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The flavor description from Song is cognac, passionfruit, and coconut. And this tea hit all of these flavors, and in that order! Cognac up front, coming mainly from the way the leaves are roasted, with beautiful fruitiness right after, then finishing on the coconut/tropical notes. So complex and delicious! I tried to get multiple steepings from it, and got around three, but I think it’s better to just brew according to the vendor instructions. Maybe get a weak second steep out of it if you like to push things, as I do. Still, very interesting and flavorful tea. Next time I’ll try brewing Western style and see if that works to make it even better.

Another tea from my trip to the Netherlands. Caffeine-free, and the next best thing to hot cocoa when you add a bit of milk and sugar. The chocolate notes are nice and rich – it’s always so tough to find a chocolate tea that tastes right – and the caramel is there, but not very much, unfortunately. Luckily, this is still an extremely enjoyable cup. I’d order more of it, but the shipping is just too much. I’ll make a note of it to purchase again if I ever get back to that tea shop.

Picked this up at last year’s Toronto Tea Festival and just getting around to it now (egads!). It’s spicy, ginger-forward and warming, with a richer tea taste to it than other chai I’ve tried. It’s really good, very enjoyable but I noticed a lot of fennel in it. Luckily, the flavor didn’t transfer too much to the brew. Picky note from me: this chai is a bit more finely chopped, so it tended to clog both my chai pot and the filter in my teapot when I decanted it.

Gifted to me by my Dutch bestie, she knows I like creamy, vanilla forward teas so she figured I would like this tea version of a Dutch custardy dessert. Sadly, it’s more fruity than custardy – mostly strong notes of cherry, and more like cough syrup cherry than juicy cherry. Some hints of cream are detectable, but can’t get much past that medicinal fake cherry flavor. Disappointing, since I was really hoping for more custard, less fruit. You can’t win them all, right?

Incredible. Got this at last year’s Toronto Tea Festival and after tasting it at the booth, I just had to purchase it. Can’t believe it’s been a whole year and am bummed that I’m not able to go this year. As for the tea, it’s smooth, sumptuously creamy, and definitely one of the best milky oolongs I’ve ever had. This is going on my regular rotation!

Essentially an orange and cinnamon flavored black tea. Nice, but subtle. I added a couple of cardamom pods for extra oomph. I would probably add more leaf in the future, as the flavors were kind of weak. It was sort of Christmas-y, but for a spiced tea, I prefer a masala chai. Hmmm….maybe this would be an interesting base for an different, orange-y chai…let the experiments continue!

Picked up a bag of this at HMart for when I get a hankering for genmaicha since I don’t tend to keep it in my stash. Maeda-en had such a great matcha for the price, I thought I’d try this. Meh. It’s OK. Not enough flavor of either the green tea or the toasted rice. And it takes a LOT of leaf: 1 tablespoon for 12 oz. Luckily it wasn’t very expensive, so no harm. Just a little disappointing. I’ll have to play with the steeping parameters to see if I can produce a better brew.

Another beautiful Ceylon from House of Tea in Toronto. The leaves are dark, twisty, gorgeous with no broken pieces. Sweet and bright, with lots of flavor, this has become one of my favorite Ceylons. I’ve been enjoying it as a breakfast tea with a little bit of evaporated milk, and with the addition of just a half teaspoon of sugar or so, it approximates the flavor of a Japanese milk tea surprisingly well. Bonus!

Ever since Lupicia stopped providing me with my Nuwara Eliya fix, I’ve been searching for a replacement. I got it into my head on a recent trip that I wasn’t leaving Europe without some Nuwara Eliya. I haven’t had this particular tea from Simon Levelt, but I have had other teas from there and they are good quality. Glad I snagged this one! It’s just what I’d been looking for. Bright, malty, citrus notes with a teeny bit of floral at the finish. Delightful.