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Rather overexcited as my package from Bluebird Tea just arrived. I think I’ve made my decision that Rhubarb and custard will be the one I try first…

Ooh, it smells just like rhubarb and custard chews. I know it’s supposed to, and I should have expected that, but it made me smile.

Just lifted the lid of my teapot while it was brewing and took a bit sniff. Oh my that’s divine, just like a hot rhubarb crumble.

You know, I’ve been put off buying another Rooibos after the teabags I bought weren’t really my thing. And this is strange, because in this tea I can really taste that rooibos base, but it is working so well with my tastebuds it’s as if they’ve known each other for ages and have just bumped into each other in their favourite cafe and are now having a chat.

Sweet, but not cloyingly so. Nostalgic, in a very good way. And caffeine free, which I really need right now. I am so glad that I love this, I’m going to go and order a load more Rooibos teas right away.

YUM.

Many of the most pleasurable little experiences in life start in the same way, with a smell. The loaf of bread proving in the kitchen, the slightly musty scent as you push open a door to a second hand book shop, and now the exotic mix of spices that invade my nostrils every time I crack open my jar of Masala Chai from the Brew Tea Company.

Smell… flavour… smell… flavour… mmmmmmmmm. I drink this tea by the big pot full while watching obscure films I’ve never heard of on Netflix. It’s a winning combination. I like to try many different types of tea, but this is being added to my list of teas I’ll always try and keep on my shelf, as not having any would upset me.

All gone.

So, second steep, a mere 10 seconds. See, I knew my tastebuds would start to change their ideas pretty quick – (I wish they’d do that with olives, I really would like to like olives…).

The smell is still not really my, erm, cup of tea, but the taste is really growing on me. All the positive things you would expect from something that still does remind me an awful lot of spinach. A zinc tang, an earthiness. And it’s really green.

Not my favourite yet, but I did rather enjoy that.

In the last month I’ve been lucky enough to win two competitions run by Yunomi.us.

Each time I’ve won one main prize, and then they’ve sent me a 5gm sample of something else as well. This was one of those samples.

I wanted to try the warm water steeping method, but I have no means of testing my water temperature yet and I was less keen to wing it when I only have a 5g sample, so I went for standard (both of which are recommended). That’s 30secs in boiling water. The very first thing that strikes me when I’ve steeped it is that it looks like spinach. The second thing is that it smells like spinach.

I mean, really smells like it. I’m not talking ‘spinachy notes’. I’m talking what the water in the pan after your mum has overcooked the sunday dinner smells like.

Now, I think me and this tea have got off to a bad start. By the time I was getting to the end of my first cup I was thinking ‘Mmm, maybe…’. But at first all I could think was ‘This is weird, I’m drinking spinach water’.

I don’t want to dismiss this straight away, because I know even after this short amount of time my tastes are changing and I could end up absolutely loving this. But for a first time Sencha drinker – undecided.

You know those photos of pretty bohemian looking girls walking through cornfields, or poppy fields, or…well, walking through fields. They may possibly have a floppy hat on, invariably a white flowy cotton dress. There is almost certainly a bit of lens flare, and it’s faded so it looks like a photo that got left on a windowsill back in about 1968 and sat there until someone found it yesterday?

This tastes like that.

Thanks to Kittylovestea for swapping with me :)

So, steeped it for three minutes today, and it really is much better. The smell is still the best part of it, but I can actually taste something as well this time. Cakey :)

You know, since I said that this tea wasn’t that great, it’s been really growing on me…

A very lovely friend of mine in Holland sent this over, as she read me waxing lyrical about the Red Velvet Cake tea from DavidsTea. She’d had the Strawberry Cupcake one, which she has also sent me, and really liked it. I will try that one soon.

The smell of this tea is lovely. Really sweet and fruity. Unfortunately the taste doesn’t live up to it. It’s not horrible, not by a long shot, but the nose makes promises that the tastebuds can’t keep.

I did only steep it for 2 minutes, the recommendation being 2-3, so next time I’ll leave it longer and maybe the taste will be on a par with the smell. But on first taste, this is unfortunately underwhelming.

I’m not normally a fan of fruit teas in teabags. Herbal ones I don’t mind, but for some reason I always seem to find fruit ones really bitter. However, Kittylovestea sent me a sample of this in our recent swap, and it would have been bad manners not to drink it.

I am glad I did. It actually tasted of Strawberry, and the black tea was just the right foil to the sweetness that was coming across. Still an amount of bitterness, but not unpleasant in this instance. Whether that’s the tea or my tastes changing, I’m not sure, but it doesn’t really matter does it?