BlendBee

Midafternoon cuppa.

I want to be really proud of this one, since I created the blend, but I don’t think I am. I mean, don’t get me wrong – I actually like the taste of it a whole lot in the moments that I am sipping on it. Like today, it tasted sweet and mellow all at the same time with this sweet, black licorice tinged blueberry pastry note taking up the bulk of the sip, I think it’s the spices/cinnamon that make me think pastry; not sure what else in the blend would. Regardless, I am here for a black licorice and blueberry profile.

The reason I don’t think I’m ultimately proud of it, though, is honestly that it’s also a forgettable blend. I don’t crave it, it’s not mind blowing, and honestly I don’t even really think of it at all until I happen to stumble across the package of it while searching through my teas. That’s not the mark of a super high quality tea, is it?

I think when you put it all together, it’s much more like a reliably average type of tea.

Had this one whilst at the height of ‘laryngitis misery’. I actually deliberately picked it out because I thought the anise and fennel seed combo in the blend would be really pleasant on my throat; and it actually was very soothing! I couldn’t really taste much of it though, a bit of fruity blueberry sweetness and licorice sweetness. It wasn’t enough anise/licorice taste to be considered a “punch” of licorice, but maybe like a solid slap of anise? And then a hint of cinnamon in the finish.

Revisiting this one again; but this time I’m drinking it hot and straight.

I still haven’t shown this one to the boyfriend; I’m waiting for a time when he’s over where he actually wants a cup of tea. Lately he’s been on such a hardcore Jumpy Monkey kick that he hasn’t been drinking anything else.

Though, I’m getting more and more hesitant about showing him this one. I mean, I think the idea behind it and symbolism of the ingredients is still really sweet, and perfect but the more I drink this one the more licorice/anise heavy I find it, and he’s not a licorice/anise fan so I’m doubtful he’d like it anyway, symbolism aside…

Right now it’s reminding me of a 50/50 mix of soft, subtle and creamy star anise and a blueberry fritter. I don’t know why I’m getting fritters/donuts – I just am.

Song Pairing: https://youtu.be/1XGtb_1skkA

So, I had so much fun making my own teas last time and the results were good enough that I decided it might be fun to do it again! This time I only got three teas though, and one of them was almost completely designed by my boyfriend and not myself.

This is one of the ones that I chose everything for but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t heavily inspired by my boyfriend when creating the concept for this tea and the ingredients. Even the name relates to him – “Ecstatic Shock” is the name for the feeling you get when catch someone you like/love looking at you. It’s a warm, happy feeling that starts in the tips of your toes, fills and inflates your lungs and finally culminates in a big smile!

I wanted the flavour of the tea to reflect that feeling: something warming and sweet so I figured a tea with some milder spices (cinnamon/ginger) and fennel/anise for sweetness would work perfectly alongside maybe a fruit or two. In the end, I ended up choosing blueberry as my fruit. It’s the boyfriend’s favourite fruit so it seemed like a great way to use him as inspiration, and I also knew that blueberry would be a nice compliment to the cinnamon/ginger and fennel combo!

For my first time trying this one out I made it in my tea press the same way that the boyfriend normally takes his tea. Since it’s something I want to kind of surprise him with, I thought it was important that I taste it the same way that he’ll be tasting it. Which is with added cane sugar, and lots of milk. Not my normal tea drinking method, but oh well…

- Overall, this does have the sweetness and comforting quality I wanted
- And the flavour kind of builds as you sip
- Which fits with the idea of a shock “rising” through your body
- It’s quite licorice-y though, from the anise/fennel: more than anticipated
- It works for me because I like licorice though – not good for those who don’t
- And I’m not actually sure how the boyfriend feels about licorice…
- I actually want more cinnamon/ginger: I kind of taste the cinnamon but it’s very mild
- The blueberry is softer too with an overall sweet & gentle fruity flavour I was going for!
- I enjoy this, and I think it fairly accurately conveys what I wanted
- I just wish the fennel was a touch dialed back

Sipdown (610)!

Finished this one off as a large pot of tea, which I happily shared with a couple coworkers. It was a cool experience getting to share a blend of tea that I was a part of creating with them and seeing their opinions on it. Only one person didn’t like it, but he admitted that was just because the pineapple flavour was so sweet and prominent and he simply doesn’t enjoy pineapple.

