TeaSource

From the TTB
The first steep was nice and smooth and chocolatey. The second I had to leave in for 10 minutes and it still was a bit weak. I guess I expected a stronger second steep from a tea of this quality, but what I did drink was delicious, but not all that complex.

From the TTB
I came home all jet lagged and cranky from travel and made a nice cup of this before bed. It’s chocolate with a hint of cream and a small spicy aftertaste. It’s one of the better chocolate blends I’ve tasted, not chalky or artificial. I might have to check out what else teasource has to offer.

Currently my favorite tea! It has a gentle grassy aftertaste, and is very refreshing.

Absolutely heavenly and one of my favorite teas thus far. So smooth, and with a delightful floral note at end.

Overall I thought it was ok. I was hoping for caramel citrus taste but it instead it tasted like day old brown rice, caramel, coffee, and a very faint lemon taste. The old brown rice taste was the main flavour. Medium caffiene level.

A good Assam tea. It tasted more floral than other Assam teas I have had. There was a average maltiness. Medium to low bitterness.

Advent day 11! Mmmmmm. I love a vanilla black tea. The base is pretty smooth, and the vanilla flavor was prominent. I absolutely gulped this down this morning.

Day 7 of our Advent Tea Swap. From amandastory516.

Finally caught up! This tea truly does smell like juicy strawberries and the taste comes through in the steeped tea. I don’t drink much oolong, but whenever I do it’s always a nice surprise to remember how much I do enjoy the roasted qualities of it. I’m enjoying this one just as much even as it cools to room temperature.

Advent day 4! A robust chocolate flavor, that doesn’t have that synthetic profile so many chocolate teas suffer from. The apple definitely gives it a tanginess that is interesting with the chocolate. I love that it’s an herbal as well.

A couple of years ago, TeaSource had a black tea I adored called “Golden Mao Feng”. They no longer carry it and I’ve been trying every Chinese black tea with “golden” in the name since trying to find a substitute. This one definitely isn’t as good as that one, but I am enjoying it. It has a rich, bready flavor with a nice smooth finish and no astringency. It also re-steeps well.

This is the lightest, most delicate green tea I’ve ever tried! The color is a pale, barely-there spring green and the flavor is mildly vegetal with a super smooth finish. It almost reminds me of a white tea, but with a fresher flavor (grass instead of hay). I wouldn’t mind if the flavor were a bit stronger, but I am enjoying this one.

I took a chance on this one, ordering 4oz on clearance in a recent sale. I love almost everything I’ve ever tried from TeaSource, but rooibos tends to be hit-and-miss for me. Sadly, this one was a miss. I do taste the mango, but the flavoring isn’t strong enough to cover up the woody rooibos flavor of the base. I’ll likely be passing this one on to someone who likes rooibos better than I do!

This tea isn’t at all what I was expecting! Since it has “chai” in the name, I thought this would be your traditional black tea with chai spices and some maple flavoring added. Instead, this is a very smooth, light tea with a strong fruity flavor (apple, I think?) and notes of maple. There’s scarcely a hint of spice! That being said, I do actually like how this tastes…like some kind of yummy fruity dessert. I just think they should rename it, because nothing about it screams “chai”.

I received this tea in a Reddit swap. It’s pretty weak. It’s kind of like a light apple tea. I don’t taste any maple, and I really couldn’t call it chai either. It’s not gross or anything, but it seems like a waste of caffeine for me to drink. As it sits around all day because I don’t want to drink it, the spice flavors do show up more, but then they’re a bit murky and weird.

Very dark

Thanks to Mastress Alita for sharing! I love strawberry flavored things, and I love how huge rolled oolong becomes when it steeps. The flavor is lighter than I would have liked, but it is tasty. My family loves this one. The base tea is good and lacks bitterness. The strawberry comes out a little bit more when it’s cool. It isn’t flavorful enough for me to buy for myself, but I’m definitely enjoying it! Quite the pleasant oolong.

I’ve pulled this for my evening herbal. I believe one of our past volunteers at the library gave me this one, since our local coffee shop that sources TeaSource tea carries this one; I think she bought some single ounces of a few and then decided to gift them to me when she wasn’t really drinking loose leaf at home.

