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Excellent timing, 52 teas! For my 42nd tasting note, I will honor Douglas Adams. He loved tea and wrote some instructions for Americans new to London, to brew a good pot of earl grey. And he wrote about the number 42 in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books. I’ve heard a lot about this tea from Sara, and my sampler just arrived today!

The leaf smells sweetly of coconut and bergamot.

Brewed, it smells very mild. The coconut and bergamot flavors have a nice, civilized balance going on. I don’t have a lot more to say about it, but it’s very pleasant and tasty. That mug of tea went down very quickly. I want to look up how to make a proper London Fog and try it that way next time.

The scent of the bag is very mild.

Oh wow! It’s like fruitcake but good! :)

This has cinnamon and orange in it, but it’s not that cinnamon-orange combo. I can taste a lot of spices, nicely balanced, including vanilla, marzipan, cookie, and malt. I’m sure there are others, but it’s a well-attended party of spices in there. I’m glad to be invited.

It’s not overpowering, just the right balance.

I started a new job in a very small office. There’s no kitchen. The bathrooms are shared for the entire floor of the office complex. There is a water cooler with instant hot water. I plan to bring in a thermometer to measure the temperature.

Since this is one of my favorite bagged teas, I brought it in for the convenience factor. I may have to get some Steven Smith teas too. Does anyone have any other bagged recommendations? I’m not keen to bring a gravity infuser that I’d have to carry out along with a key to the restroom just to clean it out. There’s no refrigerator here either.

The main flavor note for me is “visiting in Japan in 2007, being driven around Kyuushuu.” It also tastes roasted and woody and twiggy. There’s a light caramel note too, just a little sweet.

2.5 grams, 12 oz

Weird, this sampler bag had two teabags in it.

After Bird and Blend’s Egg Nog, I was a bit wary of another cinnamon rooibos of theirs. But this one is a much nicer balance of flavors. Cinnamon, rooibos, cardamom, and clove notes party together in this festive tea. I pick out a subtle ginger note too. I’ve never had figgy pudding, but if it’s anything like this, I’ll probably like it.

I ordered a holiday set because of this tea, before I heard about people’s experiences with it. Okay, 2.5 grams in the bag, 4 minutes at boiling.

It smells like cinnamon and rooibos. Not a bad smell.

And it tastes like… cinnamon and rooibos. There’s a lime note others have mentioned. But it’s really faint. Setting that aside though, this really isn’t nog-like at all, aside from the cinnamon. Egg nog has nutmeg, and often cloves, and is creamy. This is quite disappointing.

To get it down, I mixed in some Silk Nog and heated it back up. Mmm, that blends nicely. I could use this to stretch out my leftover nog from the holidays. But as an “egg nog” flavor by itself? Nope.

It smells like China Cola! That’s a cola with added herbs and stuff.

It tastes like a sweet gingery cola. Umm, I can’t think of much else to say about it, but I really like it and wish I had more.

Thanks, Sara! (She hates bananas.)

It smells like pancakes!

Ooh, it tastes like pancakes, syrup, and a little banana. This is genius. It starts off with more pancake flavor, with more syrup flavor at the end of the sip.

I make pancakes using flour, a pinch of baking soda, and water. I wonder how they’d taste made using this tea instead of water!

Sara sent me some teas instead of trashing them. :)

Mmm, it smells like ginger. And the taste… wow, there’s a punch in the face of some kind of flavor. Wow, I think that’s the ginger. I kind of like it. It actually burns my throat a bit going down. I wonder how it would be with a little vanilla almond milk.

Okay, with a little almond milk the burn is less. But it’s difficult to pick out any notes beyond ginger. Since this is a chai, I was hoping for a little more balance between the various spices that are typical in a chai. It’s not unpleasant, but it just tastes like a ginger tea to me.

When I was searching for this tea to review, I saw that Tea Chai Te also has a gingerbread chai. Now I want to try it.

I got this 1/2 oz sampler bag from Sara, partly used. It looked like about 2tsp left in the bag. So I dumped it from the bag into my infuser.

It smells chocolatey with a hint of rose. “Allow tea to cool 10 minutes for best flavor?” Nice, no chance of burning my tongue.

I can only pick out chocolate and rose flavors. But they’re nicely balanced. Like sitting in a rose garden, sipping hot cocoa, and a rose petal lands in your cup, and you drink it together. Mmm.

It smells of pear!

I tried a bit on its own, and it’s very sweet and pear-like. I don’t taste a lot of spice, but there’s a hint, and it’s nice. I’m good with the pear flavor.

Since I usually add a little nondairy milk to chai, and I have some soy nog, I did so to most of the cup. I really like this combination too. Nog has a lot of the same spices as chai, and so there’s a bit more spice, but I still taste the pear a lot.

If they ever do a re-blend of this, I’ll buy more.