The Tea Emporium

Another sipdown of a sample from Indigobloom! I used the entire ~2.5 tsp in one 10-12oz. mug.

Unfortunately, although this one definitely had an appley aroma to it, I’m getting essentially nothing from the flavour. :( I guess I will chalk it up to age, although assuming this tea isn’t quite a bit older than the others, I don’t understand how it would have lost all flavour so quickly when the others still taste fairly good!

Of course, reading the tasting notes below, I now suspect that this tea was pretty sub-par to begin with (not that I’m complaining about trying it!). Ah well!

(Second Flush, Organic)

I used 1 tablespoon of dry leaf for 375 ml of water.

Smokiness in the aroma.

Pleasant dairy barn aroma flavour. There is a crispness in the flavour that reminds me of white tea. I’m detecting hints of smokey flavour. There is a sweetness that has a likeness to ginseng. I am getting the baked squash flavour that was mentioned in the description – it’s coming through as an astringent flat taste with a sweet trail that I associate with roasted gourd flesh.

Second infusion at 4 minutes. All flavours are toned down. Gourd flavour in the background. Smokey flavour near the end of the sip and into aftertaste.

Thank you to Indigobloom for this tea!

I had a cuppa this in the company of the fabulous Raritea! She is awesome, we had a great time.
Ah, what a day!!
We attended a tea tasting at Tao Tea Leaf and it was amazing. Tao is so generous in offering samples of his many wonderful teas, I was a little overwhelmed. Most of them I had tried before so this was more of an opp to familiarize myself with the brews and yet I still get tea jitters looking at them all heh.
Anyhow, on to the tea. It was ok. Very tart, due to the hibby I presume. Under that, there was a hint of earthiness and fruitiness which I am having trouble identifying. What does Melissa Balm taste like? and Blackberry leaf? shrugs
Then when the cup cooled I finally got some of the licorice. Very sweet licorice!
Overall, I don’t mind this blend and I’d like to try it again at home using my own preferred parameters… but I wouldn’t buy more than a sample (which they don’t offer, sadly)

This is one of my favourite teas; I usually drink it in the morning when I want a break from my usual morning go to, Tetley.

I find the blend of citrus in this tea really balances out the mate nicely, and I’m especially a fan of the orange peel. I’m not sure if it gives me more energy, but it does make me feel good, which is nice before I head out on my morning commute and a long day at work.

Backlog.

Sipdown! I really did end up enjoying this tea as a flavoured black. Sweetness, some vague fruitiness, and just a general good flavour overall. I’d actually buy this again myself (my portions are from Sil) just as a change from straight blacks, and from more heavily-flavoured teas. Really delicious.

Couldn’t identify any flavours in this tea whatsoever, but I still quite enjoyed it the other day. It has that sort of, “flavoured tea” taste, and the flavours are good. Fruity, mapley, creamy…?

Yum – I still like this one! A nice short infusion results in quite a tasty cup. I can’t really taste all the flavours individually, but get hints of fruitiness, maple, and caramel depending on the sip. A great selection for tonight.

Yum, still enjoying this one. I figured, if you average a spring and an autumn blend, you get summer – right? (Ok, really it was entirely unintentional that I selected two “seasonal” blends to brew up at the exact same time.) Anyhow, I didn’t really catch specific flavours this time (wasn’t paying attention), but I caught some caramelliness, which was quite tasty. Either way, the cup was consumed quickly, so it was obviously good!

Ok… I have to be honest. Sil gave this to me in a swap when we met up far too long ago, and I had pretty much dismissed it as a random black tea, meh, not my favourite, but something I will eventually try out of curiousity. I had thrown it into my “try these!” box a while back simply because it was a tea I hadn’t tried that I happened to run across, because my teas from Sil & Indigobloom never found their way into separate boxes like everything else did, and so they were sitting out on my never-used desk chair.

Anyways, I had a good sleep last night post-crappiness and am enjoying an excellent morning of working on research stuff at the dining room table with the house all to myself (I think). Either way, no interruptions, music’s up, and things are feeling pretty good :D So I decided I’d tackle a bit of that box to make myself feel even better! Since it’s early in the day, I decided black teas would be fantastic, and pulled this one out.

As soon as I opened the bag, I was hit with an aroma I was totally not expecting… this is flavoured tea? I definitely thought it was just a breakfast blend sort of thing (yes, there are bits in it, but I guess I didn’t consider that). Instant regret for not trying this sooner, because gosh this smells tasty! It smells a little fruity to me, and sweet with some sort of delicious flavouring. Once the water hit the tea, it smelled even better :D And the verdict is….? YUM! I really kind of like this! I would swear that there’s a fruitiness in here, but apparently it’s just vanilla/caramel/maple…. Haha, actually, I see juuuust above my tasting note box, now, that this has peach in it! Yes, it totally tastes like peach!! Oh man. This is tasty! The flavouring isn’t super in-your-face, but it’s quite present enough to make this tea delicious. The only downside is that I’m getting definite astringency, and I would prefer none of that. I might try a shorter infusion, but I’m worried that it might impact the rest of the flavours. There’s a great sweet peachy aftertaste, but unfortunately it’s a bit marred by the astringency.

