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Fourth from the set (technically 5th since I skipped White tea of Kings)

Dry smell wise I get not quite chai, not quite lemongrass/vegetal, but definitely sweet, creamy strawberry scent. The chai is there, but it’s a different sort of chai than is in the other blends. This is more, errr, mellow?
Totally nope on the flavor for me though. I took two sips and couldn’t do more. I’m not sure if it was chai part, or something about the strawberry but it just didn’t agree with my palate. I did get an impression of strawberry/berry sweetness. But it was kinda grassy too.
Maybe this might do better as a cold brew for me, though I don’t really feel like making an attempt after this first impression. Lol!

Third one from the sampler.
Light almondy/marzipan sort of smell with a smooth creamy background. Taste wise I get the same sort of impression. I think it was kinda redundant to have both vanilla and cream, especially since I feel the vanilla gets lost in the almond. It’s kinda there, but I have to focus on it to realize it is. Either that or it just melds so well with the almond that it makes one sweet tasty impression. Mostly this is mellow, easy tasting sort of tea. I did end up adding a bit of truvia and am on the fence whether or not it helped. On the one hand it make it even more candy/sweet, but on the other, it might’ve make it too sweet/candy like. Lol. Never happy it seems.

Second one out of the sampler.
Nope. Can’t get past the bergamot in it. Just totally not for me. I’m also skipping the ‘White tea of Kings’ tea in this set for the same reason. Just can’t get past that taste.

Ugh. I give up on my backlog. Time to just start from scratch. ^;
So I took a week off of work for just laziness and maybe some housework and ebay listing. Currently I’ve spent the last two days playing D3. Oops. I figured I should drink some tea while I’m at it, and I’ve had one of the older 10-tin sampler sets sitting lonely next to my kettle waiting. In my defense, I’d actually already tried a good number of the teas within and I mostly got it for the tins/art. ^; But I figured I should at least give them all a second try, just incase.

After a random mixing up, this was first.
Spicy chai smelling with some apple/fruit lurking in the background. I really wanted to like this one, but alas, the chai didn’t agree with me. It was good for the first half cup I drank and I thought ‘Hey, I can drink this’, Then after sitting for a handful of minutes I took another sip and was all ‘nah uh’. /sigh/
Most unfortunate was that I didn’t get much of any apple from this. The chai was too strong for me. I have a feeling that’s mostly because I tend to shy away from chai since they’re always so forceful and strong on my palate so my mind just tends to focus on the chai as something ‘do not like’ sort of mentality. Oh well. Onto the next one. XD

I’m so behind on logging tasting, I have no idea where to even begin now. Or if I should even bother at this point. I’m rather embaressed to note that my last note was nearly a month ago. But with Steepster acting up around that time and me getting distracted from even starting up my computer, notes have been a dreaded thing to attempt. Especially on my tablet which is old and finicky and has a tendency to eat large amounts of text without warning if I’m not paying attention. Or registering the wrong tap so I misspell things, so excuse the text if that happens.

So I figured I’d start my notes again with the tea I’m having tonight. I have to start somewhere afterall. I honestly have older teas that I really should be trying/drinking first, but I rationalize digging into my whispering pines order now since these aren’t sealed and those other, older teas still are. Lol.

So smelling all of the teas I got, this one caught my interest the most. Chocolatey was the name of the game (since I didn’t feel like leather, mushrooms, grass or smoke tonight. Lol!).
Brewed it up and I can smell cocoa with malt and something almost sweet. The brew itself isn’t sweet to me, but I definitely get a cocoa note, along with a woodsyness and something malty. I really kinda like this since it’s pretty stable by itself. Adding some Truvia gives me the sweetness that I find myself expecting/craving when I smell the brew.
I’m pretty sure that I’d consider reordering this when I run out and my cupboard pares down to something that I can manage to drink through in a reasonable time frame.

Edit – I made a second steep of this @ 5 min/206* that was (in my opinion) lightly better thn the first. Lol. The first steep had something almost peppery at the back of the sip that was gone in this second steeping. But it was marvelously cocoa-y and delicious. It was a bit watery though so I might try 6 min next time to see what happens.
Didn’t have time to try a third steep since it was so late, but I’m not sure if the leaves could hold up to one.

