Mercuryhime select Send Message

I got this unexpected bonus pouch of tea in my swap with DJBooth! Thanks!

I had a Tiramisu rooibos from California Tea House once and wasn’t too impressed by it. I didn’t expect to be impressed by this one either. The first thing I notice is this roasty coffee-ish taste. Then a strong woody rooibos. Then the oddly fruity amaretto and a hint of cocoa. Hmm… Someone needs to tell Teavana that a large part of tiramisu’s deliciousness is in the creamy marscapone. This tea needs to be creamy! Maybe a hint of vanilla could simulate creaminess here. Perhaps a pinch of vanilla honeybush. Too bad I’m long out of that particular tea. :(

Good evening cup. I think the husband might find this enjoyable as a latte.

What an interesting tea! I didn’t expect it to be brown when brewed because the unbrewed leaves were so green! I love the little bits of shaved white chocolate. I’m very tempted to just eat one. Matcha covered white chocolate…mmmmm… My wedding cake was white chocolate covered matcha. Is this wedding cake tea? If it tasted like almond, it would be, but it tastes like hazelnuts instead.
I love the toasty nutty flavor. The matcha is in the background, but it adds a smooth rich flavor to an otherwise, one dimensional flavor. The white chocolate gives it a sweetness. It’s very tasty even though I totally over steeped it.
Thanks DJBooth!

Is this review kinda discombobulated? I’m sleepy. :)

What a cute little tea nub! I was a bit apprehensive about the pu-erh, but it’s hard to be nervous about something so harmless looking. You see, I’ve never had pu-erh before, or so I thought. Yet, the flavor is very familiar to me. It tastes like a Chinese tea house. Perhaps I have had pu-erh unknowingly because it tastes like the tea I used to get in dim sum houses. When I was young, my grandparents used to delight in taking me and my sister for “yum cha,” on weekends. It’s the Chinese version of brunch. There’s tea and greasy foods that are horrible for you. (Egg tarts!) I never paid much attention to what sort of tea my elders ordered when we ate at those dim sum places. What a young fool I was. I used to dislike tea, but I think it’s just because tea is brewed so carelessly in dim sum restaurants. I always enjoyed it when jasmine or chrysanthemum was on the table though. Flowers are tasty. Usually, some unknown dark tea was served. That tea tastes like this tea. I guess it must have been pu-erh. So all this time, I’ve been nervous for nothing. I’ve been drinking pu-erh since I was little.

I hear it’s recommended to discard the first steep, but I decided to take a taste before dumping it. hmm…not bad. Seems a waste to toss it out. I do prefer the second steep though. It tastes like rich leafy earth. It also tastes like weekends with my grandparents and other family. It brings me to crowded noisy restaurants with grouchy ladies pushing hot carts of food around. And pink table cloths. There are so many memories in this flavor. It feels wrong to drink it alone in the privacy of my home. I feel like taking my grandparents out for dim sum. My, usually, mild and jovial grandpa will fight you like a tiger for the check.

If I don’t drink pu-erh ever again, it won’t be because I don’t like it, but because I don’t want my associations with the flavor of this tea to change.

Anyway, I think I’m too emotionally attached to this tea to rate it objectively or even think about it in terms of flavor too much. Over all though, I think it’s pretty good. :)

I am very disappointed. Very. I believed this to be the reincarnation of a Specialteas tea that I thought had disappeared forever. I was wrong. Teavana took the idea of this lost tea and made it something bad…then gave it a silly name. How could you do this to me, Teavana? I feel so betrayed.

The basic ingredients are the same as Specialteas’ Spicy Chocolate, but the proportions are way off. Waaaay off! And even before I compared the ingredients of the two teas, I can see where Teavana went wrong. too much chicory root and not enough cinnamon. I am unreasonably upset. Probably because I had such high hopes. Sigh. My cup smells like medicinal tea. That aside, it is lightly chocolatey and a bit spicy, but mostly, it’s chicory. I think I’ll prepare the tea differently next time and see if it’s better. I used the chai stovetop method this time, which worked on Spicy Chocolate, but not this.

