Love is Tea (LIT)

Drinking the last of this sample, and I can honestly say I think I like it better this time. Paired with Dark Chocolate covered Goji Berries, its amazing. Makes me want to try more Cherry teas. Its always been a favorite flavor of mine.

A soft cherry flavor, with an overwhelming cherry scent. I’m a huge fan of cherry and I w ent into this with high expectations. I wasn’t let down, though I’d love for it to be more cherry, or possibly a cherry almond blend to be made because god would that be amazing. I’m pleased to have gotten this in a trade with the lovely yssah.

Having some of this today. I think tonight I am going to try to log in some back notes hopefully.

I think from all the TIL teas that I have had so far this is my favorite. It has a great sweet yet creamy fruit taste. It still has a bit of that perfume bite as some of the other flavored teas, but it doesn’t take away from the tea. The black tea base is good as well; smooth with no astringency.

Found this sample lingering in the bottom of the basket where I keep swaps and small samples. It’s been there for a year (in a clear plastic bag), so this tea could be past its prime. Still, it sounds yummy, so into the brew basket it goes.

There is a good amount of creamy vanilla flavor here, but there’s not much blueberry. I get little hints of berry as the tea cools, but this is more of a vanilla tea than a blueberry one. I’ll have to go back and look at my original tasting note to see how I felt about this tea when it first went into my swap basket.

Edit: I read my original tasting note for this tea, and my thoughts about it were pretty much the same. At least I’m consistent. :)

This sample was sent from yssah. Thank you!

This is a really nice tea. I taste vanilla more than blueberry, but the blueberry is definitely there. It’s more like a good vanilla tea with hints of blueberry. The base tea is also very good, so even though the berry flavor isn’t as present as I would like it is still easy to enjoy the tea.

I have enough of my sample left for one more cup (which I’ll probably have tomorrow) and if I remember I’ll add sugar and cream to my cup. This is a tea asking for additions.

This is another of the samples from yssah, but, it’s delicious. It smells just like blueberry muffins and pretty much makes me think of the same thing as I sip on it. It’s a very light tinge of blueberries and creamy.

This tea’s name is is incredibly descriptive about it’s taste, nutty and sweet.

I’ve been reluctant to go through this sampler, but, only because I feel like i’ll be suffering a great loss once I’m out of this tea. It’s delicious. When sipping this tea the first thing I notice is a tinge of sweetness on my tongue, swallowing and breathing out there’s this nutty aroma. This tea, for lack of other ways to describe it, simply makes me happy.

Another one of the samples that I received. I tried this tea, and it was a disaster! No, not the tea, me. I had every tea brewing accident imaginable while attempting to taste this tea. Not that it’s the fault of the tea that i’m clumsy, stuck my hand on the bottom of my ingenuitea and scalded the crap out of myself and spilled tea EVERYWHERE. Nor is it the tea’s fault that I didn’t bring a change of clothes into work this snowy Chicago day. Nor is it the tea’s fault that we have carpeted floors at work.

Needless to say, brewing this tea was a battle that I was somehow determined to lose. However, in the end, I ended up with a delightful tasting tea that had just the right tinge of citrusy orange flavor in it. A right reward for the trouble I caused myself. The scent is slightly better then the actual taste, I could sit here and smell this tea for hours, or at least until my coworkers glanced at me funny for huffing tea fumes.

This was my first berry tea. Perhaps because of this, I found the blueberry taste was clearly present. I enjoyed the cup of tea quite hot but I think I would really like this iced with a little sweetener. This tea most def. made me yearn for more. Thank you Yssah!

This tea is very nice, I wasn’t sure what to expect because I’d never heard of gynostemma before. It also didn’t come with directions, there’s lots of gynostemma teas and they very quite a bit in how long they should be steeped, how much you should use, etc. For this particular tea, I used about a teaspoon for 8 oz of water. My first time making it, I let it go for 2=3 minutes, thinking herbal tea takes forever, but, while I was steeping it I came across some sites that said they steep their gynostemma for less than a minute! One page said 20 seconds. I quickly poured that into a cup, and the taste wasn’t unpleasant, but, it wasn’t that great either. So, honestly not sure whether i didn’t let it brew long enough, or let it brew too long… I figured my next cup I can always try the real quick steep and if it’s not good, just steep the next one longer.

The second time making it, I steeped it probably about 35 seconds. The first steep of this second batch was fairly light in color, but, it had a very pleasant and sweet taste. The second steep released a lot more color into the water, but, I suck at describing color, just it was a lot more obvious it was ‘tea’ in the second steeping. The taste was more noticeable. It’s a really delicious tea and this continued onto my 4th and 5th cups. Each cup has a slightly (but not sugary) sweet taste to it. Given how quick it is to steep as well, it’s a great tasting convenient cup of tea that supposedly gives lots of health benefits. It’s definitely ranking up there in my favorites.

