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This guyasa had a lot to live up to, since I had just tried Tangerine Creamsicle and Good Morning Sunshine, also from Butiki Teas. But I thought it was pretty good! To me, the mint was the featured flavor, and the vanilla just added the right amount of creaminess. I didn’t taste the lavender at all—at least I don’t think I did, which is good, since I’m not that fond of lavender. I would certainly recommend this one for a mint tea lover who wants to try something different.

Smooth lemony happiness in a cup.

Confession time: I love Dreamsicles. I love orange sherbet, gelato, sorbet. I love clementines. So I was predisposed to either love this guayusa like crazy, or hate it for not living up to my expectations.

I LOVE IT. This was my first try at a guayusa and my first Butiki Tea. I just received the order today and had had a good whiff of it (ok, fine, I practically shoved half the bag up my nose) when my girlfriend asked me to make her some tea. What kind? I ask. Something good, she says. So I decide to make this.

Oh, the taste. It’s amazing. The tangerine flavor is so real. It’s juicy and fruity yet not overwhelming. The creaminess in the background is just enough. Some teas with a creamy mouthfeel leave your tongue and palate feeling sort of coated. Not this tea. It’s only refreshing. There is a slight earthiness from the guayusa. It’s all good. This will have a permanent home in my pantry!

Now this is more like it. Harney & Sons, you have never let me down. This tea is a perfect even blend of cherry, plum, apricot, and black tea. There is no astringency, there is no “all I taste is fruit,” likewise there is no “all I taste is tea.” I always sweeten my tea, FYI.

And even though it’s lukewarm at this point, the way it’s going down, I’d highly recommend this one for the iced tea people out there. This one would be a luxurious iced tea.

I’d say this tea is a nice, nondescript smooth fruity blend. Sometimes there’s just not much to say. I’ll drink it but I won’t get excited about it.

I was apprehensive about this one, considering another “flavored” berry tea from the same place seemed to have no flavor beyond the black tea. But the dry leaf smelled pleasantly like raspberry and there were raspberry chunks in the blend, so my hopes were raised a little bit.

Once steeped, this hot tea tastes quite naturally like raspberries. In fact, I almost don’t get the black tea background flavor to it; there’s really no depth. Only until it cools down a bit and I’m halfway through the cup do I get the full flavor of the black tea plus the arctic raspberry. All in all a nice enough cup of tea. I bet an iced tea enthusiast would like this one.

Just got my order in from the English Tea Store, so I’m excited to have so many new teas to review. This morning I tried Angel’s Dream, which is one I was very excited about.

In the package, it smelled strange, like there was this weird artificial odor to it. I think it might have been from the plastic bag it was in, because when I stirred it around, the smell dissipated. When I brewed it, it smelled fine. No obvious scents other than a slight fruitiness.

After I tasted Angel’s Dream, I had to look it up online to see what flavors I was supposed to be getting. Maple? Really? Blackberry I can see, kind of, but to be honest this seems more like a nice, smooth, slightly fruity black tea. It’s closer to an English Breakfast than to a flavored tea to me. I definitely am enjoying it but I wouldn’t seek it out again because I have plenty of fancy plain black teas.

Thanks to another sample from Awkward Soul, I got to try a brand new tea this morning!

When dry, it smells strongly of strawberries. I wasn’t surprised. After steeping and waiting for it to cool a bit, I took a sip and thought, hmmm, I really don’t taste a heck of a lot of strawberry here. There is definitely a creamy mouthfeel to this tea. I would suppose that is the custard element. But I barely taste any strawberry, and some people mentioned wine—I didn’t get that at ALL.

Regardless, it was a pleasant enough cup of tea to start my day. Thanks again to Awkward Soul for the Ziploc of Goodies!

Awkward Soul was kind enough to send me a sample of this tea. Every other sample she has sent me was spot on as far as my taste goes. This one, well…the first thing I noticed when pouring the hot water over the pearls was that strong, strong smell. It was very unpleasant to me. My girlfriend immediately pegged it as floral, but I didn’t get that. I sweetened it and hoped for the best.

The first 1/2 of the cup was all right, as long as I didn’t inhale while I was drinking. It was light, sweet, a tiny bit fruity maybe? The more I drank, though, the more it tasted like that scent. Obviously it’s the scent of jasmine and I just don’t fancy jasmine. So I’m not going to rate this tea. It would be unfair. That would be like rating a chocolate bar a 0 because it tastes like chocolate. :-D

Thanks to Awkward Soul, I’ve been having a great day full of new tea tastes! Here’s another sample she sent me.

I love the taste of blueberries but I don’t like to eat them plain because often the texture goes mealy or they are too tart. This tea is like drinking the essence of the best blueberries in the world. I just made one cup using a tea ball but the smell has gone all through my living room and it smells like blueberry muffins in here!

This tea is a real winner. I drank it sweetened with Splenda and didn’t taste any “off” stevia taste that others mentioned. I’d say this would be a great tea for someone trying black tea for the first time, as long as they like blueberries!