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Sipdown, surprisingly! This arrived only a few weeks ago but I blew through it. Partly that’s because I prioritized drinking it since it contains coconut. Mostly it’s because this is delicious. I kept meaning to try it as a latte but never got around to it. It doesn’t really need it though. This is just roasty, creamy, soft, sweet goodness. Vaguely reminiscent of macaroons. Yum.

Sad sipdown. Still one of the best peppermint teas I’ve had. That little bit of natural sweetness really makes it pop. I’m running low on peppermint in general. Should probably restock…

Sample sipdown! A sample of this was included with my latest 52teas order – thank you!

There was enough leaf to make two mugs, so I just made two back-to-back in order to finish it off. This is a really easy drinker. The lime is just the right level of tart, with the mango sweetness coming in at the back of the sip. Honestly, I can’t really taste the green rooibos much at all, I’m really just getting those two fruity flavors. Great way to stay hydrated… come to think of it, I’m pretty sure I forgot to drink actual caffeinated tea today!

I think this is the right listing. I have a little white Bitterleaf Teas envelope that I labeled “tieguanyin, fall picking, fall countdown 2024 #4.” It’s definitely from the most recent Tea Thoughts countdown box, but I can’t find the document with detailed info now and I did not label it clearly enough before putting it away. I could just ask Nazanin – she’s been super helpful in the past when this has happened before – but I think she’s gearing up for the holiday sales and this doesn’t seem worth wasting her time with right now. So I’m going with my best guess and a giant asterisk on this tasting note.
As for the tea itself, it’s not what I’ve come to expect from a tieguanyin! No roastiness or minerality at all. Instead, this is very creamy and buttery, green and gently floral. If I were guessing, I’d think this was a milk oolong, not a tieguanyin!

We got a new office coffee machine that uses packets, so of course I couldn’t resist testing out a tea packet. I don’t trust the machine to actually make it without contaminating the brew with some residual coffee, so instead I cut the packet open and brewed the leaf in a metal steeper. Unsurprisingly, the leaf is dust. A lot of it actually slipped through the fine mesh strainer and ended up in my mug. Yet the final product was surprisingly good for dust! It’s got a clear and fresh mintiness, reminiscent of gum or mouthwash in a good way. Not the best peppermint I’ve had, but entirely potable. I’m now curious whether the green tea packet is passable, as well as whether the machine can actually brew this properly.

Sipdown. I’m annoyed with DavidsTea right now. They changed their frequent steeper rewards program with no notice. Apparently other people got an email at least letting them know of the change when it happened, but I didn’t. And something got lost in translation because I’ve lost two free teas and my super steeper status under the new program. I would have at least redeemed my teas if I had known! Of course it’s been hard to get a response from customer service; my guess is that I’m not the only person having issues and they’re not sufficiently staffed to handle it. Genuinely am starting to wonder whether DavidsTea is intentionally trying to make sure they never have a holiday season go smoothly again.
So! I like this tea, which I’ve said before. It tastes exactly like the name suggests. It’s better hot than cold, though. Which is a bit surprising, you’d think that a sweet tea that’s cotton candy flavored would be more enjoyable as an iced tea. But the sweetness somehow feels heavier when it’s cold. The heat seems to disperse it a bit more and match that fluffy quality of cotton candy better.

Huge thanks to Martin Bednář for sharing some of this with me! This is a great tea for transitional fall weather, when it’s getting a bit chilly but not freezing cold out. My impression of this tea was that it has a fairly light roast and is sweeter than most roasted oolongs I’ve had. I didn’t realize why that is until I came here to write a tasting note, though – it literally is those things. The roast is definitely noticeable, but it tends to land with some minerality at the front of the sip and fade pretty quickly into a crisp sweetness. I’m going to steep the last of this overnight and that’ll be a sipdown!

Sipdown! I fully ordered the whole sampler last year just to get this blend and another store exclusive blend. I thought I had previously written a tasting note about this but apparently not. It’s been long enough that I forgot what it was actually supposed to taste like. For some reason, I decided that the red and white sprinkles meant that I should expect the tea to be minty. It is not! I totally made that up! The dry leaf doesn’t smell minty, the brewed tea doesn’t smell or taste minty, it’s not designed to be minty, I fully made it up because of the sprinkle color and then wondered why it didn’t taste like the flavor profile I wrongly imagined for it! Here’s what it actually tastes like: creamy chocolate, a hint of vanilla, on a mildly roasty hojicha base. Which is really tasty! I wish they would sell it online individually.

Maybe I haven’t been writing as many tasting notes lately because I’m drinking a lot of the same teas repeatedly, so it doesn’t feel worthwhile to write them up over and over again? I don’t know. I do miss writing these and would like to get back into the habit of it.
This is, yes, a tea I’ve already written several tasting notes for. Made it as an oat milk latte tonight. It got cold before I could finish it and I think it’s actually even better iced. Like horchata’s creamier cousin.