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I purchased this tea from Steepers, a tea shop in Campbell, California, and am fairly sure they source several of their tea blends from Metropolitan Tea Company, including this one.

This is one of my favorite dessert teas, though I admittedly have to use a lot of leaf to get the sort of nice, rich flavor that I really love. At a tablespoon of rooibos, the tea has this lovely toffee flavor with some subtle caramel notes, while managing to not be overly sweet and allowing just a bit of the rooibos base to come through. I also found that, unlike many of my flavored rooibos, this one resteeped for me fairly well with an increased steep time, perhaps from the increased use of leaf, and I can manage to squeeze a few extra cups out of it while still getting a pretty decent flavor. This is a nice tea to hit a sweet-tooth craving around bedtime, since it is caffeine-free.

Full review: https://teatimetuesdayreviews.wordpress.com/2017/02/07/tea06/

I picked up a small sampler of this tea from Steepers in Campbell, California. After a bit of hunting, I’ve discovered that the blend is identical to that of English Tea Store, which I highly suspect is probably the wholesale source of the tea for the shop.

This tea had a nice green tea flavor with a fruitiness that rounds out any astringency and gives it just a bit of natural sweetness, with a hint of a tart apple aftertaste. It has a nice apple flavor, but it isn’t too strong; there is a nice fruitiness without it being overwhelming. The description text from the website is just a bit misleading, however; the tea flavor is described as “hints of sweet caramel and apple pieces adds to the lightly astringent green tea,” but the tea did not have a caramelly flavor or taste. I’d describe it a bit like a dash of apple juice mixed with green tea, though if the apple flavor were just a touch more subtle and the blend not quite as sweet as your typical juice.

Full review: https://teatimetuesdayreviews.wordpress.com/2017/03/07/tea10/

Of all the seasonal teas from Art of Tea I’ve tried, this one is by far my favorite, and has earned a spot as a permanent mainstay in my tea collection. This tea tastes like York Peppermint Patties in a cup to me; you can taste subtle chocolate tones beneath a strong, vibrantly fresh burst of refreshing peppermint. There is not a strong chocolate taste, as it is more grounded in the dark black tea, but it is noticeable, and the tea has a natural sweetness to it. It has a warm, hot chocolate sort of appeal, while also having a soothing, cooling sensation from the brisk peppermint. It’s a lovely winter tea and dessert tea, and great for fans of a choco-mint flavor profile.

Full review: https://teatimetuesdayreviews.wordpress.com/2017/02/28/tea09/

The smell and color of a brewed cup of this tea had me thinking of Werther’s Originals before even taking my first sip! The taste, however, was not quite so strong as that; the tea has a very distinct butterscotch flavor and aroma but it didn’t come off as overpowering to me, but more light and sweet. I did have to use quite a bit of leaf, as the white tea leaves are so light and fluffy, to get a nice, solid flavor, but the tea held up to multiple steepings well. I found it a very pleasant dessert tea, and one I plan to restock now that Art of Tea’s winter seasonals are back in stock.

Full review: https://teatimetuesdayreviews.wordpress.com/2017/02/21/tea08/

This tea put me off immediately by smelling sickeningly sweet. I made it at work, and my coworker seated on the other side of the cube kitty-corner to me could smell the cup, it was just so syrupy-sweet smelling! I enjoy sweet teas, and it took me a long time to wean myself off adding sugar to my cuppa, and even I thought, “Ugh, that looks way too sweet!”

The taste was far too syrupy to me. There was certainly a caramely flavor to it, but it came off as a caramel-infusion of maple syrup rather than a caramel-flavored tea. I thought that adding sweetener was throwing fuel onto the fire, but trying to drink it plain, it somehow came off as far too astringent, despite having such a sweet flavor. The whole taste was just off-putting to me. I found it drinkable when I sweetened it, but it was so sweet I didn’t particularly like it. I couldn’t seem to find any happy medium where it came off right. The flavor and the blend just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Full review: https://teatimetuesdayreviews.wordpress.com/2017/02/07/tea06/

This is a very fruity tisane; it has a sweet fruity berry flavor with a zingy, tart finish. Depending on how you like your fruit teas, a little sweetener or honey may help take the tart edge off the finish, giving it a sweeter, punchy flavor, but it is fine sans sweetener if you like fruits that have a bit of a tart bite to them. The tea is very rich and surprisingly pleasant warm, but makes a great iced tea with a fruity, punchy flavor that is refreshing during hot weather.

