Herbal Infusions

This is super tasty cold with almond milk and sweetener. It didn’t taste like much warm. I definitely noticed the vanilla once it cooled down. I might like this is even more than the original flavor! So rich and chocolatey.

I don’t really taste much mint here. Like with the other blends, I enjoy the quality of the cacao shells. With milk and sugar, it tastes good, like high quality hot chocolate. It’s best cold, but it’s not as good as the plain version.

I taste the chocolate and a bit of nuttiness. The black base seems a little meh to me. This is all right, but I prefer other brands’ takes on similar flavor profiles. The person I shared it with also felt the cup was very okay.

I’ve been enjoying the plain cacao, but I don’t like this one quite as much. I taste the fruitiness and a hint of chocolate, but I wish the balance were different. It’s much better cold. Then you can taste the jammy strawberry paired with the pleasant chocolate. It’s good with milk and lots of sugar. It’s like strawberry chocolate milk.

I like having this one cold with almond milk! It has such a rich hot chocolate-type flavor. It’s extra fresh and high quality tasting. The second steep tastes just as good. I don’t like it as much hot.

The spices combined with the rooibos end up tasting pretty murky. My first few sips, I actually grimaced and found it sort of gross, but I got used to it. With milk and sugar, it’s drinkable, but too muddled, and at the same time sort of mild and boring. I really wouldn’t call this masala chai, especially since it’s missing many of the ingredients you usually see in masala chai. I don’t bother with the resteep since I don’t really like the first steep. Ha I should probably pass this one along instead of continuing to suffer.

This tea came from a mystery box from MissB an embarrassingly long time ago, and (I really hope) is the oldest in my cupboard by far. That being said, it still smells incredible and has a good amount of flavour. The black tea base is nondescript but not astringent, it has a slightly nutmeg-spiced vanilla creaminess which is delicious. It was sweet enough already, but I added a pinch of brown sugar and it really brought the creaminess out more. I chose this as my ‘tea which reminds me of an alcoholic beverage’ from Mastress Alita’s scavenger hunt prompt, but I don’t taste anything alcoholic. I don’t think that’s a result of age, since looking at the notes it seems like others felt the same way when it was fresh. It’s a lovely tea, and I think some rum flavouring would have tipped it over the edge into ‘great tea’ territory. I do wish it was more ‘spiked eggnog’-y, but a tasty tea all the same!

Thank you MissB for sending me this tea!

This is a confusing tea. The name says ‘almond green’ but it’s actually quite fruity and contains a mixture of green and black tea, with more black than green. The dry leaf contains a lot of pieces of orange rind, and smells strongly of citrus – no almond in sight. When steeping, the almond scent takes over and it does become intoxicatingly marzipan-like, and it remains present in the sip though not as strongly as it is in the scent. In flavour, the almond note comes through at the end with a touch of astringency, but the sip is dominated by fruity notes, of which I was able to pick out orange and cherry. The combination of cherry and almond gives the impression of a Bakewell tart, but I think Bird and Blend’s version of that is better than this, and I would choose it over this one without a second thought. It’s a good thing, I suppose, because this was limited edition, and B&B is a lot more accessible to me in the UK. I am enjoying this, but won’t miss it when it’s gone.

This is another old favourite I’ve been hoarding the last of for way longer than I should, but luckily it still tastes great, though the marshmallow sweetness has faded a little. This was the tea that first got me interested in creamy EGs, so it gets bonus points for that. Though the base is a little astringent, it’s not so noticeable I have to add milk (but I distinctly remember this also being delicious with milk). The sweet, creamy marshmallow is actually more noticeable in the scent and in the initial sip than the bergamot, which can be overpowering in some blends, but here it’s a nice background which cuts through the sweetness towards the end of the sip and rounds the whole thing out beautifully. It’s a shame this is only offered seasonally, but since Herbal Infusions ships to the UK I might be tempted to place an order to try their EG creme and see how it compares… I have a job interview in a couple of days (telephone, because of Covid), so let’s all hope I get it because the list of companies I want to place orders with is getting longer than I can keep track of!

Thanks for sharing go again to the ever-generous VariaTEA. Sipdown 186/397.

What the…. how do I not have a note for this? I’m really surprised/confused, as I swear I’ve had it a few times, at least one of those while I was regularly reviewing…

Anyhow. Not as good as the creme brûlée tea, but not bad. Decent base and some nuttiness, though not a ton of flavour. I was expecting a faceful of marzipan, but it’s not that.

I had this tea at a local tea house and loved it. It had just the right amount of cinnamon to taste delicious and not too overpowering. The apple flavor was also refreshing and delicate. It’s a great tea for autumn.

Sipdown! (89/395)

MissB sent me this a long time ago and it lingered around way longer than I thought it would. From the name I fully expected to love this tea, but each time I drank it I was disappointed. Over the last couple of days I finished this off I drank it a few times, using different parameters each time and couldn’t settle on one which made the flavours pop like I wanted. The base tea is not the greatest – it’s not the worst, either, but it’s fairly astringent and needs milk, even brewed at lower temperatures and for less time than a lot of blacks can stand. It’s also pretty flat, and I like a base tea with nuances, or at least one good solid note which I can hold on to and this didn’t have that for me. The lime flavour, especially when shorter brewed, actually is present and pretty nice. It has a sharpness but also a jammy quality and is brought out with a little sugar, but the coconut is nowhere to be found (and I love me some coconut, so this kinda disappointed me a lot). What’s more, the absolute killer for me is that the astringency means I can’t drink this without milk, and when milk is added the lime flavour is almost completely drowned out, and it doesn’t even help add more coconuttiness so unless you like your tea bitter there is zero point in even having this. I really like the idea of this tea, but the execution is poor. Ah well, on to better teas.

