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Yum. Probably one of the better Earl Grey’s I’ve had (that’s not saying much, I’m a tea newbie!). It has a rich black base and can become quite strong without being bitter if steeped for longer than 2 minutes. Adding a bit of milk adds to the flavor without drowning it out, and I’ve re-steeped these tea bags several times with good results.

Steeping for three minutes got me a dark brownish liquid with a greenish hue that made me hesitant to try this blend. Over-steeped tea and I don’t get along – in fact, I chronically under-steep most teas out of fear of drinking bitter tea. But this tea wasn’t over-steeped, it just looked a bit darker than I was used to. The flavor is slightly woodsy, but no where near as woodsy as a roobois. It has some depth to it, not as strong as a black tea but definitely not as light as a white, maybe more on the level of a green tea without the green tea taste. After it cooled a bit I started to get a hint of the lemon. Second steeping proved to be identical to the first, which was nice. Overall an interesting flavor, but not something I’d reach for on a regular basis.

Thanks to LiberTea for passing on a sample!

Wow! I really like this one. It’s a dessert tea, sweet, with a base of black tea and a thread of caramel. I don’t really get a nutty flavor to this, but the overall idea of a chocolate turtle is definitely there. I’ll be trying milk with this soon to see how it tastes.

Thanks to LiberTea for passing on a sample!

Full Disclosure: I hate bananas. I hate how they smell, I hate how they taste, I hate how they’re squishy… the list goes on and on. Occasionally, they’re pretty good caramelized in brown sugar… with lots of other stuff (like oatmeal) involved. I’m not sure why I “forgot” that this tea had banana in it… perhaps because I was really looking forward to the “hot” “buttered” and “bread” part of it. Which is really too bad, because i didn’t get anything out of this tea except banana.

The banana reminds me of the flavored fruit shaped candy you could get from 25 cents out of a machine at the grocery store and various other places. I wasn’t a fan of the banana ones, and I’m really not a fan of the flavor in this tea. I don’t get anything buttery or bread-y about it, and there isn’t even a strong black tea base (ok, I didn’t exactly expect to find one, but when I drank the tea, that was probably the first thing I noticed). I’m going to try it with milk, maybe some sugar, to see if it changes my opinion of this tea.

Thanks to LiberTea for passing on a sample!

So, as you may or may not know, I grew up drinking chai. Specifically, I grew up drinking my mother’s masala chai, and because of this, very few chais ever taste right to me. Why I bother trying them rather than hauling out the stovetop pot+ tea+masala, I’m not sure (convenience, maybe?), but they tend to fall short. This one gets an A for effort. It’s strong, you can taste the spices, and it gently warms your throat as you drink it. But the combination of spices is not my favorite (it’s really heavy on the cloves) and actually reminds me more of mulled cider than masala chai. There is a hint of sugar (which might also be contributing to the thoughts of cider). The thing I like best about this tea is the black tea base – it’s a very good, strong Assam that I would love to use in my chai. All in all, pretty decent but not something I’m planning on hunting down. Which is good, because I have a feeling it would be hard to find, like the majority of 52teas limited tea blends.

Thanks to LiberTea for passing on a sample!

This was oddly sweet, and not as woodsy as I’d expect a rooibos to be. Maybe I didn’t steep it long enough (I’m a chronic shaver of steeping times because I just hate the bitterness that comes from oversteeped tea). The smell of the spices was nice, but didn’t particularly remind me of autumn.

Thanks to LiberTea for passing on a sample!

Sniffing the tea leaves reminded me of freeze-dried blueberries, which are not particularly appealing. Drinking the tea, I can’t really taste the blueberry or the danish… and yet, it’s definitely not just a plain black tea. I can smell blueberries, and perhaps taste a hint of something reminiscent of a danish, but if someone handed me this tea blind, I would have no clue what it was supposed to be. Tastes pretty good, though!

Thanks to LiberTea for passing on a sample!

I was a bit hesitant about trying this tea because of the pear. Pear is such an elusive fruit when it comes to flavor – easily overwhelmed and lost in the mix. But you can definitely taste (and smell!) it in this cup of tea. There a hint of woodsyness from the rooibos, but it’s not very overpowering and the pear definitely shines through in this tea. It’s slightly sweet and very delicious, perfect for autumn. On the second brew, the rooibos flavor comes out much more, and the pear is almost gone.

Thanks to LiberTeas for passing on a sample!