Savoy Tea Co

From my Sips By box for November. Also a sipdown.

This tea smells so amazing in the pouch, creamy and pumpkin-y and luscious. I was so excited for it! Even steeped up, it smelled delicious. I didn’t approve of the mini white chocolate chips, but I was willing to forgive.

Sadly, it’s quite bland. For this second mug, I overleafed by quite a bit in an attempt to get more flavor. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to help much. There’s some very mild spicing, mostly clove and a bit of nutmeg. There’s also a tiny bit of cream in the background. But mostly it tastes like a musty base tea. And my first cup, with a normal (for me) amount of leaf, tasted like mildly spiced water.

So disappointing after the lovely smell… Ah well, it joins the ranks of many other underwhelming pumpkin spice teas.

A tasty dragon pearl tea with jasmine. This one is very floral and bright. I enjoy it from time to time in the Spring time.

This is one of my first “favorite teas” when I started to dive into the tea community. Keep in mind, I love floral black teas so if you are not into floral flavors, be weary! This one is very fragrant and has notes of jasmine and lavender that stand out fragrantly. I enjoy this with a bit of cream and honey and it is phenomenal.

Another Sipsby sample. I like this one! Nice black tea with very floral forward flavors. The lavender is quite strong, but ok for me. I would purchase this to have again.

Fruity and fun! This tea has so much flavor you will be shocked! Perfect for a blue latte!

Smoky and mysterious. As delightful as it sounds and you will swear it’s got brandy in it, but it doesn’t!

It’s difficult to describe this tea. It’s not bitter at all even though it’s a green tea. I’m not usually a fan of green as much as others but I fell in love with this tea when I tried it! It has a caramel like scent even though there is none in it.

Finally broke down and opened the baggie. (Reason for delay: If I drink it, it’ll be gone!) Black tea chock full of goodies, including what appears to be dried pumpkin or dried sweet potato and white chocolate chips.

It smells as good steeped as it does dry. Due to the chips, it’s creamy, cloudy, and very sweet; flavor stays a while after each sip. Pumpkiny? Yes. Tasty? Extremely. Caffeine? Gentle. Want more? Absolutely.

A no-trick treat (bag of this loose tea) from a work friend was waiting for me this morning in a mug wearing a cable-knit sweater!

I have not yet tried this—couldn’t find it on the Savoy website, but oh, my! It smells like pumpkin pecan pie! The mug is sitting on the corner of my work desk and is scenting the whole room.

Too tantalizing to waste on work water and a microwave. This one’s going home with me to be appreciated properly.

A tea named “Handsome Brute” should evoke visions of Jack Sparrow and that captain with the octopus face playing Liars’ Dice. This blend isn’t rum-heavy enough to do that.
The pineapple and coconut beg for a pineapple wedge and a cherry speared with a toothpick served on a tray by a pool boy while you’re listening to the “Pina Colada” song.
Not only do I not have a pool boy, I don’t have a lawn boy, either, so after surviving a sweaty round of mowing, I’m treating this as a lovely tropical mini-vacation, excellent on ice.

One to enjoy in hot weather; not for serious sipping purposes come fall.

Oh. I have had this one, says my tealog. And I thought I was sampling something new! The memory’s going, y’all. Any volunteers to push my wheelchair up and down the hallway?

Rum, pineapple, coconut in equivalent proportions. I felt like I needed a maraschino cherry speared with a drink umbrella when I had a cup this morning. The flavoring is much more prominent than the tea base. Cheerful and tasty and no doubt more so on ice…this week’s weather forecast looks to be perfect for experimentation.

This is the foo-foo tea I wasn’t awake enough to appreciate this morning. It has cornflower and long coconut shreds in it, which makes the dry mix look like a party.

Though the label suggests a great deal of yo-ho-ho rumminess, it’s very, very understated; this has more of a tropical punch punch to it. Coconut, fruit, then maybe a little rum in the background. Cheerful, perky, sweet, celebratory—and quite, quite tasty!

