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Well, finally getting into some samples I’ve had in my cupboard for years. Shame!! They have at least been in hermetically sealed bags, but I don’t know how they’d compare versus when they were fresher. My tea neglect phase went on far too long, and now this company isn’t even around any longer. Too bad; they had great prices and lovely sampler packs. I’m sure there are great alternatives.

Anyhow, this is a nice black tea with some fruitiness and a bit of a tartness to it. Reminiscent of red currant a little. The main flavour is a bit malty, and just a very satisfying black. I’ve always been partial to Ceylon blacks in the past, so it’s nice to try a different non-blend. Quite enjoyable!

Oh dear. I just ordered 250g of this tea without ever having tasted it before. But it’s on sale!! Gosh I hope I like it, haha. It sounds like the kind of thing I’ll enjoy iced in the summer, and I don’t mind hanging onto it until then if it turns out I don’t want it through the winter.

The reviews here seem mixed, with the hot drinkers often unfavourably comparing it to hot pickle juice (KAK!), while the iced drinkers are raving about its refreshing properties. I went through a pretty long phase of drinking water with cucumber slices in it, and sometimes some lemon and mint, so I feel like this will be a good iced tea for me. Here’s hoping! I should know by early next week…

It’s 10° out this morning, which always feels delightful in April, but it’s cold and shivery in September! Planning on a lot of tea to warm me up, so I timed my steep in order to have enough oomph left in the leaves for another round. I’m using the Nordic Mug today, so that’ll be a litre of tea! Nice!

Anyway, steeped for a bit less time this tea has a touch of apple to it somewhere in there. Still loads of cinnamon and clove – could just be putting me in mind of mulled cider…hmm. Also still presents pumpkin, caramel, and lemon, with some buttery taste in there. I’m not noticing as much smokiness. As well, I took a good inhale of the dry leaf first, this time, and it smells of butterscotch, spice, and malt.

I’m happy I went with this one today. Got envious remarks from co-workers again, too, haha. (I’m not a jerk and did offer to share)

Yup. Minty.

I got this iced when it was the tea of the day sometime in August, and it was nice. If you like mint. I’m not a huge mint fan, so this was just kind of generically minty to me. I suppose I can recall there being some sort of creaminess underneath, and I definitely noticed the caffeine later – oops, should have checked for that before getting it in the evening. Bah! Who needs sleep? Anyhow, it was refreshing and clean tasting and was the right thing to combat the heat of the day, but I don’t know that I would buy any, especially given that most people expect mint “tea” to be tea-free, heh.

If you love mint and want a bit of a caffeine pick-me-up, too, this is your dude right here.

I have three of these now, and I don’t know when I’ll stop! I got two of the Breton Octopus motif from the 2014 Spring Collection (thanks to a friend who found them when they were on sale and had vanished from almost all stores and I suddenly decided I couldn’t live without them – oops!), and one of the Multi Raccoon from the Fall 2014 Collection. I’m about to swap out the Octopus at work for the Raccoon, since autumn is nearly upon us, so I imagine I’ll likely have one for each season. I wasn’t taken with any of the Summer 2014 Nordics, so perhaps next year. Eager to see what comes out for winter/Christmas!

Tea-wise, this is a giant mug of tea! It’s thick-walled, so it keeps a nice temperature for a decent amount of time (I’m kind of a delicate flower (hah!), so I don’t drink mine while it’s scalding hot…ymmv). I love having the infuser nestled in under the lid, and having a resting spot for it on the lid after steeping is great when you’re at work and not keen on making constant trips back and forth to the kitchen.

Love The Perfect Mug! I got two in the Glass Octopus motif from the Spring 2014 Collection when they went on sale, and have been really pleased. I have infusers at home, but not this compact and tidy, which makes them great at the office. It’s the perfect size for a nice morning brew, and I like watching the darkening tea curl around the octopus tentacles like a roiling sea storm.

Chose this on a whim down in the grocery this morning, since I didn’t have a simple black tea at my desk, and I’m tired of the Red Rose teabags in the kitchen here at work. I don’t consider myself a tea snob, but I do like some nice flavour. This tea gave me exactly what I wanted. It is a lovely, robust black tea with strong tannins and a mild bitterness. I’ll happily enjoy this tea in the coming weeks. With autumn right around the corner, tea is such a welcome morning starter.

Agh, I wish I’d written this note when I drank the dang tea. It’s so much easier to wax poetic about a thing whilst in the throes of enjoying it, and this tea deserves poetry. Nonetheless, I’ll do my best to describe it for posterity.

This tea has a delicious aroma. People in my office were remarking on how wonderful it smelled. It’s like a warm, spicy, autumn hug near an oven full of candied yams and pumpkin pies. I left this one to steep for a while because I am, let’s face it, a ridiculously forgetful person. I probably overbrew the vast majority of my teas. But anyway, pumpkin chai. Yes!

The first sip is delectable, immediately evoking warm, autumn tastes of spice – clove and cinnamon, mainly – over a rich carotene sort of base. I use this word because because I know there is no actual pumpkin in the tea, but instead that there are bits of carrot, however, it doesn’t change much of the overall effectiveness in evoking pumpkin from the taste buds. It may be simply through a memory association, although I’m tempted to speculate that carrot, pumpkin, sweet potato, and certain squashes are all fairly interchangeable when liberally doused in clove and cinnamon. Maybe I need to do a taste comparison, some sort of soup off! I’m making myself hungry. Where was I…?

Oh yes, tea! (Gosh I’m tangential today) I heartily enjoyed this tea, and found it a bit smoky on top of the spiced pumpkin/carrot flavour, with some hints of lemon and butter way underneath. Quite scrumptious, and I’m thrilled I decided to get the special set with the fancy mug and 100g of the blend, so it’ll last me a little while (although I may need to pick up some more to go through winter, as this is a seasonal blend).