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Well uping the steeping temperature/time made the sour cherry flavour a bit stronger, but this tea is still a long way from being black forest cake. It needs a sweeter, creamy element to it for it to work, I think. And chocolate – you can’t have black forest cake without the chocolate cake layers and chocolate shavings, yum!

I opened the little sample pouch of this tea I got as part of the Valentine’s Swee-tea exchange (thanks AmazonV!). At least I think this tea is what the ‘Neapalitain’ lable is refering to… ⌐_⌐

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love how Frank uses real flavouring that you can see right in the tea. I’m finding big cocoa nibs, pieces of vanilla bean, and bits of dried strawberry all mixed in with the honeybush – it’s great. The result does smell very much like Neapolitan ice cream which makes me a feel a bit nostalgic as I haven’t had that particular type of ice cream in years but it was a pretty common treat at my house when I was a kid.

The flavour doesn’t quite get there in terms of authenticity, although it certainly makes a game effort. The chocolate flavour seems to dominate everything else to some extent and I wish the strawberry in particular made up more of the flavour profile. Despite that, I’d still count this as another awesome blend from 52Teas. :)

The owner of the Granville Island Tea Co. told me that this is one of their most popular blends, though I do wonder if that has partially to do with the fact that Granville Island is a popular tourist destination and ice wine is becoming known as a rather Canadian sort of thing – like maple syrup.

I found the smell of this tea to be richly sweet and quite fruity\grapey. It doesn’t smell fermented or yeasty like actual wine might, which I’m thankful for as I think that would be rather off-putting. The flavour is quite strong and authentic as if I’d actually mixed ice wine with the black tea in my cup. The flavour is very wine-like but sweeter and with a hint of something a bit floral on the aftertaste.

I really enjoyed this blend; maybe next time I’m in Vancouver I’ll buy a full pouch rather than the little sample of it got on my last visit.

This is a pretty classic black tea blend and the Granville Island Tea Co does it quite well. The tea is a bit on the astringent side, which actually ends up working with the lemon and strawberry flavours by bringing out the fruitiness. Milk or any sort of dairy would be a big no-no for this tea I think, although a bit of honey might work fine. It’s a light, summer-y sort of tea that brings to mind fancy afternoon tea parties out in the garden on a nice day. It would probably make a good iced brew for this reason as well.

I wasn’t terribly thrilled with my last experience with Vykasa tea (see the Tropical Fruits tea) but I found this one on sale for $3 at my local Winners/HomeSense store, so I decided to give it a try.

It was…surprisingly nice. The ginger is present without being too hot and spicy and the melony flavour of the canteloupe isn’t overwhelmed by it. I’m not sure why it’s called a ‘chai’ unless that’s just to refer to the ginger because I can’t really pick up any other spices in the tea. None the less, I found it an interesting and enjoyable drink.

The first steep of this tea (at 3:30 mins) was strongly bakey with a distinct roasted-grains flavour more like what I’d expect from a dark Formosa oolong. This was noticably toned down in the second steeping (at 4:45 mins) though the flavour overall remained full and strong. I also picked up some vegetal notes now that the roasted flavour wasn’t as overwhelming and there’s a hint of sweet at the end of each sip, though it’s not what I’d consider to be ‘raisin sugar’. A pretty decent dark oolong over all.

I think I’m in love. This tea is the definition of chocolatey – I could smell it thoughout the house while it was steeping, making my mouth practically water with anticipation. The flavour is sheer chocoholic’s heaven, the rich taste of chcolate blending seemlessly with the sweetness of the honeybush base and enhanced by the malt notes. I can totally see how adding some milk and a touch of sweetener would make this taste like a chocolate shake. I think I might try that with my next cup of the tea. Yummy!

The tea smelled distinctly of sour cherries while it steeped but as it turns out this was sort of false advertising as this was quite muted in the flavour. The tea mainly tasted of yerba mate and light black tea with a hint of fruitiness. It was rather underwhelming and nothing like black forest cake in my opinion, though maybe I just need to steep the leaves for longer.

There’s something about the smell of this that makes me love it – it’s an interesting mix of fruity, spicy cinnamon, and the tangy scent of the juniper berries. Somehow they all manage to work together very well. I wish a little more of the fruity sweetness had gotten into the flavour. Overall the flavour seems to be tangy, a mixture of citrus and juniper berries which give the tea a clean flavour with notes of pine. The cinnamon is subtle, but it gives the tea a warm, soothing quality to it.

It’s a very interesting and unusual tea.

First of all, the art on the tin is awesome – I love dragons and the ‘get high on a pot’ bit made me laugh as well.

This is a really nice dragonwell, close to, if not as good as the one I get from my local tea shop. It’s a light, but full-bodied tea that tastes quite savory with the flavour of some sort of cooked green vegtable woven through it. It leave an interesting, almost salty aftertaste in my mouth that makes me think of miso soup.