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Decided to have another of my T2 samplers from the great discount sampler purchase from T2’s Christmas Clearance sale at the beginning of the year. I made this one iced, though only made half a quart due to the size of the sampler (I usually prepare my iced tea in a quart size). It basically makes one tall glass of iced tea or two cups of warm tea, but this is a flavor I definitely wanted to sip on chilled.

I actually love hibiscus and rose hips, so the base of this tea is that refreshing, slightly tart flavor that tastes somewhat like fruit punch to me, but it has a very strong floral note to the cup. The rose adds just a hint of overall sweetness, a nice rosey flavor, and since I’ve been drinking a lot of rose teas lately, I’ve noticed that it has a somewhat distinct peppery note on the tip of the tongue.

This is a really refreshing iced tea, I enjoy the blend of tart/tangy floral notes mixed with sweet and delicate floral notes. It is like a rosey punch, and gives me those pleasant sweet-tart notes that I love so much.

The name of this tea is a bit misleading, as it isn’t really much of a replication of actual Thai Tea. I love me some Thai iced tea and can’t recall ever having a cup with such a coconuty flavor, and think they should’ve gone with a different name. That said, for what it is, it’s a pretty enjoyable black tea. I like coconut flavored teas, so the strong coconut notes are quite enjoyable. There is a small hint of vanilla (which is really the flavor they should’ve played up if they wanted to taste more like Thai tea, in my opinion!) but it doesn’t stand out as much compared to the coconut. I’m a bit sad that none of the cardamom presented itself in the flavor. The base comes off a bit stronger than I prefer my black teas; I can tell that a lot of things were added to try to naturally sweeten this tea up (apple, honeybush), but it is still pretty astringent, at least to my tastes. So I have to take this with just a dash of vanilla coconut creamer, which helps sweeten the tea up a bit while adding a slight creaminess and emphasizing the vanilla and coconut flavors.

Honestly, this just comes across as a coconut black tea, and there are better coconut black blends out there. If you are looking for a tea that tastes like Thai tea like the name suggests, this certainly isn’t it.

This was the free sampler I got from Strand Tea when I placed an order with them last July. July?! Goodness, I really need to work through some of my older samplers! Hopefully this one still has some oomph left (though admittedly there is a big clump of sunflower petals all fused together on the top of the package… eh, I put them in my cold brew mason jar, hopefully it’ll be fine!)

The sampler looked quite small, but I was surprised to find I had enough teaspoons of tea to do a quart of cold brewed iced tea and had just enough tea left over to make a double-size warm mug at work to sipdown the sampler.

So, warm cup first. I’ve had one other mango green tea, which was a decaf green tea by Spice and Tea Exchange, which I found to have a very bitter flavor and a sort metallic aftertaste that I found very unpleasant. I figured it mostly had to do with the decaf nature of the leaf. There are certainly no metallic notes here, but I am experiencing that same sort of tart/bitter puckering on my tongue, so now I know that particular quality must just be my experience with mango flavoring. Some sips go down with no issue, but most of the time, I get this really strong tart/slightly bitter aftertaste right at the very back of my tongue, right near the throat. I don’t mind the flavor of the mango itself, which is very nice in the tea, and the base green tea leaves used in the blend appear to be of good quality and actually leave a bit of a vegetal flavor in my mouth even despite what appears to be me having a strong reaction to the flavoring, but when that bitter aftertaste hits, it’s a bit off-putting. I don’t seem to have this problem when mango is blended with other flavors, but it seems that mango as the dominant flavor note just isn’t my cup of tea. I almost wonder if this is some sort of mild sensitivity to the mango flavoring commonly used in tea blends, or mango in general (I’ll admit I don’t really eat the raw fruit, since the “mushy” textures of most fruits set off my gag reflex… I’m tempted to try some now just to see.)

