4161 Tasting Notes
#OctoberTeas2024 Day 1 – “Chai/Spice”
Doing a fun tea challenge on Instagram for October, so I figured I might as well post the teas here as well! (it’s by @talesnteacups if anyone else is interested in playing along)
Ended up ordering a bag of this one (along with This is Halloween and Trick or Treat) last month as a fun fall tea purchase. I also want Man’s Best Ghost but figured that’s more holiday vibes with the candy canes, so I’ll wait on it.
Anyway, enough rambling (lmao). This is such a nice, cozy tea for autumn. Primarily a gingery chai, but then the sweet apple and rich chestnut add a bit of something special that takes it in a dessert-ier direction. I do wish I tasted the hojicha, but I think it does help lighten the body a bit, which is nice for sipping it neat.
Not an amazing tea by any stretch, but perfect for the season. Also highly recommend Town Meeting in the same series for a similar but more gingerbread-y flavor.
Flavors: Apple, Chestnut, Cinnamon, Clove, Ginger, Gingerbread, Nuts, Smooth, Spices, Sweet, Toasty
Preparation
Another one from the Tea Thoughts fall countdown.
I don’t generally like dancongs, so I wasn’t very excited to see this, but I can see why they named it “breakfast”. It actually reminds me of a fusion of a Fujian black tea with a dancong. It has those savory, chewy notes that I always enjoy in a darker Jin Jun Mei or even an unsmoked lapsang. But it also has some of the floral and fruity character of an oolong.
A nice tea, and one that I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy.
Flavors: Bread, Caraway, Clean, Clear, Floral, Fruity, Nectar, Savory, Smooth, Spring Water, Sweet, Thick, Wheat
Preparation
Cutest little baby brick from the Tea Thoughts fall countdown.
Perfectly lovely tippy Yunnan tea – smooth and satisfying with those trademark bready, malty notes on an earthy base. Apricot and honey are here too, and a smidge of dryness at the tail end that makes me think of the fuzzy skin of an apricot.
Nothing amazing, but a nice Yunnan that made for a pleasant first cup of the day. And such an adorable format!
Flavors: Apricot, Bread, Drying, Earthy, Honey, Malty, Mineral, Savory, Smooth, Stonefruit, Sweet, Woody
Preparation
First one up from the fall subscription box!
Not a lavender lover, but their Banana Bread Coffee Pu Erh is one of my favorites, so that’s encouraging. Luckily, the lavender isn’t super strong here. Seems to be about an equal split between the two teas. I’m not sure how I feel about lavender and coffee together, it’s a bit of an odd combination to me. Maybe if there was more creaminess it would tie them together better. Honestly I’m surprised there’s not more cream flavor given the name.
Not bad, I’ll have to try this one a few more times to decide how I feel about it…
Flavors: Cocoa, Coffee, Earthy, Floral, Herbaceous, Lavender, Medicinal, Roasted, Rooibos, Sweet, Woody
Preparation
That’s got a lot of flavors going on in it! I presume the puer is a ripe product. Could you detect any vanilla-caramel out of it, representing the creme brulee? Is there actually a rooibos ingredient? Or just a flavor note? Maybe your next steeping will reveal furher character!
Aha! I now see that OBTC does list rooibos (twice) as an ingredient in their description.
As bougie as this is (insert hands over face emoji here), I had a lavender latte (with lavender tea) and an espresso shot (plus non dairy milk) recently and it was divine. Granted it was from a fancy coffee shop – all that to say, this sounds like it has potential and the few OB teas I’ve had from your tea sharing have intrigued me with the company in general as well. :)
I assume there is cream or vanilla flavor in the rooibos blend, but I’ve never had it so I couldn’t say.
Sipdown! (9 | 128)
Finished off a package of this, as it was in my “5 oldest teas” tea counter bin. Oops? It hadn’t been opened, so it was still completely scrumptious. Definitely my favorite sakura sencha at this point, as the sencha base is so sweet yet fresh and grassy, and there is no sugar or salt involved, just dried sakura blossoms and leaves.
Happily, they tend to send a package every year with the March subscription, so I have two more unopened ones! :3
Flavors: Floral, Fresh, Fruity, Grassy, Sakura, Savory, Silky, Smooth, Spinach, Sweet, Umami, Vegetal, Viscous
Preparation
Sipdown! (8 | 127)
Not entirely sure why I picked this one up, since generally I’m not a big fan of clove. I do love orange though, so I must’ve been tempted by the bright orange cover, which features the fruit so prominently. :P
Sipped through this almost entirely with oat milk and raw sugar, and it’s very tasty that way. The orange still shines through, with a zesty essential oil sort of flavor to it. Spices are present but not overpowering. Seems like a nice enough example of an orange spice tea, but not being a clove person, that’s not really a category I tend to reach for. I really need to find some nice, sweet & tangy orange teas without the spice!
Flavors: Cinnamon, Clove, Orange, Orange Zest, Spices, Sweet
Preparation
Fete de Versailles by Nina’s Paris is one of my favorite orange teas. It has a white tea base, though, and you may be looking for black.
Any base is fine by be, as long as it’s not a fruit tea ha ha. I did remember that I have Orange & Ginger from Lupicia too, and that one is nice.
Sipdown! (7 | 126)
For some reason I didn’t get to this one when I sipped down all my other Winterwoods sample jars, so finishing it off today.
I find it odd that it’s named Wildwood Cedar when I barely taste the cedar at all. I guess it makes it sound more woodsy and exotic, but really it mostly tastes like mint and cinnamon with a bit of fennel and licorice root on the backend. It’s not bad, I just feel like the name is somewhat misleading. Plus I am not a fan of licorice root, so the cloying sweet taste of it here isn’t helping. The peppermint is very herbaceous as well, and it tastes quite muddled mixed with the other ingredients.
Flavors: Anise, Cinnamon, Fennel, Herbaceous, Licorice Root, Mint, Peppermint, Sweet
Preparation
Sipdown! (5 | 124)
Potentially my least favorite of the green-black blends I tried? It’s not bad, it’s just a bit boring IMO. Definitely leans to the green side of things, but there’s barely any jasmine and it tastes a bit cardboardy somehow. Not sure which tea that’s coming from.
I dunno, just a bit bland overall. I think if there was a stronger jasmine presence I would’ve enjoyed it more. Just needs more flavor in my opinion.
Flavors: Cardboard, Earthy, Jasmine, Metallic, Mineral, Paper, Smooth, Tannic
Preparation
Sipdown! (4 | 123)
I tried this one a few different ways – warm, iced, cold-steeped – and it just never really lived up to my expectations. I think it’s just a little bit too light on the apple, as I end up mostly tasting the hay notes of the white tea. And I do like white tea, but this isn’t really the type that I would want to drink plain, since the leaves are quite broken.
Anyway, it’s not bad, but just meh for me.
Flavors: Apple, Crisp, Earthy, Hay, Straw
Preparation
Sipdown! (3 | 122)
This wasn’t a favorite for me. It’s a pleasant tea, and it was nice enough for mindless sipping while working. But I was disappointed that I couldn’t taste much bergamot, and really almost no jasmine at all.
Anyway, definitely preferred the Queen Victoria for a similar tea with more of a citrusy lean, and perhaps a touch less smoke.
Flavors: Citrus, Mineral, Savory, Smoke, Smooth
