Davidson's

Not my favourite green tea. I find it a little pungent and bitter. I don’t hate it and still drink it on occasion but there are better ones out there. I prefer my green tea on the mild side and this one is stronger so if that’s what you prefer then you might like it. Aside from the strong green tea taste, it also has a strong jasmine flavour which I don’t care for. I’m not caring much for jasmine these days. If you like your tea bold, you may want to give this a try but if you’re like me (a tea wimp) then I would give this one a pass. (Since others have said that for them this tea is light flavoured, I should mention that I drink it with the tea bag left in so maybe that’s why it seems so strong to me.)

Silvia’s choice at the Julian tea cottage.

Yuck! Disgusting, putrid, vile, utter crap. Horrible stuff. Ugh…. Tatses like hot medicine. It’s probably very good for someone who likes fruit teas, I’m not that person.

Purchased from Julian Tea Cotttage.
Nice little genmaitcha, but nothing to set it apart from others. It’s your basic toasty rice green tea, good for anytime any day.

This raw blend smells very fruity but sour, orange being dominant and waxy. Also has some sweetness to it but the overall scent is very perfumed.

Flavour is very mild compared to it’s raw scent. There is a light herbal taste which is mostly like chamomile ie floral herbal but the after taste is definitely fruity. Orange is light with sweet and sour tones, more satsuma than orange really. The cranberry is mild but it gives the orange more sour notes. It tastes like a fruit flavoured water that’s been left in the sun for too long.

It’s an average fruit/herbal blend but not something I would stock.

This was a pretty good chai rooibos. I think the ginger was a touch too strong in this one, because I, like MissB, experienced some slight scratchy throat feeling, and I think that its from too much ginger. I sweetened it and added a dash of milk which helped mellow ginger a bit. Over all, and enjoyable cup, but I probably wont be repurchasing.
Thanks MissB for the sample!

Backlog:

A friend sent me this tea as part of a holiday gift.

Meh … this is alright, but as far as chai blends go, it’s a little on the underwhelming side. There is a flavorful black tea base, but I found the spices to be a little lacking. It’s not really spicy, and while I’ve enjoyed many chai blends that I wouldn’t consider “spicy” or hot … I feel like this blend sort of misses the mark a little. I think it needs some ginger.

I do like the licorice-y snap to this, though. It’s got a nice warmth to it, I just want that peppery kick from the ginger, and I feel like this blend suffers because of the lack of ginger.

Herbal Cranberry Orange – Davidson’s – 2/11/2014

This is a very pretty blend but as I opened up the bag to spoon some into my Finium brew basket, I caught the definite scent of rooibos, which I hadn’t guessed was in this blend. Also hibiscus, which I’m not all that fond of. The tartness is too much sometimes. Most of the time. Such an awful filler ingredient.

I put a bit of sweetener in because that tends to tame the hibiscus a little bit. The dripping liquid from the brew basket looks red but I can’t tell because my cup is black on the inside and outside. I should really get a glass mug for work but I haven’t found one that’s 16-18oz that I like. Not that I’ve looked very hard.

Drinking this…definitely the tartness of the hibiscus right up front, scratchiness in the throat from the rooibos that I can feel but not exactly taste, and the slightly different tartness of the cranberry and every so slight bit of orange in the middle and the chamomile comes out right at the end of the sip and in the aftertaste. I could have identified the chamomile with my eyes closed because that flavour is so distinctive. Mostly this tastes like hibiscus-y fruit juice with a chamomile aftertaste. Not something I’ve ever looked for but it’s nice enough. I would drink it again if offered and I wouldn’t even make the yuck face.

You guys, I am so so so tired. My cold is making my brain fog and it’s taken me an hour to write this note. I’m getting minimal work done at work and there’s 5 hours left (I suppose to get more work done, we’ll see). I’m stuck with a mystery problem in my data file in a why will you do this when you won’t do this that’s almost exactly the same kind of problem. Frustrating.

This is my 500th tasting note.

TTBB #14

I may have oversteeped this, and really hope that’s the case. I love the sweet peppery chai-ish flavor, yet abhor the whole scratchy throat, woodsy taste from the rooibos.

I bought the bulk version. It’s not great. But it’s awesome for the bulk price and for everyday. Definitely has the amazing popcorn flavor. :D

Tea #18 from the Here’s Hoping TTB

So this tea is made up mostly of things on my list of things I hate in tea, but surprisingly, I didn’t end up hating the tea. That’s a pretty high praise considering this gives you the double whammy of orange and hibiscus, my #2 and #3 on the I hate list. The hibiscus doesn’t completely take over, it adds a bit of tartness letting the cranberry and orange shine. I can taste a little bit of the chamomile and I really wish the flavor from it was a little stronger. I didn’t even know there was rooibos in this until I read the ingredients, I couldn’t taste it at all.

