365 Days of Tea - Day 16: Organic Pu'erh Tea.

Highland Organics contacted me, although they only carry one tea; blue berry. Its a local place so I'm excited. I can't wait to try it. Its organic, too which is always a plus. Blue berries! (Also I know I did infusion Friday on a Saturday, but I totally forgot I was suppose to do it on Friday.. it wont happen again. haha)

Looks like a very good Pu'erh tea, nothing impure or strange about it. Notice how it looks like strains instead of pearls or leaves like other teas. The more raw product of Pu'erh is called Mao Cha, which is usually sold as is or pressed into shapes similar to Pu'erh. I've never tired Mao Cha, it seems a bit uncommon. Pu'erh is a ripened, fermented version of Mao Cha and its usually dark, while Mao Cha is usually green.

(I didn't realize this was so blurry, sorry, I'll work on a my photography a bit more)

Its a darker auburn color, like most typical dark or black teas. I kind of wish I had some of the shaped ones blocks of Pu'erh, though I don't think it changes the flavor. The Tea Spot company I got this from, does offer it in bricks as well. They almost look like little herby cookies. That is going on my list of tea I want to try for sure.

Smell - Pu'erh has an interesting smell, Its fermented, and that brings out a very mossy, earthy scent to it. Its almost mushroom-y in a way, but without the dirt. Its smells very fresh, not prefumey or chemical-y in anyway. If the Earth didn't have any people on it, I'd imagine this is what it would smell like.

Taste - It actually carries a very faint saltiness. Maybe something they do in the fermentation process. Its a very deep and complex taste, yet still remains light. I'd like to call it liquid earth, but its without any remnants of dirty or sandy favor. (Probably a good thing) Its not very roasted like English black would be, in fact, other than a similar tea color, they are worlds apart.

Overall - I very much enjoyed this tea. Pu'erh isn't a very commonly found tea where I'm from, and I've never even heard of it till I discovered it online. I've had it a few times, but it was alway mixed with something. This is my first time experiencing it on it's own and it was quite good.

(3 and a half tea leaves out of 5.)

Can be found @

Wilma Approved.

365 Days of Tea - Day 13: Bolder Breakfast.

I'm mildly frustrated, or actually more like disappointed. I've reached out to companies, they've replied, asked for my information, I gave them my information. They stated they would send me samples for review, sometimes they do, other times they don't. A few of the companies who have sent me review products don't seem to actually care about the reviews themselves, they send the product and ignore me afterwards. I don't think companies/people understand the amount of effort I put into these posts, sometimes it takes an entire day. I do a lot of research, and I usually taste the tea all day before coming to an opinion. So these samples are not really free. I work, really hard for them. Putting stuff up on facebook/twitter/pinterest/instagram, all of this takes time and effort. Alright back to the tea, this was suppose to post last night but blogspot hates me. (The tea spot, which makes this tea hasn't really been ignoring me, this has nothing to do with them.)

Bolder Breakfast

This tea contains black tea, pu'erh, and chocolate. Its quite near impossible to tell them apart in the photograph.  There are some yellow threads throughout, but I'm not entirely sure what that is. Its pretty looking at least.

Dark, roasted auburn color. A bit darker than regular tea,  but lighter then just black tea. I think the pu'erh being in the mix lightened it a bit. Tea at sea is totally in the background getting free advertising. This tea contains more caffeine then regular tea because of the combination of different caffeine adding ingredients which makes it a perfect breakfast tea. Probably why it's called Bolder breakfast, eh?  I suspect that because it contains black tea that it'll overwhelm the over favors. 

Smell - its a very deep roasted smell, with a subtle hint of chocolate. Its woods-y, almost like a camp fire. I should put marshmallows in it. The chocolate scent is deep, not a sugar milk chocolate kind of thing. Almost like cocoa nibs instead of processed chocolate. This gives me some hope that the chocolate has more depth than I originally thought.

Taste - It carries a common roasted black tea kind of depth, but with a stronger hint of woodsyness. Its a strong tea, but it to my surprise it doesn't entirely muddle the taste of the chocolate. The chocolate waits in hiding until the tea is just about off your tongue, kind of like a whisper. Its still a bit subtle, but its very pleasant and adds a new depth of favor.

Overall - Its a very impressive tea. It gives a lot of depth and really wakes you up, but it feels like a more natural wake up. It doesn't have a very strong chocolate taste, but you can tell it is there. It carries better chocolate favor than the chocolate coffees I've had. They should change the name to Whisper of Chocolate Wake-up. 

(4 and a half out of 5 tea leaves.)

Can be found @

Simba approved.

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 10: Coconut Cabana.

I'd like to start off by making one thing very clear to my readers; I will never, ever sell my opinion. Someday, I may or may not have sponsors or people who donate product to me, but I will always be honest about my feelings in reviews. If a company sends me a bad product, I'll tell you its a bad product. I will also make it clear to the company sending the review products as well. It also seems that one or two companies are starting to pay attention to me, this is good, and exciting.

