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I’m not sure if age affects astringency or not, but holy pucker, this was bitter. So I played around with the parameters a bit but I finally got it right. I don’t remember this tea being bitter (but that was forever ago)!

3/4tsp makes a difference instead of a full tsp.

Now, this Assam is smooth, with notes of stone fruit, citrus, and chocolate. Yum

This isn’t as good as I remember :(. Maybe my tastes have changed so much that I prefer natural tasting and ingredients in tea.

This is ok. It tastes like Tim Hortons peach juice just as Roswell Strange mentioned. I do get some apple notes as well. The rosehips are not overpowering and th chamomile is in the background.

Overall, quite thirst quenching!

GCTTB5

Thanks again Liquid Proust

Mmm jasmine. I like the blend of white and green tea with the jasmine. It seems to keep the green tea in check. The jasmine is nice and light and not overpowering. I also detected a bit of honeysuckle (maybe I am just crazy). This is a decent jasmine.

The resteep was a little astringent but this is probably my error of overstepping. I am very sensitive to green tea getting bitter.

I used 1.5tsp of leaf

GCTTB5

Thanks again Liquid Proust for adding this tea to the box!

Blends like this are perfect for pu’erh noobs like me. I want to like pu’erh but for me, it is a bit of an aquired taste. But, I’m definitely getting to like them!

This one is fairly sweet with notes of woody earthiness from the base. I had no idea what steeping parameters to use so I just winged it… I steeped this four times (resteeps at 3.5,4,4.5 min.) and poured them all into my thermos because I was busy reading books with my toddler!. It was delicious.

Non tea related:
I got a new Bonavita kettle last night!!! My trusty old Oster kettle just has too much mineral deposits that have built up over many years of usage. So I thought I would try something different:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B008YE3RNG/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB
I was so excited to get it ready to brew tea today and learned that it doesn’t even get to 100degrees. It gets up to 99 but won’t get to a full boil. WTF? This isn’t that big of a deal because usually I drink tea at less than a boil, but sometimes I do. And what kind of kettle doesn’t even boil water???? Anyone else have this problem? I should contact the company I guess. Sorry, rant over.

GCTTB5

Thanks again to Liquid Proust for sending these for our box!

I also really enjoyed this one. There are a lot of stems in my scoop, but it didn’t detract from the taste of the tea.

The oolong base is fairly green but not overly vegetal. I am getting honeysuckle floral notes in aroma and taste. The berry is very nice. It doesn’t overwhelm the base but isn’t completely in the background either which is nice.

The resteep at 4 minutes is probably even smoother than the first infusion.

Ah, this is a sweet afternoon/evening treat. It is smooth and tasty without being sickly sweet. After I learned to brew rooibos at a lower temp (thanks Anne from 52teas!), I enjoy rooibos more. It isn’t as woodsy when brewed this way.

It seems like the covonut is a little prominent in this batch than the last. I don’t mind because it is even more delicious this way!

GCTTB5

Thank you to Liquid Proust for providing this for the box!

There isn’t a lot of blackberry teas out there (not that I have tasted anyway), so I was eager to try this. It was not too sweet but sweet enough. The blackberry tasted fairly natural. The black base held up very well. It is a smooth tea.

The resteep at 3 minutes was just as good.

GCTTB5

Tea from yesterday. This was perhaps a little overstepped. It was a little astringent. It was a fairly decent cuppa though with malty, raisin notes.

The resteep at 4 minutes seemed a bit more mellow.

GCTTB5

I had this yesterday morning. The dry leaf smells like freshly baked bread.
The aroma transfers into the taste with notes of baked bread, molasses, brown sugar. In the aftertaste, there is slight fruity notes but I can’t quite put my finger on which fruit it is.

The resteep at 4 minutes perhaps has less molasses and more fruit.

Delightful cuppa

GCTTB5

There was just enough in the sample for a cuppa.

I couldn’t pass up trying this milk oolong. It is a decent tea, if not a bit artificial. It is sweet and creamy (obviously lol). It has been far too long since I have tried Teavivre or DAVIDsTEA milk oolong, so I can’t really compare them. But this doesn’t even come close to being as good as Mandala’s.