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Intense busy day at work, after sleeping only 4 hrs. Anyway after downing a much needed energy drink earlier today (don’t judge!) I wanted something…calming…relaxing in the last hour or so before leaving work and this was perfect – no cleanup being in a teabag and in the mood for something on the sweet side. I don’t know if one rooibos is really that different from another, but this seemed great to me especially for a bagged tea – slightly sweet with woody, warm, honey apple flavour, something I would repurchase. Rooibos also doesn’t seem to oversteep, left it in the cup for a good while, and I also took the bag with me in my travel mug for a 3rd infusion all the way home and it was just fine.

One of my favourite green teas now. It has a great steamed vegetables taste…reminds me of chopped up chinese greens like ‘yu choy’. The leaves are large (supposedly this tea is only made from the second leaves rather than the bud and first leaf), dark green and appear folded when dry, and unfurl/unfold into a medium green colour when steeped. Light and refreshing, and leans savoury. I wouldn’t drink this with breakfast at all but more for lunch/dinner due to the savoury taste.

Just got back from having Vietnamese pho, and wanted something fruity but not fussy, so a fruity tea it was! Having this in tea bag form also means I don’t have to clean out my infuser…can you tell I’m feeling pretty lazy at this point in time? My excuse is I did a bunch of chores already today so this is my time to relax before next week’s craziness starts.

This is a raspberry flavoured tea with hibiscus, its interesting to watch this steep in a glass, because you can see the tea steep out due to the red colour of the ingredients. The taste is slightly tart, with a hint of sweetness. Its not the best quality tea imo – the flavour reminds me a bit of cherry / cranberry rather than just raspberry, and the hibiscus floralness confuses things.

Second time trying this and it feels like the tangerine notes are less. I suspect its because this is a sample thats been stored in a ziploc bag. I really wish there was an easier way to store samples without losing their flavour. Might have to search for some small airtight tins or something, don’t want to start buying more airtight glass jars as they take up quite a bit of room and the smallest sizes at the dollar store are too large for a few grams of tea anyway.

Not sure why my first tasting note on this was so different but I tried this again and it was much less astringent than I remembered. I think steeping for a shorter time and also at a lower quantity of leaves helped. The caramel/brown sugar taste that others have noted is finally coming out too, and seems less malty than I initially thought. It has medium body with some roundness of taste.

I’m not an expert on Darjeeling by any means but this was incredibly fragrant when dry, and even more so when brewed. Very light and not at all astringent or drying. This infused multiple times, I think 3-4x over the course of a day at the office. The aroma and flavour is very fruity, leaning towards ripe peaches.

Got this sample from a friend in my Tea Sommelier class. The black base is great, no astringency and has nicely twisted leaves. There are some fruit and floral bits in the dry mix, and a mild fragrance of peaches and apricot (vs. the intense-ness that some other blends have which can seem quite artificial).

I brewed this hot, and it is a nice dessert tea, probably better sweetened but still good unsweetened. Victorias does recommend this iced, so perhaps I’ll try this cold brewed next.

First time at Balzac’s coffee, and I wanted to order tea…:P Out of the menu I thought French Breakfast sounded the most appealing with vanilla notes. It comes in a lovely cheesecloth like tea bag, and steeps up on the darker side. Some chocolate notes and caramel notes on this one. Definitely astringent once you get to Infusion #2 and more, even on Infusion #1 I felt this was a milk that calls for milk and sugar from the get-go. I don’t know why I ordered a medium size when all it does it have more water to 1 teabag, so would recommend just ordering the small next time.

Feeling dehydrated after a bout of cold and cough so wanted something with lots of flavour and fruitiness. Copious infusions of this with honey made me feel better finally.

Decided to drink some of this in the hopes something could get rid of this annoying cold. I think I didn’t wait long enough for the water to cool though, as the brew turned out bitter not like its usual greenness. Note to self, be more patient next time.