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This is a rather long analytic post, skip down for the actual tea review. I’ve been a bit confused trying to identify this company as they seem to have some multiple personality issues, possibly due to private labeling?

This and the Coconut Truffle by Tea Guys (www.teaguys.com) was my very first foray into gourmet loose leaf teas after my first broad order from Twinings of 8 different varieties of bagged teas which I was very happy with.

I had been looking at all the major brands of loose leaf (before I found this wonderful community) and became somewhat perplexed with the pricing structure in moving from the 20 bags per box at $2.99 a box to the huge variation in pricing loose leaf. Understanding the yield per ounce vs bag was my next challenge.

So being the Excel geek that I am, I started a spreadsheet plugging in the selling price at however many ounces then dividing down to get a per ounce price from them all and found the going rate to be around $3-$4 per ounce. Then reading around I gathered there are about 8-10 teaspoons per ounce (with usually 2-3 steepings per teaspoon).

Using this formula (9 teaspoons per ounce and 2 steeps per teaspoon)
I arrived at about $0.075 a cup for my Twinings bags of 20 at $2.99 a box.
For most of the other teas at $3/oz a cup worked out to $0.167

Which brings me (finally, sorry!) to The Tea Guys and their Tease brand which at $9.95 for a 6oz bag ($1.67/oz) works out to $0.093 per cup. So this is what prompted me to order my first loose leaf from them and I have been so happy with it!

THE TEA
The 6oz tea comes in an easy to open ziplock foil pouch for resealing and as soon as I opened it I was OVERWHELMED with the aroma. The fruitiness was stronger than a really strong potpourri and I was a little afraid it might be too much until I brewed my first 24oz pot. It was rich and aromatic with the peach being pretty strong but not nearly as overwhelming as the first whiff seemed. There is a spicy undertone from the ginger and the Darjeeling interweaves with the other flavors.

I love it with cream, sweetener, and a touch of honey. The only drawback is there is a lot of debris so use a fine mesh filter. I get a nearly as strong 2nd steeping in my 24oz pot from one heaping teaspoon.

Delicious very strong undertone of the rich cocoa with just a hint of the coconut. Definitely recommend having with cream (this tea prompted me to go out and get real cream – the one that says “whipping cream” on the carton). It’s a lovely dessert tea with a nice smooth black tea flavoring under it all. I didn’t realize it had honeybush in it till I went back to write this review and read it but in retrospect I think I could sense it smoothing everything out (I love honeybush).

I received a sample bag with the catalog from Davidson’s and I’d never heard of it before. It was very interesting and unique, a nice undertone of mint though the other flavors were a little difficult to describe. It’s not quite my cup of tea as it were.

Probably one of the spiciest of the Twinings bagged teas but still very mild for a chai. I would recommend it for those new to chais or who don’t like the heavily spiced ones.

Wonderfully like the Christmas tea but chamomile, I love how soothing it is late in the evening. It has a rich yellow golden color and almost buttery texture. The cinnamon, cardamom and cloves are much lighter in this blend than the Christmas tea.

I absolutely loved this Honeybush with so much flavor of orange and mandarin it hardly needs any sweetener at all. It is a wonderfully soothing late night tea.

My first Rooibos and these bags are very flavorful, different from traditional Camellia sinensis or other tisanes. A very rich flavor and hard to describe, I suppose it is what a “red bush” leaf would taste like. The color is a gorgeous deep red.

This was one of the first two teas that started my tea journey and is so delicious. Very rich flavors for a bagged tea and I was lucky enough to get some tins of the loose leaf which of course was so much better than the bags. Wonderful hints of cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves but not quite like a chai. Very Christmasy but I love drinking it all year.

For $4 for 3.5oz this is an excellent value in loose leaf tea.

Having this again after chatting with a friend today who I’d given a bag to and she described it as being like a chai but without the spice and she really liked it. Steep time on the first 24 oz pot of 3 minutes and the second closer to 5 and I get 4 pretty strong 12 oz cups.

Being relatively new on this tea journey this is my first Darjeeling and I love it as a daily drinker. I find myself wanting to pick it over the other 7 Twinings varieties I purchased at the same time due to it’s rich smooth flavor. Of course it would not compare to a selected 2nd Flush loose leaf as I’ve now been researching but remember, it is what it is.

I take it with 1 Splenda and sometimes a dash of honey but usually just straight and never milk. I highly recommend it to those who drink average bagged teas.