Darlene's Teaport

First time trying an alcohol-flavored tea, and while I’m currently on day 40 of my 90-day alcohol-free cleanse, I thought this would be a nice tea to curb the craving. I was not disappointed. The subtle yet noticeable hints of rum are sweet and pleasant, bringing warmth to the senses and joy to the soul (well, at least mine). This could almost pass for a dessert tea with the sweetness of the rum and would definitely pair well with a bonbon.

Here’s Hoping TTB

The only decaf in the box – this is floral but a good floral, not overpowering. A little sweet and almost berry like, I like how “sharp” it is, though the flavor is mellow. I think I understeeped it (water cooled too quickly) so I’ll have to try this again, but I like it.

The essence of this tea was so unique that I had to try it. I can imagine some monks up in the Himalayas concocting this tea. It’s slightly flowery. A hint of sweetness. Woodsy, black base is pretty much covered up by all the flavors mixing in the cup. Gorgeous amber color. Whoa weird! Banana!!! It went from sweet and flowery to banana and slightly bitter. This is a weird tea! Holy smokes.

I am liking this tea a little more this time than last time. Maybe my taste buds are working better but the toffee is tasting good. Maybe the puerh has aged in the six months since I drank this tea. I still don’t find it spectacular but I am liking it today, enough to raise my rating three points. I don’t know if this tea would be better gongfu style but today it got western style, one big cup.

I brewed this tea one time in a Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/ Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 200 degree water for 30 sec after one rinse.

This tea is not terrible and not great, it falls into the category of mediocre. That being said there is an earthy flavor from the puerh and a sweet flavor from the toffee. It is drinkable. Sadly, this is about the best tea I got from Darlene’s Tea Port. She sells cheap teas and I probably won’t order from her again.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with boiling water and 4 tsp leaf for 30 sec.

Pass the Stash TTB

I’ve been bad about giving credit to the several TTBs I’ve had this past two weeks. Sorry! It’s about all I can do is to get some of the tasting notes in on the teas.

The huckleberry is not as strong as it could have been. The black goes well with the huckleberry. I sweetened it a little and I’m enjoying it. I wouldn’t be in my top teas but certainly will enjoy another cup of. I might keep this one from the Pass the Stash box. I think it might be good cold brewed with a twist of lemon.

It’s a lovely summer day and I’m enjoying this as a hot tea. I have to say my decision to drink more hot tea this summer is going well. I don’t find myself over heated or anything. :-)

Herbal TTB, you are pretty awesome. That is, the people of the Herbal Traveling Tea Box are pretty awesome folks.
Mango rooibos…a new flavor combination for me…enjoyable!

Pass the Stash

This tea tastes slightly medicinal.. It just must be that orange flavor that doesn’t tick with me. I do, however, enjoy the flavor of the rooibos in this blend.

Pass the Stash

Even through the shiny blue bag, this tea smells wonderful. Fruity and berry to the extreme. Upon steeping it and taking a sip, the huckleberry flavor was much lighter than I expected as was the black tea flavor. Ehh, it was okay.
I did, however, make an Arnold Palmer with this tea and it was incredible. For some reason, the lemonade really brought out the sweet huckleberry taste that I was hoping for!:D

Pass the Stash

The sun has broken out here and it feels like summer. This tea just fits the mood. It is a fruity, summery punch. It was just a pinch tart so I added a smidgen of sweetener. Yum. Iced, this tea is even more of a rockstar. Fruity goodness.

Herbal Traveling Tea Box

This is the last tea from the box that I need to review—Wow, what an adventure. I’ve experienced teas that I never thought I would like that I have loved and teas that I thought I’d love that just weren’t my cuppa. So much fun. Thank you madametj for arranging this wonderful tea box and for allowing me to join^.^!

There was a note on this tea by Marzipan to try this tea iced. I was nervous-it’s entirely hibiscus… but hey, I trust Marzipan’s opinion. And she knew what she was talking about! I tried a sip of this while it was hot- and oh gosh, so tart my lips squeezed in!.. So I waited for it to cool…added some ice…and took a sip. Still super tart. But upon adding agave…yum! It tastes like a mix between lemonade and fruit punch! So much better than I was expecting^.^ Really, if you guys are in this box, do try it!

