Tea Guys

Tasted more like a regular chai blend- couldn’t taste the vanilla at all. Overall, as a Chai person, it has a good natural chai taste and would recommend it to others

Thank you to LiberTeas for this one. This is a very pretty blend, lots of fruits and if I’m not mistaken, crystallised ginger in the leaf. This brewed up very light and a lovely clear green. It is actually quite refreshing and the ginger gives a nice warmth to the end of the sip

Thanks for this sample LauraR!

I hate coffee. I really do. But LauraR sent me this blend so I thought, why not? It has taken me a while to get up the courage to try it though. I made it as a latte, thinking this might help tone down the coffee a bit and surprisingly I liked it. A lot! It did have more a tea taste than a coffee taste and it made for a very pleasant surprise!

I got this from Dark Moon Tea during their closeout sale (30% off!) and figured I’d be SOL if I liked it since they’re now out of business. Upon closer examination I realized that while the tea had the Dark Moon Tea logo on it, it mentioned that it was from the Tea Guys! Huzzah! I can get more! I think that makes it even more delish!

So, on to the tea itself. Words fail me this tea is so yummy. I’ve had the Red Velvet from Republic of Tea and while it’s yummy, I will never finish drinking it and have to look down at my shirt to see if there are any red velvet crumbs on my shirt. This one? I just might have to.

Perfect with a touch of brown sugar splenda blend.

I even got a second steep out of it and might have been able to go for a third had I not reached my self-imposed 2 day limit for used tea leaves.

Finishing this off that I think was from Wombatgirl. Reason for doing so is the fact that I had brought a mango with me to work yesterday but when I wanted to eat it, it had started to go off. I can still have some mango, even if it is a pale substitute for the real thing.

Good morning Steepsterites.

I’ve been looking through the Bits and Bops Basket and found a few things that it’s unlikely I’ll ever drink, so I’m making a tough decision to just throw them out instead of having them lying around for years and years and years. I have a box full of ancient cheap tea bags which will probably eventually suffer the same fate, but I’ll get to those later. I only did the Basket now because I was searching for inspiration for the first pot of the day.

I eventually decided on this one, which I think came from Wombatgirl. I opened it up and sniffed the leaves, and decided that this was actually a very weather appropriate choice. Possibly would have been more so yesterday, but it’s close enough for jazz.

It smells sweetly floral and fruity. It could easily have been a soap-y smell, but it’s not that floral. Something pointing in that direction though. More importantly, it smells girly and extremely summerly. Extremely so. And this is where we get back to the weather, because yesterday was so far the warmest day of the year where I live, with upwards of 20°C outside. (I got my windows washed, yay, with minimal stripage, yay!) I can pick out the fruit and I can recognise it as mango, although it does get a little camuflaged by the floral aspects. If I hadn’t known it was mango, I’m not sure I would have been able to guess much more than ‘something tropical and fruity’.

After steeping the aroma has completely changed character. We now have something sugary sweet which can best be described as a bubblegum flavour. There are no specific floral notes in the aroma to speak of, and the mango notes have been warped somewhat. Again, however, knowing that they’re there helps being able to identify them underneath the funny bubblegum smell. Turning it into a smell of pure mango can be done, but it requires the cup to stand around and develop for a bit and then deep concentration. It turns more mango-y after having rested for a moment and less bubblegum-y.

The flavour is surprisingly floral, considering the fact that it’s almost not there at all in the steeped aroma. Again, we haven’t quite moved into soap territory, but there is certainly a heavily perfumed aspect to it and it leaves a funny, slightly bitter aftertaste. Like if accidentally got just a tiny amount of shampoo in your mouth while washing your hair, and then you can taste that still for a long time. It’s not quite that unpleasant, but it’s what it reminds me off.

The fruit that is so heavily present in the aroma is a different matter. It seems to have had business elsewhere because it’s not really here right now. There are the shadows of it flitting about in the mouth at first, but the more I sip it, the more it seems to come out. And the more it comes out, the more it reins in the roses. I’ve only had a few sips at this moment, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the mango would become a good deal stronger as the cup develops.

But then again, I do tend to like those subtly flavoured ones. Except I can’t really bring myself to call all these roses ‘subtle.’ They’re anything but. I should have liked to have been able to identify the actual tea underneath the flavouring but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards for me. (Oh hello! Big pigeon sitting close to my window!)

