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Thank you to MissB for sending some of this my way.

At first I thought it was going to be a sort of chilli chocolate, but I think the ‘spicy’ refers more to spices than chilli. There might be a a hint of heat in there somewhere but mostly I’m getting ginger, cloves and cinnamon. The cinnamon I can get on board with, and cloves I can give or take, but unfortunately ginger is one of my most hated ingredients and it brings this tea down to just average for me. I do think that chocolate works well with rooibos, though, and especially with the cinnamon. It comes through quite well which I always think is rare in teas – I usually find it fake-tasting or weak. Overall I’ll drink the last of this but I won’t miss it when it’s gone or look for any more.

I’ve drank this tea a few times in the past, and each time I seem to be of the same opinion, which is that while this isn’t by any standard the best tea I’ve ever drank, it’s nice to have at bed-time and it sure is pretty.

The scent of both the dry leaf and liquor is predominantly lavender, though the longer I inhale the more apparent the lemon verbena becomes. I’m always surprised how pretty and pink this brews up, until I remember the hibiscus in the ingredients (which doesn’t actually seem to affect the flavour at all). The lavender is strong in the tea itself, but not overpowering, and is followed by the delightfully citrusy lemon verbena. Despite the numerous whole buds of chamomile in the blend, the sweet, hay-like flavour of it doesn’t stand out and only becomes apparent when I search for it. I get the feeling that it adds more to the general thickness and sweetness of the tea than anything else. As a chamomile hater, I’m not complaining. Though not up there with my favourite teas of all time, this could probably make a list of my favourite bed-time teas, since as a general rule I’m not fond of many. I’d probably keep it around for that purpose.

As I’m typing this my cup is starting to cool, and the more it does, the more the lavender fades into the background and the stronger the chamomile gets. Bummer.

ETA: Apparently this was my 150th tasting note! Woo! Go me!

*Joey voice * I’m back, baby!

Alright so I abandoned everything not so long ago, but I’m getting back into what feels like my own life and rediscovering the things I loved. I have new resolve and I’m going to reverse the damage I did to my health/diet over the last few months as well as finally fixing the things I broke a couple of years ago when my anxiety and depression were at their worst. I was doing well for a while but it can be so demoralising when you work so hard and still have a long way to go that I came very close to giving up. So I had a slight relapse, it’s no big deal. I can pick myself up and move on. There is now an end date in sight for my most serious problems and I’m already starting to feel the relief. Tea is a big part of my enjoying and appreciating life (no matter how sad that might sound) and I’m taking it as a big positive that my love of it is returning.

It’s the weirdest thing, I woke up a couple of days ago thinking about this tea, and today I was craving it again so decided to dig it out and brew myself a big ol’ mug. It was totally worth it. Just as good as I remembered, and I’m actually surprised it doesn’t have more notes. In my opinion this is one of Bluebird’s best teas. All of the flavours blend together so well, and it’s so delicate and flavourful at the same time but no one flavour overpowers another. Every time I drink it I’m impressed. For me, the white and green tea blend is delicious and really compliments the flavours. It is the tea I taste most in the sip, which is sometimes not the case with Bluebird teas, and the flavours of jasmine and spearmint are in sort of supporting roles. Afterwards, though, the tea fades and the jasmine remains strong, followed by the spearmint, which lingers the longest.

It’s such a relaxing, delicious cup of tea which never fails to impress me, and definitely a good choice for this afternoon. Okay now I’ve banged on about it for so long I’m going to be late for work.

MissB sent me a sample of this a couple of years ago, which makes it one of my oldest teas and in definite need of a sipdown! I had a friend visiting for the day and while we were watching Preacher I brought down my teas for her to look through. She picked this one out and I made a pot of it, though there wasn’t quite enough leaf so it was on the weaker side. According to other reviews it’s better that way though, so I guess it worked out for the best! I was drinking mine black and was slightly underwhelmed, but Kathleen had hers with milk and sugar and told me it really improved the tea. I was sceptical but tried anyway and almost did a double-take! With a tiny bit of sugar and milk the chocolate and caramel flavours are brought out and the tea becomes a decadent, desserty delight! This always helps because I have a terrible chocolate tooth, and I’m on Weight Watchers so have to avoid it most of the time. I’m not sure the ‘salted’ bit came across, but that might have been the additions and the underleafing.