Personally, I think this smells better than it tastes, but that is only because I really don’t enjoy the ingredients. It did help with my sore throat, so I’m glad that I decided not to let my hate of all things orange prevent me from trying it.

Hmm. Just… hmm. This tea was so promising. The scent is really something—an orange aroma so intense it almost smells spiced, and the rich berry scent of what I thought were cranberries… until I saw the hibiscus petals. Uh-oh. I was just not certain about this anymore, and it turned out, I was right. There is just something about hibiscus that takes over other fruit flavors. It wants to be the star of the show, and it has the capability. It isn’t a bad flavor, I just feel like I’ve tasted this tea before, having had other teas with dried fruit and hibiscus. It doesn’t seem to matter what the fruit is: the hibiscus overpowers it. And then I come here and learn that it ALSO has rosehips in it. Man, those cranberries never stood a chance. And the orange… I might be able to taste a little, every few sips. But no more than that. Oh, well.

Another from TeaboxB! A little worried about the hibiscus but it wasn’t too bad. It was kind of like juice… that tasted a bit like vitamins. But the cranberries and oranges were tasty. Not too much flavor from the chamomile. This one was supposed to have rooibos in it, but it has probably settled in the bottom of the pouch. I actually expected more tart/bitter especially as I added more than two teaspoons to the mug. Must be expectations from previous hibiscus attacks I’ve had. I definitely have never had two teas with chamomile in the same day! I don’t think I’ve had chamomile before today in about a year…or two. Not terrible anyway!

I smelled the dry leaf and it was positively wonderful- very orange-y. I love orange in tea!

I made the mistake of looking at reviews of this tea, as it was brewing, but before I actually tasted it. Not because I would have liked it otherwise, but because I would not have even bothered brewing it. I have yet to find an herbal with hibiscus in it that I actually like. Something about that tartness just puts me off.

Even so, the purple/red hue of the tea would have quickly given the hibiscus away.

But as it was already brewed, I tried it. I can taste the cranberry and the orange. A nice combination of flavors.
Had it be sans hibiscus, I could really like this.

As it stands, it seems like a really good tea for those with a more amicable relationship to the hibiscus that I have. I will pass this tea on to my hubby, who rarely drinks tea, but when he does, favors the tart hibiscus-y kinds.

You can smell the spice but nothing else. The coloring is nice. Can’t taste the Raspberry at all. It’s like a pale black tea taste with a hint of spice. Not much to it. Neutral on this.

I’m not to hot on the smell of this…you can smell the spice and caramel but that’s about it. The taste isn’t as bad. Not sure if I want to give it a thumbs up but I certainly don’t think it’s bad enough to give it a thumbs down…

At first I was going to give this a thumbs down but then I steeped extra long and made sure I smooshed everything I could out of the teabag. Next to no scent. Light in color and not strong at all. You can taste a little floral sample but it certainly doesn’t stand up to the description so I will stand neutral on this one

Thank you, Shelley_Lorraine, for this sample! With the school year ending tomorrow, I’ve desperately needed all my sleep lately, and that’s led to us experimenting with different herbals. I enjoyed trying another member of that group, and an organic one at that!

I didn’t measure the sample, but it looked about the right size for my 24-oz teapot, so I tossed it all in and steeped it for 8 minutes. My quick before-additive sip was very tart, so I dumped in 3 spoonfuls of Sugar in the Raw and served it up.

With the title’s focus, I was a little surprised how prevalent the chamomile is – It didn’t sing a solo, but the orange and cranberry backup singers were more distant than I would have expected. I think I’ll grab another cup, sit back, and watch the husband make dinner. Ahhh… now that’s a way to end a hectic day!

Aw, gee, it’s awful! A super tart/bitter cup of all-encompacing blech.

I wasn’t too motivated to try this one in the first place because herbals, and especially chamomile aren’t really my thing. I don’t hate them, I just prefer tea. However, the whole point of the mystery swap was to force me into trying teas I might otherwise pass by and, cheetah_pita, you did an excellent job of picking them for me! haha.

Cranberry and orange, though, is a combination that I am fond of, so I thought that maybe they would help to make this tea good. Unfortunately, I can’t really notice flavors while I’m recovering from the tarty bitterness. By the time it passes, all I can taste is the chamomile.

I went into this with a single change to brew it and having no idea what to expect as this is a lone teabag that my girlfriend got with junk mail. Overall my impression of this tea is that it is a spicy mint blend.