A Quarter to Tea

I’m tasting no wine, apple, or cake. No idea what is happening in this blend, but I get an overwhelming “artificial grape” flavour. Think jumbo grape freezie or that grape scented window washer fluid at gas stations. My immediate thought from both the dry leaf and the brewed cup is that it reminds me of gas station soap (but in a good way). I LOVE artificial grape, but it has nothing to do with tea (especially a cake flavoured one). Have you ever had a grape freeze gatorade/powerade? It tastes a lot like that but without the sweetness. There is also a floral element that I don’t think does with the idea of wine or cake.

So, I’m not giving this a good rating since it fails to deliver any apple, cake, or red wine even though I actually enjoy the smell of it. This would work as part of a fruity iced herbal like “grape freeze” or something like that.

This makes for a nice coldbrew. The main tasting note is rose/floral. I don’t associate rose with a fruity cocktail but it wasn’t totally unwelcome-just unexpected. I didn’t get much gredadine or citrus, no pomegranate or real fruit taste at all (just some generic fruitiness). The white tea was suprisingly flavourful and actually added to the complexity of the tea. I would have been a lot more into this blend if it was called something different.

Cold Brew Sipdown (1619)!

Honestly not much else additional to say about this tea aside from the fact I’m just so proud of myself for putting in the work to get this sipped down. Just a nice deep jammy but not overly sweet fruity blend. I’ll miss it, but I know I have a lot of comparable blends to fall back on.

Verrrrryy dense/darkly sweet “cooked” raspberry vibes from this cup coupled with a more floral and full bodied, but still pretty unoffensively muted, black tea base. Not much rhubarb or points of excitement in this cup but it was flavourful and consistent and it’s hard to complain about that.

Cold Brew!

Returning to this one as a cold brew because it’s helping me get through the tin of it faster and then, on top of that, the way the heavier jammier fruit notes come across is very enjoyable to me. I drink a cold brew daily and, quite often, I lean into fruit flavours when I do that – often bright and juicy and very lively. Every now and then it’s really nice to have something fruity with low notes and more of a reduced down taste. More raspberry than rhubarb, but just a hint of both in there. Black tea body and taste aren’t lost, and are brilliant contributors to the flavour.

Cold Brew!

Been a while, but this is satisfying tonight! A darker and denser fruit tea, with lots of the thickness and fruity floral notes of the black tea coming out and matched this jammier cooked down raspberry note. I’m getting less rhubarb than I am raspberry, but I like the flavour profile – it’s sweet but the heavy and natural sweetness of cooked fruits instead of the acidic and bright fruity flavour of something fresher and more sugary. This seems like the kind of fancy raspberry jam that would accompany a good cheese board – not the kind you’d put on your morning toast, y’know?

Cold Brew!

Something about this was a little artificial and chalky tasting, and based on past experiences with AQ2T blends I think it was the raspberry flavouring used. It wasn’t terrible, but it added this “Flintstones Vitamin” quality to the remaining tart rhubarb, berry, herbal raspberry leaf notes and the overall body (and slight floral note) of the black tea. Didn’t not like it, but I think it maybe would have been better hot?

Samurai Travelling Tea Box – Tea #44

When I picked teas for Shae to include in the box, I must have REALLY been feeling spiced apple because this is one of several spiced apple blends that I requested. At the time, I didn’t realize exactly how much of the blend is chamomile so I was a bit disappointed when I saw the dry leaf but it’s actually not bad at all!

A Quarter To Tea used what I think it arguably the best apple flavouring I’ve ever tasted in a tea, and it’s so good and sweet/floral and aromatic that it was even able to get me to enjoy a predominantly chamomile based tea! Yes, the chamomile still is very distinct but I know that some people find that straight chamomile actually has an apple note to it – I’m not one of those people, but I did think it complimented pretty well. The ginger was mild, and I felt it’s tickly warmth more than I tasted it but I thought it was nice.

This didn’t drive me crazy, but I’m really happy I tried it because it’s one of those blends that was just enough outside of my comfort zone to be a really educational sipping experience.

For this month’s summer vacation sipdown theme, I’m having this Irish coffee tea from AQ2T. I did a quick search and it seems that Irish coffee did originate in Ireland. I’m working so no whiskey, but I added some brown sugar and a layer of whipped cream on top after looking through some recipes online. I overwhipped my cream so it was stiff and not pourable but still as tasty. The coffee flavor is light but noticeable. It may be the addition of brown sugar and cream but I am also tasting caramel. The caffeine is too much for me and I don’t like the flavor enough for it to be worth it. In the end, I gulped this one quickly just to get it over with. Not a fan.

