For Christmas 2021, my wife got me the Top 10 Sampler from August Teas. As of now, I've been through each of them at least once, and about half of them twice, but I realized I'm going to lose track of which I like if I don't, well, track it. Plus, I wound up getting the All the Teas Sampler for my birthday, so that's even more to keep track of.
Low Country: strong black tea with bourbon and burnt sugar notes - This may be one of my favorites of this bunch. It's a nice strong tea, it's kind of sweet, and smells wonderful.
Passage: rich black tea with hazelnut and chocolate - Probably my second favorite. The hazelnut and chocolate are great, and the chocolate comes through really nicely.
Combray: creamy organic green tea with vanilla and cardamom - This one has a slightly licorice flavor to it with almost a hint of evergreens. It's good, but it has a slightly "medicine" quality to it.
Biarritz: velvety rooibos with amaretto and orange blossom - (non-caffeinated) Very good! The rooibos and amaretto are warm and cozy, and the orange blossom adds a little bit of a nice fruitiness to it.
Jet Black: rich black tea with roasted mate and espresso bean - I like that this one has high caffeine, but I'm not incredibly big on the flavor. In my head I want it to be more like Low Country or Biarritz.
Dark Iris: rich oolong with peach, pistachio and lime - I mostly taste the peach and maybe a tiny bit of the lime. It's good.
Metropolitan: vibrant black tea with bergamot, plum and clove - Pretty citrusy, and I'm not sure the clove comes through. It's ok, but I don't think I'd ever get a big bag of it.
Psychocandy: darkly sweet rooibos with pumpkin and caramel - (non-caffeinated) Another very good one! The rooibos and caramel have that same warm and cozy feeling as the Biarritz,
Know by Heart: white tea with orange blossom almond and honey - This is a really interesting one because something about the combination of flavors almost has a boozy flavor to it. The earthiness of the tea plus the lighter aroma of the orange blossom and the nuttiness of the almond are a great combo. This may be my third favorite so far.
Black Metallic: floral black tea with violet and elderberry notes - This may be one of my least favorites. The strong floral and berry flavors just aren't my favorite. It's ok, but I would never get more than a sample of it.
Capri: Honeydew melon fruit tea with mint - The mint is nice, but I'm not sure that I like the honeydew. I like the aroma, but the taste is a little plasticky.
Painted Desert: Crisp black tea with chili and chocolate - The aroma from the pouch made it seem like this tea would be a lot stronger in flavor than it was, but the chili and chocolate were more like background flavors to the tea rather than being up front. It was pretty good, and the chili offers just a hint of spice that hangs around a few minutes after finishing the tea.
Cult of Demeter: Silky organic cocoa, barley and anise - I wasn't a big fan of this one. The anise was a bit like fennel, and while I like fennel as a seasoning in a savory dish, but not so much in a tea. It's overwhelming to me. But at least I could also taste the barley and cocoa. Those were ok, but overall, this wasn't a favorite.
Tropic of Capricorn: Aromatic green tea with dragonfruit and melon - This one was really good! The lightness of the green tea and the fruit all worked really well together. The package says it tastes like "eucalyptus leaves and fresh-cut pine". I'm not sure if I got either of those, but I liked it enough that I brewed it a second time.
Breathless: Boozy black tea with white chocolate and prune - Going from the description and the aroma, I expected the flavors in this tea to be stronger. It was still pretty good, though. I actually liked I could still taste the black tea through the other flavors.
Leatherbound: Rich organic black tea with dark cocoa and caraway - This one is even more mild than Breathless. Again, from the aroma before steeping, I though there would be more extra flavors. I can kind of make out the cocoa husk and the caraway, but I have to really think about it. It's good, but not great.
Civil Disobedience: Smoky black tea with cardamom and tobacco notes - It is smoky. I'm also getting the cardamom and tobacco notes, but also the "pine needles" it talks about in the "tastes like" list. It's a really interesting one! I'm not sure if I could drink a lot of it, but it's definitely very different.
