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Tea #5 Great Canadian Traveling Tea Box

I’m interested in Handmade Tea, have been wanting to try a couple for a while now – possibly even subscribe. Was really excited to see some in the TTB.
I only made a little of this. Lemon isn’t my favorite flavor, mint isn’t my favorite flavor. This is not a tea I should like, but I wanted to get an idea of quality of ingredients, how strong they blend flavors etc.
I was quite surprised with this one. There is nothing fake or artificial about this tea. High quality, real ingredients all the way. It’s light and lemony (with out that harsh acidic taste I find from citrus), the mint was more spearminty to me – nice change from peppermint. This will still never be a favorite of mine, but I can appreciate the quality of ingredients and skill in blending. No number rating.
(I know Sil also wanted to try some of these teas – I’m just going to do a partial cup taste and leave the rest for her).

Tea #4 Great Canadian Traveling Tea Box

I really like this. I drank it all day at work today. This could be the everyday, go to, black tea that I’ve been searching for. It’s a really nice deep, rich, dark, bold black with out being astringent. It resteeps well. It’s not fussy about my haphazard steeping times at work. This is pretty close to a perfect black for me. I really enjoyed it.

Tea #3 Great Canadian Traveling Tea Box

IMHO This is what swapping and Tea Boxes are all about. I would look at this on a web site and think “hmmmmm interesting” but would never buy it. Love having the opportunity to try these bizarre teas (or at least bizarre to me).

This is wonderful. It’s like drinking cereal. I tried it straight and it was too grainy for me. I added just a touch of sweetener and just a splash of milk. OMG, it’s like hot, sweet puffed wheat cereal. Yummy. Toasted, roasted, nutty, grainy, then just that touch of sweet and milk. Awesome.
It’s my understanding that I can take as much out of the box as I like, as long as I replace it with something else. I would love to keep this whole package, but I’m not going to. I’m going to put the rest back in the box – not because I don’t like it, but because I want others to experience this. I hope someone else loves it as much as I do. (OK I’ll admit that I went to the web site to make sure that I could buy some before I said I would share….it’s on the shopping list).

Tea #2 Great Canadian Traveling Tea Box

Continuing on with the adventure, I chose another fruit with herb tea. This is definitely blackberry in black tea base. Like the other one tonight, I’m having problems finding the herbal component in this one too. There is just a hint of sage way in the back, but not enough for it to make the title of the tea. I think these companies want to make unusual blends but don’t want to scare off the general public. It’s like they just can’t commit to take it all the way.
This is nice blackberry tea, I’m enjoying it, wish it had more sage.
These are tea bags, I used 2 bags in 16oz just under boiling for 4 min.

Edit to add: I made a second steep from these bags and then put it in the fridge. Had it tonight. I added quite a bit of sweetener to it, but that really brought out both the blackberry and the sage. I many need to snag another couple of bags of this and cold steep them.

Tea #1 Great Canadian Traveling Tea Box

I just wanted to say thanks to Lala for setting this up. I received the box in the mail today, and there are lots of interesting sounding teas to try. I just started at the top of the list (couldn’t choose).

This is a pretty decent berry white tea. Not too sweet, not too tart, the fruit doesn’t overpower the white base. There isn’t enough basil, in fact I’m not sure I’m getting any at all. All in all it was a nice way to start out from the box. Interesting without being too weird. I’m going to make another cup of this and let it cool, see if I can get a bit more basil from it being cold.
I steeped it 1.5 tsp/8 oz 80C 4 min

This was sent to me by the most generous Scribbles. Thank you so much for introducing me to Tao Tea Leaf. I’ve liked pretty much everything of theirs that I’ve tried.
This one is harder for me. I like it, but it’s a bit odd. It’s a bit like a Lapsang Souchong, but different. It is smokey, but you can still taste the black base under the smoke. This is a really bold black tea, and while the smoke is not overpowering, it is still very present. I just find it odd that they have found a way to put this much smoke on the leaves and still allow the base to come through.
Having said all that, I do like it, but it’s still a little too smokey for me.
Thanks so much Scribbles for sending some of this my way.

Maybe I was just in a funk today, don’t know. I took this to work today (knew I wasn’t going to be happy with just that icky black), and had a couple of steeps of it this afternoon. I should love this. Love Laoshan Black, Love dark, roasted oolong – this should be perfect.
Maybe it’s the water at (dunno – still like Laoshan Black at work), maybe it needs more controlled steep times – steep parameters at work are haphazard at best. Not sure, but I’m not getting this. It doesn’t taste like oolong, it doesn’t taste like Laoshan Black – not sure, just generic tea. If given a cup, I’m not sure I would have said oolong.

I’m reserving judgement on this, will try it again at home sometime, but for right now, sad face :((

This was the last tea, in my black tea a day experiment last week. I did take this to work on Friday, and Saturday, and today.
I still don’t know what to say about it. It’s really finicky with steep times, but no matter what I did, it just reminds me of coffee – coffee that had been sitting around for 5 hours that’s been watered down til it barely tastes like coffee. Weak, bitter, stale coffee.
No I don’t like it, I tried but nope can’t do it.
I didn’t find anything special about any of these teas, but the Yunnan won the challenge. Sorry Davids, I’m going back to the good stuff.

Black Tea of the Day Continued. This is what I’ve been looking for. It has some of the characteristics of a black tea that I like. Cavocorax wrote in their tasting notes that this might be a poor man’s Laoshan Black. I totally agree with that. It’s obviously not of the same quality as Laoshan Black, but it’s in that family.
This is a decent tea, I could take this to work. I found that it didn’t really steep very well. The second steep was really weak and I didn’t even bother with a third. So all things considering, this doesn’t have the depth of flavor, and you don’t get as many cups out of the leave – this isn’t really that cheap.
The good news is, that I will be looking at other Yunnan Blacks from other sources. This has helped narrow the search. Tomorrow Assam…..

Continuation of my tea a day journey. I actually left this sitting on the counter as I walked out the door to go to work. I was tealess at work all day :(( In hind site this might not have been such a bad thing.
So I came home, and made some of this. Package says 98C water 4-6minutes. 4-6 for black, that seemed aggressive to me, so I did just under boiling for 3 minutes.
EWWWWWWWW sorry I don’t have the vocabulary to explain. Ewwwww and yuck are pretty much my thoughts on this. Dump. Try again – second steep same leaves – again I did 3 minutes but since it’s a second steep thought it might be ok. NOT. Ewwwwwww is still my reaction to this. Dump. Try again. New leaves just under boiling 2 minute steep. This is not getting any better. I still hate it.
I’m not wasting anymore time or energy on this tea. NOT FOR ME. It is way too bitter, way too astringent, and doesn’t taste anything like any black tea I’ve ever experienced. If someone handed me a cup of this, I’m not sure TEA would be the first thing that comes to mind. The good news is, if you want to call it that….this makes the darjeeling seem like candy. That is NOT my least fav tea anymore.