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I swear I reviewed this tea when I first purchased it, but it seems to have disappeared from the database.

It’s a beautiful, everyday teathat isn’t as floral as the name suggests. Creamy, crunchy, mild, faint apricot and chocolate notes, it’s lovely on its own or sweetened with mylk (I use full fat coconut milk from the can).

400mL with 2tsps for ~2 minutes, this was my second steep. 90C

Smells like my ideal tea: thick, malty chocolate with hints of apricot. The taste doesn’t disappoint.

Might be my all time favourite black.

I can’t rate or out in details in my phone, so…

Organic Golden Monkey Black
2 heaping teaspoons in 12oz water
Boiled and cooled to 89C
Steeped Western style, 5 minutes – I lost track of time, and it shows in the brew. Boo.

Brewed, this smells faintly of milk chocolate and malt and little else. Drinking it, it’s surprisingly sweet, creamy but thin, feels astrigent on my tongue but I taste zero astringency, just smoothness. It’s striking how smooth this is.

I used 4 balls with some leftover threads for a 12oz cup, and this seemed perfect. Compared to the other (much larger) ball of Moonlight Dragon Ball White (Teavivre) that I drank alongside this, these pearls unfurled almost instantly. Mind you, they were much smaller, the circumference of my pinky finger maybe, but not as woven as the white tea.

As I can’t use the dials on my phone:
90C, 3.5 minutes Western style, 88

The tea, brewed, smells malty, thick, sweet, like figs or apricots. Tasting it, it’s slightly astringent, full, sweet with a hint of apricot and more than a hint of chocolate, vanilla, something like cardamom but not quite. It’s a lovely, lovely tea, and unlike most white teas I’ve had. I could drink this all day, every day.

One dragon ball = one cup of tea. It was surprisingly large, and so about a quarter of the tea didn’t steep, because it grew too big in the steeper! I can’t wait for the second, third, fourth steeps to see how it evolves.

As I can’t list the details on my phone:
90C for 3.5 minutes, first steep.

Grabbed this in an order I’d made as a sample tea, hoping it would offer up as delicious as sampling as it sounded.

First, the smell. It’s DIVINE. Like hot maple syrup; I’m assuming this is part of the flavoring added, because there’s no way it could come just from the maple sugar. Regardless, I could sip this all day.

I made this as a heavy cream latte, knowing it had more than enough sweetener in it for me to drink it as is. I took a quick sip before adding the cream – and wasn’t a fan.

I should note – I LOVE chai. I’ll drink it all day, every day if I can. Cinnamon-heavy is never an issue for me; I note this because I saw Roswell and Kitenna both mentioned it, but I didn’t think it was overkill.

What I didn’t like – initially and after adding cream – was the aftertaste.

Okay, I don’t like apple pieces in my tea, so I’m sure that’s part of it.

But the ‘natural’ and artificial flavorings were off. It left a sour, bitter taste in my mouth, and the only reason I finished it was due to the smell.

I really wish DT would label their flavorings with more detail. Until then, though, this is a hard no for me.

I’m unsure why I didn’t rate this tea when I drank it. Likely because it was given to me in exchange for a review, and, I found I’m allergic to it.

So…. on that note, can’t really review this tea, other than to say it gave me hives within a few minutes of drinking it.

From what I can remember, it reminded me of unsweetened aloe drinks.

Which is too bad, because I liked the idea behind the tea – cactus leaf to lose weight, and an old folk remedy.

This Swedish Christmas tea is the bomb!

My current housesit in Manchester’s homeowner instructed me to ‘drink all the tea’ so she can make room in her cupboard. Yay! As soon as I heard ‘Swedish Christmas tea’, I knew that would be my first sip.

I wasn’t sure what was in this, but I trusted from the smell of the loose leaf all would be well. I wasn’t wrong!

I’ve had a lot of Christmas -themed teas, and I think this is my favorite of the bunch. It’s a light black tea with chai spices and then the addition of orange peel, which seems to be the mainstay of Christmas teas everywhere. It’s smooth, light, yet very flavorful. Okay, okay, I love chai teas, so this is no surprise. But not all chai teas work. This one does.

I think I’ll be drinking this a lot over the next two weeks….

I love me a flavored white tea… when done right.

The first time I had this, I remember thinking it didn’t taste enough like anything in the name of the tea. So this time, I brewed it two different ways, to see what I could get out of it.

Pot #1: 190F water, steeped for two minutes.

Pot #2: 170F water, steeped for four minutes.

Pot #2 won by a long shot!

Pot #1 tasted a bit flat, I couldn’t tell texture, flavor, anything really. Pot #2 though, yowza, that’s some toffee in my tea. Hot toddy? Well, not so much, but I’m sure I could have changed that if I were drinking these days.

I’d definitely grab more of this in the future (if I didn’t have so much tea to drink already), and steep it longer, at a lower temperature.

Oh, and it held up to heavy cream + stevia. Now THAT was divine.

Big thanks to Brooke + Bradford for gifting me this tea in exchange for an honest review!

Last year, Brooke and Bradford sent me several glass vials full of tea for me to try. (Look at my Instagram for the pictures: http://instagram.com/teatravelninja).

While I didn’t get a photo of this specific tea, I’d say it was my favorite. Sadly, it’s no longer for sale, and/or has a different name (I can’t tell which). New name? Deep & Steep Winter Chai.

I love white teas. Truly love them, especially if they have some body to them. Either as a light-as-a-feather pineapple/coconut blend, or a dark and smokey white tea. Well, or the white teas that seem like black teas…

Okay, okay, so I like white tea. :)

This white has body. It’s light, and yet, full and luscious. The cardamom comes through smoothly, and the spices are an added punch. Not too much of one, though. It’s subtle.

Honestly, I love my chai’s bold and spicy, but this one? It’s more for a mellow, winter day. Yep, perfect for Montreux, Switzerland, where I am today.