Casting Whimsy

Finally got around to day 24 of my advent. It’s the last one that isn’t a rooibos and I don’t have it in me to drink rooibos right now. I steeped this cup, took a few sips and dumped it. It was boring generic spice, disappointing and I needed a comforting cup to start a hard day in one of the most challenging months of my life. Advents are always a fun and good way to discover new tea brands and expand my horizons. Sometimes I find companies that I end up loving, like David’s and Theodor and sometimes I learn that I’m not that into a company like Dammann Freres or Brutaliteas. This one falls into that later category of just not my thing.

Advent Day 19
I think I lost a day in there somewhere. Things have been hectic and confusing lately, but here we are on Dec 19th! I’m not ready for it to be this late in the month and this cup of tea isn’t helping. It’s green tea with lemon verbena, basil, peppermint, ginger and lemongrass. It’s like this cup can’t decide if it’s tea or a light broth. The flavors clash. It’s brothy in scent, confusing in the sip and muddled mint tea in the finish. I keep wincing with each sip. This is a NO for me.

Advent Day 18
I was super busy yesterday and didn’t even have time to drink my cup! Took a few sips, liked it and left if out for today. It’s cold now, but it’s still interesting. It has very bright notes to it with an underlying taste that I can only describe as light tobacco, but not. It’s probably the yaupon and I noticed we don’t have a category for yaupon in the Steepster choices for categorizing new teas. The lemon and eucalyptus are the strongest flavors. It also has clove and ginger, but they are playing perfect supporting roles to the others that it’s hard to pick them out in the sip, but they shine through a little more in the finish. I kinda like this one. Maybe not enough to buy more at this point, but if I came across another chance to drink it I’d take it.

Advent Day 16
How did we get to 16 already?! This is an almond peppermint green. It’s weird and I’m not sure what to make of it. I love love love almond in my tea, but I’m used to it being paired with flavors of cinnamon, cookies and other really warming and sweet things. But peppermint?! I dunno. My first few sips were almond first and peppermint later in the sip, but a few more sips in and they switch up on me. Later in my cup they sort of merge, but in a slightly clunky way. My mouth is left chilled by the peppermint while a little of the green tea flavor kicks in. It has settled into a mostly peppermint tea with a hint of almond fighting for recognition. I don’t find them meshing well and complimenting each other. It’s an interesting flavor combo, very bold and unusual, but it doesn’t work for me.

Advent Day 15

The package says this tea has black currant and chablis flavors. I had to look up what chablis was (wine made in the colder Burgundy area of France). It does have a fruity floral scent to it. It’s light and mellow both in scent and flavor. It lacks deeper lower tastes and is more in the mid to high range. The currant is the most prominent flavor with the grape following. The more I sip the more I get an almost dusty flavor behind it, which I’m guessing is the tea. My mouth feels dry after every sip, which I’m not a fan of. It’s an okay tea. Probably not something that I’d have again, but not because it’s bad, but because it’s just not to my tastes.

Advent Day 14
No. Nope. No ma’am. Just no. Hibiscus you sneaky little bastard! When I read it was a cinnamon vanilla rooibos I was willing to give it a try despite rooibos, but it wasn’t until that metallic hibby tang hit my tongue and defected in my mouth that I realized this has hibiscus. So not cool. The flavors behind the yuck were okay as far as I can tell, but I am prevented from enjoying them. I don’t understand how hibiscus fits into a cinnamon vanilla flavor profile, I mean… * I * believe it doesn’t, I’m just not sure how other people think it’s okay. Anyway, enough about my flavor nemesis. Taking a deep breath and moving on.

Advent Day 13
I skipped day 12 because the first ingredient was hibiscus and I wasn’t willing to put myself through that kind of torture.
This tea is a blend of green and black tea, which I’m not sure how I feel about in this tea. The teas in the advent didn’t come with steeping instructions so I’m guessing on parameters. The dry tea had a strong scent to it. Once steeped I can clearly smell and taste the grassy notes of the green tea. The caramel apple flavor was more prominent when my cup was hot, but now that it’s has cooled they are toned down and my cup is more tangy and green. I think this is a perfectly fine tea, but it has the misfortune of being paired in my mind against another caramel apple tea that is perfection IMO and had bolder flavors which I favor.

