Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Full Leaf Tea Co.
Tea Description:
A unique blend of extra strong full bodied black teas and sweet vanilla. A great way to start your morning or enjoy throughout the day.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Can you say Vanilla love? This tea has such a natural vanilla sweet aroma to the dry leaf mixture. The mixture reminded me of one of those high end vanilla candles. Such a creamy natural vanilla fragrance.
I brewed this up with the help of my Breville One Touch on the black setting-medium steeping time. (212F-2min) I poured myself a cuppa and sat down to enjoy this treat.
And what a treat this is! I am in love with the rich vanilla notes backed up with this delicious smooth malty black tea that just creates a delicious cuppa. This is a fancy breakfast tea indeed! The vanilla brings the breakfast tea blend a nice natural sweetness with no chemical or fake aftertaste that I sometimes get from other vanilla flavored teas. The black tea background has just such a wonderful malty goodness that I adore.
Fancy Breakfast Blend is a great treat to start your day off or even give you a kick during those afternoon slumps. Full Leaf Tea Co brought their “tea” game again! Nice job Matt & the rest of the gang at Full Leaf Tea Co.!
Duke of Earl from Blackbird Tea Co.
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Blackbird Tea Co.
Tea Description:
Unstoppably smooth, much more so than his cousin, that stuffy 19th century aristocrat. Our organic black tea is infused with Italian bergamot oil and a little bit of swagger. Drink up for inspiration.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Blackbird Tea Co makes some tasty teas and this one is no exception to that rule.
I brewed this tea up to treat myself to a hot beverage to warm me up from the cold office. I swear our office is an ice box!
But this, that, and the other got in the way of my tea drinking experience so by the time I got around to this tea, it was cold. I went ahead and took a sip and this tea is such a forgiving loving tea!
As an iced tea, this tea was perfect for the fans that like a light earl grey touch to their teas. This wasn’t an overwhelming earl grey/bergamot oil flavor, but more of a kiss. The black tea was subtle and didn’t become astringent. Such a smooth iced earl tea to keep me going thru the day.
When I first started steeping this, the tea had a pretty strong earl grey flavor. I’m curious now if this has a really strong earl grey flavor when hot but cooled the flavors are muted. So nice to end my day with at the office.
And if you are keeping up with my sipdown adventures this is #15. Woohoo!
Rose Royal from Lupicia
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Lupicia
Tea Description:
A black tea with enchanting aromas of sparkling wine and sweet strawberries. LUPICIA’s Signature tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
If you haven’t taken a whiff of this tea while its steeping, you are missing out. This tea had such an amazing sweet candy with an almost berry dessert wine profile.
I received this tea bag from a fellow tea pal from Steepster and was excited to try it. Lupicia has some amazing teas. With a name like Rose Royal, I just knew this had to be amazing.
Steeped this up like a traditional black but made an error. I left the tea bag in. This tea turned bitter quickly. The first few sips were fabulous. The taste matched the aroma I was loving. Sweet Berry Wine with a strong black tea base. Oh so good. Hit all the right notes. A flavored tea that isn’t overwhelming.
But then I got distracted with a phone call here and an email there. When I went back to the tea, it was a bitter sad brew. I could still smell that amazing aroma but the taste had turned on me.
Even tho my first jaunt with this tea didn’t turn out the way I wanted to, I still loved those first few sips. This tea will be on my list to pick more up once I sipdown some more teas. Which this is #14. Woot Woot!
Aries from the Zodiac Collection by AstroloTea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black/Floral
Where to Buy: AstroloTea
Tea Description:
An energetic dance of flavors to initiate the courageous and enterprising new beginnings of the Ram.
Every sign rules a different part of the body, Aries rules the head and the face. The Aries blend, a light and subtle flavor with tones of fruit and flowers, helps promote mental clarity, new beginnings, and fresh perspective.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
First thought when I saw this tea was YES! Chrysanthemums!
Over the summer, I discovered these delicious floral teas with Chrysanthemum in it. Wow. My taste buds squealed in delight!
This tea is a unique blend of floral, spices, black tea, and a few herbals sprinkled in for good measure. This tea looks amazing. The dry leaf mixture had such a nice sweet slightly savory/floral aroma. Really nice. I couldn’t wait to brew this up. I poured the entire sample I bought into my tea pot, added the water and let it steep for 4 minutes.
While this tea was steeping, I swear I was drooling. This tea smelled just so good!
Finally it was time to try it. Took my first sip and yes, there is the good stuff. This tea really gives me the “wow” factor I look for. There is a unique sweet taste with hints of floral notes and a slightly savory sage finish. The tea base is nice and gives the tea a nice background depth. There are also notes of lemon here and there. Such a silky like smooth tea. So rich and full of flavor! I can’t get enough!
What is fantastic is that when you order this tea, you can order it caffeinated or not. Of course I choose caffeinated. I need something to get me thru the 2pm hour! I was also able to steep this tea about 4 times before noticing a lack of flavor.
If you aren’t familiar with AstroloTea, take a moment and check out the site. The owner is amazing and has such a great variety of teas for everybody!
By the way, if anybody is following my epic adventure to sipdown my teas. . .This makes #9! Woohoo!
Black Tea from Naveya Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Naveya Tea
About Naveya Tea:
Our fitness tea select best 100% natural detox tea,using flowers and teas to heal your body and soul.We promise all of our ingredients are renowned for their positive effects on metabolism and detoxification.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I drank this tea the other day after having their Jasmine Tea which was very good and a solid green jasmine tea. I had high expectations for this one. This is a straight black tea. Their site that has recently been revamped to market their line of teas as Fitness Teas has quite a nice assortment of teas to choose from. I was glad they sent me this tea and the Jasmine Tea to try.
Brewed this up like a black tea but errored on the side of caution and went with a 2 min steeping time. I didn’t want to oversteep this one. The dry leaves of this tea had a very nice robust malty aroma that I didn’t want to turn bitter.
Let this cool for a few minutes and took my first sip. This tea was delicious and hit the spot. There is just the right amount of malty notes to company the full bodied taste that you get each and every sip. Even as this tea cooled in my traveler mug, I didn’t get any bitterness hitting me or even strong astringent notes. Each sip was a smooth refreshing almost silky like black tea that I found myself wanting more of.
Since my first experience with this tea, I’ve had it a few more times and each time this tea is spot on. So good! I really like this and I am one that likes to take a black tea with me along with my water bottle for my hour drive to take the kids to school and me to work.
My only issue is that they are marketing this as a fitness tea and that seems to be the new craze lately. I read in a Vogue article that we wold be seeing more and more of that this year. I don’t have a problem with companies marketing their teas as fitness teas at all. As long as there are disclaimers were they need to be. Like I said in my review of the jasmine tea. I just really liked the look of their older site with the beautiful floral arrangements and tea pots galore. Those kind of sites are what attract my attention. When I see the site now, it gives me two feelings. 1) I need to go work out and 2) Guilty for not working out. Again, no issue here with them marketing their teas however they want. I just think the tea enthusiasts out there would like the previous site just a bit better.
Regardless, they make some amazing teas!