Tea Blendz

A very nice tea. Would be great iced. The predominant flavour I’m getting is pear but I’m also tasting a good amount of kiwi as well. Very fruity! There is just the right amount of natural sweetness in this tea for me but some may find it a bit tart and may want to add some agave nectar, honey or sugar. A nice, light, refreshing fruit tea!

This is a strange but not unpleasant tea. I can’t decide how I feel about it. First, I think it has way too much going on. The citrus is really strong and I get a strange, hard-to-identify aftertaste that I think must be the nondescript sea minerals. It leaves a bit of a weird feeling in my mouth, and I think the stevia must contribute to that. I love to bake with stevia, but don’t like it anywhere near my tea. And I didn’t know how to steep this. 5-7 minutes in boiling water was recommended but it’s a white-and-green blend. I let it go about 5 minutes but in cooler water. It doesn’t seem to have come out bitter. I’m drinking the last of my mug cooled off, and I think I prefer it this way.

I’m going to leave off rating this one for now because I brewed it at work. Additionally, this tea isn’t visible on Tea Blendz’s website, so I’m not sure if you can purchase this outside of the store that closed down. I am so far enjoying this, though I can honestly say I’ve never had a rooibos, black, oolong blend before.

This steeping is more fig than apple, though it’s tasty enough. There’s a bit of spice going on as well, but it’s not overpowering. Any interesting tea to say the least :)

Thank you Sil for this sample. In the mood for something sweet and toffee dream sounds mighty sweet to me. :)

The tea resembles toffee quite nicely. It’s not overly sweet but is still noticeable and the toffee tastes like actual toffee. The white tea also seems a little floral. As a whole it’s light, creamy, sweet, floral and smooth.

A nice little treat that was definitely worth trying. :)

SIPDOWN! figured i should finally get around to finishing this one up. Overall not a bad little tea but i’ve since had a number of ginger teas that i vastly prefer. The ginger in this one is just a little muted for my tastes :)

Thanks SIL
Oh! Clove! Hello!
And then there was FIG – yay!
The black tea base is nice – about medium strength – but I didn’t really know there was Oolong in here, too, until I read the description. I like that it’s a black/oolong blend but there isn’t much of an oolong flavor that is noticeable. The Apple notes are nice, too! This pairs well with the Almond Butter & Cranberry Power Chews I am currently eating! YUM!

Well, this is certainly figgy. And I’m finding the spices a bit overpowering, but they are spices that I am particularly sensitive to. Clove especially. There’s a reason I don’t particularly like traditional chai. Can’t really taste the apple in this. Nor the rooibos or oolong, though that may be a blessing since I either don’t have much experience with (oolong) or actively don’t like the taste of (rooibos). It did make a mess in my steeper though, another reason to not like rooibos much. Going to be miserable to clean when I finish drinking this pot.

Sipdown!

I wonder what this would have tasted like when it was fresh? Haha.
Donezo!

edit I guess I did have it when it was fresh-ER, so I guess I just wish I could remember!

Had about enough left of this for 2 cups, so I decided to have one tonight. Didn’t bother resteeping because it wasn’t flavorful enough for two rounds, but the first cup was light yet enjoyable, despite the age of my sample (from Sil)

:)

Yum! I really enjoyed this. I think the white tea base really let the toffee flavour shine. I like that this is called ‘Toffee Dreams’ and it actually does taste like toffee. Bravo! It’s about time. The last few flavored teas I tried were disappointing and did not do their names justice.

This tea doesn’t lie.

The base is really tasty too. I give this tea two thumbs up. I would actually purchase this one!
Thanks to Sil for the sample!!

(85 degrees for about 3 min, looking forward to a re-steep!)

Sipdown! Thanks again to Sil for this tea :)

So, I’m not exactly sure how it happened, but I managed to brew up three fig teas tonight. Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, I wonder if it’s because I read a tasting note earlier on Ovation’s Brown Sugar Fig blend, and so fig was stuck in my mind. (Alternately, it could be because I knew this tea was an instant sipdown, and I brought two other fig ones home from work today just by chance).

Anyways. I brewed this conservatively as a black; I saw there was rooibos but only just found out about the oolong, but luckily both work with black steeping parameters!

The aroma of the brewed tea is a bit figgy and sweet, and that’s really it. Flavourwise, I’m catching some spice (cloves, I think), atop a sweet-ish, figgy base. This is more pleasant than I was expecting, actually. It doesn’t really have any “crumble” flavours to me, just that spiced, fruity, figgy flavour, which I do wish was a bit stronger. The tea base is thankfully not astringent here; I wish I could pick up the oolong a bit more, but at least the rooibos isn’t poking through where it doesn’t belong!

This is definitely a tea that would appeal to those who love figs, as it’s a prominent flavour and not hidden by other ingredients, but it’s less interesting than I would have hoped.

Thanks again Sil!

ETA: Re-steep was not too bad, actually! I definitely prefer this tea over the other two fig ones I had. The re-steep was definitely spiced, and a bit figgy.