Now, the iced tea. I used the cold brew method, and let the leaves steep in cold water in a sealed mason jar in my fridge for somewhere between 8-12 hours, then strained the tea leaves from the water, so I didn’t start with a warm tea base. This is probably a good thing, because that strange bitter sensation I experience on my tongue with hot mango-flavored tea is not present in the iced cup. I feel that puckering sensation slightly at the start of the sip (so I do still suspect I may have issues with mango flavoring), but it isn’t so strong that the cup is unpleasant, and the finish instead has a sweeter, floral taste, likely from all the flower petals in the blend. The fruit flavor is just a lot softer this way, and the other flavors, like the florals in the blend, are allowed to come through. Even without that weird sensation I’m left in the mouth from the mango, I’m reminded why I enjoy fruity greens more iced than hot.

I don’t think this is a bad tea… but I do think I’m coming to discover I have a sensitivity to mango flavoring (and possibly even the fruit itself). I’ll have to continue to keep an eye on that as I weed through more blends in my collection.

My head pain is (slowly) starting to wane, and I remember that last time my migraine was approaching the postdome phase a heavy lavender infusion seemed to help speed up the process. My nausea is getting a little better (oddly enough the only thing I’ve really craved the last few days has been straight-up pineapple juice, so I’ve been guzzling that rather than tea), but I feel ready to handle a warm cuppa again. Since I cashed-in my birthday giftcard to Tea Chai Te and that order arrived today, I thought I’d make this blend, which has a very heavy lavender aroma.

Now, the last time I had a lavender-heavy tea, it was just too much (which was Lupicia’s Lavender White tea), and I ended up having to turn it into a lemonade infusion to drink it, so I’ll admit when I smelled how strong the lavender was in this, I was immediately worried. Plus the base in this was a mix of blackberry, strawberry, and… red raspberry leaf. My lowest rated tea to date has been Traditional Medicinals bagged Red Raspberry Leaf tea. But I wouldn’t have ordered this if I didn’t have a natural curiousity to try a new lavender tea so… crossing fingers and hoping for the best here.

I am actually honestly surprised. There is no doubt, lavender is the main flavor here, but there was something that came off so strongly in Lupicia’s White Lavender that it had this bitter bite right in the close of the sip, and the whole thing just felt overwhelming. This is not so. It has a strong lavender flavor, but still pulls off a delicate, floral mouthfeel. The taste actually has a minty note, if you were to take away the strong menthol feeling from the mint, and the finish is sweet and flowery. I thought with such a leafy base that I’d taste that distinct “cut grass” sort of taste I can get from raspberry leaf, but the tea just tastes like a very smooth lavender tea.

I love lavender and got a bit worried and put off by the last lavender tea I’d tried, so I’ll admit this is a really pleasant surprise… this is so nice! It has a strong lavender taste without hitting that edge that goes too far and becomes bitter from the flower, leaves a lovely minty, refreshing feeling in the mouth, and is incredibly relaxing. This is good plain, but if you are in the mood for a sweeter profile, a little lemon honey is great in it, as well! If you are a fan of lavender teas, this is a good one!

I’ve been down with another lengthy migraine, so I haven’t had the energy to do tea journal the last few days… and the nausea has kinda kept me from even drinking much tea, too. But last Thursday night I received a late birthday package from my best friend who was in Japan during my b-day, that had a gorgeous teacup with Jiji from Kiki’s Delivery Service on it from the Ghibli Musuem, and a bunch of Japanese teas (mostly sakura-flavored teas, as I specifically mentioned I like those and they are hard to come by, and they are in season over there right now, as well as a few other things). One of the stranger things included was an instant plum tea packet that was found at the New Otani Hotel (I believe the Osaka location). My friend’s traveling companion said it was thick and soup-like, so he told me I might want to use it for ramen broth (he knows I use tea as a broth substitute since I can’t use the flavor packets since MSG is a migraine trigger for me). I decided to do something a little different, and dissolved it into the water I was using to make my Minute Rice that night.

