Camellia Tea

Sipdown (592)!

I finished off Just Lovely as a large pot of tea, and it was… Just Fine.

I realize that I have an actually surprisingly large amount of lavender teas in my cupboard through for someone who claims to not really be a fan of lavender. This, I think, is the only one with coconut though so it just made the most sense to prioritize finishing off this lavender tea. I’m a bit sad, since it was so similar to DT’s discontinued Jessie’s Tea – finishing this tea feels sort of like finishing off Jessie’s Tea for a second tea.

But it’s really not an AMAZING tea – and I’ve certainly found other lavender blends that I like considerably more.

Just Lovely was just fine.

I brewed it up as a bedtime type tea after a long work day; meant be a sort of “Spa Day in a Cup” vibe. It tasted strongly of rooibos (woody/peppery) and lavender – but lacked the sweetness from the coconut to give the cup any time of “life”. Just lavender and rooibos? I’m not really into that…

Hot cup before bed with cashew milk and vanilla agave.

Essentially this amounted to a pretty even ratio of very soft and relaxing floral lavender notes, and vanilla notes with a touch of a honey graham quality from the base tea and just a little more nuttiness to the overall coconut notes from the cashew milk addition. It was pretty simple, and…

Just lovely.

Second tea from my Sipsby subscription!

If you missed my overall review of the service/thoughts on that you can check that out in this tasting note: https://steepster.com/roswellstrange/posts/365171#likes

Both this tea and this company are new to me, but looking at the smell/appearance of this tea and the ingredients this instantly reminds me of a tea that I do have familiarity with: Jessie’s Tea from DAVIDsTEA. No clue which of the two came first, and I know other blends like these two exist as well but that’s just my immediate association.

I made my mug of it hot with a little added milk; honestly? It tastes exactly like Jessie’s Tea for me. I imagine it would be great for the evenings, and I like the coconut notes in it but I’m having the exact same issue with this that I had with Jessie’s Tea – the lavender notes in it are far too strong and I just don’t love them. They remind me of soap or lotion, and also kind of give me the hiccups? So, not my favourite thing in the world.

I’ll probably use the rest of the sample as an evening/bed time tea on nights I’m feeling especially desperate because I do find the lavender relaxing – it just tastes bad too. Definitely recommend this as a dupe for Jessie’s Tea though, if you’re looking for something to replace that one now that it’s not carried anymore.