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Decided to finally brew this one up tonight; I had a freebie teabag of it in my Boxing Day Sale order (I had to get that Jasmine Poached Pears while I had a chance!), but I’ve actually had one of the 20g sampler pouches from B&B for ages and still haven’t opened it up yet… so typical of me!

I love floral teas, but this does have chamomile in it, so depending on how strong the chamomile presents compared to the rose and lavender (two flavors I really love), this really could go either way for me. I am able to smell it pretty strongly in the aroma of the cup… but I’m also smelling the rose and lavender, and the tea is a pretty pink color rather than chamomile yellow, so maybe the small addition of the hibi (another thing I love… I know, controversial!) will go a long way in mellowing out that soapy chamomile taste for me.

The flavor… huh. Interesting, the main note I’m getting is lemon. There is lemon verbena in the blend, but I wasn’t even picking up any citrus in the aroma. I do taste a bit of the chamomile, but with the lemon presenting as the strongest flavor note, and it coming out a nice, pleasantly tart sort of lemon, it is rounding it out so nicely that my typical chamomile-blechniness isn’t bothering me. I get a hit of sweet florals toward the end of the sip; I’m not really picking out a distinct lavender flavor, sadly (I quite like the taste of it, and it pairs nicely with lemon citrus, too) but I definitely taste the rose.

This is far more enjoyable than I thought I was going to fare with it. It’s a gentle lemon tea with strong floral notes, and a good evening herbal. I’m not sure if I’d restock it, but I won’t have any issues going through the other sampler pouch I have stashed away nor any other freebie teabags that make their way to me.

I’m on my last cup of this after working on sipping down my package (called "Vanilla Mint Pu-erh from California Tea & Herbal) for the last few weeks, and I was totally convinced I’d already written a tasting note on it (I thought I had in my early days, because I thought this was one of my first teas I had bought from Spice & Tea Exchange, called “Mint-Chilla Chai-Nilla”… yes, this Rishi Tea is well wholesaled around by other companies!) But I did a Ctrl+F on my Steepster Reviews text file and… nope! Oops. That makes me wonder how many things I sipped down last year and was sure I’d reviewed but actually hadn’t… meep!

This is probably one of my favorite flavored pu’erhs… the base does have that warm, earthy note, but the peppermint and licorice root smooths it out really nicely and I find it very settling on my throat and stomach. The mint is brisk and refreshing but not biting, and the licorice root is sweet but not sticky and lingering. There is just a hint of cinnamon that comes out near the finish. I don’t really taste any vanilla, but there is a smooth sweetness to the blend. It’s a nice blend of flavors that I really enjoy. I admittedly am not a huge pu’erh fan but I like the combination here, and will probably restock this one at some point.

Finally finished off my box of this. Now, I didn’t actually use this up in any traditional sense… I actually don’t really like jasmine green tea, because the aroma from the scenting process is typically so strong and perfumey that it irritates my head. The sorts of jasmine teas I like to drink are typically when light jasmine is added with other flavors. What I use this tea for is flavoring white rice, because I can’t put soy sauce on my rice since it is a migraine trigger. So I add the teabags to the water that gets “soaked up” by my Minute Rice to add flavor to the rice (ginger is one of my other favorites, especially when I’m having a “bad GI” day).

So I can’t judge this tea on the merits of if it is a “good” cup of jasmine tea, but for my purposes of making decent jasmine rice, it has served me well. I have certainly had to experiment a bit to find the proportions to get a good batch, since I’ve definitely botched a few batches along the way (a good cook I am not). Mostly it was a) finding the right amount of teabags to get the jasmine flavor to come through in the rice decently and b) getting the right amount of water to account for the fact that the teabags are going to soak up a bit of the water, so using the ratios on the rice box don’t work so well. I always use the “2 serving” directions (one cup water/one cup rice) and find four teabags with 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cup water is the sweet spot. Times when I tried to use more teabags than that, or only the one cup of water, my rice tended to be far too dry.

