PostTea

I tried the last of my sample with milk yesterday evening, while I wrapped presents and treated myself to a re-watch of Pride and Prejudice. It still makes me cringe (the film, not the tea!), although there are things I like about it.

I worried initially that the milk would wash out the peach flavour, but that’s actually not the case. I gave it an extra minute or so of brew time just to be on the safe side, but it was still wonderfully peachy. The milk did amplify the creaminess a little, although perhaps not as much as I expected it would.

I like this one a lot.

024/365

This is day 6 of the PostTea advent calender. I’ve been ill the last few days, so I’m behind already, but I felt well enough to give today’s blend a go. I’m much happier with this one – I get peach straight away, and it’s a delicious fresh, juicy peach. It’s more peach flesh than peach juice in terms of flavour, but it steers well away from artificial or chemical so it’s a win with me on that score. The cream is just about there – there’s a background smoothness and a muted dairy quality that really works well with the peach. I’m drinking this cup black, so it’s good to see it present as a flavour, but I’m hopeful that a splash of milk would bring out the “cream” element a little more.

The base of this one is black, which surprised me at first as I was expecting it to be either white or green. I’m happy with the black base, though. It’s smooth and unobtrusive, and the flavours come over well.

I’m glad to have tried this one!

019/365

The first from this year’s PostTea tea advent calendar – I say this year’s with a degree of uncertainty, because I think in actual fact it might be last year’s. It was packed in Summer 2016, if the box is anything to go by, and they’ve not exactly been very active on their blog, or other social media, since then. If I’m honest, I don’t get the impression that things are going all that well for PostTea. My order took ages to be dispatched, then took ages to arrive (parcel post), and wasn’t in the greatest condition once it did reach me. I’d ordered two new Timolinos from them, and one of them had definitely been used. There was leaf trapped in the infuser basket, and a red stain at the bottom of the flask itself. It was in a box, but with no inner packaging or instruction booklet (the other one I ordered had both of these). It had been shoved into the box upside down, which doesn’t particularly matter, but it’s hardly the best first impression. The box my order arrived in had been made from two smaller boxes stuck together, and was basically in half when it arrived. Only the address label was holding it together. The overall impression I got from my order was “we don’t give a shit”, and so I won’t be ordering from them again.

I’ve tried one PostTea blend in the past, which I got with a book subscription box. I placed this order on the strength of that blend, because it was so good. I was expecting great things from this particular tea, but unfortunately it’s not really there.

The flavour is Gin and Tonic, and while I appreciate that it’s hard to recreate in tea form, it should be possible to at least hint at that kind of flavour. There are loads of juniper berries in this blend, and I feel like those alone should have made it taste of something. I even crushed a few of them, but still nada. All I really get from this blend is sencha, which is nice enough but not exactly living up to any kind of promise. Even the orange – and there are a few pieces of peel kicking around – is strangely muted.

The bags that make up the advent calendar are paper, and foil lined, but I just have a feeling that any flavour there was in here has dried up. If it really is a year old, and hasn’t been stored in optimal conditions, then maybe it’s not a surprise. It’s a disappointment, though, because this is a blend that should be right up my street. Unfortunately, it’s fallen totally flat.

Not a great start. I only hope the rest of the calendar, or at least some of it, is more up to par.

This tea came as a sample with the last Illumicrate subscription box I received. I didn’t know about PostTea prior to this, so that’s another new discovery that’ll be bad for my bank account. This blend is inspired by a book (obviously, given that Illumicrate is primarily a book-focused subscription box…), in this case Alice In Wonderland. It’s supposed to be strawberry, raspberry, and papaya on a sencha base, but it also contains rose petals, pieces of vanilla pod, and hundreds and thousands. It’s pretty, to say the least! And it smells good.

I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 3 minutes in water cooled to around 175 degrees. One thing I did notice pretty quickly – it’s sparkly! I know it’s a gimmick, but I still love it. Fortunately, it tastes as good as it smells. Creamy strawberry, like a Campino sweet (which I wish they still made…). There’s a background sharpness from the raspberry, and a hint of tropical fruit-ish flavour, but the main player is candy strawberry and that’s more than okay with me. The green tea base is smooth, with no bitterness or astringency, and it allows the sweet, fruity flavours to shine.

This would have made an excellent summer tea (I’m thinking cold brew…), but it’s brightening up this wintery day just perfectly. I’ll definitely be taking a closer look at PostTea once my no-buy is over!