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“This smelled heavenly at the shop and my husband (who normally drinks only greens) dropped a bag of this in my basket. I love O’Conner’s Cream from TeaGschwender and was hoping this was similar since this store is easier for me to get to. I normally brew my blacks in 200 degree water since that’s the temperature my husband uses for hiss coffee but since it was just me I used boiling. I think that may have been responsible for the slight bitter edge to it as my second steeping today was much smoother. Overall, even with the second steeping at a lower temperature this tea was just okay for me. I wish the smell translated into the taste more but I think this will be great to blend with other teas, perhaps chocolate chip.”

Thanks again to Tea Forte for these samples. Unfortunately, I haven’t had anything from them that I would purchase on my own.

Admittedly this was likely my fault this time. I should know better than to rely on a keurig to produce water that’s the right temperature for green tea but at work I don’t have many options and I bring any and all bagged tea to work.

I decided to have this one because I feel like I might be coming down with a cold: scratchy throat, runny nose…fun stuff.

There’s just not much flavor here. A slight sweetness (that went weird with the addition of calorie free sweetener) but that’s about it.

Thanks Rumpus for the swap! This smelled so heavenly when I opened it that it jumped the line of new swapped teas to try. I seem to have forgotten how to make tea in my beehouse teapot (how many cups is it again? 2? 3?) so I tend to err on the side of using more tea rather than less. I think the pot holds three cups, but my mugs are technically 12 oz so I only get about 2 mugs full. So normally I’d use 3 tsp for a black tea and between 4 and 5 for a mate, but holdup, this wants 1.25 tsp per cup? Sheesh David’s Tea, I don’t think this early in the morning and I certainly don’t do math so it’s possible I didn’t brew this right (I put in about 4-5 tsps just to be safe).

This continued to smell heavenly as it was being brewed. I’m working from home today to keep my dog from trying to scare the bajeesus out of the guys installing carpet outside our condo so I poured myself a cup and sat down on the couch to get to work. First sip…yum…but weak. I get no real coconut or vanilla notes from it, mainly just rum. At least I think it’s rum. I’m not a big drinker and when I do drink it’s usually things that do their darndest to mask the alcohol flavor.

As it cools I’m getting more of the flavors and enjoying the tea more. Not sure yet if I’d purchase it myself, but I’m happy I tried it.

Thanks again Rumpus!

Another TG Groupon purchase (got three teas out of that groupon!).

My husband is a big marzipan fan so how could I pass this tea up? Add to that that it smells yummy and I was sold!

In the bag it smells like a marizan factory, steeped I noticed less of that scent. I can kind of see where the previous reviewer was coming from with the black base being a bit too strong but I still do get the taste of marzipan from it. Will I confuse myself and think I’m actually eating marzipan? Probably not, but the taste is there. I added some vanilla coconut milk and brown sugar splenda so perhaps that helped bring the flavor out a bit more.

If the other two I got from TeaGschwender are any indication a resteep will be lacking in flavor. That’s my only beef right now with TG. Cheaper than teavana but doesn’t resteep as well.

Overall an enjoyable tea but not knock your socks off amazing.

Another TG Groupon purchase!
Salesgirl suggested this after I inquired about chocolate/dessert teas.

This is pretty good. I think I’m finding though, that most rooibos tastes like rooibos, flavored or not. There was a hint of chocolate, although it’s pretty subtle. I kinda wish I had seen some of the other amazing sounding teas on their website but I was feeling a bit rushed (that’s what happens when you put all the tea behind the counter). This is nice and all, but I have plenty of nice teas, I want AMAZING teas and a few of them that I missed sound AMAZING!

It’s discontinued though so it’s probably best that I didn’t get too attached.

Who says you can’t drink at work?

I had a Groupon to TeaGschwender (I can only spell that because it’s listed at the top of this box) because I simply cannot resist a good deal on tea and it gives me an excuse to try something new. This place is not terribly easy to get to….well, strike that, it is easy to get to if all you want to do is drive past. My husband let me out and went to find parking so I ventured into the store alone. It was smaller than I imaged (that’s what she said) but cute with a few smelling jars along one wall and the majority of the teas behind the counter (a pet peeve of mine). We were on a bit of a timeline so I had to quickly pick out my teas and the gal was bagging it up when my husband walked through the door. Good thing too as he was only able to find parking in a 15 minute loading zone that was a 5 minute walk away…

I asked if they had anything chocolate since I didn’t see anything with that moniker behind the counter and the girl brought me this and a few others to smell.

I’m not a big drinker. I’m not even a little drinker really so I wasn’t wooed by the thought of a whiskey tea (when I do drink it’s more of the frou frou, hardly taste like alcohol drinks but this tea had a nice aroma to it. Mello, chocolately, but subtle.

