The Spice and Tea Exchange

I was looking for something soothing on this early morning, and I haven’t had this in a while so it felt like a good pick. I want to play around with brewing in the future with this tea – First brew was sweeter and lighter, though the floral notes are consistently strong. The rose aroma is lovely and follows through each sip. The flavors were light and accented nicely wit 1/2 tsp of rock sugar. I enjoyed this cup, although I wouldn’t recommend re-steeping as much of the flavor complex is lost, leaving the second steeping primarily rosey. This isn’t necessarily bad, but I liked the more complex flavor the first cup had to offer. I have a good bit of this tea so I will continue to play with brewing and possibly blending because I refuse to waste perfectly good tea. This one was nice, but not an absolute favorite.

These leaves are fairly old. I’m not getting carrot or cupcake. It does taste like a yummy chai with a strong cinnamon note. Other than that, I don’t have a lot to say. It stands up to sweetener well and doesn’t require milk to be enjoyable. I usually hate Keemun but this is all right. Tasty even. Dare I say I’m enjoying it? :P Oddly enough, I don’t think I have any other chais right now. It’s usually a staple in my cupboard. So I’m holding on to this one for when I get chai cravings. I like it! I do!

KEEMUN!!!
Well… that was what I thought at first. This is just ‘eh’ and the first taste is the best of them all as it becomes a bit rough on the mouth.

This was my first experience with Lapsang Souchong! I’m not a huge fan of smoke flavor in food or beverages, so the strong smoky flavor of this tea wasn’t my favorite. However, it definitely seems like a high quality tea. The leaves are large and unbroken and have a lovely sweet/smoky scent. And although the flavor was too smoky for my tastes, the tea was nice and smooth with no bitterness or astringency. With a splash of milk to calm down the smoke, I found this a pleasant breakfast tea.

Added 1t of sugar. Pleasant, can taste the notes of pineapple. Not really sure what the “natural flavorings” are supposed to be doing.

I appreciate that this tea is semi sweet without any sweetener. The aroma is pleasant and it brews up with nice body. It’s pleasant. But Uncle Filberts Nutty Dessert Tea is so much better, in a similar flavor profile.

This tea was okay, mostly a nutty flavor, and fairly mild. I steeped it for 2 minutes the first time and 3 minutes the second time. It wasn’t that the flavor of the tea wasn’t good, it’s a pretty decent balance, not bitter or overwhelming at all, I just don’t think it’s my thing. I’d say it’s worth a try, but I won’t buy it again.

Delightfully fruity and light.

Thanks for a sample of this one a while back, Ali! This seems exactly like the type of tea I like. Spices, keemun… it’s supposed to taste like carrot cake. It kind of does! At first, there is a hint of apple which threw me, since carrot cake doesn’t have apple. But then it balances out to light spices on a mild black tea. There is something carrot about it. And somehow there is a flavor that seems a little like cream cheese frosting. I would have loved a solid base tea (keemun is a great choice though!) but overall an interesting blend!