Bisou

Steeped up earlier in the week. A little bit coarse and earthy from the yerba mate in the blend, which I don’t think was a particularly nice quality. The ginger is also much more of an earthy/dirty tasting ginger than a hot ginger (which is what I expected), so I don’t think that helped. The mint wasn’t exceptional either, but it wasn’t unpleasant and was a bit of a saving grade for the cup. Probably wouldn’t reach for this one again for flavour, but I guess for function it’s okay.

This was a conflicting cup for me. The sachet overwrap simply lists “oolong tea” as an ingredient, so I was expecting a plain oolong – probably something a little less oxidized with more of a floral profile base on the imagery used on the overwrap.

From the moment I opened the sachet it was VERY clear that this was a flavoured milk oolong. No unflavoured milk oolong has that kind of intensity to the aroma, and sure enough when I started steeping the tea and paying veeerrrryyy close attention to the leaves expanding I could see the faint “ripple” of flavouring infusing into the cup. Taste wise, it was also unmistakable. Very, very buttery and creamy in a way that’s just not achievable without flavouring.

Now, mind you, it did taste pretty dang good. I am not at all anti flavoured milk oolongs. It’s just that incomplete ingredient lists is a MAJOR frustration of mine – especially when it comes to flavouring. It’s just really misleading to the average tea drinker – especially an uneducated or fledgling one who would not know any better.

Didn’t expect to love this one, but just doing my due diligence with tasting it to find out. It’s incredibly classic and baseline tasting Masala with all the usual spice notes. Maybe a little bit heavier on the anise? Definitely has the brisk body to support the extra sweetness though. Not totally my jam, but it’s a personal preference thing – no fault to the tea.

Honestly, I’m surprised how much I enjoyed this! It was incredibly brisk and full bodied with a lot of upfront tannin – however, it never verged into bitter territory and even the astringency was pleasant in its added texture. The second half of the sip, once the astringency broke, was like a pleasant wave of sweetness with strong notes of honey grahams and malt and a bit of a floral raisin-y undertone. This is definitely the kind of bagged breakfast blend I’d want to have with me for travel/convenience.

Bit of a whelming blend – neither over or under. It’s a bit fruity and a bit floral, but not quite exactly cherry blossom flavoured? I liked how smooth and easy going it was though. Definitely a very no frills sorta tea.

A late night cuppa as I continue to drink through these teas from Bisou!

As I’ve said many times before, it’s hard to be too critical over peppermint tea because even bad quality peppermint is still pretty good. I guess I’d call this middle of the road? It’s lacking some of the particularly cooling menthol notes of really fresh peppermint and the end of the sip is a bit murkier and less crisp. However, it doesn’t taste stale/flat either.

Very serviceable.

Iced Sipdown (2843)!

Made this a few nights ago because I just had such a strong craving for something fruity and iced. It was very good, but I definitely think I preferred this hot over iced. Still a pleasantly jammy, rich raspberry note and no gross and funky morninga. However, also much more prominent woody rooibos flavour. I don’t personally mind the taste of rooibos, but I was missing some of the raspberry notes I’d initially fallen in love with when it comes to this tea.

Still guzzled this, though. Iced rooibos is so refreshing.

Moringa is challenging to work with, so I was interested to see how heavily it would be incorporated into this blend. Imagine my surprise when I opened the overwrap and the tea inside smelled bang on like Swedish Berries! Steeped up, a lot of that candy element goes away but what’s left is still a really pleasant and naturally sweet jammy raspberry flavour on top of a smooth rooibos base. No morigina unpleasantness.

I definitely have a personal bias towards rooibos, but I do think this might be my favourite tea from Bisou that I’ve tried so far.

I saw a sampler of twelve different teas from Bisou recently and I just had to pick it up because who doesn’t love a crash course of a new(ish) to you tea company?

Sipping this one currently and it’s pretty solid! I’ve sort of just left the sachet in the mug to hang out, and it’s holding up splendidly. Smooth and medium bodied with a slightly brassy mineral overtone to what is otherwise a warm, caramelized and roasted peanut sort of body flavour. Tiniest touch of astringency, but the texture it adds is actually very nice.

I’d say we’re off to a good start with this sampler!

Must have been in a berry kind of mood today because I had this during the afternoon in addition to my mug of DT’s Blueberry Jam. Blueberry Jam was better, but this was still plenty rich and enjoyable. Much more of a dense, bordering on medicinal black currant type of flavour. Made me think a little bit of Ribena.

#SVTTB Round Two – Tea 11/???

So I pulled this one out of the TTB not because I thought a berry black tea would necessarily be the most stand out but more so because it’s only the second time I’ve ever seen a tea from this company and I was more curious about that.

That said, it actually did sort of stand out to me? Mostly because I had just naively assumed it would be either a wildberry/mixed berry or blueberry flavour but instead it was this pleasantly deep and jammy black currant flavour that really stood out among the more neutral blending style black tea and, honestly, maybe one of my favourite flavoured teas I drank this week?

Like, it’s simple and definitely nothing innovated but that straight forward, understated currant note just made a good impression. Basic ain’t bad.

Got a few of these sachets in my sampler from a while back, and figure that I should just work my way through them. I’ve had this tea in LLT form before, and I didn’t love it. Sachet is similar. Nice floral ripe peach note, but then very fake tasting cream flavouring. Weirdly mouth coating, too.

Marika bought this tea recently and was kind enough to let me try it. It reminds me a lot of the Peaches and Cream blend I own from Impeach (possibly from the same supplier?), but unfortunately that’s not really a positive. I find there something just really unpleasantly chemical and artificial tasting to the cream flavouring used in the Impeach blend and the same was true here. It was a shame because I actually liked the peach notes. The way the cream just hung on my palate in that chalky sort of way was too much for me to get over, though…