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Sample sipdown. It might have been underleafed (I just dumped what was left of the sample into the infuser basket without measuring) but I remember being pretty underwhelmed with the first cup too. A fairly light black tea, and lightly spiced. Might be good for people who don’t really like chai, but I’m not a fan.

Fruity and tangy, with just a hint of ginger. I think I maybe should have steeped this longer. It’s good though, and I’m guessing it’d be lovely iced.

I steeped it for a minute longer this time, and I think that made it overly minty. Still good, but very much “mint tea with a hint of vanilla and other stuff”, less balanced. Good to know!

I ended up buying a tin of this from Amoda Tea, so I’m happy to report that I still like it. :) I’m getting more of a bergamot flavour in this than I did with the sample I tried earlier, balanced against the cream and caramel. I made it up with sugar and milk because I was in the mood for something sweet, but it’s also lovely plain.

In my opinion, too bitter to drink plain, but it makes a decent matcha latte. I made mine with 1 tsp of matcha and 1 tbsp honey dissolved in 2oz hot water, then added 6oz of frothed milk. Pretty good! But it’s hard to go wrong with that much honey and milk. :)

Another What-Cha tea! This black tea has twisty leaves that range from brown to gold. Just as the hot water was hitting them I got this aroma of spicy baked… something. Not spicy enough to be gingerbread, but like, maybe a sugar cookie with cinnamon on top? Once brewed, I smelled it again and was like “Oh, so when people talk about a sweet potato flavour in black tea, this must be what they mean!”. The flavour is malty and sweet potatoey with just a hint of cinnamon or nutmeg or something sweet and spicy. Yum.

The dry tea is a mixture of green leaves and fuzzy silver buds. It smells a little bit sweet. It brews up to a light golden liquor, with a scent that’s very fresh and reminds me of a spring breeze. The flavour is sweet and vegetal, like fresh spring peas or new green grass. The mouthfeel is very smooth with just a hint of astringency in my mouth as I approach the bottom of the cup. This is like spring in a cup. :)

Got this as a free sample with my Tiesta order. :) It smells like… really cinnamon-y apple crisp? I can definitely taste the apple and cinnamon as well, though it’s pretty tart, so it doesn’t taste as dessert-y as it smells. There’s this subtle mystery flavour that I’m assuming is the roasted chickory root? It’s interesting. I’m tempted to try adding milk and sugar to this next time, just to see what happenes.

Oh, yum. So first of all, the scent of the dry tea is ridiculously sweet and creamy. It smells like some sort of candy, and makes me seriously question the notion that there are no flavourings involved in this tea. The leaves are very tightly rolled little balls. I used a generous teaspoon for 8oz of water, and that came to about 4g. After several steepings, the leaves had completely filled my little infuser basket. I got a 1/3 c. measuring cup and was able to get all the leaves to fit in there, but it involved a little bit of squishing. Crazy! A lot of the leaves come with a bit of stem attached, which isn’t very obvious in the dry form, so the first time I looked at the steeped leaves I was like “where the heck did all these stems come from??”.

Anyway. The tea liquor is quite a pale yellow, and in the first couple of infusions it has a very milky fragrance; after that it gets milder and more floral. The flavour is amazingly milky in the first infusion especially, but underneath you can tell it’s quite a green oolong – it’s light and sweet and completely lacking in astringency or bitterness. I’m on my… 5th? I think? infusion and it’s starting to get bland so I think I’ll stop (also, that’s a lot of liquid! I’m going to be peeing all night as it is). I steeped for 2min initially, the added 1min for each subsequent infusion. Lovely.

I’m away from home for work this week, so I brought my Discover Darjeeling samples from What-Cha and… I’m kind of regretting it, because I’m getting a bit bored of Darjeelings? Oops. :) So this was a nice enough 1st flush (but seriously, how are these called black teas? they’re so green) but not particularly memorable. I don’t have a thermometer, so I’m kind of winging it re. temperature, so it’s possible I just haven’t figured out the right way to brew these teas to really bring out their full potential. I just have this ridiculous craving for like, Assam all of a sudden, lol. Hopefully I can get my head into Darjeeling Appreciation mode for the rest of the week!