Since I only had one packet and I was making a double-serving of rice (which uses two cups of water), I was expecting it to be a little “weak”, but was hoping that the rice might take on a slight plum flavor as it soaked up the water. Ehhh… the experiment didn’t quite work out that way. The rice did have a noticeable taste to it, but it was a very salty flavor! Every now and again I thought that perhaps there was a hint of something slightly sweet or fruity to the taste, but it was extremely subtle; over all, it just tasted very salty. It certainly wasn’t anything to complain about, as it was more interesting than plain white rice, as soy sauce (fermented soy) is another migraine trigger (sigh, but I miss it dearly!), so at least the instant tea powder gave my rice some much needed added flavor. But I certainly wish it had taken on some plum notes like I had hoped. Maybe if I’d had more of the instant tea packets it would’ve worked? Who knows!

Green March! I’ve been using my gravity-well infuser at work to make Margaret’s Soother tea for a coworker with a terribly swollen throat, and haven’t felt like swapping the leaves out to make tea for myself when I want a cuppa, so I brought one of my last Teapigs samplers, since they come sachet-style. Like the Up Beet tea, this tea tastes more like an herbal blend but has a bit of green tea included in the blend.

I’m really enjoying this on a rather cold, dreary windy March morning. It tastes like a lemon ginger tea, with a nice lemony base and a warming gingery note that isn’t overly spicy and doesn’t leave too much heat behind in the mouth, which has been my problem with many lemon ginger blends (seriously, why do so many have to go so crazy with the ginger?) What I’m really enjoying here is there is a lovely noticeable sweet burst of coconut on the top sip that lingers in the aftertaste, that adds a new dimension to the flavor profile. I’ve never had a lemon ginger tea with coconut, and I’m loving the flavor combination! It works amazingly well. Though the tea includes licorice root, I actually can’t taste it at all; there is no pop of sticky sweetness (I’m a huge licorice root fan) so it must be used very subtly here; perhaps it is just enough to mellow some of the ginger out or bring out some of the sweetness of the coconut, which are both things I can’t complain about.

This is a nice tea, and for the coconut alone this is one of the best lemon ginger-style teas I’ve ever tried!

Green March! Spent most of my evening playing with my Kabusecha Saeakari Shaded Green Tea from Marushige Shimizu Tea Farm that I got from Yunomi — I’m mainly trying to find a preferred “casual” brewing method for it that I can use at work when I don’t have tea scales and an easy way to get the water cool enough, etc. Definitely had some failed cups (too astringent, too light, etc.) but I’ll keep working at it; I know the right combo is in there somewhere! Right now I have a cold brew set to steep overnight, since I’m curious about it’s iced tea potential. (Bringing an iced thermos to work may be the way to go for that tea if all else fails!)

While I was doing all that playing around in the kitchen, I fixed up my sampler-size serving of Geisha Getaway from T2 as a cold brew in the fridge. Now that it’s ready and strained, I’m excited to have this sipdown; it smells great!

I have to say, of the pineapple green teas I’ve tried so far this month, I think this has been my favorite so far, thanks to the coconut notes! This has a really refreshing, sweet, pina colada flavor. The pineapple flavor is noticable but a bit lighter (and personally, I prefer my fruity greens to not be too overbearing), and this allows the coconut notes to really shine, leaving a lovely sweet coconut taste on the tongue right in the finish. I can actually make out some very light, delicate grassy notes of the green tea beneath the pineapple and coconut. The pina colada notes are very complimenting, and the iced tea is very refreshing.

The pina colada combo is an easy win for me, and I like that the flavor isn’t too overbearing, so I’d say Geisha Getaway is my top pineapple-flavored green I sampled this month, followed by Pineapple Sorbet by Bluebird Tea Co., which had a nice pineapple-citrus combo, and finally Pineapple Paradise by Fusion Tea, which had a very strong pineapple flavor, which I felt overpowered the mango notes that were supposed to be present in the tea. If I have any more pineapple greens hiding in the ol’ sampler drawer I’ll have to update, hahaha!

