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I steeped a mug of this yesterday even though it was seasonally inappropriate because I had a headache and sometimes spices help a bit when my head hurts? It’s weird, I know. This was a fairly mild but nicely balanced chai. The strongest notes to me were the cardamom and the smoke of the lapsang souchong. Anyway it was comforting and did the trick, no more head pains :)

Loved the lemon ginger aroma that hit me when I opened the little pouch. Lots of pretty flowers in this too. The description talks about how spicy this is but I am getting only the tiniest tingle of heat. I may need to shake the pouch up more, once there is a little room in there for stuff to move around. I can just barely tell that there is green tea in this, it mostly comes across as an herbal. Still, the lemon and ginger taste great together, so even if it’s not what I was expecting, this is a pleasant tea.

Eh, smoky bubblegum? Definitely one of the more out-there teas I’ve tried.
I thought there would at least be a little tang but there’s no tang.

I was slightly leery of this when I opened the pouch because it smelled SO smoky! I get quite a bit of smoke in the flavor too, but it’s a mellow barbecue smoke, doesn’t dry my throat out as some lapsang souchongs have, and it really goes with the peach, which is coming through nicely. The butterscotch doesn’t really stand as its own note, but I think it’s tying the other two together. This tea is putting me in the mood to grill something.

The mystery teas arrived in the mail today! Trying this one first because I just pulled some cranberry almond muffins out of the oven and this sounds like it will match.

Amaretto flavor is spot on, so that’s nice. Picking up on that light spice blend that I’ve noticed in some of 52teas other rooibos teas. I don’t know about chestnut — I’ve only eaten chestnuts once and the flavor was so different from the aroma that I’m not even sure how a chestnut flavor would present itself in tea. It’s hard for me to get excited about anything rooibos, but I do like the amaretto here, and it goes great with the muffins :)

Sipdown for this too. It took me awhile to notice the instructions on the bag that said steep this at 180 for God’s sake, so I made several cups with boiling water. And it was good that way, but 180 was DEFINITELY better. Smoother, mellower, and more balanced. This was a good tea, but not exactly a must have. Nice but not distinctive. If Zen Tea ever starts actually selling tea again, I might grab a bag, but I am not mourning over it like I am mourning their Coconut Oolong, because how could they just stab us in the heart like that? The world NEEDS their Coconut Oolong.

Sipdown. This was a very nice tea to have around. Not like a show-stopper tea, but a very comfortable, cozy tea to sip on. I really enjoyed how earthy the cherry was — so many cherry flavorings have that kind of almond bite to them, but this was mellow. Over all, Capital Teas seemed overpriced to me, so I don’t see myself becoming a big time customer, but if they are having a sale I will probably snap this up.

It was so hot today! Luckily I had this tea to take off the edge. It just feels more hydrating than all the other teas, the cucumber and mint somehow acting as a cooling flavor even when it’s not iced. I wish I’d been quick enough to snag a big bag of this to get me through the summer, but alas they sold out too fast. I did get another taster pouch though, so looking forward to that. Also, in case you missed their discussion post, 52Teas is doing a mystery grab bag sale right now :)

And another one for the list of changes that didn’t need to happen. H&S sent me a sample tea bag of this. I’d previously had the newish version of Bangkok at a Starbucks, and while it IS better when made at the right temperature (i.e. not scalding), it’s still a disappointment when compared to the old version. I’d like to know who tasted the original and thought, I know what would make this better — weird fake vanilla! Really — and I say this as a fan of vanilla — even a good vanilla would make no sense with the other flavors in the tea. As it is the awkward cloying fake vanilla is overwhelming everything else.

Got this as a sample. The description talks about chocolate and tobacco undertones and a fruity aftertaste — I’m not sure I’m getting all that, but it is a flavorful earl grey, nice and punchy, with a hint of smoke. I still prefer the H&S earl grey supreme that’s become one of my cupboard staples; it’s a bit lighter and brighter and more citrusy, and just more my style, but this is still good.