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I’ve been drinking this with milk and demerara sugar on the looong, miserable drive to work in the morning. I like it. It’s smooth and dark and malty. But, it has this underlying vegetable soup taste that I just can’t ignore. I know tea is a plant and I need to stop kvetching about a plant tasting planty, but I don’t see myself stopping any time soon when black teas taste green. I also like teas with a little more bite than this, at least for the morning. But I could see it being more appropriate for a later time of day, when I’m looking more for relaxation. I’ll definitely finish this, but it isn’t going onto my buy it again list unless my opinion softens as I drink my way through the box.

It is a pretty tea though- a deep rich red that blooms out of the bag as soon as it is plopped in. My SO pronounced it ‘beautiful’ and it is.

I’ve steeped this at boiling up to 5 minutes and it hasn’t gone tart.

(Unrelated to tea taste: I wanted teabags to toss in a travel mug in the morning for the drive to work because I ain’t got time fo looseleaf in the morning. I expected strings. There aren’t any strings! Egad! I asked my SO if she would sew strings on each tea bag for me and she said no but offered to staple them on. I just know I’d choke on a staple.)

A review that starts with ‘I bought this tea at Walmart while I was shopping for a sturdy broom’ is bound to go nowhere fast. Nowhere, here we come.

So why, oh why did I get this? Last year, after Hurricane Sandy, the missus and I went on vacation, leaving our storm-addled home behind in favor of someplace where we could eat and shower. We traveled south to Williamsburg VA and stayed in an incredible B&B (Newport House). This B&B had a hot drink station set up outside our door. From the tea selection, I chose this one each night. And I really enjoyed it.

Location, location, location. Sitting in my cube in a windowless room on an army base it wasn’t nearly so delightful. It was sour. Hibiscusy. Not the orange delight I remembered. I liked the spices in this which is rare for me, and didn’t notice the chicory. I’ll finish the box, but I’m kind of sad.

What I need to do is take this tea on vacation.

(Epilogue: I did not find a broom.)

I made this tea tonight to accompany a stir fry. Both turned out good.

This tea tastes like, shocker, the tea you get in a Chinese restaurant. It’s light and a little bit lemony and has an especially pleasant aroma. I brewed it generously, both in quantity and time, but it is relatively weak and delicate. I prefer teas that have a chance against coffee in a fight, so this won’t be a favorite, but it does taste as advertised and it pairs well with a nommy westernized Chinese meal.

This tea smells wonderful, both dry and brewed. I know almost nothing about oolong, so I can’t adequately compare this to others or know if it is a good or a poor example. Regardless, this is a nice cup. It’s mild and pleasant with no noticeable off-putting flavor undercurrents. Not bitter, not musty. Quite nice, though a bit milder than I’d ideally choose. I officially like oolong.

The secret to this tea is to put it in another tea.

On its own it is thin and boring and overly sweet and not a very pleasant drink. But add it to a roasty toasty plain tea and you’ve got a delicious dessert tea.

I was up all night ill once and my SO just brought me giant mug after giant mug of this mixed with a plain black tea. Delicious. Had she brought me this tea on its own, I would have thought she wanted me to stay sick.

I went from wondering how to use all this up to buying more of it once I used it as a mix-in.

Yuck. I’m a big fan of peppermint and love minty candies, dishes, and desserts, but this had an underlying yuck factor I can’t quite describe. It was muddy rather than bright and refreshing – a great mint POW up front but then a dirtiness right after. I made it for my partner who had a queasy stomach and she really enjoyed it.

I’m refraining from rating this one yet as the problem might be me. I’m frequently problematic.

OK, I made it again, with more tea, for more time. It’s nearly the same, maybe a tad more flavorful. Maybe. Maybe this batch is different than what others drank, maybe all the sriracha has finally killed my tastebuds, but I’m sticking to my earlier tasting note. This tea is light and lemony and perfectly fine. I wouldn’t order it again, but I won’t mind finishing it.

I’ve been saying maybe all day, can you tell?

Light, bright, lemony. I’m not getting any of the vanilla notes or the richness others have mentioned. It is a good tea, pleasant to drink, but I’m wondering if I should have steeped more leaves for longer. I have a lot of it, so I’ll try again. My possibly wrong version is nice anyway and I’m not regretting having a pot of it to drink.

Yikes. This one is heaps better hot and sweet and milky as a dessert tea than it is black, unsweetened, cold, and iced. Note to self, ice the plain ones and the fruity ones, not the vanillas and almonds and stuff. It doesn’t lose any points for being ungood cold, but this one is eternally kicked out of the ‘second steep it and drink it cold and plain the next day’ rotation.

I drank this on Sunday, because I am a dork.

I was hoping for more from this tea than it delivered. Trusting in Upton, I bought a 100ish gram tin and now I wish I’d been a bit more conservative. It isn’t bad, but it isn’t great either. It is rather unexceptional.

The tea isn’t deep and malty and the vanilla isn’t particularly present. I have a decaf vanilla from Adagio that is fine, but thought this one would be a big upgrade. While the tea is an improvement because the dullness of decaf isn’t happening, it isn’t anything to gush over. And the vanilla, while not cloyingly artificial, also isn’t very aromatic. I don’t know that someone given this would know it is vanilla tea.

I’ll finish without too much trouble because it isn’t a bad cup but I had hoped either the base or the flavoring or both had been exceptional.

I said “isn’t” 8 times in this review. Hmm.