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A nice Ceylon – I tried it unsweetened, sweetened, and with milk and sugar. I loved it unsweetened but it lost something with sugar. I added milk and drank it Brit style and all was well again!

I must be growing up! I tried this one again today, and I really liked it. I was bothered the first two times by the fact that I smelled honey so strongly but didn’t taste honey. Maybe I am using less and less sugar, maybe I am appreciating the tea more, but I drank this today with no sugar at all and found it quite good. I had just had two cups of pu-erh, also without sugar, so maybe that helped. Before, I drank it on the heels of flavored, sweetened tea. The bottom line – my friend said it was one of her favorites EVER that I have given her (she takes everything with no sugar!) and I really enjoyed it.

This is from the Fine Tea list at Southern Season. It is a loose leaf pu-erh. The taste is what you expect a pu-erh to be…earthy and horse-y. This smells just like the air when I take my daughter to horse camp! Don’t get me wrong – I LIKE pu-erh, but that is what it smells like to me! Horses and freshly plowed earth. The taste is purely earthy, no horse-y flavor…I guess, since I can’t say exactly what horse-y would TASTE like.

This one is lighter in color, body, and flavor than the Pu-erh mini tuo cha that I bought from the same source. This would be a good way to ease into pu-erh if you are afraid! Personally, I think I like the stronger one better. I take it without sugar or milk. It really does make me feel better if I have indulged in a meal that is too fatty to digest comfortably. It soothes the tummy. I have read that it is because this tea helps block fat absorption in the intestines and it may contain pro-biotics. Perhaps pu-erh tea was drunk by the Tibetans because their altitude makes veggie growing difficult and they eat a lot of meat? I know they add yak butter and salt to replace calories and sodium lost in the high, cold mountains near Everest as they climb in their heavy clothing. Maybe I should find a local source for yak butter (or just find an unattended yak at a petting zoo – LOL!) to try it the authentic way! You can steep it longer if you wish, I drank it from a gaiwan and it did not get bitter as the leaves stayed in the cup.

Made this one out of curiosity because I wanted to see the pretty color. I sipped it and tasted…lavender, just like bubble bath, just like Watkins Dry Oil, just like a sachet. It wasn’t as deep a color as I had expected but I had read that lemon would deepen the blue. It didn’t. It turned it a beautiful pink. Beautiful. We took pictures of it. I sipped it. I will hide under the bed prepared to bite ankles if anyone brews this tea and adds lemon to it in this house again. EVER.

Needed a lift this morning. Got it from Queen Catherine. Very light smokiness and good tea flavor. Thank you, Catherine! Having now finished my yoga it is time to move on to a nice green….

Gotta love this one!

I want to begin this tasting note by apologizing to the entire tea drinking world. Apparently I am the only person ANYWHERE who doesn’t care for this tea! I have never liked red hots, the candy one sees ubiquitously around Valentine’s Day, and that is all I taste when I drink this. I respect all of you who love it, I just can’t bring myself to do so. And get this….I have somehow ended up with three tins of it! One was bought as a gift for a friend whom I haven’t seen to deliver it (I already know it is her favorite so I am not giving away something I don’t like just to be rid of it!), one I bought for myself to try, the other came in the tea chest and I wanted the chest and the other three teas but not this one! I do like to make tea and grind my own cinnamon in it, but that is MUCH milder. A friend says that the organic cinnamon tea from A Southern Season is milder than this one and, in her opinion, therefore better than this one. We’ll see. I may give it a try.

Haven’t had this one in a long time. I asked my random tea generator (my twelve year old daughter) what I should drink today and she said, “Uva Highlands!” So here we are.

This is a rotovaned tea, so I figured it could only withstand a short steeping. I pulled the leaves out at three minutes and I think that was just right for me. It is described by Harney and Sons as a bright, brisk tea, and I would have to say that is accurate. This is a pick me up tea, not like a bold and well-muscled breakfast tea, but it is NOT a sit-and-sip-and-meditate soothing cup…to me. It is an eye-opener. My tongue is tingling. I thought I wasn’t getting the wintergreen aspect, but it really came on as a long-lasting aftertaste. A fun cup for this morning, but not a favorite. I like teas that wrestle me out of bed and into my day, or that pat me on the hand and say, “There, there” when I need it.

I am not too familiar with herbal tisanes, but I liked African Autumn which is also rooibos based and a friend gave me this one to try, so I thought “why not?” I like it! There is a unique taste in there that I have only experienced once before, and that was in Throat Coat or Throat Tamer, not sure which. I think it must be the licorice root. Very tasty.

I just had this one for the first time from….my BRAND NEW GAIWAN that my son gave to me for Mother’s Day! Thank you, sweetie! This is a great green tea. I added no sugar or sweetener of any kind. I would resteep the leaves, but it is so late and I need to get some sleep tonight!