Savoy Tea Co

Sipdown! (51 | 249)

Last sample from Savoy. They accidentally left this one out of my order, so it was sent along later alongside a couple of free samples.

I’m not a lapsang lover, but this sounded interesting. It’s meant to be whiskey-inspired. Actually though, I feel like I’m tasting banana somehow…? Banana and a touch of caramel, and then of course the savory smokiness and earthiness of the lapsang. Perhaps a hint of cinnamon in the finish.

It’s nice enough, not quite what I expected, but I do enjoy banana teas. Not one I would reorder, but enjoyed sipping through the sample.

Finished off this free sample from Savoy. They accidentally left out one of the teas in my order, and when they sent it out to me, they included two free samples. Thank you!

This is lovely. Thick, malty, but so smooth. Lovely sweet cocoa and honey notes, like a thick slice of homemade whole wheat bread drizzled with honey and sprinkled with cocoa powder. Some nice syrupy fruity notes as well, maybe dried apricot and a touch of golden raisin.

This is really making me want to go and order a bunch of hongcha from Teavivre, but I’m resisting. Maybe once I finish a few of the other plain black teas I currently have…

Sipdown! (33 | 230)

This is an interesting one, a sort of chai with cardamom and mint. Unlike most of their other black teas, the base is an Assam, which I really liked. The beginning of the sip is mostly cardamom, and then I get a bit of that cooling peppermint toward the end and in the finish. I feel like there’s a hint of vanilla here as well? But they don’t say what type of flavor is used.

It’s very interesting. I don’t think I would repurchase it, just because I have other chai blends that I like more. I didn’t end up trying it with milk, but it would probably be nice that way, with a smoother mint flavor. I wish they had used an Assam base for some of their other flavored teas…

Also, with this sipdown, I’ve finished all of my Savoy samples, huzzah! \o/

Sipdown! (31 | 228)

I don’t even like chocolate teas, but I couldn’t resist a flavored maté… :P

It’s quite good. The chocolate and vanilla blend together seamlessly to create a sweet and creamy sort of milk chocolate note. The toasty mate adds nice depth and caramelized notes. Overall, just a nice cozy cuppa. There is chocolate flavoring here, and I do taste a bit of that boozy note that’s not my favorite. But I would still maybe consider repurchasing this one? I definitely would if it just had the cacao nibs and no chocolate flavor.

Sipdown! (28 | 225)

Another one from Savoy where the flavoring is spot-on, but I just don’t love the combination with the base tea. The flavor here tastes exactly like the buttercream frosting on a store-bought birthday cake, I’m even picturing bright blue shells piped along the edge. It’s rich and buttery, but still has a vanilla flavor to it.

But similar to their Caramel Buttercup, it just doesn’t mesh that well with the earthier black tea IMO. Still a pleasant cuppa, but another one that I wouldn’t repurchase because of that.

Sipdown! (25 | 222)

Not a fan of this one.

Savoy’s black tea base is already fairly earthy and musty-tasting to me, so to take that and add dried raspberry leaf to it… It kind of just brings out my least favorite notes of the tea. The raspberry flavoring itself is okay, mostly it tastes like a raspberry hard candy, but there is a touch of tartness at the end of the sip that adds a bit of interest.

Sipdown! (24 | 221)

This is an interesting one. Grapefruit and chocolate seems like such an unusual combination, though I guess it shouldn’t since chocolate-orange is quite common.

In this tea, I get the citrus note more at the beginning of the sip, and then the second half is all chocolate. It’s definitely the milk variety, quite light and creamy. The two make an interesting pair, but stay mostly separate.

Definitely an interesting one to try. I don’t tend to love chocolate teas, so I probably wouldn’t order this because of that. But seems like a nice representation of that flavor profile.

Sipdown! (21 | 218)

I love those Pillsbury orange rolls in the can! Man, I haven’t had them in forever… Might need to be a guilty pleasure purchase the next time I’m at the grocery store. :P

This tea is tasty, but honestly I don’t get much orange from it. It does taste like cinnamon rolls to me, complete with frosting. But just the regular ones, not the orange variety. I do get a little bit of a citrusy note at the very end of the sip, which makes for a refreshing finish.

