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Had this in-store as well today, and wow! It tasted a fair bit better than when I brewed it myself. There was much more pineapple/strawberry flavour. I suspect this might have been due to a lack of pineapple chunks in my bag of tea in spite of the jellybeans that I did get. So I’m kind of excited to try this one again :) I think it’s better than Swampwater, which it is definitely most reminiscent of.

Ick. Tried this as a TOTD today and definitely not impressed, but I dislike peppermint teas, so no surprise there! So I won’t be a jerk and rate this, which would bring down the rating (since I’d probably give it a 20 or so). Just tasted like any old icky peppermint tea to me. On the plus side, I sniffed the Spearmint tea and boy, does it ever smell good! It’s now on the sample-purchase list :)

Ok, so this tea is currently making a strong case for user error being the reason I didn’t like it the first time. It still smells the same, delicious and fruity, but wow does it ever taste better. I taste some fruitiness (pineapple is coming to mind), and am pretty sure I’m picking up on some oolong base. No weird chemically flavour whatsoever.

I’m still not sure that it’s a tea I’d pick up again, but it’s moved away from a tea I wanted to get rid of to one I’ll be happy enough drinking until the bag is done. Which is good. Overall, not a bad fruity oolong. Probably most similar to Long Life Oolong, which I’m also having trouble properly reviewing!

This is hitting the spot perfectly tonight. I’m all sick and whiny with a sore throat, and was having trouble figuring out what sort of drink I wanted (I find many drinks don’t help but hurt a sore throat). The sweet teas I’ve brewed tonight are mostly for my visiting boyfriend, but this one is all for me. I’m craving a vegetal, not sweet, completely astringency-free tea, so Mulberry Magic is perfect. Iced Bear Trap actually sounds really appealing right now too, although I’m pretty sure I’m either out of that or very nearly.

I was curious as to how this stacked up to Alpine Punch, which is also so amaretto-y. Had to wait quite a while though, as my local DT was out of stock FOREVER (ok… maybe a month or so).

The dry tea/tisane stuff (what do you call a dry tisane? Mix? Hrm.) is quite interesting to look at. Definitely reminds me of a bark mulch, with some added almonds thrown in, of course! The smell is overwhelmingly of amaretto, even moreso than Alpine Punch.

Steeped, it still smells like sweet, sweet amaretto. Yum. And that’s how it tastes, too, although thankfully the sweetness isn’t quite as strong as marzipan or I’d be gagging a bit. I can’t really identify anything other than that amaretto/marzipan flavour, but wouldn’t know what to look for in terms of tasting the lapacho bark anyhow.

The biggest difference I’m noticing between this and Alpine Punch is that it seems thinner somehow, and perhaps a bit less complex, which may not be surprising given that I think Alpine Punch contains a more varied collection of ingredients. So for a dessert tea, I think my selection would stray from this one, but there’s certainly nothing wrong with it. I can definitely see some enterprising people thinking up some neat recipes that use the tasty liquor though!

ETA: This does NOT re-steep well at all. Pretty much zero flavour on the re-steep. Definitely sticking with Alpine Punch.

Alas, my third and final cup (from a 14g bag). Yes, I use more tea than is perhaps required, but those mulberries are heavy too! Will have to go shopping for this and a select few others soon!

Just steeped it directly in the mug, since I know it doesn’t oversteep and I’m too lazy to try for more than one steep tonight. And I want to eat those mulberries!! :D

Delicious.

Not bad, tastes like a less-weird version of Swampwater in my opinion! I was apparently one of the lucky ones that got 4 jellybeans in a 16g bag, so I made sure to steep one in my cup this evening.

The dry tea smells vanilla-y and fruity, but with less guava scent than Swampwater. And taste-wise it is very much the same; I don’t think the jellybean added much. Perhaps it also depends on which flavour you get – it was a red one in this cup. The bag contains two more red ones and a pear one (which I just ate… heehee :D)

So nothing objectionable, but in the dessert rooibos department I still lean towards Alpine Punch :)

Ok, here goes my second shot at Hot Lips. Steeping parameters pretty much exactly what is recommended, so I shouldn’t have done anything wrong there.

The smell is still nearly exactly like cinnamon hearts. SO delicious.

And… yay! Much better this time around! Sweet and cinnamony with a bit of heat at the end. No cardboard taste this time. I still prefer Glitter & Gold, but am no longer dreading finishing off the 20g of this I purchased.

So I guess I deserve this for brewing five cups of tea simultaneously…. set the timer for 3 minutes, and took out a tea ball right when it went off….. but it was not the right cup. I took out the re-steeping banana oolong teaball, not this one. I should mention that the only reason I’m brewing so much is because my boyfriend is visiting and since I’m trying to get him to drink tea, letting him sample whatever he wants from my cupboard is the way to go :) So tonight it’s re-steeps of Banana Oolong (#3), Alpine Punch (#3), Pom Power (#2), and first steepings of Daydreamer and Paradise Found. Plus something else later, most likely.

Anyhow, I digress. In spite of the MASSIVE oversteeping, I think I may not have ruined this tea! The brewed liquid smells fruity and tasty, and I am actually concerned that the tea tastes too weak, instead of oversteeped, and there’s no bitterness. I find this odd, given that it’s a sencha??? Sencha Pear oversteeped for me in a heartbeat.

Anyways, I’ll definitely have to try this one again done properly, but for now I’m kind of excited :)