Advent Day 11
I was worried when I smelled the dry tea. It smelled like currants with some sort of mint and it was jarring. I was relieved to see there was no mint in the ingredients and proceeded with caution. It’s a black based currant tea with an undertone of orange. It’s nice enough, well balanced, has the currant front and center, but I wish it had more going on. I said in one of my other CW reviews that I wish the blend was more dynamic and I feel the same about this one as well. Perfectly good tea, just not that exciting. I don’t know what you would pair with currant to make it more magical, but I’d like it to have something.

Advent Day 10
Carrot cake rooibos. I’m trying to think of what fandom has a Radar in it and all I can think of is Big Bird’s teddy bear on Sesame Street. That or some guy on MASH. This smells and tastes VERY carrot cake like. It’s pretty dead on. So much so that I’m not even bothered by the fact that I’m drinking a rooibos. It has a bready baked carrot flavor with the right amount of spices. I’m kind of impressed.

Advent Day 9
This is a maple pear tea sweetened with maple crystals. I’m glad they didn’t over sweeten it. It has a nice candy pear taste that comes off in a very floral ethereal way, especially towards the end of the sip and finish (which is a little dry in feeling). The pear overpowers any taste of maple other than the sweetness it adds. I could see this being really good iced. I could also see this being more interesting if it was spiced with a little cinnamon, maybe a touch of almond or something that would make it more dynamic and holiday like. I’m not sure how these flavors relate to Dudley (I’m assuming from Harry Potter) and don’t recall any scene with pears. I wouldn’t buy this, but I’d enjoy another cup if I came across it.

Advent Day 8
This smells like hay when it’s dry. Not the nice warm type of hay, but the irritating green type. It’s the butterfly pea flower. They make such a pretty looking cup at the price of tasting like peas and hay. The brewed drink is indeed blue. Lemongrass has taken over the flavor, which is great, but pea flavor is hiding behind it and that fades to hay pretty quickly in the finish. There are supposed to be apple flavors in here, but the other flavors are too distracting. It’s not horrible enough that I am willing to dump the cup after waiting for it to cool enough to drink, but I’m not really enjoying it either.

Advent Day 7
I think I’m the only member on this website doing this advent. That’s a first! I’m having to add most of the teas to the database and don’t always have time or patience enough to find all the info on the company’s site and half the time there isn’t info for the tea.
Anyway… this is a nice cup of darjeeling, light malt with a little hint of floral from the elder flower. I don’t know that I’ve had elderflower before, but I’ve had elderberry and it seems very similar. This cup is okay. Nothing reaches out and grabs me. Eh.

Advent Day 6.
They are asking for name suggestions for this tea, so the name may change at some point. It’s a spiced goji berry honeybush blend. Very strong on the ginger. I’m not familiar with the taste of goji berry and my one run in with dried goji berry was unpleasant. I took a few sips of this when my cup was hot and it was a lot more interesting then it is now just barely warm in my thermos the next day. I don’t have the patience to coax a good cup out of this at the moment.

Resteeped in the evening and it was pretty much ginger turmeric blend. Not bad, but not unique in the category of ginger turmeric.

Advent Day 4
I had a cup of this yesterday, but was in a rush and couldn’t make notes. I recall thinking it was okay as I was distracted with getting out the door. It had a good sweet almond taste. I’m not getting almond at all in today’s resteep. It’s all cinnamon and maybe a little clove. I’d drink this again, but I don’t need to add it to my cupboard.

Advent Day 5
No info on the company website for this tea. It is a white tea base with mint and chamomile. It seems more like an herbal tea than anything. The chamomile is overpowering, the mint subtle and the tea non existent. Not my jam.

