Herbal Infusions

Not too shabby. A pleasant, slightly nutty black. There was a lighter black base which provided a solid footing for the nuts in this tea. There may have been a hint of smoke but it was so very light that I don’t even want to put it in my flavour list. Sadly though, I felt it did not reflect the taste of graham at all. Perhaps I should have added some almond milk to this, maybe that could have made it into a more “graham-like” flavour. As it was though it was an okay tea, just not a graham tea in my book.
Thanks MissB for the sample!

Sipdown!

It’s still summertime (although just barely) so the combination of strawberry, vanilla, and cacao really hit the spot. The vanilla gave the tea some of the creaminess I that was missing from the original cacao tea that I sampled and mixing it with equal parts of whole milk only made it that much better. The sweetness from the strawberry was just enough that I didn’t find myself missing the sugar I opted to leave out, although I did try several cups of it sweetened. I will say that unlike the photo on the website, there were no chunks of strawberry in my sample and the strawberry flavor was rather light, but I felt like it was just enough so that it was present, but didn’t overshadow the cacao. Overall, it’s an interesting blend and it makes an especially tasty latte, but isn’t something I’d drink every day.

You can read the full review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2015/9/8/tuesday-tea-strawberry-cream-cacao-tea-herbal-infusions

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – January 2024 Tea #7 – January 20 – National Coffee Break Day

Saddest of sipdowns here today.  Uh, these flavors are still melding together so so well.  It’s like a syrupy, almondy, hazelnutty, coconutty, chocolatey, sweet coffee dream.  The coconut is still amazing!  Because of its longevity I will raise the rating from 90.  I will really miss this one.  I think it is most like a tea I had from adagio, but I forget which… maybe Reichenbach Recovery.  I see that has caramel and hazelnut but it also has bergamot.  So this tea seems like the adagio if it didn’t have the bergamot.  Probably if I mix the above adagio flavors from this blend it will remind me of this tea, especially as the base black teas also taste the same/have similar depth.   The Herbal Infusions website it still up!  This tea is still on there!  All is not lost!  Hopefully I will get to have this tea again one day.
2024 sipdowns: 10

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – January 2023 Tea #8 -Jan 20 – coffee flavored tea

additional notes:  Hate coffee but love a great coffee tea. So I will have two coffee teas today!  Somehow this is still fantastic tasting, even with old coconut and old coffee beans.  It was always a great mix of flavors.  Next time a sipdown!

Awesome to see this one in MissB’s sale box! Thank you so much! Coffee, hazelnut, chocolate, coconut, almonds. I love those teas with coffee beans in them. Davidstea has a couple. Bluebird has one. They’re all good. The brew of this one ends up being a dark red, not super dark like those others (of course, that’s the tea and not the coffee beans). The base kind of reminds me of Butiki’s Premium Taiwanese Assam but the leaves don’t look the same. It’s hard to tell under all these flavors though. It tastes like coffee, malty, nutty. Yum. But I love the super darkness of those other blends. The pu-erh or the black tea that looks like coffee seem to suit these flavors but this is certainly a good cup. I don’t think coconut needed to be here though since I’m worried it will eventually ruin the blend. Not yet though!
Steep #1 // heaping tsp // few minutes after boiling // 3 minutes
Steep #2 // couple min a.b. // 4 min

So… Coffee? Na, this is a smooth black tea with notes of caramel and nuts. Absolutely smooth and tasty. Fantastic cup of tea. I may end up buying some of this actually. Surprising taste

Somehow, I bought this tea about two years ago now (possibly shorter, but I think that’s about right), and never opened it. Huh?

As I’m going through all of my teas (yes, ALL of them), I’m making sure I have what I say I have, and removing the ones that have disappeared from my tea cupboard on Steepster. It’s quite the project…. so if I haven’t tried something, and I have it, well, I’m trying it. If I love it, I’ll drink it. If I don’t absolutely LOVE it, I’m passing it along. This tea? Passing it along.

Why? Well, it’s very much a coffee tea – which isn’t a bad thing. I’d call it a mocha tea, really, and it’s quite creamy, nutty, coffee-ish, with some chocolate in there to boot. Nice, yes. Rich and flavorful. If I want coffee though, I’d prefer to drink coffee, if that makes any sense. I guess this technically IS coffee, as there are bits of coffee beans in it. Still, it’s not a “madly in love” tea, so it’s off to the sale box. Woohoo!

Creamy, with a splash of peppermint. Light on the lavender. In fact I can’t really taste that much lavender at all. Which is surprising because it can be a very over powering flavor. I’ve put a few lavender buds by themselves into the pot to see if that does anything.

It added a bit of lavender flavor. But not quite as much as I was hoping. The creaminess probably comes from the vanilla which accents this tea very nicely. I’m trying to tell what the base is for this tea but I’m really bad at guessing black bases.

Have you ever eaten strawberries and cream oatmeal? This smells EXACTLY like that. But with a tiny hint of chocolate. It kinda tastes like that too expect with chocolate added. At first it was tasting good but as it’s cooled down I am not liking it as much. It’s better warmer.

Caveat Emptor! This company does not have their act together. My order was either never sent or lost in the mail, it took anywhere from a few hours to two weeks for them to answer emails, and when I finally got my order after six weeks, one of the items was missing.

This is utterly uninteresting. A bland black tea with an added vague sweetness. I don’t taste much coconut or spice. Just boring.