Sipdown 42/371

I’m not the biggest melon fan, but I like this tea occasionally when I want something light. I chose it today because it’s quite old and about time I moved it out, plus I wanted something ‘springy’ because I’m excited that winter is over. Every time I brew this tea I am taken aback by the scent – I always forget how dead on it is! After a few seconds of brewing the honeydew scent is intoxicating. I brewed this for 5 minutes instead of my usual 3 because I was preoccupied with inhaling the steam. The base tea does overpower the flavour of the melon a little in the sip. The scent is pure melon but in flavour it is definitely in the background. I have no complaints about this, as I said melon isn’t my favourite thing and it’s nice as it is. The tin this came in states that this blend has liquorice and cinnamon pieces in it, which baffles me. I have maybe 6 or 7 of the 50 teabags left, and I have never noticed any liquorice or cinnamon notes once. Maybe I will next time now that I know they’re supposed to be there. The tea base does become more pronounced when steeping for five minutes (I sometimes use two teabags when steeping to strengthen the flavour of this tea) but it also becomes somewhat astringent, which is a problem I’ve never had with this one before. It’s actually one of the few black teas I don’t get any astringency from usually. Top marks for the flavouring, even though it isn’t really my thing, but the black tea base is pretty generic and could use some work.

Sipdown 41/371!

I could have sworn I’d written out one or two notes on this tea before, but either I’m imagining things or Steepster is eating my notes again. This is my favourite plain chai tea, and I’m actually quite sad to see it go. I usually find chais quite tricky, particularly loose leaf, as there are so many spices and I can never seem to get them in the same quantities each time, so every cup is different. I’m not a big fan of chais as a rule, because I have a strong aversion to cardamom in any form. I also try to avoid ginger whenever possible, and I’m not a fan of cloves either. Because all of these ingredients are in this tea, I really didn’t expect to like it at all, and was pleasantly surprised when I tried it the first time. The Assam blend is robust enough to hold its own against the spices, but nothing is overpowering and the resulting cup is quite mellow. The ingredients I dislike so much are present, but somehow I don’t mind them here. The cardamom stands out a little, and the pepper comes through at the end of the sip. This is a really nice morning tea, and I’m drinking my last cup of this with a couple of cheese crackers I’m calling breakfast. I rarely drink tea with sugar any more, but this one called for it so I’m treating myself to a milky cup with a teaspoon of sugar and it’s delicious. I’m joining WeightWatchers tomorrow, so this will probably be the last time I have sugar in the foreseeable future. It’s a good send-off for sweetened tea.

The Sherlock 10 tea sampler were the first teas I ever bought when I was getting into loose leaf, and they were what made me want to try loose tea in the first place since I’m a huge Sherlock fan. They weren’t available in the UK where I live when I first heard about them, and so I did get a couple of bags of tea from Whittard to experiment with originally, but I didn’t really get excited about tea until Adagio made these available from their UK site. In the two years since then, I’ve accumulated a huuuge collection of around 500 teas, and I’m trying to downsize to (hopefully) around 100 teas eventually so it’s more manageable. Since these are my oldest teas, I thought it was about time I tried to sip them down before they lose their flavour. I have maybe one more cup of this before I’m done with it.

I do prefer this tea iced, but I didn’t have enough left in my sampler tin to cold brew it so I had this cup hot. I actually got more of the grapefruit flavouring this time around, and the blood orange was distinguishable too. The Ceylon base melds with the flavourings really well – the citrussy notes make the fruit flavouring seem more naturally a part of the tea. Half way through drinking this my brother came into the room and I offered him a sip. He usually tries them and then hands them straight back, looking fairly neutral and unimpressed, but with this one he actually said ‘Ooh I like that one’ and had another two sips before handing the mug back. I ended up letting him finish the rest of the mug – I’m on a mission to turn everyone in my life into tea people! He drank it all really quickly, and I’m actually surprised by how much he loved it. I think I’m going to up the rating a little from 70.

Sipdown 40/371 courtesy of MissB.

So I read my old tasting note on this tea, and changed my brewing time to try to stop the liquorice from being too overpowering. It was definitely better this time around, and so I’ve bumped up the rating from 61. It’s not the kind of tea I’d choose all the time, but it was nice while I was drinking it. The liquorice was definitely more of a background note this time, and I didn’t get much pepper either. I’m not totally sure what the fennel is supposed to be like, so I don’t know whether it’s coming through or not, but the scent of the tea and the flavour both remind me oddly of baking. The orange was juicy and sweet, accented by the liquorice, sort of reminding me of some kind of orange cake overall.

Sipdown! (39/371)

Another of my samples from MissB, I am really getting through them! This is a lovely breakfast tea. It’s thick and malty, and smells wonderfully bready while it’s steeping. It’s not too sweet for a morning tea, rather strong and almost savoury. With some skimmed milk, this is pretty much my idea of an ideal breakfast tea.

Sipdown! (38/371)

My mam drank the last teabag of this by accident, so I’m only adding this tasting note to add it to my List of Teas Conquered – 10% through my no-buy! I don’t think she was very impressed, but this is a very sweet tea and she abhors anything sweet. Plus I’m not sure she brewed it correctly. Oh well.