I’m feeling a little ambivalent about this one. I like the fruit aspects, especially if it develops a little more than it is right now, but it really is very floral. I would have liked it better if it had just been green tea with mango, I think. To me the rose addition seems a bit overkill.

Backlog: Wow! I can’t believe I haven’t logged this one before, as it is one of my favorite white teas. I love the fresh fruit flavor of this, the ginger is zesty but doesn’t overwhelm. Just a beautiful medley of tastes. Here is my full-length review of it: http://www.teareviewblog.com/?p=11555

A really yummy chai, and I am a bit picky. The vanilla is subtle which makes it good. It also isn’t overly artificial. It is also a very pretty tea to look at! I made mine latte style with foamed milk, sugar and cinnamon and it was divine! Had to have a second one!

Nice maple aroma; good strong tea that held up well with my milk and sugar. Subtle maple undertones, but not a strong maple flavor. A good tea.

Great tea for any time of day; a good black tea that I let steep for about 5 minutes, and add milk and sugar to; good strong flavor.

After reading many reviews, I decided to try this tea and was a bit disappointed.

If you’re an avid Early Grey drinker, there are better blends out there. Overall, the taste wasn’t as strong as I hoped for, but still a decent blend from TeaGuys.

What a great tea! Brewed mine for about six minutes, added milk and sugar, and was a warm, well-rounded, cup of tea without any bitter aftertaste. Light cinnamon aroma, slightly nutty; didn’t smell the carrots but definitely had a flavor of carrot cake. Not a heavy flavor, though, and not overtly sweet.

If you’re looking for a tasty, fun, treat-like tea to enjoy on a Spring or Autumn (or any month, really) evening, the Green Walnut is strongly suggested.

Before you even taste the tea, a full, tantalizing aroma will fill your senses. When the first drop of tea touches your tongue you will immediately taste the lush green, blended to perfection with a butter-like taste of walnuts.

I strongly suggest this tea for anyone looking to explore more outside-the-box green teas.

Pretty nice with milk, although I’m not sure the tea needs it as it’s fairly mild on its own. With milk I noticed that there wasn’t as much of that subtle chai-spice flavour.

I’m not sure, but I believe I got this tea from LiberTeas – that’s the problem with my Cupboard; I’ve got so many little samply things kicking around that I don’t remember where and who half of them are from.

This was a pretty mild black tea with a delicate touch of chai-like spice. The maple sugar acted as a light sweetener for the tea without making it too cloying, but still keeping its distinctive flavour. Yummy!

NICE! Upon opening the bag I kinda freaked. The SMELL. Amazing! …Every year for my birthday I’d ask for a carrot cake, my favorite since what must have been 1994? Due to dietary restrictions I haven’t had a baked “legit” carrot cake in forever. This totally hits the mark for satiating my cravings. I’m not traditionally a big fan of rooibos but I think in this blend I think it’s the perfect compliment. It’s sweet, slightly spicey, and can definitely detect the carrot (not overpowering, just about right). Some seriously epic ingenuity from the Tea Guys (this and other blends). I’ll be keeping some on hand. :)

I tend to love all Earl Greys to some extent (unless they’re just awful) but can’t seem to find the perfect blend. The bergamot is pleasant in this guy and not at all overdone. The vanilla is pretty present and accounted for in fragrance but I feel like I kind of missed it in the flavor. For me this definitely went better paired with some sweetened almond milk, probably wouldn’t drink it without. This runs a touch earthy for my taste but overall it’s really solid.

Based on the recommendation of LauraR picked some of this up. (Thank you!)

This is crazy good! Upon smelling my tea haul on the way home I was actually getting really desperate to try this. It kind of reminds me of when I went to this absolutely awesome vegan restaurant in Bellingham, WA (Bloom) and the guy had hooked us up with this batch of super fresh walnut milk he’d just made… (best nut milk I’ve ever had hands down), with less nutmeg and more rock you in the jaw with caramel-esque and very mild coconut undertones. I had to steep this way longer than usual for green tea to suit my taste, but it was so worth it. I’m debating if I have a new favorite. Scary given my black tea preferences.

