I wasn’t sure if I would like Irish Breakfast, because I have mixed experiences with English Breakfasr blends, and I knew this would be stronger. I think I like it stronger, though!!

This was okay. Kind of boring, too, but in an “enjoyable but not life altering way” and not a “I hoped for more from this blend” way like the chaimander.

Maybe this will grow on me as I finish the sampler pack I bought, but I don’t see myself buying any more. It is not bad so much as boring.

Hey, guess what, I bought a sampler from this company, so I have a bunch to review. This was good and reminded me of drinking the blood orange-flavored Orangina knockoff I would buy with my roommates (read: fellow Mormon missionaries) from an E. Leclerc in Ferney-Voltaire and bring across the border to where we lived in Geneva.

Need another cup of this before I make up my mind definitively, but that’s part of the fun story behind this blend.

Over the weekend, I discovered for the first time a place that serves Elmwood Inn by the cup, so that let me try a new blend without having to buy a bunch at once. This sounded interesting enough to give it a shot, and it was good! I may buy more of this the next time I’m buying from this company.

Serviceable chai that I’d drink again but that I’d never go looking for.

Kiddo brought this back from a Ren Faire for me, and it is great. You can taste cherry (a lot of it), and there are clear hints of vanilla and an aftertaste of peppercorn in the chai. It’s better sipped over the course of a morning than finished in a rush, but I’m looking forward to going through this whole bag.

This tea has brought joy into a conference I’m attending two mornings in a row!

This is good! I thought I might have oversteeped my first cup, but it was a delicious contribution to my breakfast, and I’m looking forward to trying more of it.

This was one of the better parts of a mediocre hotel breakfast, but that’s not high praise. I’d try it again, though.

I’m not ready to give this full marks (maybe because I don’t actually like caramel corn all that much, so who knows why I felt like I had to have this tea). That said, it’s good and interesting, Elmwood Inn somehow managed to make it taste like its description, and I don’t think I’ll get bored of it.

Not the best chai I’ve ever had, but a nice addition to my morning rotation.

Okay, so I just reviewed this, but I already think it’s better than I gave it credit for. I just oversteeped a cup because I got caught in conversation on my way back from the break room and it was still just the right taste, and I think that deserves full marks.

I know it’s a breakfast tea, but this hit the spot yesterday when I was dragging right before an afternoon meeting. Not too strong, just the exact kind of malty flavor I’m trying to experience more of.

This blend felt like a bit of a gamble, but if the flavors are subtle, they are more or less what I would have expected from the branding. A welcome addition to my current lineup.

I keep thinking that I should like Earl Grey, but I think it’s time to acknowledge that I just don’t. I’d like to try some more Lady Grey sometime, but even lattefication didn’t help me enjoy Earl Grey.

As a side note, I just want to say how glad I am that I now write these posts because over the weekend, I was trying to remember whether I liked a particular blend, but it was from before I started teablogging, so I had nothing to rely on!

Anyway, this was another good midmorning work tea. I’d gladly drink it again, even if I can’t say I’d notice if I never had it again.

Doesn’t knock one’s socks off, but it was a good mid-morning work tea.

I hesitated to give this full marks because I know it gets less interesting with time, but that’s also true of my chocolate mint tea that I love, and it’s been a while since I’ve had any of this, so my taste buds are very happy.

When one is at a gaming café, one pays one’s dues to help keep the place open, but the chai latte was a bad choice. It tasted like warm milk with some cinnamon mixed in, and maybe that works for some people, but it’s not what I’m looking for. I might just go for some “regular” tea the next time I’m there—or support the café in some other way.

I badmouthed this in my first review, but I’ve since remembered what I like about it even if it isn’t what I expected from a chai, so it deserves a review update.

I got this a while ago, when I was first trying to get into “real” black teas instead of the flavored stuff that’s my favorite.

It’s very strong, so I have had a hard time getting used to it, but I think I finally cracked the right way to steep it, and now I’m not dreading finishing the box.

This is a pretty good apple and cinnamon blend, but having cinnamon in it does not make it a chai, so points off for false advertising. It’s still good even when I borked the steeping this morning, though, so it has that going for it.

I bought a one-pound bag of this blend last April without ever tasting it. I generally like chai, and I generally like Elmwood Inn, so I figured it wasn’t too much of a gamble.

It turns out that this tastes different than any other chai I’ve had. It’s not cinnamony like some chais, but it’s also not the ginger and pepper combination that I really like in chais. Maybe it’s authentic in some way that I don’t appreciate, but it was a real disappointment at first. With time, it grew on me, but coming back to it after drinking none of it in December is reminding me how much of a disappointment it is.

Look, this isn’t that bad, and I’m probably being hard on it because it’s Starbucks, but I had a really good masala chai experience yesterday, and that makes me think about how too cinnamony and sweet this one is.