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I’m afraid I just don’t do rooibos well. The ingredients in this tea sound just like perfection to me – chestnuts are one of my absolutely favourite things ever. Figs and chestnuts are probably hanging out together at the top of my very tall ‘yummy yummy things’ pyramid. But alas, I just don’t like this tea. To me it tastes primarily like rooibos, no matter how many times and in how many ways I prepare it. Sigh. I should probably give up on rooibos, but as it seems to be the non-tea base of choice for amazing-sounding blends, I probably won’t.

By the way, I’ve recently discovered lapacho bark, and it is delicious. I got a pack of Rhubarb Lapacho tea at Hebden teas in York, and it is utterly delightful. Wish more places would make lapacho blends…

I’m sad to say that I seem to be ‘getting over’ this tea. I still see how it is objectively tasty, if there is such a thing, but it’s just not working out for me anymore. I have gotten tired of it, I think, and it’s sad, because it was great while it lasted. I think it’s the rooibos and the anis that got to me in the end. I may just have to go back to black chais. Or maybe I could find a honeybush chai… now that would be something.

I love this tea. I bought sample baggies of Adagio’s black Hazelnut tea and this one at the same time, and this one was definitely my favourite. The black tea was quite nice and hazelnutty when brewed quite strong and then with milk and sugar, whereas this one is just wonderfully hazelnutty on its own without much fuss. No bitterness, a lot of hazelnut, and a bit of something else that gives it depth. I’d take it that’s the honeybush, but as this is the only honeybush I’ve tried, I can’t really judge. I’m sure to try more, though! I think I definitely prefer honeybush to rooibos.

I came across a cute tea shop in York and picked up one of these because I never tried lapacho before, plus I like rhubarb and apparently Yorkshire is famous for its rhubarb.

Well, the tea is yummy. It’s currently my go-to herbal tea. I like having something like this around – it’s like a tea, but not actually the tea plant. Rooibos and I tend to not really get along most of the time, but I’ve had more luck with honeybush and I think of lapacho as a similar kind of ‘almost tea.’ The base is very pleasant but it stays mostly in the background which makes the flavour shine. The rhubarb is just very… rhubarby. Sweet and a little bit tart. Definitely very recognizably rhubarb. I am very happy with this one. I may have to go back to York to stock up in a while….

Something about this tea just rubs me the wrong way. I’m not rating it because I don’t think it’s the tea’s fault (it’s not you, tea, it’s me!), and I find it a bit unfair when tea ratings drop because, say, someone who doesn’t like a rooibos drank a rooibos and didn’t like it.

I can’t remember which other teas like this I’ve had, but I get the impression that I just don’t like the green tea + coconut + citrus combination. I loooooove coconut, and I’ve loved it in sweet teas (e.g. White White Cocoa is one of my favourites), plus I love many citrus-y teas, but I don’t like what happens to coconut when it gets mixed with something sour. It becomes a very different ‘beast’, very clearly coconutty, but in a very very different coconut kind of way.

On the other hand, Tea Bar also does a lovely sweet coconut blend called Zoete Amandel (sweet almond), and that one I wholeheartedly recommend to all sweet coconut lovers.

I have a bit of trouble rating this tea, because on it’s own I find it just alright. Pleasant enough, gets a bit too gingery quite quickly. But then I had a cold one time… (funny how I keep discovering good tea stuff this way), and I ran out of lemon ginger tea, so I thought – this has ginger, what if I just add some lemon juice? So I added a splash of lemon juice from one of those plastic lemon-shaped thingies you get in the supermarket, and added some honey, and oh dear lord it was yummy! The honey and the lemon and the ginger blended amazingly well with the rose and it was just delightful. So, if you get your hands on this, I highly recommend trying it this way. It’s just too good – no cold required.

I love this tea. The name suits it very well – it’s a very relaxing, soothing tea. I almost group it with my herbal teas, because it just feels really mild in a very good way, but with the added ‘character’ of green tea. I will have to do a more proper review once I have actually made a cup, but I noticed that there weren’t any reviews on here yet and I wanted to give my thumbs up.

This also happens to be one of the teas I was going through quite quickly. I actually stopped drinking it much for a while because I was worried I’d run out, but then I moved to London where there is a Mariage Freres shop, so all is well again and I can safely sip away….

I’m upping the rating on this one because it really is pretty much my favourite ‘simple’ black tea that I drink with no milk or sugar. I still can’t decide if there is added flavour in this tea or just incredibly aromatic black tea. I definitely can’t see any non-tea bits in it, so if there’s anything it’s one of those ‘added flavour’ things. Whatever it is, though, it’s a wonderfully smooth, not heavy yet very strong on character, black tea.

I still don’t know how I feel about this tea, so no rating yet. The first time I tried it I really liked it, then the next few times I was underwhelmed. I re-read the steepster reviews and that inspired me to steep it longer. I tend to get a bit nervous about steeping black tea for more than 3 minutes unless I plan to add sugar and/or milk, but this tea really benefits from it – and no bitterness at all. I steeped it for 3.5 min, but I think I might even go for 4 next time.

I don’t really taste the figs much. I wish I did, because I adore figs. In fact, the figgiest tea I’ve tried so far is Charlotte au Chocolat, and that doesn’t have any fig in it. Sigh. I think maybe my fig-tasting faculties are off with tea, which is too bad cause I adore figs.

I think mostly I taste the honey, and then there’s a strong liquor-ish aroma (I smell it more than I taste it, but it does affect the overall impact) which I presume is the fig. Maybe a bit of strawberry. No lavender, which I’m also kind of sad about because I love lavender in tea, unlike most people who reviewed this tea, it seems :)