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Samples Only TTB

When I opened the bag I was floored by the scent. It’s AMAZING. I went to my sister and my wife and said “OMG SMELL THIS” and it took a few minutes for me to decide what it reminded me of. My sister said “I want to rub this in my hair. Or take a shower with it.” I said “OMG it smells like it’d be an epic lotion!” She said “Cherry… almond… it’s the almond!” I said “CHERRY ALMOND! It’s JERGENS! THIS IS JERGENS TEA!”

So that’s what it makes me think of.

So we brewed it up. It smells great in the cup. I take a sip and I’m so disappointed at the sour tang that hits my mouth. Oohhh that is… unpleasant. Sister takes a sip and agrees… I go “This has rose hips in it” at a guess. A guess I’m certain is correct. She grabs the packet “Rose hip peels” she reads. I nod. “Rose hips… ruin way too many good teas. But I know how to fix rose hips. More sugar.” I add a half teaspoon more tea than the one I started with and it’s a decent flavor. Sister suggests icing it. “This tastes like it shouldn’t be drank warm.” She comments.

I poured off some in another cup and sister iced it. Meanwhile I added another half teaspoon to the first making it 2 t for most of a cup. THEN it tasted good. And the iced version was much better.

So my feel on this tea is a note to Teavanna.

Dear Teavanna,

Remove the damned rose hips please. This tea did not deserve rose hips. It didn’t do anything to you. Stop putting rose hips in perfectly good teas. They are mean little bullies and they RUIN perfectly good flavors. How would you like it if some giant came along and put rose hips in you? Not very much? I didn’t think so.

Sincerely,
Arshness

Unsure what to say on the recommend… yes? no? … maybe? No until Rosehips are removed. Yes. That. Tho I still recommend it if you want to RUB IT ALL IN YOUR HAIR BECAUSE IT SMELLS AMAZING.

Samples Only TTB

Wow… this smells awesome and tastes even awesomer.
I opened the bag and it smelled like Christmas. I caught a hint of something odd and smokey and I peered at the contents until I noticed little bits of white which I identified as popcorn. I thought “Well this is going to be interesting.” And I was right.

It’s delicious. A slightly sweet, slightly spiced, slightly buttery… I don’t even know how to describe this. It tastes like a mothaeffin SLEIGH RIDE.

There is a sweet fruit flavor in here somewhere but it hides behind the spice and popcorn. The popcorn is a note I never expected to love in tea but now I wonder what other teas need a freaking piece of popcorn added.

So I recommend this. I will keep this sample… and I may have to buy more of it. Because it’s bloody good.

Samples Only TTB

I could have guessed I’d enjoy Adagio’s decaf Vanilla. I have tried their vanilla tea before and their decafs are a joy. So I have little to say except that this tea is just what I expected: A good cup of delicious black tea with an excellent vanilla flavor. It is just as tasty as the non-decaf version and it comes alive with sugar and cream. :)

Samples Only TTB

I have to say, I didn’t like this at first sip but it grew on me.

The aroma out of the bag isn’t overwhelming. This tea doesn’t really wow you until it’s finished brewing. Steep it long enough to let the fruit and flowers do their work. In my cup, this had a gorgeous aroma which I pondered over long enough to identify. It reminds me of when one is making cherry jello, the way it smells when you add the hot water to the powder before progressing to other stages. It smells delicious and reminds me of childhood.

At first sip, it was a sour, tangy nose with a sweet, lingering tail.
The amount of sugar in my cup grew slowly with subsequent sips until I found it to my liking (at closer to 3t, which is way more than I usually like in any tea, albeit this being for a 16 ounce mug) At this point, the tea is delightful! It’s sweet with a sour and tangy middle, but the nose is purely sweet and fruity and the tail lingers with the same. It creates a little tangy burst in the middle and this is how the rose hips truly shine; as an accent rather than a feature.

I am honestly growing to dislike rose hips and hibiscus in tea because the tangy sour flavors just don’t do it for me… But sugared more than normal, they can be quite delightful. I wonder if some of the other teas I’ve found to be too sour would have tasted better if I’d sweetened them more. I like to avoid too much extra sugar, but some teas may not be able to really stand on their own without it. However, this one becomes a delight with enough sugar, so I am afraid I must make an exception.

I may well purchase some of this in the future from Adagio.

Samples Only TTB If I have one area of expertise in teas, it’s Earl Grey. I’ve drank as many Earl Grey variants as I could find so far. I am always looking for more varieties as I love seeing the subtle differences between one recipe and another.

That said, this is the hands-down WORST Earl Grey I’ve ever tried.
It is, admittedly, the first decafinated variety I’ve had, but it tastes just terrible.

The oil of bergamot is way over-used in this blend and it has a sharp, unpleasant chemical tail. The aroma is delightfully excellent for what I expect of Earl Grey, however, sadly, this tea is best used as potpourri and I daresay I might rather smell this and drink that. :/

Drinking Aquarius again tonight. I was going to try another TTB tea, but I honestly really wanted a comfort tea. So I go to my favorite latte mix. Aquarius. Mmm. So hazelnutty and delicious. It’s later than I usually let myself drink black, but I don’t care. It was wanted too badly tonight for me to deny it. Tomorrow I’ll drink more TTB teas. :)

Special Tasting Note

I love this Tea, for the record. Masala Chai is delicious and Adagio’s blend is my favorite so far. I usually drink it as a latte. Tonight’s tasing note is very special tho.