Herbal Traveling Tea Box

This tea smells amazingly like mango. And it definitely has a lot more flavor than the last tea that I was drinking. I really do like this tea but the mango flavor tastes artificial to me.. The rooibos in this tea is not barky, either ( you know you have been spending a good amount of time with dogs lately when you type “barky” and start to giggle because you picture your tea cup barking at you every time you try to take a sip… xD). Over all, a nice flavorful rooibos.

Wow! This is wonderful. Awesome scent dry. Very lovely, fruity appearance. i see some rose/hibiscus in there. Beautiful dark, dark pink liquor; almost red but no yellow or orange. Nice peach aroma and taste. Needed a bit of sweeter to fight the evil hibiscus. It has a nice full mouth feel. I might have over-leafed it a bit but that doesn’t seem to matter. I wish I had enough to do a cold brew pitcher.

I’m smelling this tea and I’m picking out really soft, creamy, icing-like notes that are weirdly offset by the earthy tea base. The tea smells very dark, damp, and leathery—reminding me of Mandala’s Lincang but much less graceful. There are two RADICALLY different scents here that don’t seem to jive well together. It’s confusing. It also makes my stomach hurt a little bit.

First sip: Okay, it’s not so bad. The tea base isn’t as pungent as I anticipated. It’s actually quite smooth. However…the flavor pairing is just horrid. And I don’t even know if I like the flavor of the additives. It certainly doesn’t say caramel or toffee to me. It’s more like those crazy sweet, thickly iced sugar cookies that are coated with sprinkles you find in Wal-Mart or in the “cheap baked goods” section of any grocery store. And I don’t know about you, but I hate those. It’s not a “bad” flavor per se but it calls to mind bad flavors.

It also leaves this soapy chemical taste in my mouth after each sip. (Gets worse as the tea cools down. Or maybe just because the taste is building up in my mouth. I can’t tell.)

I couldn’t even finish the cup.

It’s sad because I desperately wanted to like this tea. ):

I have 4oz of this tea if anyone wants a sample. I really miss my dark teas at night so I have been trying to fill that void. This tea isn’t bad! But wow did I overleaf it. I say leaf but it looked more like coffee grounds. I used 2t for 11 oz and that was way too much. After a minute of steeping it looks like coffee.

This is only my second cup of tea today, but this is catching me up quickly.

In other news:
- I hate my bangs today.
- started watching a new series tonight, The Bletchley Circle. Looks promising!
- hubby and I are settling down to watch the Eurovision semi final from yesterday. It’s in Copenhagen this year, a city I really love.

Backlog:

A very fine cut/CTC leaf. Not a strong aroma to either the dry or wet leaf. The brewed tea didn’t emit a very strong fragrance either. But it is a very robust tasting tea. This will give you that kick in the butt that you need when you need to wake up in the morning.

Not a lot of malt notes, but some. More of a wine-like Assam with fruit notes and a fair amount of astringency. Sweet with a thick texture. Pleasant. Holds up to milk and honey if you like to add those to your tea.

This came as a free sample in a Darlene’s order I made. Since it was so small I decided to drink it and get it out of the way.

The leaf smelled and looked a lot like Adagio’s Earl Grey Bravo. Blue flowers, vanilla scent. It doesn’t taste exactly the same though. It’s nice, although I think if I had been in a blind taste test, I would have thought I was drinking a caramel tea rather than something with bergamot (I’m actually getting no bergamot at all) and cream.

Not a bad cup, but with so many good EGs out there, not top of my list to reorder. It also left my mouth very very dry.

Interesting on the packet, they recommended a 4 minute steep and then said that the longer the steep, the stronger the tea – but no caution to not steep too long. That surprises me from a tea company.

I have never seen a Darlene’s Tea Port offering reviewed before – at least not that I recall. This one is old. I found it in the drawer today unopened and thought it needed to see the light of day. This came from Katiek a long time ago. Bad me.

I steeped this 4 minutes. It’s black tea. I knew better. It isn’t bitter but the black tea is pretty assertive with briskness and tongue tingling astringency. Shorter steep next time. There is no passion fruit listed in the ingredients but that is what I am getting in the taste. Along with it is a pepperiness. Not pepper from a shaker but little red peppers from the garden that ought to be adding a bit of heat except they are not. This is spicy tasting but not spicy hot. It is really kind of an interesting tea and currently is $5.49 for 4 ounces. Even old it is way more complex than the price would suggest.

