RiverTea

This was one of my surprise samples from K S and it was also a BIG surprise tea! Our first tea during our tea time was Bailin Gongfu, and how can anything compete with that? But this did, oh yes, it did!

We were having Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake and my daughter had cut very generous slices, so we were still eating when it was time to serve the second tea. Usually the first tea is specifically chosen to pair with the food. But this tea was AMAZING with it. I was expecting the usual delicious but predictable yammy flavor of golden Yunnan, but lifted the cup and got this wonderful smokey aroma. On tasting, there was no resemblance to Lapsang but the smoke made this tea hearty and…just plain wonderful.

This was a wow-ee, zow-ee, nice surprise! Yes, yes, yes!

Marco Lewis TTB

158 degrees?! At that temperature is it even still tea?!? Well, they know their tea best right? :P

I made this tea gongfu style

1st steeping: 40 seconds at 160F. Hmm pretty tasty but slightly weak. Sweet buttery flavor. I think if I bump up the temperature the flavor won’t be so weak.
2nd steeping: 40 seconds at 180F. Oh no, the milky buttery flavor is gone and it’s all vegetal now. That means I put the temperature too high :(
3rd: 50 seconds at 160F. Jackpot! After lowering the temp back down again the wonderful sweet buttery flavor is back. Take a lesson from me, increase the time, not the temperature with this one (or if that doesn’t work, add more leaves!)

L&CTTB

I normally don’t like flavored oolongs. This one may be the exception to the rule. The raspberry was really nice. It went incredibly well with my chocolate chip cookie. The raspberry, even though enhanced by flavoring, did not taste fake. I enjoyed this tea.

L&CTTB

This was a decent dragonwell. I enjoyed it well enough.

This tea does not go well with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

L&CTTB

This one was a good lychee tea. Just the right amount of sweet.

I wrote up some notes on paper at work today, but they’re sitting on my desk. So I’m logging from memory now.

Sipdown! Not my favourite assam, but a good effort. It’s sweet and malty…I just know I’ve been spoilt by other varieties! A solid, everyday-style tea, but not a sock rocker sad to say.

I’ve been drinking this fairly regularly lately, but I’ve not had time to log it. It’s a nice assam, but for some reason it’s just not really doing it for me. It’s sweet, lightly malty, and it has good body and depth of flavour. Kudos for the name, too. It works equally well with milk or without, and it’s smooth with no astringency. Sometimes I get mild honey notes, other times I get more grain. On the whole, though, it leaves me fairly uninspired and I’m not sure why. I’ve had assams I like more, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this one. It makes for a strong, reliable, every day tea.

Marco Lewis TTB

I can’t really give this a real numerical rating because I’ve come to dislike flavored teas lately. This is Spearmint flavored oolong but I taste all spearmint and no oolong. I feel like I could have just drank actual spearmint instead, y’know? That being said it does have a nice minty flavor with a hint of ginger in there.

Lewis and Clarke TTB

I decided to make this as a tea soda, following Roswell Strange’s method of using ~1T to 1oz boiling water, steeped 4 minutes, I then added the stevia equivalent of 2.5T of sugar to make a concentrated syrup, that I then added to carbonated water.

The result is interesting. I just notes of vanilla, cinnamon, and fruit, but not all in the same sip. Each sip is a little different than the last. Keeps things interesting.

Lewis and Clarke

So I went to my dad’s today. I ended up having day old pizza for lunch, and Italian takeout for dinner. I think all the heavy food after eating pretty much nothing but oatmeal isn’t sitting well, and my tummy isn’t feeling good. I saw this and thought, hey it’s got ginger, maybe it’ll settle my tumtum.

This isn’t bad. Lemony and gingery. Not my favorite, but it’s still nice and it seems to be helping my stomach.

