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Oh hum. I was really hoping for some distinct pecan pie flavours in this one, but it’s not living up to its name.

The rooibos base is just too woody tasting and really overpowers the other flavours. On the finish I get a bit of caramel and sweetness.

It’s not a bad tea by any means, but I want notes of butter and pie crust and nuts in addition to the sweet. And I think that a bit of rooibos would help along the pecan notes, but it’s too much as the whole base.

I really love the unique flavour of pecan pie, so I had really high hopes for this.

I’m having toast for lunch, with this amazing plum, lime and cardamom jam I got from the Duluth Preserving Co, and while I am all caffeined out for now, I needed a good tea to go along with it.

I’m craving a good cardamom heavy chai, but I don’t actually have one in my cupboard, so I took 3 tsp of Metropolitan Tea Company Rooibos Chai that I have and threw in a teaspoon of green cardamom pods that I bruised in the mortar.

I steeped for 10 minutes and added lots of milk and sugar and I’m pretty happy with this. The extra cardamom makes it much more appealing to me, and this is pretty close to what I was craving.

I’ve finally picked up a gaiwan, gongbei and small tea cups, so I can prepare this tea properly. We tried it once, ages ago when we first picked it up, and brewed it western style and it just wasn’t that good, so probably about a year later, I’m revisiting it.

I don’t know anything about this pu erh. It’s pressed into mini toucha, and there’s no details provided about it. Next time I go in I’ll have to ask the shop if they can say anything more about it.

3o second rinse with boiling water, and then a five second first steep.

The liquor is a deep, clear, reddish brown. It smells robust and earthy, with a bit of malt and a bit of mustiness. The leaves themselves have these notes, as well as a fragrance I can’t quite pin down, but that reminds me of cool, humid early mornings in Mexico – coffee, petrichor and jungle?

First impression on the tongue is earth, must and smoky. There’s some sweet, dried fruit notes that are a delightful surprise. This has a wonderful, full mouth flavour, and is very rich tasting. The finish lingers on the back of the tongue and is a bit sweet. There’s a touch of licorice on the finish and a pleasant hint of bitterness.

Second steep, 10 seconds. Haha, oh dear, nothing about this steep was done with skill. I shifted the lid of the gaiwan mid pour and dumped tea and leaves all over the outside of the gongbei. Still, most of the tea was salvaged.

The licorice notes come out even earlier in the sip now. There’s more sweetness, and a touch of astringency and acidity that wasn’t in the first steep. This one has less of a full mouth flavour and is more focused on the front and sides of the tongue. There’s a brief floral note mid sip, which then shifts to lots of licorice and some juicy fruit on the finish, perhaps apple and grape?

Third steep, 15 seconds.

This steep smells musty and medicinal. There’s a lot of licorice lingering on my palette from the previous cups that almost overpowers the notes of this one. Lots of earth, drier, and with a woodiness that comes up mid sip and lingers into the finish. Again there’s licorice on the finish, which fills my mouth more and more as I continue to sip, and is starting to take on some more medicinal notes. I’m experiencing a slight numbing feeling at the back of my tongue and roof of my mouth, similar to szechuan pepper.

Fourth steep, 20 seconds.

Liquor this time around is redder and paler. The leaves have a more vegetal fragrance now, combined with something that I can only describe as library. The sip is musty, earthy and a bit on the weak side. The numbing and licorice continue to build, though they’re not distinctly present on the sip anywhere. They’re just filling my mouth. I’m starting to get a slight jittery feeling from the caffeine, so the next steep will be my last for a while.

Steep five. 25 seconds. Pale amber liquor. We’re back to a bit of malt and must, and a whole lot of licorice. Again, a little weak as I can taste my water a bit; probably should have done this one for 30. There’s a sweetness in the back of the throat again that’s building. The numbing effect is pretty pervasive. In amongst the licorice finish there’s a hint of something that reminds me of the finish on coffee, before the sour aftertaste kicks in.

I don’t have a lot of experience with pu erhs, but I really, really enjoyed this. I’m so glad I gave it a second chance with a more appropriate brewing method, and I’m looking forward to trying out more pu erhs.

I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting from this tea. This is my first cup and I just grabbed the first thing out of my box of blacks that I hadn’t tried before. I had assumed that this was a straight black blend, but when I got the cup steeped, lo and behold, there was a lot of bright green leaf in there.

Initial impressions on the nose were a lot of malt and fruit, which is borne out on the palette. Nice, round malty flavour, a touch of vegetal and lots of distinct black currant.

Black currant is one of my favourite fruits, but I never like it in tea as much as I feel like I should. I drank the first few sips of this straight, and then something about the black currant flavour was bugging me, so I added some milk and sugar, which has made it a much more enjoyable cup to sip in the morning.

I’m not in love with this, but I’ll definitely drink it again, and experiment with steeping it more like a green, though with steeping it like a black there was no astringency or bitterness.

This is a nice green tea base, with a hint of peachiness. There are vegetal notes and a lot of dry hay taste, a bit earthy, a bit tangy, and a wee bit sweet and fruity.

It’s not terribly exciting, but it was a pleasant cup for this evening. Second steep was less peach and fairly mild tasting overall.

Hmm, I think I was expecting a bit more from this tea. The tasting notes suggest a lot more fruit, but I’m only getting the slightest hint of orange, and mostly just lots and lots of cinnamon. I’m also not sure about this black tea base – for a 4 min steep there’s a lot more bitterness than I would like or expect, and I’m not getting much earth or malt or other black tea flavours.

I think with a lot of cinnamon notes, I’m also wanting some other flavours to round it out and give it a more full mouth taste. Something more like a masala chai. Which maybe is unfair to this blend, but it just seems like there’s some back of the mouth flavour that should be there but isn’t.

This isn’t bad, and the more I sip at it the more I like it, but I’m not impressed either. I wonder if playing with the steeping will resolve some of the bitterness. Maybe some milk and sugar would help it along too.

This is one of my all time favourite teas to sip in the evening. The cool, floral notes of the lavender are forefront, and perfectly complimented by the woodiness of the rooibos and the sweet, creaminess of the coconut.

Everything about this tea just makes me feel calm and happy. It’s very mellow, but still distinct and unique, and very easy to drink.

After a long weekend of road tripping, and all day in the car today, I’m so pleased to curl up on the couch with this cup.