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I’m finally getting around to trying the rest of the Stash samples that I got several months ago. I picked this one today because I wanted something fruity, but not a Hibiscus tea. While this does have some Hibiscus in it, it is what I was looking for. It’s very lemony, a bit tart, but not too tart, and faintly herbaceous. I like it, and I’ll probably end up buying more in the future.

The dry leaf had a strong, decadent caramel scent, but it didn’t carry over to the flavor. The base tea had a pleasant smokiness, but was more bitter than I prefer. The caramel was just barely present. I’ll have to try this again with milk and/or sweetener, but I was disappointed with it.

I can’t decide what I think of this tea. It does taste quite strongly of pineapple, so there is that. It’s quite sweet, almost too much so at the beginning of a sip, but then that almost citrusy tartness that pineapple has shows up, and balances out the sweetness. There’s some other flavor alongside the pineapple that I can’t quite identify and am not sure I like. I’ll have to drink more of this before I come to a final decision about it.

I wasn’t a big fan of this. It smelled strongly of artificial caramel with a bit of apple and cinnamon, but it tasted really bland. Something about the dissonance between the smell and taste was really off-putting to me.

I finally caved and bought a pound of this since I love it so much. As always, I used two teaspoons and added some chai spices and a bit of sweetener. It makes for a smooth, subtle hazelnut-spice flavor that is incredibly warming and soothing. It was especially welcome this morning since I’m tired after running errands all day yesterday and the boys were taking turns screaming for my attention this morning. Ah, the joys of motherhood. But baby is one week old today, and overall it’s been a very good week so I really can’t complain.

This was the last of my Design a Tea samples. It smelled really awful – like cough medicine. Luckily it didn’t taste like it smelled. It was merely bland with a faint chemical aftertaste. Blech. This was not a winner. I think in the end, while I love the idea of Design a Tea, I’m not very impressed with the samples I tried, so I probably won’t put in an order with them anytime soon.

Blended a teaspoon of Green Rooibos, the last of my Mandarin Orange Spice (less than half a teaspoon), and a few clementine peels. It was pleasant and warming, but not really anything special.

I wouldn’t have picked this tea for myself, since I haven’t liked any of the almond flavored teas I’ve tried before, and I’m not a big fan of red rooibos. But Design a Tea added it to my order, so I gave it a try. I was pleasantly surprised. The almond was much less cloying than others I’ve tried, and wasn’t paired with a bitter black base, so I could taste it on its own. I actually rather liked it. It was nutty and faintly sweet. I couldn’t taste the rooibos or chamomile at all, but I don’t mind that since the almond flavor is quite appealing on it’s own.

I steeped the rest of this sample (1/2 teaspoon) in 4 ounces of water for 2 minutes. This seemed to take care of the astringency without losing the flavor. It made for a nice, creamy flavor that I would recommend.

This has a pleasant scent, but is rather bland. Just a faint, artificial peach flavor. I can’t taste the blueberry at all.