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Third one from the Simple Loose Leaf box. This is a very fresh and pleasant-smelling herbal tisane. Alongside the mint and chamomile, there’s a hint of vanilla flavoring, which makes for more of a sweet and smooth aroma. In terms of taste, the vanilla is fainter, while the mint and chamomile are both quite enjoyable. The rooibos base is fairly unassuming, and I don’t think there is that much of it in the mix either. Overall, it’s a standard herbal tea that is nicely relaxing.

Today I have the pleasure of trying this tea, which I’ve been curious about for quite a while. Even though I have tried blends that contain Ailaoshan Black, this is the first time I’m tasting it on its own.

The dry leaf has a warm cocoa aroma. Upon brewing, there’s more of a baked-good sweetness, maybe a touch of caramel. The tea is sublimely smooth, and the taste leans more toward malt and bread than cocoa. There’s a complicated little hint of something like dark berries in the background. As it cools, it has more of a petrichor quality for me, or as others have described, something like wet leaves. While there’s a lot going on here, this is also a comforting tea that can be easily enjoyed without thinking much about it. Thank you beelicious for the sample!

This is the second tea I am trying from the Simple Loose Leaf tea box. It’s pure lemongrass, and has a pleasant smell reminiscent of lemon and dried grass (…is that redundant?) In terms of taste, there are no big surprises here—this is an enjoyably lemony brew on the sweet and smooth side. It actually reminds me very strongly of Butiki’s Lemon French Macaron, so I wonder if some of the flavor in that blend is derived from lemongrass as well.

I tried brewing this tea in the reusable muslin sachets that came with the box. The sachet is easy to use, and allows the tea to infuse quite well. The one shortcoming of it is that the smaller lemongrass pieces tend to poke into the fabric, making it hard to clean. This might not be the case with larger tea leaves.

Ah yes, this tea. For some reason I was under the impression that it was going to be cinnamon-flavored, and not the mild sugary kind either but the red hot kind that knocks your socks off…maybe it was the red candy pieces in the mix giving me that idea! So I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was a chocolate and mint blend instead. The scent of this one is pleasant—creamy chocolate and light mint, with nothing off or overpowering about it. The tea itself is quite smooth, and just a little sweet with the addition of mint. The chocolate flavor is not strong but lingers nicely, and overall the combination reminds me of DAVIDsTEA’s White Chocolate Frost, so they probably used some of the same ingredients here. Overall, it’s a very tasty dessert-like tea. (I’m still fighting back the impulse with every new chocolatey tea to exclaim how amazing it is that it isn’t horrible—I think experiences with certain blends have been a little traumatizing.)

It’s probably a bit late in the day to drink black tea, but I’ve got work to do and this one definitely picked me up just enough (but not too much) to help with it. Thanks beelicious for the sample! I’m finally getting close to trying everything in the endless stash :)

I received this tea as part of the Simple Loose Leaf tea box that I won this month. It was an awesome surprise that brightened up my whole day (and probably week)! The box comes with 5 teas and 2 muslin tea sachets, which I haven’t tried brewing with yet. All of the teas are new to the database, hopefully someone who subscribed to the box will add at least a few of the rest before I get to them…

Anyway, this is a lovely, very smoky lapsang. The aroma of the tea is that familiar pine-smoke scent. This one is a little savory and sweet at the same time, almost like candied bacon (I mean it in the good way, I swear!). The smokiness—leaning more toward charred pinewood now—is very much present in the taste, but somehow not overwhelming. Lapsang is a bit of an acquired taste, but it’s really comforting if you’re accustomed to it. There’s also a rich, almost buttery quality to the savory notes of this tea around mid-sip. The aftertaste is lingering and sweet, and a little bit menthol-like, just as the description says.

This is the third lapsang/xiao zhong I’ve tried from a Western seller, and currently tied for the best. I can see the one from Verdant being more of a cult favorite, but this one should have broader appeal. There’s a nice warm-glowing quality to it, like sitting by a fireplace.

Thanks again to the guys at Simple Loose Leaf for the gift, and as a friendly note, you might want to run your tea labels through spellcheck next time. Wouldn’t want any unintentional comedy :)

Continuing on the chai train, I had this one last night. It’s a very colorful blend with pink peppercorns and various other petals and pieces. This is definitely a spicier chai, with strong cardamom and peppercorn notes. (I do enjoy cardamom in chai blends, and it was one ingredient I noticed was missing from the previous one!) The red rooibos base is quite decent, and I think rooibos has grown on me a lot in the last few months. It makes for a nicely warming cup, especially as a chai latte. Thanks beelicious for the samples!

I had been holding off on this one for a while—I’ve never tried anything with guarana, and had no idea how hard I would be vibrating after I did. But I had to be up early today, so I made a cup of this and added milk. In terms of aroma and flavor, the spiciness was milder than I expected—mostly cinnamon and ginger, smelling almost like a Pfeffernüsse cookie. There wasn’t really any bite to it, though the milk had probably toned down the flavors considerably. Overall, it was a nice and temperate-tasting chai. I didn’t get too much of an energy boost from it, but enough to be awake and alert in the morning.

Look what came in the mail today!

Upon opening the box, there was already a hint of fresh citrus aroma. It really hit me after opening the package proper: sweet tangerine and grapefruit, bright and sugary and reminiscent of those Sunkist candy orange slices from years ago. (Anyone remember those?) Brewed up, the aroma is honey-like in addition to the citrus notes. The tea base is soft and almost wheaty, and flavor-wise the citrus notes aren’t as initially strong as I expected. Instead, they linger after each sip, making for a refreshing and naturally fruity finish. The bergamot becomes noticeable in the aftertaste as well, but it isn’t the strongest of the notes, which is probably a good thing since the other flavors are what really shine here.

As a big fan of citrus fruits, I really enjoyed this tea. Since budget is still tight, I’ve only ordered one tea so far this year, and I’m happy that it’s this one. Sorry to see Butiki has closed, but this is a good sendoff!

This is an interesting blend, and for once I decided to jot down my impressions of the tea as I was drinking it and not after. So here goes:

-smells like a spice mix
-aroma more complex after brewing
-almost reminds me of orange spice and pepper – at which point I’m sure I’m imagining things
-very vegetal green oolong, a little too heady
-tastes like: the broth I use to make tea eggs, I’m not even kidding
-or Numi’s savory teas
-also reminds me of Verdant’s Holy Basil Spa Blend (both have tulsi)

Overall it’s very unique, if a bit of an adventure where I wasn’t sure what I was getting into. Thanks beelicious for the sample, it’s surprising how much Verdant has experimented with blends as my impression of them leans toward straight teas (and a few well-known blends like Chocolate Genmaicha).

This one has cocoa husks as well as cocoa beans in it, making for a pretty heavy and visually interesting blend, and has a very strong chocolate aroma. It also tastes authentically chocolatey with a touch of hazelnut flavor. As usual with chocolate/cocoa flavored teas I fear the worst in terms of stale/bitter/just-plain-off flavoring, but it wasn’t bad! The tea itself is pretty light, and I couldn’t really taste the base or have much to say about it. There’s something a little too sweet about the finish, possibly the caramel flavoring that had been added. It’s not bad as a dessert-ish tea, but not among the best either.