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Nom! This tea is pretty awesome. I had no idea what I was going to get with this one. I didn’t know what the butternut referred to. I love butternut squash and I love buttery tasting nuts so I figured I couldn’t go wrong. Apparently, there is actually a nut called ‘butternut’ and it is similar to a walnut. That’s what this tea has in it.

This tea has giant chunks of nuts that look like chestnuts (but are actually the butternuts), whole cardamom pods, and lots of other things I couldn’t identify. There isn’t an ingredients list, so I guess I’ll just have to quit analyzing it and enjoy it. It smells amazing in the package. Sweet and heavenly and butterscotchy.

The one thing that must be in this tea is green rooibos instead of red. There are some green leaves in the mix and when it is brewed it is an orangy-yellow color (which I’ve never seen with red rooibos). And the taste!! The taste is like those Brach’s butterscotch candies. ❤ It smells like that too. I can just catch a taste of spice in the background.

I do think I needed more tea leaves and will try that next time. I used 2 tsp to 11 oz. Could probably use 3 tsp.

2nd steeping tastes pretty much exactly like the first. There is a tiny bit of peachy flavor in the background.

Update – I forgot to mention this. Last night I learned that I should not drink this at 8pm. Barely slept last night.

When I tried this tea last night at bookgroup, it was brewed with some flowering tea so I wasn’t exactly sure of its flavors. Today I am brewing it all alone. The brewed smell is kind of like a buttery sauteed spinach. Maybe there is a slight bite to it from Ginseng. Maybe if I try hard enough to find it. The flavor is light and not grassy. There is a slight vegetal flavor, perhaps artichoke? I think I added enough tea leaves. It’s very hard to describe but I am really digging it.

Washed the leaves with boiling water for 10 seconds. Brewed 3g to my little 8 oz celadon brewing mug for 2 min. This is the first steeping. The leaves didn’t entirely open on the first brewing.

One of my bookgroup cohorts went to China recently and the only thing she brought back was tea. She brought a bag of Oolong to share with the group. And, she sent me home with a bunch of it in a ziploc bag (woot!). Sadly, I don’t know much else about this tea. It was in a white vacuum sealed bag with Chinese writing. My friend said it was a medium grade Oolong. The leaves were all balled up tight and were shaped like chocolate chips. I don’t think it was a Ginsing Oolong, but it definitely looks like one. Here is a pic:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/snowboardbunny/4624434242/sizes/o/

Does anyone know if the tea could be a regular oolong and look like that?

Anyway, it has a slightly vegetal taste (but not overwhelming) and has a light peachy flavor in the background. We did 2 steepings and both were great.

This is my last cup of this one. This tea is kind of funny to me. I loved it the first time I tried it, but liked it a little less with each cup. I can’t quite tell you why the love has dissipated but perhaps it is not all that interesting overall. It is very single-note. Coconut and that’s it. I love the Golden Moon Coconut Pouchong still and I think it is the complexity of the Pouchong that is keeping me entertained with that one. Anyway, this has been a good tea, but I don’t want to order it again. Dropping my rating based on love lost.

Wow. Such a mislabeled tea! I got this tea as a free sample in my TG order (a couple of months ago). It has been sitting in my tea drawer ever since. I’ve had such bad luck with fruit teas lately (especially ones named after seasons), that I’ve been afraid to try it. I shouldn’t have waited so long.

This tea is pretty yummy. When you open the package, it smells like caramel. When brewed it tastes like caramel and then when sugar is added it brings out a green apple flavor and tastes like a caramel apple. It brews up to a nice dark red-purple color.

The name of this tea had me imagining rose hips and hibiscus and other horrid things. Thankfully none of those flavors are in this tea, despite the fact that those ingredients are in the tea. While I wouldn’t go out of my way to order this tea, if I was ordering something else from TG, I’d definitely throw some of this in the order.

This tea should have been named caramel apple. Why did they name it Spring Fruit?!?!

2 tsp to 11 oz for 10 min, and it was a little weak. I’ll add 3 tsp (if I have that much left) next time.

I haven’t had this one in a while. The tin got pushed to the back of the drawer. It’s still yummy. :)

I made another cup of this tonight to try to decide how I felt about it. I wasn’t really digging it, so I gave it to my husband to try. I asked him, “does this taste like raspberry?”. He took a sip and said “yep”. 2 seconds later he said “bleah, blarg, like raspberry cough syrup; and not even good cough syrup at that”. I was really trying to make myself like this one because I had ordered too much of it, but he confirmed that I am just trying too hard. Might have to put this one in the giveaway pile. Downgrading my rating by a bunch.

Backlogging. Had this tea a few days ago. It’s ok. I wouldn’t say there is anything ridiculous about the amount of raspberry. I thought it was strong rooibos flavor with a little raspberry flavor. I was really looking forward to this tea too. Just ok.

Backlogging. I had this tea a couple of days ago and it’s pretty weak. I made one cup according to directions and then made another cup using 3x as much tea. Both cups were just watery. I didn’t finish either cup.