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This blend was a sample that came with a recent order I had made.

Not a lot of rooibos teas catch onto my radar, much less rooibos blends, but it is summer and this is one of the teas that Teavana is heavily promoting, one must give it a try.

The leaves, both dry and steeping, give off a faint fruity aroma. I can tell this is a very sweet tea, and I believe the scent is quite dark. It isn’t a familiar sweet scent, rather interesting and made me all the more curious.

The first initial sips give a very fruity rooibos flavor, the blueberry very dominant. I like that there wasn’t much rock sugar in this sample, as complaints of it being too sweet had me a bit worried, but I can see how more rock sugar can make this blend sickeningly sweet.

This could probably use less rooibos and rose, and more pineapple, as it is too dark. It also might be that this blend probably shouldn’t be consumed hot, but rather iced, which I could see making this more enjoyable.

Despite, through the rooibos and rose, there are nice fruitful flavors that I do enjoy, and it seems there are more details that I might catch with second or third brewings.

A rather middling blend, but I’d reserve a final decision after trying this iced.

A co-worker, who is working on waning herself off of coffee, purchased this tea from a local heath store; and seeing as how I’m the recognized local tea connoisseur, she had peaked my curiosity.

The aroma given from steeping is extremely promising, with an almost rich woodsy atmosphere, deeply green, very dark, and a slight smokey tinge. The color is a very satisfying deep and handsome red of pu-erh.

The flavor is amazingly rich, with a smokey earthy taste that empowers it’s roasted base; this is the flavor of a fresh forest.

There are times when a teabag tea surprises me. This teabag is one of them.

This was one of the few personal favorites I had been advised to try by Laura at Teavana’s Park Royal North location, as I had pointed out their Gyokuro Imperial green tea. She had said that most do not like the strong grassy flavor of Gyokuro Imperial and mentioned Emperor’s Clouds and Mist.

As she described Emperor’s Clouds and Mist, I had mentioned Darjeeling green tea being similar, which surprised her as she didn’t know that existed.

And, that is exactly what this tea reminded me of, was DarjeelingTeaXpress’ 2011 Darjeeling Autumn Flush Puttabong Green Tea.

The leaves are beautifully and tightly rolled, with light to deep green colors. The scent is light and soft, very smooth and sweetly earthy.

Steeping gives a very light greenish white liquor, with a light and delicate grassy aroma.

The flavor is a very smooth earthy taste, very bright and delicate. There is very little astringency, more a slight freshness in the aftertaste.

It is surprising how overall delicate this green tea is, but it is not surprising how overall delicious and enjoyable it is as well. Because of it’s delicacy, I can see myself drinking this at any time of the day.

I tend to make it into the office every morning earlier than expected. Usually, co-workers arrive roughly around 9 AM, where I make it in at 8:30, sometimes even earlier. One of the great things about arriving early is having extra time to properly make tea.

I’ve been drinking this tea early in mornings since I bought the 50 gram tin, and early on I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Well, this is the last of the buttered rum tea.

The scent of the leaves whenever you open the tin is impeccably buttery, it never seems to go away opened, scooped, steeped or consumed.

The handsomely deep red tone is a great touch, contributing to it’s early evening rum appearance rather than giving an early morning pick-me-up face.

It is unfortunate that the flavor has become less consistent. At first, it had burst with sweet buttery goodness, the coconut and vanilla giving a feisty Caribbean feel. As the months wore on, so did the butter, fading to a paler and darker flavor, which I would probably credit the cornflower petals.

Believe me, it is still much better than Teavana’s Amandine Rose, which is more pale flower petals than a proper alternative to the holy grail Almond Biscotti. I still enjoy every cup, but the diminishing returns tell me this requires less leaves in a smaller tin and enjoyed more infrequently for a rarer taste.

I had about half a canister left of this tea, which I had not touched in quite some time. I decided I had better finish this and start looking for a better marzipan.

So, I have been drinking this tea multiple times every day all this week.

This tea is still pale, not very sweet, or at all buttery, and at times can be an unhelpful bitter.

It requires more sugar than I would prefer to use to better sweeten, almost a wasteful amount.

It’s probably going to get annoying, but I still long for Teavana’s discontinued Almond Biscotti, the buttery flavor just cannot be beat.

I wasn’t expecting this tea to actually have full rolled leaves. I also wasn’t expecting this tea to look as good as it does, with nice deep green colors and surprisingly lovely silver needles. The scent leaves a lot to be desired, a light woody scent, but it is quite lovely to look at.

Steeping gives a nice golden color, with a light and planty aroma. Very promising.

The flavor, although very surprising as well, is also a little disappointing. There are light hints of earthy and woody flavors, and a bit of astringency, but it is not strong enough, and because of the light flavor, can drop out once the pale taste takes over.

This could be due to a mass production process, but if the tea were fresher, the scent would be stronger and the flavor more full bodied. A very promising tea that just couldn’t go further.

I have never really dove into minty teas. I have had a couple, and tried many teabags before going to full leaf teas. My general impressions with most are not minty enough.

You would want to have this refreshing experience, like say taking an Altoids mint. Some are even clever enough to mix chocolate flavoring in for an after dinner experience.

The aroma of both the leaves in the canister and while steeping reminded me of mint teabags. There is a more dulled minty scent, less refreshing than I had hoped. This is slightly worrisome.

The initial few sips remind me of a lighter black tea, but then surprises when the minty freshness sneaks from behind.

It’s more of an understated freshness, nice and cool and mild. With a bit of rock sugar it’s a great calming late afternoon tea.

There is a strong tropical aroma from this teabag, which gives me quite some joy. Most teabags are weak and pale, but Mighty Leaf seem to be consistent with their potently scented teas.

Steeping gives a light yellow-lime brew, with more green tea than tropical scents. From the aroma, I can tell each apart, which leads me to believe the taste will be the same as well.

The green tea is not what I thought it would be, which is extremely bland. You can taste that it is green tea, but the quality is severely lacking.

The tropical flavor is barely there, probably enough to distinguish from the flat green tea. There is little to no fruitiness the aromas have teased about.

To be honest, I had low expectations once I caught the aroma during steeping. I didn’t want to believe that the green tea wasn’t going to be great, or even at least good, but it was too grassy to even think otherwise. It would have benefited with more tropical flavoring and a more subtle or at least better tasting green tea.

Unless the leaves are bought from Teavana, or we’re talking about Tazo teabags, chai teas are a difficult thing to master. Because of this, a great chai tea is like a diamond in the rough.

Things did not start off strongly, literally. The tea does not have a strong enough aroma to really excite my senses. The bag is quite unassuming, worryingly so that I doubt any space is allowed for it to breath in.

Steeping gives a nice deep cherry color. Unfortunately, the scent does not say quality, giving more a weak pale spice.

I was quite reluctant to taste this, as a great chai can be a great chai, but a terrible chai is very very terrible. To be safe, I added two packets of sugar.

Once it hits your lips, the flavor is very watery. You can taste the pale black tea, which is not strong enough, and the weak spice floating around. Even with two sugars, the taste is not very appealing.

Although not terrible, it isn’t anything outstanding or great, it is barely even good. Probably with a bit of milk, it could smooth things out.

This teabag screams fruity and peachy with a powerfully sweet scent.

Steeping gives the brew a deep blonde color with an equally deep fruity peachy aroma.

The flavor is dark and the fruit is smooth, although there is not enough to blend completely with the tea, nor is it as powerful to par with it’s scent.

Although you can distinguish tea from fruit, the tea is good, and the fruit is well enough to enjoy fully.