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This is a nice roasted jade oolong with notes of roasted barley, orchid, minerals. Lightly astringent (probably because I over steeped this both times I made this tea) but pleasant.

This is an interesting combo of smokey and strong (tannic/very bold) but also fruity (black current maybe?). It is good, but without milk it would be too bitter and tannic for me. A bit of soy milk mellows this blend out, however it isn’t something I would drink regularly if I had other H&S blends available. The cup of tea smells sweet and fruity, but when tasted the mouthfeel is almost smokey and there is a lingering bitterness like if you eat burnt toast and the burnt part has that weird mineral acrid taste. It is difficult to describe, but there is no sweetness. It isn’t bad, and I think many people like black teas that are very strong.

I love the super flavourful coconut in this blend. The one drawback (IMO a deal breaker) is the bitterness of the base. I finished up one of my samples of this from a few years ago be brewing it cold. Even cold brewed it has a substantial amount of bitterness and I find very unpalatable. The coconut is lovely and creamy; the vegetal notes from the base are nice too.

This wasn’t a bad cup, but the chocolate is non-existent and the banana is weak. I used up the rest of my sample (~1.5 tsp) and steeped for 15+ minutes. More of a lightly fruity black tea. Still a nice morning cup.

Another sipdown of a delicious tea I should have finished a while ago. I think this one is 2 years old.

I love the malty black base and the blueberry comes through as natural but flavourful. I added a bit of soy milk, however I still didn’t get the pastry or cream cheese notes I would like. If I didn’t know what this tea was called, I would think it was a plain blueberry black tea. Still tasty (esp. because I love blueberries), however the desserty aspect of the name is what drew me to it. I even tried steeping a long time (over an hour) starting with boiling water.

Sipdown of yet another small amount

I don’t love this tea (sour and fruity mixed with medicinal mint and eucalyptus? Yuck) Much like cold 911, someone thought medicinal herbs would go perfectly with something acidic. It reminds me of a cough drop, actually. I do love wintergreen and spearmint flavour so in many ways I like some aspects of this blend. Without the fruity and sour notes this would be a fine herbal.

I’m on a severely restricted diet (700 calorie deficit) so I’m craving desserts. I had this with 1 tsp soy milk and it made for a nice evening treat. The cocoa nibs come through sharply and I love how rich it tastes.