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Another morning assam. I’m not getting all the flavours that other people have listed in their notes. :) But it’s, a nice, full-bodied, malty assam. I again found a little bit of bitterness, but just a splash of milk smoothed that right out.

Ok, decided to try this again. I have two 25g bags, so made a cup of each to drink side to side. Both bags have an obvious vanilla smell. Sitting here with one in each hand and going back and forth, sometimes I think I can detect a difference in intensity, and sometimes I can’t. For both, I’m definitely finding it to be vanilla, not chocolate. Steeped 3g (approx 2 tsp – it’s light tea) in 10oz water (just off boiling) for 3min. I could definitely taste a difference between the two cups – one definitely had more vanilla. For both, I was again missing the chocolatey flavour I remembered from my previous batch. Both cups had a little bit of vanilla dust in the bottom. I tried resteeping for 5min, and both cups were kind of bland/watery in the resteep. Ugh, I wish I still had that sample to compare with! Also, I need someone to come over and taste with me, in case the problem here is just in my taste buds/brain. So confused. :p

Decided to go with a straight assam this morning, because it has been a while. I think I either overleafed or oversteeped this initially, because my first cup had a bit of bitterness. Not enough to make me not drink it, but enough to distract from the other flavours. It improved slightly as it cooled. I took the leaves for a second steep, slightly cooler water and same amount of time. Now it’s smooth, malty, and surprisingly sweet! I’m holding off on rating it until I brew it properly, but I like this.

Another weird one! Postal Teas / Lemon Lily, you’re not impressing me. This one also has a powder visibile in the bag, though the powder is sweet and obviously maple. The ingredient list has “Canadian Maple Flakes”, so I guess if you beat those up you get Canadian Maple Dust. Steeping instructions were “2 tea spoons @ 200F for 4-6 mins”. I measured out a level (1.5) tsp and then topped it up a bit to make 4g for my 10oz mug. Water at around 90C, steeped for 4min.

Ok, in the bag, this smells extremely gingery. So I was ready for it to be a ginger-honeybush tisane, and then… huh, the steeped liquid smells mostly kind of earthy or plant-y (is that the honeybush?). The taste is slightly tart from the hibiscus (it’s not overdone, but… I’m still not sure why it’s there in the first place?). I’m only getting ginger in the aftertaste, with a slightly warming quality. There’s a very slight sweetness from the maple. I don’t detect any cinnamon. I don’t understand this tisane at all! Like, it’s not terrible, I’ll drink it, but I do not see what the point was of combining this particular set of ingredients. I’m just stting here, sipping, going “but… WHY?”.

This is a weird tea. In the bag, with the black tea leaves, safflower petals, and citrus peel, there’s this granular, powdery substance. The lemon lily website has “pomegranate powder” in the list of ingredients they use, so I’m guessing that’s what it is. I tasted some of the powder left behind on the scale, and it… didn’t really tast like anything. Weird. Steeping instructions on the label were “2 tea spoons @ 212F for 4-6 mins”. I measured out 1.5tsp (one level “tea spoon”) and it was 3.4g, which seemed like plenty for my 9oz mug. Steeped for 2 min, tasted, it was kind of bland. Steeped for one more min, tasted, it was starting to get a bit tart/bitter, so I figured it was time to stop. This brews into a dark orange liquor. It smells like… red fruit, could be pomegranate I guess. It actually smells like it has hibiscus in it, though it doesn’t. It tastes mostly citrusy and slightly sour/bitter from the orange and lime peel. Where is the black tea hiding in all of this? If I were tasting it blind I would assume this was a tisane. Bizarre.

I forgot all about this during yesterday’s epic Earl Grey face-off. :) I just have a small bag of it, got it from one of those community fundraising things a couple years back. Anyway, I was in the mood for a tea I could add milk to, and this was near the front of my cupboard (how did I miss it yesterday) so here we are.

It smells really good, like there’s a definite creamy vanilla scent that blends in well with the bergamot. When I first tasted it, I was suprised to find it quite bitter! Like, enough so that I couldn’t really pay attention to the other flavours at all. It tasted like I had oversteeped it, though the package says steep for 3-7min and I went with 4min, so I didn’t think that was particularly excessive. Anyway, I guess it’s a good thing that I was planning to add milk to this anyway! I added more than my usual splash of milk, and that made it entirely drinkable. It still smells a lot better than it tastes, though.

Thanks to Anlina for this sample. :) This has a lovely, fresh scent – sweet and vegetal. The flavour is rich and full, with a creamy mouthfeel and a lingering sweetness in the aftertaste.

From this month’s Postal Teas box. I may have a problem with this tendency to try out new subscription boxes. ;) The steeping instructions on the package were “1-2 tea spoons @ 200F for 4-6min” which seemed a bit crazy to me, so I went with 3.5g in 10oz @ 80-85C for 2min (3min on the second steep). Worked fine, definitely didn’t taste like it needed a longer steep! Anyway, this is a pretty unremarkable fruity green tea. Solid sencha (I’m assuming) base, kind of artificial-tasting cherry flavour. I don’t taste the rose petals at all. It’s not unpleasant, but I have fruity green blends in my cupboard that I like more.

Ok, this dry tisane smells like BERRIES! (all-caps and punctuation included). I brewed it according to Tea Sparrow’s suggestion, which was 1tbsp (4g) per 8oz of water (well, my mug has 10oz) for 4-6min (I went with 4). It brews up this gorgeous purplish red colour, amazing. It tastes… holy crap, TART! Like, puckeringly sour, LOL. I’m actually kind of enjoying this, but I’m one of those people who love sour candies too. OMG I think this is actually bringing tears to my eyes. Holding off on rating this for now, obviously I need to experiment with some different steeping parameters. :)

When I opened this bag and took a big sniff, my first reaction was “NOPE”, which is never a good sign. :) It’s really… spicy (duh) but like, savoury-spicy. I think I must be smelling mostly ginger and black pepper, maybe the fennel? I don’t know, I usually love ginger (in tea and in general) but there’s something about this that offends me. Anyway, let’s give this a try.

I steeped 2-3tsp in 10oz of water for 10min. Now it just smells… earthy… and a bit spicy (but again, the spiciness is lacking that sweetness that I usually associate with chai). Tasting it, it’s actually not that bad. Huh. The spices are way mellower than I expected. It has a warming quality, presumably from the ginger and pepper, but it’s not ‘hot’ the way those ingredients can be (I’ve also let it cool down quite a bit temperature-wise). I added a bit of sweetener and milk, and it’s just… meh. Not bad, but nothing I’m going to feel compelled to buy more of.