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As I sip this – there is one pouch of it left. The subscriptions have already been shipped out & most people should receive their boxes tomorrow (according to tracking information) – so I hope I’ll be seeing more reviews of this tea.

I am in love with this blend. The sweet, custard-y, creaminess of the eggnog notes with the tart cranberry & the hint of bittersweet notes from the nutmeg are so delightful. The Chinese Sencha works well with this blend. It’s a very harmonious, flavorful cuppa.

The 6th Tea of Christmas – this time around, I made a few adjustments to the recipe out of necessity – because when I ordered the essence to create this tea, it would seem that I placed the order for pecan essence rather than walnut. So, this tea has been flavored with pecan essence (still nut free!) rather than walnut. To be honest – I think I like it better with the pecan. But maybe that’s because that’s what is right in front of me. I’m sure that had I managed to order the right stuff, I would be sitting here typing that the tea tastes delicious the way it is & it would not have crossed my mind for pecan to even come into the conversation.

Perhaps I will need to reblend this again sometime in the next year or so – with walnut flavoring. We’ll see.

Anyway, I love this tea. I’ve missed it – the last time I blended this – I think it was for the Kickstarter contributor rewards – so it’s been a while. I love the buttery notes, I love the nuttiness, I love the smooth flavor of the black teas & of course, I love the banana.

YUM!

It’s the 5th Tea of Christmas! After my supplier gave me a sample of the Singbulli Oolong, I knew I had to have some of it. I know that there’s some debate on whether or not a “Darjeeling” can be an “Oolong” and/or vice versa. I personally do not care if you choose to call this an Oolong or a Darjeeling (or both). But my supplier calls it a Singbulli Oolong so I’m going with that.

And whatever you choose to call it – it’s delicious.

The flavor of the tea – without any flavoring – it’s crisp, lightly sweet & fruity (similar to a Darjeeling) with a slightly thick & creamy texture (similar to an Oolong) so my first two thoughts when it came to blending the tea was that a fruit note would be nice – as would be a creamy flavor (possibly a nutty flavor) – so I brought both of these ideas together with this blend.

The cranberries are tart & tangy – but that tart edge is softened from the chestnut notes. I love the creaminess of this tea, as well as the light, fruity notes. It’s really a lovely combination of flavors – I wasn’t sure exactly how it would turn out when I first blended it but I absolutely loved it at first sip – I didn’t even need to tweak this or anything else – it was perfect right after it’s first cure.

I only wish I had ordered more of the tea at the time – because there are extremely limited quantities of this blend! I suspect this one will go quickly.

The 4th Tea of Christmas! I love this tea & I was so happy when it won a spot in this year’s box. It’s one of the teas from my first year as the mad tea artist for 52Teas – so I’m so happy that it’s back!

I am enjoying the combination of rich, satisfying black teas with the bright, sweet tangerine & the fluffy creaminess of the marshmallow. It all melds together very nicely in one sip.

Just a note for those of you keeping track of the teas that you’ll want to order from the 12 Teas of Christmas box, these teas will be put on the website on the 28th of December. For those of you who ordered the box, you get first dibs & can email me/DM me between December 25 – 28.

I’m a little bit behind on posting this – the 3rd Tea of Christmas – yesterday was a pretty busy day. We got all the subscriptions out (not trying to jinx it, but I might be getting caught up – finally!) plus ran quite a few errands – which isn’t fun to do because everyone else is out doing their holiday shopping. So, by the time I got home, I was too tired to even get my Breville brewing – so I just curled up under my blankie and went to sleep.

Since this is a caffeine-free blend, I decided to hold off until now to drink it – because I need caffeine in the morning.

But this is a lovely tea for right now & maybe I’m a little biased when it comes to this tea but I think even Walter Bishop would approve.

Today’s tea in the 12 Teas of Christmas countdown is a caffeine-free tea and right now, I need caffeine!

