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I smell more fig than apple but both flavors come through pretty strongly. Sweet but not sweetened. I think I prefer Summer Cherry Fig from Capital Teas. All of this sample will be used, but I probably wouldn’t replace it.

Okay, don’t care for this much. It’s a cup that I can drink all of, but isn’t anything I’ll choose. The scent is offputting. It smells like every cheap flavored black blend with vanilla out there. I’m not saying this isn’t a quality tea – I really am not a good judge of that generally with flavored teas. Just that it smells like that.

I don’t get coconut or almond distinctly. Overly vanilla but not in a good way. Ah, well. It’s a sample size and it was on sale. Try. All .The. Teas. Right? :)

Black currant and vanilla? Definitely. Heavily scented? Yes. It’s a sweet without sugar, nicely balanced flavored black tea. If I were going to keep a fruit and vanilla tea in my cupboard, this would be a contender.

This is a really nice blend. Robust yet smooth. Mild maltiness. I personally don’t get anything I associate with Darjeeling though there are greener leaves within the blend. Really nice, really moderate. It wouldn’t be a wake you up kind of blend but it’s a good any time of the day tea.

I haven’t been able to enter Queen’s Pantry for some reason in the tea description. It won’t let me add “Queen’s Pantry”. The store is in the database already as “Queen’s Pantry,” and “Queen’s Pantry, Leavenworth, KS” and in order to enter this tea at all I had to choose one of them. Hanging commas drive me nuts, so I picked the one with the location. :)

Yes. This is either an After Eight mint (of which I can eat whole boxes at a time) or a minty chocolate cookie that I have a recipe for… I’m leaning more on the cookie side as there is a slightly baked good note in the scent. This is a well balanced blend. Unsweetened cocoa and mint and the vanilla smooths out the edges of both of the other flavors. Sometimes those two can be sharp on the tongue.

I was careful with steeping per instructions for this first time. I think I’ll add a bit more leaf next time since I tend to like my Golden Monkey teas slightly overleafed. But for this one, it was 1 1/2 teaspoons per 8 ounces spring water @ 200F for 3 minutes.

Wow. What I get from this is a whole heaping mouthful of cocoa and some fruit. Mainly cocoa though. Like Sil noted, maybe something that might read as smoke hovering around. I like these a lot.

Used 2 pearls in a 6 oz pot. Let steep as I sipped. I think 3-4 minutes was the range where the pearls were fully opened and I started to get more than a lightly flavored hot water. :) Went up through about 7 minutes and while it cooled off, it didn’t turn bitter.

Today this was so supremely cocoa-y I almost passed out from happy. The leaves are gorgeous, the tea is so delicious… Happy place. No more tea today so I can make sure to end on a great note. :)

Did this in the little glass teapot again, leaving leaves in water, small cups at about 30 sec, 3 min, 10 min, 15 min.

Having this one again this afternoon. Still supremely yum. Bready, yeasty, baked good scents, sweet and molasses-y. Leaving it to steep in my little glass pot so I’m probably at about 15-20 minutes of leaf in water by the time I’m at the last cup. Not a bit of dryness or bitterness – just an increased sweetness. That’s what I love about these teas.

Hm. Thought I had not only put this in the cupboard back in October, but also thought I had reviewed it. Ah well. :)

I have this in sachet form. I packed up a couple to take along with me for being a tea snob at restaurants. :) I used one this morning at breakfast. It steeped up decently, despite a water temperature that was too low by far.

I’ll review based on both previous experience and this morning. This is an okay tea. It’s more of a blunt instrument than other Yunnans that I have become addicted to over the last year. Earthy, some malt, some dust. A few of the rough edges are knocked off when steeped in a lower temperature water. It’s better than the normal bagged offerings in restaurants but nothing I’ll restock when I have others that I enjoy far more.

Water temperature at home: 205F-ish; at the restaurant best guess is 160F.

This is, unsurprisingly, another Taiwanese black that I really enjoyed. It was sour, sweet, hay and hot, toasted stonefruit. I think I may have steeped a bit too long, though that usually hasn’t negatively impacted other Taiwanese blacks that I’ve had. This one was a little on the bitter side when hot. As it cooled it became this awesomely chocolately delight. I would love to have some of this on hand someday. Thanks for sharing, Ost!