Jayida Ché

I like a strong spice flavor, and this immediately reminded me more of a mulled cider with the level of spice blend in the cup. While it’s certainly fruity and spiced, it wasn’t as tart as I would have expected for hibiscus & cranberry. That emerges more as the cup cools. If I could get that tart flavor along with the spice while it’s hot, this would be a must-buy; for now, it’s very good.

sipsby advent, day 2*
(sipsby packages this in no particular order, so your order may be different than mine)

I love the aroma of this blend. It brings to mind Sage’s Liquid Sunshine diffuser blend, with a hint of creamy peppermint and tea. It’s bright, juicy, and refreshing. The liquid hue is equally pleasant, steeping up to a muted pink halfway between a white grapefruit and pink grapefruit.

Despite the presence of hibiscus and a load of citrusy ingredients, including lemongrass, and grapefruit, orange, and lemon peels + oils, this tea never got bitter or mouth-puckering. It tasted pleasantly of citrus fruits, mint, lemongrass and hibiscus “berry”. Rose hips are also present but I didn’t really taste them in this session.

This was a good morning starter today, and I could see it being equally wonderful when stuffed up with a sinus infliction. It’s such a clean tea, albeit the green tea is pretty hard to taste under all of those super strong herbs and fruits!

I’m looking forward to seeing how my cold brew turns out later this evening.

Steep Count: 1 minute 30 sec, and 2 minutes respectively.

I have a lovely cough and cold symptoms right now so I’m gravitating to my “clean” teas in a sad box of isolation. It’s probably (hopefully) just the cold but got to get tested Friday just in case. Numbers are up in our area. Hurrah…

This tea is a bright beacon of positive energy. Very grapefruit. Very goji. good without milk. Definitely a re-order for my goji and sour grapefruit-loving heart.

I’ve tried to steep this twice and neglected it both times! Ah, luckily it’s not something a little milk can’t fix. This is a fun take on an Earl Grey after all.

At the beginning of the drinking process the sweet, nutty and slightly tart profile of goji is what caught my attention but midway through pink grapefruit has usurped the goji’s spot. My oversteeping this cup means this is tarter and drier than I normally prefer, even with the milk. However, it also emphasizes that fresh grapefruit beautifully, rind and all! There is no sugar coating on this citrus.

I really like how seamlessly goji and grapefruit flavours blend and merge into each other here. As a big fan of grapefruit in every form I’ll seriously consider reordering this again.

Steep Count: 2

Sipdown!

I must have consumed four (4 EDIT I wrote “for” earlier, which shows where my head’s at) giant mugs of this today. I’m really feeling the lavender heavy, a slight citrus (lemongrass) lean of this tea right now. It will be missed!

I drank a lot of tea today. We are dealing with crappy Wills & Estate legal issues and family fallout here. The teas, particularly those from Jayida Ché, have really pulled the weight today.

The nose here is almost all fluffy lavender, but lavender shares the stage equally with lemon balm (fresh and soft, almost minty citrus note) and rosehips to taste. One or more of these ingredients is tangy sweet and pleasantly tart. I just wish there was a tad more white tea leaf in the blend but I can live with this.

The chemistry and intent of this tea reminds me of apothecary and essential oils shops, as do many other tea blends from Jayida Ché. Their herb-focused teas are a nice change of pace for my recently enlarged cupboard, which is already full of trendy dessert teas, Earl Greys, Milk Oolong, and a much loved Silver Needle. The herbs complete me! :P

This blend has some pretty divisive ingredients in it, namely the hibiscus. The hibiscus is not hidden or pretending to be something else in this blend, nor is it added merely for the colour effects; it’s one of the main stars and it’s proud! It’s tart-sweet, almost metallic, and charmingly red-pink in hue. The ginger also provides a sweet note before jeering off into territory that’s as zesty hot as the hibiscus is tart. The gentler and quieter notes of sweet Mango, floral Jasmine and almost invisible but subtle floral White Tea kind of ground things a bit through the sip.

Second steep smooths out the hibiscus and ginger. Jasmine and a fruity sweetness from both the mango and hibiscus have more rein. Beyond the noticeable subdued ginger and floral jasmine flavours, there are fascinating notes, ranging from red berries, lemon, and even cardamom.

There’s a lot going on here, but the result is a complex cup that moves through mercurial phases of sour, spice, sweet, floral, and even the faintest hint of creaminess. I’m kind of a fan at this point and anticipate that this will be a favourite porch tea in weeks to come. You know.. when I need to pretend I’m at the spa. It’s definitely going to be cold brewed but I imagine I will drink it hot an equal amount of times.

Steep Count: 2

Ok, third amazing latte this morning. We are on a roll with the Naturel Milk.

This is an interesting combination of ingredients: roasted oolong, turmeric, ginger, peppercorn, and honey crystals. I don’t normally like this type of oolong but it goes so nicely with everything here. There are already roasted honey malt notes in the tea and the spices just kind of build off of and improve on that.

I sipped on this without milk, and then with milk. Both were enjoyable cups, but the real luxury cup emerged after adding the maple syrup. Now I have the perfect cafe-style yellow-hued turmeric tea (golden milk) latte. I’m a little weirded out how much I love this because at all stages I can still taste the leathery, woody, honey malt oolong thing that I generally don’t like. But now? Life is good. Lattes are good.

I’m steeping this again just to see if it can take it. (Edit: It totally can and it’s arguably better than the first steep, which is kind of typical of oolong, eh? It’s so smooth now. And also turmeric).

Steep Count: 2

Sipdown!

My last two servings weren’t quite as good as earlier cups but it was still pretty delicious and it’s still on my “reorder” list. The last two cups were a bit more cardamom heavy. Cinnamon was also more noticeable and gave the blend some fiery sweetness. I prefer the cups with slightly more cloves, but there was still enough clove goodness to keep me satisfied.

I may have forgotten that I love chai and forwent buying any for a few years. What a grave mistake. This is a delicious latte. It’s more cardamom and ginger forward, with a pleasant accentuation of cloves, and subtle cinnamon and vanilla to sweeten the deal. It’s well-balanced and pleasantly warming to the point of invigorating.

For a while there it seemed every chai I drank was mostly cinnamon so I’m appreciating this one immensely right now. I prefer the focus to be on the cloves, ginger and cardamom, and I actually like rooibos when it’s a chai base. Mom loves a good chai too, so sadly this one isn’t destined to stick around for long… and I’m already getting anxious about going without. I need to prioritize the spice more!