tea-sipper select Send Message

Another from the traveling tea box! Thanks for including it, Alphakitty! This one is such a different mixture! Oolong, jasmine and almond! Honestly, I think these flavors combine to make its own flavor. I couldn’t really pick the elements out of this one. It’s very different from any other tea I’ve had! The nearest thing it reminds me of is probably darjeeling, even though they are two very different types of tea.

Another one from the traveling tea box. Thanks! Maybe something is off with my taste buds today, but I wasn’t getting anything at all here. It certainly tastes like rooibos to me. But it had a flavor that kind of reminds me of plastic grocery store bags… which sounds terrible but isn’t.. maybe edible grocery store bags? I’m sad I wasn’t finding any apricot or vanilla. I love red rooibos but green rooibos, not so much for some reason. Maybe that’s the culprit. This is funny but TeaEqualsBliss included this in the teabox and her Adagio custom blend that she sent me a while back that has rooibos apricot & vanilla is much much tastier! It’s funny that this one reminded me of that one!

Another from the traveling tea box! thanks for including this one, TeaEqualsBliss! I loved the other Foojoy oolong that I tried before, so I wanted to try this one! I steeped it for 90 seconds. (It’s hard to tell with these Foojoy… the other one is supposed to steep for 30 seconds but they don’t really say on their site). So I taste tested as I steeped, and it seemed to get BUTTERY at 90 seconds. This is definitely a buttery oolong, first and foremost! And a little bit vegetal. And I don’t mean a milk oolong, but butter. This isn’t really a floral or peachy oolong either. The second steep is even better after letting the water cool and steeping for two minutes or so. Still has that buttery flavor, just even butterier and sweeter. I think this is the most consistent buttery oolong I’ve had.

Another from the traveling teabox! TeaEqualsBliss included this one, thanks! The leaves here are so DARK. But somehow the flavor of the black tea isn’t. It doesn’t steal the spotlight from the cinnamon. It’s a lot like Harney’s Hot Cinnamon Sunset. The cinnamon is super sweet but the Harney’s has three types of cinnamon or something, so it’s a cinnamon triple threat. Like the Harney’s it’s almost tough to tell that it is a black tea. The cinnamon kind of overpowers it, but I love it that way. I was also smelling a hint of orange in the dry leaves, but there wasn’t much in the taste. I think I’ll take a bit of this out of the tea box to add to my stash and add Harney’s for comparison! I really like both of them!

This was from the traveling teabox! SO FUN to get this!! I’ll be taste testing a bunch of them while I have the box. This was one of Alphakitty’s favorites, so I had to try it. I think I’m getting the white tea heebies from this one. White tea is my least favorite. The bergamot flavor is okay but there isn’t too much cream flavor here for me. In my opinion, earl grey creams are best with black tea, but I’m willing to try earl grey anything!

I decided to combine these two teas! I think they both helped each other out. Basically 3/4 a teaspoon of the catuaba and filled the rest of my dipper infuser with the berries. Not terrible! The flavor of the woodchip like catuaba combined really well with the tangy berries to even out the flavor. I can’t really say how it will affect my energy levels, since I already had two cups of caffeine teas today.

I’m sipping this one now, thanks to Yssah buying some Ovation teas for a ton of people. I ended up buying four ounces of this, hoping it was delicious! It is! And it looks like I’m the first to write a tasting note. It’s exactly what I look for in a lovely black tea. Well, sometimes they are nice brisk. This one is sweet, smooth, a bit malty. I was hoping it would compare to Golden Moon’s Sinharaja that I adore, and it is the most similar tea I’ve had to that one, but I really love the flavor of the Golden Moon. That one has a great maltiness to it, and a fuller flavor. (Though I didn’t steep this one quite at boiling, so maybe that would help next time.) This one has a nice lingering flavor. I’m VERY happy with this one. It will be my go-to black tea! I can’t wait to try other Ovation teas that I have on the way. It’s very sad Ovation went out of business!

Additional notes: Sipdown of my sample. I just wanted to mention my original note might not have been fair… maybe I don’t know what to expect with a purple tea. The tea isn’t bitter, like I mentioned in my other review, but it is a bit tangy. I guess I just expect it to be smoother with the blueberry flavor. It’s good… but my palate might not be understanding it!

Additional notes: I wanted to try this one again with Della Terra’s suggested brew time of four minutes… but I think it went to five. It still has an odd flavor while I am sipping it hot, but it does taste better as it cools. Maybe cold brewing would be better? Somehow it tastes sweeter when cold, but not as sweet as it should will the candy thingies and sugar crystals in it. I had at least one fruit chunk in my infuser – it was apricot and I ate it. :D I’ll up the rating, but it still isn’t my favorite from DT. (Original rating 71)

Thanks so much Kasumi no Chajin, for another sample… this one! The dry leaves smelled so powerful, I thought it was the packaging of the bag. All the pu-erh I have tried (not many) have had such a light flavor, definitely lighter than black teas. I always thought they were nice bases for other flavors. After steeping for three minutes, this one tastes just as it smells. It’s tough to describe. It seems chalky and dusty to me, but not something that isn’t tasty. I don’t seem to hate this as much as others do. I didn’t get much of a chocolate or coconut flavor (and I think caramel would have been a better fit, really.) I had three steeps (3,4,5 minutes) and they all had consistent flavor. But this one is interesting and different. I like it. I’m still wondering why this pu-erh has such a strong flavor… I guess I’ll just chalk it up (oh crap, I really didn’t mean the pun intended) to The Tea Merchant having such stellar flavors with their teas. Though I’ve only tried two others, they are delicious.