I agree though; this definitely has a sweet and candy like pineapple flavour – sort of like a Pineapple Crush, but with some warming spices and brown sugar elements. I still stand by the Pineapple Creme Brulee comparison though!

I would totally have this reblended for myself, and I did actually poke around on the Blend Bee site a few weeks ago and attempt to place an order; but my order was actually rejected. Looks like they’re not delivering to Canada right now, which is a major disappointment…

It’s been a little while since I last had this one, but I made a cup of it a few nights ago and it was amazing. Still very flavorful, and well balanced. It really perfectly captures the profiles that I want it to: sweet pineapple, brown sugar, a creamy component…

Fucking awesome blend. Kudos to the genius who came up with it. Oh, wait…!

That was me.

Super awesome cold brewed glass of this, mixed with some vanilla, creamer, and a splash of white rum. I’m not really counting this one as a ‘cocktail’ though because it barely had any booze in it/was still mostly tea. It tasted pretty fucking good though; thick and creamy with strong boozey pineapple notes. I don’t know why, but the rum accented the pineapple. Maybe because I associate rum and pineapple with pina coladas and this did have A LOT of similar elements to a pina colada. I mean, basically everything but the coconut…

The ‘creme brulee’ flavour that the tea is meant to replicate still came through really well too though; very sweet and creamy with more of a custard element because of the added cream and vanilla. I distinctly tasted the cinnamon in the blend, and I think the carob just added to overall sweetness along with the brown sugar flavours. It was so good though, and the perfect cap to a semi exasperating work day.

Iced tea!

This one was a little weak as an iced tea, but still quite pleasant. Most dominant notes were the pineapple and cinnamon, but there was also still quite a lot brown sugar, lemon, and hay/straw from the base white tea. I wish it had more body/flavour as an iced tea, but it did make for a nice, crisp refreshing cup that was fruity but a bit of a break from the typical fruity iced teas I’ve been drinking as of late.

Tea Press.

Ok, so even though I’m still super happy with the name I gave this tea/the logic behind it I have to admit that literally every time I think of this tea the name that I use in my head for it is “Pineapple Creme Brulee”, quickly followed by “No, wait – Pele’s Kitchen!”. The reason I keep going there, though, is because it does taste like a Pineapple Creme Brulee! So sweet, and dessert-like and just pleasant all around. I really, really love that it’s such a creamy flavour too despite being a blend with fruit in it.

Creamy pineapple. Creamy brown sugar. Creamy vanilla.

And warming cinnamon with hints of lemon.

Last of my custom teas!

I tried to save the one that I thought would be best for last; the dry leaf for this one smells practically orgasmic. It’s the creamiest, richest smelling pineapple scent ever and I’m basically losing my mind over it.

I’m doing my first tasting in the Tea Press because I wanted to take it with while we spent the day running errands – mostly that meant going to various pet stores. We went to a normal one so I could bulk up on treats and essentials for Eilert and Wasabi and then to one that specializes in reptiles so that my sister could spend a few hours handling the different snakes in preparation for getting one of her own.

Several times today I referred to this as “Pineapple Creme Brulee” instead of its actual name – which is both kind of sad, because I am the one who named it, but also just a testament to how accurate the flavour is to what I wanted/had envisioned.

So, this is really rich and creamy and the custard and brown sugar flavours I wanted in it to kind of recreate the creme brulee aspect really come through very nicely. If this company would allow you to use four flavour extracts I would have chosen vanilla to just tie it together a little more/make it a silkier/smoother flavour but for what it is the flavour is well executed and accurate. The pineapple is REALLY amazing! It’s very strong, and easily the dominant flavour in the whole cup – for people like my boyfriend, who hates pineapple, that COULD be a big turn off but I’m totally eating it up. It’s very rich and sweet, and leans a bit more to the confectionery/candy side of pineapple that a super realistic/natural interpretation of the fruit: what it actually reminds me of the most is Jones’ Pineapple Cream Soda! Sweeter pineapple works in the case of a dish like creme brulee, though.

My ‘accent’ ingredients also play their part: the cinnamon is softly present and I think works to bridge what might have otherwise been an awkward gap between the confectionery elements and the fruits. This is a smoother transition and blend of those flavours. The lemon is also just a little bit present, and I think keeps the pineapple from being a little too candy like. Didn’t get much of the carob, but that’s ok! The flavour was still quite nice.

