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Since they changed producers this mulberry leaf tea hasn’t been as good. It is still good, but more of a 75/100 than a 100/100 as the previous one was.

There is still a lightly mineral ocean water taste and toasty vegetal notes. However this one is much less toasty and more tasteless than the previous. It also seems more vegetal, but I think that is just the lack of toasty notes evening it out. Even strong steeps don’t produce a very flavourful brew.

~1 tsp (1.25-1.5 g) leaf in 250 mL. 10ish minute steep with hot but not boiling water.

My blend is just called “Cherry” and is a sampler size bag.

It smells incredible! The honeybush was a good choice to pair it with. The dried cherries are a bit sweet and jammy but also tart. It tastes a lot of like the black cherry kashi granola bars because the honeybush gives an oaty honey granola flavour. The cherry flavour is pretty good. It doesn’t taste like medicine and it doesn’t taste like cherry candies, but it also doesn’t taste like a fresh cherry. It’s still excellent and I’m really enjoying my cup. I’ll be buying another bag for sure.

Main tasting notes: black cherry, granola, honey, oats, toasted grain, sweet, tart

It’s so cold, rainy, and blah where I live that I can’t get through the morning without a hot cup.

I brewed this one really hot (because this office only does boiling and cold water) but I’m getting more fruit than in previous times I’ve drank this. I think it is blueberry and maybe vanilla. Lots of woody rooibos with a honeysuckle sweetness to it. Some minerals. I’m getting some tropical fruits, but I can’t quite pick out which ones. the sweetness is like an Asian pear (apple-pear) where there is no sour/bitter so the sweetness comes out more even though it isn’t very sweet to begin with.

I forgot what type of tea this was and was thoroughly confused because the name made me think green but the smell makes me think black. It wasn’t until I went to look at this tea’s info on steepster that I found out it was a yellow tea that I have tried before.

So, this sample is really old. However, it was sealed and stayed fresh. It smells incredible! Super fragrant! It reminds of flowering current and daisies with that dark wood and chocolatey cocoa smell of a Laoshan black tea. It brewed up a bit weak, but I also didn’t rinse it and I steeped it in a paper teabag, so it’s probably my fault. It couldn’t move around as well as it should have been allowed to.

The fragrance is quite light in the actual brew. It is a faint amber colour with a bit of a clay/mineral smell (might have been the teabag material). It dries my mouth out, but I do like it. I wish it tasted as intensely as it smelled. I get hints of dry wood and cocoa/dark chocolate but also some honey notes (despite no sweetness). This might be what I thought could be honeysuckle. It’s not intense enough to be enjoyed like a Laoshan black made into a latte, but it isn’t watery, either.

I get some cool floral notes that really remind me of spring. One of the first flowers to bloom in my garden in March is the pink flowering current I have along the walkway. It smells so good you can smell it from the driveway. It’s by far one of my favourite plants and it supports native pollinators, too. I’ve always wondered what it would taste like as a tea.

Previous rating: 62/100

I’m bumping it up to 80 because I really liked the unique floral notes combined with the cocoa and toasty notes.

Depth of flavour and potency 6/10
Mouthfeel 7/10
Fragrance 10/10
Sweetness 2/10 (dark bittersweet)
Overall rating Interesting to try. Smells great but taste is less impressive. Interesting floral and cocoa notes.

I really don’t like this tea very much. But it is decaf, so it makes a nice base for homemade bubble tea. Instead, I brought this to work and drank it straight because I just wanted to get rid of it. It was slightly bitter, lightly grassy, but not super flavourful. It tastes like a grocery store green tea but less full bodied and rich than some better quality types. Not much to report.

Another tea bag from yesterday! I’ve got a bit of a back log to review today.

I thought this was the Numi rooibos chai and was surprised to find this blend was pretty bitter and tannic. The spices are fine, and typical of your average chai, but not outstanding. Since I thought this was rooibos, I didn’t bring any creamer/soy milk so I just had this with 1/2 tsp sugar. This blend isn’t bad, but it isn’t a particularly good chai and I don’t like the black base used. I also find it a bit…chalky? I don’t know how to explain it but the mouth feel is weird.

My previous rating was 65/100 when I had it with milk. Without milk I’m being generous with a 62 because it’s not undrinkable and I like the anise notes.

Depth of flavour and potency 5/10 (some spice notes are too faint)
Mouthfeel 5/10
Fragrance 8/10
Sweetness 3/10 (cinnamon gives natural sweetness but tannins subtract from it)
Overall rating Below average for a chai but not horrible

Another teabag finished up yesterday! This one I had with lunch and I drank it cold brewed with a bit of sugar.

The lemon flavour is bright and citrusy, quite strong (especially for a teabag that is probably 5+ years old). Cheery! I think, quite fitting for spring. I can taste some herbs in there in the mint family, maybe verbena or catnip. Very faint mint. The hibiscus gives the brew a pink colour, which is neat. Overall I found it too sour and added ~ 1tsp sugar to my mug (~450 mL) for balance. I imagine maple syrup or simple sugar syrup would be even better.

Second steep was a bit less acidic but had more of the lemon zest bitterness to it (faintly, not in a bad way). I think there is another citrus in there (maybe grapefruit?) and I get a bit more of the herbs. This steep was longer so more hibiscus sour also came out. I countered with a dash of sugar.

Depth of flavour and potency 10/10 (strong even in breif steeps)
Mouthfeel 8/10
Fragrance 8/10
Sweetness 0/10 (sour)
Overall rating Great lemonade type iced tea but tends to be too acidic for me

It’s nice to get through so many miscellaneous tea bags this week. I’m not even sure where I got this, but I wanted a simple plain cup this morning to settle my unhappy tummy.

Depth of flavour and potency 8/10 (very impressive for a green)
Mouthfeel 2/10 (very drying due to tannins but brew has some nice thickness)
Fragrance 10/10
Sweetness 0/10
Overall rating Good (for most green tea enjoyers)

This is a pretty nice green. As is typical of senchas, it is grassy and has tannic and bitter notes that come through. However, there are some roasty notes, also. In order for it to have enough flavour, I had to brew it ~3-4 minutes which also brought out the bitterness a bit. I think this would be really good sweetened and served over ice or possibly had with some sweets to offset the tannic notes. It has a fairly full bodied flavour and is quite fragrant. It smells like the classic green tea/matcha flavouring in syrups and body cream but is not super floral.

I don’t like it a lot, but it is a solid green. I’m just not a person who enjoys many green teas (except Longjing, my beloved). It brews a nice greenish yellow and is fragrant, despite being past its best before date. I think it is a great green tea, but it isn’t something I would reach for again.

Emergency tea from today. By emergency I mean I can’t find any tea bags in my purse and had to run to the nearby cafe for a tea. So not really an emergency at all.

I added a dash of brown sugar because I needed that this morning. It brings out the honeysuckle and sugar notes in this blend. The rooibos is not as minerally or woody as usual rooibos blends are. If I had to describe the wood I would say it’s more like dry twigs than a specific type of wood smell (e.g. hickory or pine) but it does remind me of new woodchips when they re-do a chip trail. But maybe 5% of that intensity and mostly in the aftertaste.

I get some fruity notes but more like dried generic fruits than anything specific. I also get some almondy notes like amaretto or toasted marzipan (but less strongly than other blends like African Celebration by Jeoffrey’s Tea)

A strong peppermint that is still potent after many years in my quarantine jar (where all mint teas go so they don’t contaminate my fruity ones) because it was in a sealed plastic wrapper.

Nothing particularly notable since all peppermints are pretty much the same. It is stronger than some other peppermints I have tried.