MadHatterTeaReview Send Message

This is one of the teas that my wife gifted for Christmas. I was excited to see what she would think that I’d enjoy. I drank this one plain and I got notes of dark chocolate covered almonds. It was a little bitter on the tongue, so I want to give it a try as a latte. I think the milk would add more creaminess to the tea and it’d taste more like a milk chocolate bar.

Sipdown

I was gaming and drinking this tea. I noted to my friend online that it reminded me of raspberry cheesecake. That’s all I have in mind about this tea. I’m bad at remembering notes whenever I’m multitasking.

Sipdown

I’m drinking leftovers from my Tea and Me Blog Advent. I had reviewed this one on the vlog, but I am just going to go off of my current feelings with the cup. The aroma of the dry/wet leaf reminds me of beef jerky. It’s ‘meaty’ and ‘seasoned’ notes on the nose are off putting.

The flavor profile is alright. Passable at best, but definitely not the cup of rooibos I’d go for again, unless it were to lessen the load of my stash. I never give up on an unpopular tea in my stash, but I may not enjoy sipping it down. I added a tad bit of honey and it extracted the clove a touch. Again, it didn’t really hit home for me. I think this was the only tea of the advent that left me somewhat unimpressed. 24/25 is a pretty good outcome though.

Backlog & Sipdown

Notes (1/5/22): I didn’t really like the tea base. The vanilla in the tea and creamer added was the only thing keeping me from dumping out the cup.

Backlog & Sipdown

Backlog & Sipdown

Notes (1/10/22): Dry leaf aroma: Woody/hay

Wet leaf aroma: Nutty, woody, sweet

Flavor profile (gongfu’d): I managed to actually brew tea in a teapot and stack the infusions without getting too distracted at work. I forget that tea is steeping, and that can really ruin the evening when wanting to brew more tea; therefore, it becomes a coffee night, and that’s not fun.

Anyway, I got strong notes of grain alcohol. I noted “Scotch-Whiskey, minus the intense burning.” This tea can brew kind of sweet, if you throw 180-185F water into the pot, but I have no control over the temp at work, so having 200F+ water can make these things difficult. I made sure to be conscious of the tea session, so I flash brewed every infusion. The tea was partially bitey, but manageable. I like this tea quite a lot, so I can appreciate the bite from time to time. I’d definitely avoid brewing this for my non-tea friends because it can go well, or not at all. Toward the end of the session, I noted, “Alfalfa hay.” I think the flavor reminded me of the aroma profile of the alfalfa hay bedding that our gerbil loves.

Sipdown

I’m not typically into mate. I had a non-tea friend mention that this was their favorite from Ohio Tea Co. Naturally, I got a little curious. I bought their 1oz bag at the shop, brewed it up, and was immediately hooked. Mate is normally mildly bitter and unfriendly to my tastebuds. The mango in this blend really mellows the tea out a tad and it is bearable. However, the game changer is when you brew it iced. I taste mango and peaches. I liked it iced to the point that I went back to Ohio Tea Co the following week and bought 4oz.

That was in the summer and had allowed the remaining 3 teaspoons-ish sit in the cabinet since that time. I honestly forgot about it. This was a rare situation where I wasn’t hoarding a tea because I didn’t want to finish it off (it’s local, so I could drive the 15 mins if I really needed more). I discovered it while gathering teas for the work week at the office. I needed a jolt of caffeine to power through the remainder of the training week, and today happened to be the day that I needed it the most. I love this tea. I sipped the rest cold brewed in my thermos and had comparable notes to previous sessions. I’ll definitely have to grab more when we head over to the shop next week (it’s a monthly journey where my wife stocks up on her tea…and I try new teas, too).

I’ve been on a bubble tea kick lately while at the office. It’s the one thing I have to motivate me to be there. I’m the only person alone in a 2500 sq ft space for the past month, so it’s all I have. Hopefully they’ll send me back to remote working next week. I’m starting to lose my cool. ;)

Anyway, back to the bubble tea. I’ve had several teas that were really really amazing. I noticed a new barista, so I asked my age old question, “What do you recommend?” They said to try the “Black Cream Bubble Tea,” so I went with it. I disliked it. A lot. It reminded me of Lipton tea with cream and very little sugar. The tapioca was the only thing keeping me from throwing the cup away, but that was barely.

So, it looks like I’ll just stick to my Brown Sugar Black with pudding balls or the Kiwi Strawberry.

I had two sessions with this tea today. The first, I grandpa styled this morning while attempting to get motivated to go out into the rain to the grocery store. It was mildly chilly, but not as much as it had been the past couple of days. The tea held up nicely while running errands. I’ve a soft spot for heavily roasted oolongs, so this was quite nice with getting the day started.

The second, I gongfu’d for a little while. I’ve been trying to read more often, so tea was much needed to get the reading going. I stacked the first three infusions on top of each other and sipped at my leisure. I allowed the tea to cool a few times, and it wasn’t harsh or unpleasant. If you are a fan of heavily roasted teas this would be a good one to try. There are subtle dark chocolate notes plus a touch of nuttiness.

Sipdown

I had to go back to my previous notes to see what I thought about it before. I apparently liked it at the time. I noted that it was buttery and had strong raisin notes. Maybe I did something with this last cup. I used 195F water, steeped 3 minutes, and sipped. I tasted raisins, but the tea was a bit bitter. I left the cup to cool down, while reading, but when I went back to the tea, it was extremely bitter.

I’ll pass giving it a rating on the account that I liked the first cup, but this last cup wasn’t for me. I haven’t had it too long, so I don’t think it went bad or anything.