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I really should have looked at my previous note before steeping this… This tea is such a diva, it comes out fairly bitter and astringent with my usual (rather conservative) black tea parameters.

Even with the bitterness, I quite enjoy this one. It’s such a bright combination of citrus and still tastes lovely even though it’s a few years old at this point. The strongest notes are the orange and tangerine, and the grapefruit adds a nice bit of sharpness. I don’t taste the jasmine at all, but it’s possible it’s lost in my deplorable preparation. :P

I think I’ll leave the tin out on the counter, and hopefully tomorrow I’ll manage to steep this properly! Sorry, tea.

This one has a lost a bit of its luster with age.

It’s blander than it used to be, with a very light banana flavor on an unremarkable base. It does still have a pleasing creamy quality to it that reminds me of banana pudding. Perhaps a hint of cocoa in the aftertaste? The chocolate was never very apparent to begin with.

Ah well, I don’t feel too bad about neglecting it so, as there were only a couple of cups’ worth left anyway…

…what a weird tea this is.

It sounds good in theory, I love plum and enjoy bergamot. But the plum here is very odd and candylike, and a bit chalky. The bergamot and clove combination becomes very perfumey.

Overall, it’s a weird artificial and medicinal mix and the rest of the sample is getting tossed. A shame, this was one of their teas that I was most interested in.

This was another of my Adagio mini tin residents. I find those tiny tins useful for storing opened sample packets without worrying about taping them or something. It doesn’t say what year the harvest was, but the “best by” date is in late 2018, so I’m guessing it was a 2017 harvest? This was the end of the sample, so I only steeped it for 2 minutes because of the more broken leaves.

Such a yummy and comforting green tea! It has a very creamy, sweet, and smooth flavor with corn and edamame notes. There’s also a lovely grainy quality that makes me think of raw oats. At the end of the sip, a little apricot pokes its head out, and there’s a very slight astringency that accentuates it with a feeling of fuzzy skin on my tongue.

This is a great green tea to keep around, and I’m sure it was that much tastier when it was fresh. I’ll be sure to add it to my wishlist to be restocked at a later date! I’m being a bit conservative on the rating for now, since I’m just coming back to tea and this isn’t fresh.

Tea of the morning!

This is such a yummy tea, it’s like Yunnan and Taiwanese black teas had a baby. It has those lovely thick sweet potato and bread notes that I love from Yunnan teas, but also the rich honey and dried fruit flavors of a Taiwanese tea.

Such a rich and flavorful, but light and easy-drinking tea without the slightest hint of bitterness or astringency.

Perfect for a lazy breakfast in a mug. Nom nom nom.

Still making my way through my B&B backlog… This was my caffeine-free selection last night.

I admit, I am not a red rooibos lover. So perhaps I’m a bit biased, but I really did not get anything cake-like from this blend. It was perhaps slightly sweet, and I got a hint of some form of red fruit or berry rather than dessert. The rooibos itself wasn’t that bad, not overly medicinal or strong.

But still, it was mostly just rooibos. Meh.

Another tea from last night’s Steepster meltdown.

This was much better than I remember it being previously. I actually got a very recognizable vanilla cream note, which I often struggle to find in Earl Grey cream blends. The bergamot was strong enough to stand up, but not perfumey and it still let the vanilla shine. Overall a tasty cuppa!

This is probably the best Earl Grey cream blend I’ve had so far, as I almost always find myself dissatisfied with the lack of vanilla/cream notes. Good on you, B&B!

I had this tea last night, but wasn’t able to post since Steepster was having issues.

This is a mix of black tea and houjicha, which was intriguing to me. However, I found myself not enjoying it because the houjicha autumn leaf flavor felt very discordant with the dessert-y marzipan black tea combination. Although thinking about it, a marzipan-flavored dry leaf doesn’t sound particularly appealing… XD

I think I might have liked this one if it were either a darker roasted houjicha or perhaps a houji-kukicha, which would have been more sweet and less leafy. Ah well, you can’t love them all! I’m glad I got the chance to try a sampler packet.

I was reminded that I had purchased this tea and never tried it when I saw a note from amandastory516. I’ve enjoyed all the teas I’ve had from Andrews & Dunham, so I’m not sure why this one got left out in the cold! Poor little thing.

It looks to be a mix of darker, smaller leaf and larger, golden-tipped Yunnan teas. Dry scent is very earthy. I saw the recommendation to steep in boiling water for 5 minutes and promptly ignored it for my own preferred parameters, because I’m arrogant like that. :P Maybe I’ll try their parameters in the future, just to compare.

I find this tea to be pleasant enough, but unremarkable. And really, in my experience with A&D, they do generally make very reliable, daily-drinking sort of teas. But in this tea’s case, I think it has a slight disadvantage, as I have tried many Yunnan teas in the past.

The dominant note here is a very mineral, earthy flavor, with a hint of smokiness behind it. I get a bit of wood and tobacco as well, which are nice complements to the main flavor. There’s perhaps a hint of dried fruit, like raisin or date, in the aftertaste.

I tend to love bready and sweet potato-y Yunnan teas, and I’m not really getting either of those notes here. For darker Chinese blacks, I prefer Fujian varieties. So this one just misses the mark for me a little as it’s fairly one-note without a ton of depth to it.

Ah well, it’s not bad! Just also not great in my opinion, especially compared to other Yunnan teas I enjoy.

Time for a caffeine-free selection! Still making my way through this Bird & Blend packet backlog – I’m not sure if this is from the subscription or one of many samples I bought at some point. This smells lovely in the bag, very apple crumble!

I’m actually surprised how much I like this, since I’m quite picky about red rooibos tisanes. I don’t even mind the small amount of hibiscus! The flavor is a little thin, as always with fruit-based tisanes. But it has a nice cooked-yet-tart apple flavor and the perfect amount of cinnamon to complement it. I don’t feel the hibiscus is needed, but at least it doesn’t overstep its bounds, as it is wont to do. There’s not explicitly a pastry flavor, but it does go to a nice apple crumble sort of place.

I’ll have to consider this one for a restock when I get around to ordering from B&B again. It’s always nice to have more caffeine-free options! :)