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I’ve been saving this sample from Angrboda for a time that I could sit down and really enjoy it. I have decided that today will be that day.

The dry leaves smell like a smooth, cocoa-y Keemun. Post-steeping, however, it smells Keemun-smoky and toasty. But it also has a sour but perfume-y note that reminds me of used cat litter. Uhm, not cool. Thankfully, when it cools a bit that smell totally goes away, turning into a floral yet toasty note.

The taste is just like it smells –sweet and toasty. It’s really sweet in a floral way, like candied roses. There’s a toasted grain note underneath the sweetness but the sweetness is the dominate note.

Honestly, this is obviously a good tea – is so smooth and sweet – but I kind of miss the more rough and tumble MPD-ness of the Te Ji. I’m leaving this unrated for now because I think the rating I’d give it would be biased since I’m a little sad at how smooth and soft it is. But I think if I have this when I’m looking for and expecting tasty smoothness, I’ll be all sorts of in love with it.

ETA: The second steep (1:15) was very Keemun-y and tasty. The third steep (2:00) was more Yunnan-y. So maybe this tea is MPD, too. It just changes personalities each steep, not each sip.
2g/5oz

Apparently I need to dig deep in my tea pantry every so often because I forget what all I have. I just rediscovered this one, something sophistre sent me ages ago that I managed to hide from myself behind other teas. Which is a shame because it smells lovely – a little woody with a floral sweetness that makes me think of candied (but not super-sugary) flowers. Hopefully it will taste as good as it smells, because after accidentally dumping my meatloaf into the bottom of the oven, I need a little pick me up.

Four minutes seemed like a long steep so I went with three. The smell is gentle and woodsy and alternates between nectar-y and honeyed. There’s a little fruitiness that reminds me of Samovar’s Royal Garland, too. All signs point to happy tea-ness.

The taste is thinner, higher and sweeter than Royal Garland but it’s still really good. Very fruity on the front end, making me think of a papaya-flavored drink I had once. There’s an end taste that is cleanly woody and an aftertaste that is very fruity. Once again I’m thinking of papaya but that fruity taste is what I’m guessing the tasting notes are calling apricot, which I can totally see (though more dried apricots than fresh). The eventual aftertaste (after not sipping for several minutes) is an almost bitter/sour astringency that actually makes me think of sencha. It’s not desirable, but it’s not icky either. All in all, a very pretty tea. I’m glad I dug it out of my pantry!
4g/8oz

I have officially designated Thursdays as Ironing Day. I’ve got a fair amount of goodies to iron today but I’m extraordinarily tired. I need a good oomph to get me through the long ironing ahead. Mate is supposed to give quite a nice buzz and I’ve had this sample from Arbor Teas sitting on my counter for a few days to remind me to try it. Mate scares me a little bit, so I’m using the energy need for my ironing marathon as an excuse to bust this one open.

The dry leaf smells dusty and herbal-y and faintly sweet. Post-steeping, the smell is still a bit musty and herbal with an almost menthol-like whoosh to it. The taste is milder and less offensive than the other mates I’ve had (Samovar blends). It’s pretty much like it smells – somewhat earthy, hay-y, herbal. There’s a little ting on the end that is the menthol smell but the taste is a almost ginger-y warm. It’s a little rough but nothing that makes me think this would benefit in any way from additives.

I haven’t really felt all that buzzed but I am getting through my ironing without wanting to nap so that could be the mate at work. I’m not sure if I’d seek out this (or any mate) for a pleasure drink, but the sweetness definitely makes it my preferred mate drink of the ones I’ve had.
2g/~9oz

This not-tea has gotten such good reviews here, when I saw it at the grocery store today I had to pick it up. After all, I’m always looking for herbal teas for evenings and I do enjoy coconut. I don’t always have much luck with rooibos, but fingers crossed!

It smells… interesting. Every so often I get a banana Runts smell from it, but when I stick my nose in the cup and sniff, I get creamy, milky, starchy green-ness. The green rooibos smell is obvious (it smells like chamomile to me) but with extra sweetness and fruit.

The taste is actually pretty good. I get a hint of Runts bananas (the only Runts I detest) but it’s balanced by a more natural tasting sweetness from the green rooibos and the coconut creamy sweetness. The Runts-ness goes away as it cools a little, leaving a banana + chamomile flavor that seems very plantain-y to me, plus a smoothness that implies coconut cream. The end result is something light, sweet, and tropical, almost piña colada-y. I could easily see this flavor profile served cold in slushie form and with a little paper umbrella in it.
3 bags/18oz

Green, a hint of vegetal, creamy and sweet. The sweetness is more fruit than floral or nectar. Not a lot of dark undertones to this – just light, gentle sweetness and nom.
4.1g/8oz

I like trying teas grown in unexpected places (basically somewhere not China or India), so when I saw Arbor teas had this one, I was interested in trying it. And now I get to!

I know the vendor notes say this is SE Asia’s answer to Assam, but it really makes me think more of a Yunnan. But it’s a bright, happy, more sparkly Yunnan than most of the Yunnans I’ve had, which strike me as a bit thicker tasting. I suppose that extra bright, sweet perkiness comes from the Assam-like malt aspect giving it a different sweet note? There’s a tiny hint of astringency on the tail of the sip, but it’s a sweet dryness instead of a more Assam-like nutty bitterness, so it doesn’t make me feel like I need sugar or milk to smooth it out. Instead, it’s actually quite smooth on its own, something else that bring Yunnan teas to mind.

