The dry rooibos is sweet in scent and very very faintly vegetal or “green” in scent with what seemed to me nearly nutty sweet components to the scenting. I steeped two tablespoons of rooibos in a 24 ounce infuser pot for 5 minutes using freshly boiled water. A fantastic scent is released as soon as the water hits – bright and super sweet with an almost citrusy scent that reminds me of sunshine. The brew smells almost juicy!

In color, the green rooibos pours out to a nice, honey colored cup. The taste in the mouth is very smooth and clean, with less robustness than a red rooibos, but the brew is definitely rooibos in taste. There’s a certain engaging “dryness” to the taste of this rooibos. I’m quite fond of rooibos in the evening, but have in the past enjoyed red rooibos rather than green. The green is definitely a little different, but there are some wonderful similarities between the two treatments. A lover of red rooibos should fall easily into enjoying the green version. It’s got a clean finish and the flavor throughout the cup is sweet and mild, pleasant with no need for any sweetener at all. This rooibos, like all rooibos, I suppose, could happily accept the sweetener of your choice, however, and even seems that it would take the addition of any milk or cream well, too, if that’s something you enjoy.

I really thought Suffuse took some time to source a good tasting green rooibos. I haven’t much in the way of experience with green rooibos, as I’ve mentioned, but this had a very fresh taste to it, as though it had been handled well from start to finish. I was impressed in some samples of their bagged tea that I tried as well, mainly in that the taste of the rooibos and honeybush teas in bagged form came across with the same freshness to it that this loose green rooibos has. It tastes GOOD, not only in and of itself, but quality wise.

This would make an ideal evening cuppa or for any time of day that you enjoy a fresh, sweet, good tasting cup of something without caffeine. Simple, clean, refreshing and just plain good. For your information, as well, free samples of a variety of their tea bag offerings are available just for answering a few questions in a survey at the Suffuse Tea website. You might like to check out this offer.

The tea has a rich and sweet fragrance resonating with black tea characteristics. It smells lightly malty, sweet, perky and even a little bit like berries. This is definitely a pleasant smelling tea.

I stuck with a very traditional steeping of this tea. I brewed three minutes (punctual) using a teaspoon of tea per eight ounces of freshly boiled water. This treatment yields a dark cup of tea – coppery red and dark in appearance. The tea is very sweetly fragrant in the cup. Less of the sweet fragrance (and other scent qualities I mentioned earlier) is transmitted to taste. In taste, the tea turns out to be quite ordinary in flavor (both my husband and myself spontaneously commented “It tastes like bagged tea” upon taking our first sips). This tea offers a simple, somewhat light and straightforward cup of black tea. It would pair well with toast or other simple breakfast fare. I wouldn’t expect this tea to grab hold of you and cause you to forget your other breakfast tea favorites but it’s not a bad tasting tea, either. It seems to lack some of the oomph, maltiness and strength that the Indian black tea single sources or blends have set as my breakfast tea standards.

Cheery, brightly patterned packaging and a whimsical logo catch the eye immediately and once you get a glance at some of the infusions in the chocolates, you’ll surely want to explore what’s underneath the wrapper. My own samples included the following: a dark chocolate (58%) raspberry rooibos, a milk chocolate (38%) jasmine, and a dark chocolate (58%) green earl grey. If only the question “where to begin” murmured aloud were such a happy conundrum all the time!! I opted to sample the chocolates in stages so as not to mix the flavors up too much.

I began with the raspberry rooibos. This is a dark chocolate bar with a 58% cacao content (I am a dark chocolate lover basically exclusively and 55% is my usual favorite so this was easy to look forward to). True to the company’s description of this bar being “undeniably raspberry,” the fragrance of the berries wafted out in wonderfully chocolatey company. The super smoothly poured, very dark chocolate had a lovely sheen to it – quite appealing to the eye. The scent of the raspberry was bright and rich. I think I could honestly describe this as being a raspberry and chocolate lovers dream in bar form. How lovely it would be served with a glass of framboise after a special dinner. The chocolate is very smooth in the mouth and really bursts with a rich berry flavor that fully coats the mouth and happily has no strange or artificial tasting aftertastes. It’s quite delicious. The dark chocolate is very smooth overall.

