365 Days of Tea - Day 11: Climber's High.

Today I spent some time trying to reach out to other companies for review products. If you're interested in sending me some products for review, whether you're tea company or a fan, please contact me on facebook/twitter. Also I was originally gong to do matcha green tea today, but when I opened the packaging it was completely empty. I guess it spilled all over the box. Oh well!

From the looks of this, and a bit of online research this tea promises quite a bit of complexity as expected from The Tea Spot. According to the website the tea was original conceptualized with the idea of getting used to higher altitudes. Which is totally cool, and you know it. 

I decided to upload two images this time. This is my blog, I do what I want. There is a lot going on here. Bark-y bits, cardamon seeds, even a bit of saffron. Actually, for the first time ever I'm going to list the ingredients on the website instead of guessing because this is a lot. 

Contains: Roasted yerba mate (Yerba mate is actually related to holly, and has a bit of caffeine, potassium, magnesium, and manganese. Its super good for you.), black tea, green tea, white tea, pu'erh, ginger root, cinnamon, green cardamom (Which is actually yellow in color.), licorice root, eleuthero root,saffron, black pepper, clove, fennel, safflowers, peppermint, tulsi, and vanilla flavoring.

Its literally a treasure trove of favor. Tiny fact: Ginger does help with dizziness!

Typical golden tea color. NECTAR OF THE GODS COLORED.

Smell - Unexpectedly, the smell isn't very layered. Its a very simple smell, like "spice", but I wouldn't say its a holiday kind of spice. Its more like its coming right out of your spice cabinet. Its not a bad thing though, Its pretty calming, and mellow. Which is good, because you don't want to blow your nose off if you're hanging off the edge of a cliff. Maybe I'll climb a hill, but I'll need a nap after.

Taste - There is a million things going on, but its not confusing in the least bit.Almost every sip I can taste something new, and different. Its the first time I've ever experienced an evolving tea favor. One sip, its a very mild green tea favor, with a hint of ginger, and cinnamon. Another sip, its black tea with saffron, and pepper corns. I feel like I'm having many different teas at the same time. Its good.

Overall - Although I wish the smell was more like the favor, I think its a really good tea. If you like a treasure trove of evolving, complicated favor, then you're really in for a treat. I suspect that with these ingredients, if you're having issues with dizziness, or sick you would benefit from this.

(3 out of 5 tea leaves.)

Can be found @ 

365 Days of Tea - Day 4.

I've had an interesting morning. On day 1 I contacted teavana and told them I've reviewed one of their teas, and I didn't really think much of it at the time. I just assumed it would go ignored, but I actually got a reply.

So this is pretty exciting. I wonder what they will send. I'm a huge fan of teavana teas.. I will post photos of what I get as soon as it gets here!

I can't really find out what tree nuts it contains, but I'm also going to label that it contains tree nuts, so that people don't get sick or anything. Even with a bit of googling I can't seem to pin-point what. From my research; mate is an infused caffeine-rich drink. So basically herbal tea with caffeine. Sounds fantastic. I just hope it doesn't not contain real samurai. That might be sharp. 

For whatever reason you can't see any fruit bits in the photo, but it does contain pineapple, orange, and papaya. You can see however, bits of green stuff, which looks very much like rooibus (And according to the website, it is.) you can also clearly see some lemon grass, and cinnamon. All of it kind of feels paper-y to the touch.

It almost looks like there some strange bug infestation going on in adventuremug, but I didn't remove the filter when I poured it. I actually prefer tea this way. Its a mild brown gold-ish color. Another one with a long steep time of 6 minutes. Lets get down to business. To defeat the huns.

Smell - At first the smell is a mild cinnamon smell. Surprisingly it changes into a more sweet almost apricot scent on the back of your nose, and grows stronger as the cinnamon smell disappears. Its really nice and makes me think that the tea will taste complex.

Taste - I was seriously expecting basically a cinnamon tea, something similar to another one. To my surprise though, the cinnamon flavor was more "spice" then favor. It was a pleasant tone. It carries a very sweet, but complex favor. I can't exactly pin point each thing because they overlap in such a perfect way that, but you can tell there is a bit of citrus and cardamom. Its less of a tea favor and more of an herbal favor, and that is okay.

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Overall - If you're looking for a really good, naturally sweet dessert tea, then I'd recommend this. It carries a surprising complexity, which is noted by it's aroma. I would also recommend completely filtering out the bits, it seems that I chewed on a cardamon seed a few times, which didn't bother me, but might bother others. It could also translate well into an ice tea. Its very soothing, and definitely gives a mild energy boost. It's one of those teas that just puts you in a good mood. Really cold day in the winter, make a huge piping hot pot of this.

(4 out of 5 tea leaves. Highly-Recommended.)

Can be found here.