August Uncommon Tea

I wanted to log this tea earlier, but Steepster wouldn’t load it and gave me an error page. :/ It was a sipdown. I enjoyed my cup and the resteep, but don’t feel compelled to buy this tea again. I really wanted to love AU teas, but I’m just not falling for them, sadly.

I’m trying to follow the steeping directions for August Uncommon, but I feel like they aren’t quite working out for me and need adjusting for my tastes. This tea smells really good dry! Sweet, smoky and rich. Once steeped it is coming across as a bit bitter in the first several sips. It mellows out a little as I drink on. I can smell and taste a smokey woodsy caramel, but it isn’t as intense as I had hoped. The start of the sip is light, the mid has some flavor coming on and the end is where things get more interesting. Adding creamer makes the whole thing a bit smokier and knocks out the nuances. I’d like to adjust things next time, but I’m not sure if I should go with a lower temp for the same amount of time or the same temp for a shorter time. Maybe I’ll have to try both!

I’ll tell you what I’m in the mood for! For Steepster to load these damn pages instead of giving me an error/kettle page! Minor tangent aside… I still don’t get clear chocolate notes with this tea, but I am getting the deep malty notes which are really nice, slightly sweet. It’s good, but probably not a reorder.

Malty indeed! This reminds me of the powdered malt drink minus the excessive amounts of sugar. I have another tea which is similar in flavor with different looking leaves that I can’t read the Chinese on wrapping so I know very little about it except it’s delicious. This one is a little heavier than that one. I’m not getting the chocolate notes, so it’s different than I expected, but still really nice!

I tried this tea already a few times as a morning wake-up brew but it lacks the satisfying body that I want in my 4am breakfast teas. And the caffeine buzz leaves me feeling jittery instead of invigorated, so I relegated Painted Desert back to the black tea drawer for a time more appropriate, which is today!

I really like the idea of this flavor profile — Ceylon black tea, cocoa shells, cinnamon, chili. I’m not often the mood for Mexican-style hot chocolate but when I am, I crave it hard. In stark contrast to the weather of a few days ago (100+F), last night was cold for us of California thin blood. Despite it warming up to 70F currently, the chill of last night left me craving the flavor profile of Painted Desert.

All of that for a short review. August Uncommon calls this a “crisp black tea” that tastes like “dried pasilla chili, Mexican cinnamon, cacao” and feels like “soft warm mahogany.” Yep. Though the cacao note is cocoa for me and is more present in the aroma and finish than in the actual taste. The base tea is crisp, fairly light and woody, lacking the astringency I find typical of Ceylon blacks. The chili and softly sweet cinnamon give only a bit of warmth, melding smoothly with the cocoa shells and tea. The safflower petals really add to the ‘painted desert’ visual element of the dry leaf, like a striking sunset.

While I enjoy this tea, there’s something about it that makes me not interested in purchasing it again. Maybe it’s because I have in mind Mexican hot chocolate and the comforting thickness associated with it. As with most chocolate-flavored tea blends, I feel like a base of a good Yunnan red would be more complementary in terms of mouthfeel and flavor. The Ceylon base is kinda leaving me hanging but maybe their blender has good reason for choosing it. Still decent stuff.

Also, I’m wondering what the added flavor is.

[Western, 3.5g, 10oz, 205F]

This tisane puzzles me! I could feel myself making the weirdest face when I first sipped it, confused by the mix of flavors. It is strange how the flavors all work together so well! There is the sweetness of the anise, the deeper notes of the barley, the chocolate flavor tying everything together… I really like it!

I don’t know what it is about this tea, but I’ve never fully warmed up to it. I love banana and smoke and this tea has both, but there is something else that isn’t sitting right. It has a very truffley depth to it that is intriguing, but I’m pushing back from something. I’ve tried for two years and I’m now giving up on this and tossing it in my get rid of bin.

Back from a lovely week up at the barn! I found so many interesting plants to try steeping on my nature walkabouts! Usnea and Monk’s Head lichen (monks head tastes like a puerh!), cedar, spruce, pine, mint and a garbage bag full of mistletoe! There was a huge clump that fell from an oak, just as I was about to leave. Score! As relaxing and amazing as it was to be out in nature, I really missed my tea cupboard and was so excited to get up this morning and pick something to drink! I really need to get a better selection of travel tea put together.

I love banana and smoke, but I’m still perplexed about this tea! It has this depth to it that is almost hot cocoa like and blends well with the smoke and banana. It’s a good tea so I don’t know what is holding me back from loving it. I do hope my feelings change. :/

I love banana teas and smokey banana teas at that, so I was super excited to try this! It steeped up pretty strong and I see that the recommended temp is a little lower than what I used. I’ll have to try a lower temp or 3m next time. It took a few sips to get used to the flavor and have the initial bite fade. Once it does, the sip is filled with sweetened smoke. The banana comes in on the finish and the flavor is complex and rich. Adding cream tempers the smoke and lets the banana come out a little sooner. There is a depth in the finish now, but the banana is still on the lighter side of what I’d hoped for in flavor intensity. I’d like to get to know this tea a little better in future steepings!