So yeah, pineapple creme brulee tea was a win!

T is for… The Earl’s Mistress!

Sipdown (1391)!

I don’t know what it says about this tea that it actually got (a lot) better the staler and older it got, but surely it isn’t good. Anyway, after a long haul of less than great cups I finally finished this one off and that does fill me with at least a little bit of a sense of accomplishment for having done so.

Lots of apricot, hazelnut and rose in this cuppa – more of the fruity side with a perfumey floral undertone. Probably one of the best cups of this I steeped to date – but that isn’t saying much.

Current cuppa…

This is fine, but I’m going to be relieved when I finish it off. All I can think about right now is how it was probably a dumb idea in the first place to have even created an EG blend when I really don’t love them very much in the first place.

Currently sipping on this one with a little splash of milk!

Weirdly I feel like this has gotten better with age – my guess would be that I just had to wait enough time for the harsh flavourings to lose potency and mellow out a bit. It’s still not an exceptional blend, but for the first time a while I feel like it’s actually drinkable and I am definitely going to be finishing the mug!

Late night cup of tea slowly sipped on outside in my backyard, at the end of a thunderstorm which left everything smelling beautiful of petrichor and the yard feeling cool and calm.

I definitely still don’t love this tea; it’s very artificial/chemical tasting in terms of the fruits in it, and the florals read as super perfumey. It just doesn’t flow/mesh together in any sort of harmonious way. However, there’s something to be said about how much a really amazing environment can change the tea drinking experience because drinking this cup of tea outside I didn’t hate it. It was just part of a very serene moment.

If I wait for every major thunderstorm to enjoy a cup of this tea, though, then I’m never going to finish it…

Cold Brew!

Sipping on this one right now; there’s still a very artificial/chemical quality to the flavour of this one but I do like it much, much better than I did the first time around. Definitely a drinkable brew, even if it’s not a very enjoyable one. Flavour notes are basically gross apricot and overpowering bergamot, and then a really artificial nutty finish. Toss in perhaps some funky floral undertones and you’ve basically got the whole thing packaged up. Not a pretty package though; like something wrapped with written on looseleaf and tied together with yarn.

I started sipping it at the beginning of an online webinar about herbal tea/botanical harvesting though, and it was an hour long webinar so once it had started I couldn’t really walk away to get make something else for myself. So I actually did finish the whole thing. Twenty five ounces of it…

The webinar was really interesting! It was very cool seeing some of the harvesting techniques for different herbals because they very so greatly from Camellia Sinensis. In particular, I was fascinated learning about Rosehip in that degree of detail, as well as Chamomile. Like, personally I hate chamomile but it’s still fascinating the process it goes through!

Definitely a good class!

Tea number four of my five custom teas…

I wanted to do my own take on an Earl Grey because even though I don’t love straight EGs I’m usually pretty on board with flavoured ones. This also just seemed like a really fun tea name that I wanted to take advantage of. My original idea was to do something like Harney’s Boston – almond and cranberry. However, I also want to be able to share this one with my mom so I consulted her for flavour ideas and she was really against cranberry. After consulting my flavour bible we ended up settling on apricot instead.

So, this is apricot, almond and vanilla on an EG base with some rose because that seemed like a nice visual accent, decent flavour compliment and a good way to play into the name/theme of the tea!

- Drank this one iced
- Least favourite of all my custom teas thus far
- Very artificial and chemical tasting! Eww…
- After some unpleasant sips, I think I’ve pinpointed the cause of the gross flavour
- It’s definitely the apricot flavouring… Maybe I just don’t like apricot flavour!?
- After all I did hate the apricot matcha from Red Leaf Tea too and it was similar
- After watering this down it’s more tolerable
- The almond and vanilla are actually nice; very sweet, creamy and nutty
- Marzipan like, if you will
- The rose/floral tastes in general are weird as well; very aggressive and dominating
- It’s just not that good

Yeah; I should have stuck with my gut and gone for the cranberry…

Sipdown (712)!

I’m reluctantly tossing out the rest of this tea since, sadly, the coconut in it has definitely soured. I made myself a mug a few nights ago and it just wasn’t drinkable anymore. I only had enough leaf left for one or two more cups so it’s not really a huge loss but it does really hurt because this was one of my custom made blends and was so good when it was fresh! I just fucked up and left it a little too long though…

Lemon and heeerrrrbbbssss…

Yeah; I don’t really remember much about this cup of tea other than I had it.

