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Dunno what to make of this one. The dry leaf and to a lesser extent finished cup aroma is fantastic, heady, sweet honey floral. But the finished cup is sandpapery rough which, looking at the three base teas (Assam, Kenyan, Ceylon) makes sense. And it’s strong/tannic, like it gave me a slight stomach ache tannic. Next time when I finish up the sample packet I’ll make sure to add milk and see what I think then (ETA: I see now other Steepsters suggesting going light with leaf amount, time, and temp…will definitely try that, yay Steepster). If I can salvage the actual drinking part I’d love to get a little more of this sometime because man, if you love perfume-y floral honey the smell is perfect.

Oooh and I see now Steepsters mentioning it coldsteeps like a charm, leaving none of the bitterness but retaining the honey scent. Excited now.

I didn’t realize until I opened this that it has vanilla (or any flavoring for that matter); at first that worried me but the vanilla’s not crazy powerful, just adds a softness and warmth that’s welcome given the black tea’s slightly rough/tannic with a hint of bitterness as it cools. The overall effect is a creamy, warming, relaxing, and pretty pot of tea to look at (it begs resteeps to let the white tea stars open up, but doesn’t taste quite as good after the first steep alas…a little bit gimmicky but hey, it is appealing). I don’t know that I’d restock, gonna have to see what the cost is. If it’s affordable maybe…it is a nice after dinner tea despite the caffeine.

As rooibos and marzipan/amaretto-based blends go, this takes the cake! I really enjoyed it last night. I often find that while I like that marzipan/amaretto flavor/smell, I want it in controlled amounts and most blends with that make it way overpowering to the point it starts to smell like plastic. Not so much an issue here somehow, possibly because the tanginess (Yes! This week I have been winning when it comes to finding teas that delivery that tangy dairy note!) cuts it off. I really liked this. Yes you can taste the rooibos, but it doesn’t take over the way it so often can. It’s there but not out of control. Would drink again.

Also good, milky of course but different from Jin Xuan. Drank it last night and didn’t keep notes, just remember I liked both and they did taste different but equally milk powerful. IIRC this one had an extra vaguely floral-sweet aspect. Sorry I’m not more detailed right now! As flavored Milk Oolongs go, this one was fine but I think I like Teavivre’s a smidge more (I’m way into the way that one smells). On the other hand, Teavivre’s tends to make me jittery and this one was the opposite; it calmed me and didn’t feel very high in caffeine. Not sure why the difference. Both resteep well.

If this is truly unflavored—supposedly there’s still some deception about that in the milk oolong marketplace (and I don’t mean to potentially libel Joy’s AT ALL either; it’s altogether possible often resellers aren’t aware)—I’m quite impressed. This is the milkiest natural/unflavored milk oolong I’ve tried. I did 3x resteep side-by-sides of this and their (flavored) Milk Oolong and they had equal levels of milk flavor, just different overall profiles (IIRC one was more floral, letting the oolong’s greenness shine through). So far, this is my favorite unflavored Milk Oolong. Yep.

Afternoon tea of the day. Nice, subtler and less eerily dead on and strong than Della Terra’s S’mores, but also avoids the off-putting built-up plasticky element in DT’s. I don’t think I’d restock but it was no problem drinking it down today.

First Easy Tea Hard Choice for me, thanks Dexter3657!

I can see how this is like Bai Hao Oolong but more oxidized—it has the same leafhopper-sponsored honey sweet, fruity fragrant notes and smoothness but a little more heft. It read initially to me as an extremely light black, but it also works if you kind of think of it as a heavier version of that oolong. It’s a little unusual (at least to me) and enjoyable, but I think I’d like it more on a warm spring day than this endless ice cold season. Will revisit when it warms up.

See previous note, the one on Art of Tea’s Velvet Tea. I was really enjoying the flavors here—I get juicy blueberry that isn’t too tart (yay) as well as the tanginess of cheesecake (no small feat apparently—I’ve tried so many teas with cream cheese, sour cream, or other tangy dairy mentioned in the name or description and usually find myself disappointed when I can’t taste any tang), so I was a very happy camper. But the rooibos gets distracting the longer it sits. If I ever get over my rooibos no phase I’m in right now, I’d consider this again. That’s the only thing here I don’t like.

Confession: I’ve fallen out with flavored rooibos blends. Honeybush tends to be so much better, and when I started all this rooibos didn’t bug me but lately it kind of does. Or maybe I’m just drinking stuff where it isn’t tamped down enough. Even when I like the flavors I’m tasting, the rooibos is always there on stage too, in front of the flavor I’m trying to pay attention to, waving its arms about and going “LALA NO LOOK AT MEEE!!!!” I have a feeling this is a phase I go in and out of though, and eventually I’ll go back to not minding it (and when it’s gentle enough I actually can find myself sort of liking it, that sawdust woodiness when it fits the overall flavor profile, has been incorporated artfully). But right now, alas.

I say all this because I was feeling that way last night—I liked Art of Tea’s Blueberry Cheesecake but was definitely having that problem with the rooibos—but this one was sweet enough in a good way, not a pinpointy saccharine one but a smooth deep-reaching way, that I mostly forgot about my rooibos issues. As red velvet blends go this is the best one I’ve had, I think. It’s subtler than the others I’ve tried (from Fusion and Della Terra and David’s IIRC), but rounder, more warming and balanced. I would drink it again.

This tea is fascinating. In the Harney book Michael talks about how this is a throwback tea, what Americans drank 20 or 30 years ago before we all had access to and knew about the innovative ever more delicate and sophisticated oolongs now coming out of China and Taiwan. It’s heavily oxidized, and as such that classic fortifying black tea flavor starts to creep in, BUT it also has the peachy sweet floral aspects of an oolong. Truth is a lot of oolongs that get described as having strong peach or stone fruit aroma don’t really scream those things to me; it’s usually a more general “floral and…sweet, fruit maybe, but not sure which” thing for me. But here, it really is peach. Strong peach. I can see why Rachel J missed this flavor and went on a search to understand and find it. It nears the intensity and tea-craving-pang-satisfaction of solid old fashioned black tea but combined with that intense peachiness and general “oolongs make things a little more delicate and soft” quality, it’s rather unique and offers the best of both worlds. I’d rather have this than a peach flavored black tea for sure. May restock. It’s a bit tricky because the way it doesn’t fit any preconceived category for me makes me wonder when exactly I’d want to drink it (maybe as a less brisk option lazy mornings I don’t want to be quite as caffeinated?)…but still. So neat.