4330 Tasting Notes
knittingopera Swap Advent Calendar 2024 – Day 17 (my pick)
Theme: Santa’s Reindeer
Her pick: Reindeer Fuel from Adagio
Apparently I’ve never written a note for this?! I should really go through my virtual cupboard and find all the older teas that I haven’t tried or written about…
Anyway, I really like this one. It almost reminds me of a white tea, it has that same light and airy hay and oat flavor, with just a touch of green-ness. The oat tastes a bit raw, a touch earthy. It’s lightly creamy and then the caramel toffee part pokes it head out near the end of the sip to give a sweet finish. Just really unusual and lovely!
Flavors: Airy, Caramel, Creamy, Grain, Grassy, Hay, Light, Milky, Oats, Smooth, Soft, Sweet, Toffee
Preparation
Sipdown! (1 | 157)
Yep, first sipdown for the month lol! XD Hardly unexpected though.
I just got my winter OBTC subscription box, so I figured I would finish off this one last tea from the fall one! Really enjoyed this, Green Chile Biscochito is a favorite of mine, and the addition of more cinnamon really bumps up the cookie aspect. And I do think the woodiness of the rooibos goes very well with the other flavors. Perfect for winter, too!
As for the winter box… sigh. They did a sort of Mele Kalikimaka theme (they didn’t call it that, but that’s the vibe), which means half of the box is tropical and basically summer teas. I get it, they don’t want it to be the same every year so they come up with new ideas, but come on… Fall and winter are my favorite seasons, and summer is my least favorite! And no, I don’t really want a mango green rooibos in December! Obviously first world problems lmao, but I just thought I would whine a bit to my fellow teaholics. T.T
Flavors: Anise, Cinnamon, Earthy, Smooth, Spices, Sweet, Toasty, Woody
Preparation
knittingopera Swap Advent Calendar 2024 – Day 17
Theme: Santa’s Reindeer
My pick: Cereal Lover Caramel from Dammann Frères
Ooh! I’ve been curious about this for a while. It’s one of those teas that sounds good to me in theory – a chocolate mint black tea and maté blend – but that I’m hesitant to actually purchase in order to try. Chocolate flavoring and I don’t get along, plus Adagio and I often also don’t get along… So thanks Marjorie, for picking this so I get to try a sample!
As I expected, it’s not my favorite. The peppermint is very murky-tasting, and something else is very, shall we say, earthy. Maybe it’s the ginger? And then the chocolate flavoring is quite prominent, and has that fake, almost alcoholic chocolate taste. It’s all very sharp together, and a touch bitter (though it has also now cooled). Drinkable, but very, very muddled for sure.
But super happy to have tried it, now I don’t have to be curious anymore! XD
Flavors: Alcohol, Artificial, Barnyard, Bitter, Chocolate, Dirt, Earthy, Ginger, Hay, Herbaceous, Mint, Muddled, Murky, Musty, Peppermint, Roots, Sweet
Preparation
Advent Calendar 2024 – Day 17
Two literary black teas in a row? Interesting choice. Sometimes I wonder how much thought tea companies really put into the order of their advent teas ha ha. But we haven’t seen many holiday teas yet, so they must be saving them for the end, which does imply they thought about it…
Anyway, I wasn’t sure what to make of the ingredients for this one, but it’s actually quite nice! I was a bit afraid of the puerh, but luckily it’s quite mild and blends well with the black tea. The balance of black tea, puerh, and lapsang is very good – a nice mix of smooth, satisfying, earthy, and savory smoke without anything overpowering the other elements. I do think it needs a touch more bergamot, as all that is a lot to compete with ha ha. I can taste some bergamot, especially in the finish, but would like more to better offset the hefty base. My sample must have not had enough beet pieces in it, because my cup is a reddish brown at best.
Still, quite a nice one! Would happily sip again.
The jam today is… strawberry and strawberry ha ha. It’s Strawberry-Wild Strawberry Spread. I don’t have a concept of what wild strawberries taste like, the ones I tried when I was young mostly tasted like water. This was delicious though, very punchy and intense strawberry flavor and not too sweet.
Flavors: Bergamot, Citrus, Earthy, Heavy, Mineral, Rich, Savory, Smoke, Smoked, Smooth, Soil, Thick, Woody
Preparation
DIY Herbal Infusion Advent Calendar 2024 – Day 16
Name: Cinnamint
Ingredients: tulsi, peppermint, spearmint, cinnamon
Movie: Home Alone 2
A lovely, more simple blend tonight. I love the combination of the warmth and spice of the tulsi and the cinnamon with the cooling sensation of the mint. Almost like a fire and ice sort of vibe, but more mellow than that sounds. Tulsi is becoming one of my favorite herbal bases these days, it’s delicious and so versatile!