I really like that using the teabags to flavor the rice gives it that nice floral flavor, but the aroma that normally is really strong, wafting, and like old grandma perfume from the cup is completely gone from the rice. Since I make this quite often I should probably look for a cheap jasmine green looseleaf that I can bag myself that will last a while, but for now at least this is easy for me to restock at the local grocery.

I don’t have a plain boxed black tea in my cupboard, which I really need for those hectic mornings when I have just enough time to boil a thermos of water but not the extra 2-3 minutes to steep/strain a cup of looseleaf tea to put into the thermos. Currently the only black bagged offering in my cupboard is an EG, so a plain breakfast offering is definitely needed, but I’m admittedly very picky about them. I really liked the Taylors of Harrogate one, but it isn’t sold in my local grocery, so I’m going to have to go with a different option… I’ve done well with Twinings of London as a brand on a whole in the past, and I had a single-serving teabag sampler of this that I picked up from, I believe, PDX Tea Fest 2019. So I decided to brew it this morning.

I kept to a briefer two minute steep time (as I said, I can be a little iffy when dealing with black CTC breakfast teas) but I have a nice color with some reddish tones an aroma that is very bready, with notes of malt, toasty baked bread, cinnamon, and molasses. I think my steep time was spot on for my personal tastes because the tea isn’t too strong and doesn’t leave an unpleasant astringent bite after the sip like I’ve found with many breakfast blends; the flavor starts out with a strong notes of malt, bread, and autumn leaves, with a touch of citrus and spice coming in closer to the end of the sip and lingering on the tongue.

I am enjoying this one… I believe I’d tried their Irish Breakfast at one point and it came off too strong/astringent for me, but this is just right, especially at these steep parameters. I know my local grocery carries this, so next time I have to make the grocery rounds, I will probably add a box just so I have a quick grab-and-go brewing option for a breakfast black tea.

I had a sample of this from the last Here’s Hoping Teabox, which yes, was ages ago now (I don’t have many samples left from it though, I think I’m only left with pu-erhs/aged teas now!) Thanks to tea-sipper for organizing that box and those individuals that shared their teas in it! It’s afternoon tea time… I should really fix a spot of lunch but just don’t feel up to it, so I figured I’d just have some tea instead.

I used the smaller 450ml ceramic glazed pot I got from my mom for Christmas and brewed this… eh… quasi-gong fu? I wanted to use up all the leaf which measured out at 6.8g, so these ended up at around 200ml infusions according to the water/leaf ratio app I use, which I realize are a bit large for typical gong fu infusions. It also meant that I filled up on tea after the third infusion, needed a break, and had to come back and finish up around dinner time. Oops.

6.8g / 200ml (ceramic teapot) / 185F / 20s|30s|40s|50s|60s

The first steep was lightly yellow and had a vegetal and herbaceous aroma with notes of minerals, wet stone, dandelions, honeysuckle, and hay. The taste was grassy with a strong hay flavor with additional notes of dandelion greens, flower pollen, honey, and wet stones. The second steep brought forth a stronger floral aroma, as well as a subtle fruity note on the nose, a bit like honeyed pears. The flavor was a bit softer and sweeter, too; the strong grassy vegetal notes felt a little more subdued and a strong honey sweetness filled the mouth, tasting of floral nectar, and subtly of pear and stonefruit, with the mineral notes now gone. The minerality returned in the third infusion, with wet stone, moss, wet hay, and sweet floral notes. I took the tea through two more infusions, the fourth tending a bit stronger on the floral notes and the fifth a bit stronger on the vegetal notes. It was a pleasant and filling tea… I probably could have pushed it further, but honestly I was so tea full and had been drinking on it all day and just felt it was the right time to wrap things up.

I got a sample of this tea some time ago from a cupboard sale from Ost, so thank you Ost! I decided to brew the two teabag sample in a small 500ml pot of tea for breakfast, using the new teapot I got from my mom for Christmas. It looks like a black cat and has two stackable teacups, it is so cute! She got it for me because I adopted a black cat this last August right after I bought this house.

