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Had my limit of caffeine for the day but I still needed something to warm me up so pulled this one out of my cupboard at work (I really need to get more caffeine free options here… I had only 3 to choose from! gasp ;) )

Lots of orange today and that lovely creamy undertone from the rooibos just hit the spot! Perfect for a long afternoon of department meetings!

I was looking for something a bit different today and this hit the spot. I’m really glad that I ended up grabbing this on DT’s going out of stock sale… Got a bit more from the mate today though, not a bad thing but just not what I was expecting.

By the way can someone please tell time to just stop moving forward so fast? I’d really like a chance to catch my breath sometime!

Had some more of this today, was a nice warm way to start a really hectic morning/day. I don’t often do additives in tea but this one works really well with some cream and honey to smooth things out.

From the GCTTB #3

This one interested me when I first saw it, nuts and butter from the oolong mixed with apples and spices? Yes please!

I ended up over steeping this, the wonders of getting distracted by Facebook :p but it was quite forgiving which surprised me. The aroma had lots of butter and nuts with just a bit of apple underneath, but it was a fairly subtle.

Taste wise, I didn’t get “apple pie” right off the bat, the apple actually didn’t show up till the finish. That said the butter and nut notes with that touch of cinnamon was a nice mellow intro to the tea. Once the apple kicked in it just made it that much better.

Certainly not in your face with flavor, but for those days that your looking for mild and natural it hits the spot.

I’ve really gotten out of the habit of posting here… Ah well.

Today I’m digging into one of my “new” teas from Teavivre. I’ve tried a sample of the organic superfine Keemun from this company but decided to get the grade 1 as my purchase, if only bc I’ve been trying to cut back on my tea spending… (I’ve been somewhat successful at that too!)

I found this one to be quite similar to the superfine, a little darker with a few more malty notes but with a lovely mellow finish and very little astringency. There is an interesting top note in there too, not defined enough to call fruity but present enough to keep the flavor dynamic.

Overall a great tea for almost any mood!

ETA: and it’s wonderful with cream and honey too!

From TGCTTB (round 3)
We always pickup peaches from our local farmers market every summer so when I saw this one I knew I had to give it a shot, thanks Christina for adding it to the box (though I must say that with 8+ inches of snow on the ground I’m trying it hot rather than iced, even though you added it for the iced category.

Peachy and sweet, I don’t get much scent from the white tea other than a few floral notes that I can’t quite pick apart from the safflower or sunflower ingredients. That said it’s not an artificial scent which is something :). The flavor is subtle but contains those lovely peach notes with a but of floral undernotes from the tea/safflower/sunflower. Similar to the dry scent though I really don’t get much more from the white tea base. Hmm at least until I breathe out then I get a few more notes.

A lovely tea overall and I’m glad I got a chance to try it.

From TGCTTB (round 3)
I tend to really enjoy gunpowder teas and I love cherries so when I saw this one in the box I knew I had to try it. My holy hesitation is that I didn’t want it to come out artificial but given some of the reviews here that hopefully won’t be the case.

The scent of the dry tea is very interesting, cherry (sweet but yet tart) mixing in with the slightly spicy green notes from the gunpowder, honestly it’s certainly not something that I would have envisioned but it’s definitely got my attention, especially with the little darker notes from the almonds.

First impressions? Huh… Good, almost sour cherry flavor lifted up by the gunpowder vegetal notes. The natural spice form the tea also adds an interesting contrast to the cherry flavor. I don’t get much from the almond until the back end of the sip, at that point too there’s a fair bit of astringency as well.

Overall? Not bad! I’ll have to see how the following cups are but this is one that could see holding onto :)

FromTGCTTB (round 3)
Given the amount of snow falling outside at the moment I thought this would be an appropriate tea to try out. It’s interesting, looking at it I’d almost say that the ingredient list is incorrect or not complete, I don’t see the coconut, they neglect to mention the pink peppercorn, and I could swear that the leaves weren’t a Celyon black; but I’m going to give it a shot anyway.

That said the sweet citrusy, spicy scent of the tea is really nice and what called to me when I first opened the bag. The brewing definitely tells a tale though, this is not a black! At a guess Id say white, but I’ve not had that many white teas so I can’t say for certain. Too bad I didn’t go with my first instincts on this since I defiantly brewed it at too high a temp, ah well

Pale yellow and with a subtle,slightly vegetal fruity scent this tea is different from my usual style. Nutty undertones complement the few citrus notes and there’s just enough of a kick from the peppercorn to give it a little heat. In the end not one that I’ll pull out of the box but I’m glad it was there to try.

PS I gave up trying to set the water temp scale since I’m on an iPad and could only get iced or boiling :p. Brewed at 95C

So after trying this for the first time last night (hot) I decided to cold brew a serving in the fridge overnight.

Somewhat murky and pink (must not have had much beet root in last night’s steeping), I found the scent to be more subtle than when brewed hot, still caramel corn but just not as in your face about it. There’s also quite a few more fruity notes too.

All of that carried over to the flavor… I found it to be less dark then the hot tea that I tried last night but for a cold brew that works just fine for me. The caramel is subtle and mixes with the fruit in a rather interesting way. I also wasn’t expecting to find it as refreshing as I did which was also a pleasant surprise.

(PS. One note that I didn’t make last night that holds true to both the hot and cold brews that I’ve done with this one… It’s very sweet, like dessert tea sweet. Which when your in the mood for it is great but I’ll need to keep it in mind for the future.)

I have to say this whole summer series really made me a little unsure; Root Beer, Cotton Candy, Caramel Corn… I really doubted they could pull it off, but the first time I was in-store I took a quick sniff and was pleasantly surprised at how well they replicated their “real world” inspirations. So eventually I picked up a bit of them to try out.

First up is Caramel Corn… We’d just spent the day cleaning out our new main bedroom walk-in closet (we’ve recently switched rooms from the largest room with the smaller closet to the middle sized room with the walk-in; seriously who builds a house like that??) and with how hot it’s been we had the doors and windows open to get some airflow. Now it’s raining and cool out and we wanted something different.

Visually this tea is quite appealing, all the different dried fruits, caramel and bits of popcorn make for a very dynamic appearance. As for the dry scent, it’s sweet and has a few subtle popcorn notes mixed in, but what confuses me a bit are the fruit notes from the currents, apples and pineapple. Despite that it definitely smells like caramel corn.

Brewed the liquor comes out a clear, light caramel color, but the smell… Oh the smell, is that ever nice. Deep caramel notes mixed in with some definite popcorn scents; it is sweet and deep, but yet the scent has a certain lightness to it.

Like most herbals it takes a good long steep to get the full, rounded flavor but once you get there the flavor was quite lovely. Again, those deep caramel notes mixed with the popcorn flavors but there are a few lighter hints from the pineapple and apples, especially as the tea cooled. There is a certain creaminess to the flavor profile as well which really complemented the tea nicely.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by this herbal tea; great scent and a nicely full flavor. It will be interesting to try it cold as well, I think I’ll put it together and let it steep overnight in the fridge. Even if that doesn’t work out though I’m definitely going to go back and get a bunch of this before it’s all gone. (Oh and even better! My partner really loves it too!)