Pictures posted here: https://www.instagram.com/p/B2nE3Iul3vV/?igshid=9z9gq5p28xtv

I purchased a small sample of this during one of August Uncommon’s sales. Not getting much in the way of chocolate notes. It’s more subtle than their usual fare, but I found it much better if I overleafed a little. Overall, there is a sweetness and maltiness to it that I enjoy, and it goes wonderfully with milk, so it makes a nice breakfast tea. All in all it’s a mild, sweet black that’s very drinkable, just not for when you want a strong black tea.

This is such a unique tea! Darker in color and flavor than other yellow teas I’ve sampled with a distinctive peanut taste. It’s a bit astringent, but I still enjoy it.

about a month ago I bought one of those neat Hario cold brew bottles bc, who knows why. well, I do know why and it’s because of laziness. it was “too difficult” and “too annoying” to put some damn tea in a bottle before I went to sleep and then THEN I had to deal with it in the morning and it was apparently TOO MUCH for me to handle. what I can handle is putting this glass thing in the fridge and putting nice, cold tea in an INSULATED bottle, refilling the glass bottle, and going on my way. I had been making my cold brews in one of these things that i bought years ago, I love love the double lids, but in 90+ degree heat, I need an insulated bottle: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L3QXUL6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

TLDR, I’M LAZY AND NOT ALIVE IN THE MORNINGS AND I LOVE THAT GLASS HARIO COLD BREW…THING! and this tea? THIS TEA IS DELIGHTFUL. it is the sweetest sencha I’ve ever had, it is bright and so refreshing. I’m so glad that this was unearthed from the tea cabinet, so good. so sorry for ignoring you for so long :(

I get it.

Boozy chocolate, cigar/pipe tobacco, smooth sweet pineapple and light peppery spice.

But if ever there was a tea to vehemently reinforce my preference for unflavored teas, this is it. A spectacular and sultry, rich naturally flavored black tea for a certain crowd; for me, notsomuch.

Cha-cha ;)

This is a tea I would repurchase for the scent alone. Opening the pouch, you’re hit with a strong cherry scent (almost reminiscent of cough medicine, but not that bad). The prune also comes through, but not as strongly. There is another scent I can’t quite describe, maybe that is the note of armagnac, which I’ve never had. The tea also smells wonderful while steeping. The cherry isn’t as overpowering as it is when the pouch is first opened.

Drinking the tea, I think the prune comes through more than the cherry flavor that the makers note in their tasting description. Again, I can’t speak to any boozy flavors. The brew has a thin mouthfeel, but that may be because of my steeping.

A note about steeping: they recommend 3 T per 8 oz, for 5 minutes. I’ve not tried it there, that seems like way too much tea for the water. I’m afraid of getting something bitter and undrinkable, but maybe that would solve the problem of the thinner mouthfeel that I get from the August Uncommon Black Teas.

In the Mod for Love describes precisely the opposite way I’m feeling this morning—maybe I gravitated toward this tea in a subconscious effort to boost my mood—mood regulation through suggestion, I suppose. I had some disappointing news yesterday, which has my brain weasels out in full force this morning. What was supposed to be celebratory champagne last night turned into “drowning my sorrows” champagne. So here I am this morning, facing my own looming lack of forward motion in my life with nothing more than tea, blueberries, and the love of a few good dogs.

Anyway, the tea, what we’re all really here for. I altered my typical preparation for this tea, and doubled the amount of leaf. Rather than the 1 teaspoon per 250 ml of water, I used 2, and left the steeping time alone, at 5 minutes. Increasing the amount of leaves improved the mouthfeel of the tea, not surprisingly (I’d found it thin before), and didn’t make it overly bitter or overwhelmingly strong like I was afraid it might. Maybe Fujian teas need more leaf—its been too long since I had a straight Fujian, I don’t remember. Anyway, increasing the amount of leaf really increased my enjoyment of the tea. I still don’t get any chocolate notes like their tasting description suggests I should. What I’ve noticed with a lot of these August Uncommon teas is that I get a whiff of leather, which may just be the aromatic notes of the black tea base itself.

Drinking all of these flavored teas reminds me of my fundamental tea self: while I like the aromatic notes of the teas, I don’t ever really taste much. Its the tea-as-potpourri philosophy of tea drinking. I’d gravitated more toward straight teas, with the exception of genmaichas, which I really can taste the toasted rice note. After drinking several cups of these August Uncommon blends (I got 5, and I’m probably halfway through them all already), I’ve decided that I’m going to move back toward straight teas—the quality tends to be better because there are no attempts at flavor to cover up an inferior base.

This tea is a Fujian black tea, and tastes pretty much like what it is supposed to. Unlike my other August Uncommon Teas, this one doesn’t really have a noticeable scent other than the expected black tea scent on either opening the pouch or steeping. The tea is perfectly serviceable black tea, a little thin in the body, but not too bad. The scent of the tea when the package is opened and while brewing is a major selling point for flavored teas for me, since I’m not able to detect finer flavors and such when drinking. I’ll finish out the 50 gram bag, but I don’t foresee buying this tea again.

