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I am impressed, this really does taste like rootbeer! Not getting the “float” part of this but I am perfectly ok with that. I’ll just sit here with my rootbeer-flavored drink and my chocolate cake covered with confectioner’s sugar and Cherry Dr Pepper flavored syrup and recover from my disaster-filled afternoon. Soda flavors abound and there’s not a co2 bubble anywhere in sight!

Bumping the rating up a bit after having this again with breakfast. I had cinnamon sugar and syrup soaked French toast this morning and this did a great job of cutting through the sugar overload in my mouth, cleansing my palate, and keeping my breakfast from overwhelming my sweet tooth. I really should cut back on my sugar intake since there’s a history of diabetes in my family but damn it’s so goooooood.

1st infusion: 4 1/4 minutes, near-boiling water
Liquor a bright amber and the smell is very floral and fruity. The taste however…while I am getting floral and fruity I am also getting smoke. Probably shouldn’t have used the yixing pot for this, this oolong is too different from the Amethyst I last used in the pot.

2nd infusion: 5 3/4 minutes, near-boiling water
The liquor is a bright honey-gold and the smoke has nearly disappeared leaving a pleasantly fruity, floral flavor.

3rd infusion: 6 minutes, near-boiling water
Whilt the liquor is the same color as before the taste is much lighter and the fruit has nearly disappeared leaving the floral note to dominate.

I’m not going to rate this until I can try it without the yixing pot.

Backlogging from this morning.

My blend attempt at breakfast was an utter failure so I decided to try this instead. The liquor was quite a bright green which I was rather surprised at and as I waited for it to cool a bit I caught an aroma of asparagus coming from the cup.

Intrigued, I took a sip…yep asparagus. Lightly grilled or pan-seared asparagus. It would go great with some terriyaki-marinated chicken, rice, and grilled veggies (tomato, bell pepper and zucchini) I think. Not a good morning tea but the more I sipped the more it grew on me.

My son being out for the day with a family friend I decided to dive in and finally use one of the dragon balls that I won from *Doulton*’s giveaway. Unfortunately today seems to be shaping up to be a teething day for my daughter so I didn’t get to enjoy the first steep as much as I wanted to.

1st infusion: 7 1/2 minutes, near-boiling water
I set one ball into my 40oz glass pot and poured the nearly boiling water over it, nearly filling the pot. No need to nudge this one. It floated at the top and stayed there, gently dropping leaves which then also floated to the top. It rather resembled a kelp bed actually.

At 3 1/2 minutes I poured a bit out to taste and for some reason forgot to taste what I had poured until after I had poured the rest out into an iced tea jug to keep it from over steeping. Only then did I realize it wasn’t strong enough and poured the liquor back into the pot to finish steeping. Oops.

4 minutes later, after making sure to taste for strength, I poured some of the tea off into my blue tetsubin and the rest into the iced tea jug. The liquor was a lovely deep amber with a malty, woodsy, nutty and slightly floral taste. Not jasmine or honeysuckle type florals, more like Lady Slippers and Queen Anne’s Lace and tiny white Starflower and Bunchberry blossoms, woodland florals.

2nd infusion: 18 minutes, near-boiling water
Again, poured some off into my tetsubin and the rest into the iced tea jug. The liquor was a brighter amber with a sweeter nut flavor – like macadamia nuts – and a slight taste like freeze-dried apples and peaches.

3rd infusion: 35 minutes, near-boiling water
After drinking so much liquid I only poured one cup out for tasting and used the rest to fill the iced tea jug the rest of the way. The liquor was a bright honey-amber color with a light nutty-toasty flavor, very much like a genmaicha but not as sweet.

This is definitely going on my list of “Things to buy once I whittle down my tea cabinet a bit”. Looking at the volume of teas in my cabinet though I’m thinking that might take a while. Very glad that Doulton sent two!

On my way home from my new job I stopped by the Bar Harbor Tea Company shop (it’s just a few doors down from the gallery I’m working at) to pick up a new tin of this since I finished up the old tin a couple weeks ago just before they re-opened. This is what I used when I gave my son his first taste of tea. Yes, I gave caffeine to a three year old, no, he wasn’t bouncing off the walls afterward, yes, he absolutely loved it. And he still loves it, had some with me this morning.

As the description says, it’s not super chocolaty, but you can definitely taste the chocolate. It, and the black tea, is more of a back-up singer to the lovely duet of the cinnamon and cardamom. I also usually add cloves to this but decided to go without for the purposes of the review…I’ll definitely be adding them next time though. I need cloves in my chai.

I saved my first flower in the fridge so I could do a second steep. I tried it at 8 minutes and the flavor was a very delicate jasmine.

At 14 minutes I poured a full cup. The liquor was a pale gold with a delicate jasmine flavor.

At 35 minutes the liquor was a bright gold and the flavor was about the same strength as that of the 18 minute infusion from the first steep.

The liquor is a bright yellow-green and has a sweet, nutty, vegetal flavor with a thicker mouth feel than most green teas. This would go perfectly with the goat’s milk cheese my dad brought back from Holland last year, pity that it is long gone (and would be moldy and disgusting by this point even if I had any left!)

Bumping my rating on this down a tiny bit. Perhaps I was just imagining things the first time I had this but the last couple times I haven’t gotten any of that peppery note. I needed that little peppery kick this morning, was looking forward to it, but it just wasn’t there :(