Michelle select Send Message

Thanks again to Autumn for a sample of this! I feel as though I’m going to be thanking her in every tasting note for a long while now :)

I very nearly bought a tin of this last December, and when she said she had some, I asked if she would send a bloom or two. She graciously sent a mini tin full of these beautiful little discs.

The tea is flat and sewn together, like a pressed flower. When it’s put into water, however, it becomes a spiky ball like a sea urchin or a dandelion. It’s beautiful.

The liquor is a deep reddish brown. It’s certainly in the mahogany/walnut color family.

Oh, the taste! At first, when it was too hot to really taste, I thought it was just another malty, chocolaty black tea. Good, but not remarkable.

Was I wrong!

There’s that, sure, but there’s something new here! I’m struggling to describe it. It’s very creamy. I first went to some sort of ice cream – mint chocolate? No… vanilla? Not quite… now I’m thinking of creme brulee. I’ve never actually had creme brulee. So I’m not entirely sure if it’s accurate. But the flavor profile here seems to match what I’ve heard of that dessert.

There’s something creamy and heavy and sweet here, as though I’m not just drinking what is effectively flavored water. It’s almost a little bit banana, or dulce de leche. It’s not quite caramel, though. It has that sort of feeling on the tip of your tongue when you’ve just eaten a spoonful of melted ice cream.

Ohh, I do look forward to puzzling this one out.

This came as a free sample from The Tea Merchant – thanks!

The more I drink this, the more I seem to like it. It’s rich and creamy and develops over several steepings. I don’t really have the energy to write a ton about it at the moment (in between talking to The Boy and doing Education homework, my mind is a bit fragmented) but it’s nice and soothing.

I won this in one of Della Terra’s Facebook giveaways – they are the best!

This is the second time I’ve tried this, but I held off logging it the first time around.

The aroma in the pouch is astounding. It smells like pure maple syrup. There are little blocks of what look like wood. Curious, I picked one out and ate it – it’s maple candy! Yum.

Maple’s not my favorite flavor, so the first time I steeped it, I did 5 minutes. The liquor was a slightly murky brown-gold. The smell was still maple, but much less strong. The taste was much the same as the smell. It didn’t taste like much of anything, unfortunately.

This time, I steeped for 10 minutes. It smells stronger and tastes more like maple. Still, though, I’m finding that the tea itself is lacking in the taste department. It smells really authentic, but I don’t really want to put maple syrup into the tea to sweeten it. I also used ~2tsp/8-10oz, so I don’t think I’m under-steeping it.

Thank you to Autumn Hearth for this!

On opening the tin, there’s a sort of tart scent that I don’t immediately associate with raspberries, but there’s a big dried raspberry sitting on the top. Cool.

I put the filter in my cup (I’m doing little cups because I have SO MUCH TEA to try!) and pour water over; it immediately turns bright red as it passes through the tea.

Unfortunately, hibiscus is listed as the first ingredient, and it shows. It’s okay, I mean. But it’s not really raspberry, just sort of a generic hibiscus fruity blend. This could be a tisane for all the tea I taste in here. I’ll definitely drink the tin, but it’s not something I want to spend my money on.

I got this as a free sample in the last Adagio order I placed.

Opening it – wow. That’s sour. It almost reminds me of smelling a bag of Sour Patch Kids or Warheads. I love sour things, but I’m not good at a lot all at once. Still, I’m really intrigued.

1tsp/8oz, 5 minutes, boiling water.

It’s immediately starting to turn a bright red, probably from the hibiscus. Cool. It’s a really pretty tea.

The tea doesn’t smell as strongly sour when brewed as it does steeped, although I still smell it.

It doesn’t taste that sour either. I think I’m going to make another cup but steep for ~10 minutes, and see how that changes it. Leaving off the rating for the moment.

Many thanks to Autumn Hearth for her incredibly generous samples of this and so many other teas! I cannot wait to sink my fangs into the box :)

I started my day with this tea. I figured, as it’s not your typical breakfast blend, and it’s a Chinese instead of an Indian black, I’d be okay with it in the morning and drinking it without milk or sugar. I was more or less right. It got a bit heavy towards the end of the mug as it cooled, but I didn’t really have time to focus on steeping it perfectly.

Parameters: ~2tsp/12oz, 180 F, ~3min.

These are the notes I took in class:

Smell: Wheaty, with whiffs of dark chocolate, like the chocolate bread at the bakery I used to go to after ballet class. I never really liked that chocolate bread (I much preferred sticky buns!) but my sister got it fairly often.

Leaves: Long, dark and twisty, with streaks of gold running through the space.

Liquor: golden-brown, kind of a chestnut color.

Taste: There is a definite taste of salt here, something I’ve never really experienced in a tea before. It’s predominant at the beginning of the sip, but I didn’t always get it. It’s wheaty, as expected. Kind of dark and heavy. A little bit of astringency, especially as it cooled, but not a whole lot. There’s some sort of dark berry here too, maybe currant or raisin? It’s not a juicy, fruity tea, but there’s something there.

Last night I steeped up a cup of this in my fancy Bodum Pavina glass – seriously, I love it. And it’s 8oz, so I feel like I can do a semi-gong-fu sitting with it and have two or three cups)

I had two cups last night, and then began my day with another two. It’s sweet and vegetal and really really good.

Sipdown. I’ve been doing a lot of stashbusting lately, and it feels good. I’m ready to move on to autumn teas and rotate out some of the old ones.

I still can’t believe I haven’t rated this yet though – definitely thought I had.

The leaves are long and dark and twisty, and they sort of shine a little bit. It’s not just like a piece of dried leaf. They’re very unique.

The smell in the tin is very smoky. Good.

I’m actually a huge fan of cold-brewed Lapsang, so that’s what I did with this.

The smoke is the predominant flavor, as I would expect, but it’s not as strong as when I brew it by traditional hot methods. There’s a really unique charcoal flavor in there too, like I’m not drinking the smell of smoke but rather the taste of the burnt logs. I really like it.

(In the process of writing this review, I get a knock on my door. As I’m going over to open it, the key turns in the lock and our prankster friend RS is there. He goes “Well, this is awkward. E – my roommate – forgot her keys, so I’m playing a prank on her. You were never here. You saw nothing.” Okay, RS, I saw nothing. So now half of our room is a mess. He’s going to get it back, though, because I’m HORRID at keeping a straight face!)

Back to the tea. There’s a lingering sort of mineral sweetness that washes over my tongue at the end of the sip. I think there’s a lot more character and depth to this when cold-brewed than there is hot, although it’s great both ways. A delicious tea that will be missed!

Okay…

This tea is best in latte form, where the milk gives it a bit of richness and creaminess. Without that, it just tastes a bit bitter (probably my own fault) and artificial. It’s decent, but it needs a lot of milk, which is unfortunate. It is, however, really good mixed with hazelnut.

Oh, hello my sweet. We’re reunited, I see. It’s good to have you. I’ve been lonely.