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Sipdown! WOW. This is bitter. And strangely flavoured… not your typical orange, and I’m not really getting chocolate. This is an interesting tea though… I wonder if I just need more water here…

Either way, I guess this is the first time in a while that a 1-cup sample burnt me, because I totally ruined this, heh. Thanks for the sample, Sil – I may have to nab another one at some point to give this a second shot, since I so royally messed it up this time, apparently!

(I drank the tea in spite of the massive bitterness, and really am intrigued by the flavour… bleh why did I have to wreck it… :( )

ETA: Re-steeped this last night and am drinking it cold now – it’s actually really tasty! Orangey, chocolatey, and clovey. Definitely need to give this a second shot.

Yeeaaaah!!!! Note 1200, with 4 minutes to go! (We’re pretending I live in Alberta, ok?) Also, happy slightly belated 1-year Steepsterversary to myself. Hahahaha. Like anyone with me on their dashboard could have missed it…. O.o

Anyhow, this tea! I epically failed at steeping it the first time, but this time used my usual oolong parameters, and MASSIVE SUCCESS! Caramelly, orangey, with a light oolong background. This is pretty good. I’m sad that I wasted so much leaf (SO MUCH.) on a miserably failed attempt, but glad that I can now rate this tea while drinking a properly brewed, delicious cup of it! Had I more of this, it would probably make it into the morning rotation, but I only have enough left for a cup and won’t likely be making another Della Terra order in the overly near future (please don’t come out with new blends!) so… it will have to wait. Eventually, though.

ETA: Not sure if it’s just my tastebuds, but infusion #2 wasn’t great. Ah well. The first was awesome.

Wow, this is pretty good! I wasn’t a huge fan of Eight Treasures Yabao (although found the yabao in itself quite interesting!), and I haven’t tried the pu’erh in here, but this is waaaay better than I even had thought from the description! I think this is mostly because of the amazing, fruity pear flavour that is perfectly blended in with the juniper and jasmine notes that are far more prominent. The aroma is mostly yabao and a bit of jasmine, but there’s so much more pear in the flavour than I expected. In fact… this has leapt to perhaps the top of the list of my favourite teas ever! It figures that it’s

Ahhhhh, thanks so much Sil for hanging onto some of this for me! Next year I really would like to be involved in a 12 days of Christmas swap that involves such creativity – I think it could be a great deal of fun to attempt to blend a tea corresponding to a particular theme!

Also, Autumn – at least with the cup I’m having now, I completely disagree that this is too much like a fruity Teavana blend. There is so much delicious tea flavour and complexity here, and although the fruit is from their blends, the artificialness just isn’t here. And of course, the hibiscus! I can’t believe how quickly I just drank down this cup…. it was cool, and I’ve gotta say that this would make one heck of an iced tea!

ETA: I re-steeped this one twice today, and the first infusion was definitely the best, although the next two weren’t bad either, they just lost the pear flavour which was perhaps what I enjoyed the most, and how it blended with the yabao and pu’erh. Still worth it though.

Sipdown! Another one bites the dust (haha, also I only had one cup’s worth! Booya!) Well, this one certainly smells divine! Like a delicious Terry’s chocolate orange. Tastewise, I’m getting the chocolate and orange, and presumably the marshmallow is coming off as a bit of creaminess. I think I’m getting a strange note at the end of the sip from the black tea, though, and it’s not quite fitting in for me, because although it’s malty, it’s just a bit bitter in contrast to the flavours, and I’m not a huge fan of that. I’m also finding it odd that the orange/chocolate flavours seem to fade quite quickly instead of lingering, so all I’m left with is lingering black tea flavour (well, mostly, there’s a bit of the others but they fade very quickly into the background).

I think I can understand why you’re having a bit of trouble with this one, Sil. The flavours just aren’t blending quite as nicely as I would want them to. Thanks for sharing a sample with me, though!

ETA: Made two re-steeps of this today, and had the same problem with both, although I did still drink them. Just finding that black tea note coming up a bit strangely. I wonder how this would taste with something like the Premium Taiwanese Assam as a base (although of course, that would be crazy expensive).

Thanks to Sil for offloading this lovely coconutty tea on me, as she is not a coconut fan!

One look and one sniff of this tea and I’m about 99% certain that this is the exact same tea as The Persimmon Tree’s Coconut Creme. A sip, and I’m 99.9% sure that they’re identical. Lovely sweet coconut flavour with a soft white base… quite delicious! This one perhaps seems a tad more coconutty than I recall my last cup of Coconut Creme being, but that could easily be caused by proportions of ingredients in the infuser.

As I had a pretty limited amount of this tea left to begin with, I’m certainly glad to have more! Thanks, Sil!

Almost there!

This honey bush blend reminds me a LOT of Amoda’s Honeybush Haze that I tried a couple days ago, but not quite as tasty. It’s appley, nutty, and honeybush-y, and that’s about it. Not bad, but I’d prefer the Amoda version if I was to have this one again.

Sipdown! Blehhh, this tea smells really odd. Spicy but… not in a pleasant way. Perhaps I’m smelling orange, cloves, and cinnamon but there’s also something else offputting in here. ACK! First sip and this is ridiculously, unnervingly sweet! I can taste the coffee now, and the flavor, aside from the SWEET, is not as bad as the aroma indicates, but…. Blargh, this is not my cup of tea. I’m surprised you used up as much as you did, Sil! Thanks for sharing with me – at least I have one tea to permanently cross off my list. Perhaps this would be better tempered with milk, but I’m really not a fan of pre-sweetened teas… and this is just sickly sweet. I’m afraid this one’s headed for the drain; after the two delicious chiffon teas and two delicious chocolate teas I just drank, and the huge number of other delicious things in my cupboard… yeah, I can’t.

Another tasty one! Haha, I’m all over the chocolate teas tonight, apparently. This one isn’t quite as tasty as Love in a Cup, but it’s chocolatey and a bit caramelly, and I’m getting a bit of fruitiness. Although I’m ok with rose not being a dominant flavor, I would like to get more cherry in here. The chocolate is a touch on the artificial side, but at least for now, it’s working for me enough that I’d happily drink this again!

(Look at me inch towards 1200!!!!!)

Hah! My gamble on getting 2oz. of this without even trying it was successful! I swear, I opened this one up and it smells just like key lime pie!! Yum!! Steeped, it still smells true, so I crossed my fingers that it tasted such as well… and yep. Tastes like lime fluff. It’s just a touch bitter, but I suspect a shorter infusion will help with that – I’m thinking that it’s the citrus peel that’s causing it. A re-steep is not too bad either, though I should have used even less water than I did.

Yum. Still lemony and good, though not as creamy as last time. I actually prefer lime chiffon (but I prefer limes, so that’s hardly a surprise). These teas really are delicious :D