Big Easy: Sweet green tea with lemongrass, pineapple, and barley - Oh yeah, I'm definitely picking up on the lemongrass and pineapple, and I really like this one!
Ventura Highway: Sunny green organic oolong - Pretty traditional green oolong tea, but I could pick out the lightly citrus flavor. In spite of this one being "just" oolong, I liked it ok. It was definitely better than some of the first oolongs I've ever had. Also, it was interesting to see just how much the leaves expanded and uncurled from steeping!
Heartbreaker: Nutty rooibos tea with apple, rose, and mint - (non-caffeinated) This one was really smelling up the packages I sent to my mom and sister. It was very rosy, and I didn't really taste the apple or mint, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I wouldn't get more, but I'll at least finish what I have.
Cabaret: Malty black tea with chocolate and dark cherry - I'm not sure about the "malty", but I can definitely pick out the cherry and the chocolate a little bit. I reminds me a little bit of, well, a chocolate covered cherry. The aroma is a little more on the floral side, though. I like it overall.
Golden Arrow: Elegant black tea with smoke and burnt toffee notes - This one was really good. The smoky and toffee flavors just blended really well with the tea. This one made me really happy. I may have to side-by-side this one with Low Country sometime to see how similar or different they are.
Far Afield: Warming blend of sage, ginger and mandarin orange - I don't much taste the sage or mandarin as it's pretty heavy on the ginger. It's good, and I like it way more than the Yogi ginger tea as it's not nearly as strong as that, but I'm just not picking up on the extra flavors.
Silencio: Spicy black tea with pineapple, cacao, and black pepper - This one was kind of heavy on the cacao, but I could still kind of pick out the pineapple if I thought about it. I didn't get any of the black pepper, but that may be because about 20 minutes before I had had a peppery sausage gravy biscuit from work. I even brewed it a second time to see if I got any pepper flavors, but I didn't. The second time around also seems to be mostly missing the pineapple flavor.
Dots and Loops: Bright black tea with green apple and fennel - I was worried about this one because I've had a tea with fennel before, and it was SO overpowering that I had to just throw out the box after a cup or two. But this tea was actually very good! I could taste both the fennel and the apple, and they played well with each other.
Days of Heaven: Organic rhubarb, lemon verbena, and chamomile - (non-caffeinated) This one is ok. I could see having it around as an evening wind-down tea, but I think I've had other chamomile tea (specifically the Adagio one from the advent calendar) that was much better.
Arabesque: Aromatic green tea with orange and vanilla - Ooohhh... that's good. The orange with the vanilla on top of the green tea is just "yum". The orange stands out the most, but the vanilla is hiding there in the back and pairs really well with it. I don't often re-steep a tea, but I've done it with a few, and I did it with this one. I will say this one doesn't seem to hold up well to it. The orange gets kind of bitter, making it lean almost into smelling fishy. But the first time through, it's wonderful!
Silent Night: Chocolate nutmeg rooibos - (non-caffeinated) Eh, I'm not a fan of this one. It's ok, but I really don't think I'd pick up a big pack of it. The aroma is savory and almost kind of meaty. In a way it reminds me of bacon, which is weird. The flavor is different than the aroma, though. It's a little nutty and there's a little chocolate in it. I don't know if I'm necessarily picking up on the nutmeg in either the aroma or the flavor. Even though I'm not a fan, there's still a part of me that could see drinking this late in the evening on a cold wintery night. Maybe it's the name that's triggering that. This one really makes me think and feel things, for sure, and it's not incredibly straight forward.
Flower of my Secret: Organic black tea with rose, cocoa and clove - The rose is very much in the forefront, but I can barely pick out the cocoa and clove, and I don't really think I can taste the tea itself at all. Definitely not a fan.
Eventide: Dark pearl formosa oolong tea - I wasn't particularly looking forward to this one, but it wasn't too bad. It was, I think, a pretty standard oolong, and just tasted like plain tea, but it had a lightness to it that was good. I kind of felt like it needed to be sweetened a little bit, but I didn't get around to it. Update: Having two more times with this one, I actually like it quite a bit for a "plain" oolong tea. I could see keeping some of this around for a change of pace.
