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I’ve been looking for a good bagged rooibos chai, so I ordered five different kinds from Amazon. This is probably my least favorite. I really don’t like cardamon, which is the second ingredient after rooibos, and it has stevia, which often bothers my stomach and tastes unpleasant to me. Even with milk, the cardamon flavor dominated. This may be just what someone else is looking for, but it’s really not for me.

This is a sample Liquid Proust sent me. Thank you!

So, I don’t tend to be a huge fan of light oolongs, but this might be an exception. I really like the smooth, floral flavor of this one. I’ve been curious about floral oolongs for a while now since I tend to really like floral teas, and this makes me think it’s definitely a category I want to explore more.

In other news, I’ve been dealing with nasty migraines lately. In the past I’ve gotten them on very rare occasions, but something about this pregnancy is triggering them more often. Not fun.

This is one of the teas Liquid Proust donated to the Herbal and Decaf TTB. Thank you!

I used half of this sample, since it said it made two cups. It tasted mostly like a light barley tea. I could tell there were other flavors in there giving it a bit more depth, but they were so light I could barely tell they were there, and couldn’t really place them. I really like barley tea, so I would definitely drink this again.

This is one of the teas donated by Liquid Proust for the Herbal and Decaf TTB. Thank you!

This is pretty good. It tastes mostly of sweet coconut, and seems to use a decent quality rooibos, since the flavor is fairly appealing. I wonder if I would have gotten more from the spices if I had used more leaf? But it might have ended up too sweet for me if I had. As I said, the coconut flavor is quite pleasant by itself.

Liquid Proust sent me a few samples of oolongs recently, and this is one of them. Thank you!

This tastes green and slightly nutty to me. There’s also a hint of a floral note. It tastes like spring to me. I think I prefer the darker oolongs I’ve had, but this is quite good. There’s no bitterness or astringency and the flavors are light and clear.

This was a donation from Liquid Proust for the Herbal and Decaf TTB. Thank you!

I like this. It’s naturally quite sweet and fruity. It definitely tastes like Honeydew, and I think I’m getting a hint of the kiwi as well. This seems like it would make a terrific cold-brew tea.

This was a donation from Liquid Proust for the Herbal and Decaf TTB. Thank you!

I couldn’t really give this one a fair treatment, since I’m having something of an aversion to sweet things with this pregnancy. Sometimes I’ll eat or drink something and the sweetness is just overwhelming and utterly unappealing. It’s really strange since I normally have something of a sweet tooth, and it wasn’t the case with my last two pregnancies. Since this tea was presweetened, I just could not take more than a couple of sips, and I couldn’t really focus on the flavor other than the overwhelming sweetness. I’d be willing to try it when my taste buds are back to normal, but it’s not for me right now.

This was donated by Liquid Proust for the Herbal and Decaf TTB. Thank You!

This is an interesting tea. When brewed, it’s a bright red that I associate with Hibiscus. It has a sweet-tart fruity smell, with a hint of spice, flowers, and earthiness. The taste is a light honey and nuts flavor with just a hint of the fruity, spicy, floral, earthiness I picked up in the smell. It’s not nearly as bold as I would have expected, but it has a bit of complexity. After drinking more of this, I feel like it’s almost too sweet. It’ really good, but I might like it better mixed with just a bit of hibiscus. I’ll have to try that.

This was one of the teas Liquid Proust donated to the Herbal and Decaf TTB. Thank you!

The beginning of the sip mostly tasted like grassy Gyayusa, which I’m pretty ambivalent towards. I was almost disappointed, when suddenly the spiciness started to creep up in my mouth it built for a few seconds, then died down again. It was a nice mix of cinnamon and red pepper, not too hot (I’m sensitive to spicy things), but definitely a nice spicy kick. I would probably keep building as you drank the cup until your mouth was burning, but I just took a few sips and gave the rest to my husband, who loves spicy things. If it were still around, I would recommend this to someone who wanted a spicy tea, but I think I would actually prefer a different base for this.

So, this is really good, but at the same time it’s not what I was hoping for. I really liked Republic of Tea’s Honeydew White tea that is now discontinued. The only problem with it was that it got bitter really easily. I was hoping this would be a bit like that. It’s quite different, so it took me a couple of sips to appreciate it on it’s own merit. The cucumber and oolong stood out most strongly to me. The oolong tastes nutty to me, which is an interesting pairing with the strong cucumber flavor, and at the end of the sip there’s a faint cantaloupe sweetness. It’s a really interesting blend of flavors, and I like it. I’ll just have to look elsewhere for a good honeydew tea. I’ve heard Lupicia has a really good one. Oddly, while I prefer cantaloupe to honeydew, I might actually like honeydew better than cantaloupe in tea. Oh and I steeped this using my usual method for teas requiring a lower temperature of throwing a bit of cold water in a cup, then adding boiling water and the tea. Not the most precise, but it seems to work pretty well.