I picked this one out last night to make this morning (mainly just so I could make the drinking at work joke) and it still smelled wonderful. It was one of “those mornings” so I didn’t get to smell it while steeping and it’s currently in my thermos travel mug but I’m sure it smells pretty good. The taste is mellow and smooth with a chocolate aftertaste. I never thought I’d be one to call a tea full bodied, but that’s exactly what it is. I don’t know if it’s the whiskey, the cream, or the chocolate, but whatever it is, I’m liking it a lot. I hope it’ll hold up for a few resteeps because I really don’t want to have to make my husband park in a loading zone again.

Thanks to Tea Forte for sending out these samples! I was a bit sad to see that these were bags but I dumped in my bag to take to work knowing that they’d come in handy some day when it’s not quite cold enough for the office to turn on the heat but certainly not warm and cold enough for me to freeze all day. Little did I know that day would be the day I brought them.

I made this with water from my boss’ Keurig so I have no idea on the temperature of the water, probably too warm for white tea, but you make do with what you have, eh?

Like others have mentioned, it brewed up much darker than I was expecting. I got no real aroma to speak of while steeping and as I have no idea what lychee tastes like I cannot comment on whether or not I get that note from the tea. I get a hint of coconut, but not a ton.

For me this tea is just kinda meh. It’ll keep me warm for a little while here, but I certainly wouldn’t purchase it. Then again I’m a black tea fan because I like bold flavors so take this review for what you will.

It’s like it was meant to be. I was just exclaiming to my husband how there needed to be a pumpkin spice latte tea equivalent and BAM! Frank offers up this. So like the pumpkin spice-lovin fiend I am I ordered this and anticipated its arrival.

And then it arrived and I eagerly opened it and gave it a sniff and it smelled….kinda like the vanilla caramel chai…uh oh (go and read my review on that one). Hmmm, I don’t know about this.

After 3 days of Matevana (I swear it helps keep migraines at bay so I drink it when I am prone to them) I decided to try this this morning. Per Ashley’s suggestion I was going to add a bit of milk with my go-to brown sugar splenda but alas, my husband and I finished the milk with our caramel frapaccino cupcakes last night.

Got to work and took a sip, praying that it didn’t taste like dirt (again, seriously, go read my caramel vanilla chai review) and…..

Phew! No dirt taste.

But no pumpkin.

Or cheesecake….

What kind of wizardry is this? Not that it was bad but I’m the kind of person who gets upset that her red velvet cake yogurt doesn’t actually have pieces of red velvet cake in it. And just as I was about to let the disappointment settle in…

What’s this?

Pumpkin?

Cheesecake?

Where did you come from?
I don’t know how it does it but, for me, the pumpkin cheesecake taste develops slowly on the tongue about 30 seconds after you swallow.
I’d obviously prefer it to be there from first sip but I wouldn’t kick this tea out of bed (if ya know what I mean ). And the sudden emergence is like a party trick in my mouth. It’s possible that my job is just really that boring, but I’ll take what I can get.

I tried the blended sample in the store but I’m not a blueberry fan so I ordered a package of this on a whim when I placed my last order figuring with the free shipping and coupon code I had it was cheaper to order more tea, and, therefore try new teas than to just go get refills of my stand bys. It was like God wanted me to order more tea….right? Can’t say no to that!

When I got the package I opened this and felt like I was smacked in the face with the Hawaiian islands…in a good way, of course. Holy pineapple Batman! But I had reservations about making this iced as I cold brew and have always found that to be a bit weak (and difficult to add sugar to).

Earlier this week I got home from work where I had been freezing all day and decided I wanted some tea. Normally I’d go for something dessert-y but this spoke to me so I decided to give it a try. Since it’s an herbal I wasn’t too particular about steeping time. I added some brown sugar splenda since I figured pineapple upside down cake uses it and that tastes pretty darn yummy.

And ya know what? This was pretty darn yummy too! I’m not going to drink it and think I’m eating pineapple upside down cake (unless I am actually eating pineapple upside down cake while I drink it…now there’s an idea…) but this is good. Tart, but the brown sugar works well with it and brings out some of the other flavors (although I couldn’t pinpoint them – I’m drinking tea not taking the palatte challenge on Hell’s Kitchen). Great as it cools too but I prefer it warm right now. Will have to order more of this for when I don’t feel like my standard rooibos dessert tea at night. Very relaxing too.

I’ve since consumed two pots of this evenings after work. Yum!

I’ve been swapping a lot so I don’t remember who sent me this magnificent tea but THANK YOU, whoever you are!

Coconut? Love it!
Cheesecake? Yup, huge fan here!
Tea? Duh….

All together? Sheer perfection in a cup.

I never really understood when people talked about the mouth feel of a tea. I mean, let’s face it, it’s leaves soaked in water, what exactly are you expecting? But this? Creamy, decadent, rich? I don’t know how it does it, but I really don’t care.

Love it!