Very enjoyable desserty tea, but perhaps a bit too similar to some that I already have for me to purchase it.

Sipdown! (20 | 217)

Honestly, this was a silly choice for me to order, as I don’t generally like coconut in tea. But I can’t resist a flavored genmaicha…

The genmaicha part is tasty enough, heavy on the toasty rice notes. But the coconut is definitely giving me suntan lotion vibes, it tastes quite artificial. Still, does remind me a little of coconut sticky rice, which is nice.

Sipdown! (16 | 213)

This one is tasty, but I’m not sure I specifically get elderberry from it. I mostly taste lemon, and there is a vague dark berry sort of note, but I would guess blueberry if anything.

It’s very nice and smooth, good amount of flavor and doesn’t taste artificial. I do wish there was a bit more berry? Because the lemon is definitely the strongest flavor here, with the berry in more of a supporting role.

Sipdown! (13 | 210)

Picked this one up on a whim, not sure why but the idea of a white chai just intrigues me. I’ve actually had a couple before, but they never quite lived up to my expectations.

This one is pleasant enough. Nice, large bai mudan leaves. Supposedly it has cardamom, but I didn’t see any pods or seeds in my sample. Taste is light but well-balanced, a mix of the earthy dried ginger with spice flavoring – cinnamon and clove being most prominent.

Enjoyed sipping through the sample. I’m not sure I would order it again, just because in general I prefer my chai to have actual spices and not spice flavoring. I may have to try mixing my own white chai one of these days… :)

Sipdown! (12 | 209)

The name… LOL! Who can resist a good pun?

Unfortunately, not loving this one. The lime is somewhere between Jello and a cleaning product. Something is tasting slightly minty to me, and it’s making the lime taste even a bit stranger I think. I don’t notice any passion fruit at all. And the base… meh. I’m not sure I’ll enjoy any of the green teas I got from Savoy, since they’ll all use the same base tea.

Anyway, at least the name gave me a giggle! :P

Sipdown! (10 | 207)

So this one smelled amazing in the bag. I happen to love lemon cake, so was excited to try it!

However, I don’t get much lemon here. It certainly does taste buttery and cakey, like a pound cake. The flavoring isn’t super duper strong, but it’s noticeable. I can taste a hint of lemon, sort of a sweet lemon drop note. But I find myself wanting much more of that lemony goodness, especially since lemon pound cake often has a delicious lemony glaze on top.

So it’s a pleasant enough tea, but doesn’t quite fulfill the promise of the name to me. I will say, the earthy base doesn’t bother me nearly as much with this tea as it did with Caramel Buttercup for some reason.

Sipdown! (8 | 205)

Chose this one because the name appealed to me, as for some reason Savoy neglects to mention anything about the flavor profile in the tea’s description…

As I suspected, it’s a berry-flavored black tea. Forest fruits make sense for a tea called “enchanted forest”. It has a vague dark berry flavor to it, maybe blueberry with black currant? The flavoring is very mild, a bit too mild IMO. It has a syrupy quality to it, but doesn’t become cloying like the pomegranate black tea I had earlier today.

Would be a tasty tea, if only there were a bit more of the berry going on. As-is, it’s a generic and somewhat earthy/woody black base with a subtle note of dark berry. Serviceable, but nothing I would purchase again. I am thankful it doesn’t taste like chalk to me though.

Sipdown! (6 | 203)

I haven’t historically been the biggest fan of fruit tisanes, but I had one that I really liked from Trader Nicks recently, and that’s sort of made me consider them again. Plus this has such a cute name that I couldn’t help myself LOL.

It’s quite delicious. Sort of tastes like Pixy Stix, but in a good way. Great balance of sweet and tart, without a lot of hibiscus going on. Mostly I taste pineapple and apple, with a bit of creamy coconut poking its head out every once in a while. Very nice tarter pineapple aftertaste that reminds me of the real thing.

