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The third of my Uncommon Tea haul, I was happy to discover upon opening the pouch that this contained some real orange. The first two on my Uncommon Tea tryout were just flavoring on top of flavoring.

The tea itself had much more of an orange smell than I’d expect, but I took it as a good sign. The tea itself has a more “normal” aroma.

As August Uncommon goes, this is the best of the three, so far. But I may be damning it with faint praise. The orange and black tea seem balanced, but there are hints of “other” that are difficult to discern, and probably unnecessary. The saddest part for me is that I really enjoy a citrus black tea, but this is what I’d expect if I went to a small chain coffee shop that keeps a few “just in case” sachets around.

Another from my December haul at August Uncommon, and I’m feeling like the outlook is kind of bleak.

While this was a lot better than the Low Country, it’s another one that’s just too artificial. Even sweeter than Low Country, the advertised toffee flavor is there, but backed with a heavy cream / butter note that just doesn’t make sense.

It “makes sense” in the context of knowing that it’s been flavored, but otherwise, there’s nothing you’re scooping in that should normally have that flavor. So, I’m finding that to be a bit off-putting. And I know that’s weird, because I don’t have the same hangup with flavored coffee, but here we are.

Like Low Country, Golden Arrow hangs its hat on flavoring, without the underlying tea having a whole lot to offer. I guess it’s what you give someone who doesn’t like tea, when all you have is water and tea.

Instead of buying a sampler, I went ahead with a small bag of this. The description made it seem like a no-brainer. Turns out, that was a bad call.

I picked up several different blacks from August Uncommon, and this is the first one I tried. Hopefully, the others turn out better than this, because despite enjoying bourbon and vanilla, I don’t see myself ever returning to this.

As I would with most black tea, I did a boiling steep for about 3:30, and liked the deep color. The aroma said “butterscotch” more than anything, and I like butterscotch, so I thought I was in for a treat.

Sadly, the flavoring is just far too cloying for me. It’s like someone dropped a couple of butter rum Life Savers in otherwise bland tea. The flavors are so artificial, I’d swear I could probably take a stab at what they mixed in from FlavourArt, and not be too far off.

I finished it about 30 minutes ago, and I can still sense the sticky-sweet flavor on the back of my tongue, along with an unpleasant scratchiness.

One of the highlights of my “almost everything” Black Friday haul. I wasn’t completely sold on the advertised strawberry, but wasn’t put off enough to pass on this one.

The flavor is much more “fruity” than “strawberry”. If you search for it, the strawberry is definitely there, but the prominent fruit flavor isn’t just a single note. The cornflower comes through ever so slightly to give this a mildly peppery finish.

The black tea compliments the flavor, rather than overpowers it. You know you’re drinking a black, but not one that slaps you in the face to let you know it’s there.

My first purple and my first Pu-erh, so I wasn’t totally sure what to expect on this one. I bought a cheap-o set with a tray, fairness cup, gaiwan, strainer, and small cups, and watched several videos on gongfu preparation. So… that’s how I made it.

On opening it, there wasn’t much to really write home about. I opted for a sample pack, so it was already taken from the compressed cake. There were a couple of big chunks in there, and I used a scale to weigh out about 5 grams for a ~100ml gaiwan.

Did a quick wash, and a first steep of 10 seconds. Seemed kind of meh, to be honest. Overall color was darker than a brand-name American lager, but only slightly. But it smelled heavily of honey with some floral notes.

Second steep, and I let it go 15 seconds. This time I really started to get it. More of an amber color, and I felt like the flavors were opening up. Earthy, but not like dirt. Sweet, but not sugary. Dense, but not “thick”. And my goodness, was it ever smooth!

Third steep, and the honey notes took a back seat to something more woodsy after pushing the steep time to 25 seconds. Not like “nondescript forest stuff” but like actual wood. Not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but it was an intriguing thing.

Fourth steep, and the magic was kind of gone. Had a new kettle of water boiling, but used a little bit less. Let it go for just over 30 seconds, and while it was fine, that’s about all I could say. “It’s fine.” If that was the initial experience, I would have felt a bit like I was wasting time on a pretentious tea ceremony for one. But by now, I figured I probably could have prolonged the session if I had used a bit more tea, and this was probably a good first tryout on pu-erh. Overall, not a moment wasted.

That said, it IS a good first tryout. And I’m definitely going to come back to this one once I have more experience with other pu-erhs, and hopefully improve my method.

This one really exceeded my expectations. Sometimes, PdT goes a little overboard on flavors, and when I saw cardamom and clove front and center, I was thinking this was going to be another Christmas tea that tastes more like Mom’s Christmas potpourri.

Luckily… happily… the different flavors here are nicely balanced. Can you detect cardamom? Yep. Is the clove present? Sure is. But they don’t overpower the orange peel or almond. The vanilla flavoring acts more to soften things rather than bring a vanilla-forward flavor, and the cinnamon presents more of a cooling effect on the finish than an in-your-face spiciness.

This is definitely on the lower end of the rating scale, as I work through the last of the 20 or so tins I bought during the PdT Black Friday sale.

Conceptually, this intrigued me. I like a sweet fruit flavor every now and then, and I enjoy green tea from time to time. Berries and dates sound good… so I was feeling optimistic, despite the fact that this hadn’t bubbled up to the top of varieties I was trying.

From opening the tin, though, it smelled like it had been sweetened and flavored. So that made it all the more surprising when I steeped it and discovered how the green tea is nearly absent. On the nose, the tea smacks of fruit-and-cream vape juice. It’s… odd.

The initial flavor is vaguely “fruit” and there is an almost off-putting creamy element that I just can’t figure out. On the finish, I start to detect the date, and waaaaaay in the back, a touch of orange blossom. But it’s one of those things where I feel like I need to put on my wine tasting hat to try to figure it out. As something you just want to drink without thinking about, the best I can come up with is “inoffensive”. It’s like a vaguely sweet water. Like putting hot water in a cup that hadn’t been washed after containing fruit juice.

In a word: delicate.

The brewed tea has definite floral notes, but the initial sip is a light green tea with heavy apple. On the back, it becomes more of a stone fruit flavor, like nectarine or white peach. and the quince starts to come through.

I think this is probably the most interesting blend I’ve tried from PdT for how un-subtle the transformation of flavors are.

It’s just SO flowery. Which… I get. That’s what’s advertised. But the jasmine is so overpowering that this is one I couldn’t even finish. I went back to the tin to see if I was getting bonked over the head with artificial flavoring, because it was just so present.

This goes on the “give away or trade” shelf.