Thanks so much for this one, Sil! More proof that I need to stop being silly and just try all the samples I have, because you never know what things may actually taste like!

I believe this is the exact same thing as almond cookie from Joy’s Teaspoon which happens to be my favorite tisane EVER perhaps even rated higher than some of my favorite teas on here but Im a sucker for a decedent sweet delight!
This is VERY very nummy!
I have a lot of these mixes from various companies that are close to Joy’s Almond Cookie but this may be the exact match. Regardless I am sure to have this or Joy’s on hand at all times!
LOVE!
Thank you Indigobloom for this sample!

This tea stinks. I don’t mean like it doesn’t taste good, I mean the leaves themselves stink. Ugh. Like…like dirty, sweaty socks, it’s awful. It is three years old, but it has been in a tin and I remember the running gag for that outing was that a fair number of the teas we smelled from the tea emporium had a “backhint of ass”. They tasted good, but they stank. I have a strawberry shortcake from the same outing that has the same stench, so I don’t know what’s going on. Only my tea emporium teas stink like this, none of the others have changed in odor at all. I don’t think I’ve be returning there any time soon. And unless this tea tastes AMAZING, I don’t think I’ll keep it around. I can’t imagine giving this stinky tea to anyone, so I’ll likely just toss it, which makes me sad.

It tastes awful. AWFUL. Down-the-sink bitter and awful. Rest in peace, awful tea.

This tasted vaguely minty, but that was probably the fault of my travel mug. Still, yum. Apparently I was just in a berry mood as I made my iced teas this week, and it has worked out well for me. I prefer DavidsTea’s Blueberry Jam, but this is not a tea to be missed if you can help it!

Oh man…I made a cuppa this in my thermos to start off my morning yesterday and oh man. So good! It tastes like candy nom nom nom. It’s sweet and juicy and just plain lovely. Good call, Indigobloom and Jessie, good call. I can’t remember the specifics, as it was NUTBARS at work yesterday, but yeah, it was a good, good tea. I do remember practically chugging it and then being heartbroken when it was gone.

At our Toronto Tea Party on Monday, we got a bag of this to split and all of us try. This is one I will definitely be purchasing more of.

Absolutely no backhint of ass.

Smells like absolute heaven in the bag and doesn’t disappoint when brewed. The scent reminds me of spice and pie crust, very similar to a British Mince pie. The flavour was sweet at first with a soft spice on the back of the throat. The apples really stand out and the beets give it a simple, light earthy taste that really compliments the spice and also a gorgeous pink hue. As it cooled, I didn’t feel the same way, it was dull and bland tasting. Next time I’ll try it with a second steep!

3 down – 497 to go!

Ugh. I can’t drink this anymore. It’s just a bitter astringent cup of blech. thank goodness for sipdowns! yay! be gone foul tea!

Cold brewed this last night to see how that brought out the flavours or didn’t. I think I like this better as a cold brew though this wont be a restock when it’s done. There’s a taste that seems to run through most of the tea emporiums teas that I’m not a fan of – similar to adagio’s gross black base. Drinkable but not enjoyable. Cold brewing at least you can taste more of the notes they were going for with this blend so that’s nice.

While this tea isn’t BAD it’s a bit astringent which ruins the taste a bit. It’s nice, but the back end atringency ruins it.

It’s not fall but I wanted to give this one a try again – trying to get through some of the tea in my cupboard before my 3!!!! Orders arrive in the next few weeks :)

Thankfully the vanilla isn’t too over powering and goes nicely with the caramel

Had this one on a whim at the tea bar today. Really like the flavor of this one even without sweetener. Definitely would have this again. Refreshing taste!

This green tea is very fruity and fresh as its name implies! It’s very sunny tasting and a wonderful pick-me-up.

A great tea, citrusy yet creamy.

Smooth and buttery—I think it’s wonderful, but it does get bitter quickly. Maybe it’s a big faux-pas, but I do really enjoy this one with milk and honey, especially in the early Autumn.

This is one of my all-time faves in the Toronto area! Perhaps it’s not proper, but I prepare it in a French Press and add honey and milk to full-boiled water and let it steep for about 5 minutes. I also will add more hot water up to three times.

This Mate Chino is the first and best toasted cocoa flavoured Mate that I’ve tried—I’ve found that other imposters (lol) have an artificial chocolate taste that is a bit too strong and chemically for my liking—I don’t like to drink potpourri! The Mate Chino from The Tea Emporium is beautifully balanced and of high quality—it’s a wonderful treat and a fantastic booster. I wish that it was naturally flavoured, but I have a feeling it’s not.

Tried this cold brew to see if it helped redeem it in my eyes. It did not. So farewell madam butterfly. You were delicious and wonderful until my eyes and lips were opened up to more interesting and exciting possiblities in tea land :)