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I picked this over Lime Marshmallow because I didn’t want something strongly lime flavoured, completely forgetting that this is very strongly lime flavoured… whoops. As the cup cools the orange comes out behind the lime a little, but the lime is definitely the dominant note in this one. I want to try it cold brewed next, I think this would make a really refreshing iced tea.

This is my 600th tasting note! The last 100 passed really quickly, it doesn’t seem very long at all since I hit 500. I’ve been meaning to try this iced for a while now, because I really thought it would make a great iced tea. I finally got around to it, and I’m… underwhelmed. It’s more bitter than I expected, and the sharp hay-like note of the shou mei is the most dominant by far. There’s an ever so slight hint of the sweet, crisp apple I expected to dominate right at the front of the sip, but it’s quickly overwhelmed by the base. I drank the first cold steep last night, and when the liquor came out deep and bitter I threw the leaves back in to steep a second time, hoping it would mellow out. It did, and the apple note is definitely slightly more noticeable, especially in the scent which is now all fresh green apple, but the hay still dominates. Never mind, I’ll just finish this as a hot brew.

Sipdown! 235/400

Fresh, this is one of my favourite EG Cremes, and probably the one I’d choose to keep in stock once I’ve whittled down my cupboard if I had the option to buy more. At this point though, the bergamot has faded almost completely even though the cream is just as strong as ever. This leads to a very creamy, almost vanilla custard note with very little citrus to cut through it, leaving a cup which is rich and heavy. I’m not a big fan of vanilla or cream flavours on their own, but I love them combined with citrus, so I’d probably be enjoying it more if I didn’t have that bias. If I’d had my head screwed on right this morning I could have combined it with a citrus-heavy EG to recreate the tea I remember loving so much when this was fresh. I didn’t though, and now it’s gone. I’m sad to see it go, but it’s not as difficult of a goodbye as it might have been if I’d finished this while it was still in its prime.

Omg. Cold brewed this tea is totally transformed. It smells like vanilla coke, and it has a hint of cola about the taste too. The lavender is the strongest at first, making a massive change from the hot brew where it doesn’t come through really at all, and as I sip the spearmint becomes slowly stronger. The vanilla is present, but still not particularly strong, and the guayusa is earthy and herbal-tasting in a pleasant way without overpowering the other flavours. It’s hard to describe accurately, but this is nothing like I expected it to be. Cold brewing is the way forward with this one! Upping my rating from 67 because, wow. what a change.

There’s another street party today so I made another pitcher of this tea iced to take out. I’m training for a new job so can’t take part in the party (I did go out for an hour to have a burger from the BBQ though), and I completely forgot about this and left it in the fridge when everyone went outside. Now the party is in full swing, I’ve came back inside to do more online courses, and I’m drinking the pitcher myself. Everyone out there has moved on to alcohol. Oh well!

Cold brew resteep – yummy! This works really well as a cold brew!

I drank this yesterday both black and in latte form, and even though I did enjoy it brewed regular western-style it was definitely better as a latte. My mam said it smelled like hot chocolate, and it kind of tasted like it too. Yummy.

I’ll write up a better note at some point in the future, but notes will be brief and sparse for the next little while because I’ve finally started training for my new job! I’m training online because of the Covid situation, and that means there is A LOT of reading followed by A LOT of tests. So far I have 3 down, 23 to go. I’m still drinking tea, but I can’t focus as much attention on it as I’d like to right now. It’s my birthday on Wednesday though so I will be taking the day off and drinking plenty of tea then!

Pretty similar steeped regular Western style to how it is as a latte. Coconut and cardamom, a slight hint of pepper and ginger heat, and not much else. The base tea isn’t the most robust, but not totally weak either and it somehow still manages to be astringent. DAVIDsTEA’s Coco Chai Rooibos is way better imo. That one executes the flavour profile I imagine this tea was aiming for so well.

Sipdown 234/400.

Drinking this this morning because I woke up an hour before my alarm and needed much caffeine. This is a weird one though, because the mint, lavender and vanilla flavours are all ones which I generally associate with evening drinking rather than first thing in the morning – especially lavender. Combined with the high-caffeine guayusa means it’s not one I drink often. Today I’m finding the mint and vanilla melding together well with the mint less dominant than usual. The lavender is still less prominent than both of them, but the more I sip the more I notice it. Even though the caffeine boost is there because of the guayusa, it’s not really slapping me awake like I wanted it to. I think the flavour profile is just too mild for when I’m this tired.

Yep, this is the tea I remember disliking. My last cup was surprisingly okay so I thought maybe I’d remembered it wrong, but no this is gross. I must have got a good bunch of ingredients last time, or maybe it was the lower steeping temperature. This cup is musty, metallic and overly sweet, the kind of sweetness you get from liquorice root which coats the back of your throat. This is what I remembered it tasting like originally, and so 2/3 of the cups I’ve had have been gross. The 1/3 that was nice wasn’t good enough to make up for the grossness I have in my cup tonight. Oh well, at least I won’t miss it.

Sipdown 233/400.