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Tea & Cards TTB

This is a delightful tea…in the bag it smells like chocolate-covered strawberries (without any of the cloying aspects) and once steeped it opens up into a hearty, solid (and damn good) black tea with background notes of strawberry – which taste delightfully authentic – and the barest hint of chocolate.

It’s smooth and slightly dry without being astringent and leaves you with a mildly dessert-esque after taste. It’s not a dessert tea by any means, but if you like your mornings with a hint of sweetness this could easily be a good match for you.

Tea & Cards TTB

Oh gods…this may be my new favourite tea ever. It’s got lovely grassy overtones with a sweet, mellow creaminess layered in after and an-almost nutty savoury note that dances just out of reach.

I’ve no idea how this one is going to taste cool (because I’m going to drink it before it gets that far)…I have a feeling the second steep should hold up fairly well, also, so I’ll be testing that momentarily.

Seriously, though, I just can’t get over how awesome this tea is…this – if nothing else – made the whole TTB worthwhile.

First off, this is an intensely powerful smell…it’s almost unpalatably sweet smelling – which almost put me off drinking it. I’m glad that I brewed up a cup, though, since it’s actually a pretty tasty tea.

The peppermint definitely stands first and foremost; it’s definitely the centerpiece of the tea. The white chocolate adds a creamy texture and subtle sweetness – there’s really no need to add any sugar to this one at all – and the rooibos is a stable and comforting backdrop for the other flavours.

My one complaint is that this tea gets a little oily and unpleasant as it cools, so you should definitely drink it while it’s hot. Overall it’s a tasty drink, though, and I’m glad I got to try it.

3 balls, 12oz boiling water for 3min.

I’m a fan of black teas in general, but this one didn’t quite impress me…it has a woodsy flavour with what almost tastes like fishy or umami undertones, but past that it actually falls pretty flat.

This might be okay as an iced tea with a decent amount of sugar, but as a simple hot steep it didn’t really make me want to go back for more.

First impression once I opened the bag was that it smelled like vanilla icing – creamy and delightful, but with a definite “fake sugar” hint to it that I found interesting. I couldn’t wait to try it.

My minor complaint is that the rooibos is shredded fine enough to go right through my infuser basket…but this is what happens with most rooibos, so I can’t blame it on Teajo. :)

Once brewed up it retained that creamy quality laced over the richness of rooibos, but sadly it also kept the fakeness that I was less fond of. There’s a lingering vanilla taste that stays with you, but I can’t get over how artificial it tastes.

If the vanilla flavour had just been knocked down a notch this would’ve been a beautiful tea, but for me this is a bit too overwhelming. I have some Dosha Chai from Teavana that I think this will blend in nicely with, though, in order to cut down the intensity…

Good tea, but perhaps not for me. I’ll be putting this one in the TTB in hopes that someone else will enjoy it more.

Dry this smells very strongly of caramel and peonies…which carries over nicely once steeped. While hot you can still pick up the caramel scent – albeit a bit fainter – but it’s layered in snugly with what smells like a strong black tea and an odd plant-sap-ish note that seems a wee bit discordant.

A few sips in and the discordant feeling hasn’t faded…but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. There’s a strong black in the front, floral notes in the middle and a smooth caramel finish that makes this an oddly enjoyable cup.

I received a whole batch of this from Shadowfall, so I’ll definitely enjoy drinking it down. I’m not so sure as to whether it’s worth restocking, though…but I’ll have a while to make up my mind.

From the LiberTEAS sampler I bought a while back

This tea smells amazing – almost like a well-crafted amaretto or a quality fortified wine – and I was literally salivating as I poured it out. I haven’t been this excited about a tea in a while…

Sadly, though, the taste doesn’t quite hold up. I was hoping for something deeply almond-flavoured, but instead it tastes a lot more like an Almond Joy – which, apparently, was their intent – with an oily sort of almond flavour and hints of dark chocolate and coconut.

All of these delicious flavours are at the end, though, with a whole mouthful of black tea that you have to get through first…and I kinda wish it was the other way around. It leaves my mouth feeling a little greasy, though, and that really starts to get unpleasant after a while.

So it’s not a favourite of mine, but I think it has promise. I may have to work on blending this one and seeing where it goes…

From the LiberTEAS sampler I bought a while back

This is a delightfully odd tea…there’s a berry high note that swoops down into a warm chai base; between the two there’s an interplay of sweetness and spice that I find rather wonderful on first taste.

The front berry notes don’t taste like any berry in particular…more like generic “berry,” if that makes any sense. There’s a bit of an astringent dryness that sits at the end, but the well-settled, mellow spicyness really makes up for it.

Although I like this tea I must admit that the longer I drink it the more convinced I am that it’s not a favourite. It seems a little undecided in terms of flavours and I’d almost rather it put some effort into being an awesome berry tea or an awesome chai instead of just being good at both.

It’s a good tea to drink while you’re doing something else, but not one I’d want to drink on my own. Steadfastly mediocre, it seems.

From the LiberTEAS sampler I bought a while back

This is a truly delightful tea…it smells earthy and calm; one taste in and there are all these brown and woodsy notes with a great silky mouthfeel that just makes it a pleasure to drink.

Flavour-wise I pick up on some molasses-sweet notes (enhanced by the tsp of honey I poured in, I’m sure) on top of a set of flavours that make me think of stacks of seasoned firewood and the loamy smell of leaves in the forest in the fall. I grew up in Appalachia, so this is an amazingly comforting taste that hearkens back to childhood days spent on the mountain.

Overall, though, this tea is very…brown, in an earthy (and quite good) way. I’d drink it again, maybe with a little milk or something next time – I’d like to see the different permutations of this flavour profile.

From the LiberTEAS sampler I bought a while back

Post-steep this one actually smells a little chai-esque. I’m a fan of spiced brandies, so hopefully this one will manage to live up to my expectations.

One sip in and I’m…not exactly impressed. I saw a cardamom pod in the mix, but there’s something off about the smell and it tastes a little bit woodsy, but not in a good way. There’s some lingering dryness and a sticky mouthfeel that goes right along with the “I’m not sure what I’m tasting” thing I’ve got going on.

I’m not sure if it’s me or the tea, but this just isn’t hitting the right notes for me. I’m going to let it cool off a bit and see if better flavours emerge.

And it’s cooled off and still tastes like bleh. Not my tea, apparently.