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I received this generous sample from Teajo Teas (whee!).

This tea is very strong and hearty, and very different from the other Assams in my cupboard. Sticking my nose into the package and taking a big whiff, this is the smell I associate with a strong black tea! The Hathikuli Estate Assam I have from Steam Tea House is more floral and sweeter, while the Assam Mangalam from Zen Tea doesn’t smell nearly as strong as either.

Brewed, I immediately added 1/4 tsp sugar to my 16 oz mug, as well as a splash of soy creamer. The tea is strong with a very mild dryness and no bitterness. This is a breakfast tea for me, rather than an afternoon tea. I hope it does well in a travel mug!

I think my favourite is still the Hathikuli Estate Assam, but the Black Manas is a close second in my sampling of 3 Assam teas! Not really representative, so that must mean I need to try more teas.

(I definitely want to try some flavoured teas now. From what I understand, their flavoured teas have this base. Wow! That is definitely up my alley.)

From CrowKettle (I swear I’m randomly grabbing teas from my sample box!).

Bitter nut note, indeed. However, there is some toffee flavour, and the chocolate flavouring is actually good in this tea! Yay! In my mind, it does need milk and a little sugar to offset the bitter nut (My first thought was that something was wrong with the hazelnut in my brew basket, but maybe not.). The tea base is nice and a little toasty which goes well with the idea of toasted nuts and toffee. Not necessarily one I’d rush out to buy, but I do like it and I appreciate the opportunity to try it!

I’ll have to try it as a latte once I get more almond milk.

(Edit. It smells strongly of toffee once it significantly cools, but it doesn’t taste strongly of toffee. Huh.)

I needed something without caffeine, and an eenie-meenie-miney-moe through my non-caffeinated tea box came up with this one.

I love the flavour, even though I don’t love the rooibos. Heh. Something to drink to the very end, but I will think long and hard about reordering.

Second tasting note under the right tea!

I came home from work/school to spend another exciting 4 hours doing work. Yay!

So of course the first thing I did was make tea.

This is pretty good, I did a 2 minute steep with almost boiling water, 2 tsp leaves and a 16 oz mug. Something tastes a little off tonight, but that could be me (4.5 hours sleep! WHEE!), or the mug. Probably me. The strawberry is nice, but there’s not quite enough. I need a timer with seconds so I can do a 2.5 minute steep without having my phone in the kitchen.

Phones do not belong on counters when one is seriously sleep deprived. That way lies danger and sadness.

Hmm.

This is a very toasty genmaicha, with the promise of chocolate. That promise is not kept, which makes me sad.

Thanks to CrowKettle for this sample too (Wow, I have a lot of samples from you!). I need to revisit this I think.

Yep. Green tea with lemongrass, ginger and dried lemon juice. That’s exactly what it tastes like. It’s nicely balanced, and the green tea is a nice background – I probably used water that was too hot, but it’s not bitter or astringent at all.

This would be a good tea when sick, with some honey. I don’t know that I’ll buy more right away, unless I love it iced, but I’m glad I have it in my cupboard!

I think I’ve had too many slightly gingery teas the last couple days. I’m craving hot brown sugar ginger tea, but don’t feel like making it.

(1 tsp, 9-ish oz water)

I have 3 mugs of different teas on my desk. Apparently I really don’t want to study today!

Since I had some “Silk True Coconut” in my fridge, I decided to try this cold. I added what I had left to a cup (sieved), added some hot water, frothed, topped with the coconut milk and ice. It ended up being about 10 oz with 1 tsp of matcha powder.

The coconut milk is terrible. :/ It’s somehow thick and watery at the same time. I can see this working with my beloved Almond Breeze, but sadly this was a waste of matcha and is going down the sink.

I iced this one too. Haha. I think I was expecting my apartment to be warmer today. But no, the heat is still on, and I am wrapped up in a fuzzy blanket, procrastinating.

I steeped it with about 2 tsp of tea (really hard to measure, the pieces are massive!) in 1/2 cup hot water for a minute. I topped it (in a 2 cup jar) with filtered water, then stuck it in the fridge overnight.

It smells… like pineapple. That’s odd. There’s no pineapple in here. Drinking it, I can feel the ginger more than really taste it, but I might have had more than one piece of ginger in my “2 tsp”. I can taste the lemon grass as well, but it’s more lemon rind than lemon grass or verbena. This is really, REALLY good.

I had a super awesome whole carrot slice in the jar, and couldn’t resist taking a picture. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8255/8641576556_bbce57aee4_n.jpg

If this is as good in the next cup, I will be buying a tin. This will be perfect for the summer.

Ice brewed this overnight, and am doing a second brew now.

1 tsp tea in my gravity infuser, filled with ice, then placed over a big mug overnight. It smells SO good, the cherry coming to the front. Sadly, the overnight brew is a bit bitter. Do I have the proportions wrong? Was it just a bad idea to leave it overnight? Maybe I should have put it in the fridge. The drips from the second brew are delicious.

Thank you, ShayneBear for suggesting this. I’ve seen the method everywhere since you mentioned it, and finally decided to try. It may still be chilly, but the sun is calling for loads of iced teas.

Even though they can be quite astringent, I really like Assam teas. This one is no exception. Steeped according to directions (1 tsp, 8 oz, 3 min, 203-ish F), this tea is really nice. Yes, there’s some astringency, but the flavour is rich and deep and I like it. Next time I will try a 2.5 min steep to see if I can avoid the astringency entirely.

With no astringency, this is a black tea I could enjoy without milk or sugar! (I added 1/8 tsp sugar and a tiny splash of soy creamer after I tasted the tea.)

I’ll have to do a side-by-side comparison of this and the other Assam teas I have, to see if I can figure out which I like better, and why.