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Backlog from … well, a backlog anyway.

I got this as part of the Fall Collection and was hoping for something that just screamed apples! I love apple cider and fall is my favorite time of year for it, so expectations were kinda high. The first time I had this tea, it had a really weak apple flavor — not the full bodied richness the scent promised. The second time I had it, I added some apple cider and got quite the disgusting cup. The third time, I overbrewed and finally got some flaky pastry crust taste overpowering weak apple.

Disappointing.

The little bit I have left will go to my green tea obsessed friend, if I ever remember to bring her her tea package. >.<

I’ve been having this as a breakfast tea, trying to sipdown the rest of the box I have. This tea works well with some added milk and sugar. It smells like vanilla baked goods and retains that baked good flavor throughout the sip. A nice, sweeter breakfast option. Yum!

This tea reminds me quite a lot of the China Rose Petal tea from Taylors and Harrogate, although the scent here is all peaches instead of floral perfume. Steeped, Three Wishes loses a lot of its peachy aroma. It tastes like a black tea, but without the harsh edge you get when drinking a bagged Lipton black with no additives. (Lipton bagged black was the first straight tea I tried, so it sticks in my head taste-wise. Probably a bad comparison here.)

This tea is soft and lightly floral, not really sweet but it doesn’t need anything. It’s a lot like China Rose Petal in taste. However, this is one I’d like to try it with some sweetener or maybe that creamed cinnamon honey I have in my cupboard.

This isn’t a tea I’d want in any appreciable quantity, but it might not be bad to keep a little on hand for guests who want a no-frills black tea.

Sipdown!

I spent this weekend making tea packages for my fiance’s mother and some coworkers. This is one of the teas I included in each of the packages. I really enjoyed Long Life Oolong as a bedtime tea and was hoping Pineapple Oolong would be another before-bed treat. Unfortunately for me, not so much. I split the remaining bit of this tea between myself and my four tea packages.

This tea steeps up to a golden yellow color. The scent of the dry leaves is as lovely and pineapply as ever. I added raw sugar to this one after it had steeped and found that one packet of sugar turned into into an unpleasant fruity syrup. The second steep (with a bit of the first steep left over) was better, but even so, this isn’t one I’ll reorder. I just don’t like it enough, and I’d rather not have I-can-tolerate-this teas in my cupboard.

On the bright side, all this tea packaging has cleared four teas out of my cupboard. And my best friend is splitting the DAVIDsTEA spring collection with me. And I finally made a Timolino decision. Yay!

Another backlog from ages ago.

I was hoping this one would taste like pumpkin pie. The reviews raved about how pumpkiny and delicious it was. I, however, never really got pumpkin from this tea. I tried it plain, with sugar, with brown sugar, with milk, as a latte with cinnamon and every combination of those options. It was good, but flat, not the punch of pumpkiny sweetness the reviews promised.

Not a bad tea, but not one I’ll be reordering. :-/

I wish I purchased more of this tea when it was part of the Teavana Heavenly Sale (and, consequently, dirt cheap). WOW! It smells fruity and lemony in the tin, brews up to a light pink color, and tastes like sweet-sour raspberries. I’m getting lemon instead of pineapple but I don’t care! It’s so good! It even resteeps well, although the second steep is much more lemon than anything else.

It is really skimpy on the white tea leaves, though. So much so that my fiance (who cannot handle caffeine at all and gets sick if he ingests any substantial amount of it) not only commented on the lack of actual tea, but was able to try some without feeling ill.

Maybe if it’s not horribly expensive, I’ll get more of this one when we run out. Until then, I sense another cold brew experiment.

I brewed some of this as a morning tea earlier this week. I was expecting FRUIT PUNCH! I got something vaguely fruity, a little sour, not bad but definitely not something I would have purchased had I tried it beforehand.

Maybe it’d be better cold brewed? Thoughts? Right now, I’m thinking I’ll try to sip this one down ASAP and clear some space in my cupboard.

I bought this one because my fiance LOVES pink lemonade. I’m trying to get him away from buying the pink lemonade mix or those super-sugared bottled versions and, voila!, found a tea replacement!

I cold-brewed this one overnight and used 1.5tsp per 8oz (instead of the recommended 1.25tsp); I got a very light pink tea that had a light fruity lemonade taste to it. Without sugar, it’s got a sour tang that builds as you drink it. According to my fiance, it’s spot on pink lemonade and only needs a tiny bit of sugar to make it perfect.

A definite reorder once we use up the 2oz we have! I’ll make a tea lover out of that guy yet!

Cold-brewed this again, and it’s as good as always. Very tart and fruity on the first steeps descending into something akin to a fakey baked good flavor (if that makes sense). I’m enjoying this one cold so much that I can’t imagine steeping it hot … I just don’t think it would work well. Plus, my fiance also enjoys this one cold. Why change what works?

I’ve been put on a tea-buying freeze until I use up more of the teas in my cupboard. Thanks to my fiance’s desire for iced tea in his lunch, this one is close to being gone. Hooray!

P.S. Despite the tea-buying freeze, my fiance did tell me to go order one of the 16oz Timolinos from DAVIDsTEA after I found out that the new tea canteen things are replacing them. I’m torn between the midnight green and the light blue — any suggestions, tea buddies? Or do I just get one of the 12oz Timolinos in one of the fun new colors? (And, now that I’m thinking about it, when I place my order, the Spring Collection might just fall into my shopping cart and then I’d be forced to get it! Hehehe!)

New breakfast tea! I remember loving this one when I first tried it, and the smell of the dry leaves did not disappoint. Rich, chocolatey goodness. YUM! Steeped however … maybe it’s just what I scooped out this morning … but it tastes the way the feed room of an old barn smells. Musty, grain, hay. Absolutely unappealing and really not what I was in the mood for. Yuck.