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Tried this hot. It was….unpleasant. Like watery orange juice or those gross vitamin c packets people take while traveling, what are they called? I’ll refrain from rating until I try it iced but it is not a tea to be drunk hot. Not at all.

I drank this a few days ago and I remember it being a pleasant tea. The rooibos wasn’t overpowering and the hibiscus was pretty mild and it tasted sweet and berry-ish. I’m not going to jump for joy over it, but it was good.

This came as a sample with my order from AQ2T and I’m enjoying it greatly. I don’t pick up much of the spiciness that others mention, except in the aftertaste. The base tea is exceptional, but then, I’m a big fan of yunnan black teas. The peach is very peachy and not artificial at all. I oversteeped it (forgot about it) and it’s stood up very well to that with only a tiny hint of bitterness. If I’m ever in the mood for a nice peachy tea, I’ll definitely consider this one.

This is the 4th and last tea to come in my Sips By teabox for April. It certainly smells chocolatey. Overwhelmingly so. Perhaps unsurprising but I was surprised nonetheless.

I added milk and sugar in an attempt to make it desserty and it worked pretty well. The first part of the sip is a bit bitterish though that may just be me and my extreme oversensitivity to bitterness. The last part of the sip and aftertaste are very very chocolate. Wow. All things considered, I’d probably use this as an additive to other teas than just straight but this is certainly an interesting experience. It doesn’t say if it resteeps so I’m going to try later after my meeting.

Oh my, this is quite delicious. I needed a tea I don’t add milk to (as in, not a black tea, my favourite type) since the cafeteria that sells milk doesn’t open for another 1.3 hours or so. Voila, 52teas Golden Mulberry Genmaicha to the rescue! And oh, it is a rescue.

The first impression is that it is definitely a nice genmaicha. The roasty toasty rice flavour is definitely present and pleasant and then there is a subtle sweetness that hits at the back of my throat first and then spreads forward, I think it must be the mulberry? I don’t actually know what a mulberry tastes like, so I assume so.

I wonder if I can get a resteep out of this since I’m already more than half way through my mug in the minute I’ve spent writing this note. Let’s find out!

Well, this one is definitely a multi-steeper what with the giant tea balls that the black tea is rolled into. The first steep, they barely unfurled. The coconut flakes are large and it was a difficult tea to scoop, I had to scrounge at the bottom to get some of the calendula petals.

The dry leaf smells fantastic and the steeped tea smells pretty good, although I think it could have used another tea ball in the mix in my little one-cup teapot. I added a bit of sweetener but no milk for this first steep. I would add milk but the cafeteria isn’t open yet for another hour and I’m not going to wait that long to drink this.

First steep: Well, it’s definitely coconut. I think a bit of milk would bring out the flavours more I think. Coconut milk probably but I don’t have access to that at work unless I bring my own. As I suspected, I think I underleafed this a bit. I added another little black tea ball for the next steep. Still, good but not as good as it could be, I think.

Second steep: Cafeteria was lacking in my preferred milk so I have 2% to add to it. Upsetting. I’m steeping this one for 4 minutes instead of 3 from the first steep in hopes of making the flavour a little stronger, the black tea was a bit lacking in the first steep, especially as it cooled down and the coconut got less intense. This second steep was much better, more flavourful and enjoyable. I’m going to try one more, I think.

Third Steep: This tea holds up to repeated steepings amazingly well. The black tea is a bit more subdued, but there is still a prominent coconut flavour to it. Very tasty. I think I’ll stop at 3 though.

I wish this weren’t a limited edition tea, it’s pretty amazing as a coconut black tea, imo.

I got this as a sample with my AQ2T order (is that how we’re condensing the name here?) and made it as a full pot. Drinking it with milk and sugar because…well cake. Reheated it as well as I forgot I was drinking it and it’s not that great at room temperature.

I can definitely see why it’s named as it is. I’m definitely getting vanilla cakey flavour out of it. One of those super sugary cakes that grocery store bakeries make. I wish it had a little thicker mouthfeel as part of what I like about cake is the spongeyness of it. But this is pretty okay. If I place another order with this company, I’ll probably get more of this. As it is, this is all of my sample and I shall drink it up.

It seems I prefer goji berry blends to be with black tea rather than green. I oversteeped this a bit since I forgot I was steeping it at all. It made the green slightly bitter and ruined the taste of the goji berry, so I shan’t be rating this tea. Disappointing since this is the only sachet I have of this blend.

Third tea to come in my Sips By April box. This one isn’t in the steepster database yet and I apologize for the lack of picture, I couldn’t figure out how to put one in.

This is apparently an unsmoked lapsang souchong tea, according to the little card I got. It’s an interesting black tea, the dry scent is very minerally and the wet scent and taste is minerally and malty. The tea itself brews up a very light colour and the taste is pretty light as well if you go by their steeping directions of 2 minutes in 195F water, which I did. It steeps at least twice as well, maybe 3 times but I haven’t tried a third steep yet.

A pretty good black tea but not one I’d go out of my way to purchase, I don’t think.

Second tea from my April Sips By box, 4 sachets of this tea.

It’s…not terrible. It’s not great. It’s a green tea with mint. The mint isn’t overwhelming the green tea but that’s about the only thing I have to say about it. It’s also giving me a headache, as green teas sometimes do so I’ll be distributing the rest to others. Overall, I’d rate the taste as ‘okay’.