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Resteeped my wife’s blend this morning, maybe steeped it a little too long but it really woke me up. Delicious sweet orangey goodness with a leafy shot of energy. My wife is brilliant.

You know that scene in every Christmas movie ever, when it starts to lightly snow and everyone looks up at the sky in wonder? That was my afternoon! Except instead of learning an important lesson about the true meaning of Christmas, I was scrubbing out a frozen-over litterbox and trying to get cat urine off a vacuum cleaner.

I think I deserve a cup of tea and a slice of homemade fruitcake.

Caramel Spice is just the right amount of sweet and spice to warm me from the inside out. Kept the water under boiling and a short steep time to keep the cinnamon under control.

The chocolate is a lie.

Sooooo I was hoping this would be better than the Super Chocolate and I was wrong. I’d agree with the other reviewers that it is really more like a chai or some kind of spice tea rather than a chocolate tea. Which would be good if I like chai. Which I don’t. The combination of that blasted cinnamon and the sickly sweet of something in there made this a rather unpleasant cup. Boo.

Can’t believe I’ve had this tea for a couple weeks and only tried it once. Oh well, here we go again. I was very pleasantly surprised by this one. A very nice light flavour of bergamot, and the underlying oolong is a sweet and floral one. I did get some of the orange, but none of the jasmine that knocked me over last time I tried it. Strange. Maybe it was the shorter steep time. Picked up some more, but it’s a little pricey so I won’t stock up unless it’s discontinued.

I . . . just don’t like sencha, I think. On the whole, I prefer Chinese greens over Japanese greens. I had some kind of sencha with lunch today, we gorged on sushi and teriyaki downtown and all ordered tea, and then today’s Advent Calendar tea was also sencha! What luck for me.

I did get the fishy overtone more than the grassiness, but I don’t really like either of those tastes. My brother who loves sencha enjoyed it, which I guess is all that really matters.

Continuing this weekend’s tea-tasting odyssey, I finally pulled this Super Chocolate off the wall to try it out, inadvertently continuing my rooibos theme.

I am . . . undecided. I would say this is closer to a rooibos than a green. It’s very sweet, and the chocolate taste is lost under the cinnamon. Since I’m not a fan of cinnamon, it’s very off-putting. I don’t think I’ll seek this out again.

This was not the best choice for trying out my new earthenware gaiwan. Next time I’ll stick to the large-leafed straight oolongs and greens.

Other than a surfeit of detritus from the brewing method, I still love this tea. I prefer citrus flavours over mint, but the mint doesn’t take over this tea. It’s a very clean and refreshing taste, leaving a tingly lemony-fresh taste in your mouth afterwards. Unfortunately, the lemon and mint do overwhelm the natural floral taste of the oolong, and after spending some quality time with straight oolongs I do miss it.