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I bought this because it was one of those “Must buy tea NOW” days, I was at a supermarket with a better than Lipton selection, and the tin was cute, ok? You made me say it.

This morning as I sit in my kitchen and the rest of the house sleeps, this tea is really doing it for me. I hope my husband won’t be jealous.

Mornings for me cry out for a strong black, and my first impulse was that it was an Irish Breakfast kind of day, but upon seeing the tin again I pulled one out. It’s still almost too hot to sip, and I am getting lovely vanilla, citrus, almost caramel-y from it. Yum.

My first matcha. Where have you been all my life? I can’t stop sipping it. Lovely almost toffee like flavor. And, so different from my normal hot tea routine since I made it cold. This is a keeper.

Of all of the teas I ordered from Tea for all Reasons, this was my favorite, and I will definitely reorder it. It’s a strong black tea (which I love), and it has an intoxicating berry scent and aftertaste, which I found natural and not fake tasting at all. I made it for my 17-year-old daughter and she loved it too. She kept taking drinks and saying over and over again how good it was.

It’s also pretty to look at, which I like. Yellow stars, shiny blue sprinkles, and shiny gold balls of sugar. I don’t think that adds much to the final tea result but it makes it more fun visually during the brew. It’s part of their Dr. Who collection, but since I don’t watch the show I can’t really draw any parallel there.

I admit, I like fu fu teas. This one has little pearls and pretty pink and blue flower petals in it. To some people that stuff doesn’t matter, but to me it gives me a pleasant visual sensory experience to go along with the great smell and taste of the tea. Girly? Maybe, but what’s wrong with that?

So I put the tea in my infuser and enjoyed looking at the “pretties” – but then after I infused it and it was in my cup, I started noticing that it looked all glittery too, and I didn’t notice that in the leaf. It was pretty mesmerizing. Might have just been the natural oils from the tea, I don’t know, but I liked it.

On to the tea. I like a strong black tea, and this was strong and black and a bit astringent on the finish. Not as strong on bergamot as some other EGs I have tried, and maybe that’s the pomegranate that is tempering it. I LIKE strong bergamot, so while this is a fine tea and I will finish it, I don’t think it will be on my reorder list. I might put some in a tea swap as well since I ordered a tin of it instead of a smaller size. But, there is certainly nothing wrong with it.

Third try at this tea. Tonight I increased the leaf by almost double. The tea is strong now (and I like then strong) but still doesn’t taste like grapefruit. It’s not a bad tea, and it is filling my craving for a strong black tea by being a strong tea. I avoid caffeine after about 4 so craving a black before bedtime is bad.

Curled up in my chair, tall cup of this, watching TV. Life is good.

In other news, I visited my 76-year-old mother this past weekend and exposed her to loose leaf tea. She liked it, so today I shipped her a brew cup and a tin of tea.

It was a long day yesterday, so I was delighted to come home to find this package on my doorstep. It is my first sample from 52 Teas, and to be honest I didn’t know if it was going to be amazing or disappointing. Novelty teas can go either way.

First impression was that the tea smelled really interesting! I don’t know if it would have screamed grapefruit to me if I hadn’t known, but it definitely has a tangy zingy smell with a hint of sweet.

I have not had many white teas so I don’t have much to compare this to, but I had read that whites should be brewed at a lower temperature than my usual blacks, so I did that and enjoyed a cup before bed.

The tea is light and was comforting. I’m looking forward to trying it again today to get more of an impression of it, since I was quite tired last night.

Edit: day two. I tried it again. It just doesn’t taste like much. I even tried both a 7 and 10 minute steep time, sweetened and unsweetened, and hot and cold. If anyone figures out the key to this one please let me know.

I really really really thought I would love this tea. I am a big fan of black teas, and Earl Grey especially.

It wasn’t that it was awful, it was just sort of middle of the road. And, it left my mouth so dry that fifteen minutes later I had to go get a drink of water. It was a really unpleasant after effect.

Edit: Second try at this tea. I started wondering if I had overstepped it the first time and that made the crazy astringency, so I made it again with a strict 3 minute timed steep. It’s still an astringent tea, but not unbearably astringent. So the moral of this story is, don’t oversteep this one.

Maybe it’s because I remember it from childhood, but sometimes there’s nothing like a good old strong bagged tea to put hair on your chest…..er, actually that’s not the desired result.

When I was a kid, the Boston Tea Party tea from the supermarket that came in a copper colored tin was the end-all, be-all of teas for me, and this reminds me of it. Sadly, the other one is no longer made. This is maybe a bit more clove-y, but still nice when time is of the essence.