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Just a quickie review of this, I really don’t know what she was going for with this tea. When tasted plain, it almost has the flavor of one of those specialty blend coffees? Like a maple bacon flavored coffee drink? It’s hard to say. With sweetener added, the best way I can describe it is if you put a pancake and bacon breakfast in a blender and hit PUREE and then drank the result. It’s kinda weird. Not horrible so to speak, but just strange. I’m honestly trying to decide if I like this or not, and I’m having trouble. I think i do? Maybe? This one is just out there. I’ll give it a rec for anyone aching to try something truly different. But for people who are conservative about their tea choices, I would probably stay away from this one.

Ok, I made a rather large 52 Teas order, and Anne was kind enough to include a single serve sample of this in the package
Just a quickie review, this tea is OK. I would have liked it MUCH better without the anise. I find licorice flavor of any sort (black licorice that is) revolting and when it shows up in my tea I have to drown it in sweetener just to make it palatable. That is what happened here with each steeping requiring THREE splendas just so I could drink it. However, with the three splendas it was actually not too bad. I got the basic gist of the tea. I’ve never had mulled wine, so I can only guess that it what it tastes like. All in all, not a fan of this one, but I have had much much worse.

Ok, another one from yesterday’s box! This one I was gonna wait till tomorrow’s breakfast, but that TOTALLY isn’t happening.

Brewed western style 212F/2tsp/2:30min/12oz

Taste is… wow that is definitely creamy! I know this is meant to be taken with sweetener, but it really is very creamy without any. But, since sweetener was intended, sweetener we shall add! MMMM now THAT is tasty. It’s still really creamy, but the added sweetener really brings out the brûlée/custard flavor. Uh oh… I may need a large of this. This is mighty good. This is the third tea I’ve tried of this batch, (although only the second I wrote up,) and by far the best. I would compare the taste to a previous 52teas blend the “caramel monkey bread rooibos”, just without the woody rooibos flavor. I do believe I’m out of that one so I will have to get a bunch of this one to hold me over till we get a reblend of the Monkey Bread. Great Job on this one!

So this just came in the mail today as part of my 52 teas box. I was immediately excited as I love peaches and I love peaches and cream even more. Upon opening the package I immediately noticed the sweet peach smell and the actual pieces of peach in it. So I set about brewing it up. 1.5min/175f/2tsp/12oz

Taste is… ok not what I was expecting. It’s got a background sweetness and I can definitely taste the peach. But the flavors are conflicting. I grabbed a splenda in case I wanted to try adding that and I think I do. Well, with the splenda, the “peaches and cream” flavor really comes out, but I still feel as though it is conflicting with the genmaicha. It’s like this tea is trying to be two opposite things at once – sweet-light-fluffy and roasty-vegetal-buttery at the same time. It isn’t really working for me. It’s drinkable, but the conflicting flavors really are confusing my senses. I don’t think I will be getting more of this after all, unless it really starts to grow on me quickly.

Just throwing up an additional note to this.

Please, PLEASE don’t oversteep this. I was feeling adventurous and brewed up a whole pot. However, using only 3 tsp for the entire pot (I was making it in the Brevelle), I thought I would intentionally oversteep a bit to pad out the flavor.

Don’t. Just… DON’T.

The blackberry gets tart quickly. I took a sip and instantly my mouth puckered. It was salvageable with a bit of splenda, which thankfully didn’t completely ruin the tea, only tempered the tart. But yeah, don’t oversteep this. It’s too good to ruin it like that. Learn from my fail and DON’T DO IT!

This is a one off Sample provided to me by Mandala. I really don’t know what to expect with this tea though.
I brewed it 212F/2:30/12oz I don’t know how much was in the sample though but I used up the entire thing.
This one has an interesting flavor to it. I’m getting tobacco, cherry, and a bit of metallic flavor. Also there is some amount of Malt and Bitterness to it as well for the black tea itself. It’s certainly not a bad tea. It just has a different flavor to it. Good tea though. I’ll give it a rec.

Ok, full disclosure, the concept of a “secret” tea never even dawned on me the entire time I have been buying tea. Yet, here I am, with an Adagio blend which cannot be bought anywhere on the site, nor in any fashion ordered or requested. It seems that the only way to get it is to make an order with your birthday discount. At least, that is how I got it. They made no mention of it when I ordered, it wasn’t listed in my cart, yet when the package arrived, there it was in the box.

So I figured I’d review it because I don’t know how many people on here actually order from Adagio for their birthdays. Seeing as how I’m only the second note, apparently not a bunch.

This tea smells VERY sweet in the package. I think it’s supposed to be a type of Birthday Cake Flavored, so that’s to be expected. I brewed this western style (as always) at 212F/12oz/3min/2tsp.

Flavor is…Well that is DIFFERENT. It almost tastes like it wants to be sweet, but there just isn’t enough there to do so. I’m pretty certain this is meant to be drunk with sugar. So not one, but TWO splendas go in the cup. Ahhh, much better. There’s that birthday flavor. It has a bit of a weird combo. I’m getting the vanilla and creme, but the supposed caramel is coming off as a STRONG Raisin flavor for some reason. It’s a sweet raisin flavor, almost like if there were candied raisins. But it is definitely raisin. I don’t think it is supposed to taste like raisins. The aftersip even further intensifies into a further raisin flavor that lingers. It’s…odd. I really don’t know how to rate this. It doesn’t come off like the birthday cake it’s supposed to. It tastes like an iced raisin muffin. I still think I will recommend this, although technically that doesn’t help because you can’t willingly buy this tea. It’s not bad tea for sure. It’s just… not what I was expecting.

So when I bought my Bella Luna Blue, I considered getting some Earl Grey Bella Luna to go with it. Then I realize that it came in a 4oz tin, and I honestly had no idea if I liked Earl Grey or not. I had never had it before. So, instead, I got a sample of their Earl Grey Moonlight to try.

I really didn’t know what to think going into this. It smells pretty sweet in the package. Brewed it western, 2tsp/12oz/212F/3min.

Taste is…. wow. One of the reviews on here compared this to Fruity Pebbles. That is EXACTLY what this tastes like. Fruity Pebble Black Tea. I’m getting a creamy, vanilla flavor along with some orange. However, it doesn’t really go full on creamsicle. The black tea base is there, but in balance. In general, this is a very balanced tea. The citrus plays on my tongue and gives it a crisp, biting mouthfeel, without the flavor actually being tart. I’m just gonna say it – This is mighty tasty. I don’t know if this is typical for an Earl Grey, but if it is, I’m gonna have to drink a bunch more. Make It So!