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This is Not Good. I really need to try it cold brewed next time because hot it’s like licking a barnyard floor. As the cup cools the lime and cola start to peek through, but it’s definitely a challenge to drink hot. Note to self: COLD STEEP THE REST OF THIS!!

I recently picked up Bird & Blend’s ‘Jasmine Poached Pears’ tea, and was quite impressed with the pear flavour in that one, so it’s a shame that this blend fails so miserably at delivering on the ‘pear’ promise. If the pear flavouring used there came across here, it would be waaay better. As it is, I feel like I can maybe get a whisper of pear in the background if I really think about it? I don’t hate it as much as I did in my previous note – maybe it’s mellowed with age – but I certainly wouldn’t choose to drink it again. I stand by my original assessment that this is basically a plain rooibos with liquorice root sweetness at the back of the sip, but I don’t think it’s as offensive as I found it back then, so will raise the rating just a little bit from 30.

Brewed this up because I wanted something tart and fruity, but it’s not very tart and actually not all that fruity. Mostly it’s a sort of aromatic combination of coconut and lemongrass, though the pineapple is quite juicy in the back of the sip. I don’t think I like this as much as I used to, but I will admit it is one of the only pineapple teas I can stomach. I’ll have to try this cold brewed in the summer, I think I would prefer it that way.

Yay, happy to have restocked this old favourite while I was in London! Such a lovely soothing tea. I’m happy to find it’s just as good as I remembered it.

This tea has held up better than me, who is also ‘1994 aged’. Robust honey and chocolate notes, a little bit dusty at the end of the sip. I must remember to gong fu steep this next time. I’m still yet to try it that way.

Somehow I’ve never written a note on this one, and it’s not on my tea spreadsheet so I don’t remember who I got this from, but thank you to whoever it was! I’m drinking it as a latte tonight, and it’s tasty but I need to remember not to use maple syrup as sweetener in these lattes as it always comes off as sour when combined with the milk. There’s prominent apple, the hazelnut less so but it is still there lingering in the background. It’s giving me a sort of toasted honeyed granola impression, and I’m not mad at it.

I used 1tsp for this as suggested on the packet, and the flavour is very, very mild. Not like a robust black tea with a slight hint of flavour added, but the base tea itself is very thin and weak. I steeped it for 3 minutes at first, but after tasting it put the leaf back in to steep for another minute. It’s a bit better now, but still on the thin side, and I’m having to chase the flavours in order to taste them. I find the coconut more prominent than the banana, which I’m not mad at since coconut is one of my favourite tea flavours, and I’m not the biggest banana fan in general. Both are very natural-tasting, I just wish it was stronger. I’ll try with more leaf next time and see if that improves things, because I so want this to work out, but right now I’m just not getting enough from it and it’s kinda a disappointment.

After having Della Terra’s Cherry Cola and Cake this afternoon, I decided to try this cherry cola tea which I picked up on my trip to London last week. I cold brewed it for a quick couple of hours, and YUM. I genuinely wasn’t expecting to enjoy it this much. I thought there’d be less cola flavour and more hibiscus, but I think the stevia does a good job of tempering the tart hibiscus just enough. It’s still sour, but in a good way, like fizzy cola bottle sweets! Both the cherry and cola are quite prominent in the cold brew, which I was pleasantly surprised by as the other Bird & Blend cola tea I’ve tried, Lime Cola Guayusa, didn’t taste at all like cola to me. I added a little maple syrup to see if it brought out the ‘cola bottle sweet’ feel a bit more, but no, it actually brought out a touch of cinnamon which I hadn’t noticed before. It’s still really good, but I’m not sure why the cinnamon is there, and I definitely preferred it without that being noticeable. Overall though I’m really happy with this purchase, which I wasn’t sure about at the time, and would probably pick up more in the future. I’m also very happy with my decision to cold brew it, because this is really tasty! A very different take on ‘cherry cola’ to the Della Terra tea I had earlier, but both very very enjoyable.

Ugh, I forgot how much I love this tea. It’s such a shame I can’t easily stock up now that Della Terra is no more. It doesn’t seem like cherry cola and cake should go together, but they really, really do! The cherry cola is very accurate and prominent at the front of the sip, and the vanilla cakiness comes through at the end of sip and lingers. Adding sugar brings out the cherry cola even more. I’m definitely going to have to up my rating on this one from 80, because I’ll be really sad when it’s gone.

Mainly writing this tasting note to serve as a reminder to myself not to follow the recommended 1.5tsps. I haven’t drank this in a long while, but in the past have always used 1tsp and it’s came out fine (as far as I can remember). This cup, I followed the recommendations and used 1.5, and it is not good . It’s bitter and astringent and I can’t pick out any redeeming notes. I also typically use a larger mug of around 10ish oz, and this was definitely a smaller 8oz cup. That has to be it, because I don’t know what else could have caused such a drastic change in experience. Not changing the rating partially because I never rate down, only up, but mainly because this is almost certainly user error and I hope to avoid making the same mistake next time. So yeah, don’t overleaf.