Herbal Infusions

Sipdown!! (228)

Goodbye mystery tea. I don’t know what is Christmassy about you but you were a tasty tea. Thank you Cavocorax for giving me the opportunity to try this.

I get what OMGsrsly was saying yesterday about this tea being thin. I don’t know if it was my steeping parameters or simply the tea but this is definitely a thin cup.

However, what I am tasting is a whole lot of lemongrass. And some fruitiness – papaya maybe? Honestly, I have no idea what I am drinking. It is not bad though. Not too sweet and no hibiscus (which is rare for a herbal). Definitely interesting. Thank you Cavocorax for sharing this with me!

Thank you to both MissB and Cavocorax who sent this my way. My first cup was amazingly delicious but all subsequent cups have slowly made me lose interest. I still have a fair bit more so hopefully those cups are better.

Tastewise, this is very, VERY heavy on the ginger and just a hint of apple as opposed to my first cup which was all apple with a dash of ginger to warm everything up.

I think this might be my favourite of Herbal Infusion’s holiday teas after Marshmallow Snowflake Earl Grey. Although, that isn’t saying much because aside from Snowflake, I really wasn’t all that impressed. This one is not too bad though. It is very much like a diluted apple cider. Not much ginger, but the apple flavor is nice. This won’t be a restock but I am glad I have a few more cups worth thanks to the awesome MissB and the wonderful Cavocorax. Thanks girls :)

This came to me from both MissB and Cavocorax (although this particular cup is from MissB). I was a little nervous about having so much because I am finding that often I am not a huge fan of Herbal Infusions black base but tbh, I actually really like this one. To me, it tastes like warm apple cider. In fact, the taste is spot on and the astringency is more subtle and almost adds to the flavor.

I actually smiled when drinking this cup because it reminds me of my mother who got drunk for the first time drinking hot apple ciders in Old Montreal. The thought of my tiny, drunk Mom and my very confused grandparents (no one knew the cider had alcohol) just makes me laugh. So thank you MissB (and Cavo) for sending this my way :)

I came to school bright and early today, a full 7 hours before I have my classes. It’s nose to the grindstone for the next 20 days before I leave for paradise. The scent of this tea is wafting out from the Timolino and it is intoxicating. Part of me doesn’t want to drink it, just so I can smell it for as long as possible. This tea may get permanent cupboard status.

I’m taking a quick break to write this note, and to do some math. I love quantifying things. Everything actually. I average 75 hours per term per class in both lecture and lab, and for spring histology, the amount of time I’ll spend in scheduled lecture and lab is 108 hours. HEYO.

Alright you guys. This tea is awesome, but I want to comment on Herbal Infusions in general in this note. Feel free to skip right over if this doesn’t interest you. :)

My first order with HI a few months ago went over very smoothly. I placed the order, got the email confirmation, and a day or two later, got the shipping notification. The teas arrived within an appropriate amount of time. I was a happy camper.

I ordered again in late January and after ~2 weeks I still hadn’t received a shipping confirmation nor my teas in the mail. I spoke with a couple people here who mentioned similar problems. I emailed them and was provided with an explanation and the promise the teas would be shipped out the next day. I received my teas yesterday, so they were shipped out quickly after the email. From the date of the order to receiving the teas was near to a month, which irritated me slightly, but it wasn’t something I couldn’t get past. I weighed out my Cacao and SCC this morning because I found it strange 50g could fit in one bag, whereas before I had received 2 bags of 25g each. When I weighed each bag I found that the tea inside was ~40g rather than 50g. I emailed HI again, and I have to say, they were incredibly quick replying and explained that the tea had been being weighed at their cacao supplier versus with them, and they’ve now fixed it so that they weigh it with their own scale (they provided me with the scale accuracy) and that they would ship me a couple 25g bags of Cacao this afternoon.

I have to say, the order taking an age did bother me, however it was alleviated by the explanation they provided when I emailed about it. I was slightly irritated this morning as well when I discovered the tea weight was off, because who wouldn’t be? However, all in all, I have to say I’m happy with all the explanations provided in both instances, and the immediate response about the weight and offer to ship some Cacao off to me to make up for it.

Feel free to take what you want from this! Also, this tea is amazing! I have done an actual tasting note on it a short time ago, if you want to know about the tea itself haha.

