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Tea Advent Calendar – Day 8

This tea has a beautifully rich caramel flavor layered over a strong, malty black tea base. A lovely Sunday morning treat!

Tea Advent Calendar – Day 7

This was a great choice for me, as I love a good Yunnan black tea. But for whatever reason, this one came across kind of…flat? I don’t know exactly how to describe it, but it just didn’t seem as flavorful as it should be. Nice and smooth, though!

Tea Advent Calendar – Day 6

This blend is such an interesting concept! I never would have thought of adding rooibos or caramel flavors to Earl Grey. Though I love caramel flavors in tea, I don’t love how it combines with bergamot. Honestly, I think I prefer just a normal Earl Grey tea, but I enjoyed giving this one a try!

Tea Advent Calendar – Day 4

Yum! This was a perfect pick-me-up on this grey winter day. Lots of creamy banana goodness with hints of rum and cinnamon. I’m picky about cinnamon in tea, as it can often be overwhelming, but this blend nails it!

Tea Advent Calendar – Day 4

I was excited to see another AQTT blend in the calendar today, as they’re one of my favorite companies! However, I didn’t love my first cup of this one. I definitely get the pumpkin flavor, but nothing that reminds me of brittle…no nuttiness or sweetness that I can detect. Others have definitely picked up on those flavors in their tasting notes though, so I’m not giving up on this one! Shae sent a very generous sample, so I’m going to try different steeping parameters and may also add a bit of honey to my next cup to see if I can get that caramel flavor to pop.

Tea Advent Calendar – Day 3

Another new-to-me tea blend! I’m so glad Shae included steeping instructions, because even after only 2 1/2 minutes, this one steeped up STRONG! Like most Scottish Breakfast teas I’ve tried, this is a brisk and aggressive CTC black tea that can be a bit astringent on its own but mellows out nicely with a splash of milk. I don’t really get any marshmallow flavor, but the butterscotch does come through. It’s not strong, but a pleasant accompaniment to the base tea….more of a breakfast blend with benefits than a true dessert tea, if that makes sense. Not sure this is something I’d repurchase, but I’ll happily finish the generous sample Shae sent me!

Tea Advent Calendar – Day 2

I love A Quarter to Tea, so I was so excited to see this blend in today’s advent calendar packet! The dry leaf smelled pretty spicy, which worried me since AQTT’s Mexican Hot Chocolate was too much for my sensitive taste buds. But the tea itself wasn’t spicy at all! I definitely get banana and hints of smoke; the spices are hanging out somewhere in the background. I’ve never had this particular flavor combination before and I like it!

Tea Advent Calendar – Day 1

I was so excited to dig into the lovely advent calendar Shae put together for me! This was yesterday’s tea. Although Teavana was the company that introduced me to loose leaf tea, I had actually never tried their English Breakfast blend, since I was all about the flavored blends back in the day. This is surprisingly mild and smooth for a breakfast blend and I enjoyed it even without milk. And Shae was so generous with the samples…after brewing up 2 mugs of this tea, I’ve only gone through half of what she sent! Looks like I’ll be enjoying the contents of this advent calendar way past Christmas. :)

A couple of years ago, TeaSource had a black tea I adored called “Golden Mao Feng”. They no longer carry it and I’ve been trying every Chinese black tea with “golden” in the name since trying to find a substitute. This one definitely isn’t as good as that one, but I am enjoying it. It has a rich, bready flavor with a nice smooth finish and no astringency. It also re-steeps well.

This is the lightest, most delicate green tea I’ve ever tried! The color is a pale, barely-there spring green and the flavor is mildly vegetal with a super smooth finish. It almost reminds me of a white tea, but with a fresher flavor (grass instead of hay). I wouldn’t mind if the flavor were a bit stronger, but I am enjoying this one.