Overall, this strikes me as a happy tea. Not as caffeinated as an Assam or as thick as a Yunnan, but somewhere in between. A Yunnan on antidepressants perhaps? Which makes it seem like I think Yunnans are unhappy teas. I don’t. They are just more solid, mellow and even-keeled. This tea seems a little peppier and enthusiastic. Somewhat like a puppy. A tea puppy.

And since I just compared this tea to a puppy, I think it’s time for me to run away. Maybe take the second steep out for a walk so it doesn’t piddle on the carpet.

Yeah, sorry, this one just isn’t for me. The dry leaf smells fruity and vaguely alcoholic, like wine or some variety of fruit Pucker. The steeped tea has a spicy, tart, stewed fruit thing going on and something that reminds me of a decorative soap. Sipping the tea gives me mild stewed berries or plums and soap. I find myself wincing three times during each sip – once to brace myself for the sip when the soap smell hits, once as it is in my mouth and I taste the warm tart flavor, then finally when I swallow and feel like I’ve just had my mouth washed out with soap.

Lots of others folks seem to really like this one so I’ll just say my rating reflects my personal tastes, not the quality of the tea.

OMG. The dry leaf smells soooooo good. When I was little, my grandma would buy key lime pie from the store every time I visited her – I don’t remember the brand but I think it came in a yellow box. Anyway, she did this every visit from before I was born (though okay, then the pie was for my dad) until that pie was discontinued (or the area stores stopped carrying it) when I was around 12 years old. So key lime to me equals visits to grandma. And the dry leaf smells just like that pie did. Like exactly. Makes me feel like I’m at my grandma’s house.

The smell of the steeped tea isn’t quite as obviously key lime pie-ish but it’s noticeably key lime. There is key lime then a bit of creamy (which I think is the coconut ‘cause I’m not picking it up anywhere else) and then tea. I have a feeling that drinking this tea will be disappointing simply because it will not be an actual key lime pie bought by my grandmother.

Okay, it officially does not taste like I’m actually eating pie, but it does taste like key lime pie (if that differentiation makes sense). It’s not as shockingly and heavily flavored as the key lime pie of my memories, but I can’t not think about key lime pie as I drink this. I know it’s supposed to be key lime coconut, but whether it is the actual taste or just the mental key lime pie association I have going on, the coconut just reads to me as the creamy topping on the top of a pie combined with the sweetness of the graham cracker crust. The lime is the most noticeable thing – it’s very fresh tasting, crisp and sweet with a faint hint of tart. The actual tea taste is very subtle – it hides behind the lime most of the time except when I just hold the tea in my mouth for a few seconds. And even then it’s still pretty quiet and non-distinct. It might also lend a bit of the graham cracker crust feeling/taste, I’m not sure.

Figuring out how to rate this tea is tough. Because, quite frankly, I love it. But I love it because it tastes like key lime pie and that is a taste that has a lot of happy childhood associations for me and I know that is influencing me. I just can’t quite figure out how much I would love the tea if it didn’t have those associations. Would I be disappointed that it’s not strongly coconut? Would I be sad the tea taste isn’t stronger? Or would I say, “Hey, this is a kick ass key lime tea!”? I dunno. If this were flavored after a pecan pie (which I didn’t like until I became an adult), I have to think I’d still love how the flavoring was done. The flavoring is so nice that I think that, if Lupicia did key lime pie flavored tea, it would be very similar to this (which, considering how well I think they typically do flavored teas, is a big compliment). So thinking about it that way, I can’t think that I’m giving this more than 5 or 10 happy childhood bonus points. Which means, yeah, good tea.

I seriously want a key lime pie now.

In retrospect, the best time to try a new tea is not right after a breakfast of quinoa covered in maple syrup. Though even with my mouth feeling very maple-y, I was able to pick out the bergamot in this. But otherwise, I can’t really judge it. Oops. At least I have more so I can try again at a later date!

Anyone remember Koosh balls? This tea makes it look like I’ve put a mini-Koosh ball in my teapot. Which sounds like a negative but I really liked Koosh balls a lot so I’m in favor of the similarity.

One minute isn’t a whole lot of steep time for a tied up tea (is it just me or do flowers and balls seem to take a bit to ‘wake up’?) but that’s what I went with. It turned out fairly light which was unsurprising, but I like it. It reminds me quite a bit of Rishi’s Jade Cloud, my go-to grocery store tea whenever I am out of green teas (which, considering how much tea I bought in Hawaii, won’t be for years now). It’s got the same sweet and vegetal thing going on but this LMD lacks the mineral edge that Jade Cloud can have (though that could be because of understeeping?).

Interestingly enough, when I poured the tea into my cup I got a whiff of something white wine-like. Sticking my nose in the cup, I didn’t get anything wine-like so I figured it was just some weird house-al smell but then at the end of each sip of tea, I got a little aftertaste – sweet with a little pucker – that made me think of eating a white grape. So yeah, the tasting notes say sweet/smoky endnote and apparently sweet/smoky in my world equals white grapes. Who knew?

Anyway, the second steep (1:00) was a little stronger but had all the same notes as the first – even the grape bit – just a little intensity. Light but nice. I’ll see how it goes next time with a longer steep.