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I was digging through my cupboard for a comforting dessert tea today and was reminded that I’d ordered a set of 3 about a month ago that had totally slipped my mind. Usually I put untasted teas on the kitchen table so I remember to try them before putting them away, but for some reason the Valentine’s Day set went straight into tea storage. They were a total impulse buy (I had a 30% off badge + free shipping on the sneeqpeek sale, so it was dirt cheap) that I regretted once I got them. The only one I was actually interested in was the raspberry chocolate one—I don’t like rooibos and I don’t really care for peach tea either, so I just kind of shoved them out of sight.

But this pretty pink tin caught my eye today, and I looked at the ingredients: rose petals, chocolate, vanilla, cream, and almond?! I love all of those! Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad. There is one dessert rooibos that I LOVE because the flavors mask that weird medicinal taste. And this tea did smell great, like a latte in a tin. So into the tea pot it went, and the result smelled amazing. Almond + vanilla smells (and tastes) just like marzipan, which is actually pretty hard to capture in tea form. At first sip this is heaven—chocolatey, creamy, marzipan goodness with a gorgeous floral undertone. If the rating was based on that first taste this would be a 100 for sure: it was perfection. But after I actually swallowed, total medicinal rooibos took over my palate—not mild medicinal, but “oh god I just chugged cough syrup” medicinal. Disgusting! I let the tea cool and added some milk and that quality took a back seat to the magical flavor combos, but it’s still there sadly. Just a hint, but enough to make me question if I actually like this tea.

I bought this a bit impulsively—I love floral teas but hadn’t seen a lilac blend yet, so of course I had to try it out! I have lilacs in my front yard and the smell reminds me of beautiful warm spring nights, so I was hoping this tea would evoke the same feelings. Before I rate the actual tea I’d like to mention what a pleasant shopping experience I had with Strand—they actually charged me LESS for shipping than it actually cost (paid $4.95, label said it was $5.15). This might be a small thing, but high shipping charges will generally make me not want to shop at a company. They also sent a very generously sized sample even though I only bought one type of tea, and cookies! I’ve never received cookies along with a tea package, but they do fit rather well together so it was a nice surprise.

Well, on to the actual tea! I was a bit worried about this when I opened the bag, as it smelled really fake and fruity, with no trace of lilac at all. Thankfully the fake-ness disappeared once it was brewed, but it still smelled very fruity. And indeed, the actual tea tastes like a mix between a light floral blend and blueberry. I personally love blueberry, so this was more of a nice surprise than a bad one. The floral taste I suppose is lilac—it doesn’t taste like the smell the way jasmine does, and it’s very soft but still there. It’s sweeter than other floral blends I’ve tried, and very subtle. Going to try this iced soon, I think it would be a great summer beverage.

EDIT: On a hunch, I added a splash of milk to my second cup. Tasted like a blueberry muffin! Bumping up the rating a bit: this wasn’t what I expected at all, but it’s delicious.

Finally trying the last of the Rishi teas I ordered during the Mother’s Day sale! After my wonderful experience with their Ancient Emerald Lily I was hoping this tea would be similar but alas, this green falls a little flat for me. There’s a very strong steamed veggie smell once it’s brewed, and that carries through to the taste. I don’t really like when my tea tastes mildly of steamed spinach. It’s a shame, because the other notes her are really working for me: there’s a nice grassy taste, as well as a tiny hint of citrus and chestnut.

But steamed veggies + a hint of citrus reminds me unfortunately of a weird tea version of V8. Not exactly the most appetizing taste, and it’s kind of ruining the experience for me. I really want to like this because I love how grassy it is, but I can’t help thinking that someone made tea with the leftover water from blanching vegetables.

EDIT: Tried different brewing parameters (stepped for 1 minute 30 second), still too vegetable-tasting. Bumping the rating down a bit as I didn’t finish either cup.

I already have a rose tea that I love, so I’m not exactly sure how this wound up in my Upton order—it was so cheap, I just couldn’t resist! One sniff of the dry leaves and I knew it was a good decision, they smell so delicious. Not really a perfumey rose smell, more earthy. I love floral teas, and rose is my favorite floral scent, so of course I knew right off the bat that I’d enjoy this immensely.

It brews up very dark, and there really wasn’t a ton of rose smell going on so I was a bit worried. And when you first sip, it’s really just a very nice strong, malty, smooth black tea. But I swallowed, my mouth was filled with wonderful rose. Earthy, floral, sweet, delicious! It gets more rose-y as it cools, and I feel like I’ll be making this iced a lot this summer. I like my other rose tea a bit more but this one is just so much more affordable that I will definitely be drinking it regularly.

I am trying to brew this tea correctly, but it is really fighting back. My first steep (1 1/2 teaspoons, 190 degree water, 3 minutes) was awful. So so bitter, it totally overpowered any of the actual flavors of the tea. The second steep I dumped out half the leaves, lowered the water temp to 170, and steeped for only 2 minutes. And it tasted… like water. Well, the beginning of the sip was watery, then in the middle there’s some nice actual tea notes, then at the end… bitter! What the heck. It does say this is a “sharp” tea but it should NOT be bitter like that at only 170. Something here is going really wrong, so I am going to hold off on actually rating it until I get a gaiwan and can do some really short steeps.

