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This is the first Harney & Sons tea I’ve ever had, courtesy of Sandy.

I’m not the biggest fan of ‘green’ oolongs as of yet. It’s not that they’re bad, they’re just kind of subtle, and not exactly that… you know… awesome.

However, the pomegranate flavoring of this tea just seems to be the flavor that tea guan yin needs. It’s not overpowering at all in this tea, but it is very apparent. It works very well. Although, I don’t taste any of the ‘juniper’ taste that I normally get with a TGY or assorted green oolongs (high mountain, monkey picked, etc). I’m not sure if that’s just a matter of it blending with the pomegranate, or if this particular TGY doesn’t have that quality at the back of the taste.

Also, if you should happen to be able to pick up a sachet of one of these… I recommend it for nothing else other than the comical value of the post-brew sachet. Missy was giggling so hard at the way the sachet expanded from the TGY almost to the point of bursting. She said it looked like a tea balloon, haha.

Just a quick tasting note… I got distracted by Diablo and drank all the tea before I could give it a proper rating. This is definitely one of the best kangaroo chai I’ve had. Very, very enjoyable. The cardamom is really more of a star than you get in most chai blends, which I think really took some of the edge of the woodsy-ness of the kangaroo flavor.

So, a definite thumbs up. :)

A big thanks to Azzrian for this sample!

I kind of have a love/hate relationship with chocolate mint tea. I really, really like chocolate mint, mint is easily the second best thing you can pair chocolate with (Vanilla being the first, and a lot of people don’t quite consider that fair).

Now, take this tea for example. It’s quite tasty, the flavoring is good, the chocolate is well done and has a definitely chocolate liqueur taste to it, with the mint flavoring coming in afterwards to cool everything down. There is a smooth black tea flavor that comes in just slightly at the end, but it isn’t strong enough to really play much into the beverage experience. Definitely a solid tea that I could keep around, if I wasn’t such a snot.

But I am, and here’s why: just chop up some mint leaves and put them in the darn tea already. Flavoring is fine and dandy, and really I don’t pick sides on the whole natural vs artificial flavoring thing, as long as the taste works out. But for me, with mint, it never really seems that the taste does work out.

Small detour: I wanted to talk about the weird mint flavoring here, and why it didn’t taste like, you know, mint-mint to me. But my enter key got stuck, and was inserting a billion new lines into my review. So I did what any sane, rational thinking man would do: grabbed the nearest metal thing and pry it off with brute force. This worked well, and my enter key popped up with a nice, satisfying snap and a solid propulsion arc… directly into my tea cup. Seriously, this is comedy gold.

Anyway… plus, mint is so much prettier, and seems to meld in with the tea flavors a lot more than mint flavoring does. This is quite likely psychosomatic, but it seems that I’m much happier with my mint experience in tea if there’s actually shredded up mint leaves, as opposed to mint flavoring which has been applied.

That’s probably enough out of me tonight folks. Have a good first of July ;)

We got this tea as a sample from the always wonderful Sandy!

I remember trying this some time ago hot, and while it was enjoyable, it didn’t really strike my fancy.

Iced though, this thing is a sparkly, sparkly gem.

The cinnamon and clove are the dominant flavors, definitely the stars of the show. The orange flavor is sweet and very natural tasting, melding in with the very, very smooth ceylon tea.

This thing I find most remarkable about this is it doesn’t make me think of Christmas, at all. I don’t get it, it should. The description and flavor combination screams Christmas like a heavy metal rendition of Here Comes Santa Claus. But the way the flavors blend together comes off a lot more distinct than I expected. Or, maybe it’s just because it’s iced, and I’m crazy. Both are distinct possibilities.

Anyway… this is still magically sitting in TropicalTeaCo’s $1.00/oz sale selection, and it’s a beaut of an iced tea. Probably one of their best. Double plus good, at least.

Someone left a bag of this at work for me to try. The hint of lime with the mint flavor is kind of interesting. I might try adding a little lime to my next batch of moroccan mint, see how that turns out. Though this seems to sacrifice some mint in search of lime… and less mint is always less bueno, Mr. Mojito!

Still magnificent. Absolutely the best fruit tisane I’ve ever had. Upping the rating on this one, not sure why I gave it a lowly 94 to begin with!

We received this tea from Rachel as part of the iced tea swap from DaisyChubb’s blog (daisychubb.com). So thanks to both of you!

The whole point of the swap was to get iced tea blend… but we’re being rebels and brewing it hot:).

This is a very fruity blend, and would probably be GREAT iced, so we may have to try that a little later. The most predominant fruit flavor that I taste is the orange peel, followed by the papaya, apple, and some tart that must be the cranberries. Add in some cinnamon to warm everything up, and it’s a pretty enjoyable brew.

The black tea itself is kind of lost in this whole mixture, I can’t really say that I taste it at all. This probably has something to do with the steeping parameter being 185 degrees, which took me a little by surprise (black tea and fruit, can’t I just boil it to death?).

A big thanks again to both Rachel and Daisy :)

Yeah, this one is going to have to stick around too.

I’m finding I prefer roasted mate to normal mate… pretty much… always. The roasted, toasty goodness really makes everything nice.

This tea from 52teas is no exception. The roasted base mate is strong and flavorful, with the sweet, almost bitter dark chocolate flavor coming in nicely afterwards… finishing with a hint of banana? Yes, it definitely seems to be banana at the end.

I think if I ever had to try to lure someone away from coffee, I might start them with this tea. It has a lot of similar characteristics that you would find in a good cup of coffee, and that creaminess that really makes the morning kind of come together. If I could trust myself to boil water in the morning without causing myself serious damage, I might use this instead of my typical cup of Mr. Coffee. I don’t, but that’s besides the point.

With my first order from SerendipiTea, they sent me a sample of Persian Nectar, which is their peach black tea. It was good, remarkably good, as I didn’t really consider myself a fan of peach flavored tea. But it was sweet, and tasty, and… well, it just seemed right coming in to summer.

So, I decided to hit up Amazon for this one, which is their peach ginger tea. And it totally paid off.

The peach flavor of this tea is just at the perfect level… it definitely knows who is boss, and saunters its way all around the house while it’s steeping. But in the flavor, it isn’t too overpowering. Oh, it’s dominant, but it doesn’t offend. The black tea rounds out the soft sweetness of the tea, with just a hint of the ginger at the end to add a little spice. Truly a fantastic tea.

I’m on my second glass of this iced, I grilled some burgers, topped with swiss, some fresh tzatziki sauce, and sprouts on a toasted whole wheat bun, paired with this iced tea… it was heaven. Neither the burgers nor the tea lasted very long. So now I’m taking my time with the second glass…

…maybe.

This tea was really quite excellent. It has a sweetness to it that overlays the light vegetable flavor to it very, very well. Absolutely delicious.

However…

Once this tea cools down, it’s downright undrinkable. I had given a little cup of this to Sandy at work, and she really didn’t like it. I’m guessing that has something to do with the fact that she let it cool down… because it’s really taking on an unpleasant, rubbery taste. So yeah, absolutely fantastic tea when drank warm.