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I really enjoy violet tea, but both that I have tried from Bird & Blend (this one and “Purple Rain”) have both been a miss for me. In both, the black tea in the base just came across really bitter, even with the most careful of measures during the steeping process.

This one isn’t quite as abrasive as “Purple Rain,” since the added chocolate flavor does add a bit of sweetness, but it also doesn’t really seamlessly mesh with the floral violet, either. I love chocolate paired with lavender and rose, but this just tastes a little weird to me? The fact the chocolate note is coming off really artificial probably doesn’t help. Having “cream” in the title, I’d expect more of a vanilla note in the flavor rather than chocolate, and I wonder if that would’ve improved it a bit more.

It’s not so bad that I won’t finish this off, but I wouldn’t order violet tea from Bird & Blend again.

I have really enjoyed this tea. The dry leaf has a lovely sweet, lavender-forward aroma which carries over to the steeped cup. The flavor does make me think of a lavender frosting… it is very sweet with a vanilla cream undertone, and the lavender is lovely, strong enough to be a pervasive flavor but not so strong that the tea gets floral-bitter. My only complaint is that the apple comes off a bit strongly fruity, which does break the buttercream illusion a bit. The tea is also very sweet, so it has taken me a while to sip down my package, since it very much became a “mood” drink.

I’ve been mainly drinking this hot and plain, but decided to use up the last of the leaf in a frothy vanilla almond milk latte, which is very indulgent. The added creaminess of the milk and vanilla really pushes the sweetness, without drowning out the lavender which is by far my favorite part (I’m a big lavender fan).

This sample was gifted to me by AJRimmer, thank you!

We are still getting intermittent snow in my neck of the woods, so I brewed this up as a warm thermos. Has that same dark, rich, roasty and slightly nutty coffee flavor as the other Teeccino flavors I’ve been able to try, but I find the pumpkin spice a bit lacking. I really only taste the nutmeg, and it is a strong nutmeg flavor, which I find rarely stands out in spice blend tea mixes I’ve had. It is a nice flavor and I like seeing it shine, and it compliments the coffee notes really well, but I don’t get even a hint of cinnamon, ginger, or clove, so it doesn’t really make me think of “pumpkin spice.” If they just named this “Nutmeg Coffee” it’d be spot on.

It’s good and I’m enjoying my thermos, but I liked the French Vanilla and Chocolate Raspberry flavors a bit more.

This was gifted to me by AJRimmer, thank you!

I’ve finally worked my way through the tin, making hibiscus coldbrew. I drink it ice cold without any sweetener, and find it so refreshing. I actually get a strong cranberry note from the hibiscus in the absense of other fruit (a flavor I notoriously can never taste in cranberry flavored teas). It’s really nice! Tart, tangy, and hydrating.

This sample was gifted by AJRimmer, thank you!

It smells pleasant in the cup… gentle spices and a subtle sweetness. The flavor is nice, too. I get more of an orange spice tea than gingerbread, but it is also one of the better orange spice flavor profiles I’ve had in a while. The citrus isn’t too potent as a flavor, but I think it really makes the clove notes pop, which is coming off as the strongest spice note. The ginger is present but not without any unpleasant burning. The tea isn’t as sweet as it comes off on the nose, and the spice notes are strong but not aggressive.

It’s a nice cold morning tea. (Spring still is hesitant to spring in my neck of the woods, and it’s a comforting profile against the random snow/rain/wind that keeps popping up the second I think the weather is going to turn).

A sample from AJRimmer, thank you! I actually prepared this as a liter coldbrew combined with another sample from AJRimmer, “Cranberry Lemonade Green Tea” also from 52Teas, but the ratio was 4g Blueberry Limeade to 1.5g Cranberry Lemonade, so I decided to put the review here as I’m expecting that to be the main flavor profile (albeit likely a bit more lemony).

This is such a refreshing coldbrew! The base is fresh and just a touch grassy, with a strong lemon-lime citrus zing and a sweeter, juicy blueberry note. The citrus is tangy and lingers after the sip. The blueberry mixes with the citrus nicely. Easily gulpable ice-cold from the fridge!

Another sample from AJRimmer, thank you! Prepared hot and plain in my trusty work thermos.

The base is rich and malty, but this cup turned out a bit astringent for me and is leaving some drying on my tongue after the sip. I can taste the raspberry and a bit of cream, but they are being overshadowed a bit by the heavy malty/woody base notes. I think in retrospect this would’ve worked out better as a latte, since that would’ve smoothed the rougher breakfast tea-esque edges and added a bit of sweetness to perhaps bring out the raspberry more.

It’s fine, just leaning more toward “fruity breakfast tea” than “desserty tea” like the name suggests. I do appreciate the omph I’m getting off the black base this morning, though. I daresay I feel like doing something productive for a change!

I received a sample of this from AJRimmer, thank you! I only have three flavors of Teeccino available to me locally (French Vanilla, Hazelnut, and Mocha) so I’m happy to get to try some others!

I brewed this hot this morning, and just left the fillable teabag in the cup as I sipped, letting the cup get very dark and rich. It had that same roasted coffee flavor and aroma as the French Vanilla Teeccino I’ve tried, with a bit more of a super dark, bittersweet chocolate note and a hint of raspberry toward the end of the sip and in the aftertaste. I imagine adding sweetener might amplify that note a bit, but I enjoyed the cup as is, strong, dark, and coffee-bitter.

What I really like about the Teeccino I’ve tried thus far is that while actual coffee gives me terrible GI problems (which is why I stopped drinking it) I haven’t had any of those same issues with these herbal alternatives, and I still get to scratch the itch for the coffee flavor.

In the bag, this smells strongly like coconut to me, even though that isn’t an ingredient. Steeped, I don’t get that particular aroma, and the tea has more of a marshmallow/vanilla cream scent, with a mingling of spice.

In the flavor, I am not getting “Sweet Potato” but I am definitely getting “Sweet”! Perhaps the base tea is of the yammy variety, but if so, I certainly can’t tell against the total domination of the rock sugar. The base notes are getting washed out for me, becoming more of a muted maltiness beneath a very sweet sip. Marshmallow is one of those flavors I don’t really ever taste in tea, but I think I can kind of see it here… there is definitely a sort of vanilla creaminess that, mixed with the level of sweetness, is tripping my head into marshmallow flavor territory. Toward the end of the sip I get a lot of cinnamon and nutmeg which is quite pleasant.

I’ve prepared this hot and plain as well as a latte, and the latte works a bit better for me since the thickness and creaminess of the added vanilla almond milk combined with the sweetness of the tea feel like a more indulgent coffee house guilty drink. I feel like plain, this is the sort of tea I’d crave most in the evenings, but since it has a black base I have to drink it during the day.

It’s unique. I think I personally would like the black base to pop a bit more, but I do enjoy a good indulgent latte when the mood strikes.

A few teabags of this tea ended up on my desk from a coworker because it gave her heartburn.

It does have more of a pumpkiny taste rather than just pumpkin spices, but at the trade-off of tasting really artificial…. like an exaggerated sweet pumpkin pie flavor. The spices, too, are really strong and taste of flavorings rather than actual spices, which really slap in the face… especially the clove note. It leaves a sort of pepperiness on the tongue, so I can see why this could give my coworker heartburn.

That said, I don’t hate it… for a quick bagged tea that I’m going to mindlessly sip from my work thermos, it’s fine. But it doesn’t hold a candle to the multitude of loose leaf pumpkin spice offerings I’ve tried.