Sipdown! Finally I can get back to tea logging! I successfully defend my Masters thesis last Friday, and have submitted it, so I’m officially done! So awesome. I have a bunch of backlogs to write at some point, if I remember… but odds are good I’ll miss a bunch.

Anyhow! Was poking through random bags of tea tonight (yes, there will be stash pix, since I finally have time to organize, which I’m super stoked about!), and picked out this one as I wasn’t super sure what I wanted. I’ve been so tea-deprived lately, that everything tastes great, and I am thoroughly enjoying all of the tea I brewed up. Yum. A hint of ginger, light tea base, peachy-fruity flavour. Definite like. (No licoricey flavour this time, yay!)

Not bad! And I totally called that there was anise in here, as I tasted a bit of licoricey-ness, but it’s totally bearable. Overall, this is a decent blend – I’m not getting “papaya”, but there are definitely ginger and citrusy flavours. Again, another tea that I drank while distracted, so that’s really all I have to say! :)

Thanks for a sample of this one, Sil!

ETA: Oops, meant to write as well that I enjoyed a re-steep, and for one craving ginger, I suspect another few good ones could be had as well! I just felt like moving on to new things.

1.5 tablespoon for 375 ml of water.

The spice is the overwhelming note in both the flavour and aroma.

Hint of smooth authentic apple flavour in the background. Fig flavour present in the background especially near the end of the sip which is accentuated into the aftertaste. Fruity tartness nicely compliments the flavour profile. Slightest hint of astringency, bordering bitter, from the tea base.

As I’m drinking this tea, I’m finding the spices to be quite overpowering.

Thanks to Sil for sharing this with me.

sipdown! this hasn’t aged well, not that i’ve had it for very long in the grand scheme of things. I’m still enjoying it but not nearly as much as i had previously :) Either that or my taste buds have changed again since i last had this. That’s ok though since sipdowns are the name of the game! haha

I picked this tea up on the weekend when tea blendz was closing down their retail store. Three 50g bags of tea for the price of one (think 6$)! This might be the first tea where I’ve tried two versions of the tea. I have to admit i didn’t like the first version of toffee dream that i tried from zen tea. There was a nuttiness to it that didn’t sit well with me. This version though is a pretty nice version. Not only is it a pretty blend with the light blue flowers in it, but it’s a light toffee tasting tea without a nutty feel to it. I’m quite happy with this, so even if i hate the other two teas i picked up, i’ll consider my weekend tea purchase a success!

Edit: resteep not bad but a little week, likely need to up time to 6 mins or so

Bold. Black. Malty.
Not bad, but certainly not my fave. Loads better than Tims, which is my ultimate test as to whether I’d ever purchase it again.
I love malty teas, but not so much when they are bold. Ugh, I know that isn’t the right word to describe what I mean, but somehow I can’t place the flavour.
I guess it just feels more manly somehow, the way it closes a sip, right before swallowing.
There was a time when I equated malty and bold, but now I think they are different. Definitely not the same! One I like, the other… ehhhh not at all.
Of course, I added milk and sugar as always with an Assam. Which made it easier to gulp it down before hockey practice. Pretty sure that was the only reason I made it through 2.5hrs of drills and the game after.
Will have to remember this place next time I go. Right outside the subway station with a small selection of looseleaf!

I’ve put off trying this because it smelled kind of dryly and bitterly spicy and I haven’t been too impressed by some of my Tea Blendz (unfortunate name) order. But, this one and the Green Caramel make up for it I think. This is really good. I think it might actually taste more like pumpkin pie than a lot of other teas that are aiming for that. This is sweet, toasty, and spicy in equal measures. I was wondering what the lovely toastiness was coming from, and just now noticed the rice in the ingredients. That must be it. I drank it with cream after work and it was a nice way to relax.

I don’t know why I fall for such novelty teas so often. Well, in this case, I’d bought some sort of online deal that got me a bunch of tea for very little. But, I always end up disappointed.

This turned out to be a thin Ceylon with some mild caramel taste and, for some reason, a lot of floral coming through. I don’t know where that was coming from. I added some cream because it felt so thin and unsatisfying and drank it quickly on my way to work. So, it’s definitely drinkable but not something I’m going to want often or more of. Oh well.

I had better luck with this one today and really enjoyed it as the first tea of the morning. It tasted like more of an indulgence this time. I could isolate each of the flavours, particularly the cocoa and the barley. I really like the toasty quality the grains this company incorporates lend to their teas. Very cool! It makes this sweet but rounded and not sickly-sweet.

This smelled incredible, and fell only a little short in the taste department. I indeed should have added milk, but didn’t bother. There was a little bitterness which must have come from the green tea. Why is there green tea in this?

Anyway, this was a sweet and creamy tea. Very tasty but I found all the flavours blended into one another. Not necessarily a bad thing, but desserty teas like this are all starting to taste the same.

Hmm, I liked this less today.

This was an interesting cup. Really rich, and very nutty thanks to the rooibos and rice. One of the nicer caramel teas I’ve had. Caramel flavour can tend to be either too thin or too sweet, but this is robust and tasty. I think it would resteep well but I didn’t get around to it.