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Cooking TTB #6

I’ve heard so much about 52Teas on Steepster but never tried any of their tea. So I was excited to see this one in the TTB! Although I can smell the marshmallow sweetness, all I’m tasting is lots of toasted rice, a bit of grassiness from the base and just a hint of strawberry flavor. This one’s not for me, but still glad I had the chance to try it out!

Cooking TTB #5

Republic of Tea sure nails the scents on their dessert teas! I could have sworn someone was baking chocolate chip banana bread in my kitchen while this one was steeping. Unfortunately, the flavor just can’t live up. I used 2 tea bags and steeped for almost 10 minutes, but I’m still finding this rather bland and watery. What I do taste is artificial banana flavor with just a bit of chocolate. On the plus side, there is no unpleasant rooibos aftertaste with this one!

Cooking TTB #4

Oh Lupicia, where have you been all my life? Every tea I’ve tried from this company has been stellar and Golden Honey Dew is no exception! It tastes like I squeezed a fresh, juicy honeydew melon directly into my cup…no artificial flavor, no woody roobios aftertaste. This is another one I’d love to try iced at some point.

Cooking TTB #3

This is exactly what the name promises…a cupful sweet, fruity, caramel goodness! The base is nice and smooth and doesn’t compete with the other flavors. I’m going to be keeping this one!

Cooking TTB #2

This isn’t tea…it’s white wine! Such a lovely, natural grape flavor with a bit of sweetness and just a touch of jasmine. I’m loving this hot, but I’m guessing it would be even better iced. Add this to the list of Lupicia teas I’ll be ordering whenever I can manage to justify buying more tea!

I’ve been curious to try this one since Anlina reviewed it a few weeks ago and she was kind enough to include a sample for me in the Cooking TTB. I haven’t had many dessert teas with a white base before, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. This is lovely! It is light and smooth, but still very flavorful…lots of caramel/toffee and just a hint of hay from the base. So glad I got to try this! Looking forward to sampling more teas from this brand.

This tea is so confusing! From the name, I thought it was a straight-up oolong, but reading the ingredients I found out that there is black tea and green tea in here as well. I’ve never had such a mix of bases! And how in the world are you supposed to steep it? The label says to use boiling water, but I was sure I’d end up with a nasty, bitter brew doing it that way. I went for 180 degrees for 3 minutes and it still came out slightly bitter, but it’s drinkable. I’m not getting much orange at all, just a lot of jasmine floral and a bit of a grassy vegetal flavor. Very odd!

I like Earl Grey, but I definitely prefer it with a black base. This one just tasted strange to me…a lot of sharp bergamot flavor along with a slightly bitter, grassy green tea base and just a hint of smoke. I finished my cup, but I don’t think I’d drink this one again. Then again, this was a bonus sample with my Great British Tea Store order, so I certainly can’t complain!

Not sure how old my sample is, but I really didn’t get a lot of vanilla or coconut from this tea…just a little bit of nondescript fruity flavor and a lot of bitter, astringent black base. I only steeped it for 3 minutes and I wasn’t expecting it to go bitter so fast! :( Oh, well…one more sip-down as I work my way through the pile of samples I’m trying to polish off this week!

This was another sample from my swap with The Cookie Lady. Maybe I understeeped it, but I found the flavor quite weak. I got cinnamon and a bit of something else that didn’t quite read as chocolate to me. For a brownie tea, I would have expected a lot more chocolate. Still, it’s always fun to try a new tea!