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Banana flavoured teas are making their way up my favourites list. This summer, I enjoyed some herbal and rooibos banana blends but generally found the base too light.

And now, bam, banana and a black tea base.

I tried not to get my hopes up too much, because we know how that goes when you are anticipating a distinct flavour combination and the reality becomes quite different.

The scent of the dry leaf is just lovely and enticing sweet and true banana. There are bits of broken dry banana slices throughout the tea.

The black tea base is extra lovely and to my taste, well-suited to flavouring. Medium body. Just assertive enough to be present and sturdy enough to carry the flavours.

True clear banana taste with a bit of cake/sweet bread at the end of the sip. Just like banana bread, really. Just clear and true. No other flavours intruding or muddying things up, happily.

Very enjoyable. As I make my way through my cup and then my second, my rating of this tea has steadily creeped up from my initial assessment at 80 to 95. This tea may well find a place beside my beloved Buttered Rum. I cannot find anything wrong with this tea nor can I think of what might somehow make this tea absolutely perfect, but somehow resist giving it a 100.

Thankfully, I ordered a large packet of this, so I look forward to many future steepings.

Well done, Anne of 52teas! A really nice tea.

This was probably the wrong day for me to drink this tea: after a full day of mild and gentle Autumn Harvest Laoshan Green, six steepings worth.

And then, BAM, a very assertive Roots and Chai. Dandelion root in tea tends to rub me the wrong way. I had given the bag a good shake, but still.

I steeped it the recommended 8 minutes.

The smell of this tea is vile.

The taste is deep and spicy chai-like with this odd mint-like bite at the end. Perhaps it is the ginger. Though I like ginger and I don’t usually find that it comes as an aftertaste. And then, there’s this odd tongue-tingle effect like one gets from mint sometimes. Though I know that mint is not listed as one of the ingredients.

This is my first cup of this, and I will attempt a second steeping. And then, I will probably try this another time to see whether it was completely unfair of me to drink this after a day of a most lovely and gentle green.

Oh my word.

How truly lovely this it!

I just received my very first subscription packet from Verdant Tea yesterday when I came home late at night. This is the first tea that I am trying. And what a glorious beginning to the day this is.

The leaf was just picked and processed a couple of weeks ago. When I opened the packet and inhaled, I was transported to China again and my visits to tea shops and tea gifts from friends. Such a fresh lovely grassy scent.

Seriously, this tea takes me to my most favourite tea room in a relatively small town on the bank of a river in southern Szechuan province. Beautiful beautiful tea. (Although Laoshan is in Shandong, which is nowhere near this particular tearoom in Szechuan.)

The tea brews up pale yellow. Beautiful.

And the flavour! Omg, so good. Lovely mild asparagus with a hint of toasted sesame overlay. Not even the slightest bit of bitterness or astringency.

As I don’t have a temperature-controlled kettle, I use my boil the water and walk away for a few minutes method for brewing up green tea. Also, I steep for two minutes or under.

Forgive me, I am not well-practiced at describing green teas, so this will be a new skill for me to hone while I read up on what others have written on this particular green tea and others.

I was reluctant to buy this tea because it sounded like it might turn out to be somewhat gross, and then, if they got it right, it could turn out to be fab. In the end, my curiosity won out and I bought enough for three or four good cups: a good place to mention that the dry tea is quite heavy as it resembles broken up peanut butter cups.

The peanut flavour is right there. The chocolate is just a hint, but I’d say the peanut butter cup scent and flavour is quite accurate. I’d like the chocolate to be more present and the cup to be more creamy, but all in all, I’d say that they did a pretty good job with this.

YES. Wholeheartedly yes.

This is one of my favourite mild black teas, mild as opposed to the strong assertive black teas in Mighty Leaf fruited teas. It is pretty mellow morning or afternoon tea. I find that this and Buttered Rum by David’s also are in the same craving range for me. Both are my big favourites from David’s selection and I always have both in my cupboard.

This is now my second or third big purchase of this tea.

The tea brews up dark amber. The dry and wet scents are lovely: grounded light caramel. The taste is mellow grounded caramel, light light caramel, with a wee hint of sea salt. It’s a mild tea—I enjoy it black, through two quick steepings. I have had it in store as a latte, but found it not as satisfying as I’d like. The flavour and depth was not strong enough in all that milk for me.

