with tea, half with almond coconut milk. Sprinkled on a small pinch of cardamom for good measure, stirred and WOW. I love this. Must make it again. Thank you to Dexter3657 for this oldie but goodie sample.