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This is really good! Floral, fruity, creamy, sweet. I think this would be pretty good iced. It took me some time to finish my first cup (easily distracted :P ) and the last few swallows were cold. When it’s cold it seems especially creamy.
2nd steep was tasty as well, the sweetness toned down a bit and I could taste more of the berries.
Overall, I can see this one being addictive. Very pleasant!

Wow, I am the first to review this tea! And believe it or not, this is my first Darjeeling. At least the first that I can remember. I feel that I’ve probably had Darjeeling before, at least perhaps in a blend, because the scent of the steeping leaves is familiar.
I followed Zen Teas’ directions of a heaping teaspoon steeped for 2.5 minutes. The tea is a dark golden color.
Okay, this tea is smelling VERY familiar. I know I’ve had this somewhere! I’ve tasted it, and it’s a bit too hot to really taste at the moment, but I’m pretty sure my first introduction to loose leaf tea must have been a Darjeeling that my grandpa brought back from Russia. I instantly like this tea, and not just for nostalgic reasons. It’s tasty! It has some sort of a fruity flavor I can’t distinguish. I really wish I was better at this whole note finding thing, but I’m enjoying myself anyway. :-) It has an astringent finish that I’m not minding. I bet this tea would be amazing with cream and sweetener!

And so it is.

I made this into a latte tonight. I added honey, heated some milk in the microwave and then used my handy dandy aerofoam frother to make perfect foam, and piled it on till it was practically overflowing out of the cup. Then, top with Penzey’s apple pie spice and you have deliciousness.

Thank you Zen Tea for this large sample! I opened the package and smelled it- STRONG coconut! That made me a little worried this would be very artificial tasting. I followed their directions of 1 tsp of tea per cup , and steeped for 3 minutes. I am very pleased with how it turned out! The coconut is present but isn’t nasty artificial tasting, and the oolong base is creamy. The only thing that would make this better is if it had real coconut in it, but I think this as good as a coconut tea can get without it! It’s quite good!

I am enjoying this very much this morning. The dry leaves smell decadent- dark chocolate, and creamy. The taste isn’t nearly what I was expecting from the smell of the leaves, but it is still quite good. The chocolate is there, and it’s bright. Usually when I find a beverage bright, that’s a bad thing; my experience tasting bright coffee usually means acidic and astringent, blah. But this is smooth. Is there such a thing as a ‘happy’ note in tea? This tea has it! This has been brilliantly blended.
2 tsp leaves per cup.

The leaves are very pretty, with the light and dark, large twisty leaves. My nose is a little stuffy today but the leaves smell sweet potato-ish.
I followed Verdants western instructions- 2 teaspoons of leaf per cup of water, steeped for 1.5 minutes. The first steep has the expected sweet potato flavor but is also strangely spicy; there’s fleeting sweet honey notes and something else I can’t identify. I’m intrigued! More on this later..

Many thanks to Zen Tea for this sample!!
I really wanted to try this; chai is such a comforting beverage that I always crave it at bedtime, but never have it because of the caffeine. Perfect solution!
Well, almost. I think I’ve decided that rooibus isn’t my favorite, but this will do in a pinch, especially when paired with milk and honey. Then I don’t taste the rooibus as much and I can still have the rich spiciness that I find so cozy.
I think rooibus enthusiasts will like this one! For people that want chai at bedtime, it’ll do. :)