Hmmm, this last mug of this one had a weirdly soapy undertone to it all throughout the mug and it was a big distraction for me. The rest was nice though; a mix of coconut notes, citrus/lemon, and herbaceousness with a good overall sweetness. I wonder if the soap thing was from the coconut and that’s a sign to me that I need to be fasted finishing this one up? It’s been a while since I’ve had a tea with coconut in it for sour on me…

Pulled this one out because I’ve been feeling a bit of monochopsis all day…

In my mind, it didn’t seem unreasonable to match a feeling of monochopsis with a tea named after the same feeling – maybe the two would cancel each other other?

Flavour wise this was good, but didn’t quite hit the spot either. The flavour was largely lemon, with a little bit of pithyness and a little bit of soft tang. It was complimented by mixed notes of coconut and rosemary with a bit of peppery graham/woody sort of flavour from the honeybush base. I think ultimately, I would have liked more of the caramel/honey flavours to come through and for this to have been sweeter overall. That would have sated me a little more.

However, nothing that was present was unpleasant.

This is a queued tasting note.

So, the flavour of this one continues to feel just slightly out of place to me and while that would normally be a negative, in the case of this tea I think it works perfectly.

I will say this last cup was fairly heavy on the combined sweetness of the caramel/honey notes, and that the lemon was a distinct flavour however everything else just comes together in this very pleasant but hard to pinpoint amalgam of other flavours. A little coconut, a little apple, some rosemary…

You get the idea.

Still, it’s sweet, fruity and… other. I love it.

Custom tea number three from BlendBee!

This was the only one I made with a honeybush/caffeine base – and interestingly, the package it shipped it actually has it marked as containing caffeine despite there being no chocolate/tea leaf in the blend. I wonder what the ingredient is that’s supposedly “caffeinated”? This was also sort of an experimental tea/idea – I wanted to convey an emotion/feeling rather than a specific taste or imagery. I also wanted that emotion to be something more… obscure?

So I went with Monochopsis, which is something I can related to a lot of the time. Basically, Monochopsis is “the subtle but persistent feeling of being out of place”. So, lets get tasting!

- Feels accurate to the name
- The flavours are really nice; but without ingredients they’d be hard to place
- And a little… off beat? In a positive way. It works with the name meaning though!
- That said, the lemon/apple do come through distinctly to me
- And the whole cup has a very rich and distinct honey/caramel sweetness
- The honey feels VERY MUCH like the ‘honey flavour’ AQ2T uses…
- Getting to a point where I mentally compare flavours from different companies is odd
- The rest (coconut/elderflower/rosemary) all muddle in a unique way
- It’s hard to separate them from one another though
- It’s interesting, and one of a kind! I’m into it though!

This is one that I think I’d need to try several times to get a good hold on the flavour profile, but I am initially fascinated by it and I did enjoy the flavours – plus I think that idea of it not instantly ‘clicking’ for me does work with the whole goal of conveying that emotion/feeling rather than a specific, targeted flavour.

I’d be curious to try this sort of experiment again with a different type of emotion. Something either with more of a positive, happy connotation to it or maybe something more mellow, sad and melancholic.

Sipdown (562)!

This is an upsetting sipdown for me; I’ve greatly enjoyed this black tea and all its weird but connected layers of flavour. It’s sweet (chocolate), spicy (clove and cinnamon), tart (cranberry) – really it’s just every great autumnal flavour in one beautiful package. I debated not finishing it until the fall when it would be more appropriate, but I think I was just ready to let go of this one and everything it meant to me…

When I envisioned this blend it was a representation of a relationship with someone that no longer exists now – literally a phrase that he said to me to poetically convey how we were two opposite people coming together to create something stronger and more beautiful. That just simply isn’t true any more though.

I’d love to get this recreated by BlendBee for myself at some point in the future – but I can guarantee you that if I ever do that it will be under a different blend name.

Chocolate, clove, and pumpkin truffle goodness! With just a slight touch of bright cranberry top notes. It’s sweet and spicy, but also still mellow and tame – with this just beautiful balance of all the flavours. I still stand by the description that it’s kind of a perfect representation of Autumn flavours – sweet chocolate, chai spice, pumpkin, and cranberry. It does work year round, though.

I’ll be really sad when this is done – which will be soon, since I only have a cup of it left.