Tried this one again iced, and made a second warm cuppa just to sipdown the rest of my sampler, and had a very different experience than with my initial cup. Both the second warm cuppa and the iced brew had a noticably strange, unpleasant taste that I just didn’t recall on that first cup. It’s sort of an acrid taste, like something just doesn’t seem to be meshing with that overwhelming lime flavor at all. I think it may be the red rooibos in the blend, and I’m suspecting that it may have all sunk to the bottom of my sampler, so that I ended up not getting much of it in my first cup, while an abundance of it steeped out in my jug of iced tea and my sipdown hot cup (I certainly don’t remember my first cup being such a vivid reddish-orange color as both of these cups are presenting). I don’t really think it is complimenting the yerba mate and the green rooibos, and am confused why it was necessary to include it at all… I like red rooibos just fine, but here it seems to be a very clashing flavor and the result is a bit off-putting to me. I’m going to have to lower my score on this one, and I’m a bit glad for this sip down.

Green March! Granted this tea reads more like an herbal fruit and veggie blend; one wouldn’t even notice the inclusion of green tea unless reading the ingredients! I’ve been feeling a bit of a craving for hibiscus (my body could probably do with the extra Vitamin C, being on the mend from that food poisoning a week ago, so I’m not going to question that craving!) and I was surprised I actually had this blend tucked away under the Green Tea section of my (far too large) tea list. Sounds good to me!

Mmm. This tea delivers sweet, tangy, and savory notes all in one. I can really get behind this! It has that satisfying punchy hibiscus base that I really enjoy, but the beetroot and carrot give it this slightly savory flavor. There is a spicy, gingery top note, but it isn’t overly strong; I have some other hibiscus-ginger blends where the ginger is very spicy, but here it is a mild spiciness, adding a gingery tones to the veggie notes but not enough heat to leave a lasting aftertaste. The tea is tangy, but pleasantly so; Teapigs uses whole leaf in sachets, not crushed hibiscus petals, so it doesn’t have the strong tart notes that the crushed hibiscus so frequently used in bagged teas causes. It’s a very rounded tea; the sip starts out with a tangy fruit punch note, and ends with a more savory flavor of spiced beet and carrot juice. It feels warm and satisfying, and full of vitamins that I feel like I need right now. I’m going to try to get a few steeps out of my bag, and really make the most out of my two teabag sampler!

This is one of the teas I picked up during American Tea Room’s big going-out-of-business discount sale. I’ve never had any of their teas before, but can’t resist a big discount, and I admittedly grabbed a lot of floral flavors since I really enjoy those. While I’m always a little hesitant when teas include jasmine after my experience with jasmine pearls, overall this blend had me curious, with its mix of florals, mint, and white tea base.

Opening the bag, the scent was heavily that of rose and mint, and honestly if those are the only two flavors I end up getting from the brewed cup I know I’ll be satisfied, because that is a flavor combination that I really enjoy. The brewed cup was a lovely yellow color, that didn’t have such a strong minty scent, though it was still noticeable. There was definitely still a lovely rose aroma wafting up from the cup, with another more subtle floral scent in the background. Jasmine? If so, it’s certainly light, which is exactly how I like it in my floral teas, which bodes well. Oddly enough, I didn’t notice any hint of lavender at all.

The flavor of the tea was very much like a rose mint tea. The base was minty, leaving that cool, freshing feeling in the mouth, but it wasn’t overwhelming or overpowering. A strong rose note sweetens the mint and leaves a strong presense in the finish of the sip. There seems to be a softer background note of jasmine, but it is very subtle beneath the mint and rose flavors. The lavender seems to be lost beneath the other more dominant flavor notes; since lavender has a floral-minty note, paired with the stronger floral rose flavor and peppermint, I can’t make out a lavender flavor in my cup. The tea is very smooth, and the aftertaste is sweet, floral, refreshing, and leaves a slight peppery, tingly note.

While I wish the lavender had been a touch more pronounced in the final cup, I absolutely love the mint rose flavor, which is refreshing and relaxing. I think this is going to be a favorite nighttime warm cuppa, but I also can’t wait to also try this iced.