The Spice and Tea Exchange

I love blueberry teas. Although I suspect I have rather high standards. This one isn’t a favorite. It has a slight “possibly” blueberry flavor. It actually reminds me a bit of black current flavoring. The aftertaste is perfumy. The base is smooth, not bitter or astringent.

I brewed this as a standard tea and then chilled in a pitcher overnight in the refrigerator.

You gotta love ginger.

I’m very fond of this tea. It’s a rich black tea with a lovely semi-sweet nutty flavor. It is wonderful for savoring and enjoying with (or as) a treat.

I had a cup of this last night.
This is my boyfriends favorite tea, and when I go visit my friends out of state I make sure to pick him up some. So we brewed it up and had it last night while catching up on Game of Thrones.
Its good! As said in my note about Paris, I like fruity black teas, and this one hits the spot. The blueberry really comes through, and its quite enjoyable. Maybe next time I’ll pick some up for myself. Until then, I’ll just raid my boyfriends cupboard when I want a sip.

I’m pretty new to tea drinking, but so far this is my favorite that I’ve bought. In the bag it smells strange but really good like grass and coconut, like some kind of cooked tropical vegetable or food I can’t really place the name of. Brewed the smell and taste are so smooth like coconut oil. I’m pretty obsessed and have been drinking nonstop. Highly recommend.

I have been drinking this all day. As I am new to tea, I have many questions. Am I making it right (195 degrees, 5 minute steep)? It tastes good, not as smokey as others I have had in bags in the past, yet certainly more complex in flavor. I’d certainly buy it again, even more so if the stores wasn’t over an hour away, with what can be difficult parking. Any who…I like it, it makes me happy, and the taste lingers on my taste buds, in a smokey, happy, charming sort of way/

Oh dear.

Before looking this up, I thought this was a black tea base — not a metric buttload of hibiscus.

Oh dear.

Suprisingly, it doesn’t kill the cup as much as I was thinking. This is really all about the cinnamon, and it’s really a potent cinnamon. There’s a definite tart note that settles behind the cinnamon. Then the sweetness of licorice. And somewhere behind that is the note that suggests plum, but in an under ripe not terribly plummy kind of way.

I don’t hate this and it definitely wasn’t awful enough to pitch the cup. But boy am I glad I only have two cups of this to get through.

Did I mention it was snowing today? Because seriously.

Buttery oolong with delicate coconut flavour. Slight sweet floral note.

Thanks to Indigobloom for this tea!

I just woke up so probably won’t write a long review.

1st sip of this tea was very metallic and salty with a background of mango and vegetal. Ok, I let it cool down and the metallic taste isn’t as prominent thank the gods. But still not good.

Thanks to Indigobloom for a sample of this tea. I’ve been trying to eat fruit with breakfast every day and I love berries. This time of year I usually get the frozen berries which are still a treat.

Spice & Tea Exchange claims this is a yunnan black tea, which is an interesting choice for the base. When I first tried this, I thought it was a ceylon due to the fruitiness, but I guess that’s the berry flavoring. I steeped this for 4 minutes before trying it, and still the overall blueberry flavor is light. It does taste fresh and natural but isn’t knocking me over in the flavor department. I detect more yunnan here than berry. I can’t quite make my mind up how I feel about this. One sip I am finding myself wanting more, but then another sip I feel it’s lacking.

I’m a fickle tea drinker this morning, but this was a good tasting experiment!

Sometimes this one comes out very fruity, a lovely juicy candied peach flavour, and other times, well… it’s rooibos. An uneven distribution if I ever saw one! Shook the packet up this time and it didn’t seem to make a difference.
I wonder how it’d fare iced…

I’ve had this a few times now with varying results. Twice it’s been fantastic, with notes of hazelnut, cream, and nutmeg. The other two times it was heavy on the tongue and a tad bitter, and I made sure to not burn the tea. Though I may have gone to three min one of the times.
Either way, I’m determined to get it right. Next time, I’ll actually get out the tea thermometer, as lately I’ve been relying on watching the bubbles and steam.

On another note, I lost count of my cupboard! Been doing so well with sipdowns that I need to do a recount. Woot! I should be down to about 280 or so, down from 292. Victory shall be mine!

I bought this specifically to add to my EG. Works nicely.

I mix this with jasmine in an attempt to recreate a Jasmine Earl Grey I tried at a local shop. Really nice, light EG and pairs well with the T&SE jasmine.

This is my “after nap” tea and another one I received from Indigobloom in a swap. Thanks IB!

In my opinion this is all mint and no chocolate, which is kind of a bummer considering that Chocolate is the very first word in the name of the tea. The mint seems so strong and overpowering that you can barely taste the keemun in here. I get mint with a muddy aftertaste. Better with sugar added but I just don’t think this one is for me somehow. Generally I enjoy minty things but was just hoping for something more and am struggling to finish the cup.

