#TodaysTea Twinings Green Tea K-Cup

My friend told me this was several years old. No matter! The age possibly did give it character, felt closer to those Chinese green teas I tried. Except not good.

#TodaysTea K-cup Chai Latte

Don't take it personally, India, we do this to everything. It gets the "latte" effect with instant tea and dried milk, emptying the K-cup. The result smells good, and is sweetened enough to drink easy, but feels artificial and I don't want more.

#TodaysTea Twinings Earl Grey, but from a K-Cup

I expected this format to make a weak tea, and it kinda did. I think Earl Grey works best when the tea is strong enough to fight the bergamot, but here the bergamot leaches out quicker and overwhelms it.

Unfortunately this will mark a hiatus for #TodaysTea. Not because I'm tired of tea or writing about it, but because I now have a huge amount of tea on hand, and would like to go through it before buying any more. Don't want it to go stale!

#TodaysTea Bigelow Cranberry Apple

Swiping complimentary hotel teas is useful, can sample stuff without needing a whole box if I don't like it. For instance this generic fruit tea; probably superior to Celestial variation, but not enough to want more of it.

teapot and mug filled with a warm orange liquid on a table, pictured from above

tea orange in fronh of the tea pot with miscellaneous items in the background, out of focus. the tea orange has been holed out and aged to a shrumpled green color, with tea having been stuffed inside. a hand is gently holding it up to the camera

#TodaysTea is a Lapsang Souchong Red Tea Orange from the same box as before. The citrusy smell is super nice, while the red #tea gives it a bold and slightly smoky note. First time steeping a tea orange, hope I did it right!

#TodaysTea Trader Joe's Moroccan Mint Green Tea

Haven't loved the Trader Joe's tea so far, so this wins by default. Green tea, spearmint and lemongrass are a combo that's hard to go wrong, but here the spearmint buries the other two which are reduced to indistinguishable body.

#TodaysTea Bigelow Orange & Spice

This looked like a case of hibiscus hissss, however that flavor is muted here, with it contributing to the orange flavor rather than distracting from it. I suspect the spices help cut the tartness. One of my preferred fruit teas.

a teapot and a mug with a cat on it stand on a table. the tea's color is a very pretty orange.

#Today'sTea is a Yunnan Golden Snail Red Tea. @kruemmelspalter and I will be trying both the loose variant and the tea oranges - dried fragrant oranges aged with tea stuffed inside.
Notes: sweet, smooth, floral, honey.
Source: Jesse's Teahouse (March Box)

#TodaysTea Bigelow Mint Medley

You're playing a dangerous game just adding hibiscus for a deeper color, Bigelow. Fortunately, the mint covers it up, and while I'll still take the straight peppermint over this, it tastes alright.

#TodaysTea Caraway Seed

Hard to describe, sort of like "what if licorice tasted nothing like licorice". Kinda sweet, number of other flavors pushing all different directions. It doesn't work on its own, but I could see this adding complexity to a blend that needs a bit more pop.

#TodaysTea Jammin' Lemon Ginger

I've made a point of saying I'm interested in tea only for flavor, not any medical benefit. However, I habe been drinking this ahead of karaoke night to soothe my singing voice, and I think it's helped, it do feel smoother starting out with it.

#TodaysTea Herbacil Seven Flowers Tea

The seven flowers are:
-Valerian
-Passionflower
-Tilia
-Orange Blossom
-Mexican Hand Plant
-Melissa
-White Zapote

Thankfully it's not their Eucalyptus tea, but blending 7 herbs chosen for dubious medicinal purposes doesn't make a tasty tea

#TodaysTea Doğadan Melissa Tea

Doğadan goes 2-for-2 on their tea blends so far, after the Sage tea earlier. We'd call it lemon balm tea here, and it has a sweet and full body. But they blend it with anise and mint to give some accent, and the result work well.

#TodaysTea Bigelow Sweet Dreams

"Sleep" tea blends are chamomile+mint, varying the ratio. Bigelow's effort uses peppermint as well as the more typical spearmint, leading to the mint taste winning out. I think I'd prefer just a chamomile or just a peppermint tea, though.

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#TodaysTea Horehound

Horehound? That's just most of furry bluesky 😉

Anyway, this was decent. Tastes a lot like chamomile, reckon I can just substitute it in blends going forwards. Also proposed to make me sleepy, expect it to deliver chamomile's results for that too.

#TodaysTea Sage Tea

From Turkey! One of the ill-defined axes I use to describe teas is floral vs. earthy, and this is a tea that sits at the middle of it. Quite comforting, and is one of the nicest colors of any tea so far.

#TodaysTea Arnica Tea

The Herbacil Eucalyptus tea was one of the worst I've encountered, so I was wary of this. But it's a middle of the road herbal, earthy but not in an interesting way. I think this is also for the health benefits, but I'm not clear what they are.

#TodaysTea Anise Seed

Less cool-looking than its cousin star anise, but apparently with similar flavor, that flavor being "licorice". I love licorice, but this doesn't work as a standalone tea; it's all top not in my nose with no flavor on my tongue. Needs a blend to work.

#TodaysTea Bigelow Green Tea with Pomegranate

I like Bigelow's last green tea, what could go wrong here?

HIBISCUS.

I presume added to get the purple color and fruity flavor since the peel won't do it alone, but that tartness kills everything I like about green tea.

#TodaysTea Alfalfa Leaf

Screw it, let's just throw some cattle fodder in boiled water and call it a tea. Was worth a shot because it's real cheap. Is it good? Well, it's grassy, no lemongrass but sweet enough to get by. Could see it as tea blend filler.

#TodaysTea Sae Midori Sencha

Japanese teas be like "Glare at your cup, brew with the heat generated by your stare for 13 seconds."

#TodaysTea Yerba Mate

What if neither coffee nor tea, but a secret third thing?

#TodaysTea Keemun Black Tea

A complimentary sample from iTeaWorld included with my purchase of those three Chinese herbal teas.

Heads up to companies! If you send me tea samples I will review them for my audience of 15-30 mildly interested furries!

#TodaysTea Green Rooibos

>order green rooibos
>look inside tea
>still red

#TodaysTea Wild Cliff Tea

The third in my trio of Chinese herbal teas. What is it? I don't know. I confess if you asked me to distinguish between it and the Vine Tea and the Jin Qianliu I'm not sure I would be able to.

#TodaysTea Kudzu Root

few grams of this bad boy and I can destroy a whole forest

#TodaysTea Decaf Lipton

Decaf Lipton at a hotel is probably the least prestigious tea possible, but honestly there's worse things in life. They're a big company with pros working for them, they have the taste refined down to something inoffensive. It improves on warm water.

#TodaysTea Nettle Leaf Tea

Hey, you know that plant that stings you when you leave the trail to take a leak while hiking? Yeah, let's strip the leaves and drink 'em.

#TodaysTea Trader Joe's Maple Espresso

Continues the trend of Trader Joe's teas being weak. The maple flavor comes on strongest here, and that's not terrible but there's not much depth to the flavor.