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This is one of those teas I kind of forgot I had. I love the packaging, it’s cute, clever, and just really satisfying to me as a design nerd.

Unfortunately I didn’t love the way this tea was pressed. I didn’t find this shape to be easily breakable or convenient in the least. Maybe it’s the fault of my sad wussy baby hands, but trying to break off a chunk was an ordeal and a half. I mostly just tried sawing along the lines with a warm steak knife until it was thin enough to snap a piece off.

That said, I enjoyed this. I found it surprisingly forgiving and low maintenance. It was sugar sweet, fruity and lightly floral with very little bitterness. Like, really, barely any. It’s very easy to drink, and this is one of the few puer teas I can see myself bringing to work.

The description mentions that it can be aged or brewed immediately. Perhaps this is short sighted of me, but personally, I don’t see the point in aging it. I like it as it is, and plan on drinking it now.

From the Great Canadian Tea Box Round 5

I feel like hibiscus is in everything these days, but hibiscus in an earl grey is definitely a new one for me. I can’t taste any of it once brewed, but that’s probably for the best. I’m surprised by how much I like this actually. It’s drinkable, and it’s definitely got the “cream” part of “cream earl grey”, but I still don’t think this is something I’d drink often.

From the Great Canadian Tea Box Round 5

I really like this. It’s not super super donut-y, but I’m suggestible enough that it works for me, and I like the base and the flavouring. I like vanilla in general, and thinking of it as a vanilla flavoured black tea, this is one of the nicest I’ve had…I want to keep the rest for myself…it’s so good.

From the Great Canadian Tea Box Round 5

I like chocolate, I like salted caramels, I like salted caramel chocolates, and I’m determined to try all! the things!!! so I tried this against my better judgement and it’s just not that great. This might be one of the older teas that have gone a little off because it’s oily and mostly tasteless, save for general sweetness and a kind of cheap, waxy chocolate flavour.

I completely forgot I had this. It was part of a shu sampler I bought from Mandala approximately a zillion years ago and promptly forgot I even had. I found it a few weeks ago while cleaning, and tried it a few days after and then never made a note of it here. Usually I wouldn’t but!!!! suprisingly, I really liked this. Not even a just “for a shu” kind of like. This is something I’d keep in my cupboard if it were still around. This is the first time outside of nuggets that I’ve actually gotten those rich dark chocolate notes everyone talks about out of a shu.

From the Great Canadian Tea Box Round 5

I had no idea what this tea was going in, I just guessed it’d be a smokey russian caravan type tea by the name. In actuality it’s an orange flavoured tea with just the slightest hint of smoke. I’m not super fond of orange flavouring, so I can’t see myself drinking something like this often, but other than that it’s Pretty Okay.

From the Great Canadian Tea Box Round 5

I like the smell of this one. It’s this super strong artificial strawberry smell that reminds me of gummies…I keep thinking of the haribo pigs, were those strawberry flavoured? The taste is less intense, but I also find it kind of soapy and bitter. I might have over-steeped, I tend to go for 4 minutes for black teas, but maybe I should have stuck with 3 for this one.

I feel like this might taste better cold than hot, so I stuck it in the fridge to cool off a bit and I’ll probably add some agave or something and see how things go

NEVER MIND i tried to put it in the freezer to speed things up and dropped it on the floor. oop.

From the Great Canadian Tea Box Round 5

Wehhhhh I don’t like the smell of this dry (I guess it’s the combo of slightly marine smell from the green tea + chocolate????). It smells better brewed, but it tastes like a very bland genmaicha. I’m not getting any chocolate flavour from it…maybe if I squint? It gets a little better as it cools, but I still don’t like it.

From the Great Canadian Tea Box Round 5

It really does smell like caramel popcorn. I like the caramel flavouring used, but I find the base a bit weak. I can’t taste much of the actual tea (although this could just be my fault, my scoop WAS a little popcorn heavy), and I didn’t even realize there was fruit in this until I looked at the listing (I just assumed the papaya bits and whatnot were caramel bits). I might try this again with a better tea to random bits ratio, but there’s so much other stuff in the box to try who knows if I’ll have time.

This sample was from MissB (thanks!)

Smells like cloves, I’m feeling festive already. I think I prefer Esprit de Noël as my stock holiday time tea (I say, as I drink this long after the holiday season has ended) but it’s a nice, gently spiced black tea.