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Herbal and Decaf TTB.

I think I’m getting to the point where I’m a lot pickier about flavored teas. Maybe my most recent pregnancy altered my tastebuds, or maybe I’m just at that point in my explorations. This tea tastes too sweet and a bit too artificial for me, even though I liked it a handful of months ago. I did probably brew it too long, but still it’s just not very appealing to me today. It tastes strongly of sweet coconut, but I wish it had less sweetness and a fuller coconut flavor.

I drank this over the weekend while visiting my in-laws. I should preface my review by saying that although I love peaches and some peach-flavored foods, most peach-flavored teas have been a major disappointment to me. Usually they are far too sweet and have a strange aftertaste. I still try them on occasion since I keep hoping to find one I like, but usually I can’t even finish a cup. But I did finish a cup of this! I definitely tasted the usual artificial peach flavor with it’s weird aftertaste, but the mango really made a difference. Since there were two flavors here, the peach wasn’t as concentrated so it wasn’t nearly as sweet and the aftertaste was less pronounced. The mango flavor mostly melded into the peach rather than standing on its own, but the overall effect was reasonably pleasant. This is probably not something I’ll buy, but I’ll probably have another cup of it next time I visit my in-laws assuming they haven’t drunk it all by then!

I tried this again as a latte and decided that it’s just too cloyingly sweet for me. Something to avoid in the future. I feel like the more tea I drink the less I like presweetened teas, and I didn’t like them very much to begin with.

Herbal and Decaf TTB

I’ve never had Elderflower before, so I was curious about this tea. Apparently I don’t like it. I only took a couple sips of this extremely medicinal concoction before dumping the rest. One more tea to cross off the wishlist. I did notice that there seemed to be several distinct flavors going on in the sips i took, but as my immediate reaction to most of them was “Yuck!” I didn’t take the time to really analyze what those flavors were.

Herbal and Decaf TTB.

My husband and I came down with the stomach bug. Thankfully, it seems to have only been a 24 hour bug for us, and was milder than it was for the boys. First and Second seem to be feeling better today, and all the adults in the house are exhausted.

I was disappointed that this one mostly just tasted herbaceous. I couldn’t really taste the Chrysanthemum. It was pleasant enough, but not very interesting.

Herbal and Decaf TTB

I thought I had reviewed this, but either I’m not remembering correctly or Steepster ate the review. This one has a relatively pleasant fruity flavor, maybe a little too sweet for me, but a really cloyingly sweet smell. Not a keeper for me.

Herbal and Decaf TTB.

I’m pretty sure I reviewed this before, but my note seems to have disappeared. This tea is a weird one. It has a strong chocolate flavor that reminds me of tootsie rolls, and is pretty heavily spiced, with ginger coming through most strongly. I’ve tried this a few times, and I usually like the first sip, but I don’t know that I’ve ever actually finished a cup of it. The more I drink it, the less I like it but I still want to like it. I followed the recommended brewing amount of 1.5 tsp/8 oz (I really wish steepster allowed decimals for tsp.)

Herbal and Decaf TTB.

I was surprised that this had such a low rating until I tried it. I took the first sip in the kitchen where my mom had just added garlic to the stew, which made for a really weird mix of flavors. I moved to another room and tried again. This definitely has a strong taste of ginger, and some citrus, but they don’t really taste balanced and there’s also some flavors in there that I can’t identify, but really don’t like. I took a few more sips and just decided to toss this one.

Herbal and Decaf TTB.

Two sick kids and a new baby is an exhausting combination. Thank God my parents are here to help for the week. I don’t know how I would manage on my own. First and Second have a pretty nasty stomach bug that has included vomiting, diarrhea, napping a lot but waking up really early in the morning, and general crankiness. Third is eating and sleeping well, and occasionally staying awake long enough to blink quietly at the world for a while. He has adorably chubby cheeks. His big brothers seem pleased by him. Second will sit for minutes at a time just looking at him, before poking at him or trying to offer him a toy. In between everything else I have been drinking quite a bit of tea, but mostly sticking to working on sipping down what’s already in my cupboard rather than reaching for the mountain of samples I’ve accumulated in the past several months.

This tea smells terrific – it has a very pleasant lemon-mango scent. I steeped it for quite a long time, and it came out very strong. It tastes a lot like fruit punch, which surprised me because the ingredients listed on steepster wouldn’t lead me to expect that it would be especially sweet. I wonder if it’s an incomplete list? I think it’s actually too sweet for my tastes. I’m not really tasting much of the lemon. I think I taste some mango, but it seems a little drowned by the generic fruit punch in this. I’m not surprised that the only other review for this is a high one, but it’s really not to my tastes.

Herbal and Decaf TTB.

I’m finally getting around to going through this box, so I can see about starting the next round. This was the last of the bag, and it was almost all rooibos, so that may have affected the flavor. It pretty much tasted like maple with a hint of spice to me – not bad, but plain maple isn’t really my favorite flavor, and tends to taste a little too sweet to me. It was definitely an autumnal sort of tea, but I wish I had been able to taste the pumpkin. I’m not sure how long I steeped this for, since I forgot to set a timer and just came back to it after a few minutes. Too much going on today with the boys, and settling back into life with a new baby.