This isn't actually the tea I'm going to review, but I wanted to talk a little bit about the packaging. (I actually already opened, and discarded the packaging for the tea I'm reviewing - whoops!) Now keep in mind that this isn't their regular packaging, this is for a sample product. They also have these really awesome tins. I'm totally heart-broken that I didn't get a cool tin, so I could be in the cool people club. I guess I'm not cool enough. A lot of review products are typically sent in less then appealing packaging, companies don't realize that your first impression is literally the packaging. The Tea Spot's packaging is actually really nice. Although I kinda wish I had a cool "The Tea Spot" sticker. So I can stick it all over my face. My only complaint is that I wish it was resealable, because a lot of first time tea-seers wont have a tin or two laying around. I was lucky because I had one.

The real tea I'm reviewing is called Coconut Cabana.

You can clearly see a very pretty looking oolong. Oolong almost always appears like a burnt or roasted green tea. This oolong is called "milk oolong" which tells me that it is from Taiwan, since it was developed there in the 1980s and supposedly creates a milky, smooth taste.The coconut is unsweetened, which is ideal. I ate a piece of it raw, it was horrible. I expect the milk oolong and coconut to pair perfectly. 

Very nice golden color - as expected from most teas. 

Smell - It smells amazing. Its a very pure coconut scent, it doesn't feel faked either. Its a very "raw" scent, and carries a little earthyness from the oolong. Its not prefumey at all. It is very pleasing and excites the pallet. 

Taste - Its a very mild taste. Very earthy, and carries sort of a creamyness to it. I think the coconut actually added a bit of oil, which makes it taste slighty more thick then regular tea. The coconut favor almost seems absent at first, and you might only notice the smell of it until the second or third sip, then you suddenly notice that towards the end, you get a very smooth coconut favor. Not sugary, but still sweet in a very natural way. This favor is complex, its deep, yet subtle. I get the sense that I'm on the beach, but a beach full of earthy forest.

Overall - I am extremely impressed with The Tea Spot's first tasting so far. I could and pretty much did drink this tea all day. Not to mention that oolong has a decent amount of caffeine, gives you energy, and helps with weight-loss. The coconut also aids with a lot of these things, too. Its an extremely healthy tea (As long as you don't add a ton of sugar) and its also a very delicious tea.

(4 out of 5 tea leaves.)

Tea can be found here.

I also want to mention that - I'm always a huge fan of companies giving back to charities and The Tea Spot donates 10% of all sales to cancer research. The CEO - Maria Uspenski is also a cancer survivor.  (More details on this can be found here.) Companies like this who, support the little guy (like me) and charities definitely deserve my business and respect.

365 Days of Tea - Special Unboxing - The Tea Spot.

I woke up briefly to a text this morning, and I opened chrome on my phone. I noticed I still had the tracking page open for my package, so I decided to refresh and see if there is any changes.  It was in Maine! I was definitely getting the package today. Although it was suppose to be here Saturday. Stupid dumb postal service.  Anyway, couple hours later my roommate texted me and told me my package was here. So exciting!

Handcrafted from rare imported Chinese trees, this artisan box is created with such delicate and precise skill. You can tell just by it's looks alone; this wasn't a regular box, it was a box filled with a tea-seer's soul. It's soul radiates a package-like energy, it was warm to the touch, but not the warmth of the sun, the warmth of a loving mother.

  I had to paint my entire room black. The overwhelming light exploding from the box made it impossible to capture a photograph without blowing up the sensor. This photograph is actually taken with the lense cap-on, and through 6 feet of cinder block. My palms were sweaty, a new world was awaiting me, my life was about to change - forever.

Strange white object. Felt light, but thick. Contained strange cryptic letters. Perhaps a ancient language created by the tea gods. "Corey" it says, I have no clue what that is about.  I brutally ripped it's flesh open to discover it's innards.

Cryptic sheets containing various letters in the ancient language. One of them even appears to be sticky on one end. How strange. Tastes kind of weird, too. I guess this isn't food.

Life-packages. These contain, rare, heavenly plants to which one brews tea. The cryptic language is starting to make a bit of sense to me now;

• Bolder Breakfast; Black tea, pu'erh & chocolate.
• Ginger tea.
• Black Pu'erh.
• Matcha Green Tea.
• Climber's High. "High-enegry blend of yerba mates, teas, herbs, and flavors."
• Coconut Cabana. Taiwanese mily oolong & fresh coconut.

I know that typical unboxings are pretty dull, and uninteresting, so I had to do this in my own taste. Keep in mind that I meant to disrespect, and I hope I didn't offend anyone. Hopefully you had fun and enjoyed it. I'm excited to try all of these, and I can't wait to see where this journey is leading me.

Special thanks to The Tea Spot for sending these to me for my journey.

Edit;

Wilma also likes TheTeaSpot.