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By far my favorite of the flavored teas from Butiki I’ve tried so far.

The dry leaves smell very strong, almost like flavored coffee grounds. Once the tea’s steeped, though, the scent – and flavor – mellow out quite a bit. It’s very sweet, even on its own. I taste more maple than pecan, although I do get some pecan. The oolong base comes out more once the tea has cooled a bit, as others have noted. I was dubious about the concept of flavored oolongs – this was my first – but it works quite well as a base here.

I can’t say I’m getting pecan pie – but, to be honest, I’m yet to pick up on baked-good/pastry notes in any tea thus far. There is a creamy, rich quality to it, though not, in my opinion, one that screams pie crust.

Smells smokier than it tastes. It’s a fairly mild, light tea – not terribly complex, but very pleasant. I’ve been craving smokey teas lately but full-fledged lapsang souchong is a bit much for me – as others have said, Russian Country is a nice gateway option.

A good winter tea. The cinnamon is VERY strong – think Red Hots. The clove and orange peel mentioned in the description do come through, although I couldn’t taste much of the tea base. I’ll probably buy another tin if this comes back next year.

I really like this! The taste is nothing like red rooibos. It’s a little bit grassy – even hay-like, but in a good way. There are some nutty/toasty notes and some sweetness, too – I’m getting hints of maple syrup, or maybe honey whole-wheat pretzels. I’m even getting a faintly oolong-esque aftertaste. I’ve only had this hot so far, but I bet it would be good iced.

Pleasant, but nothing special. I didn’t think it tasted much like eggnog at all – more like a mild, creamy vanilla. The rooibos is prominent but not too terribly tabacco-y.

This tasted like olives to me. Canned black olives. Not what I was hoping for.

I was expecting this to be kind of like Trader Joe’s Cinnamon Tempest black tea, which kind of has a Red Hots quality to it but which I really enjoyed. Dry, it smelled VERY cinnamony – a little bit on the artificial side, and perhaps lacking in the vibrant citrus notes that pulled Cinnamon Tempest together, but cinnamony. But once it started brewing… olives. I mean, I could sort of taste the rooibos (which is not, to be honest, my favorite base under the best of circumstances) and I could sort of taste the cinnamon. But the dominant note was olives, and that killed it for me. Maybe I just have weird taste buds – it seems like most people have had very different experiences with this tea – but it’s definitely not for me.

This was another sample from my swap with ToiToi. Really seaweed-y, slightly toasty. The flavor’s very rich, very deep. There’s something almost creamy about it. This one really grew on me as I drank it, and I ended up liking it a lot.

I got a sample of this in a swap package from ToiToi. It’s a nice basic English Breakfast-style tea. It’s very smooth and quite sweet, with fairly strong honey notes. I wouldn’t buy it – I found it comparable to Twinings EB, which is much less expensive – but it’s a nice, straightforward morning choice.

This is pretty good. It’s a little bit sweet – I’m definitely getting honey – and a little bit malty. Very smooth, not particularly robust. Not much astringency and no bitterness. As far as unflavored black teas go, I usually stick to Darjeelings and while this tea is somewhat reminiscent of those I don’t like it quite as much. I prefer the floral undertones I get from Darjeelings to the honey ones here. This tea is nothing special and I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy it again, but I am enjoying it.

Possibly the worst tea I’ve ever had. It tastes like (cheap, gross) cologne, or maybe wood polish. Or a mix of the two. All I got was that gross faux-citrus; I couldn’t even really taste the base. I love Earl Greys and I’m usually all for strong bergamot flavor, but here it was so heavy and artificial, almost musky. There’s no way I would’ve even recognized this tea as an Earl Grey by taste if I hadn’t know what it was.

I found this tea bag lying around a relative’s house and have no idea how old it might be, so there is that. Still, I see other mentions of cologne-like flavor, so I don’t think it’s just that the tea has gone off.