The Spice & Tea Exchange

The smell is heavenly. This tea really benefits from a creamer of sorts, and a little sweetener. Delicious!

I really love this! The coconut is so prominent, and it’s a nice natural coconut, not sweet or artificial tasting, and it goes well against the rich dark green flavor of the oolong.

I’m still new to tea, but this is one of my favorites so far, and I find it wonderfully drinkable. (Plus I bought it in Florida and the coconut is very evocative of the beach!)

I have purchased so much tea and had no restraint whatsoever in the past few weeks. However, I have absolutely no regrets. When I go to sleep I think about which tea I’m going to have the next day, and wake up excited to start steeping. I’m glad that golden monkey tea is in my current rotation…very rich, slightly sweet and smoky, peppery, and very smooth. I think Keemun is next for me, but I’ll have to work through my current inventory a little bit first…not too long though, the sale for Harney and Sons English Breakfast at Fresh Market ends in 2 weeks. :P

I am finally getting around to trying this tea. I’ve seen it in several stores, and decided to buy it last night. It’s very good, the flavor reminds me of a Dian Hong black tea…sweet potato, maybe…malty, but somewhat sweet. The caffeine level is good, it’s not smacking me in the face, but it’s doing the job of gently waking me up on an easy Saturday morning.

I’m not sure this is anything special. I can taste the malty, and in the store (I got this in San Francisco, which was quite a fun trip for me!) I could smell the chocolate better than I can now. I have other breakfast teas I like better.

I don’t know what this tea wants to do…it just tastes jumbled to me. Not anything special.

I did not know this was a Pu-Erh. I had it when I was fifteen, and I remember the nice vanilla smell and really sweet taste. I thought that the earthier body and smell was because it was blended with a black tea-turns out I was wrong and it was a green Pu-Erh. It’s one of the few darker teas that I started to drink without cream and sugar because it was so rich, never mind the sugar was great with the peppermint. The Tea Spot Climber’s High is a lot like this one, but I prefer the taste of this one because of the peppermint next to the cinnamon and vanilla bean.

I liked it. Really liked it. The Sencha and the Dragon well teas blend really nicely together to create a sweet, vegetal, sea mist background sweetened by the rhubarb and strawberry. Fruity and fresh. The smell is the real highlight and a stronger version of what I described in the taste. I am glad that I had a sample.

I was looking for something soothing on this early morning, and I haven’t had this in a while so it felt like a good pick. I want to play around with brewing in the future with this tea – First brew was sweeter and lighter, though the floral notes are consistently strong. The rose aroma is lovely and follows through each sip. The flavors were light and accented nicely wit 1/2 tsp of rock sugar. I enjoyed this cup, although I wouldn’t recommend re-steeping as much of the flavor complex is lost, leaving the second steeping primarily rosey. This isn’t necessarily bad, but I liked the more complex flavor the first cup had to offer. I have a good bit of this tea so I will continue to play with brewing and possibly blending because I refuse to waste perfectly good tea. This one was nice, but not an absolute favorite.

These leaves are fairly old. I’m not getting carrot or cupcake. It does taste like a yummy chai with a strong cinnamon note. Other than that, I don’t have a lot to say. It stands up to sweetener well and doesn’t require milk to be enjoyable. I usually hate Keemun but this is all right. Tasty even. Dare I say I’m enjoying it? :P Oddly enough, I don’t think I have any other chais right now. It’s usually a staple in my cupboard. So I’m holding on to this one for when I get chai cravings. I like it! I do!