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Picked this up because I trying to find a few tisanes to balance out my black tea collection. I think this is sourced from Metropolitan Tea Company as well, but not positive. This is a pretty decent blueberry tea — I could do without the hibiscus, but it’s mild enough here that it doesn’t ruin it.

I’ve been curious for awhile about the big wholesaler, Metropolitan Tea Company, so when Culinary Teas — which sources most (all?) of their tea from Met — had free shipping, I sprung for a few samples.

This is my first time trying a Monk’s Blend. I knew it would have grenadine in it, so I guess I was expecting something like liquid maraschino cherries. When I sniffed the bag, it smelled like raspberry candy, and the flavor has a tanginess that strikes me more as raspberry than cherry flavor. There is a light vanilla cream note that, for me, is the highlight of this tea. The base is inoffensive, but definitely unremarkable. I know this tea gets sold both in bagged and loose leaf form. I ordered loose leaf, but no surprise really, the tea still has that standard bagged-quality kind of taste. Something about the blend of flavors reminds me of H&S Paris, but H&S does a far better job on it.

I won’t have any trouble getting this down, but I definitely won’t be going out of my way to get more either, as it’s just pretty run-of-the-mill fare.

Sipped this one down too. I can never make this tea last for long. The lime and apple are great together.

Polished this off without even realizing it — I thought I had half a bag stashed in the pantry, but apparently I already drank it. This particular batch wasn’t as amazing as the batch I had before, not as intensely strawberry, and the oolong flavor had sort of a rough edge to it, but it was still pretty good. I mean, obviously I had no trouble getting it down if went through 50 grams of it without noticing ;)

I think this was supposed to be a spice tea? I’m not really getting much in the way of spices, but it’s a pleasant-enough black tea.

Had a small sample of this — not sure who made it. I’ve never had a golden earring tea before, so I was fascinated by the appearance of the leaves. Dry, this tea looked like tiny balls of rolled-up thread. It was fun watching them uncurl into silky olive-green leaves. It has that mild mineral note that is kind of characteristic of a roasted green tea, and the liquid was very pale.

Pretty standard in terms of flavor, but strangely weak for an English Breakfast.

High marks for presentation — all the bright sprinkles and things in this tea would make it a fun choice for a tea party. I really don’t taste any caramel in this, but I think I’m getting a hint of the marshmallows. It really just tastes like a mellow, slightly sweet black tea, but it is a pleasant cup.

I’ve gotten so used to loose leaf earl grey creams that I’d forgotten how sharp bagged earl greys can be. Adding sugar helped. Not great, but not bad, this pretty much just tastes like Bigelow’s earl grey.

I guess I’ll always be wishing the vanilla in my vanilla teas was stronger, but that aside, this is a really nice one. Though mellow, the vanilla is definitely present and it blends nicely with the smooth base. The vanilla tastes natural, not like an alcohol-based extract, and there’s a hint of cookie flavor to it. Overall, favorite vanilla tea to date.