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I have been seriously craving rose-flavored black tea, but that is yet another casualty of my high-sipdowns-low-orders over the last several years, so I don’t have one in my cupboard anymore. Then I found this packet, and was over the moon.

It is perfect. The base is malty and slightly coppery with hints of smoke, and an almost syrupy floral rose sweetness. The strawberry is sweet and somewhat candylike and blends seamlessly into the rose; it really pops in flavor at the back of the throat toward the end of the sip. It is lovely and satisfies my craving perfectly.

I made this as a warm, straight cup the other night, and was just not into it… the rooibos came off very strongly, and veered slightly in that medicinal direction I don’t care for. I wasn’t really getting the pumpkin and spices, though there was something a little savory about it. So I decided to take the “latte” in the tea name literally, and prepared it that way yesterday. Wowzah! A complete 180! This tea is fantastic with a bit of warm sweet vanilla almond milk added. I could clearly taste the warm and sweet cinnamon, which was so smooth and lovely, the rooibos/honeybush base had mellowed into sweet honeyed and nutty notes, and the chicory seemed to elevate a nuttiness in the brew. The creaminess added a lot, too. This is definitely how I’ll be finishing off this tea.

My beloved Twinings of London “Buttermint” was not at the store the last time I went, so I grabbed this instead. It didn’t really hold a candle to “Buttermint” (obviously, no creamy vanilla flavor) but just as a warm mint tea… meh. I can drink it (it’s mint!) but I wouldn’t call it a favorite… it was a bit muddled when I was hoping to taste more distinct spearmint notes… the peppermint was a bit dominant and also just a bit dish-raggy compared to bright Pacific Northwest peppermint.

But I have been going gangbusters on this as a coldbrew. I decided to bust out some New Year’s cleaning on my place this morning, and have been gulping this as ice cold refreshment to keep me hydrated. Somehow it has a more fresh and menthol crisp taste as a coldbrew, and I also taste the spearmint notes better that way, too.

So while it just doesn’t hit that “evening cup of peppermint curled up on the couch” appeal I was hoping for, I will definitely quickly go through this box making iced tea.

I’ve been feeling a bit bleh today (that oh-so-fun migraine/menstrual cramp double whammy) and have been sipping on this between naps. Prepared warm with no additions.

The tea has a strong and pleasant orange aroma… it reminds me of a mandarin orange flavored green tea from TeaSource I enjoyed coldbrewing. There is a subtle hint of cinnamon in the aroma, as well.

The flavor is predominantly orange as well; it is a bright and pithy flavor lacking the weird artificial orange notes I often taste in orange teas. It’s like a mellow orange spice tea, with a subtle touch of spice rather than a massive dumping of clove often found in orange spice flavor profiles, though I wouldn’t have minded if the cinnamon and nutmeg were a bit stronger. The green tea base is pretty mild beneath the pithy citrus, but I can detect a mild grassiness and a very slight green bean note. I find it very hard to detect the apple, though; as the tea cools a sweeter fruit note that I can see as apple pops out slightly, but this is presenting mainly as an orange tea for me.

It’s a pleasant warm tea, but I think I like it even better after its gone cold.

I made this as a cold brew. The tea is strongly mango… I’m surprised I’m hardly tasting any lemon, given how many lemony ingredients are in the blend and how strongly the dry leaf aroma smelled of lemon, but that mango is just really taking front and center in the cold brew steep. It’s a very juicy and refreshing mango note, veering toward the greener side. I get some lemony citrus notes in the aftertaste, particularly a more herbaceous and grassy citrus flavor from the green rooibos and lemongrass. It’s an easy thirst-quencher iced tea.

This is a lovely combination of blackberries and Earl Grey, two flavors Anne does very well. The blackberry is very sweet and juicy, and is the most dominant flavor while the cup is still quite warm; as it cools, the begamot pops more and leaves a nice citrusy aftertaste. I enjoy making smoothies using iced Earl Grey and mixed frozen berries, and the flavor profile here reminds me of that. The citrus and berry combo is very complementary.

