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This is a swap sample, I believe from Kawaii433. I wonder how she’s doing… Thanks for the sample, lady!

I steeped it Western-style, about 2 or 3 teaspoons for my mug. The leaves are huge and twisty, so it’s hard to measure by anything but eye.

This is mighty tasty! Very sweet and roasty, reminiscent of a mellow houjicha. There are light honey and sticky dried fruit notes that make me think of figs or dates. And a comforting gentle autumn leaf pile flavor that makes this a perfect tea for fall…

Ahhh…

I have plenty of houjicha at the moment so I don’t feel the need to rush out and order this one, but I will definitely put it on the list for the future.

I completely forgot about this one yesterday when I was craving an orange spice blend. How can that be?! My apologies, friend Vlad. I was reminded of you when I was on the Kusmi website this morning, ordering the advent calendar.

This tea is about two years old, so not quite fresh, but still has some good flavor. The orange is perhaps more subdued than it once was, but still has a nice zesty, essential oil sort of flavor. The spice is mostly clove, as is common with orange & spice teas. The bergamot is very light, I guess he’s a bit shy.

Still tasty. Oh Kusmi, how I love your Russian blends. I could never decide between them, which is how I ended up with four tins… (Ahem.)

This is a swap sample, I think it came from VariaTEA? If not, I’m sorry to whoever it was! XD

I love my Teavivre Fengqing dragon pearls, so I’m excited to try this version. I used all of the pearls for my mug – I think it was 6? I didn’t want to be left with any sad abandoned pearls!

This is definitely different from the Teavivre version. It’s lighter, with some musty hay notes that remind me of white tea. There’s a bit of honey here too, rather than cocoa. The bread is there, but is more of a supporting flavor. And I taste a hint of a metallic earthy mineral note. Some raisin starts to poke its head out in the aftertaste, and as the tea cools.

Overall, it’s yummy and still very satisfying for breakfast. However, I do prefer my existing black dragon pearls. Which is good, because they are probably cheaper and this one is out of stock! Thanks VariaTEA for the share, sorry it’s taken me so long to get to it!

I pulled this one out to refresh my memory after talking with Courtney about this company earlier. Their winter seasonal blends are available now, and I’m planning on ordering a couple of things so I figured I would see how this is faring.

I really love this one. I will admit, it’s a bit annoying because the honeybush and apple pieces separate (as one would expect). So it can be fiddly determining the amount of apple to put in when steeping it.

The apple flavor is fairly light here anyway, because there is no added flavoring so it’s just up to the dried apple pieces. The cinnamon is delicious and sweet, and the honeybush base really does create the taste of pie crust or crumble for me. So it ends up being a lovely caffeine-free apple pie tisane, or maybe apple crostata or tart since the apple is lighter than the other flavors.

Nom nom nom. Bumping the rating. Do I need more…? It’s only available once a year…

I’m not sure how to feel about this one.

There is some banana, and it’s perfectly pleasant. But I feel like it’s not enough banana, and the base tea is quite grassy and blah. I also don’t really taste any cocoa, though there were several shells in my brew basket.

I would say maybe it’s aged poorly, but I wasn’t terribly impressed with it when I tried it fresh either. I will say the licorice root, which I’m not usually a fan of, does give a nice little kick of sweetness at the end of the sip.

I have one more serving left of this one, perhaps I’ll try it with a lower temperature a longer steep to see if I can minimize the base tea and bring out more of the flavors.

Another of the tagalongs from my Dammann advent order. I’m not sure what possessed me to choose this one, I’m not one to order a plain peach black tea. I do enjoy peach, I just find it boring I suppose? Plus I already had a plum/peach tea in my order. It must have been the mention of apricot that drew me in!

The flavor here is somewhat light, but I’m really enjoying it in this case. The beginning of the sip is mostly the base tea, smooth and woody with a bit of malt. The peach starts appearing in the middle, and then I’m left with a lovely true-to-life peach flavor in my mouth at the end and in the aftertaste. It’s somewhere between fresh and stewed peach, a nice combination of the two. I think I taste some apricot, but honestly it’s hard to distinguish from the peach flavor. The woodiness of the base tea combined with the sweetness creates a suggestion of vanilla, even though none is there.

A lovely tea with a restrained peachy flavor, perfect for the afternoon. I can imagine this being served at a tea party, accompanied by scones and teacakes. I hope someday all of us Steepsterites can come together for a fancy tea party weekend or something!

I figured after my disappointing non-orange orange spice experience earlier, I would have this spicy tea to make up for it. Apple spice is close enough, and this tea isn’t as old so I knew it would still be yummy.

I couldn’t tell you why I like this tea so much, it is so sweet and I never sweeten my teas. It’s essentially Red Hots in a cup, unabashedly full of cinnamon candy sugariness. But I guess because it’s so candylike, it gets away with being a sugar bomb for me?

I’m not getting much apple from this cup, but I did just have Thai curry for dinner so it’s possible my taste buds are a little overtaxed at the moment. So it’s basically Hot Cinnamon Spice this time, which is equally yummy.

Comforting Red Hot cinnamon candy sugar bomb tea! Very fallish.

I figured since my other TeaSource blend had aged so poorly, I would try this one as well to see how it’s doing.

The orange is gone here as well, but luckily it still has a lovely creamy hazelnut flavor. It’s almost as if I’d added almond milk to the cup! I saw some clove in the leaf, but luckily I don’t taste it. It makes sense with orange but would be an odd combination with the flavor left here. So I’ll happily finish the remainder of this as a yummy creamy nut tea!

This one is definitely a bit past its prime.

I know at one point this was an orange spice sort of tea, but now it just tastes like clove with a bit of cinnamon mixed in. I’m not the biggest fan of clove to begin with, so I don’t see any reason to keep the remainder around.

Sorry, tea! At least you were inexpensive.

I should look into getting another orange and spice type of tea, it is a lovely combination.
Any recommendations?

This is such an odd tea, but I like it…

I definitely get the biscuit, and I get caramel – I assume from the fenugreek? I’m not sure I really get chocolate, perhaps a hint if I really look for it. And the cardamom is such a strange addition, with nothing to do with the inspiration.

And yet, I like it. I suspect I might like it even more without the cardamom, but you can’t always get what you want. ;)