Advent Day 3

Dry this tea smells strongly of super potent ginger ale. This is labled as a pomegranate ginger blend, but ginger is the star here. I started drinking this cup when it was hot and it reminded me of a Mariage Freres green ginger tea. Walked away from my cup, came back to it cold and am doing most of my reflection on the cold cup. If I try really hard I think I can imagine pomegranate, but just as a slight tang. The ginger isn’t spicy ginger and has no kick, just a little tingle in the finish. It really is a super light non carbonated ginger ale. I wouldn’t say no to another cup, but I wouldn’t buy this either.

Advent day 2.

The bag smells very strongly of cinnamon and cloves. I go through waves of feeling like this is the smell of a pantry (the scent of all the spices muddled together and indistinguishable) and something a little more interesting than that. I feel like it was more recognizable as a spiced apple when it was hot and as the cup cools it goes round on the edges. Is it gross? No. Is it interesting? Eh? My feelings might be drastically different if the base wasn’t red rooibos, which I’m not a fan of. The rooibos dry mouth doesn’t kick in until late in the finish which is nice. I saw that there were a few rooibos blends in this advent (I’m a total cheater and peeked). Wish it were all caffeinated blends because I need all the go juice I can get this week!

Day 1 of the 2022 advent! There is no listing for this tea on their website and no entry in Steepster, so I’m having to barebones this.
I had a cup of this in the morning and drank it down while doing other tasks. I enjoyed my cup and it reminded me of something I’ve had before, but couldn’t quite put my finger on. The bag smells a little like an apricot granola bar. Or maybe Cliffbar. I’m resteeping it tonight and it’s still a nice cup. It’s an apricot yaupon blend. I don’t know that I’ve had blended yaupon before, so this may be a first. I think I ran into plain yaupon sample cups at a market in Texas ages ago, but wasn’t impressed by the flavors. There is cinnamon, chamomile, apricot and orange in this which is making for a very baked pastry like taste. It has a very warming taste and I can’t quite describe what the yaupon tastes like. It’s very well balanced. I don’t know that I love this blend, but if they had it on the website I’d be interested in grabbing some so I can feel out this curiosity a little further.

All I can taste is clove. =( I’m going to start skipping blends that include mint or clove and save them up to pass along to someone who will enjoy them.

Three Wishes is a bright, nutty, harmonious blend. I was going to give it a pass (cos hibiscus), but I’m glad I didn’t. Not a whole lot to say about it, but it smells and tastes great.

The addition of caramel flavour to this blend saves it from being yet another, generic, chai-like thing; it elevates it to a whole new level. The fragrance and flavour are both lovely. Casting Whimsy suggest sweetening it with a bit of ‘nog; I didn’t, but I bet that’d be really good.

I am giving up on trying teas with ingredients I don’t like, no matter how tempting. The lavender in this blend was tempting, but I passed on it ‘cos peppermint. That said, Mum loves mint tea and she really liked this one. So if you like mint tea, don’t hesitate to give this a try.

I was very happy when I opened this pouch. Just three ingredients (red rooibos, bergamot, and cornflower), and I love both rooibos and bergamot. Both are apparent when you stick your nose in the pouch, although I had to work for the bergamot a bit. After steeping in boilingish water for 10ish minutes, I was surprised to discover that I had to work even harder to taste anything but rooibos. I was able to taste it a bit after the nyum-nyum test, but it’s waaaaay too subtle for me. This is a perfectly lovely rooibos, but I can’t say it’s much more than that. (To be clear, I love rooibos and could drink it all day, but I could also pay a lot less for plain rooibos in bulk than for the artisanal blends created by Casting Whimsy.)

The idea of rooibos and bergamot is lovely (more bergamot and no caffeine yes please) and I feel like I tried an Earl Grey rooibos recently that I liked better than this. I’ll have to check my notes and order more of that. =)

Welp, I goofed. =(

I wanted to make a note of this blend as one that I definitely wouldn’t mind trying again, and trying properly. Despite a thorough rinsing, the peppermint from my last cup of tea lingered and ruined this one for me. It’s very clearly peaches and cream, but it’s pretty subtle. I’ve never had sencha and Chun Mee before (had to look them up!) but I think this could have been a nicely layered cup, had I been able to taste it properly. No rating as that’d be unfair.