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The aroma is pleasant and mild with a hint of Bergamot.

The flavor was slightly bitter and citrusy from the Bergamot and Ceylon, but other than that there is no real flavor. I was not overwhelmed with the flavor and a little disappointed.

The aroma is very mild and lovely, a mixture of green, roasted, and honeysuckles. It reminds me of the way my kitchen smells after I make my own Hojicha.

The taste is mild for a Ti Kuan Yin and more green than floral. The initial taste is a toasty green with hints of floral, as the taste fades you are left with sweetness. Delightful. I would not say this is my favorite Ti Kuan Yin, but I could certainly be content drinking this every day when I am craving the really pricey stuff.

Lady Grey is a black tea blend by the prestigious Twining’s of London (they have been around since 1706, I think they earn the prestigious title!) who not only lays claim to this original blend, but also the original Earl Grey. Lady Grey is not just Earl Grey for ladies (as the title would have us believe) it is Early Grey for ladies who really like citrus, made from the usual Black Tea, it also has Lemon peel, Orange Peel, and Citrus Flavourings.

And it certainly smells like citrus, which may or may not be a good thing since usually I am not a fan of the taste of citrus. I always find it too tart! The aroma is mostly orange with hints of lemon, sadly I cannot really smell the tea so I have no idea what kind of Black it is just from the smell, hopefully the taste will give me more of an idea. It also vaguely reminds me of air freshener, but mainly because my mom used a lot of citrus based cleansers when I was growing up, so it is impossible for me to not think of cleaning when I smell oranges, maybe that is why they make me so happy?

The taste is…well…I think I might have just drank cleaning chemicals. There is so much citrus, but it tastes like fake citrus, I think those ‘Citrus Flavourings’ might be more artificial than natural which is a shame. I have had plenty of teas that have had orange or lemon peel in the blend that manage to not taste like this.You know when you walk into a freshly cleaned bathroom and you can taste the chemicals in the air? They taste vaguely citrusy but also really wrong…now imagine that overlaying a fairly bland tea and you get Lady Grey. The tea used for the blend is unimpressive, I am assuming it is a Ceylon since it would match the citrus theme and I cannot taste any of the other tell-tale markers of other Black teas.

Long story short, I do not like this tea…at all…in fact this is the first tea since my Pu-erh migraine incident (tragedy struck that day) that I have disliked. Oh sure there have been teas that didn’t wow me, but none that actually made me wonder if someone stored my tea near perfume. At least this tea was not overwhelmingly tart, which is a good point in its favor, I think. Tssk, I expected better of you, Twining’s!

Presented by one of my favorite tea companies Adagio Tea and their great ‘design your own blend’ ability, the Creeper tea is my dedication to two beloved things, Minecraft and tea. It is a blend of Gunpowder Green for the explosive quality of the Creeper and the unfurling leaves (plus it drops Gunpowder!) Hojicha for the ‘dry leaf’ texture that Notch said a Creeper would have it touched, and lastly Kukicha for the glorious bright green of the Creep. The colors look great together and the dry leaves smell delightful.

It smells like a blend of smokey, roasted, floral leaves. Perhaps this is what the air smells like after a Creeper goes boom, though I imagine that there is more of a sulfur smell which I do not want in a tea! The most prominent aroma would have to be the Gunpowder, which smells like a spring field with a slightly smokey undertone. After the leaves have been steeped they still retain their beautiful green color and the aroma mellows out to an almost honey like orchid.

Have you ever tasted a tea that seemed to have layers of flavor, not a typical Green that tastes floral then vegetal, but that you can actually taste the different teas in a blend? Usually when drinking blends like English Breakfast it tastes almost like you are drinking a whole different tea rather than a blend. With the Creeper tea you taste all the different teas separately. First you get a delicate slightly floral slightly vegetal taste, like drinking spring time. Next you get the taste of the roasted Hojicha that always reminds me of laying on the ground in a summer sun-warmed pine forest. I know it is an odd way to describe roasted tea, especially since it does not taste like pine it is just what the taste evokes to me. Lastly is the raw honey-esque smokiness you get from the Gunpowder.