Outlaw: Bold black tea with smoke and black fruit - This is one that I've been raelly excited about since I first opened it to dish out my sister's and mom's servings. The "black fruit" flavor is very much cherry like, but the flavor of the tea still comes through. I didn't pick up on any smoke hints, though. It's pretty good overall, but I'm not sure if I'd get more.
Under the Willow: Bright green Japanese sencha tea - To me this was kind of a standard green tea.
Negroni: Bittersweet Orange Rooibos - Like the description says, it's bitter, it's sweet, and it's very orange-y. I think the rooibos is also contributing a little bit of a nutty flavor to it or something. I really liked it overall. The orange flavor is great.
Breakfast: Smoky vanilla black tea - Somehow I was expecting more from this one. It didn't really seem very smoky to me, but I could pick out the vanilla, and the normal black tea flavor was there quite a bit. I think I wanted it to be both more smoky and have more of a vanilla flavor. It was good, but it failed to live up to my expectation.
Dirty Chai: Spicy Black Tea With Coffee -
Once I got my "all the teas" sampler, I wanted to go through them in a systematic way, but I also wanted to share the joy of it with my sister since she had shared her favorite tea company with me. So I took all 35 teas and set them up like another advent calendar, doling out individual servings into loose leaf tea bags and putting each of those into paper envelopes with their pertinent information and numbering them for drinking order. Starting this, I've only had 10 of the teas from the previous sampler, so a number of these will be new for me, too. At the last moment I also made a second set and sent them to my mom, and all 3 of us did the calendar together.
But to make sure we're on the same page as far as doing everything in the right order, here's my list to keep track. I'll keep my notes on each flavor in the lists above.
Capri
Painted Desert
Cult of Demeter
Black Metallic*
Tropic of Capricorn
Biarritz*
Dark Iris*
Breathless
Psychocandy*
Leatherbound
Metropolitan*
Civil Disobedience
Big Easy
Ventura Highway
Heartbreaker
Cabaret
Golden Arrow
Far Afield
Silencio
Know By Heart*
Dirty Chai (Did not do as part of the calendar.)
Dots and Loops
Days of Heaven
Arabesque
Silent Night
Passage*
Combray*
Flower of my Secret
Eventide
Outlaw
Jet Black*
Low Country*
Under the Willow
Negroni
Breakfast
In the end, doing 34 teas seemed like a lot when working through it with a group of others. It was hard for everyone to get to every tea every day.
I'm glad I did the "All the Teas" set because I definitely found some favorites that were not in the original top 10. I also found quite a few that the description sounded good, or smelled good in the pouch, but when drinking them, they didn't live up to what I thought they'd taste like. There were others that I just flat out didn't like very much. As I went through them, it was interesting to see how many of them used chocolate or cocoa as a flavor, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't get a little tiresome after a bit. That all being said, I came out of the experience with some old (from the original Top 10 sampler) and new favorites.
As of now, some of these I've only had once and I'll need to try them again to see if they move up or down the list or even stay on it. Some of them I can't try again because I gave the remaining samples to mom. I'm keeping short descriptions with them because I don't want to have to scroll up to remember what each one is.
Caffeinated
Golden Arrow - black tea, smoke and burnt toffee
Low Country - black tea, bourbon and burnt sugar
Arabesque - green tea, orange and vanilla
Passage - black tea, chocolate and hazelnut
Know by Heart - white tea, orange blossom, almond and honey
Tropic of Capricorn - green tea, dragonfruit and melon
Big Easy - green tea, lemongrass and pineapple
Dots and Loops - black tea, apple and fennel
Eventide (occasionally as a change of pace)
Civil Disobedience - black tea, smokey, cardamom, tobacco notes (occasionally)
Non-caffeinated
Psychocandy - rooibos, pumpkin and caramel
Biarritz - rooibos, amaretto and orange blossom
Far Afield - sage, mandarin, ginger
Also for Christmas 2021, my sister got me a Tea Advent Calendar from Adagio. She also got one for herself, and the idea is that even though we live over 1,300 miles apart, we'd work through it together and share our thoughts each day. Since the shipping was delayed, instead of starting on December 1, she gave it to me for Christmas and we decided to start it New Year's Day, Jan 1, 2022.
