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Came across this one the other day while rummaging for tea choices. The bottom of my packet of this was slightly opened as in unglued, not enough to lose any tea, but perhaps enough to lose flavour while this was being stored.

Steeped, this tea was ok. I steeped quickly because I suspect that the base would get astringent if neglected. Mild vanilla scent and flavour. Certainly not as good as my favourite vanilla black. But then, I am incredibly biased already. And certainly, even more so as I’ve just had my favourite vanilla black the other day.

I’ll wait a bit and try again before rating.

Beautiful tea. Super sweet and lovely. It reminds me very much of the honey black I was drinking the other day.

Vanilla and anonymous spice on a gentle black tea base. I say anonymous because the anise doesn’t announce itself, but thankfully, neither does the cinnamon. They both just blend into the vanilla in a pleasant spice fog. There’s also a vanilla cream thing going on here at the tail end of the sip which is very delicious. And the slightest bit of brandy or rum, as in eggnog. Or am I dreaming this up?

Just the thing in the afternoon when you want a mellower black tea before you begin to wind down for the day.

It’s been a really good tea day.

I was so craving this one today and was delighted that I was actually able to locate it. What I need to do is sit down and do some tea organizing, serious organizing.

Have I really become one of those people that puts aside time to sort and order my tea stash? By category? By age? By size? By how much I love it?

Maybe I need tea furniture now.

It has been so nice to putter around and do little to nothing. This tea is just divine. It is much better, if memory serves, with a glug of milk and bit of honey, but currently, that’s not on my nutrition agenda, so black it is. Still divine. Like a buttery sticky saffron honey bun stuffed with raisins.

There was a brief moment this morning when I thought my kettle had finally called it a day. Thankfully, it was just the electricity acting up again. And even more thankfully, the furnace continues to purr and clatter on. All good.

This is a remarkable tisane with the scent and taste of sunflower seeds and roasted peanuts. Very nutty and totally drinkable.

In my enthusiasm, I may have added a bit too much tea to my spoon of dry leaf this morning and may have steeped it just a tad beyond the perfect two minutes. I may have been channelling Daylon with the abundant leaf. Sadly, this cup is a bit more astringent than the usual divine smoothness. Bah! The scent and taste of natural vanilla remain a comfort.

My evening herbal tonight. Citrus and delicious.

I may add a bit of hibiscus to this to see how that influences the balance of flavours at some point.

Cold steep.

After the stevia blast of that last hot cup of this the other day, I prepared a cold steep to let it sit for a while. Much much better. Either this method subdues the stevia taste or less of it in the dry leaf managed to make its way into my spoon. Yes, this batch is creamy coconut and subtle fragrant white tea with none of the mouth bitterness of the previous batch. Not changing the rating based on the shock to my tastebuds of the first cup though.

Hello old friend. This tea is so like a warm hug after such an absence. You know how you drink a tea almost every day and then you get distracted by life and shiny new packages and generous samples from tea friends? Possibly that. For months. I’ve thought of this tea often, but in the scramble of urgencies, it was hard to track it down when the mood struck. And now it has reappeared just at the right moment. Vanilla deliciousness. I’ve got some dark chocolate handy to celebrate.

Solid blend. I am surprised actually as I was expecting some sort of false generic tasting chai blend with a gaddawful abundance of cinnamon, but it turns out that it is truly lovely.

Steeped up—nice. Hints of cherry and chocolate and coconut and a bit of gingery spice in a smooth black base. Slight catch in the throat at the back of the sip as you would expect from the ginger.

The second steep is also more of the same deliciousness, just a bit weaker.

The dry leaf is very chai-like, a bit tinier bits of spice and such than what I am used to. The black leaf is plentiful, thankfully, and then that is interspersed with what appears to be shredded coconut, spice, and possibly cocoa nibs. But who knows, really, as there is no ingredient list, as per usual for HI blends. Thankfully, I am not allergic to anything that I am aware of, but people who are might want to avoid HI in general.

Oh yeah, and Canadians might want to avoid HI teas too as I was charged in US funds by a company that is based in my city here in Canada. So yeah. Never again.

Too bad. This is a nice one.