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I have finally found the perfect tea to grace the fine bone china teapots from Great Britain. Organic Victoria Tea. First, it’s a beautiful tea. The dry tea is a mixture of black tea and rose petals. Such a beautiful contrast. It smells of perfumed black tea as the bergamot is definitely there. Very nice and dainty.

205/2 min – Wow. This is a dark tea. It smells just like a creamy Earl Grey. I can smell the bergamot, the roses and (ack) the vanilla. Okay, vanilla’s not exactly what I like in my cup of tea, but I’ll give it a go… The taste is nice. It’s like a floral Earl Grey. No single ingredient overpowers the others and it’s all very well-balanced. I like that I can actually pick out the flavor of the rose petals. Usually they seem to get lost in the teas that I drink. The vanilla is not as evident when the tea is hot. In fact, it adds a hint of a creamed taste to the tea. However, when the tea cools, the finish is all vanilla. I ended up pitching the remainder of my cup. This was quite a nice surprise.

Another sample from Tea Licious. This tea smelled like Tetley tea bags, and so I have to say that I wasn’t shocked to find that it tasted just like them, too. For me, the only surprise was logging on to the website and seeing that this was in fact, a green tea. It tastes very much like a Ceylon tea. It had a slight astringency to it, but other than that, it was so close to the bagged teas of yesteryear that I would have sworn it was something else.

It’s not a bad tea, but it doesn’t stand out in any way, either.

Smells like dirt.
Tastes like mud.

Thank you, Ben Shan. You have saved me from quite possibly the single worst tea tasting day I’ve ever had. This is one of the teas I bought as a sampler from Rachanac on teatra.de.

Dry, it smells vegetal and somewhat nutty. Nice, like a roasted oolong. 195/2 min. It’s a medium gold color. The aroma is still vegetal, worrying me a bit. The taste… wonderful roasted oolong. Thank goodness! I think I may have fallen over if yet another awful tea were to find its way to my teacup. This is a very nice, strong, full-flavored oolong.

Dry, this tea smelled sickly sweet. The oolong was dark black and scattered throughout, but it seemed as though there were more raisin-like fruits called schizandra berries (??) scattered throughout.

195/2 min. Ugh. The aroma is not pleasant. I can’t think of a word to describe it and I know instantly that even if this were the most amazing cup of tea, it would be difficult to drink the entire cup. Unfortunately for the tea, it’s not the most amazing. It’s certainly not the worst, but coupled with this bizarre scent, I can’t finish it. It tastes like steeped raisins and the oolong is not strong enough to hold up to its bizarre berry tea mate.

I received this as a sample today and it is so pretty that I couldn’t wait to try it out. Tiny rosebuds are scattered throughout deep emerald oolong balls, which are punctuated by woody lemongrass. It’s truly a beautiful tea.

195/2 min. I smell lemon and I taste lemon. Unfortunately, that’s all I can taste right now. I believe there’s too much lemongrass in here and it has overtaken the flavor completely. I cannot taste rose at all, even though I was able to smell a hint of it when it was dry. Where is the oolong?

Second steep: 3 min. Okay, less lemon. That’s good. I’m also able to pick up on more of the ginger flavor. Oh, and oolong, too. It’s finally making an appearance.

Third steep: 4 min. Much better. The lemon has been toned way, way down and the oolong is coming forth in a trusty oolong manner. No rose or ginger flavor to speak of, though. It’s very pleasing and by far my favorite of the three cups. I won’t try a fourth steep as I don’t believe it would hold out that long. The leaves barely contain any scent now.

Very vanilla. From the scent to the taste, the vanilla is ever-present. It’s a heavy taste and the oolong base holds up to it, but as I don’t care for vanilla, it’s not all too high on my list of faves, unfortunately. I can’t taste any citrus in this one. 185/3 min.

Second in my Canton Tea trials… the leaves are very pretty. Not too long, but thin and twisted with a pretty reddish color to them. The scent is mellow and I can’t quite describe it, but it’s not the typical black tea scent. It’s more subdued.

205/2 min. Um… vegetal. Yes. The flavor is just like stewed artichokes. I’m not impressed with this at all. I’m not certain what went wrong, but I can’t drink this. It’s not bitter or astringent, but there is no sweetness to this. Just artichokes.

I just remembered about my hidden package from Canton Tea Co. (My husband was pulling in at the same time I was pulling packages off of the front porch and I had to act quickly!) I pulled it out and checked over my forgotten teas. This one seemed to call to me, and I obliged it.

The jasmine scent that wafted out of the package was unlike any that I had encountered before. It’s extremely fresh and fragrant. Simply amazing! The leaves are fuzzy, whole and delicate.

160/2 min. The jasmine is still ever-present in this tea. The scent and now the taste, too, are full of it. It’s a most unusual jasmine taste that I haven’t encountered before. It’s like I just steeped a fresh jasmine blossom. The silver needle tea is so delicate and is very much overpowered by the jasmine in the first steep. The tea does become more discernible in subsequent steeping. Everything about this tea screams quality and delight. It’s a rare experience, and a magical one, too.

Edit: I wanted to include a note about this tea when it cools. I’m on the second steep and it has completely cooled. Now the flavor is so sweet it has taken on a jasmine-fruit note that is extraordinary. One of my best encounters with jasmine ever, hands down.