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Although I enjoy straight black tea, especially with meals, I’m not very good at identifying the different flavors and scents of various types and blends. Hoping that as I continue to try different teas, my palette will become more refined!

This particular black tea is different from any of the others I’ve tried so far from Great British Tea Store. Instead of the rich, malty flavor I’m used to, it has more of a sharp, assertive taste. It’s also quite astringent. With a splash of milk I did enjoy it, but I don’t think this is one I would re-purchase.

When I was growing up, my best friend had a mulberry tree in her backyard. I have such happy memories of summer days of picking those tart, juicy berries until our fingers and mouths were stained purple with juice! So I had high hopes that this tea would capture that flavor. To my disappointment, this sample didn’t taste like mulberries at all. To me, it had more of a floral scent and flavor with a slightly sour aftertaste. Not something I would drink again.

YUM!!! Thanks so much to carol who for sending me a sample of this…it is DELICIOUS! The dry leaf smells like chocolate-covered raspberries. It steeps up to a rich, dark brew and has a fantastic rich, full-bodied flavor. To me, the chocolate is most prominent, but I also taste the raspberry and just a hint of nuttiness. Sweet and flavorful and the perfect high-caffeine pick-me-up!

I’m not going to rate this, because I lost track of time and over-steeped it. But I will say that I didn’t smell or taste even a hint of butterscotch in this sample. It just tasted like a mediocre, fairly bitter black tea.

Teavana’s fruity teas tend to be a bit hit and miss for me, but this one is definitely a hit! It has a delightful fruity aroma and a delicious, naturally sweet flavor. To me, the pineapple note is stronger than the berry flavors, but it’s a great combination.

This was the one that started it all…the very first loose leaf tea I ever tried! And although I’ve sampled many others since, it remains a staple in my collection. It has a delightfully sweet, smooth vanilla flavor with a nice bit of depth to it. And since it’s caffeine-free, it makes the perfect comforting bedtime blend. One of my favorites!

This tea is a pleasantly smooth oolong with a silky mouth feel and just a hint of mild peach flavor. I wish the peach were a bit stronger, but I’m really enjoying this one overall!

This smells so good…just like Andes Candies! But once I brewed it, the chocolate disappeared and all I could smell or taste was the peppermint. It was a nice smooth, cool mint flavor, but I really wanted to be able to taste the chocolate. Also, I know rooibos tends to be very fine, but this stuff is like powder! I used an infuser with very fine holes, but still ended up with a ton of residue in my cup. A disappointment overall. But since I have a whole tin to finish, I’m thinking about adding extra chocolate to it and seeing if I can salvage it that way.

Such a disappointment! This smelled delicious, like a strawberry kiwi fruit salad, and there are chunks of real dried fruit in the tin. It brews up to a pretty red color and still smells pretty good. But the hibiscus completely overwhelms all the other flavors! If I concentrate really hard, I can detect a tiny bit of strawberry, but no kiwi at all. It is also unpleasantly tart. Maybe it would be better sweetened? I’ll have to try that, since I have an entire 4oz tin!

I was dubious about trying this when the clerk at Teavana recommended it. In the tin, it smells just like a creamsicle and I was nervous that it would have an unpleasant artificial flavor like some of the other Teavana teas I’ve tried. But this one was absolutely delicious! It brews up to a beautiful orange-red color and keeps the strong creamy orange scent. The flavor is a nice balance of citrus and coconut with a hint of creaminess. And it is surprisingly sweet, even without sugar! This was my favorite iced tea this summer.