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When I bought my sample of Mango Diablo, I decided to revisit this one so I had a non-chili version to follow up with. The man of the house made it last night but I ended up drifting off on the couch before I could drink it and was barely with it enough to throw my mug in the fridge on my way to bed. So, I had a nice iced version waiting for me this morning. I’m typically too lazy to hot-brew-then-ice teas; it’s either consumed hot or cold-steeped.

It’s very in-your-face sweet, ripe mango. I see (and steep) this one as a fruit blend because any tea aspect in it is totally negligible. It’s good, and I’m convinced by the mango, and it’s nice cold. But, it’s not stellar for me. Solid but not stellar.

This is really nice! It delivers on the sweet and creamy fronts. It’s definitely the strongest, most convincing caramel I’ve found in a tea. At 200 degrees for 2 minutes, the bitterness was kept mostly at bay and drunk plain this was a nice, indulgent cup to accompany my slacking off.

This one, thankfully, really satisfies my anticipation that it would be 1) interesting and 2) spicy-sweet. It’s flavourful, and I really like the mango flavouring DT uses. Each sip starts off juicy mango and ends with a little kick (I went with only 2 minutes for this on the suggestion of the employee who sold it to me). The chili is just right, boldness-wise.

But, I don’t often find myself in the mood for spicy teas. I like them, but don’t usually want to make them after that first try. I don’t see myself actually reaching for this too often, but it does what it does well.

I never added this to any of my Verdant orders as, well, I have enough breakfast teas. So I thought. But it showed up in one of my tea of the month packages (I’ve fallen so far behind!) and I finally tried it this morning. We had it along with a pretty decadent breakfast of some bacon and avocado followed by some homemade raspberry-lemon muffins and, why not, coconut cream chocolate fudge.

Well, Imperial Breakfast was amazing with all of these rich flavours. It really accomplishes what the write-up describes; it’s bold and rich but not bitter or too astringent. It’s perfect. Roasty, malty, cocoa-y, and smooth. I could really pick out the Big Red Robe and the Laoshan Black, which was awesome as they’re two of my favourites. The Yunnan also contributes to the sweetness and great body, I think, but it’s balanced with the others so well that I don’t notice the Yunnan spiciness so much. Once I make it through some of my Laoshan Black, I think I’ll need to grab some of this.

I cold-brewed this one overnight and took it to work with me yesterday. I thoroughly enjoyed it! It tastes suspiciously like DT’s Goji Pop, but I’m quite alright with that. It seemed a little less tart than Goji Pop, but to be fair I can’t remember if I cold-brewed that one. So I’ll have to pull it out to compare. This performs really well as a cold brew, and I’m sure as a hot-then-iced tea, but I’m not sure that I’ll bother trying it hot. It seems meant to be iced. Really sweet and refreshing; I pick out more of the melon and goji than any pear, but they really work together.

You know what, I don’t dislike this. I find it a little dusty-tasting as I often do Pai Mu Tan/Bai Mu Dan, and I find the coconut a tad soapy. But even then, the vanilla and coconut are harmonized enough that it’s not awful. It’s really flavourful but, despite the vanilla/coconut combo, not terribly sweet. It’s interesting.

So good! I threw some of this into my new Green’s Your Colour insulated steel water bottle (it comes with a really fine tea strainer; perfection!) and let it cold steep overnight to help keep me hydrated during another 12-hour. It reminds me of David’s Luscious Watermelon, but with less of the kind of bubblegumesque flavour. Very refreshing, and I find watermelon to be a really soothing flavour. I haven’t tried this hot yet, but I anticipate that brewing it hot and letting it chill would yield more flavour. This was still great cold-brewed, though.

This was nice as a before-bed on a kind-of cool night tea last night, though I found it a little syrupy-sweet. Something was just a bit off. I think I’d like it if the sweetness was balanced out with a little more body, which I imagine is hard to do.

This is actually the peach and apricot teas mixed together, as they no longer carry specifically Peach Apricot. Fair enough! I could have chosen one or the other, but whey not both?

I’m liking the fruit flavours in this. Sweet and subtle. Overwhelming, chemical-tasting peach flavour has been a stomach-turning issue for me in the past so I’m very happy with this! Unfortunately I’m finding this overly bitter, too. I am actually doing short, 30-second ish steeps, which is working pretty well. It keeps it nice and light but doesn’t quite let the flavours come out to play.

I found this one not bad, but pretty dull. I didn’t get a lot of rhubarb from it, and very little cream. I had the odd nice hint of tart rhubarb, but it was really overwhelmed by bitterness despite a very short steep! It fell a bit flat.