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I received this tea courtesy of a colleague from her 24 days of tea calendar. I guess she found the smell off-putting, but I quite like it. The cherry aroma is very vibrant and it has a nice chocolatey smell even though there’s no chocolate ingredients listed. Brewed up the rosebuds provide more of a floral aroma although the flavour remains prominently cherry. There’s a delicateness from the white and green tea blend that is quite pleasant.

This has been my transition tea the last 2 weeks between the morning and late afternoon and I’ve really enjoyed it, like all of the other Oollo teas I’ve tried. It’s namesake is Alishan Mountain in Taiwan. This high mountain tea has a lovely crisp grassy flavour and elegant flowery aromas. I’m reminded of spring buds blossoming with each sip, a nice image on this chilly day here.

This tea has a lovely festive aroma in the tin! Definitely smells like a gingerbread cookie with the cinnamon, ginger, currants, maple and chocolate accents. The flavour of the tea surprisingly wasn’t too sweet even with the mate, sugar and white chocolate ingredients. It’s a bit of an underwhelming flavour actually. I’ve been in no hurry to finish it since buying it in the boxing day sale last year. It’s a decent tea, but nothing too special.

December 1st! Hard to believe eh? A colleague brought in treats and holiday teas today. This one really surprised me. It’s quite rich and buttery, and smells wonderful brewed up. Like seriously, warm fresh baked from the oven sugar cookie wafting aroma. It tastes pretty bang on too. Sugar cookies are a quintessential part of the holidays for me. I’m going to have to pick up a box of these! We also got a nice start to December choosing a picture to post by our desk that reminds us of Christmas. I chose the cranky mall elves and Santa from The Christmas Story movie – a holiday-must-watch each year for me!

I really enjoyed this yerba mate and coffee blend. It’s a nice start to the day as a coffee-tea hybrid to give you a bit of a caffeine hit. The coffee beans help to balance the sweetness of the mate and chocolate. There’s a nice creaminess to it and I don’t mind the bitterness that is reminiscent of the bitterness I’m accustomed to with coffee.

I stopped in at DAVIDs this weekend for my free birthday tea. I left with 160 grams of Nutty and Spice too. I just loved the aroma of this one and had to try some – it smells like holiday baking to me. There’s something warm, cozy and comforting to it. Like what you’d expect being home for the holidays to smell like. The flavour is a lovely mix of spices, nuts, fruit and baking. It’s definitely channeling the flavours and smells of a holiday fruit cake or Christmas cake. I never tried Bubbie’s Baklava tea to compare, but if it’s like this one, I’m sure I would have adored that too.

The only good thing I can say about this tea is that the caffeine benefits of the mate are nice. Otherwise, the sweetness of it is terribly off-putting. And I like dessert/chocolate/fruity teas. I’ve found the mate sweetness can sometimes just be the wrong kind of sweetness for me. The almond and mate blend into a sickly-sweet flavour. Not much more to say about this one. I tried it a second time a month later and after a few sips decided it made a better offering to my sink. I’ll try to pawn it off on someone that appreciates mates more than I do.

This is a pleasant start to my day this morning, even better since I was rushed and missed the caffeine hit of my daily cup of coffee. I really like the chocolate and raspberry combination. It tastes like a liquid raspberry truffles to me. The sweetness from the roasted yerba mate works well with the other ingredients. The almond slices give just a hint of nuttiness, although it’s almost lost in the raspberry and chocolate flavours. I don’t mind that though, I’m all about the chocolate raspberries!!

This is a very nice oolong tea. I love the appearance of the tightly wrapped ooloong spheres before they are brewed up. How much unfurling goes on whilst it steeps is pretty remarkable. The transformation is so pretty afterwards when I look at the leaves expanded and transformed. Each oolong I try from Oollo has a unique flavour even with no added ingredients. Oollo describes this tea as having “elegant lilac and vanilla fragrances while developing delicate sweet, floral notes” There is a lovely flowery and grassy flavour that blends with a natural creaminess. A very nice late morning/early afternoon tea before I switch to herbal and rooibos teas. The more I drink oolongs, the more I value that transition tea from the morning black and mates to the late afternoon/evening herbals.

This became a quick favourite of mine after I tried it last winter. So much so, that I’ve downgraded the Peanut Butter Cup tea from my top tier to create a new spot for Cardamom French Toast (so I’m slightly biased to sweet teas). I really enjoy the wonderful assortment of cinnamon, cardamom and lemon paired with the black tea. It has a lovely breakfast feel and aroma to it and I’ve had it with plain oatmeal often this past year. I find the sweetness of the tea makes up for not having anything on my oatmeal. There’s a really nice creaminess brewed up which DAVIDs description of being buttery seems quite apt to describe. Going to be stocking up on this again as my supply from last year is nearly depleted.