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Sipdown! (48/375)

It’s been almost three weeks since I’ve had any sipdowns, what with being away and then getting ill and losing my sense of taste, but today it’s almost back to normal and I can appreciate tea! Yippee! So it’s on with the sipdown mission.

After the cup of Martha Jones I had earlier I’m in quite a dessert-tea mode, so I pulled this one out. I was surprised to see that the recommended steep time is so long, but I hadn’t followed it before so thought this time I would. And it makes such a difference!! Oh man. This tea. I’m not even a vanilla fan and the scent has me salivating! It’s more than just vanilla. It’s cream and spun sugar and a little bit of caramel. Astringent plain for a decaf, but with a little milk and sugar added it’s sooo decadent it feels like something I shouldn’t be having on my diet. I’m bumping my rating up slightly from 76 because I really didn’t expect to enjoy a vanilla tea as much as I do this.

I’ve reached series 3, and so it’s Martha time! I still love this tea. I actually just went onto the UK adagio site to see if you can still buy this, and sadly you can’t ): not only that, but adagio seem to have stopped making their sesame tea and the newer version of this blend only features the assam and caramel rooibos! Sadly this seems to be the case with a lot of their blends, and I just can’t imagine them being the same with such limited options. I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed. Looks like I might be hanging onto this a little harder than anticipated.

Not only is this tea delicious, I think Cara hit the nail on the head and created the perfect cup of tea for Martha. It’s sweet and toasty but it also has a strength to it and stands up well on its own. I added milk and half a sugar but I think I actually prefer this plain; out of all the Adagio fandom blends, this is one of the only ones I don’t find too astringent. The caramel flavour is strongest throughout the sip, warm and smooth and authentic. The sesame adds a gorgeous back-note of nutty roastiness which turns the tea into something extra special. Notes of chestnut and baked raisin come through in the aftertaste – I’m not sure where they’re coming from but I’m not complaining. It all works very well together. Upping my rating from 85.

What the heck is guanabana?? I’m drinking through my Doctor Who fandom sampler (the original 10 tin one with guanabana Ten and sweet potato Rory) as I’m going through the show again, and it just occurred to me that I don’t even know what this one is supposed to taste like. A quick google tells me that “the flavour of the fruit has been described as a combination of strawberry and pineapple, with sour citrus flavour notes contrasting with an underlying creamy flavour reminiscent of coconut or banana” so that really narrows it down! I do get the sour citrus notes, and maybe some strawberry and banana, but no coconut or pineapple is really anywhere to be found. I’m sort of glad, because as it is I think it represents Ten pretty well. The malty Irish Breakfast is strong and dominates, which I often find with Adagio blends, but it isn’t unpleasant. Too astringent to drink without milk as per usual, but again that doesn’t really bother me since I drink black tea with milk 90% of the time anyway. The chocolate note stands out way more than the guanabana, and it’s not particularly authentic but I’ve also had way worse chocolate teas. It smells divinely chocolatey, and I think the scent might help suggest the flavour is present slightly more than it is. Malty-chocolatey-strawberry-banana oddness, but with milk and one sugar a nice non-committal cup to sip on while I’m winding down for the night. Nine will always be my doctor, both in the show and in tea form, but I do hold a special place in my heart for Ten.

This was kindly sent to me by MissB, and I used to drink it on mine or others’ birthdays, but it’s getting old now so I need to drink it down regardless of how weird I find the name on non-birthdays. I ate a chocolate earlier and thought I tasted it, so got excited and decided to brew up a cup of tea in the hopes that my sense of taste is returning. While it’s still not particularly discerning, I can taste more than just ‘sweet’ now, which is progress! I can taste enough to eat but not enough to be able to appreciate tea yet. Not that it matters, because while I was ill my well-intentioned mam decided to wash my tea strainers for me. I’m not sure how she went about the washing process, but I used one of my little mesh brew baskets for this and the second the hot water hit it I got a really strong smell of garlic. I’m 90% convinced she hand-washed it with her garlic crusher thingy which I know she used the same day. While the tea was hot it tasted mostly like cupcake, with a slight unwelcome hint of garlic, but now it’s cooling the garlic flavour is getting really strong and I’m going to have to tip it out. I’m quite upset since I’m probably going to have to throw out the brew basket too, and I think she washed all of my tea stuff so I don’t know how much everything will be affected. Plus I can still smell the totally accurate vanilla-iced cupcake and it smells sooo good that I want to keep drinking to try to find the flavour but it’s just not happening.

