VariaTEA Send Message

I am not sure quite what to make of this tea. It is good but I am on the fence as to how good. I bought it because it came recommended by the saleswoman and when I smelled the dry leaf it was amazingly fruity for an oolong (which I never would have guessed with a named like Ye Pan Tsa). It is definitely interesting. I am getting a whole mixture of flavors. The scent of the steeped tea is subtly fruity but the first taste in the sip is a nice floral from the orchid. A bit of the fruitiness (perhaps mango?) comes in in the middle of the sip and the oolong shines through at the end. The aftertaste is a little bit nutty. All of this works together well enough. It is a bit of a flavor rollercoaster though. Luckily, I have a whole timolino full of this to wrap my head around while I write a paper for class.

This white tea is amazing! The sweet, juicy pomegranate flavor compliments the delicate white tea so beautifully. It is just like eating a ripe pomegranate! Yum!!

I think this tea was really quite great. The smell is of vanilla beans, not artificial vanilla flavoring. Personally, I picked up on the vanilla notes both in the scent and taste. My roommate said she noticed the vanilla more in the smell than anything and suggested I steep it for longer next time to bring the flavors out. In the end though we both agreed that this was quite delicious. Something tells me I will be getting more of this in the future.

As far as fruit tisanes go, this is quite a nice one. Strawberry and kiwi is a classic combination and their complimentary flavors really shine in this tea. However, I am realizing more and more I miss the tea base when it is not present. Nevertheless, this was still quite enjoyable.

This is an interesting tea as it has the extra bergamot and vanilla flavors in an earl grey but it is on a rooibos base as opposed to the usual black tea base. Since I like rooibos I think it is a nice match. I get the delicious flavors of an earl grey tea that I can have anytime of the day.

This tea is actually quite similar to Jessie’s Tea/Caesars Provence as they are both lavender rooibos teas. However, this has the addition of berries and personally I find that this distracts from the taste of the tea as opposed to adding to it. This is still a very good cup but it is close enough to Jessie’s Tea/Caesars Provence that I don’t need both and I prefer the other.

This one smells great but like so many other fruit blends I find myself disappointed. I find I usually search for the tea base and miss it because it is not there. Nonetheless, this was not bad. It was a nice cup of tea that was a perfect balance between tart lemon and sweet strawberry. Something tells me this will be amazing to have iced in the summertime. Until then I probably won’t be reaching for it as a hot tea.

THIS TASTES JUST LIKE DAVIDS JESSIE’S TEA!!! I love Jessie’s Tea so naturally I love this too. This one is better though for one reason – it is cheaper!! So now I can have more of the tea I love for less! Yay!

Both dry and steeped, this tea smells very similar to DAVIDs Red Velvet Cake. However, this is not nearly as sweet as RVC. It gets both a subtle sweetness and a slight creaminess from the vanilla. I did forget I was steeping this so I managed to way oversteep it but that merely resulted in a stronger black tea flavor.