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This has the look and smell of a guilty pleasure tea. It had actual dark chocolate chunks in it. I know, I ate one. I knew I should’ve expected more on delivery given that it had a Ceylon for a base. This brewed up a light amber-to-brown with a tangy, tiramisu-like nose. The taste was creamy and floral on initial sip, somewhat spicy in the middle, and chocolate sort of rounded out the middle. Not sure where the hazelnut went, it probably contributed to the tang on the forefront. Lighter than most cocoa cups I’ve had, but still quite pleasurable – whatever the weather.

Full Review: http://www.teaviews.com/2011/02/01/review-friday-afternoon-teas-snow-day-blend-2/

I only meant to go downtown to pick up a paycheck today…but I ended up veering off course and entering The Spice and Tea Exchange. It was relatively new. I did some background digging on their teas prior. None really stood out at first, but then I went in to smell ’em. The Mystic Dragon grabbed my attention for smelling exactly like an Orange Julius smoothie. Not a sophisticated comparison, I know…but an apt one.

Taste-wise, both green teas (the Japanese and Chinese) blend quite perfectly. The berry lean showed up in the middle, but not overpoweringly so. The round-out was quite floral. Subdued, slightly subtle, but sating.

I consider myself a hibiscus apologist. I love the stuff. Whenever I make a fruit or rooibos blend – or an iced tea – I like to throw those red shells into the fray. However, even I will acknowledge when there’s just a little too much. This is one of those times. With orange and apricot also in the mix, I wanted more of a citrus presence from this. I only got a faint impression of it in the middle. The rest was quite tart and sour. That said, I still enjoyed it. Just not as much as I wanted to.

Full Review: http://www.teaviews.com/2011/02/03/review-tiesta-tea-grannys-garden/

A friend of mine picked this up while we were perusing a Japanese grocery store. There were no ingredients listed on the canister. All it read was, “Chinese herbs and rose petals”. Further digging later online termed up nothing as well. The blend smelled primarily of rose. There were other petal-looking “thingies” in it with a white-to-beige appearance like chrysanthemum, but I didn’t get a sense of them in there.

I was a little weary of it at first when I saw the rose petals they used. Instead of pink ones, RoT blended this with red. Thankfully, they were few and far between. Never dominating. After brewing, this had a distinctively botanical scent – not quite bathwatery, praise Buddha – and settled into an omnipresent floral scent. The taste had a similar effect – floral, slightly buttery, and relaxing. Not my favorite rose blend ever, but one I’d never turn down.

The vendor site claims this is a tea from Fujian Province, but “Bai Hao” (or White Hair) Oolong actually stems from Taiwan. And on taste, I’m more apt to believe this is a Formosan oolong. It brews a bright gold liquor with a first flush pekoe-ish nose. The taste is definitely more reminiscent of Taiwanese oolongs I’ve had, reminding me quite a bit of Superior Taifu with its grape-like notes and crisp foretaste. An enjoyable cup…wherever the heck its from.

Full Review: http://www.teaviews.com/2011/02/07/review-teavert-bai-hao-oolong/

It probably didn’t help that I didn’t observe a typical gongfu prep for this. It also probably didn’t help that I was eating sharp cheddar-laden chimichangas at the time. That said, I brewed this as I would an oolong (but with boiling water), and it was a perfect sheng. Muscat grape notes, shades of maple leaf, pear, and some earthiness trailing on finish. When I think of aged sheng pu-erh, I think this. Flawless.

Thanks to seykayay for this little treasure.

Wow, this was unusual. I’ve often speculated as to why other teas don’t appear in powdered form (and, no, I don’t mean “instant” teas). Sometimes, I imagined what a white matcha would taste like. Well, now I know. It’s weird…but in a good way. Unlike other matchas out there, this requires the use of boiling water to get the full effect. An attempt at the usual 160(ish)F temperature yielded an oolongy soup. If you like that sorta thing, go for it. I didn’t care for it. However, with boiling water, the true nuances of this came forth. It was a nutty liquor, beige in color, frothed up quite nicely, had a lovely texture, and was probably the first tea that had an umami character to it. Never thought I’d use that word in a sentence. Different than what I was expecting but damn good.

Full Review: http://www.teaviews.com/2011/01/25/review-green-tea-lovers-rhino-matcha-white/

I’ll confess this wasn’t a combination that sounded appetizing. I liked guayusa by itself just fine, but the only flavor I thought it could blend well with was citrus. With a lemony lean, maybe. I put this on the back-burner because I thought they used chocolate flavoring for it. Turns out I was wrong; cocoa nibs were used in place of an agent. That sounded more up my alley. While it isn’t as successful as come orange or lemon-blended guayusa fusions, it has a character that works. The normal, leafy kick the holly has on the forefront is masked by the nibs’ unsweetened chocolaty presence, which later gives way to the base’s natural sweetness. The combination works for the most part. It doesn’t quite replace a mocha, but it gives a “tea”-totaler an alternative.

Full Review: http://www.teaviews.com/2011/01/23/review-stash-tea-guayusa-and-chocolate-tea/

This is my third product hailing from Shizuoka Prefecture. Of the three, it’s probably the second best I’ve tried. First flush buds are steamed to create this lovely, sweet-smelling “behbeh” sencha. Brewing required a less-than-a-minute steep in typical green tea temp water. The result was a foggy, vibrant green liquor akin to a genmai matcha-iri…but without the “suck” factor. It was a very nutty brew, but sweetly so; and not very vegetal at all. A second infusion turned up a citrus note. All in all, a bronze-worthy sencha.

Full Review: http://www.teaviews.com/2011/01/26/review-green-tea-lovers-shincha-shizuoka/

Finishing the last of my sample of this – thanks be to Seykayyay for passing it my way again. I actually think I have to up my rating on this. I taste more of the artichoke heart-ish-ness this time. Perhaps the use of roll-boiled water worked better. I dunno. I will missed this bagged tisane. [salute]