I only have small, single-serving teapots at the moment, which means that the bf and I often end up drinking different teas in the evenings. I suppose this is for the best: while we have similar taste in teas we are often in different “tea moods.” But since I am in charge of actually brewing the tea, I end up having to wrestle out of him what he wants to drink. Sometimes it’s very specific, but some nights (like tonight) he’ll say “some sort of black tea.” I have 36 different blacks in my cupboard, not including samples or blends with green/white teas. So really, not a very helpful suggestion! I decided to go with the Orange Pekoe tonight, which I specifically got for him when I had my big Culinary gift certificate. He used to have a bagged version a lot and liked it, plus I can always go for more afternoon-type blacks.

This is an… unassuming tea. It’s mild, sweet, only a bit brisk and very mellow. Definitely more of an after-dinner drink than a mid-afternoon one, and with milk & sugar it’s definitely more likely to put you to sleep than give you a jolt of caffeine. But I certainly don’t need all my teas to be eye-openingly brisk, and for what it is this is definitely a solid choice.

I absolutely murdered this tea the first go-round. It was so bad I just poured the cup down the drain, but it was really my own fault. This is a green/black blend, but it doesn’t look like there is any green in there (though it is one of the prettiest blends I’ve ever seen!) and the instructions from NMTC say to brew it at 212 for 4-5 minutes. So, boiling water, 5 minutes, and no milk/sugar it was—and the results were horrifically bitter.

So for the second steep I cooled the water down a lot (perhaps too much, but I was nervous!), steeped for 3 minutes and added a tiny splash of milk to cut the astringency. And, like magic, an entirely different tea appeared in my cup. This tasted much more like a green than I thought it would—the hint of milk cuts the astringent of the black down to basically nothing, leaving behind a soft, sweet, floral tea. You can taste the jasmine the most, but the rose & lavender are there as well, with the vanilla adding a hint of creaminess. A great afternoon tea if you like floral blends (which I most definitely do).

I was thinking about this tea the other day and decided to revisit it: I remember liking it but it has some REALLY bad reviews. Why bad reviews made me decide to drink tea I do not know: probably out of curiosity. No way I liked something so bad it got a 34, right?

Well, after a fresh-brewed cup, I still do like it. It tastes kind of like a mild mix of chai (allspice & cinnamon) and sleepytime (chamomile, peppermint, lemongrass). It’s certainly not a great taste but it’s not bad. The issue, of course, is that I listed only 5 ingredients I could really taste when there are supposed to be twenty. So, 15 missing? I distinctly remember a hint of vanilla, wintergreen, lemon balm & rose in previous mugs that are just totally missing here. Even then, that’s 10… out of twenty. Looking at the ingredients list, I feel like having all of the tastes here would be just gross. Chicory, hibiscus, blackberry leaves? Belurgh.

I’m a bit conflicted on rating this in the end: the cup I drank deserves a bit higher but the cup it SHOULD be deserves lower. I will most definitely be finishing my tin if they all have a similar flavor, but I can’t actually recommend this to anyone as I have no clue what you’d wind up getting. It’s basically a grab-bag of ingredients, and not all of them go together.

After spending an entire day baking in the sun at an event I most definitely did not want to be at (and getting sunburned to boot), I was in desperate need of something cold, sweet, and refreshing. I’m sure there are lots of teas that fit that bill, but for me my go-to “oh dear lord I NEED some iced tea” tea is Moroccan Mint. And since there are about a hundred different variations of it everyone is bound to have a favorite: this one is mine.

This was actually one of my very-first loose leaf teas years ago. I remember my surprise when the gunpowder unfurled and busted open my tea ball! It was love at first sip, and this has been a staple in my cupboard ever since, even when I had to leave most of my teas behind for dorm life. Of course, I don’t use tea balls or spoons now for tea like this so I get to watch it bloom beautifully. This is such a pretty tea—I really love watching tea brew (kind of weird?) and this one is some great eye-candy.

The peppermint in this is very strong: many other Moroccan Mint blends are either not quite minty enough/are too minty for me or they use spearmint (which for some reason makes me ill). The mint-to-green-tea ratio is perfect here: you get a punch of cooling mint followed by a really interesting green. There are almost no grassy/vegetal notes, and like many gunpowders it has a hint of smokiness that perfectly counterbalances the sharp, strong mint and also has a nice depth of flavor. I do like this hot, but iced and with way too much sugar it’s just… perfect! Thirst-quenching, heat-cooling, lip-smacking delicious.

Oh Captain, I have such a tea-crush on you. You’re full-bodied, rich, malty, just a touch astringent, chock full of caffeine, smooth, and unlike every other Indian black tea I can drink you on an empty stomach. You’re fantastic with or without milk & sugar, and you are oh-so-forgiving about steep times and water temperature. Truly, a prince among teas!

Captain Assam totally saved my butt today. I had to get up so so early and I knew there was no way I’d make it through the day without a strong kick of caffeine. But blacks on an empty stomach make me brutally nauseous, and there was no possibility of scarfing down a meal. So Captain Assam came to the rescue! I used not nearly enough leaf, stepped for a minute too long, added too much milk, and it still did the trick! I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, plus this is just a fantastic-tasting cup of tea. My go-to morning tea for sure… but since it’s a limited edition, I try to save this for special occasions (aka some days I can’t live without it).