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Whoa! I’m really impressed with this one! I was expecting it to be really light on flavor or taste fakey. But, the flavor is very present, sweet, and true. I get a little bit of creaminess from it, as well. I’ll be picking some of this up in my next Harney & Sons order, that’s for sure!

Thanks for letting me try it, Ost! This was one of those I was too afraid to purchase a whole tin of without knowing how it tasted. So, this was perfect!

Oooo I like this a lot more than I thought I would! I would prefer a touch more strawberry, but I’m really enjoying the chocolate/coffee thing that’s going on here. This feels like it would be particularly good on a cold morning because of the roasty espresso flavor. Yum!

Oh boy. This is weird.

I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it. I’m not actually quite sure how I feel about it. It threw me way off, that’s for sure. It smells and tastes very green and vegetal. I can’t place which vegetable I’m tasting. I do get some of the nuttiness at the end of the sip, but I wish there were more of it. I don’t get creamy ice cream at all. I tried sweetening with honey (because that was all I had at the moment) and didn’t find it to be any more creamy or pistachio-y, unfortunately.

I’ll try this with some rock sugar and maybe even a bit of almond milk to see if I can coax the ice cream part out. I feel like that might help. I’ll reserve my rating for later after I’ve tinkered with the preparation a bit. So glad I got to try it after hearing so much about it, though!

Not a fan.

I got this for my boyfriend to try since he really likes warm apple drinks in the colder months and loves caramel. Turns out that this is so not for me. It tastes like a sour apple with a lot more sourness than should still be present after coating it in caramel. The caramel isn’t really noticeable, especially compared to how strong I thought it would be based on the name. There also seemed to be a fine line between weak and overpowering when it came to steep times. My cup was too weak at 3 1/2 minutes, so he left his bag in for almost 5. The hibiscus in this kind of took over at that point. Why on earth did hibiscus need to be the second ingredient in this tea?!?!?? Oh well. The search continues for an apple-y caramelly tea that he’ll like.

Being that Root Beer was the first tea I tried from Simpson & Vail and I was so not in love with it, I figured it only appropriate to follow that one up with another by the same company that I was more likely to enjoy. So, I chose this one. (Thanks again to NayLynn for this one)

Round 2 with Simpson & Vail is more pleasing but still not a home run for me. I can taste the chocolate, and it does taste like brownie chocolate as opposed to chocolate bar chocolate. I feel like I’m missing cinnamon, though. It just seems like it’s lacking something and isn’t quite as strong as I would have expected from the fact that I could smell it even through two sealed bags. Hmm…I have one other sample from Simpson & Vail to try. We’ll see how that goes.

I’m not quite sure why I wanted to try this one so badly, seeing as how I don’t actually like root beer all that much. But, I was fortunate enough to receive a couple different versions of root beer-flavored teas from NayLynn and I was excited to try them all.

This one was so not for me. Now, let me be clear—it tastes very much like root beer. Too much like root beer. It turns out I like root beer even less when you warm it up and take the fizz out. Good to know. Not rating this one.

I’m starting to find it kind of funny just how many teas I’ve tried from David’s without ever placing an order from them yet. I wanted to hate this company when I first heard of it, simply because it seemed like another big chain Teavana sort of deal to me. But, after trying a bunch of different things and always being pleasantly surprised, I am most certainly going to be placing an order. Probably around Black Friday or Christmas. Do they usually have decent sales?

So, this tea. I have a love/hate relationship with pumpkin teas because I want to love them all until I find out that I can’t taste pumpkin or that there is way too much cinnamon/spices. But, again, I was pleasantly surprised here. Although I still wouldn’t grab this one when I’m thinking pumpkin, I liked this one more than any of the other pumpkin chai teas I’ve had because the spices were perfectly suited to my tastes.

Thanks, Ost, for letting me try this one!

I’m purposely not rating this tea for two reasons: 1) I’ve never had a decaf tea, and 2) I’ve never had the regular muscat tea from Lupicia or any of their grape-flavored teas.

With that being said, I rather liked this and I’m grateful to TeaBrat for sending it. The grape taste was not too cloying or jolly-rancherish. It was more like the flavor you get in Japanese candies. Light and just gently sweet. It definitely makes me want to try more of Lupicia’s grape-flavored teas. Anyone tried any of their other grape-flavored teas?

Okay so I’m definitely going to need to order from Nina’s Paris one day. This is the second tea I’ve tried from them, courtesy of Ost who sent me sample, and it is delicious! I mostly taste peach, but something about this seemed more special than your run-of-the-mill peach black tea. Perhaps it was just the quality that made it better? It smelled fantastic, too! I got two good steeps before it started to weaken (just like the first tea I had from this company). Anyone have any other suggestions for teas I should try from Nina’s Paris??

100th TASTING NOTE!!!! WOO HOO!!!

I’m feeling pretty accomplished right now :) In the 2 months I’ve been on Steepster, I’ve tried 100 new teas (although that’s not exactly true since I’ve logged one or two teas twice). My cupboard has grown exponentially, it seems. My tastes have already begun to define themselves and I know soooo much more about tea. I’ve been blessed to find some really good tea people to swap with, and I’ve tried to make sure to be extra generous with those newer than me since others did the same for me at first.

I purposely saved this tea for my 100th note for that very reason. NayLynn was so generous as to send me this tea a couple of weeks ago as a birthday present even though we hadn’t even talked about my birthday coming up. I couldn’t believe it when I opened my swap package with her to find the bag of swap teas and a neatly wrapped and decorated tin with this inside. I cannot believe the amount of goodness I’ve seen in people here on Steepster :)

Anyway, 100th TASTING NOTE!! WOO HOO!! This is my first Nina’s Paris tea, so I was very excited to try it this morning. It was so perfect for a first cup! It is spot-on vanilla and caramel with a hearty black base. I got two really good steeps with a third steep that was weaker but still good. I’m going to be drinking this a lot on crisp fall mornings. It’s perfect. I’m glad I’ve got a sample of another Nina’s Paris tea to try from another swap, too. Perhaps I’ll have to place an order when I run out of this!

Thank you so much, NayLynn :)