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Another Teavana blend that doesn’t sound too bad from the ingredients list.. but I really can’t tell the difference from the blend I had the other day other than the lovely fig fragrance is missing. This one actually looks like it has a good deal of oolong in the blend for once, but the bases Teavana uses are always so odd looking. Two teaspoons and quite a long steep doesn’t really bring out much flavor.. but there is that fake sugar that dominates again. With so many ingredients why am I just getting fake sugar every time? At least the other had the fig.
Steep #1 // 2 tsps. // just boiled // 4-5 min

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox Round #3 – Tea #13
Why do I have a feeling the Whispering Pines blends will just keep getting better? This one is nicely done. No chocolate here but WP has some mighty chocolatey leaves when they are on their own. Plenty of fresh mint and a nice balance of spices. The cup has a scent of chocolate even before taking a sip. This is a very unique blend! I used a little bit less than two teaspoons and the only complaint with this tea is that the black tea is almost a little too light. Both cups had a yellow color to the cup… not exactly like a black tea! But I wouldn’t change the black tea used at all.
Steep #1 // few min after boiling // 3-4 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4-5 min

Oh no! Tea organization emergency! I keep a google e-mail draft full of the teas I haven’t written tasting notes for with the usernames from trades for those teas and the list of teas that are almost sipped down. This morning the list is completely messed up, somehow a bunch of html was added to the list when there wasn’t any before mostly a lot of

Thank you KittyLovesTea for this one a while back! I have so many samples I haven’t got around to trying. I would say the teaboxes I participate in are bad for my tea collection, but then I remember some of my tea collection goes into the teaboxes, so it balances itself out. :D

Steep #1 // rinse // just boiled // 1 1/2 min
A good size chunk of this goes into my infuser, after a rinse the mug is a deep red as only these lovely pu-erhs can make happen. The flavor is crisp and refined somehow. It brings to mind darkened studies filled with ancientbooks… whatever studies are, but this is that tea. There is a pine or cedar flavor here (that isn’t like the oversteeped leaves flavor). I don’t drink wine, but it kind of reminds me of wine somehow.

Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 min
This cup seems to mellow out in flavor, but it’s still a strong pu-erh, deepest red color. Not as much crisp/pine/cedar… more sweet! I’ve noticed with this pu-erh that my appetite is ridiculous, even drinking this while eating things like muffins and spaghetti. I’m hungry faster… not necessarily a good thing for me. I know that pu-erh is supposed to boost metabolism or something but I’ve never noticed it until now.

Steep #3 // just boiled // 3 min
Still going as strong as the second steep, or should I say as sweet. No noticeable difference in flavor. Delicious but it doesn’t have that little something extra I love about pu-erh… and I don’t mean the pondiness. But that is missing too.

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox Round #3 – Tea #12
This one sounded like an interesting combination of ingredients! (And I could have used some happy today.) Upon opening the pouch it smells like super sweet strawberry. The blend itself looks like plain guayusa. I don’t miss the hibiscus.. hibiscus does NOT make me happy,in tea anyway… looking at those big gorgeous flowers is different! But the ripe candy strawberry is a really nice pairing with the guayusa flavors. I would have liked the apple and jasmine to make an appearance though. I’m saving a couple teaspoons of this one for later! Also, since this is guayusa I wouldn’t steep more than a teaspoon at a time.
Steep #1 // 10 min after boiling // 3 min

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox Round #3 – Tea #11
I’ve seen this one around Steepster and wanted to try it. Now with the wonder of tea boxes, I can! The flavor is very nice. I’m not sure how as it just looks like plain rooibos to me. A sweet lemon flavor with an equal flavor of meringue. I LOVE lemon meringue pie. The rooibos takes a backseat to this lovely flavor. It reminds me of those Della Terra blends I also love.
Steep #1 // just boiled // 3 min

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox Round #3 – Tea #10
This one happened to be in the teabox, even though I’ve tried a one serving sample before. I liked this better than I remember, but this time there were definitely apple bits in the blend… not sure if there were last time. Not a ton of apple flavor even with a ton of apples, but I think that is because all of the flavor is actually from the little roasted looking pieces of apple and not artificial flavoring. It’s a spicy apple tea on a green base. Still not my favorite from Bluebird but very good.
Steep #1 // 30 min after boiling// 2-3 min
Steep #2 // 30 min after boiling // 2-3 min

Thank you GoodLifeTea.com for another round of surprise samples! There are a couple I wanted to try just based on the names that recall some of my favorite teas and those were the couple I happened to receive. This tea IS like the other one, but to me it seems slightly different. There is an uncanny resemblance though. The black tea base is very nice with the flavors, though tough to describe as the flavors are so nice. It looks as gorgeous as it tastes with the dark red color of the mug. With the first steep there is mainly a very bright flavor at the front that shifts between lemon, orange, bergamot. Then there is a lovely berry flavor coming through, with a sweetness that sometimes seems like pastry, butter or vanilla. The second steep somehow seems to have MORE of these flavors. It’s like a bergamot berry pastry. I will say though that the Hot Cinnamon Spice that was sent along with this one seemed to give it a cinnamon flavor, so my tasting wasn’t as accurate as it should have been… even though I knew that was going to happen and removed Hot Cinnamon Spice from the others as soon as I got the samples. A REALLY delicious blend though. I’m not sure how they got this one so close to the other tea, as I think the black teas are different. I won’t say which one is better as I think it depends on a ton of different factors.
Steep #1 // few min after boiling // 3 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 min

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox Round #3 – Tea #9
This one actually does taste like red velvet cake, even if it uses some artificial to get there. But artificial and accurate is a good thing. It has a sweet syrupy flavor going on. The black tea itself is quite light though. The beets didn’t really make my cup redder than any black tea. The chocolate adds just a hint of chocolate, just like an actual red velvet. I like the flavor here, as it certainly fits the “cake tea” craving, probably more than most others I’ve tried.
Steep #1 // just boiled // 3-4min

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox Round #3 – Tea #8
The leaves have a reddish hint to them and they look chopped apart while not quite being CTC tea leaf size. I’m accustomed to any nilgiri tea having a much lighter flavor. This one isn’t so light! It has some substance, a breadiness, while still having a juicy flavor that hints to cherry. It’s nice! Maybe the smaller tea leaf gives this more flavor, rather than the typical longer leaf of nilgiri.
Steep #1 // 1 tsp // few min after boiling // 3-4 min
Steep #2 // half mug // just boiled // 4 min

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox Round #3 – Tea #7
Oh, happy to try this blend! It looks to be yabao which I don’t particularly love mixed with a black tea… I have no idea what else, but it seems like some spices. I used around two teaspoons, a few minutes after boiling for 3-4 minutes. The color of the cup is a very light brown. Really, I thought there would be more flavor than what there is. First, there is an odd flavor, I can’t tell from what… maybe the yabao. The black tea itself doesn’t give much flavor at all, certainly no smokiness. Otherwise, the flavor tastes faintly like a spice cake. I don’t hate the blend, but I wouldn’t care to keep it around. Maybe Verdant’s blends would get better reception if anyone actually knew what was in them. The blends are never on their website, the ingredients aren’t labeled on the bag, and really, the only hints are what Steepster accumulates on the tea pages for these Verdant blends.
Steep #1 // 2 tsps. // few min after boiling // 3-4 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 5 min