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AJRimmer Advent Day 1

So excited to have another homemade advent calendar to dig into this year! AJRimmer was so thoughtful and really seems to have kept my preferences in mind while putting this calendar together. I shared that I love caramel and coconut flavors in tea and this one has both! I let it cool 10 minutes as instructed, but didn’t add sugar since I almost never sweeten my tea. The resulting flavor was a bit lighter than I would have preferred, so I may try a touch of sugar in my second cup to see if I can coax out more of those caramel notes. But this was still a smooth, yummy cuppa!

TeaTiff TTB #21

So. Much. Hibiscus. This sounded like the kind of fruity, tropical blend I would really enjoy but it just tastes like black tea blended with hibiscus.

TeaTiff TTB #20

It’s not on the ingredients list, but I would swear this blend has stevia in it. It had a pleasant enough fruity flavor, but the sickly sweet aftertaste totally killed it for me.

TeaTiff TTB #19

This was a pleasant, if slightly boring, bagged hojicha. Plenty of the toasty, roasty flavor I was expecting, but it came across a bit thin and lacking in depth.

TeaTiff TTB #18

This is the last tea I’m sampling from the Japanese Tea Marathon: Sannen Bancha by Miyazaki Sabou. Apparently it’s a roasted tea that includes branches from the tea plant along with the leaves. It definitely doesn’t look like any tea I’ve tried before, consisting of mostly little pieces that look like cut-up twigs. The flavor was unexpectedly sweet and delicate with a smoky flavor that is weirdly reminding me of maple bacon. Fun to get to try such a unique tea!

TeaTiff TTB #17

I’ve really been enjoying tasting many of the teas Martin added to the box from companies I’ve never experienced or even heard of on my own! However, I would have skipped this one if I’d looked it up on Steepster ahead of time. Stevia is one of those tea additives I hate with a passion and there is a LOT of it in this blend. A hint of freshness from the mint, a bit of depth from the base, but all overwhelmed by the sickly sweet, tongue-curling taste of stevia. Not sure I can even finish this cup. Such a disappointment!

TeaTiff TTB #16

Bird & Blend does chai well and this one’s no exception! I added milk to my cup and it’s exactly the sweet, spicy, caffeine-free treat I was hoping for. The rooibos base is totally submerged under layers of sweet toffee, cinnamon, cardamom, and just a hint of warming ginger. It’s not quite as amazing as their gingerbread chai (an all-time favorite) but still delicious!

TeaTiff TTB #15

I had hastily assumed this was a straight black tea like most of the others Martin added to the box, but was stopped short by seeing a whole clove in my infuser. Was this actually a chai? Turns out, it’s neither. Apparently it’s meant to be a gingerbread-flavored tea, but to me it came across as just a very lightly spiced black tea. I mostly tasted the base (nice and malty with notes of stone fruit) and then just a hint of cinnamon and clove in the aftertaste. Unexpected, but enjoyable!

TeaTiff TTB #14

Drank this one at work and honestly wasn’t paying the closest attention, but I remember it being a perfectly pleasant but slightly boring oolong. Not good, not bad, just…there.

TeaTiff TTB #13

Why do tea companies insist on using hibiscus whenever they’re making a strawberry-flavored tea blend??? I know it gives the blend the right color, but that tart floral flavor is not at all what I want from a strawberry-inspired tea. This one did have some nice fruity notes, but the hibiscus totally took over in the aftertaste and ruined the experience for me. Disappointing.