From the queue

MissB shared a sample of this one with me in the parcel of vast amounts of samples that I received from her in December. I don’t much care for alcoholic drinks in general, so I’m hoping there won’t be that alcoholic note in it. I’ve tried one or two cocktail flavoured blends from 52teas that had that note of burning in the throat. It’s that very thing that I find unpleasant about strong alcohol. Husband, however, was quite interested when I asked him if he wanted a cup. I expect it to be more to his liking than mine.

It smells weird and sweet. I’m also rather reminded of dates and figs in the aroma. Not a good sign as I can’t abide dates. Peculiarly, though, it doesn’t smell unpleasant or making me wanting to not taste it. It actually only managed to make me curious. Bit like when I saw ‘baconnaise’ in the supermarket the other week. It sounded so odd that I had to try it. (Tastes like salt and smoked paprika, by the way, and not at all of bacon. I could stir some of that up myself I should think. With significantly less salt in it, preferably.

Tastes weird. I asked Husband whether or not he thought it tasted like rum, him having a much larger experience with rum than me. Having actually tasted it in his life without it being mixed in a generous amount of cola. He said he’d tried some American rum which had tasted very sweet and raisin-y and not nice at all.

I can recognise that description in this when I taste it. Kind of sweet and raisin-y/date-y/fig-y. It’s certainly ‘brown fruits-y’.

It’s quite strong in flavour, and I don’t know if it’s the flavouring or the base. It’s definitely some kind of sturdy base they’ve used for this.

I have to say, though, this is definitely not something for me.

Thank you so much MissB for including this in my mystery bag. I have enjoyed it very much even when I first over steeped it and it reminded me of bitter coffee. When I don’t make that mistake it tastes like sweet cherries and tea. I think it helps that I have never tried the caffeinated version because part of my association with a tea is the caffeine kick. I don’t think I will ever find a decaf Earl Grey that I like because the caffeine is part of the appeal

I’m trying to get back to a regular tea time and working on the rest of my samples from MissB

Had this one with breakfast & thought it was good, but I would’ve preferred more vanilla. I’ll finish the sample I have, but it’s not something I’d purchase.

Additional notes: A grateful sipdown of this from MissB today! It’s a favorite and I’ve already stocked what I think is the same tea from English Tea Store. It’s so good. I’m trying to work on my sipdown goals the rest of the week… 100. I’ll try but I don’t think I’ll make it! I’m also sipping the wonderful Justea’s African Chai today.
I bought three teas from Bird and Blend’s Boxing Day sale. I can’t resist… sigh. But they have free shipping everywhere during the sale! I was hoping Figgy Pud would make an appearance though…
2019 Sipdowns: 87

I needed to try this asap when I started seeing MissB’s tasting notes saying she loved it so much she was drinking it every day! Basically, I wanted to see if I loved it too, hopefully to make up for the fact that she sent me some before she tried it herself. So I especially thank you for sending this one, MissB!

Both steeps of this ARE amazing! (Just boiled, one teaspoon, 4-5 minutes.) It’s the best sort of pu-erh. Deep, dark, flavorful, sweet, dusky. It’s perfect, really. The toffee (tiny chips) are just an added bonus to add to the sweetness of the pu-erh. I just love the deep earthiness with the sweetness. Exactly as I was wishing/hoping this tea was! I could sip this one every day too… so I hope you don’t regret sending some of this over, MissB! :D

Edited to add: hmm… apparently I have no idea what I’m talking about, since I don’t actually SEE any tasting notes from MissB for this tea!

Edited again: Ah, I was just reading tasting notes and it’s Tea Desire’s Caramel Pu-erh that MissB loves so much. Now I don’t feel so bad about buying some of this one. :D

Another one from MissB! I’m trying the T&C teas as fast as I can, but there’s only so much black tea I can take at once. And I’d like to get to MirandaGou’s swap teas, too… Perhaps over the weekend I’ll go on a spree, since I’m hoping to get the box traveling along soon.

This one smells like…granola bars? An odd thing to say about a tea, but it smells like a berry granola bar. This brews up surprisingly dark for a rooibos. It almost looks like black tea brewed! The granola bar smell is still there after steeping, but I think that’s the berries mixing with the lavender.

I definitely taste the berries up front, and then the florals are more of an aftertaste. The rooibos adds to the florals and gives them some depth, which I sometimes feel is lacking in rooibos blends. It makes for an interesting sip. This is taking a little time to grow on me, but it is growing on me.