My rating is based on how I remember the tea from other times I’ve drank it. Obviously I’m not going to mark it down because of my garlic’d-up infuser.

Gah I love this tea so hard! It smells and tastes absolutely divine, even after two years. I walked past my mam carrying my mug of this and heard her murmur ‘ooh, something smells delicious. Can you smell cookies?’ in the distance as I walked off smugly. With milk and half a sugar this is a perfect desserty treat, and I swear it’s actually filling. I know I say it often, but I wish the adagio black teas were better – it’s not that it’s bad, in fact it’s really quite enjoyable, but I’ve spoiled myself with amazing teas and it’s the only thing holding this back from being perfect. I only have one teabag left now, courtesy of KittyLovesTea, and I’ll definitely be getting more (though probably in the Nine Doctor Who blend rather than on its own or maybe both) when I run out. This is a staple in my cupboard for sure.

This is my Old Reliable, my fail-safe, my Willow Rosenberg of teas. I drink it when I’m in a hurry, or when I can’t find any of my tea-brewing apparatus, or just when I can’t be bothered with the clean-up, and it never lets me down. These teabags have never left my cupboard in the almost three years that I’ve been on Steepster, because they’re always replaced before they run out. The fact that the company brings teas, coffees, biscuits and jams to your own front door does help, but I know I would actively seek these out even if they were less readily available. They’re strong and malty and perfect for breakfast time, and they take milk and sugar really well, though I prefer to drink mine with just a splash of skimmed milk. It would take something mighty special to replace this as the go-to tea in my household.

ETA: I just noticed there’s been a lot of geek references in my notes lately; if you get sick of them, I’m sorry. I’m probably not going to stop.

Still feeling meh so I’ll keep it brief. This smells and tastes really familiar – I think it reminds me of a Bluebird blend? That’s going to bug me for a while. Surprisingly tangy, but tasty. I can’t pick out individual notes right now but I’ve moved it into my focus box so will write up another review when I’m feeling better.

Ahh, that’s more like it! I think the flu might be helping to actually make this tea taste better than normal! I haven’t had a cup this good since I first received this tea, which was SUCH a long time ago that I really thought they would have no flavour left by now. This was a Christmas gift from my might-as-well-have-been-flatmate’s boyfriend when we did Secret Santa in my first year of uni (2012) which makes this tea almost exactly four years old and definitely the oldest in my cupboard. It’s a bagged tea rather than loose leaf, though I’m pretty sure it’s the same as the loose version, which might explain why it’s held onto its flavour so well. I used a small mug so the tea is fairly strong, and added a teaspoon of sugar and a splash of semi-skimmed milk and this is really tasty! The cinnamon and other spices are what I usually find most dominant in this tea, but today it’s super citrussy and the orange is definitely the stand-out note. I’m not sure what the base tea is in this blend but I suspect it might be something with natural citrus notes, as the flavour is more complex than just ‘orange’. The spices play around in the background, complimenting the orange and lingering after the sip. The cardamom is a little more dominant than I’d like, seeing as I’m not a fan, but I can live with it. I only have a couple of bags of this left now – I wish I’d figured out how to brew it like this sooner.

I decided to get a cup of this down while I’m still ill and can’t taste much, which speaks to how much I don’t love this tea (mainly due to personal preference rather than it being a bad genmaicha). I thought it would make it more palatable, but it turns out to have had the opposite effect. I can’t put my finger on what this tastes like, but it’s definitely something which Should Not Be Consumed. I’m going to dump this cup and make something else. Yuck.

Yesterday at work was the busiest shift I’ve ever done, and I came down with flu in the middle of it and had to work through until the early hours of this morning. So I’ve spent today curled up in bed watching Torchwood and feeling sorry for myself. I haven’t drank much tea because it hurts to swallow and the flu is making everything taste funny, but I just watched the saddest episode of Torchwood and needed some comfort. It’s not tasting as good as normal partly because I underleafed and partly because I’m ill, but it is making me feel a little better. I wish I had a Ianto tea, but this will do.