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Samurai Chai Mate is my favorite tea from Teavana. No question. Hands down. I drink it every morning, and that sweet spicy flavor brings me back time and time again. (It’s also the only chai I drink straight without milk.) If you’re looking for a nice cinnamon and fruity start to your day, check it out.

This Pisces blend from Adagio was one of the first loose leaf teas I’ve ever bought. I don’t recall if I’ve had it before, but a recent inventory and cleaning out of my tea cabinet showed that I hadn’t even tasted it.

This blend is an odd mix of rooibos, orange black tea, and chamomile. There’s also a few orange rinds thrown in to add a citrus note.

Now it may just be the proportions, but the rooibos overpowered the black tea, which is perhaps a good thing (all the caffeine with none of the kick). But then, there’s chamomile. Combined with the orange rind, there’s a slight citrus aftertaste.

It’s not a bad tea, but it’s not good either. It’s just OK. I could probably get the same effect with a bag of Lipton and a strip of orange peel.

I forgot this tea was steeping, so I went well over the suggested 4-5 minute steep time. (It was probably closer to 10-15 minutes…yikes!) I was afraid that the tea would be bitter and undrinkable having steeped so long, but I was pleasantly surprised by both the aroma and taste.

The plump, full blueberries in the tea are the star here, transforming a plain cup of black tea into something extraordinary. I added sugar and just a touch of cream to bring out the cream cheese notes in the blend, and it was a very, very satisfying cup.

I just have to remember next time not to oversteep it!

Blooming teas — lovely to look at, but hit or miss on flavor. Such is the case with this Peach Momotaro blooming tea from Teavana.

Like most white teas, it is very delicate and pale in color. The peach flavor makes it even lighter and adds a bit of fruitiness, but with a sharp tangy stringent aftertaste. The tea certainly has a peach aroma and taste, but the aftertaste ruined it for me.

It’s definitely a tea more conducive to drinking straight as opposed to sipping.

I have three of these sample packets from some old Teavana orders, so I figured I’d fire up the Zojirushi and give ’em a spin while I get some writing done.

One of the other tasting notes for this tea describes it as “warm fruit punch”, which is quite apt. I take sugar in my tea, but this wasn’t overly sweet even with the additional rock sugar added to the sample. Actually, it was very bitter (I’m guessing it’s because of the orange rinds in the mix).

The sample is aromatic though with strong notes of citrus and fruit. I know there’s tea in it, but you certainly don’t taste it. I can imagine it would taste great iced with sugar to taste. The sample alone was just OK for me.

Maybe that’s why they were giving it away.

I haven’t been here on Steepster in a long time, but a recent refresh of my tea cabinet reminded me to come back on here since I’ve gotten a lot of new teas. I’m going to try going through each one of my new teas (and a few older ones I haven’t tried yet) daily.

Now, on to the show!

This Citrus Lavender Sage from Teavana is a bit deceptive because it doesn’t take much to give you a nice flavorful cup. It has a very fragrant citrus and herb bouquet, although I didn’t really taste much sage while drinking. The citrus and pineapple are pretty overwhelming, but the lavender provides a good counterpoint. The sage kind of gets lost in the mix for me. Overall, it’s very bright and summery in nature. It would probably be great iced!

Haven’t tried this particular tea from Golden Moon Tea in a while, and it’s just as delicious as I remember. When brewed, it has a nice caramel aroma which is further intensified upon tasting. It’s a great after-dinner tea with a good balanced flavor.

I tried my hand at creating my own tea blend over at Design a Tea, and this is one of the packs I created (the other was hazelnut and peppermint; Design a Tea also threw in a sample of marzipan tea which I’m dying to try). There was nothing overly special about this tea; when sweetened and splashed with cream, this tastes like a creamsicle with a faint eggnog-y flavor. All in all, a good dessert tea.

Mmm…I do love a good smoky lapsang souchong, and Golden Moon delivers on that with this tea. The dry leaves have an intensely smoky sweet aroma…almost bacon-y. Almost. I usually mix lapsang souchong with an oolong to get a more rounded mouth feel, but I didn’t need that with this one. The smoky flavor carried through to the initial and second brews. A good morning shakeup from my usual matés.

“Over the years I got to be quite a connoisseur of soap. Though my personal preference was for Lux, I found that Palmolive had a nice, piquant after-dinner flavor – heavy, but with a touch of mellow smoothness. Lifebuoy, on the other hand…”

+5 cool points to you if you recognize the quote.

So I generally don’t dig black teas. I love white teas, and I’m crazy about oolongs. Tisanes are nice too. Black teas usually don’t float my boat unless it’s a smoky lapsang souchong or a chai blend. Golden Moon might’ve just won me over with this rose tea. As I opened the package, the smell of fresh-cut roses immediately hit my nose. The aroma is intoxicating and subtle. I brewed it up, and much to my surprise, that same subtlety carried over to the cup. I took the first sip (and sniff), and only one thing came to mind.

Palmolive soap.

This tea has a very soapy mouthfeel. And honestly, I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing, because I gulped this cup down and brewed up a second one. (No, my mom didn’t wash my mouth out with soap, but the earlier quote immediately came to mind when I finished the cup.) It certainly doesn’t have the astringency and bitterness that usually comes with a black tea. I’d be tempted to probably buy this one.

Would that make me a soap lover?