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Brrrrr! It’s cold outside – minus twenty-three degrees celcius with the wind-chill factor and genius that I am I decided to walk to the grocery store. Needless to say after that lovely adventure I needed something to warm my insides up, so I decided that I’d try out this tea.

It’s not a loose-leaf tea – it only seems to come in H&S’s pyramid teabags as part of their ‘Historic Royal Palaces’ line. This tea doesn’t strike me as terribly British (I could be wrong but I don’t think they grow a lot of coconut trees over there) but whatever. Honestly I’m a bit underwhelmed by it – maybe it just needs more steeping time, but most of what I can taste is just the green tea – there’s maybe a little bit of coconut and a hint of something that tastes like lemongrass – but none of the titular ginger whatsoever.

I’ve got two more bags, so I’ll see if the flavour tastes stronger if it’s brewed for longer/hotter – I’ll hold off assigning this tea a rating until then.

I added a drizzle of agave nectar to this cup and the sweetness really suits this tea, really bringing out the fruit flavours.

I steeped the tea longer and drank it with milk this time. The rose flavour is certainly stronger but the extra minute didn’t seem to turn the black tea base bitter. I’m not sure if the milk really does much for this tea – it isn’t a bad combination but I think I’d be just fine with drinking it plain as well.

When the Travelling Teabox was staying with me I grabbed a bunch of the miscellaneous teabags that looked interesting and this was one of them.

I’m working my way through a bit of a cold and while research on echinacea real effectiveness as a medicine has had mixed results, I figure it couldn’t hurt. I forgot to time the steeping so I have no idea how long I steeped it for exact that it was quite awhile. Still, it didn’t make the tisane bitter or medicine-y. It’s an interesting mix of mint, lemon and something generically herbal that work out to be quite pleasent.

Adagio’s Masters tea collection claims to be a cut abouve its normal teas – it certainly is a cut above their usual prices so I wanted to see if the teas were actually worthy the price before I forked over the money for a whole tin.

The appearance of the tea is certainly a cut above your basic green oolong – the leaves are beautiful jade-green twists that unfurl into large, whole leaves. The first steep is quite light with a very faint lilac scent with much of the same daintily-sweet floral quality to it.

The second steeping (@ 2:30) is fuller but it retains that floral quality without tasting or smelling like a cup of perfume. It’s still quite a ‘light’ tea compared to other oolongs that I’ve tasted and it feels quite smooth and clean in the mouth with no unpleasent aftertastes.

A minute less make the tea taste much more like a green tea and while the mint is present it’s not the main focus anymore. I think I liked it better stronger – I’m not getting any of the sweet vanilla right now.

Another tea I ganked from the Travelling Teabox. I’m always up for something new and different so I was eager to try what I consider to be one of Frank’s odder teas flavours (not counting the Tuna Melt, lol).

The tea smells like cola – it’s more like a Dr. Pepper scent than a Coco-Cola scent IMO, but it’s surprisingly authentic. Unfortunately the taste…really isn’t. It might just be the age of the sample but mostly what I’m getting is the (rather bitter) black tea base interspersed with a bit of faint, sweetish cola flavour and maybe a hint of vanilla. This tea tastes like it needs milk, but I don’t think the flavourings would be agreeable to that – maybe some agave nectar?

I’ve got enough for one or two more cups so I’ll mess around with it a bit and see if I can’t get it to taste better.

I upped the steeping time by a minute and I can taste that the fruit flavour is stronger – though it’s still more of an orange-strawberry flavour than just straight-up strawberry. However, there’s also a note of bitterness creeping in – not surprising since 4 minutes is a lot even for a hardy green tea. Maybe I’ll reduce the water temperature next time.

The tea smells nice – not necessarily like caramel to my nose though – it’s more like those old-fashioned shortbread cookies you get in tins around X-mas. The flavour is wretchedly bitter plain but it’s much improved with some milk. It’s sweet but I’m still not really getting caramel specifically – it’s has the biscuity, shortbread flavour with a bit of creaminess added to it.

It’s all a little bland and underwhelming to be honest.

This was actually called Precious Lemon Rooibos on the tin but the ingredients are the same, so I’m assuming this is the same tea just with the name changed. I got it out of the Travelling Teabox and I ended up just taking the entire tin to reduce the overall weight (nuuu flat-rate boxes for me I’m afraid).

I was expecting this to taste super tart and lemony but the lemon flavour is in fact quite subdued. There’s a lightly foral, faintly spiced sweetness to the tea. None of the ingredients are really shouting out to me or otherwise making themselves obnoxious and all together it’s quite a well-balanced tea. I can taste the woody flavour of the rooibos mostly of the end of each sip, but it’s quite faint and blends it well – so I’ll forgive it for just this once. ;)