My next sampling was of the other Dark Chocolate offering: Green Earl Grey. This was the bar that my husband was most looking forward to sampling so he got a large piece as well (which he loved and found to be his favorite of the three). Initially, this bar tasted a little bitter to me and I had trouble distinguishing the bergamot in the bar. It had been in a cold area so I tried it again when it was in a warmer room in the house. What a difference! Whereas before the flavors were a little muddled and hard to perceive, they all popped when I tried the bar a second time. The dark chocolate is perfectly matched to the spicy and somewhat citrusy notes of the bergamot. The green notes of the tea I think are discernible in a pleasantly balanced marriage with the dark chocolate, a tangy sort of bitterness that engages the senses as it zips along the sides of the tongue and dances with the dark spicy citrus of the bergamot. This is a fine match up. It’s not hard to ascertain why this was a two time award winner – winner of the 2009 ShapeYou.com Top Gear of the Year Award as well as the SOFI silver award. This is an absolutely excellent bar, dark and engaging, really sophisticated and a treat to taste. The pair up seems darned near perfect and I am so glad I came back for a second tasting of this bar. And I’m so glad that we ate only a tiny portion of this chocolate bar at the colder temperature. It’s amazing what a difference of only a few degrees can make in terms of taste…but then again, as a tea lover, I should know that!

I saved the Jasmine Milk Chocolate with Tangerine Orange for last. Generally I’m not a milk chocolate fan. Milks tend to coat my tongue too thickly for me to enjoy them and are generally a little too sweet for my tastes as well. I also thought initially that the idea of a Chinese Jasmine tea combined with anything sweet and milky sounded…just odd. Could anyone have been more wrong? I think this chocolate bar was my favorite and in fact is the best milk chocolate I’ve ever had! I’m actually emailing my local co-op and requesting that they see if they can carry these bars in the store based on the crazy delicious impression this one left me with. The second your mouth closes around a tiny piece of this chocolate your senses themselves are infused (pun intended) with a wonderfully luxurious, almost sleepily transporting and complete jasmine, as though you were outside on a patio one perfect Florida night breathing deeply of jasmine growing all around the edges of the stonework and filling the night air with scent. The milk chocolate, instead of seeming a little strange with the floral notes, is perfect. Where the jasmine is a little exotic and rich and permeating, the milk chocolate carries the theme with a rich creaminess of its own. Delightful! An additional interesting ingredient to this bar is tangerine sourced right from Napa. It steps in toward the rear of the tasting and I think the citrus somehow leaves a clean taste in the mouth and simultaneously makes a wonderful bolster to the jasmine. The flavors in this bar work exquisitely together. This bar gets a solid ten in my book, and I think that’s really high praise (and it even confuses me a little) since I’m really not much a fan of milk chocolate. I would really recommend you try this bar – even if you aren’t partial to milk chocolate and even if you aren’t partial to jasmine. If you’re a lover or even a liker of either, of course, all bets are off and you should just try it as soon as possible!!

Overall, these were really a treat to try. Imaginative and even a little whimsical both in the cheery packaging and the flavor combinations, they were all three a really enjoyable, delectable dessert to sample. What fun it would be to order both the teas and the chocolates and have a tea and chocolate tasting party with some good friends. I think anyone would enjoy these bars. They are obviously crafted with great care, interest, and with a well balanced hand. The chocolates all have a beautiful, clear gloss to them, and the tastes are just wonderfully well done. The rich aromas make the experience very fine, all the way around. I will definitely be making an order from The Tea Room. There are five other infusions to try, after all!

These chocolate bars are offered as individuals or can be purchased in gift sets. There are also truffles and other individual chocolates available at the company website, thetearoom.biz.

The tea is bright and sweet to the taste, making for nice cheery sipping and closing with a clean dry finish. This tea actually does make an excellent breakfast tea – a lovely way to wake up and greet the day. It makes a perfectly balanced midday or afternoon tea as well.

K Tea notes this as being a blend comprised of Ceylon, Assam, Darjeeling and Java teas and what I enjoyed the most about the tea was the definite forward presence of the Darjeeling which lent a wonderfully light and perky attribute that made the tea really enjoyable. As a whole the tea has plenty to make you look forward to the mornings – fruity high notes with clean, sweet and dry finishing along with a refreshing astringency that remained at all times well balanced. As a final gift, lingering after each sip was a pleasant sweetness.

