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This tea brews up extremely pink. To a degree that I found quite startling, given the lack of hibiscus. I like to drink this tea in front of a fireplace with a book, but I have to be in the right mood to do so, and I absolutely have to have a splash of milk in it to cut the sweetness of it, because the candied fruits make it very sweet indeed. (At one point, I had a tin of it in my luggage while traveling and it exploded, and the inside of my suitcase pocket was sticky and had bits of popcorn in it for quite a while afterward.)

I am not a huge fan of tisaines in general; I will often mix them with decaf black tea to get the “tea” flavor in them, but this one doesn’t need it. It does, however, need the correct mood. It’s supposed to evoke the feeling of being in a subterranean common near the kitchens of a fictional school, and it does that well – but you have to be in the correct mood to want to be there, and it’s not a great drink if you’re not in that mood.

I don’t like mint tea. I’m super picky about my green tea. I’m on my third tin of this tea. This tea is really, really good for a hot summer afternoon over ice. I also have been known to drink it on an early spring afternoon when I’m looking for a palate cleanser after thinking really hard and I need a break.

The mint is not punch-you-in-the-mouth strong; it compliments the green tea well, and the green is not grassy tasting the way some of my less-favored teas have come out. This one is on the shelf of “keep on hand for regular use.”

I quite enjoyed this tea; it is very fruity and sweet without requiring any additional sugar. I drank it with a splash of milk, and brewed according to instructions. I’m glad I tried it. (It didn’t end up meriting a space on my “keep on hand at all times” shelf the way T&A’s Elixer of Wisdom or Starry Night have, but that’s a very high bar to reach and should in no way be construed as disparagement of this fine tea.)

I love this tea. It tastes like all the best parts of Marzipan to me, without being cloyingly sweet. I drink it with just a tiny trace of milk, and brew it slightly stronger than recommended. Do not underbrew, or you will be sad.

Sadly, the leaves do not rebrew to anything like the strength of the first brew, so I often have to adulterate them with a bit of assam to make a second pot. Still worth it.

I love this chai. It is very heavy on the cardamom, but on the score of Chais that I have tried over time that are decaf, this has the rare distinction of not being “default chai flavor.” I am quite sad that I can’t get more, and that when my current tin runs out, that will be the last of it.

This tea is lacking something that I like in my tea, and I haven’t quite figured out what. I know I wanted brighter notes in it, so I added juniper berries and fresh orange peel and that helped with whatever I found it was lacking. It’s one of a friend’s favorite teas, and I shall be happy to drink it when I visit her, but I don’t need to keep it in my cabinet.

This was a perfectly serviceable tea that I bought a small sample of. It tasted fine, but did not make any sort of strong impression on me, aside from noting that it smelled rather “dark” in my mind. It was strong enough to brew three cups from the leaves and have the third cup only taste slightly week, but overall, I didn’t find it particularly chocolatey or otherwise noteworthy.

Floral, slightly sweet, requires no sugar but pairs very well with milk. I can often rebrew the leaves a second and sometimes third time. This is my go-to tea when I’m working and need to focus, and the fact that it’s inspired by the Ravenclaw house is entirely appropriate.

This is my go-to chai at this point; it is not overloaded with cloves, and thus doesn’t make my tongue go numb, and it pairs very well with just a splash of milk, no sugar required.