I think I’ll go with the thinking that my stomach was still a tad off when I tried this yesterday morning, because I just resteeped the last of my swap from VariaTEA and it doesn’t have the same fake smell to it I got yesterday. Just strawberry and cacao. Although, I may have also forgot about it steeping on the counter as I drafted a message to VariaTEA as well haha. Oversteeping Cacao teas is always a great idea I’ve found. Yum.

You know, this one may actually be an order. My January tally is getting out of hand.

Also, I’m working on updating my bio, so I shall have actual tea-related info up there soon! For now it’s just a wee paragraph saying so in addition to my two lines of bio that have always been there.

I was sick to my stomach yesterday, but I had to drag myself into school for a group meeting for a debate we have to present today. I managed to survive with a sleeve of crackers, and I only just made it back to my house in time. Ugh.

This morning I’m feeling slightly better, so I’m hoping it was a 24 hour bug. I couldn’t really decide what tea would be best on my stomach, and this one probably wasn’t the best choice, but I was excited to try it.

The strawberry cream scent really comes through, although it’s smelling slightly fake to me. Hopefully that particular part of the scent doesn’t come through to the taste. The general cacao scent is also there, which makes me feel a little better about this cup.

Thank goodness the taste comes through more ‘true’ than fake, although that scent is slightly off-putting. The cacao is prominent here with a creaminess and then the strawberry flavour towards the end of the sip. To be quite honest, I’d almost just prefer a cacao cream. The creaminess is a delightful, but I’m thinking perhaps the strawberry could use a bit of perfecting.

This one was good hot, but I’m thinking it’s even better as it cools. As are all the cacao teas I’ve had haha.

Thanks for sharing VariaTEA!

It’s freaking cold! And sitting in my freezing office is not exactly pleasant. Ugh. Well, at least I have this tea from MissB! Get use to seeing her name in tasting notes from me because she sent me a ton of samples.

This definitely smells nice, like an Earl Grey Cream but with an extra sweet punch from the marshmallows. I have to say, with my usual parameters I didn’t get a ton of flavor out of this. I mean, there was some light bergamot and vanilla, but I wanted more. So I threw the leaves back into my 3/4 filled cup, added the last pinch of leaf I hadn’t used before, topped it up with hot water, and steeped it for another two minutes. It sounds crazy, but it actually turned out nice! The bergamot picked up, the vanilla picked up, and the base tea has a bit more heft to it. Still, I don’t quite get marshmallow from the taste (definitely there in the scent), but I bet I would if I sweetened it (which I don’t do unless I can’t drink a tea straight).

I have a sneaking suspicion that Herbal Infusions will be like Della Terra for me. I requested a number of samples of both from MissB (and she graciously obliged me) because I always read the raves and feel like I’m missing something. I tried Della Terra a while ago and liked the teas ok but couldn’t get into them because of a boring base that had no role in the flavor of the tea (a plus for some). I wanted to try again to see if maybe I was just too harsh on them.

So far, this is a nice, drinkable cup of tea but nothing I have to order more of (I’m a little relieved, haha). Thanks MissB!

I cold steeped the rest of my package of this. Thank you, MissB! I’ve actually quite enjoyed this tea!

It’s only been steeping 6 hours or so, so it’s not as strong as it will be either at midnight, or tomorrow morning. It’s a nice, delicate, fruity, sweet iced tea. No hibiscus, at least in my batch.

I’d definitely get this again, provided I knew what the ingredients were prior to purchasing. :)

(PS. It’s bronchitis. I have antibiotics, and no work till Monday. Whee.)

This is a little odd. Smells like strawberries and pineapple, tastes like vanilla-strawberry-rhubarb jam. It’s pretty thin, but I only used 2 tsp in 16 oz, so I probably underleafed it.

The flavour is nice, and if I knew the ingredients (and it was available) I’d probably buy some.

Sipdown!! (225)

The smell of the dry leaf for this reminds me a lot of Santa’s Milk and Cookies. However, steeping this one up, I think it is a tad bit better but not much. Mostly I think I am just not a huge fan of Herbal Infusions black base and in both teas that is the most prominent element. Other than that, there is maybe a touch of creaminess but not much and nothing I would really call eggnog. Oh well. Thanks for the chance to try this Cavocorax. It is always nice to be able to try a limited edition tea, even if it doesn’t turn out to be as delicious as you hoped.

