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I haven’t had this since last year? What?? I guess I have a lot of mint teas and spearmint is the one that lives at work anyway. This is really yummy, not as in your face as my Sawadee peppermint, but really yummy with a true peppermint flavour. I love mint!

Delicious! I had a lovely black tea flavour with a hint of peach and a slightly stronger note of apricot. It was really quite yummy and not at all bitter.

It is an impressive chai that can taste watery after an (accidental!) 11 minute steep. This would be the one to do so though. gah, I want my gingerbread chai!

I am pretty certain this is a frist for me (wintergreen in tea, that is). I have pure spearmint, several pure peppermints and a couple teas with mint in them, but never before has wintergreen come up. It’s refreshing. It’s different. I like it! I am mostly getting a minty flavour (very wintergreen and spearmint, nothing pepperminty) without much of a tea base (it seems I never taste tea in tea!) but I am loving it. The black tea lends a depth of flavour and colour that pure mint don’t always have. This was an excellent oops week surprise!

EDIT: I know that this disagrees with other reviews, but I think that for the first time in my life I’ve found a mint tea that really does put me in mind of mouthwash/toothpaste. This isn’t a problem for me, but I definitely get more of a toothpaste taste than a proper mint leaf sort of taste. And I still don’t really get a lot of tea taste. Weird!

We had some of this for breakfast and the beau (surprisingly) wanted to give it a go. I gave it a boil, then 4 minutes steep. It came out quite dark, and very strongly smelling of vanilla. The beau claims his cup is a little bitter, but that’s because he got the second up and any dregs would have gone to him (I always pour him the second :D). Definitely a yummy tea. I was surprised he wanted to try it, since he’s not a huge fan of vanilla comoro, but I think the over-the-top vanilla smell had him intrigued.

So, I think I’ve found my perfect chai. And in typical me style, said chai is no longer available. I broke open my gingerbread chai to enjoy with my peanut butter and crackers (great pairing, actually!) It’s so good! It smells great, it tastes great…It is, obviously more of a gingerbread chai than a spice chai and that is what I like. I’ve had 4 or 5 smaller cups from this steep so far, and am so happy with it. I wonder if I can re-steep it? Hmm, will try this later. Frank, if I decide at the end of this pouch that this IS my chai, will you blend me a pound? What does that cost? I remember you doing a pound of peanut butter something for someone..

Anyway, this tea. I don’t know what to say. It’s like hot gingerbread. I prepared it like regular tea without any milk, since I’ve been failing at stovetop chai lately (I think a combo of too much milk and too short steep time are doing me in, since I hate milk). There are spices here, sure, but no one spice is domineering the rest. There is just a nice taste in my mouth much like eating gingerbread. The beau even seemed to enjoy a sip and he HATES chai. So great! God, a gingerbread man would go good right now..

Steeped a second (smaller) cup later on. Quite delicious – not as strong, but the vanilla flavour still very present. Could do a third (weak) cup, but won’t. For regular sized cups, I think I could get three solid steeps though. Huzzah!

Well, I finished lunch and wanted something to take up to switchboard with me. My new 52Teas were calling to me, so I broke the seal on this baby. As soon as I ripped the top of the packet off, I got a big cloud of vanilla caramel smell. It was very intense, almost sharp. Occasionally I got a whiff of something reminiscent of coconut, but I tend to think of strong vanilla smells as coconutty. It’s not hurting me at all. When I unzipped the seal the smell increased (holy vanilla!) but I also got to see the little cornflower heads hanging out. Cute!

As always, this tea was made under imperfect conditions at work, but I gave it about 5 minutes to steep, and the water was definitely not boiling. The smell in the cup is a slightly muted version of the pouch aroma, still very strong. Unfortunately my travel mug smells strongly of the Wellness I had this morning so that is clouding the aroma, but the strong caramelly vanilla scent is still there. There is some childhood smell this is reminding me of…I think it’s reminiscent of butterscotch ripple ice cream. The creamy vanilla aroma, Mmm…The liquor itself is a deep amber colour, exactly what you would expect of a vanilla black tea!

First sips are hot. But that’s the water. Grr at my impatience! I get a strong in your face vanilla flavour. Exactly what I would expect from the smell. The vanilla really lingers on my tongue for a while, I find it to be quite a rich, creamy flavour. I don’t know what assam tastes like because I’ve never drank plain black tea, but there’s no taste I would identify as strongly tea-like. No bitterness or astringency, nothing I would really associate with black tea. There might be something there underneath the vanilla, but the weird scent of Wellness (darn this travel mug for holding smells!) is clouding my taste buds. I can’t wait to try it again at home with a bit more control over the process.

The spent leaves still have a strong vanilla smell…I suspect they would be a strong candidate for a re-steep. I might give that a go later if I have time. For now, this is an ejoyable and in your face vanilla black. Not a bedtime snack, but a tea to wake you up in the morning or after lunch.

Edit: As I sip, I start to get a hint more of the tea flavour. It’s at the very front of the sip though, and soon overcome by the bold vanilla. Wowza!

Big mug of this to get to work today. I found that it had a very creamy sort of taste while hot, which thinned out a bit as it cooled. Almost like a dash of lime bang was thrown in my cup of Wellness. As much as I am enjoying this, I am so excited about other teas right now because…
My 52Teas order arrived!!! YAY!

Breakfast tea! Luckily, I remembered that this has green tea in it today and didn’t allow the water to boil. The trouble with first thing in the morning tea is that I tend to make one of my favourites, and I forget to actually pay attention. As some of you may have noticed, I rarely drink green tea, or even tea with green in it, so boil away is my default setting! I have a number of really yummy green teas, honestly, but since I rarely have the time to sit and enjoy multiple infusions it seems a waste. I was looking forward to trying out a few good greens and oolongs this weekend, but I’m going to celebrate one of my younger brother’s birthdays and won’t be home all weekend. We’ll see how much tea I end up taking with… : ) Maybe I’ll convert him? My father is a dedicated Red Rose drinker…I intend to try to get at least one cup of loose in him. I’ve tried before though, and it never works.

Anyway, on to the Three Wishes! Nice and yummy, sweet lightly fruity and floral taste. Not much black tea going on in there. I could have heated the water quite a bit more, I think. I just make that up in general. I quite like this tea.