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Hmm. Just… hmm. This tea was so promising. The scent is really something—an orange aroma so intense it almost smells spiced, and the rich berry scent of what I thought were cranberries… until I saw the hibiscus petals. Uh-oh. I was just not certain about this anymore, and it turned out, I was right. There is just something about hibiscus that takes over other fruit flavors. It wants to be the star of the show, and it has the capability. It isn’t a bad flavor, I just feel like I’ve tasted this tea before, having had other teas with dried fruit and hibiscus. It doesn’t seem to matter what the fruit is: the hibiscus overpowers it. And then I come here and learn that it ALSO has rosehips in it. Man, those cranberries never stood a chance. And the orange… I might be able to taste a little, every few sips. But no more than that. Oh, well.

I decided to dig my hand into the traveling tea box and select randomly this morning, and this is (supposedly) what I came up with. I’m not entirely sure this is actually the tea its label says it is. From the description and other reviews, this tea doesn’t even LOOK like what it’s supposed to, much less taste like it. There are no fruit pieces, just very dark tea leaves and a few flakes of something olive green, perhaps a dried herb??

Anyway, I steeped it for about a minute and a half, and sweetened it with a scoop and a half of sugar. The first sip was very smoky, with a big hit of astringency. At first, I thought I’’d over steeped it, which means one of either two things: it’s got lapsang souchong in it, or it’s a poor quality tea, to have become astringent so quickly. Blech. I added some milk and a little more sugar, and that masked the astringency to a degree where I could drink it. The smokiness was still there, but I could handle that, as long as it didn’t taste like metal anymore. There’s definitely no fruit in this, and no cream flavor. I really think it was mislabeled, but I don’t know how that could have happened.

I checked the little journal that was included in the tea box to see who put it in, and it turns out this was in there from the beginning, put there by momo. Maybe she would know more than I do about it.

I determined that for the rest of today, I would drink nothing but infusions of this tea, and see how far it got me. The aroma of the leaves is very light, as one would expect from a bai mu dan, and somewhat vegetal. I’m also getting some notes of cucumber and perhaps some pear, although to me it is not as sweet as a pear. Perhaps an underripe pear.
I did the first steep longer than I ought to, because sometimes you just have to pick up and cuddle the fussy baby. (I have a confession, fellow Steepsters: I do not typically use a timer for tea. I should, but I don’t. I am sure one day I will pick up a timer at a Dollar General or something and henceforth never be parted from it, but that day, alas, has not come.) ANYWAY. The brew was a medium peridot kind of color, and the aroma was again predominantly cucumber. The taste was very fresh, like sprouts coming out of the ground in the morning, covered in last night’s dew. I could taste the cucumber as well, very watery and juicy.
The second steep was less cucumber-y, but it was still there. The third steep brought the onset of something almost metallic, almost mint-like in it’s aftertaste. I couldn’t put my finger on it. I decided then that three steeps was enough. If my husband was here, he’d probably have steeped it a few more times, but alack, he is not. :(
Anyway, I don’t think I would buy this one, but I’m glad I got to try it. :)

Welp, I have to revise my opinion of this tea. Apparently I didn’t use enough leaf last time, so the flavor just wasn’t quite there. Add that to the fact that the sample I have now is probably a different batch than the stuff I tried before, and it’s no wonder this last steep was much better. I got plenty of coconut flavor, along with a little tangy-ness that must have been some cheesecake trying to come through (although it still wasn’t strong enough for my liking). I think I have enough in the sample for one more cup, so I’ll try adding some almond milk to that one to see if it helps the cheesecake flavor. Much improved!

OMG MY FIRST TRAVELING TEA BOX IS FINALLY HERE YAAAAAAAY!

Ahem, sorry, had to get that out. There is SO MUCH TEA in this thing, it’s unreal. I almost couldn’t decide where to start… but then I saw this tea, which TeaSipper was so wonderful to include because she saw it was on my shopping list! _ I might be a complete and total noob for never having tried this tea before (as I understand, it’s been around a while), but I just haven’t gotten to it before now, and that’s all there is to it. :P

Anyway, I steeped this the usual way, one mug’s worth in my Teamaker from Teavana. I’m not certain I steeped it long enough, as it came out a little weak on the black tea flavor. I don’t exactly know how long it was steeping, as I set it to steep and then walked away to feed my cat. I came right back! It couldn’t have been much longer than a minute. Anyway, it wasn’t quite as dark as I thought it ought to be, so I stood there about 30 seconds more… and it didn’t change. So I, being impatient, stopped the steeping, sweetened it, and then paced like a tiger in a cage, waiting for it to cool enough to be tasted.

Like I said, the black tea flavor was a little weak (and the mouthfeel being a little too watery also seemed to indicate that I had understeeped it), but MAN, was that coconut packing a punch! The vanilla, too, was right there at the front of the sip, both in aroma and in flavor. WHAM! Right in the kisser! I could tell by the way the tea looked that it was going to have plenty of coconut flavor, as there were HUGE chunks of it all throughout, but I was very pleasantly surprised by the Camilla’s strong presence, as I find a lot of teas that say they have vanilla flavoring don’t actually have enough for it tone detected. I definitely am getting “pie” from this. I can almost taste that sweet meringue topping, and the graham cracker crust that’s been softened a little bit by the custard…

So. Yummy. :3

I accidentally forgot I had started this steeping this morning, and when I finally remembered it was tepid, with the completely saturated leaves floating listlessly around the teamaker… so I threw it out and started afresh. The marigold petals really help this tea get that “cream” flavor going. I had it sweetened, but I didn’t add any milk, like my husband and I normally do. I just wasn’t feeling it today. It was delicious and smooth, and the flavors weren’t too strong. Just what I was after. n_n

I don’t think anyone will question my choosing this tea this morning. I made pumpkin apple muffins for breakfast. They were just screaming at me to have chai, and this one was accessible and delicious. :) Warm, spicy, and just perfect with the muffins. Love!

I just couldn’t stay away from this one this morning. The lapsang souchong has mellowed out enough so that it’s not quite so overpowering. I don’t really know what it was that drew me back to this tea, as it’s not exactly my favorite… but I knew I was in the mood for something a little rich, and this fits that bill, certainly. Maybe I was also looking for that bit of sweetness that the marshmallow root brings to the table. I still can’t taste as much of the spices as I’d like. I even sweetened it more than usual, and they just aren’t really coming through. That’s why this has got the rating it’s got.