This has been my evening herbal as of late.

The flavor is that of a hibiscus-based “mulled wine” sort of tea… a flavor profile I personally really love, but even amongst spiced-hibi blends, this one doesn’t really stand out. There are lots of different dried fruits in this, but I honestly don’t taste any particular fruit flavor from them. The spices, as well, are far softer than I’d expect from a tea calling itself a “chai” — mostly just a sweet ginger note at the end of the sip from the combination of cinnamon and ginger. There is a sort of “pine” note to the tea that I really do enjoy, though I’m not sure where it is coming from… the cardamom, most likely. That one pine-fresh sort of note on the warm fruity hibiscus does give it a “cozy against the winter” feel. I’ll happily finish off my bag, but nothing about it makes it stand out over other hibiscus cider options I’ve had, like T2s “Mulled Wine Magic” (which still remains my favorite).

I’m confused as to why this tea was so wildly popular that it consistently sold out, won tea elections, and finally made it to the permanent collection due to the popular demand, because it is one of the most unexciting Bird & Blend teas I’ve tried.

The dry leaf smells amazing in the package, but the butterscotch just doesn’t hold up in the brewed tea for me at all. Brewed hot and plain, it just tastes like a standard strong, astringent, malty breakfast tea, with maybe a hint of generic caramel-like sweetness in the background. I tried it as a tea soda as well, hoping the carbonation would create a sort of “butterscotch soda” flavor, but it continued to just… not taste butterscotch-y.

The tea does do a lot better with added sweetener. Prepared as a latte with sweetened vanilla almond milk, it did have more of a caramel-like flavor, but it still didn’t stand out as exemplorary compared to other caramel-esque teas I’ve had. A coldbrew with some added cane sugar syrup finally elevated it to the “butterscotch soda” I was looking for, and is probably my favorite way of drinking it of all the methods I tried, and how I will finish off the 50g bag.

Would not order more of this, though.

I prepared this sample coldbrew, and of the Bird & Blend coldbrews I’ve had recently, I think this one has been my favorite after “Peach Soda.”

The oolong base appears to be more present in this tea than I experienced in “Pink Prosecco.” It has a nice silky texture with a sweet and smooth floral note. I’m not getting any of the vegetal undertones from the Tie Guan Yin; likely the florality is really popping due to the elderflower. This is actually my first tea with elderflower in it, so I admittedly am not quite sure how it tastes, but I really do love the florality of this blend so I guess I’m a fan? The peach in this is present but not super strong; it has just enough of a citrusy tang to not taste like candy peach flavor, but it is still sweet and delicate rather than punchy. I actually wouldn’t mind if it were a little stronger, but it melds with the florality really well.

Nice and relaxing… more suited as a spring tea, but maybe that’s just me projecting being over this frigid winter.

Drank this sample coldbrewed… it probably needed more leaf than I used per batch but I wanted to stretch it to a few liter pitchers.

I enjoy wine teas as it is a beverage I can’t have due to my chronic migraine diagnosis, though this one misses the mark for me, because it lacks that sort of “effervescent” mouthfeel of an “alcoholic” tea. But despite that disappointment, there is a gentle fruitiness to the flavor and a silkiness to the liquour, with a subtle sweet floral undertone… oddly enough, the flavor most reminds me of strawberries and cream. It looks like the actual red fruit in this blend is raspberry, but it lacks any tangy/tart elements that would make me read the note as raspberry over strawberry… the hibiscus doesn’t seem to do much in terms of flavor and only in color. Perhaps if I had made a stronger infusion and treated this more as a fruit tea in terms of the amount of leaf I use instead of as an oolong it would’ve been a bit punchier, but I’m not upset with the soft strawberry and floral notes I am tasting.

Definitely could’ve been improved by that effervescent “wine” note, though.

I had a lovely Festivus yesterday consisting of naps with the cat, reading manga, a bubblebath with cheerful Celtic music playing in the background, and ordering in pizza. Happy holidays to all, whether you are a traditionalist or more off the beaten path like me. :-)