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Tried this one yesterday evening, unsweetened. It smelled and tasted of toasted walnuts: a hint of bitterness, but mostly just slightly smoky and a lot delicious. :) I enjoyed it, but I do prefer my oolongs to be not quite so dark. My husband would probably have loved this one, so perhaps I’ll buy it for him as a present sometime. :3

I followed Teavana’s recommendations for rooibos, steeping a teaspoon and a half in boiling water for… quite a long time. I didn’t time it, but I know it could easily have been ten minutes. From the dry leaf, I got strong scents of lime and verbena, with a little bit of the woodiness of the rooibos. I’ve really taken a liking to green rooibos, but it’s just not as common as the red variety, so I was glad to see this in the Traveling Tea Box. :) Anyway, I got the same aroma after it was steeped—very strong lime, a little verbena, some rooibos… but no coconut. Well, I thought to myself, maybe if I sweeten it, I’ll get a little coconut action. And you know, I was right! It was smooth and creamy and very prevalent. I really like it! I think perhaps some of the other reviewers may not have used enough leaf when they tried it. Well done, Tealux.

Backlog: I steeped this two nights ago, actually. Yeah, I’m that behind. My little girl isn’t often happy long enough for me to pull out my laptop and write a review.

Anyway, this one was VERY floral, with some marshmallow-y hints that I supposed was intended to be the “macaron” flavor. I’ve never actually had a macaron, but I hear they’re sugary and delicious, much like a marshmallow, so I suppose they did a good job! And I say it was “floral” because while yes, the jasmine flavor was definitely present, it wasn’t the only flower I could detect in there. I wasn’t a huge fan, but kudos to Dammann Fréres for achieving the flavor!

Hmmm. I’m not getting vanilla, in either the aroma or the taste. Just honeybush. And I’m not that big a fan of honeybush. I just wanted to try this one on the off chance that vanilla flavoring would make it tolerable for me. It might have, if I’d been able to taste it. :/

I steeped this twice, once yesterday and once this morning. :) I didn’t have much time to enjoy it yesterday, and I committed the horrific taboo of sweetening it on the first steep before I realized what I was doing… X-P I kicked myself pretty hard, because I let auto-pilot take over.

First steep: 1 minute 45 seconds; Color: a yellowish amber; Aroma: sweet, creamy, slightly vegetal
I shouldn’t have sweetened it. The sugar is throwing off the… well, everything. The mouthfeel, the flavor, the aroma, everything. :(

Second steep: 2 minutes; Color: a darker amber, more orange; Aroma: very grassy, vegetal, with a hint of cream
Let me just say that this is a VERY green oolong. The picture on this page does not quite look like my leaves did. Of course, now they’re all unfurled, and they have more than quadrupled in volume… which has only further revealed how very very green they are. The vegetal taste is pretty overpowering this time. I don’t really detect any cream.

Not gonna rate this one, because I messed up the tasting.

Dangit, I oversteeped this one too! I started the cup, and then my mom pointed out that my little girl’s diaper needed changing, so I went to do that, and before I knew it, five minutes had passed. DX I was so looking forward to this one, too! And there isn’t any left… T_T

Well, I added some water, some sugar, and a dash of milk and drank it anyway. It wasn’t bad… but those aromas coming from the dry leaf had promised so much more! The cardamom was the strongest note, with the cinnamon and the orange peel right on its heels. So sad… I’m not even going to rate this one, because I don’t feel I experienced it properly. I will probably have to order this at some point, because I think my husband would really like it (and if he doesn’t, then I will probably like it enough for both of us). :)

Put several teas in a pile this morning and picked with my eyes closed, and this one was it! I definitely steeped it too long, but I added a bit more water when all was said and done, and the astringency didn’t kill me. (Yay, no death!)

Anyway, I actually rather enjoyed this. I was expecting lemon overkill (though I don’t know why, because the scent was really nothing to write home about), but it was actually refreshing and mild. I didn’t even try it unsweetened, because I had oversteeped it. The black tea base was a good middle-of-the-road Ceylon, with a nice malty flavor to counteract the sweetness of the lemon (and the sugar…). All in all, I almost failed at this tasting, but in the end I liked the tea, so huzzah!

Hmmmm. This chai was a little on the ho-hum side of average, and I didn’t really get any vanilla in the flavor… but then, I also didn’t notice the steeping instructions on the page here, which are a little different than my usual method of making chai. So, I will reserve judgment until I try it again their way! It sounds promising! :)