Oh, wow. I didn’t expect to like this as much as I do.

First off, thanks to Superstarling! for sending me this sample a while back and also to my son for picking this tea out for me this morning. I asked him what kind of tea I should have and he said herbal so I grabbed this one out.

You definitely get a chocolate strawberry smell from the dry cacao nibs. Not knowing the parameters for which to brew this, I decided to go with about 4 minutes and 30 seconds and boiling water.

I think I nailed it. The tea that I poured off brings wafts of strawberry cocoa cream up to my nose. The flavor of the liquor has a slight bitterness that fades a bit as the liquid cools. But mostly, there is a creamy strawberry and a light, almost powdered chocolate taste to it. I let my (5 year old) son try it and he exclaimed, “I love it!”

So yeah, I would totally order more of this. It is pretty delicious. Would make a perfect dessert tea.

Sipdown! Coldbrew 2 tsp, 500 mL cold water, about 1 hour

Smooth black base, vanilla, creamy, sweet. I didn’t get gergamot, but it was quite tasty regardless.

I have to say, this is a great festive winter blend.

Prominant notes include bergamot, sweet/sprinkles, and a very thick creamy flavour. I didn’t like how tannic the base was, but overall this was lovely to try. I’m getting a strong “English Breakfast” tannic black tea vibe from the base.

Yeah, I had about eight cups of this yesterday—straight up with no additions— and really enjoyed each one. Hurray for marshmallow, vanilla, and gentle Earl Grey!

This one really needs steeping at a lower temperature to allow those pillows of vanilla marshmallow to fluff up. The bergamot is gentle, but this is perhaps due to age. Reminds me of a good Earl Grey Cream, but nicer. No imitation flavours detected.

Yum. This reminds me of Zen’s Earl Grey Cream. Delicious for two whole steeps, but with the exception of the snowflakes in Herbal Infusions in the dry leaf and the fact that this Canadian company, in my city yet, charged me in American dollars, I don’t notice a difference. Snowflakes, yay! Charging Canadians in Canada in American dollars, wtf, boo! BOO!

Perhaps I need to do a side by side taste test. One day. Won’t change my mind about a repurchase though.

This tastes like melted Neapolitan Ice Cream. It hits you in the face with aggressive, cloying sweetness. Which is normally what I live for.

Am I growing up? That can’t possibly be it. I hope.

Oh god. What if I start putting kale in my smoothies? Filing my own taxes? Remembering to put the registration sticker on my car in a timely fashion? Being interested in material possessions or the stock market? Watching Oscar-worthy heavy films?

Is this the end?

(flips a table) How did I not know about cacao tea before? SERIOUSLY? This is so tasty. It’s like eating a candy bar. One of those Hersheys Cookies’n’Creme ones, specifically. And, according to Herbal Infusions’ site… it’s… caffeine free? I can have this at NIGHT?

I am holding every one of you personally responsible for not telling me about this sooner.

This tea tastes just like a fruitier version of what one gets at Chinese food restaurants. It’s a good, fun combination, if a little lackluster. Plus, there’s a strong aftertaste that’s kind of… tart? Vegetal? What’s going on here?

I’m not besotted.

But — as today is going to be The Day I Mostly Wander Off To Give Other Thoughts — I tried the new Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos (purple bag), as well as the Southern Biscuits & Gravy Lays, and liked them both, even though I thought I wouldn’t. My coworker gave them both to me. (You might have noticed, via careful reading, that people are constantly handing me food. I am a human garbage disposal.) They sound hideous, but they’re each delicious in their own way. I also loved the brief-lived Reuben Sandwich chips.

I feel trashy adoring these lowbrow chips. But I am basically Oscar the Grouch, rubbish monster extraordinaire, and I should embrace it.

A nice malty, vanilla-y black tea. It smells like a graham cracker, but doesn’t taste like it.

Kind of like when you’re chasing an elusive Pokemon in Pokemon Go, and you think you’re really going to find it, but when you get to its location, it disappears. (This happens to me a lot. Stop being a jagoff, Pikachu. I want to evolve you.)

That said, it’s still a nice tea. I enjoy it. Just don’t go in there expecting graham cracker, per se, and you’ll be good.

A sample from Miss B I’m almost through the box of samples she sent me now – there was so much in it I thought I’d never find the bottom! I didn’t read any reviews or the description before I brewed this one up, and surprisingly I came out pretty close to the mark with my initial thoughts. In the tsp I used, I could see coconut shreds, slivers of almond, and a coffee bean amongst the black tea base. I gave it approximately 3.5 minutes in boiling water, and added a splash of milk.

To taste, I’m getting coffee and chocolate in the initial sip – very reminiscent of a mocha, although not as intense. There’s a nuttiness in the mid-sip, and a rich smoothness that could just about be caramel. The base is fairly robust and deliciously malty, so even though the coffee flavour is fairly prominent, you never forget that you’re actually drinking tea. When it comes to coffee-flavoured tea, that’s the way I like it.

I’m enjoying this one. It’s definitely different, and it’s making for a good wake-up cup. I’ve tried maybe one or two coffee-flavoured teas before, but this is definitely my favourite so far. It’s not too overpowering, it’s still decidedly tea, and the nutty-chocolate flavours work really well. I’d buy more of this one.