This tea is so much more than I had hoped for. When I glanced at bag in the box of samples LauraR sent me, I thought it was just going to be another strawberry green tea blend. Same old same old. Oh, was I wrong. This tea has so much going on but it all blends itself together very well. It tastes like a sparkling strawberry and mixed berry tea with similarities to root beer in it’s sparkle. It tastes like there is sarsaparilla mixed in with all of the goodness of this tea. I have to have another cup. This cup is gone. Teaguys make some great tea! Can’t wait to try more:)

Additives in this one? Make me happy. Not as sweet as I thought, but the creamy + candied bergamot is tasty with other stuff added and the lack of tea-ness in the flavor doesn’t really bother me like it did when drinking this straight. It’s similar to yesterday’s Upton’s Devonshire EG but the bergamot responds better to milk (doesn’t get all perfume-y) in this one so I like it a touch more.

The tea – both dry leaves and post-steeping liquid – smells like bergamot candy. It’s got the citrusy sharpness of bergamot, but it is cuddled on all sides by a very sweet cake-icing-like vanilla smell. I would like a candle in this flavor please. It smells delish.

Usually, I take flavored teas with sugar and half & half, but today since I have the time I had this one straight. At first sip, I didn’t really get much taste, just a little hint of tartness at the end. But as I continued to sip, the taste seemed to build in my mouth – first the vanilla sweetness and then the edgier bergamot (which I’m pretty sure is the tart taste at the end of the sip I had at first – as I continued to sip, the vanilla smoothed out the edges of this tart endnote).

One thing that I don’t really taste, however, is tea. The added flavorings are nice – not impressive but nice (I’m a fan of anything that reminds me of icing) – but the overall taste just feels like it is missing something. And I’m pretty sure that something is the taste of tea. If I had to guess, I’d say this is a fairly meh Ceylon but that’s only because it doesn’t really taste like much of anything and that lack of taste is something I associate with not-very-special Ceylons. That could just be prejudice against Ceylons speaking. Anyway, towards the end of the cup, there was some astringency that left my mouth feeling a bit dry and that was the closest to “tea” that I really got out of it.

I’ll going to hold off on rating this until I have a chance to try it with additives – I have a feeling the bergamot and vanilla will really make me happy with sugar and half & half mixed in. Especially since any time I use additives, I’m not really expecting or looking for any strong tea flavor.

Bumping this up because it is that delicious….can’t stop thinking about it and can’t wait to order the 4 oz size.

This is a brand new offering from Tea Guys that is not even on their website yet. If you are interested in it, you can order it via telephone. I recently placed a large sample order and this was amongst them. The ingredients are organic rooibos, cocoa beans, organic honeybush, cinnamon, cinnamon chips, dark chocolate flakes, ancho chiles, pasille chiles, saffron, natural flavors.

While I am not getting much of the chocolate in this, the spice mix is really warming and amazing. It isn’t too spicy, but I bet it would flush the really fair skinned folks. The cinnamon and chiles play nicely together. I wish I could taste more chocolate. I might try stirring some actual hot chocolate into it. This is good enough that I would buy it even with the somewhat weak chocolate presence. Further, Tea Guys offers reasonable prices.

Incidentally, this best with a pinch of sugar and a splash of chocolate milk didn’t hurt things either :)

YUM!

So I recently found out the Tea Guys have a whole bunch of new blends that are not yet listed on their website. However, if you click on the Catalog button their website, you can see what they all are. You have to call in to order them and for more detailed descriptions. As a lover of really well done flavored tea blends, I just placed a rather large sample order with them. While Cafe Latte is not one of their new blends, I have started drinking coffee in the morning and have grown to love it. DARNITALL! Anyway, I have been curious about a coffee flavored tea and decided to give this one a shot and threw in a sample. Ultimately, I have decided that I like it. It is a fusion of coffee and black tea. They are nicely balanced with it erring slightly of tasting more like black tea than coffee. There is a hint of cocoa in the flavor profile making it taste sort of mocha-ish. I did find that I only enjoy this one when it served quite hot and a splash of milk is almost a necessity—-or even chocolate milk. I haven’t reviewed this one and don’t plan on writing a full review, but it was also reviewed by several other folks on Teaviews if you want to know more. I don’t know that I will order this in quantity, but will definitely at least get another sample on a future order.