dm Bio

ADVENT DAY 24, tea 3/3

Ah, the very last Advent tea. And I have been correct that when there is a red winter punch, there has to be different coloured one too.

It tastes like mulled apple juice with loads of cinnamon. Probably quite intended flavour… so it was fine. Very forgetable though.
More spices, more fruits in the punch, please!

ADVENT DAY 23, tea 3/3

Somehow classic herbal blend, with most distinctve savoury thyme and sage; calming down nerves and enjoyable in the, moreless, relaxing day.

ADVENT DAY 22, tea 1/3

I am still a day behind. I thought I will be able to finish all on time; but apparently not… and tomorrow is the last day for all and we celebrate and give gifts tomorrow too; so… today was preparation day and overall a whole day was in a rush and there was almost no time to drink any tea.

Anyway this one I prepared in the morning; knowing that second one I need to focus a little bit more and the last is a rooibos, which I am not really looking forward.

This sencha I actually bought to my grandma a few days back as she ran out of green tea. I thought it will be fine and unoffensive green tea and I was indeed correct.
It’s mild, slightly herbaceous and refreshing cup; thanks to the tea bag easy to brew and there aren’t any off notes. Of course, I steeped it properly and using 80°C and not too long…

ADVENT DAY 21, tea 3/3

I wonder, what is Winter in this anise tea. It’s just rooibos base with anise. They say there are some spices in, but they are not noticeable. And overall it’s just rooibos with anise in every aspect. Quite meh; but drinkable meh.

ADVENT DAY 20, tea 2/3

This is a bit weird combination in my opinion, but let’s see.

Hm. Sadly, it tastes quite as expected. Hibiscus and herbaceous. A little lemony. But hardly to find any spices and/or JUNIPER. Sadly there wasn’t anything that was saying juniper to me; abosultely nothing.
I wish anyone could reblend it and use more juniper. And use maybe less of hibiscus and licorice.

Intentionally without rating. As I don’t know how to rate it… it was tasty enough, but not what I wanted from this tea and I don’t want to rate it low because of it.

ADVENT DAY 19, tea 2/3
I was a little bit losing my temper today, indeed. So this tea comes in time. You know, holidays shopping, chores, just a little bit of everything…

As of tea, it is pretty standard herbal blend; without any distinctive notes; just fine and not annoying in any way. Even when steeped longer than expected.

Drank lukewarm and it was fine.

ADVENT DAY 18, tea 2/3

This sounded so good in theory, but sadly it doesn’t go well in practice. Smells wonderfully though!

I wonder what went wrong with this; it contains lots of cinnamon… but too little of orange. It was mild non-specific fruit tea; probably because used hibiscus and apples a bit too much and just a little.. too little of orange peels and oil.

And there could be more of the clove — though I know many of you will disagree.

ADVENT DAY 17, tea 3/3

Yes, a relaxing blend. How welcomed today!
Doesn’t taste anyhow special… herbaceuous notes with hints of lemon from different sources and hints of floral notes thanks to elderflowers.

Nice and mellow, enjoyable especially warming up in the bath.

ADVENT DAY 16, tea 2/3

An absolutely fine and non-offensive apple flavoured tea with lots of cinnamon. Somehow, I am missing the other spices in this one.

ADVENT DAY 15, tea 3/3

Floral bomb for the evening. Yes, this smells and tastes incredlibly floral. There is not much of lemon; but lemon verbena and a whole lot of lavender. And roses.
Taste is, not surprisingly, floral again, with some powdery note and sadly nothing that reminds me lemons. A bit refreshing thanks to spearmint. And a bit soapy… but that makes sense.

But it’s relaxing, not gonna lie. Just not my preffered flavor profile. But the box looks prety, isn’t it?

ADVENT DAY 14, tea 3/3

This tea stinks when brewed. I can’t describe it well, but it was just foul somehow. But it didn’t made me to spill it out; so I took a sip. Well, not great if you ask me!

But it was cooling down, and in one or two sips I thought it is actually pretty good. Chocolate covered chai — but spices being very, very tamed. Maybe that’s what I disliked the most. It was just a muddled spicy flavour covered in cocoa.

Overall, today wasn’t so great day with the advent teas. I hope it’s only one day :)

ADVENT DAY 13, tea 1/3
Logging a day late as I had a Christmas work team gathering.

Prepared this tea as a morning tea in the office and well, it was fine. I have eyeballed the water temperature as I have there just a kettle without selecting temperatrure, so I did my old trick and listened to the water… and it was just right I assume.

It was mellow green tea, with more lemony taste than the ginger. Ginger was very weak and not much present in taste. All other lemon notes were present, for instance lemongrass and lemon myrtle.

ADVENT DAY 12, tea 2/3

I thought that this tea will taste like most herbals.. a mixture of all possible ingredients making a mess in the taste and none being strong enough to be dominant. For ingredients list please see the description.

I was wrong. Yes, it does have herbal base flavour, but followed with wonderful and floral elderflowers; with kind of honey-ish taste. With next sip I noticed dandelion bitterness, but it was somehow pleasant. And aftertaste was filled with menthol from the peppermint used.

Surprisingly tasty!

ADVENT DAY 11, tea 3/3

Pretty basic apple spice tea. Very apple forward, with hints of cinnamon and some cardamom.

Very easydrinking and warming; just a little of spices would be nice.

ADVENT DAY 10, tea 2/3

This small tea bag contains only rooibos and 5 % of vanilla pieces. That’s amazing 0.075 g of vanilla!

Well, truth to be said, I was excited when I saw it contains so much vanilla. Then I realised, that the bag is rather a baggie, and in fact it contains so little of that precious ingredient.

