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Hey folks, Great news… I didn’t add sweetener to this tea!

I might have killed it a little (water too hot) because it’s a teensy bit bitter but I like it. And I like it just as is! Now this is likely because I eat a lot of sushi and all the Japanese restaurants serve green tea that tastes little like this. And they never give you sugar. So I got used to drinking it sans sucre. Hello familiar taste! Now where’s my sushi?!?

2 minute steep, 1 perfect measure.

Dry it smells toasty, a little like popcorn. There’s popped kernels in there too. A pale yellow liquor. Tastes like popcorn (or toasted rice, the bag says).

Thank you goes to Dexter3657 who sent me too many teas for me to ever be able to reciprocate.

So it turns out I enjoy Fusion teas — the few I tried courtesy of Dexter3657 , anyway — enough to place an order. You all keep quiet now, my partner need not know, since I bought a bunch of DAVIDs on the weekend too. And I abandoned a couple of carts elsewhere. I wish the shipping wasn’t as high but I find their prices quite reasonable. The sad part is there is no size between a sample (10 cups) or 3 oz. Errr… no, I will no longer buy 100 grams of a tea I’ve never tried now that I’ve had a chance to see what’s out there.

Way to go, Fusion teas. Reasonable prices made for a quick decision. Are there teas out there of better quality? Of this I am certain. However, when one is just starting out and has yet to fully appreciate the finer teas, affordability plays a huge role.

Anyway, this little tea is really good. While I seem to not like rooibus a whole lot, honeybush is pleasant. I’ll be breaking out my hazelnut creamer for this one. I suspect the hazelnut flavouring is artificial, because it’s so there and I’ve learned that with nuts, unless you artificially flavour, the taste is not as strong (coconut being the exception for me)

Steeped for 8 looong minutes. The dry leaf smell is hazelnut and the liqour is caramel-coloured. And the taste is hazelnut but you get the honeybush too. actually, as it cools it gets less nutty and more … .. bushy :)

I’ll ruin it with hazelnut creamer for the second steep for what I’m sure will be heaven.

I am determined to get the blueberries in here if I have to drink this tea for a week and brew it different times, temperatures and quantities. GAH!

Everyone is raving about blueberries. Granted, some people don’t like the fact that they taste artificial or too sweet or too stevia or whatever but they’re getting blueberry. I, on the other hand, can smell blueberries and see blueberries but cannot taste them for the life of me. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck… holy hannah it’s a blueberry!

Seriously, though, I must be doing something wrong. It smells so intoxicatingly blueberry but I’m only getting a faint blueberry taste. I had it in my travel mug and drank it partly in the car and the rest at work. I could smell the blueberry wafting up from the cup and I so desperately wanted to get that in the taste too. I just got mostly black tea. Maybe I overleafed? I didn’t think I did, I followed the label, but maybe for me as a newbie the base is too strong and covered the fruit? It wasn’t too astringent but lightly bitter.

HELP me find the blueberries :)
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Two Days Later

Someone suggested cold brewing and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it myself. Eureka!! As a cold brew it is indeed one of the most delicious teas I have had so far. My first attempt at cold brewing and what a success! Gawd, I just want to hug myself :) Maybe I’ll just start another pitcher instead.

Gorgeous day. Came home from work quite thirsty. Put the kettle on and tried to decide between Pink Passionfruit and this one, not having tried either before now. Looked at the score, read some notes, seems people favour this one (because the other has the much dreaded hibiscus). I do like hibiscus so we’ll see about that one later this evening.

For me, the nose is coconut and lemon. Not lemon grass but lemon — must be the lemon myrtle. Smells really really good and sweet. Brews a ginger coloured liquor, not quite clear.

The flavour is predominantly lemongrass. I steeped for 4 minutes. Did not overleaf but am getting slight bitterness. Possibly water a smidge too hot. Is this tea that finicky? Looking forward to the likely milder and not bitter second steep.

This could be like Kokomo green. Treat it nice and it will be a good friend.

Forgot to mention I’m drinking it iced. I thought it was implied by “got home thirsty” but in case you were wondering… If I had this hot, well, I might want to throw glass noodles in there, a pinch of salt, chili flakes and call it soup.

