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Cinnamon, honeyed notes in this tea sample that lured me into Teavana. I was seriously tempted to buy some but remembered to hold back as I wasn’t supposed to be buying more tea unless it was a good deal…or something like that in the resolutions :P

Why was I there you might ask? Well, I walked by just as the wind was blowing directly IN MY FACE, and the staff were literally waiting behind glass doors to pounce and offer me a sample :P To be nice I ended up pretending to browse, looking at their sale items to be nice, and picked up a 75% off holiday set for myself after all…

Drank this again – lots of tea drinking due to the weather. Especially since I favour salads for work lunches…tea is the only thing that can warm me up. Roasted notes wash down the remains of my lunch perfectly, and the fact that lots of people at work are sick made this seem like a sensible choice, being a herbal tea with leaf ginseng and lots of other herbs…

Drinking the last bit of this reminds me how much I love rooibos and berries! Good for the frigid -30C windchill this week. A balanced mix of sweet, cinnamon, and berries that melds into the perfect cup of warmth

This was the last of a small sachet I bought from Davids’ a while ago. The tea is a lot more floral than I remembered, reminds me of Tie Kwan Yin (which I incidentally detest). Its a jasmine overload on the senses.

It could be due to the citrus flavours fading over time, allowing the floral notes of the tea to come through more.

I brewed this for …15 mins because I got pulled away from my desk due to a work emergency. That could be another reason for the floral intensity!

I can see why its a popular tea, but not for me due to my aversion to sweet floral teas these days.

Another sample I had in store. I wasn’t a fan of the mint, but the citrus flavours were great. I wonder if my aversion to the mint was a seasonal thing – I think that mint works better in the summer iced for me than served warm. Ahh…I can’t wait for summer again :P Now I know how Olaf feels…

Chai teas are new to me, so I was curious to taste this one in-store. Its surprisingly good, I like the spice used, feels warm and cozy, perfect for warming up on winter afternoon/evenings.

I might be tempted to buy some if I can split this with a tea-loving colleague.

Fruit explosion is what I thought when I first smelt this tea in the store. I was so smitten that I bought much more than I anticipated (think cash register shock), but it smells so good. I store it in an airtight can from an old white tea, and when I do open the container my nose is in heaven. The pineapple + mango aromas are STRONG in the dry tea.

Once I pour in water though, the aromas are muted down, and as its brewing, I can smell more of the berries in the blend. Ripe berries come to mind.

The liquid packs a strong fruit punch to the nose, less so to the tongue. Its more of a candied / overripe fruit note rather than fresh fruit note.

It brews as a dark pink liquid, so not everyone’s cup of tea (ha!), some may prefer to ‘hide’ this in a ceramic mug instead.

A very drinkable loose leaf pu-erh for every day (as opposed to a fancy aged for years cake). Despite being labelled as a chrysanthemum pu-erh blend, this tin lacks chrysanthemum pieces. As I’m halfway through the tin already, I am quite convinced there are no more than 10 pieces altogether in this tin – like a 1/20 ratio in fact :P

It has a leather-aroma, if i may say so also a bit of wet cow (lol) but not in a bad way, its just how pu-erh somehow makes otherwise unsavoury aromas seem satisfying. There is a bit of earth to i,t but less than the predominant leather note.

Brews up brown initially, but turns amber in the teapot when left for a bit to sit. Multiple brewings possible, usually I brew this about 3x per batch.

All you smell when you open the bag is pure Intense pineapple-ness. Its a candied type of pineapple aroma, rather than fresh juicy pineapple, so perhaps best as an after dinner – dessert tea to wash down any rich food you’ve had.

There are no pineapple chunks in this tea though, its all green tea leaves in the bag, and most likely just pineapple flavouring. I can’t tell if its natural or artificial (no ingredient listing). I got this as a souvenir from a friend who visited Hawaii a couple of years ago.

Its interesting that the pineapple flavour has stayed fresh so long (the last time I drank this was a year ago). Or maybe its the green tea flavour weakening so it doesn’t mute the pineapple as much anymore…?

Been drinking this for 2 years now. Its a real mix of herbals and teas, thank goodness for the mandatory Canadian labelling that provides the ingredient listing in English as the original packaging is all in Japanese. If you like roasted teas like hojicha, you will love this. The main note is of roasted corn/soy/barley. I didn’t know there was oolong in it until I checked the ingredient list, but once I knew it was there I can detect it. I’m not a huge fan of licorice but luckily it doesn’t play much of a role in this tea. Its a tea I find myself reaching for more in the winter, probably because of the warm, roasted flavours.

Here’s the full ingredient list I put into the tea info, since a lot of them don’t exist in the current ingredient options: Corn, barley, senna, soybean, pearl barley, dokudami herb, persimmon leaf, bamboo leaf, oolong tea, herb tea (tencha), licorice, loquat, wolfberry, mulberry leaf, five-leaf ginseng