This is mainly for me to keep track of the teas included and my general thoughts on them so that if I find anything particularly interesting, I can maybe see about ordering it.
Blueberry White Tea - I'm usually not a fan of blueberry flavored stuff, and this was my first time of having a white tea (I think) but it kind of reminded me of the citrusy flavor of bergamot in Earl Grey. I don't know if I have much to say about the white tea in general. The blueberry flavor kind of dominated it, but maybe it's a milder tea than black tea.
Candy Apple Tea - At first sip, the apple flavor really stands out, and there's an aftertaste that is almost like the "candy" of the apple. The whole tea is lightly sweet, and the "candy" flavor isn't necessarily sweeter, but it just has more of that candy taste to it. It was really interesting and good!
Citrus Green Tea - I liked today's tea quite a bit because it had a really good lemon-lime flavor to it. It was fairly sweet in aroma, and actually kind of hid most of the green tea-ness. But even if it hadn't, it was still good overall. Usually I'm not a fan of green teas, because usually there's a light almost citrus or fruity aroma to it, but the flavor is bland, and it makes me think of dish water. (Not that I've drank dish water!) Something about the usual difference between aroma and flavor is off-putting, so I'm glad that this one was so good. I liked it better than the Blueberry White tea from Day 1.
Cranberry Tea - This one tastes quite weak compared to the others so far. It smells nice, though. I like black tea, and I like flavored teas, but this one is like there's not enough of the added flavor to it. I don't know that I can necessarily taste the black tea over the cranberry, but it still feels like there should be a stronger cranberry flavor to it.
Camomile Tea - This was my first experience with camomile tea. I was surprised by the bright yellow of the leaves and the sweetness of the flavor. I don't know if it was because I was already tired or placebo effect or if it actually had an affect, but after drinking it, I did start to feel more relaxed and ready for sleep.
Earl Grey - This is the most citrusy Earl Grey I've ever had. It doesn't even taste like a black tea. It's good, but could possibly use a little sweetener, as it kind of reminds me of the smell of lemon furniture polish.
Dragonwell - I had to look this one up, but it's a "famous and distinctive green tea" with something about pan frying the leaves to give it a toasty flavor "like white corn". The aroma coming off of it while it's cooling does seem to match the description, and I have to admit, I was a bit nervous to try it. It's not too bad. It's not something I'd pick to drink, and I wouldn't say I hate it, but it's definitely got that "toasted corn" flavor that it talks about in the description. It's not for me.
Foxtrot - This is a combo of camomile, peppermint, and rooibos. It's pretty good overall. I've never had straight rooibos, so I'm not sure if I was picking up any of that flavor, but the camomile and mint were good.
English Breakfast - This was a pretty standard English breakfast tea, although I'd say it was one of the better ones I've had. Even without sweetener, it seemed to have a naturally slightly sweeter favor to it than other English breakfast teas I've had.
Fruit Sangria - This one has a lot of things in it (hibiscus, apples, rosehips, orange peels, sunflower petals, lemon grass, and "natural fruit flavoring") and it reminded me a little bit of the chewable vitamin C I used to take as a kid. I think it was the rosehips and the citrus flavors together that did it. It was good overall, very floral and fruity, but it had a funny disconnect in the form of my brain thinking there was a "berry" flavor, but the ingredients not listing any berries. But, in fairness, the only fruit in the picture of the pouch was all blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. And, oddly, mint.
Wiyu Oolong - This kind of has a flavor that's between black tea and green tea. I feel like I can taste the "haystack" quality of the black tea, but the lightly citrus quality of green tea. It's not very strongly flavored. It's ok. I like it better than the Dragonwell (day 7) but not as much as the English Breakfast (day 9).