This is a black tea with rose, chamomile, and citrus — I love rose-flavored blacks, and don’t like chamomile, so this is going to be a matter of how strong the different flavors play out in the cup for me. The tea brews a light sienna color, and smells a bit stronger in the chamomile than I’d prefer from the aroma… but I’m also getting a strong orange scent coming from the cup, which may damper that a lot in the flavor.

Normally I’m a big Steven Smith Teamaker fan, but I’d have to say this is probably my least favorite of their blends I’ve tried thus far. Even though I don’t like chamomile, I even don’t mind their chamomile blend, Meadow, all that much (something about how it is blended with the rooibos/honeybush and other flowers it works with a honeyed, floral sort of taste). This just tastes too traditionally chamomile for me to really dig it. I do definitely taste the rose and citrus notes, but it isn’t enough to really hide that particular chamomile flavor that leaves that kinda soapy taste on my palate. The floral comes on quite strong at the beginning of the sip, and I almost pick up a sort of pollen-like note as well. The citrus lingers quite heavily, which I think may be from pairing citrus flavoring with Ceylon tea, which often has natural citrus notes, and it actually leaves a faint sour/acidic note on my tongue after the sip. I pick up a pithy lemon peel and orange notes. The tea feels a bit drying, but I think it’s from the strong citrus… though I suppose the black tea leaf may have a bit of astringency to it. This is an older tea so I wonder if the balance would’ve been a bit better if the base itself were fresher, but I think knowing my personal tastes regarding chamomile, this would probably still end up being a miss for me. It wasn’t so bad I couldn’t finish my pot with my breakfast though, and I’m glad I got to try such a rare blend; I believe they only make this one around Valentine’s Day. Thanks for sharing!

This is a tea I snagged a sample from in the Discovery Teabox, so thank you Skysamurai for organizing and all participants for sharing their tea! I’ve been craving apple cinnamon flavors lately, and recently restocked pretty much the one Stash tea I like, Cinnamon Apple Chamomile which I’ve been drinking a lot in the evenings.

This really does smell like an apple cinnamon pastry from the aroma; it has that overly-sweet apple filling smell that I get from those little finger danishes that have the hard sugar on top. The flavor isn’t quite as strong as I’d like, but I only saved 2.5g from the teabox and lately I’ve been brewing my blacks closer to 3g in the morning, but it is still very nice; I’m definitely getting a sweet cinnamon note, and an apple flavor that is more akin to sweet filling than tart, juicy fruit. There is a subtle warm baked bread note coming through from the black tea, as well as malt and spice. Maybe just a very, very subtle smokiness at the back of the tongue as well, in the aftertaste. It is very warm and satisfying and I’m enjoying it very much as my morning cuppa.

So I found myself really craving Milk Oolong for my afternoon tea today. I was just going to just brew it western style like I usually do since gong fu is such a hassle for me and the opposite of the relaxing, focused tea experience it should be, but I had a 5g sample of this leaf from the Discovery Traveling Teabox (thank you to Skysamurai for organizing and all participants for sharing their tea!) and wanted to use it one go and that was a pretty ideal amount for a single gong fu session. One of the reasons I dislike doing gong fu is I have to haul my kettle out of the kitchen into my dining room (and hook it up with an extention cord) and then I just find pouring with a gaiwan a chore that is uncomfortable on my hands, but I got this cute little teapot that holds just under two cups (I could comfortably max it around 480ml?) from my Mom for Christmas. So what if it isn’t exactly traditional? It isn’t like I have to completely fill it, and it is comfortable, right? I filled a giant thermos with boiled water so I wouldn’t have to run back and forth to the kitchen to the kettle or have to haul the kettle out of the kitchen onto the dining table with the extention cord, and just decided to use the little ceramic glazed pot from my mom to steep in, making sure my leaf-to-water ratio was consistent. No burnt fingers! This may have been the nicest gong fu brewing session I’ve ever had…

