Mountain Witch Tea Company

First work cup of the morning! I was paying no attention to this while it steeped, and it came out really nice, which is annoying. Because I wasn’t paying attention I don’t know how to replicate it! Just my luck.
My sipdown this morning makes me within one teas distance of my first tier sipdown goal of 50. I was sort of hoping I would get there before this weekend. Maybe? I am not sure, and it probably won’t be with this tea, but I shall give it a go.
Almost there. Then the autumnal teas can grace my cupboard once more!

At this point I am ready to move on from this blend, which is too bad as its not quite done with me. Oh well!
I keep finding the bitter edge to this, which is disappointing. I will pay more attention to steep times tomorrow.

Tea of my working morning, as paired with some lavender shortbreads.
I cannot wait to see the bottom of this tin! Not yet, but soon.

My first cup of tea of the workday- and its doing its job, which is to add caffeine to my system.
This is a magical tin, deeper than it appears. I cannot yet see the bottom, which is too bad. Its not an offensive tea by any means, but I would be looking forward to having another sipdown!

My treatment of hot fluids down the gullet continues, and I am starting with a working cup of this.
I tried a lighter steep time, and unfortunately that just dampens the vanilla flavor, and the base has a touch of bitterness to it that the vanilla was helping.
Ah well. Glug glug.

I am very sleepy today, which is odd. I don’t have cause to be, I got to bed at a reasonable time and slept well.
Ah well. That’s why they invented tea, isn’t it?
Todays steep came out pretty darn well, if I do say so myself. It was a decent cup of vanilla.

Cuppa the early afternoon, which left me in my usual state of “eh, its fine”.
But its a magic tin! So much of it seems to be left!

So sipdown progress has been set back in the most delightful way possible. A friend came to see me, and brought me tea from her hometown, a local blend. It was given with the express purpose to liven up the working desk.
And another friend, equally charming and well intentioned, has just come home from Japan, and brought with her sachets of tea for me, which I assume are green tea but are so thoroughly in Japanese that I can only guess.
So the cupboard swells again with the kindness of my friends. Good grief! Lean in to the sipdowns with renewed vigor!
Alas, I fear I cannot coax out what I hope for with this particular blend. I am getting a basic vanilla black, I am afraid. There are certainly worse fates, than to have a basic vanilla black, but I am trying to nudge my cupboard towards the exceptional, not just the ok.

So to my absolute delight, my local grocery store has a tiny section of English Food, and I found a tall cylinder of Rich Tea biscuits. Its not even my fancy grocery store! Just the normal one! I had been hunting for hoisin, and found that next to all the specialty Asian ingredients was the tiny little from England section. Who knew? (And, really, wine gums? We are importing wine gums, of all things?)
I am ashamed to say that when I went to college in the UK I was not a tea drinker. I think I had a few cups (and I distinctly remember a few, but more for location than for the tea), and didn’t develop the currant passion until I landed stateside again.
But I did develop a love of the English Tea Biscuit. It is a thing of great joy to me. They are not cookies, as they are not particularly sweet, but nor are they the (admittedly delicious) bready things that us Yanks call biscuits. They are a cracker-cookie hybrid, and they go along so well with a brisk cup of black tea that I could weep.
So I’ve brought a few along to work, and nibbled a few between sips of this blend, and just felt cheerful about everything. Its Friday, and I have Rich Tea Biscuits. What else is there?

You know, I just like to watch the “times drunk” counter go up sometimes. Its satisfying to watch the count on a neglected tea go up, until its eventually sipped down.
I still don’t love this, but its pleasant enough, and its holding its own as a work tea, that is certain.

The words Bavarian Vanilla Cream conjure up something decadent for me. Something lush, rich, a little bit naughty. I want to have the flavors be a sweet, creamy, and thoroughly present.
So I’m a little disappointed by this blend, which is not indulgent, but rather a somewhat ordinary vanilla black.
Mind you, I would never scoff at a vanilla black blend, but with a name like Bavarian Vanilla Cream I was expecting something else.

Work tea is a powerful force for the cupboard good. I have had this blend for a while, but I’ve only tried it once! Once! What nonsense is that? Well to the office it goes, where it will get put through its paces.
My first thought about this is that it is mild. Mild base, mild vanilla flavoring, a gentle cup. Maybe not the most wakeful tea I’ve ever had, but its certainly not a bad blend.
I’m glad to have more of it to try!