And well, it is evident in the flavour. The rooibos was one of the better ones, woody and not medicinal at all as some are… but there was hardly any vanilla in flavours or scents. I had to dig deeply to find it.

So yes, another example to not judge the tea by its cover.

ADVENT DAY 9, tea 3/3

I would love to hear story behind blending this blend. Maybe they thought that the German name is nice play with words? And what is Galangal?

It seems that today is a meh tea day. Honestly, this was like a ginger infused water, with some eastern food notes (that’s the galangal I assume); and ginger was also very tamed by licorice root. Nothing that calls turmeric as last root used in this blend.

ADVENT DAY 8, tea 3/3

For a tea bag white tea this tea is one of the finest I ever had! Very mellow, yet distinctive aromas and flavours, sweet and a little bit of bitterness here.
I think there was some spice note — but now, writing this note a bit later, I can’t point out what was that.

ADVENT DAY 7, tea 1/3

I was delivering a table with my brother today, to the person who was hit by floods back in September. And while we were in the area, we did also some volunteering job (rubble removal from cellar stairs). Tired, low blood sugar… but that feeling of well done volunteer job is priceless!

When we have arrived back home, I was not only tired but also a little sick. I don’t know if it was drive home, or what was making me sick, but this tea comes to the rescue!

It was actually quite tasty, smooth and tummy calming. The caraway was so smooth in this tea and overall it was so pleasing and aromatic… it could work as an aromatherapy too?

So fine plain herbal blend I haven’t got in a long time.

ADVENT DAY 6, tea 2/3

Hmm, if there is adjective “Red”, does it mean there are different teas called Winter Punch? We will see!

Anyway, this is fine afternoon / evening drink. Fruity, a little spicy, mostly cloves in my cup; and quite sweet to me. On the other hand, it’s hard to find those notes… as it tastes watery and thin… like I would need two or three tea bags in my cup to have punch in my face from flavours!

ADVENT DAY 5, tea 2/3

I drank this as well in the office, prepared shortly after noon as I needed some wake-up call; I was just sleepy after lunch and some work had to be done.

Absolutely non-offensive herbal tea with extra energy thanks to Maté. Slightly lemony thanks to lemongrass and lemon verbena.

Just gulped it down, woke me up and brought me joy. At least that much as much you can be happy at work. No, I’m joking… but it was fine and pleasant.

ADVENT DAY 4, tea 3/3

Eh, nope, not a fan. And putting Valentine’s Day limited edition tea to the Advent?

Pink colour is nice and looks pretty, although I am not a real fan of this colour. But that’s because my gender I guess :D. But sadly, the flavour is just the mess. It tastes like powdered sugar with rose flavour and with absolutely weird mint freshness that doesn’t pair the rose florals… and in aftertaste it is nothing else than floral soap. Absolutely lacking some base, hibiscus isn’t working well for that, luckily enough it’s not tart because that.

Finished, but definitely not a fan.

ADVENT DAY 3, tea 2/3

Seeing this, I wasn’t too impressed. I am not fan of chamomile; and combination with honeybush, in a tea bag; well, “it will be just herbal blend like many others”.

Not that much. It was actually quite tasty, and its bright yellow color glowed in my office (not the warehouse one) in gloomy, grey morning (later than Chocolate Cake by 3 hours). Prepared for Teams meeting that was supposed to be 2 hours long but actually we have finished in 15 minutes. The weather outside was just awful, imagine temperature just a little above zero centigrade, rain/snow fall, with cold wind gusts.

Happy I was in the office and happy having the hot mug.

It seems I digress a lot about this tea. Sorry!
It was actually quite tasty, honey-ish both from honeybush and chamomile, but without wet rag smell and taste that chamomile sometimes have. I assume that the peppermint was making it even a bit refreshing, and makes it “far away” from just a herbal blend taste.
Definitely a nice surprise, though not a caffeine-free tea I would buy right away.

ADVENT DAY 2, tea 2/3

It feels I was in the timeout for whole day. My warehouse office is a room without windows, quite small and I was clicking and typing all day there. After lunch I sat there (again) and haven’t went out until it was time to catch the train. It was already dark outside, and from office colleagues from whole company I was definitely one of the last ones. And yep, again working overtime. Not great! Hm. Maybe it’s not a timeout, maybe it is a prison.

Anyway, to the tea. It smells like a generic fruit tea. Greenish-pinkish color. Lots of rosehip in aroma too. In flavour it’s dominantly apple. Well, according to ingredients list, it is 46 % of 1.9 g tea bag.

A little of blackcurrant is here too. Makes a a little tart note. I steeped it in the lower lower limit, maybe that’s why I think it tastes a bit flat and thin. Maybe longer steeping (close to suggested higher limit 10 minutes) would make some flavors pop.

Very easydrinking cup. For people who are not a tea enthusiasts, definitely fruity and tasty. Maybe I am just used to have better teas.

ADVENT DAY 1, tea 2/3

In the morning I had an intetion to have this as the last tea. However, in the afternoon my brother with his family visited us, so I rather decided for simple tea bag tea, instead of gongfu-ing my tea. Their 5 years old daughter “was bored”, so it was definitely a good call.

That said, I wasn’t paying much attention to the tea, but rather to don’t have it spilled. But yes, it kinda reminded me Baby Spice by Bird&Blend (I rated that only 60?); spicy but nothing too strong; pumpkin was quite present and also a bit custardy and sweet. This one I consider a bit better… maybe because it’s just a tea bag?

I consider it a nice end of the autumn season tea and welcoming winter tea. Sadly, I can’t find it anywhere in whole 20 (or so) tea bags box.