I was intrigued by August Uncommon when I saw ads on IG. I’d gotten out of the habit of drinking tea, but decided to try a few blends. Combray was the only green tea blend that appealed. The first time I prepared it, I brewed 3 teaspoons in 750 ml water and steeped for three minutes. The vanilla and cardamom were strong, but were overpowered by the bitterness of the brew. The steeping recommendations that come with the tea are wildly off the mark, in my opinion. Rather than using a tablespoon of tea, steeping for five minutes, using one teaspoon per 8 ounces is more than sufficient. The second preparation I made steeped for only two minutes, which yielded a much more pleasant tea. The brewed tea has a nice vanilla scent, and the cardamom vanilla flavor doesn’t overpower the green tea base. It seems fairly well balanced. I’ll probably buy more of this tea when I use up my current stash.

I’m not the target for this tea. I don’t even know why I bought this when I don’t enjoy the combination of fruit flavoring and menthol (in this case eucalyptus).

This smells like a fruity Hall’s cough drop. The taste is bland with no depth. The eucalyptus menthol that is so strong in the aroma is much less prominent in the mouth. I can taste a generic melon flavoring (watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew), grass, eucalyptus. I can’t taste the lemongrass, rosehips or dragonfruit, which is I think easily overshadowed by the euc leaf and melon flavor. There is a quality that skirts mineral into metallic. It is a cooling tea, I’ll give it that.

Boring. Last serving of the sample pouch is cold brewing. Will it find redemption?

Wait, I do taste the lemongrass when it cools a bit on the second steep.

This feels like the innocence of limber and languid ice cream truck summers at my grandparents’ house, rolling right past the tumultuous teen years and into those humid days and hazy nights of — hey nineteen — living on my own. A still impressionable girl developing her poise and confidence as a young woman.

Strange. Tasty. Needs a stronger base.

Edited to add: If you ever come across this review, Dad, thanks for the memories. It was nice to talk yesterday.

Song pairing: Steely Dan — Hey Nineteen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J7IrPVLc4U

It’s 100F currently and not even peak temperature for the day. So what am I doing? Drinking a hot black tea of course!

I’m digging these August Uncommon blends that I received as a gift from Mastress Alita. This one’s mellow, medium-dark and herbal, not so in-your-face as the Dots and Loops I had yesterday and this morning.

Light earthy, rich and herbal aroma. Sip is thyme and juniper, with rosemary to a much lesser extent. The tea quickly expands into a moderate earthy puerh note with light malt from the black tea, tanginess I attribute to the black currant, minerals and a hint of molasses. The juniper persists but isn’t dramatic. The herbs flow through lightly. It finishes the same with additions of tannins and oiliness. Despite the thin body, everything’s slick, my tongue, my teeth and there is a soft and persistent tongue-numbing effect.

Overall, it’s definitely a smooth, savory tea — herbal, woodsy and earthy. Pretty neutral taste for me that makes a fine hot tea for a blistering and dry California summer day.

Addendum: brewed 4g to 8oz western and the liquor was substantially thicker. I really enjoy the character of this tea! Upped from 80 to 85.

This tea is so good!

The dry leaf, wet leaf, aroma and taste all stick to the same palette with no surprises. That doesn’t mean it’s a straightforward tea. This blend of savory, sweet, tart, fruity-floral and spicy has a load of depth.

The apple aroma and flavor is unique; I wouldn’t say it’s green apple but very close — almost sweet like candy but very floral, somehow reminiscent of both crisp and tart fresh green apples and the deeper, comforting aroma of some kind of heritage red apples baked with brown sugar. Clove, fennel and caraway create a sweet, herbal, citrusy, almost peppery and pungent rye-like taste, of which the perfume lingers as an ether after the swallow. All of these flavors are layered into a black tea base that’s malty and somewhat bready with cleansing tannic and mineral qualities.

The tea is actually pretty refreshing for a liquor so savory. I think I’ll keep sipping on this with today’s 95-100F temps. I’d love to try it in the fall since it reminds me of Oktoberfest but the remainder of this gift from Mastress Alita won’t last more than a week. August Uncommon has some interesting teas. Maybe I’ll suck it up and place an order later this year. Thanks, MA :)

Edit: 2nd infusion is watery but still has the flavors of added ingredients. Going to try with higher leaf, shorter steep next time in hopes of pulling out a more substantial resteep.

I seem to enjoy this one more than the other Steepsterites. The dry leaf hits you with warm prune (hey, I like prunes) and a shot of booze. Steeped, I don’t really get hazelnut brittle but mostly creamy cocoa butter and brandied prunes. The base is subtle and pairs perfectly with the fruit. Adding milk does kill the soft cocoa butter background, and you are left with a whisper of plum. I’m glad I just got a sample size, but for what it’s worth, it was money and time well spent even though it’s not my favourite blend of theirs.

This one was malty yet had a thin mouthfeel, which was a little strange since I find malty teas to have a thicker mouthfeel. Also, of the three times I had it, each and every time, it was simultaneously astringent. All it did was make me crave a strong, malty Assam.

Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but it didn’t knock my socks off.