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I had a bad experience with the English Afternoon Tea from Ahmad Tea before, because I found it to taste like a bergamot bomb, if there ever was one. I still remember that it was absolutely undrinkable plain, and therefore required tons of milk, but even that did not save the tea. Therefore, I was a bit hesitant when I was picking this up as it brought back those bad memories, but after finishing my first cup of this tea, I am so very glad that I bought it. At first, I didn’t even know that it was infused with bergamot, and all I was sensing was sweet notes of malt. After reading the description of this tea, the hint of bergamot is unmistakable, but it really serves to enhance the flavour of the tea and does not offend. I have 99 more tea bags to go, but I already can’t wait to buy another box of this. It’s that good.

Tried water at ~80 degrees C and the result is much better. That awful bitterness that comes out with boiling water is now much reduced. Still tastes inferior to other gunpowders I’ve tried, but at least it’s now drinkable!

Picked this up at Walmart because I think it was one of the few loose leaf green teas available. Packaging looked promising, with the “Single Origin” advertising and everything, but the taste is underwhelming. It’s definitely not comparable to other gunpowder green teas I have tried from Teavivre, Upton, etc. It is very light-bodied, dry, and leaves a nasty bitter aftertaste at the end. I used boiling water, which is usually recommended for gunpowder green tea (and was written as such on the package of this tea as well), but this one might be an exception. I will try a lower temperature next time.

Yet another sample from Teavivre. I still have a lot more of these to go. This tea (which name is too long that I’m sure to forget by next morning) definitely has a flavour profile to my liking. Chestnut notes are very obvious as mentioned in the description. It tastes surprisingly close to the “Premium Dragon Well Long Jing Green Tea” from Teavivre, but overall it has a slightly lighter feel. Yum.

This is one of the many samples I got from Teavivre and today I finally decided to try it out. I put in a bit less leaf than usual, since I wanted to get another steep from the remaining sample. The color of the liquor was a light amber and it smells like, well… Oolong tea. Very closely resembles gunpowder green tea (which is one of my favourite teas), but once you taste it, you can notice some differences such as this one being less vegetal but mildly floral instead. I can appreciate the slightly baked flavour as well. Overall, I think it’s a fantastic tea to have after meals.

I like to keep bagged black tea for the mornings that I can have with milk and sugar, and after trying so many brands, I thought I should finally give Typhoo a try. Well, it’s not bad at all. Nothing special about it, but nothing to complain about either. Standard black tea seems to be a good description. I like this better than PG Tips, which had a woody aftertaste that I was not very fond of.

Hmm, not sure if I like this one or the Cardamom Chai better. What they both do have in common though is that they need lots of milk and sugar to make it taste great. Making it in a saucepan would be even better I guess.

First of all, MY GOD IS THIS EVER BAD. OK, now that I let that out, let me start this tasting note. I went to the supermarket and grabbed two cans of Tetley chai teas, dark chocolate and vanilla flavored. I said to myself “Why not? They’re only $2 for 20 bags each! Sweet deal huh?” and it HAD been a long time since I drank Tetley. Well, I should have just kept it that way. The finished tea smelled like Gummy bears(???) for some reason and when I took that first sip, I immediately frowned and resisted the impulse to blurt out a swear word or two. It tasted rancid and absolutely disgusting, and there was no tea flavour at all either. I steeped two bags, so quantity couldn’t be at fault here, only quality. Well, it’s just so bad that I’m going to throw it all out and I will be returning the other can of Tetley so that I can get my $2 back. This totally ruined my mood now and I’m going to go and make myself another cup of actual tea. This is probably going to be the worst tea I tried, and it’ll probably stay that way for a long, long time :(