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This is a nice chai. Different from what I’m used to but I’m enjoying it a lot. I made this strong for my morning cup, lots of tea and a very long steep, with milk and sugar. There’s definitely your usual chai notes in this one, but the dominant flavour is cinnamon. I’m not surprised – there were big chunks of cinnamon bark visible in the leaf, and not really any other large spices visible. No bitterness or astringency even with a very long steep.

Not my favourite chai – I like a noticeable amount of pepper and a lot more cardamom, but I’ll definitely drink it again. And at $2.40 for 100g the price is right. It may become my go to if I just want to make a big pot of chai for sipping all day.

I really like this one. It’s so light and fresh.

There’s a lot of mint, melon and bubblegum sweetness on the nose, but steeped I wouldn’t describe the taste as sweet. It’s meloney, cooling and refreshing. From the mint I don’t get a lot of mint flavour, just this beautiful cooling sensation, which makes me want to try this iced on the hottest summer days.

I really like this tea pot. For $10 you just can’t go wrong. It’s made of quite durable glass, has a well fitting plastic lid and a very fine, durable steeping basket. It’s fine enough to steep rooibos without loosing any through the mesh. It pours perfectly with no dripping. And the minimalist design pleases me.

One of my favourite features of this pot is that the steeping basket fits perfectly in almost every mug I own (the perfect diameter to fit into the mug, and tall enough to come right to the lip,) so it’s excellent for making just one cup of tea, if a pot is too much.

I am on my second pot. The first one held up well for quite a while, and then a big chunk of glass just popped out of the bottom one day when I put the pot down on the counter. My second pot has seen regular use for over a year without any issues.

I really love strongly herbal, dry tisanes. This one is powerfully rosemary and woody. The citrus notes come in behind the other flavours and are fairly subtle. There’s nothing sweet about this tea, in fact I could almost imagine drinking it with a pinch of salt, as I associate rosemary with savoury meals.

This was tasty. Lots of caramel and maple over a black tea base, maybe a touch of the fruit but that bit isn’t really jumping out at me. This is really nice but I don’t strongly associate those flavours with cake.

There’s also a hint of coffee on the finish, which is weird. Not bad, just weird and unexpected.

I usually like this one a lot, as a nice variant on Earl Grey. Today’s cup was not good – I think it still had some soap residue on it, because there was a lot of soap taste and not a lot else. Boo.

Teavana makes me grumpy, but I keep going back because some of their teas are amazing. I just wish they weren’t so hit or miss.

This one is more of a miss than a hit. I brewed this cup according to their directions (1tsp/cup, 90 degrees, 3min), and no great surprise, it was a huge disappointment. It had that generic, cheap fruit tisane flavour, that’s vaguely tart with no distinguishable notes. Bleh.

I put the basket back in my cup for another four minutes (this was after it had cooled enough to take a few test sips), and it’s better. There are actual flavours now! But it’s still nothing great.

The strawberry and rose are there, but I’m not getting anything that evokes champagne. There’s a wee bit of oolong earthiness, and an interesting/odd smokiness in the finish and aftertaste; almost burnt. I can’t decide if I like or hate the smokiness. Quite tart too.

It’s better experienced as the fragrance from the bag than brewed up as a tea. Lots of fruit, including some lychee and raisin notes, maybe a hint of dried currant, none of which comes out in the cup.

Maybe I’ll give it another shot iced at some point. It seems like it might do better iced with a bit of sugar.

It’s really weird that in this pumpkin spice black tea, the dominant flavour I’m getting is chamomile, and it doesn’t even contain chamomile. Behind the chamomile flavour there’s pumpkin and cinnamon and spices, but they’re definitely secondary. The black tea hardly merits a mention.

I initially steeped this for 5 minutes and it was so light, I threw the basket back in my cup for a while longer. With a longer steep and some sugar it’s better, and the non-chamomile flavours come out a bit more.

It’s kind of tasty but not really noteworthy, and I just want so much more from it. Pumpkin spice makes me want lots of pumpkin and allspice and cinnamon and pie crust and cream flavour. Something really rich and warming. The name evokes cool autumn days, the smell of dry leaves, rich food for cold weather and the melancholy of summer departing in a blaze of colour. Maybe I’m asking too much of a tea, but I want that feeling from something called Pumpkin Spice.

First cup of the day. This one is always so pleasant. Sweet and spicy and light. I kind of wish I had sugar in it today, but the sugar is all the way across the room and my tea and I are right here.

I really like how pretty the dried leaf is. The white chocolate curls and the big pieces of star anise are lovely to look at.

Sad this was discontinued, glad I stocked up.