Caveat Emptor! This company does not have their act together. My order was either never sent or lost in the mail, it took anywhere from a few hours to two weeks for them to answer emails, and when I finally got my order after six weeks, one of the items was missing.

So, I’m not a huge fan of coffee, but I really like everything else in this blend, so I decided to give it a try. At first I was disappointed. It mostly tastes sweet, with a light coffee flavor. But, as I sipped it, I started liking it better. It’s really smooth, not bitter at all, and tastes kind of creamy. I still feel that someone who likes coffee might enjoy this better, but it’s an interesting change of pace.

Caveat Emptor! This company does not have their act together. My order was either never sent or lost in the mail, it took anywhere from a few hours to two weeks for them to answer emails, and when I finally got my order after six weeks, one of the items was missing.

This is pretty tasty. It does remind me of golden grahams. It has a honey-like sweetness, and a definite pastry note. It was a touch sour and a bit drying, but that’s probably because I oversteeped it. I’ll probably try blending this since it tastes like it would be good with cinnamon or marshmallow flavors.

Caveat Emptor! This company does not have their act together. My order was either never sent or lost in the mail, it took anywhere from a few hours to two weeks for them to answer emails, and when I finally got my order after six weeks, one of the items was missing.

This one was a bit of a disappointment for me. When I opened the package I was hit by the delicious scent of strawberry ice cream and dark chocolate, but the flavor didn’t deliver like the scent does, even after a 30 minute steep. Ah well, another tea I won’t miss, I guess. Which is good, since if this had lived up to the scent it would definitely be the one I missed most.

Caveat Emptor! This company does not have their act together. My order was either never sent or lost in the mail, it took anywhere from a few hours to two weeks for them to answer emails, and when I finally got my order after six weeks, one of the items was missing.

I decided to try this while Adagio’s Grapefruit Oolong was still fresh in my mind. It was a very nice tea. A pleasant oolong flavor paired with a light lemon flavor and hints of grapefruit. Very natural tasting, but less flavorful than I would like. Overall, I think I like Adagio’s Grapefruit Oolong better. Mostly because the flavor is a little stronger, and I think grapefruit tastes better with oolong than lemon. Nice to try, but I won’t miss it.

Caveat Emptor! This company does not have their act together. My order was either never sent or lost in the mail, it took anywhere from a few hours to two weeks for them to answer emails, and when I finally got my order after six weeks, one of the items was missing.

Hmm. This was okay. A mild and rather artificial blueberry flavored white tea. I actually don’t mind artificial blueberry flavoring, but this is a bit too weak for my tastes. I’ll certainly finish my sample, but I wouldn’t buy more even if I had any intention of buying from this company again. Adagio’s Green Rooibos Blueberry is still my Blueberry tea of choice.

Caveat Emptor! This company does not have their act together. My order was either never sent or lost in the mail, it took anywhere from a few hours to two weeks for them to answer emails, and when I finally got my order after six weeks, one of the items was missing.

It’s my birthday today, so I decided to have something a bit indulgent. I tried this tea twice. The first time I used 2 tsp./8oz. and brewed it for about 10 minutes. It tasted rather watery even with a bit of milk and sweetener. I looked at the reviews here, and tried again. It looked like 3 tsp of leaf for 30 min. was the way to go, so I added 2 tsp to my used leaves, wrapped my cup in a kitchen towel to keep it warm, and added a touch of sweetener. That is quite good! I don’t think it will replace hot chocolate for me, but this is definitely what a chocolate tea should taste like! It’s definitely something I would reach for to satisfy a milk chocolate craving without a bunch of sugar. I’m not sure whether or not it was the vanilla, but I didn’t feel the need to add milk.

Cold brew:

More flavour than the hot brew, at least in terms of the lemon and grapefruit. Sadly, it was really bitter and too toasty. I drank a few sips and dumped it down the sink. :/

Sipdown! Thank goodness I have no more of these teas in my cupboard. I’m incredibly unimpressed with the customer service of this company (chasing them for ingredients, friends orders not being received, etc), and their black base is seriously the most finicky I’ve had.

So, an oolong. Dry, it smells divine. The best citrus smell ever. Steeped, it smells a little toasty. And.. even though I added a bit of sugar to bring out the citrus, all I can really taste is the oolong. A little citrus at the end of the sip, but that might be the orange I just peeled. It’s also a little… pithy. I didn’t think I steeped it long enough for the pith from the peels to come out, but apparently I did.

It’s not a terrible oolong, but it is pretty basic. And it’s not the type of oolong flavour I enjoy most (please give me OTT floral green oolongs TYVM).

The other 2 tsp of the sample is cold brewing, and I have higher hopes for that one. It should go well (should! I hope!) with the lemonade syrup I made.

(1.5 tsp in 10 oz)

Drinking the last of this today. It’s ok – I’m not finding the medicinal qualities that others disliked. It is lacking in cherry though (that could be age though) – so I tossed in a little Cherry Passion from River Tea and all is well in my world….

This tea grew on me. It is like a minty black tea, but better than that. I can’t quite describe it, but it went from being intriguing to being one of my favourites! I find it very refreshing, and still holds up well with milk.

Sip down, and still waiting for a reply about the tea that I, you know, ordered but never received. I escalated it to a claim and have yet to hear from PayPal about it. Unbelievable.

Welp, still haven’t received my Strawberry Cacao. I filed a PayPal dispute a few days ago and haven’t heard anything yet, so it’ll be interesting to see how this will all unfold.

Trying to finish up my sample of this. I have one more cup to go after this one. Comme ci comme ça.