Hmm. Hmm.
I love black tea. I love vanilla cream. Ok, lets do this thing!
And………….. eh. I am not loving my first brewing of this. I find that it is not particularly rich, which is what I was hoping for. I wanted a rich vanilla explosion, but this is just a suggestion of vanilla.
Meh.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – May 2024 Tea #5 – A floral black

This’ll do for this prompt.  I LOVED this one when I originally received it… it was probably already old, so now it has just faded so much.  Such a shame.   Looks like the shop has forever closed.  Double shame.  A perfectly done jasmine/vanilla tea would be a cupboard essential.

additional notes: Yep, looks like Mountain witch is finally closed. I still love this blend. I just wanted to make a note of possible other sources for it, BUT it looks like none of these actually use vanilla pieces. So possibly that became too expensive and the source changed their recipe? Maybe Mountain Witch added the vanilla themselves? Possible sources: Maya, Mahamosa, steepologie, New Mexico tea co.

Thanks so much for this one, TheLastDodo! I’ve already had this one twice in a week and THAT is a sign I love a tea. I’ve always been on the lookout for a black jasmine tea. This is so delicious. I’m glad it is as good as I was hoping, as I have a ton of it now! First, the black tea is dark, satisfying, robust. There are only occasional jasmine petals and only wisps of jasmine in the flavor overall… but the CREAM and VANILLA are so nice! Honestly, any more jasmine and I don’t think it would blend as well as it does with the vanilla and cream. There are occasional vanilla pieces in the blend, as well as an addicting cream flavor. I’m always looking for vanilla teas and jasmine teas, so this one is perfect for me. Mountain Witch Tea Co is new to me and the site seems to have plenty of interesting blends to try!
mountainwitchtea.com

My Dad recently bought a cabin in Big Bear which is where this tea company is located. One of the local coffee shops carries this tea company so I picked up a couple different flavors. This is quite a tasty pumpkin tea. Definitely more of a pumpkin spice tea which I love. The flavor is nice not too overpowering and the black tea base is quite good. Didn’t get astringent at all.

This is a interesting blend. This blend literally has 13 different ingredients. I was a bit scared when I was steeping this one. It smelled like a sweet spicy blend. First sip, I was hooked. This is really good. This tastes like a sweet cinnamon treat with hints of mint and other spices along the way. There is also an earthy quality. Really good. I really recommend this one.

I’m brewing more of this up for my trip to go see NKOTB today. Yep. NKOTB. My bestie and I saw them last year and it was a lot of fun. Vanilla Ice even came out to sing Ice Ice Baby. I’m hoping we have another surprise guest tonight.

Enjoy your day!

For the good, bad, and geek on this blend- check out my new blog-

http://www.cuppageek.com/index.php/2015/05/23/money-luck-attraction-tea-from-mountain-witch-tea-company/

I must say this tea is quite good. I really enjoy the fruity flavours, especially the black currant combination with cinnamon and various other fruits. Light hints of rose sometimes mingle as well. Really engaging tea. I will have to search it out when feasible!

Thank you very much to NICHOLE for sharing!! :)

I love this company. I have found only a few blends that just weren’t my cup ‘o tea and those were floral ones. I just don’t really care for floral teas that much or maybe I just haven’t found the right one.

This is one tasty chai blend. Recommend it for those who aren’t fans of really spicy chai. Sweet with a kick. Added some cream and it was yummers!

http://www.cuppageek.com/index.php/2015/05/17/tea-of-the-day-tiger-spiced-chai-from-mountain-witch-tea-company/

I need more of this! I am officially smitten with this tea. Before brewing the aroma alone is mouth-watering. A maple and blueberry marriage that doesn’t exclude the sweet cakey flavour of pancake. I was very pleased to be able to taste all the noted flavours! This tea is quite versatile in that I can see myself enjoying it first thing in the morning (instead of eating the real deal!) But also, I can see myself having it in the late afternoon as a nice sweet treat. I will have to try and save up to order some of this I think!

Thank you once again Nichole! You’re so awesome!! :)

I totally blame Marzipan for this one. (I kid!!) I noticed that she was reviewing teas from this company and I had to try this one.

This is a unique tea. Sweet with a crisp tangy twist. Really tasty. I didn’t know much about what a prickly pear was so I goggled it. Looks like it is a fruit that has a watermelon taste with bite to it like a kiwi fruit. Whatever it was it was awesome iced.

Here are the rest of my thoughts on this goodie!

http://sororiteasisters.com/2015/04/24/mojave-desert-prickly-pear-tea-mountain-witch-tea-company/

I was excited about this one. Being a fan of green teas, the description sounded amazing. Pear-Plum Green Tea. Unfortunately, I don’t think this one is for me. It smells and tastes like cough syrup. I wish that wasn’t the case but maybe its just how I steeped it so I think I need to go back to the drawing board on this one. I’m thinking it was user error.