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This almond-flavored black tea struck me with love the moment I took my first sip…no, actually it was the moment I took a whiff of the dry leaf, which smells strongly like almond extract (except minus the alcoholy bite)—sooo good! I was immediately drawn to it from that first sniff, which at once reminded me of my wedding cake: almond-flavored and fabulous! When I took a sip of the tea itself, it was almost like having that cake in liquid form. What a wonderful surprise to revisit that special occasion in my life, brought about by a single cup of tea that tastes exquisitely like my almond wedding cake!

I haven’t tried any other almond black teas, so I don’t have much to go by in way of comparison, but that’s fine with me. Until and unless something better comes along (doubtful), I will be happily enjoying this for a long time.

For those who dislike rooibos, this would not be the tea for you. The rooibos is the predominant flavor here, with a burst of tart and tasty cranberry, which I really like. I think it’s quite nice.

I do like rooibos and find it preferable to many herbal/cafffeine-free tisanes. Rooibos has many things going for it, in my opinion. It is rich and somewhat sweet, a little dry and woody too, which is not a bad thing, and I love the deep red color. Furthermore, it goes well with a variety of additional flavorings like fruit or vanilla so it’s a pretty versatile “tea.” I learned to love rooibos when I was pregnant and limiting my caffeine consumption, and now it is my go-to beverage when I have reached my caffeine quota for the day but am still in need of a hot cuppa. Plus it has a ton of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals so it’s another winner health-wise!

This has been on my wish list for a long time. I finally succumbed to the temptation to buy it, and am not disappointed! It is a luxurious tea good for a special morning or as an after-dinner delight to drink with dessert. The honey and vanilla flavors are soft and gentle yet not overpowered by the rich Assam. I love the cream taste—it does indeed taste as if a few small spoonfuls of fresh, silky cream had been swirled around to meld with the tea, just enough for that rich creamy flavor to come through but without diluting the wonderful Assam (like real cream would if it had been added). Thus, this is perfect for people like me who don’t like to add cream or sugar to their tea, but occasionally desire a more rounded out flavor.

Full bodied, rich, and slightly creamy-sweet is how I would sum this up. Very nice!

I had another cup this morning and I could taste the apricot a little bit more. Nice!

Uh oh. squints at the bottom of the bag and sighs. Only one more teaspoon left!! So only one more cup remains to be enjoyed. :-( I considered brewing the last of it today but felt that would be an overindulgence so I will save it for a rainy day.

This Yunnan has been a favorite of mine all winter, although I realized I hadn’t written a review of it yet! Time to get a note done before it’s all gone…which, as I only have a few teaspoonfuls left, is a likely to be soon.

I really like Yunnan black teas—they tend to be so smooth and tasty—and this Emporer’s Gold is a good one. The dry leaf smells sweet and chocolatey. The liquor is a lovely, a rich golden brown, with a fragrance that makes my mouth water before I even take a sip. It has a very nice flavor: smooth, lightly malty (but not a ‘thick’ malt taste) with a few chocolate and caramel notes and also a very slight but pleasant peppery bite. Mmmm!

Having ‘gold’ in the name is highly appropriate, not only because it literally describes some of the leaf color and also the golden brown liquor, but also in a sort of metaphorical sense too: like pure gold, which is bright and beautiful but very malleable, this is a brilliant and malleable black tea; solid but also soft and smooth on the palate. It doesn’t have the super bold strength of an Assam (which could be equated with Iron, to carry the metal analogy further, haha). And, as the description states, just like gold this tea is highly valuable and fit for an emperor! So I feel like royalty (or should I say royalTEA) every time I take a sip. Yum!