The straw colored tea tastes slightly sweetened, but not enough so to be called a dessert tea. No bitterness to speak of, just flowers, smokiness, and springtime all the way though. It also is good for many infusions, I am on my third and it seems to be ready for more.

Discovered last Christmas when searching for awesome teas to add to the three different Tea Advent Calendars I made for my dear friends. The local grocery store HyVee (that I lovingly call Hive) has a very small organic and bulk food section and in that section is an even tinier bulk tea selection. Cameron’s is mostly a fancy whole bean coffee company, but they also have a small selection of teas like a decent Gunpowder Green, a decent Chai and the tea I am reviewing today. The other teas are decent…I know not a very inspiring compliment, but they are not at all bad and quite tasty, just not OUTSTANDING!!!

Green Passion Tea is outstanding, and I was so pleasantly surprised. A mix of Chinese Green (no desire to tell me what kind and I am not that skilled yet at telling the difference) Passion Fruit, Egyptian Calendula, and Siberian Ginseng makes for a delicious and pretty pile of tea.

The leaves are really quite beautiful, they are bright green and appear to be pressed giving you large, flat, leaves…mix their bright green color with the delicate, gold flower petals and this tea just looks like spring time. The aroma is one of Passion Fruit and freshly mown grass with a slight herbaceous zing

The liquid is a beautiful green reflecting the spring color of the leaves, very bright and clear! The aroma is still mostly passion fruit, but the mown grass of the tea fades into a clean, leafy smell…like being in a field that is growing rather than having just been cut. The taste is very fruity and at the same time very mild. The tea taste is very clean and it almost feels sparkly in my mouth. Luckily the passion fruit does not overwhelm the tea itself, and the ginseng is a slight note of tanginess that is more of an after thought than an actual taste.

This tea is wonderfully comforting as a hot tea and refreshing as an iced tea.

The aroma is delightful! Very much so matches the name of orange and spices and is super nostalgic for me. Always reminds me of Christmas when my mom would have her orange spice potpourri on the burner. It is one of the more comforting smells that can waft out of a kitchen that is not actually food.

I am mixed on the flavor, I would rather have Constant Comment because it is not as tart, still as herbal teas go it is certainly not bad. I think I am not a fan of the sourness of rose hips and the tanginess of hibiscus and tend to not enjoy herbal teas that have those ingredients as much. The spice blend on the other hand is nice, but I wish it were a bit stronger.

I have tried a lot of different blueberry teas, but the blueberry green from Bigelow is by far my favorite. It tastes and smells like blueberries, but without the acidic taste I find most other blueberry teas have. The combination of blueberry and green takes away the bitterness that you get from the green tea.

I find that this tea is best sweetened and steeped for about 2 and a half minutes.

Sweet Pu-erh Tea is a delightful tea from Yunnan Province in China. Fermented after drying and rolling, they are often (and traditionally) sold compressed bricks. The kind I got to try was a Tuocha Bowl, molded into the shape of a bowl and thought to have originated along the Tuo River trade routes. The color is similar to that of an Oolong tea but the taste is closer to that of a Green Tea. It reminded me of a very rich Genmai Cha. The type I had is a raw Pu-erh, meaning it has a sweet and earthy aftertaste from the fermentation. I would not rate this as one of my favorite teas, but it is a really unusual one

Lapsang Souchong Black Tea, an unusual and bold tea from the Fujian province of China. Smoked over pine fires in bamboo baskets this tea captures the taste of the fire. It is a perfect tea for cold winter nights…the taste reminded me of warm fires, high mountains, and clear cold skies. You can taste the full spectrum of tea with this type…the warmth from the sun, the aging leaf, and the smoke from the fire in every swallow. It is one of the most intense tea flavors I have come across. Tastes good black and sweetened, but tastes like stale ashes if left to cool too long