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And thank you to Ost for sending me a sampling of this tea.

An excellent Assam. Full flavored and robust. This is the kind of tea you want to reach for on the mornings when you can’t shake the sleepy because this will do it for you.

Malty, rich, delicious notes of dark chocolate and honeyed caramel. A really nice, bold tea.

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This is the first White Two Tea offering that I’ve tried. I found it to be quite nice. The earthiness of it was rather subtle, which I appreciated.

Earliest infusions were sweet and mellow. The earthiness of this pu-erh is perhaps the most pleasant earthy taste that I’ve yet to experience in a pu-erh. This has a flavor of a mushroom. It’s not briny or fishy. It’s smooth, not bitter, and not astringent.

Later infusions became deeper in flavor but still pleasantly sweet, mellow and smooth. The sweetness develops into a caramel-y like flavor that I loved, and then with later infusions, it became more like molasses (loved that too!)

In later infusions, I also picked up on some raw cacao notes and hints of mineral. There was also a slight citrus-y tangy note.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/12/27/1997-light-green-7582-private-order-pu-erh-tea-from-white-two-tea/

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OK, I want to start this tasting note by saying that if you haven’t already, please check out this note about my ‘take over’ of 52Teas (don’t worry, it’s a friendly take over!) – http://sororiteasisters.com/2015/01/23/the-great-52teas-take-over/ – and I hope that you’ll consider helping me with my kickstarter campaign!

Anyway … I enjoyed this tea. 52Teas offered a lot of apple-y teas this past autumn/winter season and while I think that my favorite was the Apple Oatmeal one with the Darjeeling Oolong because that was seriously yum, this was still pretty tasty.

It’s pleasantly sweet without additives, it has a nice apple note and a zesty note of cinnamon that doesn’t overwhelm the cup. I like the light nutty tones of the honeybush and the hint of honeyed taste from the honeybush in this – it’s a really nice complement to the flavors.

When I drank it warm, it reminded me of apple cider. I didn’t like this as much as it cooled though. It’s much better hot.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/12/26/cinnamon-apple-honeybush-from-52teas/

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Quite yummy!

As I said in my full-length review of this tea – http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/12/26/pomegranate-san-francisco-tea-from-culinary-teas/ – this tea won me over before I even started brewing it. The aroma of the dry leaf is so lovely, it evokes thoughts of walking into a candy shop.

The pomegranate is sweet and tart, and I love the way the fruit notes play with the notes of vanilla and chocolate. The overall prevailing note is sweet, but some tart notes weave their way in and out. The black tea has a nice malty tone to it, and it’s a pleasant flavor: smooth and full-flavored.

As the tea cools, I pick up on more chocolate (and more chocolate = better). The chocolate and vanilla together create a very luscious creamy experience.

This is a really yummy tea.

Backlog:

This is the first tea that I tried from my 9th edition box from Postal Teas. I was a little dismayed that it was all herbals. I will drink herbals, and I enjoy them. But I don’t think that I’ve found an herbal that I enjoy as much as I enjoy camellia sinensis. There are times though, that herbals are preferred over camellia sinensis if for no other reason than the fact that I don’t need more caffeine.

So yeah, I was dismayed by the 9th edition box. Herbals.

My first couple of sips of this tea were bittersweet – and a bit more emphasis on the bitter than the sweet. To tame this, I suggest (as does Algonquin) a dollop of honey. Honey makes this much more drinkable.

This is very herbaceous. Bittersweet. Almost medicinal.

On the plus side: there is a nice floral note to this that emerges as it cools slightly. (Take note though, don’t let it cool too much, this is much better consumed while hot.) Interestingly enough, I was happy to discover the chamomile in this.

That’s gotta tell you something if I think that the chamomile is a redeeming quality of the tea.

That said, I didn’t hate this. I just didn’t love it.

In my full-length review – http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/12/25/peace-tea-from-the-algonquin-tea-co/ – I point out the pros and cons of this tea:

pro: No hibiscus! Nice notes of citrus and a touch of mint. The citrus and mint are my favorite flavors of this. The chamomile is nice too.

con: a strong bitter note. Very herbaceous.

This would taste better if it embraced the citrus and mint a bit more.

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This past year, I tried a lot of different “Pumpkin Spice” chai teas … and I think of all that I tried, this one was my favorite. This one was really OUTSTANDING among the many pumpkin-y chai teas. In fact, as I proclaim in my full-length review of this tea: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/12/25/pumpkin-spice-chai-from-the-tea-spot/ it’s the best pumpkin chai tea I’ve ever had.

The pumpkin is prominent in both the aroma and the flavor. It really smells and tastes like pumpkin. Like real pumpkin. It tastes like someone scooped out the filling of a pumpkin pie, liquefied it and poured it into a cup of Assam tea and added some spices. It tastes very true to the squash.

The spices are flavorful and strong without becoming overly spicy. Sure, I love a bold, spicy chai but when there’s another flavor involved – in this case, obviously, pumpkin – you don’t want the spices so powerful that they overthrow the pumpkin flavor. The Tea Spot has achieved the perfect balance between spice and pumpkin-y flavor, and neither of these elements overpowers the Assam tea base which is rich and malty.

A really delightful pumpkin chai!

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I have really enjoyed the teas that I’ve tried from this Etsy company. I’ve especially enjoyed the seasonal teas they offered this past holiday season (I think most, if not all are still available) because they’re so different from the ‘normal’ holiday selection of teas.

And this one is truly unique: Mint is a common ‘holiday’ ingredient, but here the mint is quite different with the addition of licorice. These two ingredients work in an interesting way – the licorice seems to ‘change’ the flavor of the mint, making it taste more candy-like than like mouthwash. This sweet, candy-like flavor is further enhanced by the vanilla notes.

The black tea is full-flavored and rich. It has that hefty quality that I like in a black tea.

Everything comes together in a very tasty way.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/12/24/white-vanilla-peppermint-black-tea-from-mks-tea-company/

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I like the cotton candy flavoring with the honeybush base. I’m not getting a strong ‘nutty’ or earthy flavor from the honeybush, just that lightly sweet, honeyed flavor and that melds nicely with the candy floss flavor. It tastes like fluffy, sweet cotton candy. A pitcher full of yum.

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Of the four teas that were in the December Amoda Box, I think that this one was my favorite. Or at least, it was the most memorable for me as I sit here and type this out. I really like the combination of ginger and cream. The sweet, creamy notes soften the spicy ginger to create a sweet-yet-spicy combination that I really LOVE. The Assam is rich and flavorful – the perfect base for this. The malt plays well with the cream notes to create an almost caramel-y experience. The ginger adds a lovely spice note.

So good.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/12/22/ginger-cream-black-tea-from-aromatica-fine-teas/

Backlog:

One of the reasons that I love 52Teas so much is that the idea behind it allows for some very creative blends. Where else are you going to find a tea company create a blend like this? That’s why I want to keep 52Teas alive and buy it from Frank so that I can keep creating unique tea flavors.

Regarding this tea – there’s a lot going on! This tea definitely benefits from a cooling period. When it’s still piping hot, the flavors are a bit muddled and it’s difficult to really taste any of them distinctly, but after allowing it to cool a while, the flavors become more focused. I was actually surprised that I could taste all the flavors: pumpkin, apple, banana and a freshly baked cake type of flavor. I wish I tasted more of the baked cake-y flavor, but the pumpkin, apple and banana do come through nicely.

The black tea base is also pleasant. I didn’t notice any bitterness or astringency. Overall, not my favorite from 52Teas but it was definitely tasty and it delivered what it promised.