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I love the deliciously floral fragrance in the bag which translates beautifully into the flavor of the tea once steeped. The guanabana slips in smoothly on the back of your tongue towards the end of the sip creating a magical flavor with the lavender earl grey & jasmine rooibos. Perfect representation of whimsical Luna Lovegood.

When you open the bag you get a huge whiff of spearmint above all else, but as the tea steeps the jasmine and gunpowder come forward. The gunpowder is noticeable though subtle in the resulting tea, but gives a beautiful smoky undertone to the spearmint & jasmine. Definitely something I will drink a LOT of :)

I bought this for the mention of “bourbon vanilla”. How can you go wrong?! :)

While this tea did have a delightful vanilla aroma in the bag, I felt the flavor of vanilla wasn’t as present as I’d have liked. My 15g sample bag didn’t seem to have the large pieces of vanilla that they show in the photos of the tea, but rather very thin little slivers of vanilla.I think that with the boldness of an Assam base they could have been more liberal with the vanilla. It was good & vanilla-y but nothing that blew me away.

When I opened this bag, the aroma that hit me was intense lavender. It was very perfume-like which might concern some, but I wasn’t all that bothered by it. Perfume-y is better than medicinal haha.

The tea once it steeped was a deep amber color & the overly perfume-y aroma had lightened to a nice black tea aroma with whisps of lavender and bergamot. For the intense lavender smell in the bag, this tea was really not heavy on the lavender at all. It came across as a lightly bergamot scented black tea with a delicate lavender flavor, rather than the uber lavender tea you’d expect after sniffing the bag. Not bad at all. I am getting some (slightly unpleasant) bitterness towards the end of each sip, I think next time I make this tea I will brew it for a shorter time than recommended on the bag.

Though I tend to prefer my Lavender EG teas to be a little heavier on the lavender, I enjoy this one quite a bit :)

I saw this on Upton’s website while getting some other samples and thought “YES. I love bergamot!” and added a sample of it to my cart. When I got my parcel in the mail today, this was the one I immediately went for to try first.

The smell of bergamot was great in the dry tea leaves & I had high hopes. After tasting, however it wasn’t as amazing as I thought it would be. They weren’t lying when they said extra bergamot! It is not bad by any means, but the tea flavor gets a little lost in this. It’s still there, but it’s not as present as I would have liked. I’m also getting a slight spicy note on the back of my throat after each sip which was unexpected. Luckily I love bergamot so I will be sure to drink all of this sample, but I think this tea would have benefitted from a slightly lighter hand when adding in the bergamot. I mean, extra bergamot is great & I do like this tea, but I’d like to taste the tea as well.

backlogging some teas from the other day before getting to today’s tea. Forgive my lack of detail in my tasting notes as of late, it’s been insanely hectic with the kids & I haven’t really had time to sit down & really write out my thoughts, so I’ve been just jotting down some quick notes & rushing off to tend to the babes

I actually purchased this tea for my husband. He likes the idea of chai teas, but hates cloves (unless studded into a ham haha!). I am glad I did because it is the perfect chai for him.

The coconut adds a sweet silky touch and the lemongrass gives a delicate floral citrus note to this tea that makes it quite different from other varieties of chai I have tried over the years. It lacks the punch that more traditional chai blends have since this has no cloves in it, but you still get spice lingering on your tongue with each sip. It’s a great option for people like my husband who do not really like cloves, or for people who are intimidated by the strong flavors in a traditional masala chai.

backlogging some teas from the other day before getting to today’s tea. Forgive my lack of detail in my tasting notes as of late, it’s been insanely hectic with the kids & I haven’t really had time to sit down & really write out my thoughts, so I’ve been just jotting down some quick notes & rushing off to tend to the babes

After having this after only having had bagged English Breakfast, I can’t really say that I know much about it, but I can say that I will never go back to bags again after drinking this.

Gentle understated smoke with earthy leather notes with a smooth finish. With my second cup I detected a maltiness that was quite nice. No bitterness at all (by that I mean unpleasantly bitter qualities, as I do like a slight touch of bitter to my teas). It was a very comforting cup to start off my morning the other day :)

When I opened the bag the aroma that greeted me was overwhelmingly medicinal. I wish I could say that that quality was not carried over into the flavor of the tea once steeped but alas I cannot. It was a sharp bitter medicinal flavor that I could not get past. There was an underlying floral note to it, but it was almost hidden by the unpleasant medicinal flavor. I think that perhaps this flavor of tea might pair well when blended with other teas & perhaps the floral notes might shine through if the medicinal flavor was tempered by other flavors.

That being said, I plan on giving it another shot later on down the road and seeing if it grows on me. It is my first hibiscus tea, and I do love floral teas, so I’d hate to dismiss it based on one tasting.

My first infusion of this lovely tea from Stacy at Butiki (thank you!) was very light. There was a slight silky, butter like quality to it and a hint of fruitiness. I think that perhaps the leaves not having been fully submerged (which I noticed after it had already steeped for 3 minutes) may have lessened the strength of this tea, as it was a little too delicate for my tastes. The flavors were beautiful, just very light.

With my second infusion, I rectified the previous issue of the leaves not having enough contact with the water & it improved things greatly. The resulting tea had a little more color and the weakness of the first infusion is gone. There’s a juicy peach hint to the flavor as well as an underlying floral quality. Still delicate, but more more flavorful. I definitely like this infusion and feel like I have a better understanding of this tea than I got with my first try.

I am usually a fan of more robust darker teas, but I think that I may end up liking the gentler white teas just as much! :)

I have been craving some Earl Grey Lavender tea for the past several days & of course I was all out & my order won’t be delivered until Monday… so while I was at Walmart today picking up the ingredients I needed to make my own laundry detergent I took a walk down the tea aisle. As always I was underwhelmed by the selection at Walmart & longed for the better stocked tea aisle at my local Target, but I noticed this tea sitting on the shelf (almost hidden) and decided it was worth a try.

I like the pyramid sachets that this comes in. They give a lot more room for the tea to expand than a traditional paper teabag which is good because the tea leaves were larger than I expected for a bagged tea. Not really full leaves, but definitely not the shredded dust that a lot of companies use. I also liked that the sachets were packaged in a resealable bag to keep their freshness.

The scent of lavender was nice and strong when I opened the bag, and as the tea steeped in my cup. But while the lavender was nicely present in the flavor, I felt that the bergamot was lacking. It tasted like a standard black tea with lavender in it rather than an Earl Grey.

While this will make do until my tea arrives on Monday, I would only ever purchase this tea if I found myself with another shortage while waiting for the postal service to bring me the tea I really want!