Backlog: I made this in addition to resteeping the Lemon Meringue I had earlier. I got distracted cooking so I could not try it hot but as a warm tea, it is very similar to Santa’s Milk and Cookies. Actually, this was slightly less astringent than Milk & Cookies and may even have more of a cookie quality to it. No eggnog or alcohol though. Again I only drank this after dinner so my taste buds may have been off but luckily Cavocorax was generous enough to send me a very generous sample that I can have another cup in the future.

Another Sipdown!

I tried this twice, and just never cared for it. The lime smelled great but didn’t carry into the flavour enough. And the base was odd – Kept getting that weird salty flavor I’ve found in a few teas now…

Additional notes: Finishing off this sample with the last of the Herbal Infusions Earl mixed in with these leaves as well. Not quite two teaspoons but the last cups of both were kind of weak with only one teaspoon. I love the sweetness of the snowflake, but to me they don’t enough bergamot. Delicious though! I needed some Earl today.

Another lovely blend from MissB’s lovely package! This one sounded magical with its marshmallows and snowflakes…and EARL GREY. I love the idea for this blend. Maybe this blend will make me tolerate the freezing weather this week a bit more than I can’t. Sadly, I don’t think I can actually see marshmallows in my blend, unless it is just my sample. There are snowflakes though! I had two cups of this and they were both equal in taste: really well done. It tastes to me like the usual Earl Grey (though maybe a bit sweeter… the sprinkles?) but an EG that is great, even if it is on the lighter tasting side, both on the bergamot and the strength of the leaves. If it wasn’t this light, it might be very similar to some of my favorite Earls. Very bright, fresh, sweet. I can tell from the two blends I’ve tried so far from Herbal Infusions, I would be in love with all of them!

Thanks to Isalia for Day #11 of the 12 Days of Christmas 2013. Love the name of the tea. Really had a good time learning about Herbal Infusions. Dan, the owner, has some really good videos loaded. The shipping is really reasonable, I think I am going to place an order. As for this tea, I think I steeped it on too high of a setting. I did a black tea setting but maybe right under boiling would of been better. Thus so, all of the wonderful flavors did not jump out at me but it was an enjoyable cup to start the day.

I got this from QueenOfTarts Tea Stash Sale. Thank you!

I read the reviews of this and I was a little nervous. The idea of the tea sounds amazing, a mostly guilt free substitute for hot coco and baileys. I made this the same way I would make a chai, tad more leaf to water and an ounce or so of milk with sugar. The result was a a creamy chocolate mint treat. I will have no problems finishing this sample, but not something I would purchase again.

I was really looking forward to this. I had ordered samplers of the the regular Cacao and the Mint Cacao herbal teas at the same time and loved both of them. Unfortunately, I was less enamoured with this tea. I can’t pinpoint exactly why but the flavor just did not do it for me. Rather than blending perfectly into a sweeter and creamier Cacao tea, it just tasted like a hot mess in my mouth. Nothing fit together, it tasted odd overall, and I ended up dumping my mug down the sink.

I guess 2 out of 3 isn’t bad, but I had high hopes for this one.

This blend looks like it has a little bit of everything: pieces of fruit, flowers, lemongrass, petals, various herbs. Once water has been added, it smells… ew… not good. I smell lemongrass, lawn, dirt, leaves and flower petals. I’m really not sure if I want to take a sip now since it reminds me of playing outside and returning home with smelly, grubby hands.

Sipping… this isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I mostly taste citrus, lemongrass and something earthy. I wasn’t expecting the citrus as I didn’t smell any originally, but I’m pleased that it’s one of the main flavors. I’m not completely fond of the herbal flavor that lingers in the background and I especially don’t like the smelly finish that reminds me of those pungent leaves and grasses of my childhood.

I might choke down the rest of the cup since I want something hot, but otherwise, it’s really not for me.

So I guess I skipped this one on Christmas, but – well, the name doesn’t really call to me.

I guess it’s Christmassy because it has orange in it? That’s definitely orange. And there’s lemongrass. And maybe some spices? This isn’t too bad but now it’s cooling and getting a little bitter.

Oh and the baby is asleep and it’s only 9:40. I’m going to go to bed at/before 11:00 if I can and here’s hoping she’ll stay out the rest of the night!

This is pretty damn delicious. It’s pretty much as advertised – it’s a peppermint chocolate tea. And it tastes GOOD. I will definitely need to get more of this once my sample pack runs out.