R Monroe
User's reviews
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Masala Chai
One of my favorite teas!
Brewed at 212F for well over 7 minutes. Honestly, I enjoy steeping it for closer to ten minutes, as it treats the herbal components quite well to leave it for a long time.
Spicy with a strong base of black tea, this tea is as close as you can get to a traditional chai tea without buying a powdered chai blend. The taste lingers, and the smell is divine as well. What is a good tea without cream or sugar becomes an excellent tea once plenty of sugar and milk are added. Do not be afraid to shy away from either, as it helps to bring out the spice and allows the flavors to blend very well.
Highly recommended.
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Honeybush Blueberry Pancake
I received this tea as part of the communiTEA samples. As such, my review may not be indicative of the tea in a larger batch and blend.
From the beginning, though: I steeped this tea for 5 minutes at 212F, as per the recommendations.
The tea is unusual. Sweet for the most part, with an unusual cloying nature to it and scent. It smelled heavily of the maple, which came through in the flavor of the tea. I tasted no blueberry, which might have helped to cut through the odd dark sweetness that was provided with the apple pieces and maple flavor.
I did not like the tea at first taste, nor did sugar or cream help with the flavor at all. While I would be willing to try it again so long as I had the dried blueberry as well, I did not like it whatsoever.
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Rooibos Nutcracker
It's a really interesting tea!
I've had it now twice, once entirely plain, and once with some sugar and cream in it, brewed at 212F, and steeped for about 5-6 minutes.
When it is sipped at without anything else, it has a complex, rich flavor. At the tip of your tongue and the immediate hit of flavor, you get a bit of sweetness from the floral and apple ingredients. However, the flavor almost immediately mellows to something darker with the nut, cocoa, and caramel flavors that linger at the back of your tongue. With sugar and cream, the flavors mellow to be more blended, and linger a bit longer than without either additions.
An unusual tea, it has taken the two cups for me to appreciate it and enjoy it. It is very different from the black teas that I usually sip at, though not unwelcome. Not an every-day tea, but still enjoyable to relax with.