One thing I really like about this tea and David’s Buttered Rum is that the black tea base is relatively mild. Any idea of what tea they are using here as the base? Anyway, it is just the thing when you want a gentle flavoured black tea, as opposed to a slap you upside the head on both sides black tea, which has its moments too, of course.

I like this combination of flavours a lot. I would like to discover a tea that has a bit more true rich quasi-burnt caramel flavour going on, without tasting false, of course. So, if someone has any ideas, please let me know.

Really big BIG pieces of fruit in this tea dry and not much else. The tisane brews up lemon yellow. The flavours are bright—mango, citrus—and a teeny bit of citrus bitterness peeking through. Initially, it seemed like grapefruit peel bitterness, but perhaps that’s not it. Each sip seems to have a different flavour variation as it cools from hot to not all that hot: pleasant though. Fruity, juicy, and pleasant.

I don’t find that the flavours taste unnatural, like others have mentioned, but then, I was quite stingy with the dry tea.

While I enjoy this flavourful cup, I imagine it would be quite expensive to keep on hand given the density and size of the fruit needed for a each cup. I will enjoy what I have, but likely will not restock all that often.

I may have tried this initially either in the store or as a sample packet from a purchase. Or not. Or read about it from other reviewers. Whatever.

One day when I was in a David’s store here, I ran into a client who raved and raved about this tea being her favourite. She often doctors it up with organic baby rose buds she buys from a health food store. Between this chat and the intoxicating scent of the dry tea, I ended up buying a good bit to try and formulate my own perspective.

Based on what I don’t know, I had expected this tea to taste false, unlike real things. Nope. I had given the bag a good shake to ensure that I would be getting a bit of everything on my scoop, brewed it quickly with boiling water that I had walked away from for a few minutes to let cool a bit.

This is lovely tea. Lovely. Yellow amber in the glass. Smooth, light, intoxicating flavour. Floral and fruity but mellow and not too much of either. Rose, jasmine, and lychee fluttering about on a delicate white tea base. Apparently, there is green tea as well, but it must be just a suggestion to give a bit more body.

All in all, a very nice balance of flavours and a very nice cup indeed.

Oh God, I have been transported.

Good solid strong black base, which reminds me of the Mighty Leaf black tea base for its fruity teas. Smooth with a teeny wee bit of smoke. And then, rose and spice and citrus. Just divine. Really.

If I began four mornings of my week with this tea, despite my tea obsession and outrageous tea collection, still, all would be right with my world. I steeped three times and would likely be able to steep another full flavoured good one. Each steep held up flavourfully well in my timolinos, despite the delicate flavours.

I received this as part of my monthly subscription for September (or is it part of October’s selection?) with Tea Sparrow. No regrets. Highly recommended.

About my three 12 ounce Timolinos and my two 16 ounce travel carry mugs from David’s tea.

I. adore. my. three. 12 ounce Timolinos. Adore them and use them daily. They are light, leakproof, and feel ever so good in my hands. They keep my teas hot forever.

And yes, I also have two David’s 16 ounce travel carry mugs. Which I also use regularly. I prefer the look and feel of the Timolinos, but I like the 16 oz size of the carry mugs.

I find that the travel carry mugs retain the scent and flavour of highly flavoured teas, so I am careful to not use them with highly perfumed teas, such as Elderflower Spritz for example. Because of this, I am also careful not to use the carry mugs with delicately flavoured teas as well.

I bought all three on different sales as David’s in discontinuing them due to now having their own design of the same product. However, the quality is such that I would still buy them at regular price without regrets.

I do not use the steeping baskets of either the Timolinos or the carry mugs. I prefer to steep in my Steeper and pour the ready tea into the containers. The openings are too narrow to use with David’s stainless steel steeper baskets.

I. adore. my. three. 12 ounce Timolinos. Adore them and use them daily. They are light, leakproof, and feel ever so good in my hands. They keep my teas hot forever.

And yes, I also have two David’s 16 ounce carry mugs. Which I also use regularly. I prefer the look and feel of the Timolinos, but I like the 16 oz of the carry mugs.

I bought all three on different sales as David’s in discontinuing them due to now having their own design of the same product. However, the quality is such that I would still buy them at regular price without regrets.

I do not use the steeping baskets of either the Timolinos or the carry mugs. I prefer to steep in my Steeper and pour the ready tea into the containers. The openings are too narrow to use with David’s stainless steel steeper baskets.