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ALL HAIL THE GLOW CLOUD.

HAIL.

The Glow Cloud is much more lemony than I expected the Glow Cloud to be. I like it lots. Would be fabu as an iced tea.

HAIL.

This came in a boxed tea gift set that I picked up when I was at Disney’s Hilton Head resort two weeks back. I didn’t have high hopes for any of the tea in the collection and bought it mainly for the novelty.

Yesterday, I found myself bleary-eyed and stumbling in the morning as I tried to make myself wake up enough to drive an hour north to meet some friends, to drive a further hour north to see a field of sunflowers in Jarrettsville, MD. The gift box was sitting on the counter and I cut through the plastic tape and grabbed this one, tossed a bag into a travel mug, and turned on the kettle.

This tea also has the distinction to be the first steeped with water brewed from my brand new kettle, which arrived on Saturday. My brand new kettle, which I had not planned or wanted to buy, because I came downstairs Thursday to find the cats had knocked my old one off the counter and the glass had shattered into pieces.

Cats, man. Cats.

But back to this tea. Which is… well, it’s drinkable. But not anything to write home about. There is only the faintest taste of bergamot, and it’s quite lost if the water is too hot. So, pretty bland Earl Grey. Which honestly, is pretty much spot on with my pretty low expectations prior to drinking.

I’m meh on this tea. It is definitely hazelnut, and a bit chocolatey, but I think I like my chocolate hazelnut in actual solid chocolate form and not tea.

I got a sachet of this as part of a sampler for my birthday. I’ll finish off the other sachet but won’t be buying this myself. It was interesting but not really my thing.

I gave my local yarn store a bunch of tea that had been in my tea cupboard that I had acquired but weren’t to my taste (mainly, because ginger… ew). And one of the employees offered me a cup of this in thanks.

It was not the best early grey lavender I’ve ever had, but I also suspect it was brewed too hot because the lavender got a bit lost in the flavor. I have my own source for earl grey lavender tea that I love so I won’t go out of my way to try this again, but if it’s offered, it’s a nice cuppa.

I got a little sample of this in a past traveling tea box, and finally tried it. It was lovely. Delicately sweet, though I wish the fruit flavors were a bit more distinctive rather than just “fruit.” I wish I had more so I could brew up a jug of iced tea.

Made another cup of this and loved it. This really needed boiling water to bring out the flavor. Deeper, darker. More chocolate, less apple flavor, which I heartily approved of.

I brewed this again and loved it much more than the first time. Used hotter water and steeped for a full 5 minutes.

The vanilla came through crystal clear, as did a hint of rose. Lovely. Simply lovely. I can see this becoming a staple of my cupboard.

This tea was not like anything I anticipated. Based on the name, I thought this would be a rooibos tea. It’s actually a black-rooibos blend. This isn’t a bad thing but I had started prepping a mug of this late at night wanting a caffeine-free tea.

This was much lighter than I anticipated given both the black tea and the chocolate. And the prevailing flavor was not chocolate but apple.

It was pleasant, but completely not what I was expecting. I was a little disappointed because I wanted something dark and chocolatey, but did enjoy this cup. It’s a delicious tea, but know what you’re getting.

This is a pretty standard black tea. Some very light floral/fruit notes but very light to the point where I didn’t really taste them unless I was actively paying attention. It’s a nice black tea but I didn’t think it was anything truly special. (I guess I’m in the minority on this one.)

While cleaning out my tea cupboard I found this stashed in the back of the shelf unopened. So I opened it and brewed a cup.

It’s nice. Very light and cinnamony. It smells like it should be spicy and full of “Christmas” spices, but only cinnamon really comes through.

I got zero apple flavor at all, which isn’t terribly surprising since I don’t think bits of fruit add much to how a tea tastes.