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This was a nice jasmine tea but not noteworthy enough for me to buy the higher end over standard jasmine tea you can find at an Chinese or Japanese market.

a solid green tea. it’s very straight forward and simple.

My mom gave me this sample since she dislikes fruit flavored teas.

I really enjoyed this tea. The smell upon opening the bag was a very powerful strawberry, but I was happy that it toned down a lot after steeping. The flavor of strawberry was easily detectable but didn’t over power the base.

**updated with instructions per Lupicia’s website

Instructions:
1) Place teabag in 100 ml water, microwave 3 minutes.
2) Add 100 ml milk, microwave for a minute.

I love Chai Latte’s but never seem to enjoy my home made Chai brews until today.

I decided to try my sample of Lupicia’s Chai Bag Cardamom & Pepper. I was a little nervous since I wasn’t positive that my elementary Japanese got the translation of the instructions right (something about a large mug , microwaving for 3 minutes, and a second set of instructions I can’t read at all). So I decided to bypass the instructions all together and just brewed the bag in boiling water for 3 minutes.. It came out just fine.

Disclaimer: Rooibos isn’t my favorite, but I don’t dislike it.

UPDATE: Not sure what happened but I now enjoy this tea immensely! I may have strayed away from Lupicia’s steeping instructions, but this time I followed it, steeping the bag in 150ml of boiling water for 5 minutes. The tea was smooth and velvety, sweet but not overly so. Raising my score from 61 to 80!

ORIGINAL: Piccolo is one of my remaining samples from the Book of Tea set from Lupicia. The smell of the dry leaves is very pretty with a strong scent of apricot, honey and berry. The brew had a full velvety mouth feel and the flavors masked the medicinal qualities of the rooibos enough for me to enjoy it. The instructions indicate that milk can be added, but I didn’t feel the need to add.

This tea left me feeling apathetic. The scent was off putting due to the whiff of cough syrup I got upon brewing. But I digress,the tea just tastes like black tea with a scant trace of cherry, vanilla and licorice. If I had done a blind taste test, the only way I could detect the flavors would be through the scent, not the flavor.

I don’t know if it’s the assortment set that I got, but I don’t feel like Tea Forte is usually this bad when it’s served at a restaurant.

I took a sip of the brewed tea straight first and it was awful. I thought it tasted like sweet dirt. I then added milk per the instructions and it was tolerable, but not enjoyable. Definitely will not be buying this assortment set again!

I rarely comment on the scent of the dry leaves, but this smells amazing! I know that its caramel, but to me it smells almost like a rich butter cookie. I kept smelling the bag while I was waiting for the water to heat up.

The aroma mellows out upon brewing, but the flavor is full but light. The creaminess that comes from the milk caramel blends nicely with the roasted flavor of houjicha.

I think I’ll need to buy this when the weather gets colder. This would be nice on a cold morning.

Solid earl grey tea with a well balanced touch of rose. I only had 1 teabag of this, so I didn’t see any steeping instructions. I first steeped for 2 minutes, but wasn’t getting of the rose flavor. I steeped for another minute or two, and I ended up with a nice brew.

I received one teabag of Patagonia Bee as a sample via Taste the World. The flavors seemed promising. I like Vanilla, Honey and Chocolate.

I may have steeped this too long ( I forgot about it while it was brewing), but I am not a fan. It kind of tastes what I imagine a Burt’s Bees chapstick tastes like. It tasted mildly of honey and vanilla…. and to me, it tasted a little waxy. I couldn’t detect the Cacao in the taste, but it was there in smell.