I wouldn’t describe this as a robust tea, as the K Teas website does. I’d say it’s bright and medium bodied. The natural sweetness is wonderful and while the tea should handle sweetener and/or milk well, it’s not really necessary. This tea is smooth and quite light but with plenty of body to make beginning the day a pleasure.

I haven’t had any mate in a very long time so I was curious to try a bit when it was offered as a sample option from K Teas. It’s offered as a chocolate mate from K Teas and this didn’t sound too painful to me since I have very high regard for chocolate! I brewed up a sample pot of this tea to share with my husband. I added two tablespoons of mate to a 24 ounce infuser pot and steeped for five minutes with fresh boiled water. This yielded a dark copper, nearly coffee colored mug. Mellow and engaging, Chocolate Mate has a pervasive chocolate smell and flavor that isn’t too strong and is wonderfully true tasting. The mate has the roasted, slightly green flavor that I remember enjoying in the past and I am delighted to report that it couples up beautifully with chocolate – even better than with steamed soymilk!

Mild and mellow, this is a delicious blend. It has a light dry finish. If you serve it up in the afternoon or evening with something sweet, or in lieu of something else sweet, you will be most pleased. This tea doesn’t really need a sweetener, but I found it well worth sweetening as it becomes superbly sweet, decadent and tasty with just a teeny bit added. Sweetener (in this case stevia) highlights the chocolate notes and also brings out a bit more of the roasty mate flavor. I know this blend would handle steamed milk of your choice well – but you can be pretty versatile with your choices and have a lovely cup any way you choose.

Definitely add some of this to your order at K Teas if you enjoy chocolate. It’s really good!

After four minutes precisely, I poured out our cups. Nice and coppery red in color, I began to anticipate the sip even more as the pouring released a pleasant rush of malty sweetness.

I enjoyed this tea completely unsweetened, which is something of a new development for me when it comes to an Assam. However, this tea makes a fine candidate for that, though I expect it would take to sugar and milk as well quite nicely. This tea is a pleasant wake up tea. It’s smooth overall, and there’s a happy play of light astringency and perky maltiness in the taste. Bright and brisk, there are no surprises with this pleasant Assam. Tastewise, the cheery malty flavors you’d expect burst strongly on the scene and quickly fade to a clean and pleasing dry finish. No bitterness to the brew at all, you’ll have a smooth and energizing kick start with K’s Assam.

This tea would make a nice staple to have in the tea cupboard for times when you’d just like a straightforward, energizing cup of tea to wake up with. It’s not the finest Assam has to offer, and you probably won’t reach for it on a morning when you want something to savor, but it’s just what you’d expect from the name. A good wake up and get to business cup!

I used a slightly heaped tablespoon of tea to 24 ounces of boiling water. I allowed a four minute steep, which is different from my punctual three minute steep for darjeeling. Because this was an Earl Grey, I felt safe with a compromise, since I generally steep Earl Grey about four minutes to bring out plenty of the bergamot. The tea has a light copper color, as one would expect from a Darjeeling, and a sweet and spicy, mellow scent, very full and quite fragrant with most of the tones being spicy and resonant in nature. The tea is of a medium sort of body, and makes an ideal afternoon sip. A nice, lingering bergamot aftertaste is coupled rewardingly with a lightly astringent, clean finish. The citrusy tones you would expect in an Earl Grey are most marked in the finish.

Something I particularly enjoyed about this Earl Grey is that it seems so well suited to an afternoon cup of tea. The Darjeeling base is mild and has a lightness about it that wakes you up a bit but doesn’t jolt you into a high awareness that isn’t necessarily what you’re looking for just an hour or so before dinner. It makes a delightful afternoon cup – a little bit citrusy, contemplatively and perfectly spicy and even a little thought provoking as you enjoy the overall taste and nice pairing of bergamot and Darjeeling.

A second infusion of this tea is well worth the time. I actually forgot the tea for a few extra minutes (this ended up being close to an eight minute steep….) and while I was a little wary, I needn’t have been. The second infusion, even a really long one, was not bitter at all and the citrus notes really picked up in a nice way. There was still a touch of dryness at the close, which made for a nice finish. The second infusion is brighter and citrus-ier than the first – both are quite enjoyable!