I cold brewed this a while ago and then forgot about it until my mom reminded me that it was in the fridge. I feared that it have gone bad especially since I brewed the whole sample from Roswell Strange but luckily it did not so now I am sipping on what tastes like a combination of watered down fuzzy peaches and sweet honeydew melon. It is really interesting and stands out from the other herbals I tried. I don’t know if I would want this in quantity but I am certainly enjoying this bottle. Thanks tea twin!! 166.

This was the sample included with my RiverTea order. This is not a tea I would have chosen on my own.
The ingredients make it sound really weird. Mango, banana, cinnamon, vanilla? Don’t think so….

Really all I’m getting is cinnamon and vanilla in a black base. It’s nice and light, not in your face offensive, but I’m not getting any fruit at all. This just confirms that this one is not for me, but always happy when companies include free samples for you to try.

From Tea & Cards TTB

This tea must have suffered from being in the TTB. I was excited to see it and it was the first one I tried, but it tasted like absolutely nothing. I dumped it out and found solace in some Bailin. I’m not rating it because I don’t think this was a true representation of the tea.

Revisiting this cold brew, it is a very very weird tea. Super strong cream notes, coconut and berry flavours.

Super interesting to try, but not something I want to keep around in my cupboard.

Thanks for the sample, Roswell Strange! :)

A lovely sample from Roswell Strange. Thank you!

I cold steeped it overnight. It’s so weird! Fruity, and almondy. That’s what I thought. But it’s apple-hibiscus-coconut? What? IDEK.

I’ll have to think on it some more when I get home and finish the jar. But my initial impressions don’t jive with the product description.

Thank you, Marzipan, for sending this my way! This is delicious!

The scent of the dry leaf was so amazing. Very rich and intoxicating with its fruity scent. I definitely taste the papaya. It’s the dominant flavor, but the berry is present too. It does remind me ever so slightly of cantaloupe & cream in taste, which is really strange because it doesn’t smell ANYTHING like that.

So yeah, delicious. Might have to add this to my wishlist!

Last bit of a sample from Roswell Strange.

It’s really good, although I’m having some issues as I made pizza and burned the roof of my mouth REALLY badly. So tea isn’t quite my friend right now.

This is sweet and light and deliciously juicy. Thank you for sharing!

Thank you, Roswell Strange! This is from the SSTTB, but it was a sample added just for me. :)

This is really nice. I really like the papaya in it. Quite different from Gold Rush. Not nearly as sweet, for one thing. Also, no coconut.

This tea is sweet and creamy. Definitely something I’ll pick up if I order from River Tea.

First I’ll do a couple re-steeps, then I need to cold steep and see how it works that way!

I iced this, and though the cup was underleafed it is still as delicious as last night’s cup. Creamy, sweet, and tastes amazingly of cake and icing and happy things. Thank you Roswell Strange for introducing me to this tasty brew. I am sad to see it go but it will be making it into my RiverTea order when I eventually place one. 159.

Oooooh Roswell Strange, you know me so well! This tea is delicious!! It is creamy strawberry and vanilla all bundled up in one perfectly magical caffeine-free cup. Yum! Thank you Roswell Strange for sharing as this is definitely a tea for me.

ETA: As I continue to sip, I realize that this reminds me of Butiki’s Birthday Cake…a lot. And I LOVE Butiki’s Birthday Cake!

Sipdown! (now only 2 teas older than 6 months in my cupboard, and one to get through this month heh). I’ve enjoyed this tea from RiverTea. It’s malty and smooth and a decent average, every day sort of tea. It’s not going to rock your socks but its a nice enough cup when you want something that is unobtrusive and reliable. :)

i had this tea today and it was a really pleasant cup. this might be one of my favourite straight teas from RiverTeas, as i’ve vastly preferred their fruit teas until now. This is a really smooth brew and flavourful. I’ve had other Yunnans that i’ve enjoyed more, but this over the assam that i had from River Tea imo. :)

mmmmmm…i had this one a couple days back as well. It’s a distant memory, but a pleasurable one at that. Glad i can try this one again and write a proper review, especially since this is one of the teas i added to the BBB Box last? round!