4.86g / 80ml (ceramic teapot) / 205F / rinse|25s|30s|35s|40s|45s|50s|60s

From the aroma of the tea, I picked up butter, cinnamon spice, steamed vegetables, and floral lilac. The first steep was the most prominent with a buttery flavor, and tasted of buttered vegetables, lilac, honey, and quite sweet and creamy. The second steep brought out a stronger floral flavor, though the vegetal note became stronger toward the end of the sip; the buttery taste was not as strong as the first infusion, but present in the aftertaste. The buttery note continued to become a bit more subtle in subsequent infusions, and the vegetal and floral notes became a bit stronger. The third steep brought out an somewhat earthy/mineral taste to the vegetal note, which had a strong spinach/artichoke taste. By the fifth infusion I found the tea starting to weaken a bit, but the buttery notes were again starting to taste a little more pronounced as the floral and vegetal flavors were loosing their oomph, and I also tasted a nuttiness coming out in the leaf. As I started the taste the leaf giving out and was filling up on tea, I chose to stack the last few infusions to drink a larger, more buttery final cup. It was an overall satisfying session that hit the spot for what I was wanting. Thanks for the share!

I went through name deja vu again this morning when I scratched off the foil on my 52Teas advent packet, so I opened up my tea inventory .xls file and sure enough, I have an unopened packet from 2018. I have problems, people! So this one is going into the tea stash and out comes the older one because obviously it. needs. drunk. now!

Opening up the packet, that blackberry smell is amaaaaaaaaaaaaazing! I get a rich blackberry aroma, and there are big ol’ dried berries in there tempting enough to just eat (would I eat two-year-old dried berries? Hmmmmm…) but I’m also getting a creamy sort of aroma… like blackberries floating in a thick bowl of whipped cream, or blackberry yogurt.

I used three grams of tea leaf for 350ml of water and then added in about three freeze-dried blackberries to the mix after weighing to the infuser to steep for three minutes. My cup is a dark cup of black tea, with a strong blackberry aroma. The cream aroma isn’t as strong steeped as in the dry leaf; the maltiness of the black tea is creating more of a baked pastry aroma, with a sweet cinnamon spice note and a subtle molasses undertone.

I’m getting all those things in the flavor, and it’s quite nice. The base tea is malty, bready, subtly spicy; I’m getting a juicy blackberry flavor, with a cream/vanilla sweetness that fills out on the back of my tongue, and a subtle note of cinnamon. As far as tasting like a fruit-filled pastry, it really hits the nail on the head.

I’m a bit behind in my advent teas, as this is today’s tea, and I haven’t done write-ups for the last two… but I’ve been working on sipdowns to keep my inventory under control and today I finished off the packets for Days 1-3 (plus the 2017 packet of Day 4). And obviously hording tea is a major problem for me, because I also had a packet of this tea from 2017 that was unopened… a 50g one. So ya… better work on that before breaking into the newer one. Hopefully it will be okay, but I do worry that the sunflower seeds may have soured, I know nuts and seeds can have the same issues as coconut (though aren’t quite as awful as coconut tends to be).

I made a two-cup pot with a generous teabag in it and left it steeping while giving the cat her after-work run-down. It’s a beautiful red color and smells divine; it smells very nutty, and I do get a very sweet chocolate-covered strawberry aroma as well. I love strawberries in Nutella and I definitely can get that from the smell. The flavor is also quite nice; the strawberry has a nice, juicy, berry quality, when many strawberry teas taste more like strawberry candy to me. There is a cocoa note, but it is more of a subtle dark chocolate that comes out toward the end of the sip and blends nicely with the nutty quality of the tea. I’m not sure if I taste hazelnut, exactly, but I definitely taste nuts, and chocolate, so I think because I eat so much Nutella my brain tends to go with hazelnut… but it has almost a lighter, peanut sort of quality, as well. It’s pleasant either way. I’m happy this tea has held up so wonderfully despite the age, and that I happen to have such a large bag because I am foreseeing many happy nighttime cups. It is simply lovely!