My sampling of another of Norbu’s sheng (raw) pu-erh teas was an excellent and enjoyable one, so I looked forward to this offering as well. The tea comes in a cake format and the tea itself is striking to behold. The leaves are just as you’d expect from a white tea – pale olive green with silvery down covering each, but they are compressed together in a manner that reminds me somewhat of mica. The tea is compressed almost in sheet-like layers that can be peeled or slipped off and there is a shininess to the tea from its compression.

The Norbu website notes the following: One thing to keep in mind about this tea is that it is not a conventional white tea. White teas are simply picked and dried, while this was processed just like other Pu-Erh teas. It was picked, withered, pan fired, and sun dried, creating a flavor profile that is different and more assertive than conventional white tea. It has a bit of a sweet malty flavor with very little of the bitterness common to other young Sheng Pu-Erh.

I placed my sample in a pot and brought my water to a boil and then allowed it to cool for a couple of minutes. As the water hits the tea, the tea darkens from olive silver to a tawny green brown and the leaves begin to unfurl. I steeped the tea for four minutes. The steam rising from the brewing tea is sweet and alluring in scent with a lightly smoky quality. The color has a tawniness to it like that of a russet apple.

The first infusion is sweet and quite smooth in flavor. There is just a hint of smokiness to the sip – more a hint in the mouth than anything overt. The fresh and lightly astringent finish to each sip is notable in a perky lift at the rear of your mouth – catching your tongue with an acidic and leafy sort of finish.

A second infusion is darker in color and sturdier in body with a taste that actually reminds me of a black tea. Perhaps this is the maltiness mentioned by Norbu in their tea notes. Certainly the flavor of this tea is not like that of your usual white tea. The tea remains smooth and is also quite dry in the finish. It’s very enjoyable with perky, leafy notes and a clean finish.

This tea is certainly worth a sampling of. Consider adding it to your Norbu order, especially if you enjoy white teas, as this is quite an interesting treatment. The tea is hand harvested and the buds are quite attractive to look at, entirely aside from the lively taste. The tea is quite light in taste and color both and really very different from some of the other pu’erh tea that I’ve tried. It’s neither dark or heavy, earthy or pungent in the fashion I’ve come to associate with the loose or tuo cha style pu-erh that I’ve sampled prior to this one. Very interesting and enough to make me want to put together a varied order of different pu-erh style teas.

I prepared this sample in a four ounce guywan. I used a teaspoon of leaf in my cup with a starting steep of 30 seconds using 160 degree water.

Brewed, this tea has a bright golden green liquor. The first infusion is super smooth and very mild in flavor. Foremost the tea is sweet with smoothly vegetal notes supporting. The tea is exceptionally mild in flavor while having a full bodied texture to the liquor itself. It strikes me as seeming well suited to after dinner sipping or an afternoon tea. My final sips of the first infusion are very vaguely sea like.

The second infusion I also steep for 30 seconds, following Andao’s wonderfully clear brewing instructions. Again, the tea offers a bright coloring, possibly with a more fluorescent kind of green shining through. The second infusion is much fuller in flavor profile, thanks to the leaves unfurling a bit more. The flavors seem to be really coming into their own. There is a nice toastiness to the tea with a touch of pan fire to the taste. A lightly vegetal aftertaste is also more pronounced. The sweetness most notable in the first infusion is backing up a little and other flavors are becoming more assertive. Overall, the tea still remains mild.

My third infusion was a one minute steeping. (Andao recommends two initial steeps of 30 seconds each and suggests adding 30 seconds to each additional steeping). This infusion is more opaque in coloration with the pan fired tastes increasing. Still, this tea combines a full body with mild overall taste – very smooth overall.

Continued steepings continue to bring out the toasty pan fired taste that have a mild character but a nicely substantial body.

The lovely colors and mild flavors of this tea were very enjoyable to me. I really enjoy teas, especially greens and whites, that offer mildness of flavor coupled with smoothness and body. The development of flavors through each steeping was nice and distinct as well. I thought the tea would be wonderful at the close of a meal if not just enjoyed on its own. It would work well at the close of a light meal centered around grains and vegetables. It’s delicate of nature but not at all bland. The subtle and enjoyable flavors are deserving of uninterrupted consideration.

I enjoyed Andao’s website as well, as a side note. Not only was it attractive and easy to navigate, but the guidance on steeping and preferred methods for steeping each tea are tailored and very helpful.