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I’ve been on a search for the perfect chai since I don’t care much for most flavored teas and chai with 1 part heated milk to 2 parts tea and plenty of sugar is pretty much dessert tea for me. This sample is about as good as any chai blend I’ve had. And it’s much better than any I’ve had recently. All the spices I expect come through. None of them overpower the flavor, though I worried the ginger might because it certainly overpowers the scent of the dry leaves. And I can still taste the black tea leaves, which are tightly coiled and look exactly like black tea used for chai should look. And there are no artificial or natural flavorings to give me headaches , so yay.

Very good balance of spices and tea overall. I think I’d like it better with a bit of black pepper, but I can easily add that myself.

Whoa… This — this is definitely one of the best black teas I have ever had — and is by far the best Ceylon. It tastes like honey and cocoa. Reminds me slightly of an ice cream shop I went to as a child that sweetened its dark chocolate flavor with nothing but fresh honey. I used full on boiling water, and there is not even a sight hint of bitterness. Easiest black tea to drink without any milk that I’ve ever had — I tried it with and without, and milk doesn’t really add anything here.

I’m traveling all week and drinking what I have in teabags, including this from the Den’s Tea sampler. I brewed it using water heated by a Keurig, which was just cool enough not to make it bitter. Still, it’s not my favorite kind of thing — grassy, vegetal, kind of like drinking spinach. In terms of salad-like greens as tea, I think I might prefer something like arugula, which is at least peppery. And although this is a whole-leaf tea, plenty of dust came out of the bag and sank to the bottom of my cup. Still, points for no bitterness in a dusty teabag. I just prefer teas that are well on the way to high oxidation.

Also, it did not make me feel nauseous, so that’s a relief.

This company has a really affordable sampler, so I decided to try a few of its teas, and well… I’m finding this one fairly bland in a Twinings sort of way. Disappointing because I really want to like this company’s tea. I like their website and general approach, but eh… I would not buy this again.

This was on sale at Mountain Tea, so I decided to try it as a way of trying out both the company and a greener oolong. The first thing i tasted, while the tea was very hot, was light clover honey. Now as it cools, I’m getting some of that vegetal, green tea flavor that I don’t like so much , and also floral, I think. I can tell it’s a good one — there are no bad or off flavors. It tastes very fresh.

I did a rinse infusion for 15 seconds, then steeped 30 , then 45… Now on the third infusion (including the rinse), it’s more vegetal and buttery and less naturally sweet to me. This is really never going to be my favorite type of tea, but there’s nothing bad about it, really. It’s not bitter the way I find so much green tea, and it doesn’t seem to make me nauseous in the same way.

Next time, I’ll try it starting out with shorter infusions… Maybe I’ll add some sugar or actual honey. It’s good, but I will not buy it again unless my tastes change considerably over the course of this 5 ounce package. You’ll like this if this is your thing, but it’s not really mine.

With the caveat that I made a big mistake brewing my entire sample of this Western style — and too strong — I really like this tea. It tastes like baked bread, molasses and — something I haven’t seen anyone mention — roasted peanuts. I want to try it again in a gaiwan. It’s just really…interesting and unique and complex. I don’t love it as much as Whispering Pine’s super smooth new Yunnan Gold Tips, but it’s… Strong and makes a very solid impression. The nutty flavor really lingers. I’ll try it again. I think it would work really well with very spicy food.

The wet leaves smell like dark chocolate, but I don’t really taste that in the tea.

2nd infusion: Aha, now I taste chocolate and grain more strongly than peanuts.

Yesterday I went to A Southern Season in Chapel Hill and bought a tiny amount of this tea just to see what all the fuss is about with the brand. I am glad I did not purchase a larger amount because this seems like a pretty generic, unremarkable Chinese black tea to me. It’s not a bad tea, and perhaps I’m being a little too hard on it. It would be perfectly pleasant if someone served this to me in a restaurant or at their home. But for the amount of hype and the price — and what shipping from France might have cost me — I want more depth, more flavor, more infusions — and less bitterness… There’s just nothing particularly interesting about the tea. I’d be very sad if I’d actually paid to have a large amount of this shipped from France.

I do realize that the company doesn’t make its finest teas available in US stores, but… This really doesn’t sell me on them at all.

So, this is amazing pu’erh according to everyone . I’m just not sure if pu’erh is for me. I just taste…earthiness. I’m near the beginning of infusions, but… Also, I guess I wasn’t careful enough with the leaves because I’m getting dust from them in all my infusions. I definitely don’t love this, which… I suppose if this continues, it will at least save me a lot of money on pu’erh.

This is the first of my samples from Tea at Sea. I love black tea, but I’ve never had a Ceylon I love, and this is no exception. It’s all right, but there’s not much natural sweetness, and the tea is more bitter than I’d like. It reminds me a bit of Mighty Leaf’s Organic Breakfast Blend, which is an okay broken leaf black tea blend that I use to mix with chai and other things, not drink on its own. As others have said, there isn’t much depth to this tea — and it doesn’t linger at all, except for the dryness it leaves behind. I appreciate the sample, but I don’t think I’d want to try this again. I’m much more looking forward to trying the samples of the two Chinese black teas I got from the company.

It has not taken me long to realize that flavored teas are not for me. This is perfume-y and flowery. I can’t really judge the quality — the tea leaves are okay, and this might suit you if you like tea with flavoring, I mainly taste the perfume, which is disappointing since so many oolongs have a natural apricot flavor with no need for the chemicals. Extremely perfume-y tea tends to give me headaches and nausea, so l probably won’t finish this. I detect some vague spices, but in a taste test, I don’t think I’d know this was meant to be chai.