I don’t typically feel the need to write more than one tasting note per tea unless something different strikes me or (as in this case) I just feel like it. Contrary to what my absence of commentary on Steepster might suggest, I have actually been quite busy drinking and enjoying my teas of late. With spring coming just around the corner, I have been working on using up my “winter teas” in order to make room for the influx of new spring delights that await me. (I make that sound like a chore, but believe me, “using up tea” is no tedious obligation that I feel I must do…it’s a pleasure!) So, one of the teas in my winter collection is this English Breakfast, and I will be sorry when it is gone because I absolutely love it. It’s just one of those perfectly solid reliable black teas that you never get tired of, you know? Like that favorite sweater you wear (probably too often) in winter, but it doesn’t matter because it fits perfectly, feels comfortable, looks nice, is just the right color, and is suitable no matter what the occasion. That is this tea. Mmmmm, delicious! But, like my favorite sweaters, once summer comes this will be out of sight for a while until next year when I reorder for winter again.

Now, some of you may say, why can’t you just enjoy it in summer too? Well, I have weird ideas about what teas I like to drink and when. Not that it’s a hard and fast rule of course, but generally speaking I like certain teas at certain seasons. Black tea I generally drink heavily in the fall and winter, whereas greens, oolongs, and white teas all are what I consider “warmer weather teas.” I love black tea a lot though, so obviously I would never stop drinking it altogether just because it’s summer—I simply have different black teas I like to enjoy then. (For instance, I tend to choose Indian and African black varieties for summer, China blacks in winter, for no other reason than a good Nilgiri or Kenyan black seem “summerish” to me. Somehow they just fit with the hot weather, maybe because their countries of origin are typically super hot? Seems silly, I know, but that’s how I roll.) Anyway, here’s to sipping down some of my lovely fall/winter black teas: Lapsang Souchong, English Breakfast, Emporer’s Gold, Orange Spice, etc.!

I kind of had that scratchy feeling in my throat that usually means the beginnings of a cold. Let’s hope it’s not! I haven’t been sick in over a year, and want to keep that record! Anyway, just as an extra precautionary measure I opted to drink green and white teas this morning instead of my usual black—hoping the extra antioxidants will help me out.

Mmm, I just love this green toucha. The apricot flavor is really yummy, and it is one of the few green teas I’ve tried in which the subsequent steepings are stronger and just as flavorful as the first. A good “Breakfast Green”.

One thing I’m confused about: this is classified on Steepster as a pu-erh, but then I went back and read the company’s description it seems as though this is really just regular green tea shaped into a bowl form. I know there are green pu-erh teas, and green toucha, and then green puerh touchas—which is this? Maybe I’m just incredibly dense and don’t get the differences between all of those. The description simply says this was made in the same place where the pu-erhs are made, but it doesn’t actually say this IS a pu-erh, so…just wondering.

Oh my, what a lovely treat this morning! This tea is beautiful, fragrant, sweet, floral (but not too much) with a teensy slight tang to it. I totally agree with what others have said: that it’s delicate but at the same time absolutely bursting with flavor, complex, and oh so delicious! It is simply so pure, natural, and refreshing. Truly it is a sample of spring, of flowers and citrus, mingling together wonderfully. I think it is befitting a Shakespearean sonnet—pure poetry for the tastebuds. Drinking this has awakened my senses and put me in a very good mood. Bring on the day, for it will be beautiful! :-)

Thank you ever so much, TeaTiff, for sharing this with me!

This tea hits the spot on on cold winter days. Warm and wonderfully roasty-toasty, this relaxing, “feel good” tea is perfect for when one wants to hit hibernation mode and curl up like a cocoon in a blanket to doze the afternoon away. (Of course, few people actually have the luxury of doing this, but in theory, if it was possible to spend an uninterrupted afternoon snoozing, this is what one would drink!) Although, as we all know, black teas are also absolutely perfect for cold winter days, I think of those as more of a pick-me-up, energizing, get-the-blood-flowing kind of beverage. This kukicha, on the other hand, has the nice mellow roasted flavor like some oolongs and even some blacks, but without the boldness and kick that many of those will give you. I believe I have heard it is a little lower in caffeine too. Thus this tea will lead you gently into a satisfying state of snug, cozy, contentedness. Aaaaahhhh…so nice.