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A classic tea blend from one of the oldest tea companies in existence. Perhaps I should be drinking this with my pinkie out. ;D

Another tea from the Traveling Teabox and I have to say I’m liking this a lot better than the last one I tried! ;)

The tea smells fresh and minty and it reminds me as nothing so much as that Tident spearmint-flavour gum. The green tea looks like it’s been rolled into loose little gunpowder-style pellets and it looks and while some gunpowder teas will take on a dull, dusty appearance, particularly if they’re old – this tea looks fresh as well as smells fresh.

It’s nicely balanced in term of the flavour of the green tea and the flavour of the mint, with neither overwhelming the other. Both mint and gunpowder green tea can be bitter or astringent, but this tea is neither – it’s refreshing, light and slightly sweet. It’s too bad summer is over – this would be excellent iced and maybe with a bit of agave nectar.

I’m def keeping this one! :D

A lot of people really disliked this tea so when it showed up in the Travelling Teabox I decided to give it a try out of morbid curiosity.

The smell wasn’t too promising – it was an oddly yeasty, almost spoiled sort of scent with a bit of fruitiness mixed in. I reduced the steeping time dramatically from what Adagio recommended to see if that helped.

It wasn’t too bad at first – it tastes a bit dusty, and a bit fruity. But the aftertaste – dear god it’s horrible! It tastes similar to how it smells – strongly yeasty, like the tea has gone off. And it lingers. A lot – I can taste it on each breath. Bleh, this has to be the first time I’ve dumped a cup of tea after just one sip, but this aftertaste is making me gag.

You’d think that something with the word ‘tropics’ in the title couldn’t go wrong, but somehow Adagio still managed to create massive Tea Fail out of it. This doesn’t even taste remotely like anything I’d associate with the tropics. I mean yeast? Come on!

There’s always the chance that the tea really is spoiled, so I’m debating chucking this in the garbage rather than back in the TTB. Thoughts?

*chugs cranberry juice to get rid of the taste *

Another tea out of the Travelling Teabox – I imagin I’ll be trying many of those as I try to decide which teas from the box I want to keep and which ones to send on. :)

It smells like a typical Yunnan – that sort of slightly smokey, slightly tannic scent. People have likened it to tobacco (not cigarettes), though since I avoid tobacco on principle I really don’t have a good idea what it smells like.

It’s not as ‘dense’ a tea as other Yunnans I’ve tried have been, instead it’s quite smooth and surprsingly light. It has a surprisingly sweet note in the middle of each sip before it trails off into a more tannic sort of aftertaste. It’s a little bit drying on the mouth I find, but not too bad. I may or may not keep this one.

It’s not tasting as bark-like this time ‘round, but there’s still a tannin-like taste at the start of each sip that I’m not fond of. It trails off into something that’s a bit greener and smoother, but I’m still having trouble picking up that milky/buttery quality that milk oolongs are supposed to have.

So I dumbed down the steeping and found that it wasn’t as overwhelmingly tart as it was the first time. But all the same, the hibiscus and citrus pretty much end up overwhelming any yerba maté flavour that might have been present. If someone gave me a cup of this without telling me what it was, I’d never be able to guess that maté was the primary ingredient in it.

If I was a fan of hibiscus I might be inclined to give this tea another chance, but I’m not so half of this tea will likely go into the Travelling Teabox and the other half will be put up for adoption (any takers?).

I took a bag of this from the Travelling Teabox to have with breakfast this morning. The smell as it’s brewing is sweet and very vanilla-y – it actually reminded me of that Oregon Chai mix. Actually it tasted a fair bit like it too, though without all the sugary sweetness that made me dislike Oregan Chai’s stuff. I didn’t add anything other than some skim milk and really this tea doesn’t need it.

All in all I found it quite nice – and I may just grab all the remaining bags of vanilla chai from the teabox for myself. ;)

Pretty much all silver needle teas that I’ve drank have a hay-like scent and flavour profile and this tea isn’t an exception. However, I’m not getting the sweet-hay flavour as strongly as I’ve tasted it in other teas – like LeafSpa’s Silver Needle. This tea is calmer and mellower and content to tickle the taste buds with the flavour rather than hit them with a sledge hammer. The tea has a really smooth body and the flavour tappers off into something that’s almost buttery in nature.

Mmmm, I’ve discovered that this tea goes remarkably well with a spoonful of hot chocolate mix added to it. ;D

This tea is much-improved with milk and it gives the tea a flavour that’s actually fairly reminiscent of gingerbread. Still not terribly thrilled with this tea, but I’m upping the rating a touch. Definitely recommend having it with milk.