Full review: https://teatimetuesdayreviews.wordpress.com/2017/01/31/tea05/

I picked up this tea at a time that I needed to cut all caffeine from my diet, and as a fan of green tea, I was glad to find a decaffeinated flavored green tea option. I’ve since been able to reintroduce caffeine into my diet, but kept this tea around to drink around bedtime.

This didn’t taste so bad back when I was drinking only herbals and decaf teas during the period when I couldn’t have caffeine, but now that I’m drinking caffeinated teas again, I’ve revisted this tea and find it completely unpalatable! There is something that tastes bitter, metallic, and off-putting about the tea, and the mango flavor just can’t hide it. My initial impressions of this tea were that it was quite pleasant, with a fairly nice green tea taste and a very pleasant mango flavor, but now that I’m drinking regular green teas, my palate just can’t stand this! If you are used to decaf teas only, this might be fine for you, but I wouldn’t recommend it otherwise.

Full review: https://teatimetuesdayreviews.wordpress.com/2017/01/24/tea04/

This is the sort of tea that I love on cold winter nights. It is like a warm, thick fruit cider, but is wholly unique from the typical spiced apple cider. This tea has a rich hibiscus base with some plum-flavored notes, and a nice warmth added from spicy cinnamon. The tea has a bit of a tart and spicy bite to it, but is still naturally sweet enough to drink sans sweetener. A great tea if you like hibiscus teas and want a warm spiced fruit cider experience.

Full review: https://teatimetuesdayreviews.wordpress.com/2017/01/17/tea03/

As a chronic migraineur, I have a lot of migraines, so this was one of the first herbal blends for a specific health ailment that made it to my cupboards. Blended by AmberFreda on Etsy, the current blend includes chamomile, feverfew, lavender, skullcap, cinnamon, and ginger. The feverfew, skullcap, and lavender are known to help with headaches, chamomile relaxes muscles, and ginger and cinnamon are great for the nausea that accompanies migraines. At the time that I purchased the blend, instead of cinnamon, cramp bark was used, so I’m sure that has an effect on the overall flavor profile compared to the current blend.

This is a very strong herbal tea, and the ginger especially has a strong scent and taste in the blend. If you like ginger teas, you shouldn’t have too much trouble with the flavor, though I find it still has a bit of a wet, earthy herbal taste. My preferred way of taking the tea is simply blending it with a bit of a strong lemon ginger, as the citrus flavors blend nicely, hide the earthy or herbal medicinal tastes, and make it really pleasant! Even plain, there is no bitterness to the blend from the feverfew, which is nice.

When my head is really raging, I tend to go for this tea. My migraines are severe and this tea can’t stop them, but when the nausea is awful and I can’t eat anything, I usually can manage tea, and this tea is light on the stomach and helps with the headache nausea a lot. Since it does have a strong flavor and is blended specifically for head health, I wouldn’t recommend it for just a general cuppa. Far better tasting teas out there for that!

Full review: https://teatimetuesdayreviews.wordpress.com/2017/01/10/tea02/

This was one of my first looseleaf teas and I still blame it for starting my addiction into tea. It has a very unique spicy flavor; the rooibos base makes the blend less astringent and more sweet than black chais, and the spice is a bit less cinnamony with a nice full, husky taste of ginger, clove, and licorice! I’ve tried other rooibos chai blends similar to this one but they didn’t have the licorice root, and that really sold this blend as the cream of the crop for me. If you aren’t a fan of licorice, however, this may not be the blend for you.

Full review here: https://teatimetuesdayreviews.wordpress.com/2017/01/03/tea01/