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The first from this year’s PostTea tea advent calendar – I say this year’s with a degree of uncertainty, because I think in actual fact it might be last year’s. It was packed in Summer 2016, if the box is anything to go by, and they’ve not exactly been very active on their blog, or other social media, since then. If I’m honest, I don’t get the impression that things are going all that well for PostTea. My order took ages to be dispatched, then took ages to arrive (parcel post), and wasn’t in the greatest condition once it did reach me. I’d ordered two new Timolinos from them, and one of them had definitely been used. There was leaf trapped in the infuser basket, and a red stain at the bottom of the flask itself. It was in a box, but with no inner packaging or instruction booklet (the other one I ordered had both of these). It had been shoved into the box upside down, which doesn’t particularly matter, but it’s hardly the best first impression. The box my order arrived in had been made from two smaller boxes stuck together, and was basically in half when it arrived. Only the address label was holding it together. The overall impression I got from my order was “we don’t give a shit”, and so I won’t be ordering from them again.

I’ve tried one PostTea blend in the past, which I got with a book subscription box. I placed this order on the strength of that blend, because it was so good. I was expecting great things from this particular tea, but unfortunately it’s not really there.

The flavour is Gin and Tonic, and while I appreciate that it’s hard to recreate in tea form, it should be possible to at least hint at that kind of flavour. There are loads of juniper berries in this blend, and I feel like those alone should have made it taste of something. I even crushed a few of them, but still nada. All I really get from this blend is sencha, which is nice enough but not exactly living up to any kind of promise. Even the orange – and there are a few pieces of peel kicking around – is strangely muted.

The bags that make up the advent calendar are paper, and foil lined, but I just have a feeling that any flavour there was in here has dried up. If it really is a year old, and hasn’t been stored in optimal conditions, then maybe it’s not a surprise. It’s a disappointment, though, because this is a blend that should be right up my street. Unfortunately, it’s fallen totally flat.

Not a great start. I only hope the rest of the calendar, or at least some of it, is more up to par.