Not sure I would go out of my way to reorder this, but I could see picking some up if I was planning to make a Savoy order. Really pleasant pineapply fruit tisane that I’m sure would be delicious iced as well.

Sipdown! (5 | 202)

More Savoy sample fun!

I’m a bit conflicted on this one. I think the caramel flavoring here is excellent. I don’t often enjoy caramel-flavored things, because so often they taste incredibly artificial and cloying to me. But this tea has a nice balance of buttery-caramel-sauce sort of notes mixed with caramelized-sugar-crème-brûlée-topping sort of notes.

However, the base tea is very woody/earthy, and to me it’s a bit of a mismatch with the more desserty flavoring. I think this flavor profile would’ve perhaps made a bit more sense on an Assam base, with those nice malty notes. As-is, it seems a bit… cacophonous? To me?

Anyway, happy to have tried it! And really, an excellent caramel flavoring.

Sipdown! (3 | 200)

Got my Savoy order, which was mostly full of samples. Also grabbed a tin of Squash Buckling Chai, because it was sold out when I wanted to buy it last year, and I want it for fall!

Anyway, this one wasn’t for me. The berry has that chalky taste to it that I sometimes find in berry flavoring. Overall it just tastes a bit vague and generic, and the Chinese sencha base isn’t helping things either.

So sort of tastes like lemon and berry Tums-flavored dry grass.

This one is in your face cinnamon with maybe some orange in the background (think photo bomb) I do like cinnamon and the base was just ok, I’d add it to an order but I wouldn’t seek it out. A good fall or winter tea.

Because of the citrus notes, I anticipated Here Be Dragons to be smashing on as a cold bevvy. Having just tried my first pint, I think I’ll back that off from a smash to a good, rousing pillow fight. Since my luck with cold-steeping green teas is so-so, I prepared it according to package parameters, then chilled it all day. The citrus which is so prominent when it’s hot is less so now. Still, it’s a tasty flavored green and is doing an adequate job of helping me chill.

It’s a rare and wonderful thing to be truly fond of your workmates, and I am. One of them knows I had an especially challenging workweek last week, and ended it Friday by leaving a bag with two lovely tins of Savoy on my desk. The problem is that the stinker chose to remain anonymous, so I don’t know whom to properly thank!

My sweet whomever made a couple of selections I normally wouldn’t have on my own, and here be one of ‘em. If it’s a dragon, it’s a tame one like Puff. (Or Piff. We love him.) The mallow flowers soften any vegetal sharpness in the green tea and the flavoring—mango, I believe—is juicy, not tangy, not fake. A perfect arrival at the outset of summer—this is going to be delicious on ice.

Not a builders brew by any means, don’t brew this when you are in a hurry. But if you wait for it and allow the cup to cool, malty, yeasty chocolate is your reward. I’ve had dragon pearls that were easier to brew and drink, so I don’t know if I need this in my cupboard, but I’d be tempted to add it to an order.

This was from a swap with gmathis, thanks! I did enjoy this frosting with orange and cinnamon flavors from Savoy, but I think they do a caramel flavoring much better than this one. I do think I need to place and order from Savoy as my caramel flavored teas have been sipped down, and I think this needs to be in the order. More is more with this one, its a subtle flavor and could do with more leaf to less water to get the best cup. Sigh, more tea to buy when my cupboard is already overflowing!

This was a swap from Gmathis, thanks! A sad sipdown, I might need more of this in my cupboard soon. Savoy has done a good job with the caramel flavoring with a hint of a peanutbutter cup in the background. This is sweet without being overly sweet; creamy caramel with another interesting nutty note underneath. What a nice cup!

I’ve never been a fan of nutella as I think its too sweet, but this is pretty close. Chocolate up front and nutty goodness on the back. All made from puerh, so a different base than other chocolate teas. I think this could find its way into my shopping cart sometime soon (along with the salted caramel puerh)!