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It is evening, just a few hours before bedtime, and I find myself wondering what non-caffeinated tea I am going to drink.

Maple Oh Canada I think. And then, no, I decide against it. So, I rustle through my rooibos and honeybush stash.

Aha! White Chocolate Grasshopper Honeybush! Am I ready for risk-taking with an unknown—to me— tea at the moment?

I am almost certain that I am going to dislike this tea. Spearmint—-bah! Any mint, really.

I open the pouch. The dry leaf smells great: vanilla and mint. Fresh and fresh.

I boil the water. Because I don’t have a temperature-controlled teakettle, I add a couple of spoons of cold water to cool the water a bit and prevent that sour wood honeybush thing.

The steeped tea smells great: pretty much like the dry leaf smells. And the taste is right there too. The vanilla has mellowed the mint right out. The honeybush grounds the blend but stays in the background. A bit sweet, a bit herbal. Just right.

Not bad for an evening cup or two or three of a tea I was determined not to like.

This is a strange one for me.

The first two or three cups I tried of this, I loved: the perfect cold weather tea. And then, the subsequent cups, not so much. It even made me a bit queasy. Was it the apple camomile smell? the coriander? the vanilla? the creamy whatever? Whatever it was put me off and I put it away, far away to the back of my tea cupboard.

Anyway, now I am back to my first cup after so many hot months and tea distrust. The smell still makes me a bit wobbly. But the flavour is good: apple, cream, a bit of spice.

I am going to look into teas that I can dilute this with. The problem is that I am not quite sure what it is that doesn’t work for me in this tea. The sweetened yogurt smell I think. Perhaps extra camomile?

And how is it possible that my first few cups were just lovely and now that loveliness has flown.

If anyone has any suggestions for teas that I could blend this with to change it up some, I would appreciate the input.

I open the bag and spot teeny little mango squares nestled among the black tea leaves. The scent is very very subtle, but the flavour delivers. A gentle ripe mango with the slightest bit of the green tang that you get near the skin. A bit of cream on your lips after the sip. Solid medium black base. An enjoyable cup of tea, but truly, I’d like the same base with just a little bit more of everything to make my happiness complete: more mango squares, more mango flavour, more ice cream.

Blueberry. Both scent and flavour. Immediately followed by something floral and sweet—jasmine? or elderflower?

Imagine David’s Blueberry Jam but with a mild white tea rather than assertive black tea base.

I am enjoying this cup,
but the floral aspect of this tea is very likely going to embed itself in the silicone bit of my travel mug. Somehow, that worries me.

Good.

The first taste is ginger, followed up by a subtle apple sweetness. I like this tisane. I can predict that I will be drinking quite a bit of this in the evenings as the weather cools.

Banana flavoured teas are making their way up my favourites list. This summer, I enjoyed some herbal and rooibos banana blends but generally found the base too light.

And now, bam, banana and a black tea base.

I tried not to get my hopes up too much, because we know how that goes when you are anticipating a distinct flavour combination and the reality becomes quite different.

The scent of the dry leaf is just lovely and enticing sweet and true banana. There are bits of broken dry banana slices throughout the tea.

The black tea base is extra lovely and to my taste, well-suited to flavouring. Medium body. Just assertive enough to be present and sturdy enough to carry the flavours.

True clear banana taste with a bit of cake/sweet bread at the end of the sip. Just like banana bread, really. Just clear and true. No other flavours intruding or muddying things up, happily.

Very enjoyable. As I make my way through my cup and then my second, my rating of this tea has steadily creeped up from my initial assessment at 80 to 95. This tea may well find a place beside my beloved Buttered Rum. I cannot find anything wrong with this tea nor can I think of what might somehow make this tea absolutely perfect, but somehow resist giving it a 100.

Thankfully, I ordered a large packet of this, so I look forward to many future steepings.

Well done, Anne of 52teas! A really nice tea.

This was probably the wrong day for me to drink this tea: after a full day of mild and gentle Autumn Harvest Laoshan Green, six steepings worth.

And then, BAM, a very assertive Roots and Chai. Dandelion root in tea tends to rub me the wrong way. I had given the bag a good shake, but still.

I steeped it the recommended 8 minutes.

The smell of this tea is vile.

The taste is deep and spicy chai-like with this odd mint-like bite at the end. Perhaps it is the ginger. Though I like ginger and I don’t usually find that it comes as an aftertaste. And then, there’s this odd tongue-tingle effect like one gets from mint sometimes. Though I know that mint is not listed as one of the ingredients.

This is my first cup of this, and I will attempt a second steeping. And then, I will probably try this another time to see whether it was completely unfair of me to drink this after a day of a most lovely and gentle green.

Oh my word.

How truly lovely this it!

I just received my very first subscription packet from Verdant Tea yesterday when I came home late at night. This is the first tea that I am trying. And what a glorious beginning to the day this is.

The leaf was just picked and processed a couple of weeks ago. When I opened the packet and inhaled, I was transported to China again and my visits to tea shops and tea gifts from friends. Such a fresh lovely grassy scent.

Seriously, this tea takes me to my most favourite tea room in a relatively small town on the bank of a river in southern Szechuan province. Beautiful beautiful tea. (Although Laoshan is in Shandong, which is nowhere near this particular tearoom in Szechuan.)

The tea brews up pale yellow. Beautiful.

And the flavour! Omg, so good. Lovely mild asparagus with a hint of toasted sesame overlay. Not even the slightest bit of bitterness or astringency.

As I don’t have a temperature-controlled kettle, I use my boil the water and walk away for a few minutes method for brewing up green tea. Also, I steep for two minutes or under.

Forgive me, I am not well-practiced at describing green teas, so this will be a new skill for me to hone while I read up on what others have written on this particular green tea and others.

I was reluctant to buy this tea because it sounded like it might turn out to be somewhat gross, and then, if they got it right, it could turn out to be fab. In the end, my curiosity won out and I bought enough for three or four good cups: a good place to mention that the dry tea is quite heavy as it resembles broken up peanut butter cups.

The peanut flavour is right there. The chocolate is just a hint, but I’d say the peanut butter cup scent and flavour is quite accurate. I’d like the chocolate to be more present and the cup to be more creamy, but all in all, I’d say that they did a pretty good job with this.

YES. Wholeheartedly yes.

This is one of my favourite mild black teas, mild as opposed to the strong assertive black teas in Mighty Leaf fruited teas. It is pretty mellow morning or afternoon tea. I find that this and Buttered Rum by David’s also are in the same craving range for me. Both are my big favourites from David’s selection and I always have both in my cupboard.

This is now my second or third big purchase of this tea.

The tea brews up dark amber. The dry and wet scents are lovely: grounded light caramel. The taste is mellow grounded caramel, light light caramel, with a wee hint of sea salt. It’s a mild tea—I enjoy it black, through two quick steepings. I have had it in store as a latte, but found it not as satisfying as I’d like. The flavour and depth was not strong enough in all that milk for me.

One thing I really like about this tea and David’s Buttered Rum is that the black tea base is relatively mild. Any idea of what tea they are using here as the base? Anyway, it is just the thing when you want a gentle flavoured black tea, as opposed to a slap you upside the head on both sides black tea, which has its moments too, of course.

I like this combination of flavours a lot. I would like to discover a tea that has a bit more true rich quasi-burnt caramel flavour going on, without tasting false, of course. So, if someone has any ideas, please let me know.