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Had a pot of this loveliness while at afternoon tea in honor of my birthday. It’s become kind of a tradition. I’ll need to do a review of the place we went to – it’s called Brooklyn High Low and it was fantastic! Everyone got to choose their own tea, which came in a very generously sized pot. This was my pick. I loved it so much I ended up purchasing some to take home. Comforting, warm and sweet, this was such a wonderful tea. Not sweet like sugar sweet – I rarely if ever sweeten my tea – but more like the sweet you get when you add vanilla to anything. I had it with milk, of course. The vanilla is rich and deep, not that flat, marshmallow-y vibe you can sometimes get with lesser vanilla flavoring. Cardamom was perfectly balanced with the vanilla and didn’t overwhelm the tea. Loved it!

Oh, dear. I was hoping for something along the lines of my beloved Chaud Les Marrons, but this is not it. Hard to believe this is from Lupicia – I’ve never had a bad tea from them…until now. I was worried from the get-go since the dry leaf had a strong tangy smell, acrid, very unpleasant. Once steeped, this odd scent mellowed quite a bit, which was a little bit of relief. First I tried it with nothing added: burnt sugar. Like, not nice, but when you bake something sweet for too long or at too high a heat and it turns bitter. I added milk to even things out and it did help, but I was not getting ANY chestnut flavor. Maybe I overleafed, or it needs less time for the steep. I’ll try again with less leaf and a shorter steep time. But dang! this is not going to be easy to get through. I miss my Chaud Les Marrons.

Picked this one up on a trip to Scandinavia, too many (almost 5) years ago. I know, I know. I am trying my damndest to get through my oldest teas and I think I see the light at the end of this tunnel of shame. This was stored in its original sealed envelope, so when I opened it, it smelled exactly like I remembered. A very vanilla scented milky oolong – so different I needed to try it. That day in Stockholm was a freaky 90 degrees and the tea house had no A/C, so no way was I going to go in to have some hot tea and cake. I decided to just buy a small amount to try once I got home. Fast forward to…this morning! Not the typical milky oolong. Yes, it’s scented, but most milky oolongs are. Very vanilla forward, but with a vegetal note from the oolong. Really pleasant tea, sweeter than other milky oolongs I’ve tried. I will have no problem finishing this now that I’ve opened it.

Another excellent tea from Teavivre. I’m down to my last couple of samples from them: a Dragonwell and this. Woke up to a beautiful snowstorm, everything looking like it had a ton of powdered sugar sprinkled over it, and decided that black tea would be fitting. Getting the notes of sweet potato, getting a little earthiness, and orange/citrus on the finish. It brewed exceptionally dark, and I was afraid I’d overleafed, but no, it was perfect. The second infusion was still great, a little lighter, but still flavorful. Damn, Teavivre has such great stuff!

Laziest review ever: I liked it. Complex. Nothing I can add to the tons of reviews of this tea already on Steepster. Wondering if I should have brewed gongfu as I started doing or if Western (how I ended up brewing) was the way to go. I only had a sample so I’d need to buy more to try out the other method. Still, I got two steeps out of it.

Yet another tea I bought way too long ago and never finished. Now that the colder weather is here, I thought it would be nice to start the day with a cup of this. It’s definitely one of those teas that makes me wonder why I don’t drink it more often. There’s really no smokiness, just a hint of toasty-roasty flavor, and a lovely honey sweetness. So good! I think I may just make this a priority for my morning tea until it’s gone. I have to remember how good it is! Brewed it western style because I didn’t have the time for a gongfu session. It doesn’t matter – still great.

How is this a green tea? Amazing. Roasted cocoa with some almost grain-like notes. This was a gift from 29b Teahouse for a tea-tasting event they had several years ago. Upon opening the bag, I saw that these were actual sachets rather than loose tea, but that’s OK. I’m spending these autumn mornings plopping a sachet in my tea bowl and surveying the beautiful foliage while I sip. It’s delicious! They say you can get 4-5 steeps out of it, but after 3 my tastebuds are done. So good!

I haven’t been into getting T2 teas for quite awhile, but when I saw this in ye olde Home Goods, curiosity got the better of me, and the price was so good, I decided to go for it. A nice, creamy vanilla black tea, quite nice. I drink it as a breakfast tea with milk, and although I don’t tend to like a marshmallow-y vanilla, I don’t mind it with this tea. This one is not loose leaf, so yay for convenience.

i do believe this is the oldest tea in my current cupboard, and I finally opened it today. The T2 retail shop I bought it from is long gone, sadly, and I remember getting it on impulse. You know how it goes, they always have a couple of teas brewing for tasting when you’re in the store and somehow you end up buying. Sneaky devils!
I admit I had below low expectations. Although unopened and still sealed, this tea’s been languishing in the back of my tea shelf (technically two shelves at this point) for years. Essentially, it’s a genmaicha with chocolate flavor. Sounds rather disgusting at first glance, but it works – I really like it. The genmaicha is very faded at this point, so I’m not getting a ton of nuttiness, but the chocolate is very cocoa-y and really pleasant. Imagine if I had opened this up years ago – probably would have been excellent. So weird, but really good.

Given to me awhile ago from a friend who was visiting Paris – y’know, when people actually, like, traveled and stuff. She has recently started traveling again, so that’s progress.

I do have to up the amount of tea because I definitely underleafed – although it is getting kind of up there in age. It’s such a balancing act – too little and you don’t get the full, creaminess of it, too much and you get this metallic note that comes with overleafing or oversteeping oolongs.

I feel it’s unfair to rate the tea since the brew was a bit weak, but I believe once I get the ratio right, it’ll be great. I did still enjoy the weak brew, so I’ll keep going with this one, and adjust the rating if needed.