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This tea is definitely heavy on the flowers, but I don’t rate it too harshly for its nearly indiscernible green tea base, since it’s still better than other jasmine teas I’ve tried. The jasmine flavor is almost a little bit sweet. I’m still shopping around for a favorite jasmine tea, but this is still nice enough that I wouldn’t be ashamed to offer it to people, if it happened to be all I had on hand.

I got a little try me pouch of this tea in the Spring Mystery Box.

I don’t know what it was about this tea. We just really didn’t get along. I tried a few times. The first time, the overpowering fruity smell gave me a headache and I ended up throwing the cup away. The second time the aroma was less jarring – a bit of mango and passionfruit coming through, but the taste itself was watery and bland. Overall, I was disappointed, because I usually love mango/tropical flavored things.

This truly does remind me of lemon custard. I don’t find it overly sweet, but it’s definitely a dessert flavor. My favorite way to drink this was cold-brewed. Though I did like it hot, I felt that the rooibos got a little woodsy if I let it steep for longer than 5 minutes… and as I am super forgetful at night (when I tend to go for herbals) that just doesn’t fly. I could do with a little more citrus edge, but this is by far my favorite Della Terra tea so far.

When I opened the bag and that maple smell wafted up, I got a bit nervous. Oh, no, I thought, not Oh Canada again. (I’m planning on trying Oh Canada again someday, on the theory that I got a bad or old batch, but right now the not-delicious memory is too fresh.)

Fortunately, that maple aroma doesn’t come through anywhere in the taste. It’s creamy to start with, in a vanilla frosting sort of way, and that flavor just builds up until the cake portion comes through. I found it plenty sweet on its own – even when I tried it iced, the frosting flavor remains intact with a hint of sweetness. I actually think that if I got more of this, I’d try mixing it with some other rooibos blends, to see if that would lend that creamy feel to other flavors. A nice dessert-y nightcap.

I was first interested in this just by the smell. It’s definitely what I think of when I think “tropical fruits.” Way more so than Lupicia’s normal tropical fruits flavors. At a five minute steep, it brews up an orange-red color, and tastes almost exactly like candied or dried mangos. I found it already sweet and fruity without any additions. The rooibos only got woody if I let it sit for too long or used too much.

I drank this warm, but for kicks, tried it iced and found it equally delicious, but a tad bit less sweet.

The taste and name match up perfectly. It truly does smell and taste like a fruit punch drink. Depending on the fruit pieces that make it into your steeper, this tastes more like mango or more like orange/pineapple, but all fruity flavors are definitely present. It reminds me a lot of their Mango Madness white tea, except this is sweeter and juicier.

It tastes great hot, chilled, and iced, though I’d say iced was my favorite. My only real quibble with this tea is that the .9 oz packet made exactly 3 cups of tea, which would make stocking up on this very expensive, very quickly.

This 1oz package was a surprise from the Spring Mystery Box.

I was so happy to get to this one – I was starting to worry that none of Della Terra’s flavorings would be for me. But this put that concern to rest!

Other tasters are spot-on when they say this smells like lychee. It really does. It brews up into a burnt orange color and some of the lychee similarity comes through in the taste, though I’d say the mango is the predominant flavor. This tastes best slightly cooled down from hot.

A 5 minute steep was honestly a bit short. I’d say you need at least 6 minutes to get a real fruity flavor out of this.

Got a package of these tea bags in my lucky bag this year.

This tea is a winner. It smells exactly like ripe peaches. And even though I tend to prefer other summer fruits – even the nectarine! – to peaches, there’s no denying they smell delicious. This tea brews up into a light green-yellow color and retains a hint of that fruity aroma. It’s a light, refreshing oolong with a fruity complement. And yes, that fruit does taste like peaches. It reminds me a little of the skin off a fresh peach.

Brewing longer than 2 minutes brings out more of a green oolong flavor and is still tasty.

A try me pack from my Spring Surprise Tea Box.

This smells exactly like a chocolate covered strawberry, with extra strawberry syrup poured over it. I wanted ice cream just from smelling the bag, and I’m sure I looked a bit odd, breathing in tea aroma so seriously.

Brewed up, it doesn’t smell as fruity. The chocolate definitely comes out to say hello. And I’m not sure I wanted it to! I just didn’t enjoy drinking this and it reminded me of my experience with Della Terra’s S’mores. Perhaps I’m not a fan of their chocolate flavor? Time will tell.

Besides the odd chocolate flavoring, the underlying tea base just tasted off to me. But I’m pretty sure someone else would enjoy this? I tried adding milk and sugar; it was better, but just too much for me.

There’s nothing better than chai on a windy day. Adagio’s chocolate chai is a favorite at my house, and this blend just adds a touch more spice with a creamy coconut finish. My favorite chai I’ve ordered off Adagio so far.

I drink it straight without milk, but I can say that the few times I’ve added milk – usually to cut bitterness due to absentminded oversteeping – it’s been great.