The steeped tea has a strong fruity aroma, highly tropical; I’m smelling mango, passionfruit, and pineapple, as well as slightly floral. The tea is a light orange color (I was surprised it was still so red since this is a green rooibos) and the flavor notes of the base is hay, wood, and floral nectar, with a fruity sweetness that moves in midsip that tastes strongly of mango, though I get a much more subtle note of sweet melon. It’s a pleasant enough cup, though I wish the flavor was a bit stronger; I don’t really have any idea how old this tea may be, so perhaps some flavor degradation is playing a factor, though. It’s quite servicable for a mango-flavored rooibos that doesn’t have any over-powering medicinal notes, as many fruity rooibos blends seem to have for me.

Thanks so much for sending some of this, Mastress Alita! Your tasting note the other day reminded me I didn’t write one yet. I’ve been on a run of raspberry teas lately. On sight, this is a tiny leafed Darjeeling with raspberry and lemon. I certainly love the concept. I went with one teaspoon because the leaves were so small. Luckily the flavor is delicious, not overdone or bitter. It definitely tastes like Darjeeling. Hints of raspberry, not so much lemon. Some tartness for the muscatel of this Darj. The second steep is also lovely. I like it!
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon // 25 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // couple minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep

This is a very old TeaSource tea that is discontinued… and I have yet to try it! (Pathetic!) The package recommends this as an iced tea, but since I’ve never tried it, I wanted to see how it would fair as a warm cuppa, too. The base was darjeeling but the leaf looked CTC, so I tried to give it a briefer steep than usual… I may need to shorten it even more! I went for a two minute steep in 195F water… somehow I seem to get less astringency when I brew darjeeling in slightly cooler water?

My cup is a light coppery color and it smells like autumn leaves (the darj is coming through strongly!), raspberry, and perhaps a touch of a citrus tang. The flavor is… surprisingly quite berry-forward, and I wasn’t expecting that! There was quite a bit of lemongrass in the leaf, by far not my favorite of the citrus herbs, but I’m not even really getting that odd hay-like/herbaceous quality it often leaves in a tea. The tea is very smooth, so I may have found the sweet-spot on my brewing parameters, and I was expecting a lot more temperment because, quite frankly, it usually takes me several tries with darj’s to find the sweet spot. It is not overly-leafy tasting in flavor, like I get from a lot of darjeeling, but I do get a soft autumn leaf/vegetal background note, that mixes with a more malty foreground note. The raspberry flavor then fills in nicely, and it’s very present but doesn’t have that syrupy/fakey/metallic flavor I get very often from raspberry flavorings; there is a softness to it at first, and then it leaves a gentle berry tanginess on the tongue. It’s really nice! I’m not getting a very strong citrus note, though; I get a very subtle citrus aftertaste on the roof of my mouth, but it isn’t pulling very strongly against the other flavors in the cup. Honestly though; I’m alright with that, because the tea is quite delightful as is. I may try it with a dash of lemon juice to bring that note out for curiosity’s sake, but I’m really happy with it. I will have to try this one iced, and maybe add just a touch of my lemon-infused honey… mmm.

Now I’m sad knowing TeaSource discontinued this one!

I’ve had this tea for ages, but have yet to really try it yet. I’m a licorice lover, which is what attracted me to it. It does have a chamomile base, and I really dislike chamomile, but I’m really hoping for some strong anise, fennel, and licorice root that will completely cover it up.

Oh… this actually does have a striking black licorice taste to it, which means 99% of the people reading this can stop right now, because you’ll hate it. If you are in that 1% that like me actually likes black licorice… huzzah! It’s a bit spicy and warming with a strong black licorice flavor that settles on the tongue, and just a touch of licorice root sweetness toward the end of the sip. I can pick out a bit of a cinnamon sweetness midsip, as well. It’s very satisfying, and thankfully, it doesn’t have that soapy-floral taste I get from chamomile that I don’t like, because the spices do have such a strong, pungent flavor. I really like this! But as said, this is definitely the sort of herbal that is for a very particular palate. If you are the type of person that likes eating black licorice nib candies or jellybeans, you’d like this herbal tea.