greenteafairy Send Message

I knew this wouldn’t be a favorite going into it, since I’m very much not a fan of spearmint. And it isn’t. But I am finding it surprisingly drinkable! The mint dominates, but the other flavors tone it down just enough to make the blend work for me. I can’t really pick out the vanilla, but I do think it’s helping to soften the mint, and to lend the blend a faintly creamy texture. The lavender’s quite weak, but I imagine its presence also goes toward balancing out the mint. I am getting some of that earthy guayusa flavor, but it isn’t as pronounced here as in, say, Butiki’s Cider Guayusa. This is certainly not something I’d buy (or drink again, necessarily), but I’m glad to have had the chance to try it – and to be reminded that spearmint can, occasionally, be okay in small doses. Thanks for the sample, Kaylee!

I’d been curious about Della Terra’s various citrus cream rooibos blends for a while, so I was very grateful when Kaylee offered to bring a sample of this one to share at the NYC meetup yesterday. This does live up to the hype! The rooibos is smooth and creamy, and that tobacco flavor I often get is completely absent. I’m not sure what the rooibos/honeybush ratio is here, so it could be that the honeybush is smoothing things out. The lemon and lime flavorings are faint but pleasant – the lime comes through more strongly of the two, I think. This is one of the nicest rooibos (or honeybush) blends I’ve had, and it’s something I can see myself drinking in the evenings on a regular basis. Thanks for letting me try this one, Kaylee! I really enjoyed it, and I definitely want to try the straight lemon and lime varieties now!

Standard hibiscus-based blend – this means, of course, that hibiscus is the strongest flavor by far. I can pick up hints of currant and maybe a bit of blueberry as well, though. It’s quite dry, but not especially tart in my opinion (for a hibiscus tisane, anyway). I can’t taste the rooibos at all – not really sure why it’s here, actually. It’s pleasant, but it isn’t something I’d go out of my way to drink. Thanks for the sample, Nicole Martin!

This is okay for what it is. Not as flavorful as I’d like, but then I feel that way about lots of chais. The spice flavors are pleasant enough, if vague. The tea aspect leaves a lot to be desired, but hey, it’s decaf. Also cheap. I’ve found that a bit of soymilk makes a big difference with this one.

I ended up with this tea because Macaron – also part of the Héritage Gourmand collection and an all-around excellent tea I was able to try thanks to Shelley_Lorraine – was sold out. I’d never heard of canelé before, but evidently it’s a custard-filled pastry with caramelized crust.

The tea base here is pleasant and smooth – maybe a Ceylon or similar? There’s a creamy quality to the tea, which is pleasant, and a slightly burnt one, which is less so. It gestures toward vanilla, I think, but never quite reaches it. This tea is okay, but only okay – it’s not something I’d buy again, and that goes doubly given how pricey MF is. I did get an awesome tin in the bargain, so there’s that.

This tastes like a very, very mild sencha to me. It’s savory but only faintly vegetal, and the mouthfeel is nice and buttery. I’m really enjoying my cup, and I could definitely see myself keeping some of this around – I’m not always in the mood for very vegetal or seaweed-y greens, but this strikes me as something I could enjoy more or less anytime. Thanks for the sample, Shelley_Lorraine!

I think I was unfair to this tea before; it is in fact a step up from Twinings EB. As with many teas, I find I’m enjoying it more now that I’m paying minimal attention to steeping parameters – lots of leaf, long-ish steep, water at whatever temperature it is when it comes out of the dispenser at work. The Darjeeling’s coming through quite strongly, which I appreciate. Raising my score by several points.

So this is that morning when I’m having a hard time getting going (not to imply that most of my mornings are otherwise…). But anyway, I’m drinking this tea, and it’s just perfect. It’s strong and deep and malty and, surprisingly (since I used a lot of leaf and steeped for a long time and didn’t pay much attention to brewing parameters generally), quite smooth. There’s some astringency, but I actually like that in a tea. This may not be a refined masterwork of a blend, but it’s really hitting this particular (sleep deprived and morning hating) spot for me in a way that not too many teas can.

So even though I’ve more or less come to the conclusion that pumpkin tea is a). kind of a strange concept and b). not for me, I’d been curious about this tea for a while. Not curious enough to want to spend my meager tea budget and storage space on it – in addition to the pumpkin tea thing, I’m also a little weirded out by teas with sprinkles and similar – but curious nonetheless. So I was very grateful when someone at the NYC meetup – I think it was Teamore? – offered me a sample.

Onto the tea – I’m mostly getting cinnamon. There’s also quite a bit of sweetness. The black base is smooth and seems pleasant, but it’s overpowered by the strength of the cinnamon. I’m not tasting any pumpkin, or even what I’d consider a pumpkin pie spice blend – there’s no ginger or nutmeg, and in my book those are both pretty essential. Plus I just really like ginger. I am getting a strange sour aftertaste – I suppose this could be the pumpkin flavoring (which is clearly not working for me if this is the case), or maybe it’s the lemon peel? It’s not terribly strong, but it’s also not terribly pleasant.

For reference, I steeped this according to the instructions, no additives. I imagine I might be able to yield a slightly better result if I had enough of this to play around with, but I do not and don’t plan to buy more. Definitely glad to have been able to try this one, even if it’s decidedly not the tea for me.

This is another sample from the NYC meetup, courtesy of Nicole Martin. It’s pretty good – it reminds me a little bit of Paradise Tropical Tea, which is (in my opinion) a good thing. The flavoring is on the assertive side. I’m getting mostly generic tropical fruit; I see that mango and passionfruit are mentioned in the description on Art of Tea’s site. There’s a faint floral undertone to it, but it’s much subtler. And even with all of that going on, the base (Ceylon?) manages to come through nicely. I’m drinking it iced (brewed hot, then chilled), for reference.