Tried this yesterday but did not have a chance to review until now. I love jasmine green tea. This is a really good one. It is a very smooth green tea and the jasmine was very subtle not too flowery as some jasmine teas can get. I actually liked the second steep better then the first. The flavors came through stronger for me the second time around. Definite yum. Thanks Yssah! :-)

I got my swap from yssah today! Of course I had to try this one first, I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect blueberry tea. Plus I adore Della Terra’s Blueberry Creme and hoped this would be similar.

This smells very strongly of blueberry, but there’s not much blueberry flavor in the brew. Funnily enough, it doesn’t smell of cream at all but the flavor of cream is so strong and delicious! Creamy vanilla, it reminds me of an EG cream in its richness. There’s a bit of blueberry, but I really do wish there was a little more. It’s still quite tasty though! I think I’ll try mixing it 50/50 with the DT blend, which is heavily blueberry but doesn’t have quite as much cream as I’d like.

This was a free sample from Yssah with my Ovation package. Thanks!

It semlls quite strongly of blueberries, and it was in such a cute little bag that I thought I would try this out right away.

Once steeped it smells quite strongly of blueberries, but the taste is quite mild and relaxing. There is a lot of creaminess in there, with a hint of vanilla. The black base is very smooth with only a touch of astringency.

Let me start off this note with a teensy bit of background. I bought some cheap jasmine tea and had even commented to a friend that I shared that tea with that jasmine tea could be a bit iffy, that there were horror stories about the chemically taste and such online. Drinking that tea, I was unsure of what quality of tea I got, I didn’t know what the chemical taste tasted like, and I wasn’t sure if jasmine tea was supposed to taste like drinking a bottle of perfume. I just thought maybe I didn’t like jasmine tea.

I had also asked yssah – Love is Tea (LIT) to try some of the Jasmine Pearls she had available…

I had no idea. I just didn’t.

This tea is exquisite compared to the cheaper jasmine tea that I’d purchased. I now have a much better idea of what good jasmine tea is supposed to taste like. There’s a delicate fragrance of jasmine without any of the perfume taste in my mouth. It’s a beautiful aroma and the pearls unfurling during the 2nd and 3rd steeping are fun to watch.

The first steep had a very light flavor and aroma. The tint of the liquor was barely noticable. The second steep was a much more noticeable change in the color of the liquor a very light translucent champagne. There was much more taste due to leaves opening up more and it was slightly sweet. Unfortunately my pallate isn’t experienced enough to pull out and describe exactly what I was tasting in the tea, but, it was yum.

This. Is. Great.

I just received this one today, and as the smell of it had completely dominated the package, I thought I had better try it – it smelled so good!

I’m pretty happy I gave this a shot. I was nervous because DavidsTea’s Cherry Cola was abhorrent (is that too strong of a word? Maybe not), but this is very smooth and nice. It reminds me a little of 52 Teas’ Butterbeer.

How do you describe Root Beer tea? I wish I knew what herbs/spices were in it because Root Beer can have a lot of things in it. What I do know is that I steeped it for 5 minutes and it is very smooth and not at all bitter. I think there may even be a bit of vanilla notes mixed in with the “root beer” ish spices.

… I am not doing this tea justice. :P It’s nice though!

Thank you Yssah for including this sample with the Pear White from Ovation you ordered for us. :) I really like the little baggie it came in. It’s the perfect size for a sample of tea. :)

The smell is quite appealing, but I don’t know if I’d describe it as blueberries and cream. It is vaguely desserty. Tastes more like rock sugar than anything else. The tea base is quite good though. I forgot about the tea for a good 15 minutes while it steeped. No bitterness or astringency to speak of.

Ok, something really weird, and very serendipitous, happened. Yssah shipped me this tea in the midst of many other samples (which all look amazing, Yssah, so thanks so much!). However, one of the samples, directly next to it, was a Lapsang Souchong. So when I realized the other teas might be polluted, I thought they’d be ruined… Except not!

The mango tea itself is great- strong mango flavor, not too sweet, as good as any I’ve had. But here’s the real kicker… it picked up this subtle smokey undertone from the Lapsang Souchong. So now I’ve got this sample of a smokey, mango black tea. And I couldn’t be happier.

My roommate and I both agree this is one of the most delicious teas we’ve had to date. I attribute some of that to the Lapsang pollution, because the subtle smokiness is what makes it stand out from previous mango teas.

For the record, Yssah has assured me she’ll be double-bagging Lapsangs and EGs in the future, but I am not at all disappointed with this swap. I noticed the Passion Fruit is similarly polluted, and am insanely excited to try it tomorrow.

Thanks Yssah! I asked for this for my roommate who loves almond teas but I stole a little cup to try myself. I am very impressed with it. It tastes exactly like almonds. This is so wonderful, I’m excited to give her it.