I tried to drink this without sugar but it tasted bland and I guess oolong-y. Maybe drinking without sugar is like cooking without salt? Blech.

Moving on… I steeped for 5 minutes and I used a DAVIDs disposable filter (bag) since I’m at work and don’t have all my accessories here. Now I heard someone say that the difference between the bagged loose leaf and the one steeped via infuser is huge so maybe I’ll drink this again at home because… I don’t get what the fuss is with this tea. I certainly don’t get the oh my god peach flavour that others seem to have gotten. Is in the aftertaste, absolutely, and it’s very pleasant, I just wish it actually tasted like this. I only get mild peach while sipping. It’s not a bad tea at all but I’m a sucker for bold flavouring. (The blueberry jam from DAVIDs also disappointed me in the flavour department but that’s another note altogether). Why of why is it that some of these teas that smell so friggin amazing when dry just don’t come through??

24 Hours Later

I resteeped this tea a day later. Is it bad I left it so long? And it was really really good and peachy. I have never tasted this much difference between subsequent steeps. Are all oolongs like that?

So the rule is I will not add creamer to a tea until I have had it first without it because I’m still in the process of figuring out all the differences between teas. Can’t learn squat if they all taste like hazelnut creamer. Most times I won’t add creamer at all (North African Mint and hazelnut creamer anyone? Didn’t think so) but some of the chocolate teas are screaming for it.

This tea, which I should not be having at 10 pm, tastes a little like java but mostly like mate. Can’t taste any black tea, nor was I able to smell it. Also not entirely sure about vanilla. While I might not be able to pick out anything specific beyond light coffee, it all comes together to make a tasty tea.

See, Dexter3657 ? I told you you’re batting a thousand today.

After reading my notes from yesterday, Dexter3657 was getting worried that she’s made poor choices for me when picking teas. Well, Dex, you’re batting a thousand right now. All teas tried today were good. Not va va voom or anything, but good.

This tea is one that delivers. The smell of the dry leaf, and the flavour are bang on chocolate and caramel. Clear caramel liquor. I sweetened it and added creamer and I am already looking forward to steep 2. The tea itself is actually pretty weak, I had to brew longer than my usual rule of thumb for black tea so I doubt it will resteep 3 times with good result but another round should be just fine.

Sample sipdown from Dexter3657.

I’m brewing a cup of this now so I can leave it on the counter to cool off. I’m starving and I want tea. I won’t be able to drink hot liquids today so a nice lukewarm cup of this will be nice.

I had the first cup a few days ago, at work, but didn’t have iPad with me and I didn’t want to add notes from memory. I remember it being nice. Now I’m going to have it again, in not the best of circumstances, but someone said the tannins in black tea help curb residual bleeding so… I’m sacrificing this one somewhat. Although a sacrificial tea, I didn’t want to drink something barfy as my first tea post-op.

This tea delivers on its promise of flavour: chocolate raspberry. It’s pleasant, not astringent, not bitter, exactly what chocolate raspberry tastes like in my mind. Not having had anything like this before I have nothing to compare it to so I like it.

And now I’m going to go get me some new chompers!

One more tea from Dexter3657 tonight before I switch to a tried, tested and yummy tea. Not that some of these were not yummy, but for my last tea of the evening I don’t want to try a new tea, I want to go to a tea I know for sure will deliver. For me, today it will be the organic buttered rum from DAVIDs. Although I have been staring at the organic blueberry jam from them and I really want to try that too.

Back to the pumpkin Rooibos though. Dry, it smells spicy like pumpkin pie spicy. Maybe some nutmeg, in there somewhere. The brewed smell… Well, I can now say I will be able to recognize Rooibos in the future. It has the same funky smell I found earlier today in the pineapple bacon (52teas) and in the Neapolitan honeybush (52teas).

I’m beginning to think I don’t care for Rooibos. Although its funny, DAVIDs pink lemonade is Rooibos and we like that one.

With this tea, I’m getting pumpkin mostly in the aftertaste. Can’t get past the smell though, with every sip I take it’s there. Maybe if I put some ice in here so that I no longer get the smell wafting up with the steam. Umm… This tea is not for me! I love pumpkin though so I don’t think it’s the pumpkin’s fault here.