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Sipdown 117/395, we’re on a roll guys!

Another pot shared with the boyfriend, and the first one he’s chosen which wasn’t a black tea base. He wasn’t keen this time around, so maybe we should stick to black teas for a while. Ease him into it a bit more. In fairness to him, I didn’t give him much choice – I had a few teas I wanted to move out and basically made him pick one of a few instead of giving him free reign, and I could tell that none of them really took his fancy. To give him credit where credit is due, he did pick one and dutifully drank half of the pot, before delivering his verdict that it was alright but he probably wouldn’t choose it again. Never mind. I on the other hand thoroughly enjoyed it, and was pleasantly surprised at how well the flavours had stood the test of time. A very pleasant dessert replacement with accurate flavours, though not one I would choose if I were looking for a complex white. This could be to do with the age of the tea (I’ve had it a couple of years) but after reading a few other reviews on here I’m inclined to believe that the tea base was never a standout to begin with. Thanks for the sample, WhatSheSaid!

Sipdown 116/395

Chosen by the boyfriend, who raved about it and said that it tasted chocolatey (??). I remember getting this a couple of years ago and really enjoying it, then saving the last of my sample to savour it, and we all know that that means leaving it for two or three years while I acquire hundreds of other teas and it loses flavour. It also didn’t help that I didn’t really have enough leaf left for a pot for two, but I’m encouraging Ryan to get more into tea so I wasn’t going to say no. What kind of monster would do that to a fledgling tea enthusiast? I was disappointed that it was a shadow of the tea I remembered, but enjoyed the pot nonetheless. I do love chestnut teas, it’s one of my favourite flavours.

Sample from my swap with WhatSheSaid.

Sipdown 115/395

Drank as a travel tea, black with a little bit of honey, a couple of days back. It was pleasant with mild cinnamon and orange flavours, and I really enjoy Harney’s black teas, but I preferred Cranberry Autumn to this one. Gave the boyfriend a sip and he really liked it, to the point where he asked if we could start drinking pots of tea together. Score.

Thanks go again to Marzipan for this one.

Sipdown 114/395!!

Gosh I’ve been gone a while. I don’t know what it is about today that’s making me want to just curl up in a ball with a book and a pot of tea, but I am going with it. Since today was feeling so autumnal I had to go with this tea, it just encapsulates the season and my current mood so well. From the second it started brewing it was everything I’d hoped it would be; rich and fruity, warm, cosy and inviting. The scent drew me in immediately. I’m not a big fan of cranberries or cranberry juice so I wasn’t sure what I would make of it, but they actually pair really really nicely with the citrus, adding a lovely berry-type fruitiness to the orangey notes I’m getting. It could be summery with such bright fruity notes, but instead it’s a perfect autumn symphony in a cup. Absolutely no additives necessary, it is sweet and strong and full-bodied without being remotely astringent. I am enjoying every cup of this pot of tea and will be sad when it’s gone. Thank you Marzipan for sending me such an elegant hug in a cup.

Quick sipdown (113/395) before work.

Today is the first day of my new diet, so I’m trying to drink a lot of my teas with no additives, particularly ones I think will make a good dessert replacement. This falls into that bracket and also happens to be one of the oldest in my cupboard, acquired in the early days from my mystery box from MissB . So last summer I was doing really well on Weight Watchers, and had lost almost 3 stone which was my goal. I was 36 lbs down with only 6 to go (though it had slowed down significantly) when I met my wonderful boyfriend. Since then, 10 months have passed and I’ve gained back 18 lb through a mix of a more active job (I’ve gained significant muscle mass in my calves), takeaways, restaurant dates and happiness. Even though I’m happier than I’ve ever been, I would like to get back to the weight I was last summer, as I was a lot healthier then and had worked so hard for it. It’s two months until my birthday now, and I’m aiming to lose 12 lbs by then. Hopefully by documenting that here I will hold myself more accountable!

Anyway, all of that to say that I’m really enjoying this more than I had on previous occasions. The flavour has held up well over time, and the rooibos base adds a kind of burnt caramel note to the orange which makes me think of marmalade. It is fulfilling its role of desert substitute nicely.

Sipdown! 112/395.

Thanks so much for sharing your creation, KittyLovesTea ! As a rule green tea isn’t really my favourite, and genmaicha has always kinda confused me, but this is one that I really enjoyed to the end! Including this last cup, which I have been hoarding for the best part of four years… It’s finally time to let go of that one last cup I’ve hoarded of all my teas since my interest began. I have far too many of them and a good few are 4 years old (yikes!) so to say they’ve seen better days is an understatement. I can happily say, though, that this tea was deliciously nutty to the end! A lovely tea to warm up with at work in the rotten weather. The water in the boiler at work is roughly 90 degrees, but there was no astringency to suggest the tea was burnt, and the flavour was not too savoury, which is something that I’ve found with other genmaichas. I don’t think a genmaicha is something I’m ever going to gravitate towards on a regular basis, but even as someone who doesn’t often drink these teas, I happily drank each and every cup.

Sipdown 111/395

Metallic. Musty metallic grossness. Nope. There is a pretty decent fruitiness which comes out more with sugar, but the weird metallic note – which I think probably comes from hibiscus – it the first and last thing I taste.

Sipdown! 110/395

Another tea I put off drinking because I remembered not liking it. I thought I’d already wrote a note for this tea the first time, saying as much, but I can’t find it anywhere. I remember it tasting and smelling a bit sicky (sorry), and this tea was in fact the first step in my discovery that I don’t usually like pineapple teas. I decided to bite the bullet and drink it now before my taste comes back, and I must say that it is a lot better than I remembered it. Still has a faint sicky aroma while brewing, but no sour sick taste, just a sweet candied pineapple fruitiness. I suspect the ‘candied’ aspect comes from the little candy heart pieces, which I must admit are very pretty. It is rather a nondescript kind of flavour, but ‘nondescript’ is much better than ‘sicky’ in my book.

Thank you Hapatite for sending this to me in my first ever tea swap! It started something pretty huge.

Sipdown 109/395

Cheating again, but I haven’t actually owned these teabags personally in a really long time. I’ve gone through hundreds and hundreds of teabags, but I haven’t bought them for a while now. I always left them in my cupboard because they’re never out of my house for long – my parents or myself usually buy more whenever we’re out. However, since I don’t really drink them any more it’s more my parents’ tea than mine, so I am removing it from my cupboard, though I might still have a cup once or twice a month. Still my favourite plain bagged black tea, and probably always will be. I’ve gotten my boyfriend into drinking these, too.

Sipdown 108/395

I’m cheating a bit since I didn’t actually drink this recently, but I did go through the entire pack of teabags and I have no idea where my last one went. Maybe I drank it and forgot to say, or maybe it’ll turn up one day and then I’ll give it a proper write up. For now I’m just updating my cupboard to say I don’t have this any more. My dad bought me these for Christmas back when I was first getting into tea, and it was probably one of the first of these types of herbals I tried. I remember it being fairly heavy on the lemongrass and pepper, with some sweetness from the liquorice. It would probably be great for me right now getting over this cold…