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I guess it’s winter that makes me do it, but it seems like every cup I make nowadays is some sort of mint chocolate. I’ve had ‘Read my Lips’ A LOT lately. It’s late tonight so I didn’t want the caffeine so I went with the Mint Chocolate Rooibos. It’s definitely not as good as ‘Read my Lips’ but it hits the spot. It makes me happy but when I am done, I won’t remember it.

I seriously love this tea. I love it so much that I keep moving the pouch to work and then home and then back… but then I forget where I left it last. I was very excited to find it hiding in the back of the tea drawer today. I swear it wasn’t in there the last time I checked. Anyway. Love.

Had a cup of this one today. It’s so nice on a winter’s day curled up with a book.

I am a big maple freak and I love this tea. When I opened the bag it smelled like those maple leaf shaped cookies. I was worried it was going to be too much. But, it’s awesome. Once brewed the maple is just a nice compliment to the oolong. The ooling tea is still fully present in the cup and the two flavors go together very nicely.

I also would like to see this one in the permanent collection because when I run out of this one I might cry.

I blended this tea when Ovation tea offered some of us a chance to blend our own with their ‘create your own’ blend tool for free.
http://www.ovationteas.com/custom-tea-blend/create-your-own-tea-blend.html

I actually ordered the honeybush but was accidentally sent the black tea. They are super nice and are going to send me a corrected batch. So, look for another review of this same blend but made with honeybush soon.

This tea is sooo good. It smells great in the bag and brews up just as nice and tasty. The black tea seems to be of a high quality with little astringency. I was working and didn’t even pay attention to how many minutes I steeped it and it still came out great. The predominant flavors in this are brown sugar and cinnamon with a touch of apple flavor. The apple doesn’t overwhelm it like a lot of apple flavored teas. It really does taste like an apple pie. Last winter I was trying really hard to lose weight and all I wanted was apple pie. I could never find a tea to fill that craving and I would have killed for this one. I love it. Can you tell? I did good, if I do say so myself. :)

This tea is great Frank! Cinnamon can so easily overwhelm but it’s just right in this tea. And it does taste like a cinnamon roll. Its mellow and has a touch of yeasty bread flavor with a nice warmth from the cinnamon. I added a little agave nectar to bring out the sweetness of a cinnamon roll.

I picked this up at the local Chinese Grocery store today. It was $2.10 for almost 2 oz. How could I pass that up? This is actually pretty good. I gave it a quick wash in hot water and then steeped it for a couple of minutes. It’s floral, a little complex, and has some of that toasty chinese restaurant oolong flavor that I like. There is also some fruity background flavor I haven’t identified yet. For $2, I’m pretty impressed.

Oh, and the container is gorgeous too.
http://img.chinaa2z.com/uploadpic/AboutChina/20070921/200709210828597052/200651816483652284.jpg

Update – getting a little grassy flavor as it cools.

Ok, NOW I am tasting it. I accidentally added too much sweetener (agave) to this and the pancake and maple flavor really popped out. Of course it is sugary sweet now, but I suppose that is how pancakes are supposed to be. Bumping up my rating.

Tealicious Teas sent this free sample. Ti Kuan Yin is not my favorite variety of oolong; it’s usually a little too green and grassy. But I like this one. It’s growing on me as I drink it. It’s a smidge grassy, but not too much, and it has some nice floral notes.

I gave this a quick wash and then brewed it in my ceramic tea pot.

I got this free sample from ChineseTea-shop.com. They sent it all the way from Singapore! Can you believe that? Anyway, I’m not sure what I was thinking when I chose the Jasmine tea for my sample as I don’t really like Jasmine teas. So, read this review with that in mind. For a Jasmine tea, this is really pretty good. I’m not sure whether it is a green, oolong, or a white, or whether Jasmine tea can be a tea without a base?? I used 3 g of tea in my tiny infuser cup (I think its somewhere between 4 and 6 oz). I may have used too muh tea for the size cup. It’s a little bitter, but I kind of like the bitter against the strong jasmine flavor. The tea leaves are beautiful curled uo leaves when unsteeped. If you like jasmine tea, you’ll love this.