As the weather warms, I start trending toward flavored teas for breakfast; aka “drink up all the scraps.” I had forgotten how much I liked this. Puerh and dried strawberries with chocolate—has almost a chocolate milkshake feel to it. Down to one cup’s worth of leaf now…which means I shall hoard it for months because I don’t want to let it go!

Best surprise Christmas treat to myself ever. (I had purchased a sample pack a good while ago, and it had woodged itself down to the bottom of the heap.) Unearthed it, opened it, and was transported to dark chocolate and strawberry rapture. (Or something like that.)

Has a nice thick creamy mouthfeel to it without milk. The strawberry tastes like strawberry and not soda pop syrup. Will hoard the rest and divvy it out parsimoniously over the next few weeks … Janu-weary often requires little treats along the way. This one will help beat the blahs.

Oops. I just plain forgot I had some left. This was luscious when it was new; now that it has aged and I fished all the fruity chunks out of it for previous cups, it’s just faintly fruity. Not “off” or unpleasant; it will do for office tea. I’ll just have to remember it fondly, as it has dropped off Savoy Tea’s current product listing.

When pondering what to write about this, my first thought was, “this is what happy tastes like.” I could probably apply that to a number of my favorite teas, but this nifty little blend has such a perky, fruity, sweet, sunshiny personality, it’s especially apt. Not too much kiwi so it tastes like an island; not too much apple; no bitterness in the green tea base.

So I’ll just allow myself a little whimsy and not try to quantify it further, and just enjoy the cup and the sunbeam I’m sitting in. (When was the last time a tea made you smile?)

Thoughtful and great-hearted tea friend brought me a sample pack for a lovely Monday afternoon surprise.

Dry, this smells superlative. There should be candles and potpourri all over my house with this scent. There should be poems written to it. I walked out of the office all the way to my car with the pack open and under my nose. Apple fruity goodness.

Steeped, you taste the fruit first. General fruit, then apple, then the kiwi at the back of the throat as you swallow. Mellow, ripe harvest fruit; not tropical drink with an umbrella. For the first run, I erred on the side of caution and kept steep time to 2:30, but it could have gone a little longer without bittering up. This one is going on the shopping list for my next run to Savoy.

Old tea that has held up nicely: a calming, comfy end-of-day cuppa. A nice, unobtrusive green base with sweet vanilla and just enough lavender for you to notice, not enough to clean floors with.

Can’t decide if it better fits the “me” tea or the “geeky tea” prompt, as I am a lifelong book nerd…had one with me at all times…on the bus, in between assignments at school, snugged up in my secret closet reading spot, with a whole stack of ’em on a blanket in the back yard…

I usually save green tea and oolongs for leisurely Sunday afternoons. Haven’t had many of those for a while—have been serving on a committee at church for several weeks in a row (a good thing; but a time commitment all the same). However, mission was accomplished this afternoon. I’m celebrating by ripping open my little sample packet of Paige Turner.

I am a lavender enthusiast for medicinal reasons, but have always thought it was a little florally much in tea. The sweet vanilla in this blend tones it down gently and pleasantly. The green tea base is nice and crisp. Holds its flavor well for a 2nd steep.

It’s been way too long between leisurely mornings when there is actually time to think about one’s tea. So, gratefully, with feet up, I’m sipping something a little less hi-octane this morning.

I’m not much of a floral tea person. No jasmine, please; lavender in moderation; but there’s something about rose that is sweet and gentle without tasting like cologne. There’s just enough in this blend to complement the black/green/fruity combo and make it taste a little like fruit punch. May make a second round and ice it down to see what happens.

New leaves from Arkansas! Neither the label nor the website description are real specific about what fruit flavors are used, but I think I’m getting citrusy/mango-y/could be strawberry. The rose petals aren’t obnoxiously cloying, and the overall effect is gentle, soothing, and sweet. Perfect for a fancy teacup.