Midwinter Robe

totally ok with the tulsi in this one…not a fan of the oolong :)sadly my tasting note on this is lacking because work distracted me with testing. both the teas i was drinking ended up cooling off a bunch, so i didn’t get to drink them when i really wanted to. I’m sending the rest of this to terri because she likes oolongs and’cause she likes to try out the blends boxes as well.

I have to admit, I wasn’t thrilled to see that the January blends club theme was tulsi. I haven’t had a lot of tulsi (and never just tulsi), but what I have had I haven’t been fond of. But I will try it nonetheless!

When I smelled the dry leaf I was a little put off, and I think it must have been the tulsi because there isn’t anything else in this blend that should be objectionable. Fortunately after steeping it evens out a bit and smells better. Herby, cocoa-y, almost minty even though there isn’t any mint in this. It honestly reminds me a bit of the scent profile of the Peppermint Bark herbal. The taste has a lot more oolong in it, and I’m definitely tasting the toasty, minerally flavor of the Wuyi oolong. A bit of cocoa, and a bit of herbal, root beerish flavor. Considering this blend contains a few things I’m not really a fan of (wuyi oolong, tulsi), I don’t mind it too much, but I wouldn’t say that I really like it that much either. Ah well, can’t love them all!

I forgot I had already tried this tea. :)

Thank you, Dinosara!

It’s very tulsi-y. Not much in the background at all. I think it would be more balanced with more actual tea.

Still, I do like tulsi, and this will be a relaxing cup to sip while I detail my kitchen and prep food for the next couple days. Yay working weekends.

I think Tulsi must be a NO for me.
Three blends with tulsi? (Sigh)
The upside is that by getting three tulsi blends together…
I I was able to pretty much identify it is a definite dislike for me :-(

The Tulsi is an interesting taste with this oolong. I like it! It’s nice spicey and warming for the -30C day out. I have to say out of the box so far this and the rooibos are my favourite. Then again I still have a few to try :D

I’ve been missing blends now that they have their own monthly club and the “classic” tends to be all pure teas, so I decided to join the “Blend” club for a month or two. I was a little taken aback by this month’s theme – Tulsi is not one of favorites, though I don’t dislike it either. But, I really like this one. Especially on later steeps it tastes like marshmallows! Something about the sarsaparilla in combination with a well-suited oolong? I don’t know, but it’s awesome. I usually get a little annoyed with the way flavors taper off on later steeps but this is one where the balance just gets better. I’m on steep 4 or 5, with 2tsp(roughly 5g)/8oz water

Backlog (from this past week). Ohhhhhh dear. This was not pleasant at all. From the moment I opened the bag, something smelled really off and really terrible. Basically, it smelled like the inside of one of my travel mugs when something has gone bad in it. YUCK. Up close, and once steeped, it smelled like that smell mixed with… smoked meat?! Flavourwise it actually wasn’t too terrible (herbaceous, pu’erh, blah blah), but I just couldn’t get over the smell, which starting making me nauseous while at my desk. Won’t be drinking more of this one, sadly.

Sipdown! Yay!

This tea was never a big favorite for me, but it kinda grew on me. I think I would have liked it better if it had more tea in it versus everything else. I think it has a herbal flavor, rather than oolong. In fact I can’t taste the oolong at all.

Looking forward to my new Verdant order that is coming! I will finally have my beloved Laoshan Black stocked.

From Reddit traveling tea box.

Hmm, the scent of the tea was freaking me out – medicinal and strong. First sips had lots of Tulsi flavor. After a few sips and time to cool, not too bad. The rootbeer taste is interesting and the oolong is nice. The Tulsi I’m undecided on with the herbaly mint like flavor.

Another verdant Blends Club tea from Sil.
This is ok, but not something I’d ever want to stock in my cupboard. The Sarsaparilla is kind of interesting in a root beer sort of way, but I don’t really care much for Tulsi.