This is actually my second time drinking this, but apparently either I didn’t post here or Steepster ate it. Who knows.
So I was having a bad-ish day. Work was alrightish. Nothing major except I couldn’t find my work lanyard, which was really vaguely upsetting. All stuff I could replace kinda except for one of the pins that was a ’you’ve been here 5 years’ and I’m not sure if they’d give me another one if I said I lost it.
Got home, grouched about and got myself into a worse mood (especially when I realized I hadn’t stopped at the store for the pot roast I was going to make for dinner so now I don’t know what to make) so I decided to make tea. Grabbed this one since I wasn’t in the mood to try something I’d never had before, but didn’t feel like something flavored. This was in my ‘finish off/don’t reorder’ and I remember it was good so this went into the cup.
It’s not like how I remember it. Or else I’m in such a foul mood that it’s skewing my memory. This is alot fruitier than I remember. Almost reminds me of a Darjeeling, which is irritating to me since I rather detest Darjeeling. It’s kinda plummy/grapey with a bit of malty-ness in there. And something smoky at the edge. But it wasn’t the rich malty tea that I think I need(ed) to get me down off the ceiling. /sigh/
Now I’m on the fence about whether to keep this to drink down, or toss it into my stash sale post since I didn’t care for this cup at all. /grumbles more/

So I got this as one of the three samples in the WP sample offer. And while I’ve tried the other two already, this one I was saving for something special, since it seemed like that sort of tea. I figured nursing a cup while watching my brand new Winter Soldier bluray after work was as good a time as any. XD
I may have under leafed this simply because I couldn’t really get 1 1/2 tsp out of it and still have enough for another cup. (Sorry Brendan, but my tbsp just wasn’t a full tbsp. Lol.)
So onto the brew. It’s cocoa-y and vanilla and oh so tasty smelling. Actual taste wise….I’m getting something similar to cocoa puff milk only with water used instead of milk. Watered down bitter-ish chocolate. Kinda ugh to be honest (/avoids the incoming stones/). Yes yes I know that this one is practically everyone’s baby here, but that’s just what my tastebuds are telling me. I added some truvia because it wasn’t sweet to me and I’m not sure if I just didn’t add enough or what, but it didn’t seem to make too much of a difference honestly. But then, I was afraid of over-sweetening it and then being unable to even drink it, so I ended up playing it safe.
I did get a tart cherry sort of taste to it, which was what I ended up focusing on after awhile. I probly should’ve added more sweetener at that point, but I kinda didn’t want to get off the couch at that point since it was just getting to the helicarriers. Sooooo. XD The very end of the cup was rather gritty but I think that was just the bits of vanilla bean or something? I dunno.
I still have another cup’s worth left and maybe I’ll try a lower temp? Or longer steep? Or shorter? Who knows. I’m even debating doing a steep in warm milk because why the heck not? Lol!

Edit – So I did a second steeping @ 5 min that was better than the first steep, in my opinion. It was more chocolate-y and vanilla without the tart cherries note or any bitterness that I could tell. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to finish the cup before bed/it got cold. But when I tried it cold it tasted like very similar to hot cocoa, though made with water. So I wonder how this would be cold brewed. Not that I’d actually want to drink this as a cold tea, but it makes me wonder nonetheless. XD

So normally I’m not a floral/jasmine scented tea sort of person. Too fancy when I usually just want a solid cup to sip at while killing demons in D3 or surfing Tumblr. Lol! But last time I was in DavidsTea, while I was debating on getting more Buddha’s Blend, (debating since since I was more into black tea, I wouldn’t drink it as much), the lady at the counter said that this tea was very similar, but it was a black/green blend. So I figured what the heck and bought a bit….and then it just sat in my ‘to try bin’. XD
The smell is floral, but also fruity, which I wasn’t really expecting. It’s very pleasant and if it was a perfume or a candle or something I think I’d totally wear/use it (And I’m definitely not a perfume or candle sort of girl).
Unfortunately, tastewise, if I didn’t know this was supposed to have a black tea in it, I would never know because I can’t find a black tea taste in it. It tastes like a green tea, with that weird, green plant (not particularly veggie or grass, just plant) sort of taste to it. Overlaid with a floral/fruity vibe. It’s….not exactly bad, but I really wish there was more black than green tea in this because the current ratio just isn’t doing it for me.
Kinda bummed out about this, but so it goes.

Edit: I’m also apparently allergic to something in it since now I’m all itchy/reaction-y. Ugh. /mopes off to take a pill/

Another backlog from last night. I figured I should get through another one of the three I got since the sample was so small.
Brewed this reminds me strongly of Butiki’s Caramel Vanilla Assam. Which had my mouth watering since I adore that tea so much. Unfortunately, like the Eve I’d had just before, the flavor kinda falls flat again. I get the caramel/vanilla goodness mostly in the smell, which is divine, but the taste just isn’t there. Something that smells like that I feel sould be sweeter or something. I dunno. Adding some Truvia made it sweet, but I guess not the right kind of sweet that I was wanting. And on top of it all there’s a very strong astringency that’s off putting for me. I’m pretty sure it’s the base tea since I went light on the time and didn’t use as hot of water as it seemed other’s used. Or maybe that was the issue and I should’ve used hotter water. Who knows. Lol. I certainly don’t have any more to try, and honestly I wouldn’t order this myself for another attempt. I’ll just stick with my Butiki Caramel Vanilla Assam. Lol.