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Another from CrowKettle. Also, sipdown!

Dry, this tea smells like dusty floral sour dried apricots.

Steeped, the tea smells like floral sour dried apricots.

Honestly, I’m a little scared to take a sip.
…
Huh, that’s not bad. Not bad at all. It’s not sweet candy like many of the stone fruit teas I’ve had, but the flavour is pretty good. Definitely sour apricot or peach (I know, it’s supposed to be peach, but I like my peaches ripe and my apricots sour).

This one is really hard to describe, as it’s sort of sour dried apricot, but then not really. But I don’t know what it reminds me of other than that.

It didn’t go bitter or astringent like Marco Polo. The black base is delicate, yet present. I should have probably steeped 4 minutes, but I like 3 for unknown black teas.

I added a little milk and sugar like always (seriously a little. 1 tbsp creamer and 1/4 tsp sugar for a 20 oz mug). It works, but I think I’d like it better without the milk.

Definitely a tea I’d like to try again. Not buy… try.

My BFF came over for dinner before, err, swimming (yeah, we’ll call it swimming) tonight, and I made us this tea.

I’ve found it works best if you let it steep with a lid. If you don’t, the delicious licoricey basily spicy clovey taste of the tulsi (don’t worry, licorice haters, it’s not like licorice root!) disappears.

We both enjoyed a cup of this. I think I need more. Maybe even a tin! I haven’t found a tulsi tea without licorice and/or mint at a local shop yet…

Sipdown! (OH NOES! Now I need to go get more, and Steam is closed tomorrow!)

Anyways, I didn’t have enough for my travel cup so I added some Irish Breakfast. It worked! Yay! So good.

(Oh, and my tutor is impressed with how far I’ve come, and I should manage to pass the course, might even get a B if I don’t get tripped up with the simple things. Like algebra. Freaking algebra.)

So weird. This smells exactly like the gluten free carrot raisin muffins I just ate.

I mixed 1 tsp this with 1 tsp irish breakfast for a bit more of a kick. The flavour is intense enough that I could probably dilute it even more. Wow.

This one is pretty good, and I’m thinking I’d like to restock it as I’m already half way through!

This morning (technically it was still morning) I stood in front of my teas, going “eenie meenie miney moe”. This is the one I landed on, mostly because I have two tins of it – one from CrowKettle, and a sample tin from Shayne Bear. I want that sample tin free, since they’re the perfect size to bring 2 bags of tea with me in my purse. If I’m temping, I don’t want to be stuck with Lipton or Tetley! I’ve turned into such a tea snob…

Anyways, this is delicious and dessert-y and comforting as usual. I really do love the blend of spices, although I wonder what it was like fresh. :)

Another from CrowKettle!

Made this for my BFF tonight. She’s keeping me company while I struggle and swear through more math problems, so I thought I’d hydrate and caffeinate her!

I managed (somehow) to not oversteep this one, or use too hot of water! Yay! The citrus flavour is really neat, but I love yuzu so that’s to be expected.

It’s a super neat floral and delicate citrus, and I actually really like this one.

Thanks so much, Crowkettle!

Edit: As it’s cooled down to room temp it’s become bitter. Maybe 1:30??

Yum. I think I need to buy more of this tea.

That’s actually all I have to say. Time to get back to studying!!

So the notes on this one are that it’s a “floral and fruity black tea”. Again, from CrowKettle.

Dry, it doesn’t smell like much, but as soon as I added the water, the fruity and floral scents started coming through. More of a general berry scent, really. I can’t identify anything specific, although I’m holding out for strawberry flavours!

And I can already tell, just taking the basket out of my mug, that it’s oversteeped at 3 minutes with non-boiling water. Sigh. Foolish, finnicky teas.

Oh man. If I hadn’t almost ruined this cup I’d get strawberries. Not strong, and more the smell of growing strawberries – blossoms and ripening fruit – than the STRAWBERRY flavour I’m looking for in a black tea.

Hopefully I remember to steep for 2:30 next time. This has potential (But yeah. Really expensive.)

Another tea I missed trying after the Victoria tea meet. Again, from CrowKettle. Heh. I think I need to re-inventory my teas and start a “haven’t tried yet” box.

This tea is a sweet milky orange oolong. It’s not too vegetal from this first steep (yay!) and the milky flavour of the oolong goes so well with the orange.

I accidentally let my water cool for about 15 minutes, so the temperature wasn’t hot enough for the leaves to fully unfurl. However, it’s produced a really nice, light, orange flavoured cup.

It’s a bit of a toss-up between this one and Della Terra’s Orange Brulee. This one doesn’t have that dark sugary/caramel taste, and because of that I feel that it’s not nearly as sweet of an orange flavour.

I might try mixing them to see what I get. :)

Yep. Lighter in flavour, sweeter and a bit more floral than Black Manas by Teajo.

I still really like this one, but the other is more of a kick-in-the-pants morning tea for me. They both have a similar mouth-feel as far as astringency and bitterness at a 3 minute steep (which is incredibly minimal) but the Black Manas is thicker, somehow. I don’t get it.

Can you tell I was a coffee drinker? Heh. It seems like I’m looking for the strongest, non-roasty tasting black tea I can handle…