Unfortunately, I bought two pounds of this at 75% off, thinking I had struck gold. Sooo, in light of my stellar reviews, anyone want to swap?

Edit: a lot of sugar and a splash of almond milk makes this palatable. I guess I can drink this…

Ok, so I went for the third steep after all. I needed something to wash down the cake I just ate for breakfast. :D

Steep 3: Actually much better. Steeped with cooler water. Less vegetal and more floral. Buttery is fading to plain milky creamy.

I awoke at around 5 and couldn’t get back to sleep. Tired. :( I got up around 7 and set about searching for a tea that would satisfy my craving for something sweet and creamy. This is the last of my milk oolong samples from Tea from Taiwan. It’s taken me forever to get through them, but I like variety.

Steep 1: Lightly flavored. Vegetal and buttery. I’m getting bok choy. It seems the oolongs from Tea from Taiwan are often like bok choy and cooked watercress. Which is ok, since these are some of my favorite vegetables.

Steep 2: Buttery vegetables are more upfront now. A hint of flowers of some sort. There’s a drying effect on my tongue.

Odd, I’m not really enjoying this. I don’t really want to go for steep 3 even though the leaves have plenty more to give. Perhaps my recent fascination with dancongs is ruining me for other oolongs. I also can’t really discern the difference between this and many of the other oolongs from this vendor. I do think a couple stood out as really tasty, but this is not one of them.

ah well, maybe I’m in a hot chocolate kind of mood. Or chai.

I’m doing such a bad job at reviewing my samples from Teavivre. I’m sorry! I just wanted to try them when I stopped craving flavored stuff. Well, today I had a very clear craving for unadulterated green tea, so here we are. I actually fantasized about japanese green tea on the train home, but I don’t have any on stock, so Chinese green it is! The two are very different, as I"m sure you all know.

This one has adorable little fuzzy leaves. They looked so soft and downy, I just wanted to pet them instead of drink them. It’s evident how young these little leaves are. Even after brewing, they remain itty bitty. Quite possibly the cutest tea I’ve ever had.

As with the other green teas, I’ve tried from Teavivre, this one is very umami. It’s less toasty and more grainy. The mouthfeel smooth and a bit creamy, despite the drying effect. This brewed up very light colored for me, but the flavor is perfect. Not too strong or too weak. This tea also has a caffeine kick to it. I have half a cup remaining and I’m wondering if I’ll get to sleep tonight. I should have known this would happen when I saw how little the leaves were, but I really craved a good green tea. ah well. It’s worth it. Sleep is for the weak!

Overall, yummy tea! I’ll just file this one away with the “morning only” teas. :)

The rooibos is strong in this one. Perhaps I oversteep my rooiboses. In any case, I found the apricot to be mild. The flavor seems artificial and chemical-y. Like lip balm. This is the second 52teas to taste like lip balm to me. Am I the only one? I barely taste the cinnamon. Overall, a bit disappointing. I think I’ll steep the remainder of my sample for less time and see if it’s better.

Now I’m in the mood for a good Japanese green.

Thanks for letting me try this Uniquity! That’s another 52teas flavor crossed off my list.

I was both hopeful and not hopeful about this one. I love chocolate, but nothing tastes quite right without real chocolate on it. It turns out that I was right to be wary. This tastes like chocolate flavoring with a hint of light cinnamon. It’s not bad. Actually a bit soothing, but I was hoping for more realistic chocolate taste from something called “Super Chocolate.”.

You know what’s great, though? Hold a piece of mint chocolate in your mouth and take a sip of this tea hot. Mmmmm.

Had this tea in a thermos to accompany me to work yesterday. It was pretty good. The taste was like craisins. I think the flavoring was neither too strong nor too light. And the rooibos wasn’t too woody or medicinal. I’d say this is a good rooibos base. Green rooibos is still my favorite for fruity flavors though.