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I cold brewed this in one of my Perfect Mugs overnight, hoping to bring out more of the elusive pineapple flavor. I had enjoyed this tea hot before, but was really disappointed that it wasn’t fruitier.

Well…

I hate the cold brewed version of this. It’s overwhelmingly floral, sickeningly so. There’s no fruit to speak of. I added agave and tried it again — better, but still unpalatable. My fiance did enjoy it, however. Maybe I’ll make a batch for him to enjoy on his own…

My fiance hates hot drinks, but enjoys iced tea, so when Teavana had their Heavenly Sale, I picked up a bunch of herbal teas to cold brew for us. I also picked up a French press from a restaurant supply store to cold brew in. This is the first tea I tried cold brewed.

Unfortunately, in my excitement to try out my new tea and new toy, I put in a tablespoon more dry leaf than I should have. The first steep was only a few hours but it was STRONG. The tea was still fruity, but had a suckerpunch of bitter-almost-sour flavor to it that was begging for sweetener. Despite this, my fiance and I both really enjoyed it. I reused the leaves for another steep — maybe 18 hours in my fridge. This went into our canteens this morning with some agave and the bitter-sour punch is gone! It’s like a fruity pastry now — I’m getting quite a lot of sweet baked good flavor with fruit notes in the background. Yum!

Holy pineapple! I am absolutely in love with the dry smell of this one! It’s all fresh, luscious fruit!

Steeped, the leaves lose some of their rich fruitiness. The tea itself has limited fruit in its aroma, and only vaguely tastes like pineapple as it cools. The pineapple is present in the scent but not the sip.

Still. It’s smooth and pleasant to drink. I could see myself reordering this one.

I recently rediscovered Earl Grey, thanks to a sampler box my best friend gifted me for Christmas. Something about Earl Grey with milk and sugar just makes me happy in the mornings!

I had a little packet of David’s Cream of Earl Grey sitting in my tea cupboard, and decided to have some at work this morning. Dry, the leaves smell creamy and there’s a lot of floral (though, thankfully not as much as in the China Rose Petal tea!). Steeped, it retains that bakery-like scent, even after the addition of milk and sugar. Tastewise, this tea is only lightly floral with a thick, smooth feel to it.

I can’t wait to order more of this!

Backlog.

This tea was awesome; easily tying with DAVIDsTEA’s Spiced Fig for my favorite holiday tea. This brews up a very dark purple and has a deliciously rich fruit taste to it. The spices mimick those in Spiced Fig. The plum flavoring feels almost thick — this is one of those fruit teas that doesn’t waste time hinting at being fruity.

I even used some of this tea to make sugar cookies for my office’s holiday party — yum!

One of my friends sent me this as a Christmas present. It’s her favorite tea and she wanted me to try it. I had some last night as an after dinner tea.

Dry, this tea is overwhelmingly floral. Like, old lady perfume floral. I really don’t like the smell as it’s too close to potpurri for me. Steeped, some of the floral smell lingers, though it’s not as pronounced or off-putting as the dry leaf.

Based on smell alone, I was expecting to really dislike this one. Unfortunate, too, because I have four ounces of it. I took a cautious sip … and it’s good. Really good. The floral softens the black tea and makes it almost-sweet. It’s very smooth and pleasant to drink. I think I might make this my new breakfast tea …

My fiance has a tea club at his work! Luckily for me, he’s willing to trade some of my bagged teas for samples of what other people are drinking. This is one of the teas I got in the swap.

The smell is all lovely citrus, light and sweet. Brewed, it retains some of that citrusy taste, but I’m not loving it. I added some honey in the hopes it would make this tea wondrous … but I’m still not really enjoying it. I wouldn’t reject a cup of this outright, but I also don’t plan on adding it to my cupboard.

Backlog.

Got a cup of this after work last week while out with a friend. It smelled amazing in the tin and I was so excited to have a rich, vanilla tea.

This steeped up to a forgettable black tea — it was smooth and didn’t need any sweetener, but it didn’t wow me like I thought it would.

I have terrible luck with dessert teas, particularly those that involve chocolate. I’m a sucker for anything that claims to taste like cake or a truffle, and am inevitably disappointed upon steeping. I didn’t have high hopes for this one, but it was on sale and I figured that, if I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t be wasting that much money.

Dry, this smells sweet and fruity — like a rich, crumbly fruit tart. Steeped, this tea has a ton of floaties (yuck!) and a dark purple-pink color. It still smells very desserty, but the fruit is much more prominent here than in the dry leaves. It has a very fruity, almost sour taste to it. As the cup cools, the chocolate becomes more prominent, balancing out the sourness from the fruit.

I’m impressed! A chocolate tea that doesn’t completely miss the mark on chocolate taste!

This tea smells tropical and fruity! Like a warm, sunny island in a tin. This is the tea I was most excited for from my Heavenly Sale order. (My fiance is absolutely thrilled with the overflowing tea cabinet…)

Steeped, this loses its fruity aroma. The taste is bland but smooth. Not what I was expecting from a tea with such a mouthwatering dry aroma.

I think I’ll cold brew this one and see if I can get more flavor out of it.