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I have had this tea since November last year and have only had it once. Apparently I even left a tasting note? Or maybe just a rating? I don’t know.

Either way, I have been kind of avoiding this tea since I remembered that it wasn’t very good. Today I decided to brave it, and I added almond milk to it. The milk didn’t help much, it’s pretty darn bitter with a tiny hint of an uninteresting spice medley. Nothing much to it, really. I think I will just have to dump the rest (about a half) of my mug out because I noticed that if black teas turn out bitter, they tend to irritate my stomach a bit.

I will probaby stuff the rest of this tea in a ziploc bag and put it in a giveaway pile.

Backlog from last night. I kind of got this one because I wanted to reach some free shipping treshold, I think, so it wasn’t something I would really normally pick. It’s a nice, refreshing tea with a mild base and tropical flavors. Pretty tasty, with just the right amount of sweetness to it.

Not particularly complex or interesting, it is great for just sipping when it’s later in the evening, while you’re busy with something that doesn’t let you savor your tea. I am also sure that it is great iced but since I don’t care about iced tea, it’s not an option for me.

I am glad to have it but I probably won’t be buying it again.

This is totally different from the green teas I’ve had recently (dragonwell, flavored Lupicia greens, senchas) so my taste buds were fairly displeased at first. Because this tea doesn’t mess around, it hits you with the toasted notes throughout your sip, and afterwards, too.

Very woodsy. In a way there is seemingly little of “green tea” element in this tea. It’s all woodsy and earthy notes, but they are pretty yummy. It smells like cigarettes on your clothes would smell if it were actually ever a nice, not nasty, smell – does it make at least an ounce of sense? It actually makes me want to smoke.

And then, as it sits longer, it actually starts smelling kind of syrupy sweet.

The more I drink it, the more I like it. I am not sure if I am going to buy it any time in the near future, but I would never say no to it when offered.

Thank you, Jennkay, for letting me try this :)

It seems like I haven’t reviewed this tea yet even though I’ve had it a bunch of times already. It’s probably because I usually have it late at night when my laptop is switched off and I am definitely NOT writing anything longer than a sentence on my stupid tablet.

Anyway, I really love this one. It mostly consists of cocoa husks, but there’s also rooibos, just enough to give the whole thing an extra dimension. I had it with or without almond milk and it tastes great either way – just like cocoa, the real one, not the overtly sweet one. Perfect drink for late nights, especially if they are colder – which makes me think I should have gotten it earlier, it would have helped me survive this last winter (AKA This Last Winter).

I guess I survived it anyway. And next weekend is supposed to be pretty warm… YAY!

Here I am starting the day with a big bang that is this tea. I feel kind of like an idiot for not having ordered more of it (what I have is just a sample from the Shang Tea sampler), but then I got an ounce of their other black (or, as they prefer to put it, red) tea, so it’s all good. Next time I am totally getting a bunch of this.

BECAUSE it is sooo good and it reminds me of jasmine black tea but without the weird bitterness that can creep in sometimes with jasmine, plus there’s some orange-citrus-sweet lingering note in there. That of course is the tangerine part. Good stuff.

I’m bumping the rating up a bit because 89 from before didn’t do this any justice.

This is a backlog from forever ago (= 2 nights ago).

It seems to me that I like dragonwell greens a lot. Every time I have them I am pleasantly surprised by how sweet they actually are. They always taste like sweet green vegetables. I also enjoy the way the dry leaf looks – it is the most beautiful hue of green.

This one from Harney & Sons definitely delivers on all levels. Very vegetal, practically not astringent at all, even on consecutive steeps. I think if I were to make one straight green my “everyday” green it would be Dragon Well AKA Lung Ching AKA Long Jing. Not necessarily from Harney & Sons, although it might turn out to be the best bang for the buck. I would like to try it from different companies first, though, especially now that there’s spring and there might be fresh harvests coming up (Am I right?).

I got this tea in a mystery pack from MissB. Thank you! :)

Okay, so the only tea from 52teas I actually own (And, I believe, the only one I had tried before this one) is Napalm Ferret. When I opened the bag of Cinnamon Roll and got a whiff, it smelled exactly like the Ferret. I was like “Why in the world does it smell like the Napalm Ferret???”. But then I realized that it’s the cinnamon that does it. Apparently this company uses very specific and pretty spicy cinnamon that you can recognize anywhere and that I am going to call Ferret Cinnamon from now on.

It was an enjoyable honeybush blend, I prefer my honeybushes and rooiboses citrusy and fruity, but a little bit of spice won’t hurt either. I did not get the “roll” part at all, however, and I did not find anything creamy about it.

I think I should just call it Ferret Cinnamon Honeybush instead, but not for long since I only have like a serving left, and I won’t be buying more any time soon.

I have no idea why I decided to order exactly this tea since I am not the greatest fan of dark oolongs, and I definitely have had no luck with the flavored blends that consist of dark oolongs. Of course, my experience is that a blend from Butiki would be different. But still, dark oolong… I must have just thought this sounded really good at the time of ordering.

Well, either way, I am glad I got it, dark oolong or not. I had it last night. I was pretty surprised at huge pecan chunks. The oolong leaves were fragrant, graphite black and wiry. The brew was not too overwhelmingly fragrant but I could definitely find hints of the sweetness of maple and the nuttiness of pecans.

Oh, it was yummy! It was like eating a pecan pie only FAR, FAR better because pecan pies are drastically too sweet for me. And the flavoring, as always with Butiki teas, tastes sooo natural. I don’t think it will ever cease to amaze me how their teas are done. The base oolong was marvellous and I can see how its smokiness adds to the nuttiness, how it actually becomes the pecan notes.

The best thing about blenders as awesome as Stacy is that you can actually experience how they figured out this or that would make a great combination with this or that base, see how perfectly logical it is, and how obvious, and at the same time you know you could never really come up with it yourself. It’s like with literature or paintings, you read a poem, you see a painting and you’re like “This is so simple, and so obvious to put it this way, now that I see it” – and yet, you know you would never do the same thing. Something else, maybe. But not THIS.

Haha, this tea inspires musings even though I had it last over 13 hours ago :D :D

Thank you, Anna, for a sample of this tea!

This tea smells delicious as a dry leaf as well as a ready steep. Fruity and floral, delicate and mysterious.

Each sip gives you a slight shock at first because the Chinese green tea base seems to be pretty definite and strong. But then it studdenly smoothens out and you detect nearly everything that the aroma promised – fruity sweetness and blossoms. There’s a hint of some sort of candy, makes me think of a lollipop in particular :D It’s probably not the most complex cup but to hell with that. Fruity, refreshing, yummy. That’s all I need right now!

This tea is just perfect for a sunny late afternoon like the one I am enjoying now.

Perhaps I am not much of a seasoned earl greyer but I do not find anything supreme about this tea.

I mean, it’s good. It’s a very decent EG. I am quite content sipping it right now. The base is somewhat strong and astringent, and that is fine with me. The bergamot flavor is not too pushy, it blends well with the rest, doesn’t bully the base tea notes and instead plays along nicely with them. Good clean bergamot fun.

But I guess I expected something extraordinary and stupendous, something SUPREME. All it might mean, though, is that it is just a notch (or two) better than Harney & Son’s standard EG, which I have never had, so I can’t know the difference.

It’s okay. I wouldn’t invest in a tin of it, though.