Jasmine Pearls Green Tea - My sister said that Jasmine is one of her favorites as long as it's not "done terribly wrong". It's very floral and kind of reminds me of perfume. It was interesting, I'm glad I tried it, and I liked it better than the Dragonwell, but overall floral teas are not my thing. And with that, we're halfway there! (ohhh-ohh! Livin' on a prayer!!)
Chestnut Tea - This one has a very sweet, almost caramel like aroma to the bag before it was brewed. After brewing, the aroma is more nutty, almost reminding me of cereal... "Ohs!", I think? But the flavor completely lacks the sweetness and most of the nuttiness of the aroma. It mostly tastes like a black tea, but the aroma does hang around quite a bit. I like it. It's interesting!
Peach Oolong - Crap. I messed this one up. I accidentally left the tea bag in through the whole cooling period. In spite of that it's decent. It's a little earthy in flavor from the oolong, I think, but also has a really nice peach aroma and flavor to it. I like it overall.
Yunnan Gold - This one tasted mostly like a slightly sweet black tea. I liked it because it didn't have the "haystack" quality that some black teas do. The description from the site says it's "milk chocolate creamy and sweet, with pleasant pepper notes." I didn't pick up on any of that, but it was still good.
Masala Chai - Chai is one of those that I enjoy, but I can't drink it often because I get tired of it very quickly. (As in, by the end of the cup.) This was probably one of the best chais I've ever had.
Vanilla Rooibos - The vanilla flavor is fairly strong, but the rooibos is adding a flavor that's beyond that. It almost kind of reminds me of root beer. I've never had "just" rooibos, but if this is an indicator, I'd like it. This may he my favorite tea so far. My sister said, "It was like drinking a dessert," which I have to agree with.
Pumpkin Spice Black Tea - I have to admit, I wasn't super excited when I opened this one up, but upon smelling the bag, it actually had a really good spicy type of aroma. Drinking it, it doesn't taste like normal pumpkin spice to me. It's super heavy on the cloves, and it's really good. It's easily in my top 4 or 5 of the ones I've tried so far. If all pumpkin spice were like this, I'd be more of a fan.
Peppermint Tea - This is a really good peppermint! Sometimes the minty flavor, even in an herbal all-mint tea, can seem a little weak, but this one is really good, and the warm tea is followed up with the cool mentholated feel. This is like the Altoids of peppermint tea. Very nice!
Oolong Goddess - This is described on the bag as something like "rolled oolong that unfurls into orchids". This was floral, but lightly so, and as far as oolongs go, it was good. Some oolongs are not very good because they almost smell "sweaty", but for what it was, I actually enjoyed this one.
Gingerbread Tea - The ginger aroma is pretty strong, but int he flavor, it wasn't as strong as I thought it would be. I could actually pick out the black tea a fair amount. Over all it's good, but I think it's something I'd have to really be in the mood to drink it.
Green Popcorn - had a hole in the bag steeping bag and had to take the leaves that fell out and the bag and put them in my tea infuser. I'm not sure if that changed the flavor at all or not. Anyway, there wasn't much flavor to this one, but there were toasted rice bits in it, and that was pretty much all I tasted. It tastes kind of... sweaty. Definitely not a fan.
Silver Needle - this strikes me as "just tea", but with a tiny bit of a sweet flavor.
Candy Cane Black Tea - This is a good one, if unsurprising, to end the whole thing. The aroma from the bag and while it's cooling definitely has strong vanilla tones to it. The mint and vanilla flavors are weaker than the aroma, so the natural flavor of the black tea actually comes through. I like it!
So, to wrap up everything, this was a very fun thing to do. I was slightly disappointed that there wasn't an appearance by Lapsang Souchong, as I've been wanting to try that one for its smokiness, but I loved being able to try a ton of different teas that I wouldn't have otherwise picked for myself. There were a couple of surprises in there! My top picks from these would probably be:
Vanilla Rooibos
Foxtrot
Candy Cane Black Tea
Masala Chai
Pumpkin Spice Black Tea
Honorable mentions for ones I enjoyed in no particular order:
Citrus Green Tea
Camomile Tea
Chestnut Tea
Yunnan Gold