Flavors: Basil, Cinnamon, Cooling, Fresh, Herbaceous, Mint, Peppermint, Smooth, Spearmint, Sweet, Tulsi
Preparation
knittingopera Swap Advent Calendar 2024 – Day 16 (my pick …sort of)
Theme: A White Tea
Her pick: White Angels from The English Tea Room
My pick: White Crow 2022 from Bitterleaf Teas
So this wasn’t actually my pick for today, but I don’t have any of that tea left, so I’m having this as a substitute! I used about half of a coin and steeped it Western-style. It came out so lovely and creamy, almost like oatmeal with cream added to it. Honestly not getting a ton of the orange, but I don’t even mind because the white tea itself is so lovely! :)
Flavors: Cream, Creamy, Grain, Light, Milk, Oatmeal, Oats, Rich, Smooth
Preparation
knittingopera Swap Advent Calendar 2024 – Day 16
Theme: A White Tea
My pick: White Crow 2022 from Bitterleaf Teas
This is a blueberry, vanilla, and pomegranate flavored white tea. It smelled really good in the pouch, like blueberry muffins! Steeped up, it’s a bit more of a candy blueberry flavor, and I don’t really notice the vanilla or pomegranate. The white base isn’t my favorite, very different from the Bush Berry one, and a bit musty.
Flavors: Barnyard, Blueberry, Candy, Hay, Musty, Sweet
Preparation
Advent Calendar 2024 – Day 16
Holiday tea number four from Bush Berry! This is a white tea with walnut flavor. Honestly I don’t love walnuts, so wasn’t terribly excited, but the package is really cute so that helps ha ha.
It’s actually a lovely tea – the bai mudan base is so light and fluffy with its soft hay notes. And then the flavoring is a bit like a cookie or pastry of some kind, yes it has definitely walnut notes, but also a buttery element to it, sort of like the Simpson & Vail walnut shortbread tea from earlier in the month. Not sweet per se, but definitely rich. Almost like a macadamia nut? Really liked the pairing with the lighter base.
Flavors: Airy, Buttery, Dry Leaves, Hay, Light, Macadamia, Nutty, Oats, Rich, Smooth, Soft, Walnut
Preparation
Okay, okay, so I had to get the Schitt’s Creek teas from Harney. Mostly for the tins, but I was surprised to find that this blend (for the Rosebud Motel) and the Botanical Blend (Rose Apothecary) are both actually new teas. A lot of times it seems like Harney just packages their existing teas into decorative tins, sometimes with a slight change as in Gingerbread Festival and the Williamsburg Ginger Cake (tastes the same but with orange added).
This one is a cinnamon roll black tea, which I don’t think they have another version of. It’s not at all similar to Hot Cinnamon Spice, as it doesn’t have that intense Red Hots cinnamon flavor. It’s quite mellow, actually. I’m surprised by how much I can taste the icing/glaze part of the cinnamon roll, and then there is a buttery element as well as the mellow cinnamon. It’s nice! A bit thin, so I might try two sachets for a 12-ounce cup next time and see how that goes (normally I do 1 sachet per 8 ounces). Honestly kind of reminds me of a Simpson & Vail tea in that aspect, earthy base and a bit thin ha ha.
(ETA: It looks like Botanical Blend is the same as their Mind Your Body Lemon Balm Chamomile, but still didn’t find anything similar to this tea.)
Flavors: Butter, Cinnamon, Earthy, Icing, Pastries, Smooth, Sweet, Thin
Preparation
Ooh intriguing!
ooh, I was interested in this collection but not sure whether it was worth it!
I couldn’t pass it up with the 20% sale ha ha, plus I wanted the azuki bean tea. :P
OH I’m so glad you grabbed the Schitt’s creek collection. It made me chuckle when I saw Harney’s e-mail, for sure. Especially as the show hasn’t been on for a few years now!
Cries in Canadian Shipping Prices
It’s a Canadian show! facepalm
Feels like Canadians should have first dibs/accessibility.
Well I am always willing to forward things if it’s cheaper! Whenever normal Canada Post operation resumes…
It appears that the Tropical Green from the Schitt’s Creek line is the same as the Tropical Green loose leaf that has been around forever. This one sounds really good, and Superanna asked for the Rose Apothecary blend for Christmas. The fact that the base is thin makes me not want to try this one although I had really wanted to from their description. Salted Caramel broke my heart with its horribly anemic black tea base, and I am afraid this one would do the same. It might even be the same base.
And yes, they repackage their teas under new names. Hot Cinnamon Spice and Hot Cinnamon Sunset were the same tea in different packaging. IIRC Bug Red Sun is just loose leaf Royal English Breakfast, and Titanic Blend is….Palm Court, I believe?
Advent Calendar 2024 – Day 16
Yay, more literary tea! Not sure if it’s just the distribution of ingredients in my sample, but I’m not getting the lavender at all here. I think I could smell it in the packet, but didn’t pay that much attention ha ha. Mostly I taste spearmint and the earthy/woody/musty black tea base. I smell a lot of vanilla, but only taste a little bit, and it’s more of a smoothness/creaminess than specifically vanilla.
Not bad, but I wanted more of everything ha ha. I’m sure this one is in the literary sampler, so hopefully I’ll get around to ordering that one of these days, and then I can try it again. :P
Today’s jam is White Nectarine-Peach Spread. To me, it’s like why even add the peach at all when those two things are so similar ha ha, but I digress. It’s a very tasty stonefruit jam, and delicious with a bit of butter as well. Nectarine is a nice variation on the usual apricot!
Flavors: Creamy, Earthy, Mineral, Mint, Musty, Spearmint, Sweet, Woody
You make me want slather caramel all over my next bowl of Cheerios.
Ha ha, well you have my approval to do so! ;)