Tonight, I’m having Masala Chai as … ice cream. :)
The recipe will hopefully be posted soon on Arbor Teas.
I made it up! :) It’s homemade icecream made with Masala Chai and vanilla.

It’s DELICIOUS and I am enjoying it so much. How will a cup of tea do after this?
I have to try to make some more flavors. Morrocan Mint Icecream… you are next.

So that said, Yes, I love Masala chai and I totally recommend it. I generally boil the water and steep about 6 minutes because more makes it too strong for me with my problem with Cinnamon. But I have no complaints on the mix.

Samples Only TTB

Well third tea from the TTB today.
This one is… interesting. It tastes like I’m drinking a flower garden.
I’m not sure I like it. I think the chamomile used in this is probably German chamomile which I’m decidedly less fond of than Egyptian. The aroma is strongly buttery flowers. The tastes are buttery chamomile, sweet floral notes and a lingering sweet, tangy flower that’s probably rosehips.

I am enjoying this cup well enough, but won’t seek out this tea for stocking. If someone were serving it, I’d say “Sure.” But I’m not overly impressed. :)

Samples Only TTB

This is my second pick from the TTB. I would have tried another fruity one, but it was close to dinner and I wanted something more like this, a black tea with a hint of flavor. I’m not sure if this tea is “flavored” black tea, or just black tea with a lot of character. I don’t know enough about Steepster’s varieties to know…

The flavor is like a really pure delicious black tea with a sweet floral or fruitish note accompanying it. The nose is sweet and not at all bitter with a fruitish, flowery tail. The lingering flavor is very smooth and sweet, almost honeyish, but more nectarish if that makes sense. It’s not a thick, deep sweet, but a light, fluid sweetness.

I really don’t taste even a tiny hint of bitter or astringent, so I suggest maybe others who noted that had oversteeped it or brewed too hot. This tea is perfect. I wish I knew where to acquire more of it.

Samples Only TTB
Well here is my first pick from the Samples Only TTB.

I have to say… I am amazed by the box that arrived at my house today. It was packed full of samples of every kind! I have so many teas to try. The first part of my choosing process was to go through and make two piles: Not right now, and OMG YES NOW PLEASE. I ended up with like a dozen NOW PLEASE so those will be my first several samples and I’ll try to get through them as soon as possible. There were a handful of samples I won’t need/want to try due to having tried them before or being an ingredient I must run from (a spicy ginger tea that i noted for example) but I really want to try most of these. I have identified the first tea to try however.

Apple Cinnamon w/Chamomile. I opened the bag and it smelled amazing.
Okay.. I smell delicious, ripe, vibrant apple, hints of cinnamon and perhaps a bit of other spices like I might find in apple pie, or maybe that’s my imagination… the buttery note of chamomile and some sweet, sweet aroma that I didn’t identify.

It smells so good. I brewed up some boiling water and steeped it for 10 minutes to get a strong flavor since it’s a herbal.

The first sip was full of bright flavor. I taste apples and a hint of the cinnamon. The tea is still too hot to drink readily, so I am not getting a full flavor yet. The apple cinnamon taste lingers long on the tongue.

As it cools a bit, the taste is a bit more sour and tangy than I expected. It’s missing a strong spice note despite the smell, but the hint is there. The chamomile is vaguely present, but I think the chamomile might have hidden itself due to the flowers crushing themselves in the bag (there was a lot of chamomile powder).

The sourness is stronger as it settles into a drinkable temperature. The nose is sour apple with a strong apple flavor following, hints of cinnamon and chamomile, and then a sour/tangy tail.

The touch of sugar I added was a nice idea. It may have been too sour without it.

I wish I could TASTE all the spice I SMELL when I drink this. There is a bit of it but not enough. It almost tempts me to drop a little cinnamon powder in it, despite my aversion to cinnamon. Haha…

Halfway through my cup, cooled to perfect “very warm” temperature, the taste remains the same. I have decided to add a french vanilla creamer to my tea to see how it is with that.

The French Vanilla creamer is a nice add. It calms the sour flavor down and brings out the apple nicely. With this change, the tea is much more palatable. I wish the sour flavor hadn’t been present because if this tea tasted just like it smelled I’d have had to order it right away.
I am afraid I’m going to have to keep this sample packet and replace it. I need to try it again with a shorter steep time to see if the sour doesn’t come out as much.
If that reduces the sour, I may have to buy this yet. If nothing else, it’s stellar with the cream and I love that it’s an apple tea that I can drink without caffeine. My favorite Apple tea (from Adagio, sadly discontinued) is a black tea so I can only have it early in the day.

Mmm. Vanilla creamer really rocks this tea. I’m going to enjoy the rest of my cup in peace as I feel I’ve said quite enough about it. :)