I picked this up from BrewTEAlly Sweet’s stash sale and am so very glad that I did. It’s just a lovely, thick, floral brew. Not generically floral, either. The rose, jasmine, and lavender are distinct without clashing or tasting artificial. The peppermint doesn’t really come through except as a refreshing, mildly tingly aftertaste. This holds up well to a second steep, though it has an ever so slightly thinner mouthfeel.

This is labeled as a white tea. Also a green tea. I’m not sure which it actually is. The floral flavors obscure most of the base. It looks like a green tea, though.

first steep: 180F, 3 mins
second steep: 195F, 5 mins

This is a pleasant fruit green tea. It’s mostly green with just subtle hints of strawberry and rhubarb. Normally I’m not into subtle, but this one works for me. The green base isn’t too grassy or too floral, it’s well balance and then just a hint of fruit. I get more strawberry than rhubarb but there is some tart that hints of rhubarb.
All in all, this was a really nice tea – I’m sure it would be really good iced.
Thank you for sending me this lovely tea Stephanie.

I picked this up because of a recent swap request from Suziqzer. She requested 1.5 ounces of this hard-to-find limited-edition tea and I kept .5 ounces for myself. I’m thinking I should have kept a little more for myself because I like the way this tastes! I brewed it for a few minutes, afraid that it would get too bitter, but I put the tea back in to steep it some more. I also re-steeped this for a second time and it tasted almost as good.

I thought that this would taste artificial when I read the description. I don’t really see or taste peppermint candies in this tea, instead I see/taste actual dried mint leaves. The chocolate note is very subtle and adds a creaminess to the finish of the tea. The smell is clean and minty and it tastes quite refreshing.

This is quite delicious, but I think it should be renamed Carrot Cupcake Chai, as it’s a little spicy. In a good way. That said, it still reminds me very much of carrot cake, only a not so mild one.
The spices are blended nicely, and it goes well with milk. A comforting cup. OH!! I also feel like there is some sort of “icing” component here. Perhaps that’s the coconut/vanilla addition? Either way, I had a heaven moment there when sipping away. Yum!

So. This was supposed to go to someone I know but I had ordered a bunch of stuff for various people when Mum went to Florida last year, and then she forgot them there so had to wait three months to bring them back on the next trip… and then my email got deleted so I’m not sure who… (facebook changed their settings and all of a sudden things were moved around)
Anyhow, if it was you, or if I’m mistaken and it was another tea I owe you from the Spice Exchange, please let me know! Hope ya don’t mind that I sampled it!!
It’s been in my cupboard for over a year now, I asked around before and nobody has claimed it… so speak up or I’ll forever hold your tea ;)
Would be a shame to lose out on this one, whoever you are.

This tea looked and smelled beautiful in the jar! It’s also organic, so I just couldn’t resist getting a small bag. Unfortunately, the tea itself disappoints. I experimented brewing it a couple of times, but there is absolutely no rose in it—delicate or otherwise. I can taste the white tea. Of all the other ingredients, the peppermint is most obvious. It definitely leaves a minty aftertaste. If I want a mint tea, however, I’d get something else.

Whoopee sipdown! (108)

So this was a tea that I bought while I was in Florida. One of my favourite! A nice green with subtle hints of strawberry :)
Definitely don’t have enough for a decend cuppa though. I have like 1.5g left soooo yeah. Probably the smallest cup of tea tonight ahhaha.
Just something nice and calm after having Sherlock’s Experiment!

((and I don’t even know why, but I’m going through a One Direction craze. Their song came up on Pandora one day and I was like huh. Maybe I have this song? AND I LOOKED IN ITUNES AND I FREAKIN HAVE EVERY ALBUM, THE FREAKIN DELUXE EDITION AND I’M ALL WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN??!?!?! But yeah One Direction. I’m not a fan, but I do appreciate and enjoy their music :) I especially love the ones that Mcfly wrote for them because… reasons))

Current status: Dance parties every night to this song (http://youtu.be/NiHWwKC8WjU) on repeat because I’m tired of studying for all my midterms. Dance parties with a cup of hot hot tea is quite possibly the worst idea ever but I DON’T CARE. PROCRASTINATION TO THE MAX :))

But this tea! I got it in Downtown Disney while I was still in Florida and the sent stood out the most. It’s fairly fruity. I love the strawberry in it! It’s very aromatic, which I love, and the strawberry scent is there from dry to steeping. It sorta leaves a weird texture in my mouth though..

I love all things chocolate. I was really browsing for some spices when I noticed Black Chocolate. The aroma of the raw tea in the jar is simply scrumptious—rich, dark, and seductive. The brewed tea retains some of the chocolate aroma and flavor, but it is not nearly as rich as the raw tea suggests. It is a very pleasant, nicely smooth black tea with a subtle chocolate flavor. If it were a perfume, I’d say that it contains a woody note; it might be strange, but that’s how it feels. Bottom line, it is certainly for those who prefer their tea only mildly flavored. (I also tried it with coconut milk, which adds a touch of creamy sweetness to it.)