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I believe this is my first ever time having this as a latte. I made it today at home with my advent calendar tin. It’s so lovely as a latte. I’m glad I didn’t sweeten it as it’s sweet enough on its own, but it’s so lovely with milk and is such a great colour. Love this tea.

Okay, so here we go! I deleted the last note of this one and will write my full one now!

1st steep (5sec): Light amber in colour with a light taste. It’s slightly sweet. Yum!! Smells very earthy but doesn’t taste strong of earthiness yet.
2nd (6sec): Slightly darker with some earthiness hinting through.

At this point, I pulled some of the leaves apart as they were really sticking together. Next time I wouldn’t do that and just see what the taste is when left as is.

3rd (7sec): Colour is going slightly red. Earthiness is most predominant. Not noticing the sweetness anymore.
Steeps 4-7 were still very earthy.

8th (9sec): Roasted hickory smell! Yummy! Reminded me of campfires but in a light way. It is earthy but very good. Tastes slightly woody with some of that roasted almost hickory taste! LOVING this steep! So delicious! I’m loving the hickory taste.

9 & 10: Same as above. Loved the last three steeps especially. Finished on 10 as I just felt done.

So, in conclusion, I am really enjoying this tea so far. I love using a gaiwan. I love using a tea pick. I love noticing changes in the tea as I steep it. I love how it actually does change as time goes on. I love how it brings me to a place where I stop and relax. I know to a lot of family and friends that don’t get it, that I probably seem crazy, but I love this tea journey that I seem to be on right now and how I’m really trying to find the ways I love tea the most.

Had this as a latte tonight with my dinner. It was so tasty!! So in love with this tea. Yummy yummy.

First one to review this! PLUS, it’s my 500th note!

I’ve been waiting to write my 500th note until I tried something new, not just write a review for something I’ve had before. And when I saw this in store yesterday I knew this was the one. I am so excited about this tea.

So, Steeped it up for 4 minutes and took a nice lovely sip. This tea is naturally sweet and bold. It really does live up to its name. I’m not one for honey at all, but this one really works for me. It’s sweet without being overbearing honey flavour. It’s just a lovely sweet bold, slightly malty tea that just has everything going for it. I know several people that don’t care for it all the much already, but I love it. It reminds me of Nepal Black in some ways, but it’s very unique to itself also. I should almost do a side-by-side comparison. That will happen another day though.

So anyways, I LOVE this tea. I will probably get more soon. It’s so lovely and delicious, sweet and yummy. I definitely recommend.

I LOVE THIS TEA!! This tea is so amazing. I love it so much.

The other day I steeped it up gong fu style. I wasn’t sure if it would work well but it definitely did. It held up so well to multiple steepings. I don’t remember how long I steeped it each time or how many times I steeped it, but I think it was something like 5/5/7/10/10/15/15… I’m sure it went up from there too. I found I was ready to be done with it before the tea was ready to be done. The flavour held up so so well! And what I loved about gongfu steeping is it wasn’t super strong but just right. It makes it light and sweet almost. You’re not over doing it and making it super strong. IT’s amazing how well it does.

Anyways, must go now. But SO happy to have this tea!

Just over a year later and I’m trying this one again. It’s been a while. Anyways, I’m not getting the bitterness that I mentioned last time and this time I’m leaving the bag in the whole steeping plus I added some rock sugar and some milk. It’s not too bad. I don’t mind it. It doesn’t have much for flavour anymore though. It’s almost like a regular black tea with a tiny bit of fruitiness to it. Not terrible, but I don’t really feel like I’m getting all the flavours that I would expect from a tea of this name.

After the last three weeks that I’ve had, I don’t care how messy the house is, I don’t care that the dishes need to be done, I don’t care what needs to be put away… I’m stopping and trying to do my second ever gong fu steeping. Three weeks ago, I had my first ever kidney stone, then a bladder infection because of it, then a head cold. Also in the time, my husband’s grandfather’s lady friend (Girlfriend I guess?) went into hospital for health concerns. While she was there, husband’s grandpa had a stroke and is in there too. She doesn’t know he’s there though as they don’t want to stress her out. Also, my own brother fell off a ladder at his house where he was doing roof repair and broke his femur really bad. They had to get an ambulance to the hospital where they were transfered to a different one a half hour away. Now thankfully he’s already moving as they did emergency surgery, but it was very scarey for a bit.
That’s all on top of the fact that my own gramma had hip surgery mid-october and my father-in-law had knee surgery just before that. Thankfully they are both doing so good.

So anyways, I need to stop and do something that I really love and drink some tea! My munchkin is exhausted after his first ever playgroup this morning so now is the perfect time.

Off I go.

I’ve done a few steeps already and so far my main flavour that I get is roastiness. and some nutty as well. Third steep in I’m getting just the faintest amount of sweetness in the back of my cheeks.

I definitely understand why one would want to use a small gaiwan for a single person doing this as I’m having a hard time finishing each steep as it seems to be a lot of tea for one person. Also, I’m not very good at timing each steep, which is something I need to watch as a few times I have over steeped a bit because the tea is almost too strong or too roasted for my liking. I’m having a moment right now where I’m suddenly realizing how much this is reminding me of Nepal Black from davidstea. It just has a few qualities that are similar, which will have to be one of the next gaiwan sessions I try.

I thought by now the leaves would be completely opened up but they aren’t I’m not sure sure if I’m not steeping long enough or what, but i’m on steep… 5-7 (can’t remember..) and they are still pretty tight.

Alright, I’m going to wrap this up for now. I’m mostly getting roasted with a hint of nuts. If I get anything else I will add to this note, otherwise that’s my general thoughts of this tea. and everything else that’s going on.

So, last year I believe it was, Davidstea had a gingerbread tea that I was so in love with. I think I have enough for one more latte. That’s what I did with that tea. All 100g was enjoyed in latte form. Yummmmmmmm Thankfully I only use 2 perfect spoons for my lattes so it lasted for a bit longer.

Anyways, I am super excited for the as it smells almost the exact same to me! The only thing I don’t like is that it has mate in it! Why couldn’t we just have it as a rooibos that way I had something to enjoy in the evenings? Sad panda…

Now that I’ve tried it… it is so much like last year’s that I’m in love. I won’t know for sure until I made a latte with it, but it’s seems pretty much the same Yumm!! Just the mate this year would make it slightly different.

Either way, I hopefully will enjoy my 100g

Again, first time I tried this one it was well overleafed. I’m trying again in the hopes that I like it better now. Which it seems I do.

This one almost smells like bubblegum to me. I’m kind of confused by this one, but that’s okay. It almost reminds me of Bubbie’s Backlava from last year. It’s sweet and fruity but with some spice. It’s pretty good! I definitely like this one better now. But it tastes really like bubblegum to me. I don’t know why… haha oh well!

Well this one is exactly what it says it us. Lemon and ginger. It’s citrus with some spice. Not my favourite, but okay. It’s good for someone with a cold which is what I Have… lucky me