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I’m sad to see this one go. I love Darjeeling teas and this one is really hearty, like drinking warm squash-y smiles.

Goodbye, little smile! ::siiiiiiiip::

Now I am having a second steep with demerara sugar. Usually I skip the sugar entirely, but this is really good. A little cream would probably rocket this to the moon (all I have is mom’s fat-free half-and-half, which I don’t really consider to be a food product).

This isn’t my first taste of Krampus, but I think it’s the first perfect brew I’ve managed. Gunpowder is really hard for me, partly because I have terrible thermometers/judgement and partly because I’m forgetful and isn’t that the worst when you have a really excellent green tea of limited quantity & steep it for, oh, I dunno, 15 minutes while you’re playing video games? Boo!

Anyway. I love the sweet, mellow aroma of this tea, both dry and steeped. Krampus has an understated, creamy scent of gingerbread nicely balanced with smoky green. I’m disappointed when I can’t find the actual tea flavor in flavored/blended teas, but that’s not an issue here at all. The leaf is complemented and enhanced by the spices rather than drowned out. Really a great cup of tea.

Have to say I am loving Caleb’s Handmade Tea subscription, even though I’ve only had two blends so far I’ve loved them both.

EDIT: I didn’t have many cherries in my tin, so I’m probably missing out on that flavor. It’s still really good without them, so I can only imagine what could have been!

This was the last of my sample packet, so I guess that’s a sipdown eh? Made a really nice midnight snack (I slept early yesterday and woke up at bedtime—oops). After all the flavored greens I’ve been having, it was nice to let the leaf itself have a starring role in the cup. Slight sweetness in a vegetal broth, smooth and tasty.

I’m starting to see a trend. Flavored green teas appeal to me much more than their black tea counterparts. Maybe it’s because the tea and flavors aren’t competing so dang hard with each other? I dunno. Anyway, this smelled like a nice soft peach candy, and my son really wanted to try it (he loves the Momo character from Avatar). He likes his tea “with three sugars please,” so I give him two and tell him it’s three.

I sipped some of his to see if it was cool enough (not quite), and then I sipped some more, and a little more. It was really tasty. Candylike but not overpowering, just kind of natural, fruity-floral and sweet tasting.

The second steep was also fruity and nice—it didn’t seem to lose much. The only problem was that I’d more or less ruined my tastebuds by drowning them in sugar, so I’ll have to wait till my palate clears up before I can say anything about it straight. Whoops!

EDIT: I should also mention that it’s a pretty blend, but it ain’t quite as fancy-looking as the picture here would have you believe. x) Look at all those flowers…holy cow!

Yum yum yum
Toasty rice
It’s really good
When I drink it

La la la la la, the genmai song

Well, another Lupicia Happy Bag tea bites the dust. I left the bag out where Mom could see it, and since Mom likes all things grapefruit she insisted I open yet another packet. I’m not at all sorry.

Very bright green in color (it scared my mom a little; “is it supposed to be neon green like that?”)

The grapefruit smell is really juicy and bright and smells like the old Tropicana white grapefruit juice gramma used to keep in her fridge (presumably for mixing with gin). So it’s got a little bitter note to it and I wonder whether this will carry over to the brew itself.

NOPE. It’s light and sweet, not bitter, but a sweet grapefruit flavor is very present. I poured into a cup that may have had a slight sugar residue in it, so that may be interfering, but I don’t think so—just a nice clean balanced cup that tastes exactly like, well, grapefruit and green. Love it.

EDIT: I now know this tea is awesome, because I involuntarily whispered “yummy” into my cup just now. I don’t even like the word “yummy,” as a general rule.

The second steep blew me away. Molasses and a nice cigar. Really interesting, and soft despite so many strong aromas.

I wanted something that wasn’t flavored or fruity today, so I opened this packet from my Happy Bag. Both dry and steeped, it smelled pretty bold: dark, malt, sweet, smoke. In smell and flavor, reminds strongly of a savory roasted pumpkin or squash. I want to add a tiny sprinkle of salt and cocoa and use it as a base for a sweet-spicy mole sauce.

I liked the little chunks of vanilla bean mixed in. I also liked that vanilla wasn’t a prominent note—so either it blended exceptionally well with the leaf itself, or it’s pretty mild. Or my nose is terrible. Either way, it wasn’t overly sweet.

I was sorta hoping this would be a little more like the breakfast teas I’m used to. This was milder yet more complicated than I expected, but I liked it anyway. Now someone tell me how to resist opening fifteen different bags of looseleaf at once, because it’s very… challenging to me right now.