I enjoy the taste of coffee every now and then and typically have a cup of decaf when a craving hits. I thought this blend looked interesting and it smelled promising so I made a cup. I normally sweeten my coffee with sugar but used honey today since this is really more of a coffee-laced tea. And I enjoyed it at first – nice coffee flavor, a sweetness from what I’m guessing is the whisky. But after a few sips in, I’m bored with it. It’s not quite coffee and not quite tea, so neither elements are holding my interest.

Sipdown (271)…sorta

I remember Roswell Strange really disliking this tea and then I checked the tea page and Sil rated it a 13 and started her note by calling it so gross. So I was really excited to try this…

It’s not good. They’re both right. It’s not. However, it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. Perhaps age has helped this because I’m getting a lot of orange and almond. It’s artificial tasting and not great but not terrible either.

Honestly, I thought it would be one sip and then a dump but I was able to finish the glass. Doesn’t mean I want to have it again though so this is going into the swap box.

Sipdown (1076)!

I wasn’t really sold on the “Baklava” profile this time around – perhaps because I’ve very recently had some seriously good baklava! The cup was still nice though, with a really strong and thick floral/rose and pistachio profile, with honey notes. Almost more of an intensely flavoured Turkish Delight vibe!?

Samurai Travelling Tea Box – Tea #17

Thanks Shae for including this one – it looks like I totally missed it when AQ2T was still open, and it’s a flavour profile I would have been all over if I’d seen it…

It smells really familiar dry (good!) and I struggled to figure out what was giving me the aroma deja vu but once it was steeping it was easily to put my finger on – it’s that distinct AQ2T honey flavouring coming through in full force! I like it here paired with strong pistachio and rose notes, but interestingly I’m getting much more of a “Turkish Delight” flavour than a Baklava – I think it’s because it’s a little too floral in general for what I associate with baklava?

There’s another serving left, but I’m keeping it for myself. It might not be baklava, in my opinion, but it is really good!

My first attempt at this tea followed package directions and ended up being an almost clear liquid. Convinced I must have done something wrong, I doubled the tea leaf and increased the temperature and steep time. It came out clear again. What’s going on with this tea?? Granted, it’s an older one but I’ve never had a black tea look like this. And there were plenty of tea leaves in the scoop. Very curious. The coconut, I’m guessing, left a shiny film on the surface which was at the very least unappetizing, but the flavor was fine (if light). I tasted the cherry almond flavor that I noticed in the dry blend and it was enjoyable, but overall this tea left a lot to be desired.

This one’s a sipdown, folx! I’ll be honest, I have no idea what a currant is supposed to taste like. The taste of the tea is unique – fruity but also floral. I think I was expecting currants to taste like grapes maybe, but maybe they don’t.

Second Steep
8 ounces water + 212 degrees + 20 minutes

Still some flavor in this second steep. Picking up more of the floral in this cup. As it cools, more flavor is coming out. Now it’s just as flavorful as the first cup.

Backlog from a week or so ago.

I’ve been wanting to do more iced teas now that the weather is warmer, plus I thought cold brews might be a way for me to start drinking some of the green and white teas that sit languishing in my tea cabinet. This was a nice start – it was light in flavor but there was definitely flavor there, which I don’t always experience with white teas in general. That said, the major downfall here for me was the soapy taste. I immediately checked the ingredients for coconut but didn’t see any so I’m guessing this is coming from the lavender. Maybe just my associate of lavender with soap, I don’t know. I have a bit more of this left so I guess I’ll try a hot cup eventually and see how it goes.

Sipdown (263)

I snagged a sample of this from Kittenna just before AQ2T went on hiatus. It’s an alright tea. Sorta peachy. Not very special. Still, thank you Kittenna for the chance to try something new.

sample from VariaTEA. I’d forgotten that i like kukicha. This tea doesn’t really come across as “cake” to me but it was a pleasant creamy tea that i was enjoying until it got cold. shudder as it cooled there was an off taste about this that made for a cup of tea that just wasn’t good.

Cold Brew Sipdown (2660)!

Unfortunately I think this was too old to be enjoyable. Very, very much tasted like really flat/stale white tea with a hint of fruit – maybe green melon? Also quite shockingly bitter for a cold brew. But it’s my fault – I just took way too long to finish this one off.

Cold Brew!

As a cold brew, this tastes fruity in a bit of a generic-ish way though there’s a noticable lean towards more of an orchard fruit kind of vibe. That must be the pear flavouring asserting its presence. This sample is old but still nice, even if the flavours are a bit muddied together. I like how much the white tea comes through!

V is for… Vino del Sol!

I haven’t really explored this tea much, so it was the one non-vanilla blend that I had during “V Day” because I thought that I better seize the chance to better familiarize myself with this tea. I did enjoy this cup, but I definitely finished it feeling like I didn’t really have a better understanding of what it was trying to taste like – it really just tasted to me like a super general “fruity white”…