Lemme just say, when it’s chilly outside, there are few things more comforting than wrapping my hands around my mug when it’s full of hot tea! So right now, I get comfort – and caffeine!

I blended this tea because: a) I wanted another pear tea this year; and b) I wanted another ginger tea this year. The pecan notes are a bonus. (Mostly because I bought pecan essence when I meant to order walnut essence – but that’s another story entirely) I really enjoy how this blend came together. The pecan notes are forward, but the pear and ginger are present and bring their own flavor to the cup in a really lovely way. It’s sweet & nutty with just a little bit of zesty warmth from the ginger. Of the three flavors, I find that the ginger is the softest note, but it develops as I continue to sip.

A tasty, chilly weather inspired cuppa that’s perfect for this morning!

I absolutely love this tea. I cold-brewed the last that I have of this tea in my personal stash & I think it’s even better cold-brewed than it is hot. So bright, refreshing & citrus-y. The bergamot shines through even stronger in the cold-brew than the hot-brew – I get more of each individual citrus flavor in the chilled tea.

The 2nd Tea of Christmas – This was one of my favorites during the blending/curing process because my tea studio smelled AMAZING! While packaging it into the pouches, I craved a cup because it smelled so good. I love the sweetness of the pear combined with the spices. So nice.

Even though this is called a “chai” I went lighter on the spices intentionally because 1 – it’s a green tea & I didn’t want to overwhelm the softer qualities of the green tea base with a heavily spiced note and 2 – Pear is one of the more difficult flavors to work with and I didn’t want to overwhelm the pear. I wanted the pear to be the star in this show.

I am really happy with how this one turned out. I loved it when I first blended it back in 2018 & I think I love it even more now! The pear is deliciously sweet, the spices are gentle yet warming & it’s a very satisfying cup. It’s almost got me convinced that I should finish up the cup & then go get cozy under the covers & spend today as a me day. Unfortunately, I have subscriptions to send out – they’re going out TOMORROW! omg – I … am … almost … caught … up. I don’t want to jinx it but – I also am so incredibly excited to be caught up. I don’t remember what it’s like to be caught up. What will I do with myself if I’m not frantically stressed out about being so behind? I don’t know. I don’t know.

The First Tea of Christmas!

I’ve been eagerly awaiting this day – I’ve only tasted all of the teas in the 12 Teas of Christmas box once or twice (depending upon what was needed for testing) but I generally reserve a small amount for my pantry of each tea & I definitely did that for the 12 Teas because I want to do the 12 Teas of Christmas thing too. I don’t really need to conceal anything about each tea from myself. I’m not yet that far gone. Close – but not quite there yet.

This is one of four brand new teas in this year’s box. For a large part of the year and a half, I wasn’t able to work on coconut teas (product/ingredient/supply availability due to the pandemic and/or trade issues) so there was about a year there that I didn’t craft any coconut teas. I’ve made up for that (I think) in the last few months – but as I do love my coconut – you can count on me making more in the coming year.

I really enjoy this tea, it’s creamy with notes of coconut, eggnoggy custard & hints of vanilla. (A triple threat of creaminess.) It’s sweet & lovely. The black tea base is smooth yet strong enough to hold up to the strong flavor of coconut. Hints of cinnamon & nutmeg.

Certainly a nice way to kick off the 12 Teas of Christmas!

Ingredient list for this tea can be found here: https://www.52teas.com/12teasofchristmas

Currently sipping on this tea – my mom asked me to reblend this tea for her for Christmas – she has a friend that loves this tea & so she wanted to give it to her as a gift. Who am I to say no to my mom? Especially when it comes to tea?

I love this blend – the combination of the Pettiagala & Nilgiri teas for the base makes for a really nice, smooth base – perfect for the tart lemon. The honey essence adds a pleasant honey flavor without a lot of cloying sweetness. Nicely balanced & I like how comforting it is this time of year.

I’m just about to add this one to the website!