August Uncommon Tea

This is pretty nice, except for that weak Chinese sencha blend. I think I may just straight out hate that stuff at this point. It’s such a watery non-substance after such lovely flavours here (orange, vanilla, sandalwood). I think this could be something pretty special if it weren’t for that generic, lackluster, hateful tea base (now let me tell you how I really feel).

Mastress Alita’s Sipdown Challenge February 2022: A black tea

Maybe I’ve grown up a bit and overcome my distaste of prunes, or maybe I’m vibing with AU teas now, but these last couple cups were not hard to drink at all (dare I say I found them enjoyable today?). Even at my most “anti-prune”, I enjoy the blend’s balance of cloves to fruit flavour ratio. Today I’m picking up more of the citrus (as a floral accent).

The assam base is pleasant and takes well to milk (imho), although its natural profile does emphasize the candied dried fruit thing (raisins, prunes).

This one tastes strongly of prunes (plum), which I was force-fed as a child. I cannot find the will to love it or even like it much (A+ prune flavour). The citrus and spices do remind me of seasonal things though so that’s nice.

If this had not been prunes I may have enjoyed the interplay of stonefruit, clove, and bergamot a bit more, but alas…

I mostly get clove-accented blackberries and stone fruits, with a floral citrus-orange mix that comes off as overly perfume-like. The floral perfume thing is unfortunately a little too much for me; it drowns out the room (and my tongue) for hours after the initial session. I kept thinking about how much Sil would dislike this one if I sent it to her.

Oh well, moving on!

On a lark I decided to get this massive sampler box from AUT – because why not? Plus, I felt bad about how I wrote them off after that one bad shipping/customs experience (sucks how that can sometimes sour things).

So, I made this one up first, since I vaguely remember trying it before, and my first thought was that I probably underscored it because it’s delicious. Then I came on here to see that I actually gave it a pretty great score of 88 (see? getting slapped with duty on tea distorts all memories).

This may be the only apple tea that I like to date – and I like it a lot! With the clove and herb mix it’s reminiscent of a baked apple or a spiced apple cider (a fav). It’s perfect for the start of fall.

Also, I keep thinking the base is green when I’m not actively drinking it or looking at the packaging. My brain is garbage when it comes to Dots and Loops.

The last few months have been a bit of a struggle both mentally and healthwise, but the better weather here on the West Coast seems to have given me back some energy. I’m looking forward to drinking teas besides Cold 911 (maybe iced tea is in the cards?).

This one more than makes up for my poor experience with (cue Twilight Zone music) the Black Lodge. This easy steeper had such a lovely balance of sour-sweet green apple, fennel and citrus zest that I ended up never drinking it with milk- the cloves and strong herbs make me mentally group it as a chai but I’ll have to order more if I want a latte or iced cup now!

The description on the back makes me laugh though. “Melodic sonic modulations” what now?! This is a pretty happy tea drinking experience and it got me through quite a few sick days, so I’ll go with it. This will be on the reorder list when I eventually run out of Psychocandy.

I am seriously thinking about buying more of this tea.

But first, I need fewer herbaly bits and bobs.

Oh, this is good! The orange flavour reminds me strongly of another orange leafy-herbal tea I used to have.

It’s very much orange-sage-ginger. I added a tiny bit of honey to take it towards sweet and away from savoury.

Right up my alley.

Roswell’s description is true for the flavour notes, too. Earthy. Orange. A bit of spice. Yum.

(Also, i FINALLY got it today! I ordered right at the end of November, and had an argument with customs (tea is not taxed in Canada…). I’m super excited to drink the rest of what I got.)

This one was good today, really clean and fresh-tasting. Now I’ve stopped looking for lemon curd, I feel better able to appreciate it for what it is – a pleasant, minerally green oolong.

I’d still love to get lemon from this, but I can live without it.

083/365

So behind with these, but I only have one more left from this collection so I’m nearly there! This is the only non-flavoured tea of the five that were part of this release, and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about a “pure” tea being marketed in this way. It feels…well, not entirely honest. I can see why they do it, because going with the name of the variety isn’t half so poetic. But still…

I second Daylon on this, and I think it’s a Jin Xuan. The beginning of the sip is creamy, with very slight lemon notes (although less sharp/sour/acidic than actual lemon, and more lemon flavour frosting). The mid sip is quite heady, with a fairly strong floral flavour; to me, it’s reminiscent of orchid, or lily, and it really lingers. The end of the sip is more vegetal, with a grassy, sometimes-almost-spinachy flavour. It’s a little heavily floral for my liking, but that’s entirely personal preference. It’s clearly a quality oolong, however you want to look at it.

This tea on its own is one thing. When you pair it with August’s high aesthetic and almost visionary description, it becomes something else entirely. This is more tea as artistic experience than “just a drink”. As I said, I’m not sure exactly how I feel about that. I guess it’s adding something to the process, but it makes me wonder how much is real, and how much imagined, and whether that justifies a significant premium on the price.

I made this both cold brewed and hot. My preferred method was definitely the hot tea as it made for a more interesting and less cloying drink. Cold it was all pineapple and sweet and not much else whereas hot the generic sweet came through more distinctly as caramel and the other ingredients, such as the lemongrass and barley, had more to contribute.

Check out my full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2018/04/02/big-easy-from-august-uncommon-tea/

I can’t decide if I like this or not. It’s sweet and distinctly pineapple but there is a candy-like quality here that comes off artificial. Don’t get much from the lemongrass or barley though. I think I enjoy it but maybe not one to keep permanently stocked.

I purchased this tea specifically to have it iced. It is absolutely true to it’s described flavor profile. I had no trouble at all identifying the peach, pistachio, lime and creme fraiche flavors as well as the base oolong tea. I thought that particular flavor combination would be really interesting and it was – and so delicious! The flavors work really well together and make a very enjoyable iced tea. I like this so much I may actually try it hot as well, but for now, I am very happy with it. No need to overleaf, and following the brewing instructions produced a perfect brew. Nicely done, August!

alright bored with this one. I have a coworker who will appreciate this one and even if all he does is use it for cooking, that’s fine with me. :) Even with a little maple this is just a boring old lapsang.

Sad times. this one smells more like toffee now when i open the tin, but still just tastes like a boring old lapsang. So i added rum cream to it. Much improved but not one i’d recommend from AU unless you a) like lapsang and b) get it for a fraction of the regular price.

So i gotta say…this time, i could smell the toffee but the brew it really more of a smokey black than anything else. I DID add a little maple syrup afterwards though, and that made it more my style – though this is NOT the tea that it claims to be imo.

apparently my order from AU the other day was a whole lot of me not paying attention to things and them not delivering on deliciousness that previous teas have been. I’m going to need to have this one again – but initial thoughts are that there’s too much smokiness happening in this one. I’ll have to add maple syrup to it and see how that goes, but i’m not really getting burnt toffee.

It was really nice to have this one back in my cupboard thanks to variaTEA. Finishing this one off today though since it’s getting close to the end of July and I haven’t made much progress in getting through all the samples she sent me….for once haha. Plus we have some other teas coming in the mail, so there’s that.

All gone…finished this one up today. Feels like i’m drinking my way through my cupboard at break neck speed….guess that’s sort of true since you can drink everything when you barely have any teas haha. This one was enjoyable, though i have to say recently AU has been more miss than hit.