Paul M Tracy Send Message

I just received a sample of each of the six tisanes of Davidson’s Tulsi herbal line. Tulsi, or holy basil, is highlighted in each and is accompanied by a different group of complimentary herbs.

Signature Blend smells strongly of ginger and mint out of the package, but once steeped, lemon from the myrtle becomes prominent. The flavor is really interesting. Up front, there’s a bit of a battle between the mint and the lemon. The finish is warm from the ginger and cinnamon with a final burst from the black pepper. This is another great one for fighting cold; either outside or in your own head.

I don’t have a lot of experience with holy basil so I can’t speak to the quality. I’m hoping that I’ll come to recognize this component more as I work my way through the rest of the samples.

The leaves of this tea are large, adhesive and dusty with a sweet berry scent. Once prepared, this tea becomes very complex.

The brewed fragrance was slightly fruity, but had notes of warm squash and a slight salinity. The flavor was very delicate with a slight tartness, a bit of caramel, honeydew and corn. The berry didn’t become discernible for me until long into the aftertaste.

This is another tea that I received from LiberTEAS and it was, once again, an excellent choice.

I received a bit of this to try from LiberTEAS and it was quite unusual.

The initial fragrance was strong of licorice and berry. Once brewed, it became slightly citrusy and sweet.

The taste isn’t what I expected. From the name, I thought this would be sweet and fruity. Instead, it had the citrusy, astringent “snap” of a good darjeeling (+ points) and a slightly bitter and herbal taste from the anise. I didn’t detect much in the way of blackberry but you could sense the fig as a mellow, lingering subtly sweet fruit aftertaste.

Overall, I really liked this as it has an excellent base. However, the product doesn’t seem to match its name well.

Tart, juicy then sweet in both fragrance and taste. The green tea is of good quality and rich flavor and the apple was fairly defined. I would have liked this to be more plummy, but it’s such a subtle flavor that it’s difficult to get a strong plum taste without making it seem fake. Overall, not bad.

I don’t know if “cute” is a word often used for a tea but it fits this one. Opening the bag, you see a dark tea with little fluorescent orange flecks. Upon closer inspection, you see that they are tiny pumpkins. Hence the “cute.” These worried me at first because I thought they might be candies that would make the tea too sweet but they didn’t.

The tea also smells great. It’s slightly spicy and vegetative with an underlying presence of classic tea fragrance.

Prepared, this tea smells like freshly baked gingerbread with a touch of yam. It wasn’t discernibly “pumpkin” but you could tell there was definitely something from the veggie aisle. The flavor was slightly astringent and there was a great finish to the cup with a lingering squash/pumpkin flavor. There wasn’t much of a classic chai taste but there was just enough spice to make this interesting.

The fragrance on this out of the package is nutty and fruity (similar to pineapple, but not quite as sweet) and the tea is in very tight nuggets. It brews to a champagne color that darkens to honey over multiple steeps.

I steeped this tea a number of times, but didn’t make it to the suggested 8. At first, the tea smelled and tasted like nuts and honey. Subsequent steeps transitioned to more of a toasted cereal. What was surprising was the lingering sweet note. It wasn’t really an aftertaste, it was closer to an impression left on your taste buds.

Thanks to Jim @ Shui Tea who suggested this to a family member as a gift for me. It’s a keeper, Jim!

I’ve never tried a blooming tea before but having received a new glass teapot as a gift, I thought this would be a good way to show it off.

The description says it’s “awe-inspiring.” This brings to mind the scene in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation where Clark is making a big deal about the house lights, plugs them in…then nothing. The tight tea pod opens to unveil a small, pink clover blossom at the top of some scrawny black tea leaves.

There wasn’t much fragrance of note. The flavor wasn’t too bad. There was a slight cereal quality and it was very light. Overall, I wasn’t really impressed.

I received an industrial sized box of this as a Christmas gift so I was really hoping to like it-and I did!

Using the individually packaged traditional tea bag (not the sachet) the tea didn’t have much fragrance. There was a subtle orange-cinnamon presence but it wasn’t overpowering.

The prepared tea is incredibly sweet. So much so that I had to reread the package to make sure it didn’t contain a sweetener. The cinnamon really stands out and it is a bit warm. The orange is subtle and helps round out the flavor. You can make out a bit of the underlying tea, but it’s the sweetness that’s prominent throughout. If you have a sweet-tooth, this would be a great dessert replacement.

This has a great fragrance that’s subtle, yet well defined. It’s nutty and peppery with a bit of citrus and honey.

Prepared, this is a really well balanced darjeeling. It’s nutty and slightly astringent but is far more mellow than others I’ve had in the same category. Waking up to this tea is more like a small bell as opposed to the gong of a darjeeling I normally drink.

Thanks LiberTEAS for the sample!

The tea smells great in the bag; it’s heavy of pineapple and coconut and there’s a subtle quality of baked goods. None of the green tea is discernible. It’s an attractive tea. The leaves are bright green and uniform, there are whole pieces of walnuts and flecks of coconut and pineapple uniformly distributed throughout.

When prepared, it looks similar to chicken broth both in color and density. There’s even a faint oil slick from the coconut and walnut oils. The brewed tea really didn’t have much fragrance to note.

I haven’t been having great success with DavidsTeas in regards to flavor recently. This one turned out tart and grassy. The lingering coconut aftertaste is nice, but this wasn’t the easiest cup to make my way through.