Sonnentor

I had this tea bag in the morning – as it says: Good Morning.

It was simple herbal tea; with mint little domintating flavour. Soothing cuppa, without any greatness of taste.

Nothing to write really. It is just a tisane. No rating.

Pretty mild, I kept forgetting I was drinking it. 2.5/5

Sipdown (246)

This tea suggests a tablespoon per 10-12 ounces. What I had left was about 1.5-2 tbsps so I used it all in my 16 ounce mug. Yet this is sort of bland regardless. It tastes herbaceous and citrusy. Not my thing.

Sipdown (597)!

Thank you VariaTEA for the share!

I thought that this was a little bland/lacking in flavour, but the flavours that were present were nice enough – kind of a soft herbaceous quality, hints of orange peel, and then more of a clove heavy finish. The clove was the strongest thing in the blend, and I deeply enjoyed it. I just wish there had been more flavour overall; maybe a longer steep time would have helped!? IDK; I did follow VariaTEA’s written instructions of ten minutes though and even after all that I just found it kind of… “meh”.

I think at this point, my general attitude is that if a Western style cup of tea takes more than ten minutes for me to steep then it’s probably not worth my time.

i think i’m just tired of “christmas” teas…. sigh

Final Count: 22

Backlog.

So, this tea actually smells like seabuckthorn. Not like one other tea I had, where it just tasted like rooibos/medicinal. It’s actual seabuckthorn. Which I’m familiar with, because there’s a vendor at the Saskatoon Farmer’s Market who sells seabuckthorn products, so I’ve had juice, ice cream (or sorbet/gelato, I don’t recall), and possibly other things. Either way, I recognize the flavour. And I’m stoked to see an absence of purpleish colouring – so no hibiscus! Yay! Instead, it’s kind of an orangey colour, which again fits with the colour of the fruit. Flavourwise, it’s interesting. Kind of tangy (not unexpected), and fruity, with almost a bit of drying astringency. Certainly interesting, though probably not a tea I’d drink overly often.

Thanks for this one, MissB!

It was, erm, interesting. The dry teabag smelled like dried thyme or something, and steeped, it smells like a blend of many herbals things I do not care for (I couldn’t identify things… I just didn’t like it). So basically, contradicting its name, at least for my palate! I haven’t yet finished the cup… it’s in a Timolino just sitting on the counter…

I’m not sure what went in there. The packaging is in German.
But I know there was chamomile and maybe lavender. Something green ish. Mint?
Overall, I found it calming. Invigorating. A little soapy. A nice sweet aftertaste.
Thanks MissB!

This tastes and smells like fresh hay. I just hope it gets me to sleep!

Had this last night and wish I had more to drink… sadly it only came in a specialty box, and I think I either grabbed the only one, or sent the other bag to Sil. Very unusual ginger tea, with something lightly and pleasantly floral in it, and then the lemongrass and cinnamon were lovely additions. I’ll definitely keep my eye out for more of this!

Grabbed this… in Ireland?… at a health food shop, in a box of 20 tea flavors. Really fruity, would be an excellent iced tea, mostly raspberry (and genuinely so) with the tartness from the rosehips and hibiscus. Normally I’d avoid a tea with these two ingredients in it, but the raspberries.. it’s like drinking a tart raspberry juice. Yum!

Lovely, the spices not being too overpowering – perfect for an energy boost in the afternoon or even to relax when one feels down and melancholic.

Steeped, the tea is a rich gold colour, and it smells like a lemony-minty- very similar to Tazo’s “Zen” (which contains lemongrass and spearmint).
The first sip is mint, wood, lemon… and something I can’t identify. The liquorice gives it sweetness and depth, and a touch of cardamom comes out in the finish. The peppermint leaves a lasting blast of cool in my mouth. It’s very Spring-y… fresh, light, and cool.

This is by far the strangest herbal tea I have ever tried. I bought it because it has whole flower heads in it, and I figured why not? I half understood the ingredient list (my German is improving) and the name seemed happy so I gave it a try!

Huge flower heads and leafs make this one a challenge to steep in my little travel tea ball, but are kind of awesome!

It tastes like…well… flowers. I guess that shouldn’t be surprising since its mostly flowers! Its neither good nor bad, just very earthy and herbal.

So to explain my long long absence, I have been on exchange in Europe! Still am actually, loving life in the beautiful city of Vienna, Austria!

Anyway, Europe has been an amazing adventure, but sadly lacking in the tea department. Cappucinos abound and Vienna has a huge cafe culture (although fresh ginger and mint tea has become my go-to!). Where I have found tea is Vienna’s Naschmarkt, but most of the labels are all in German and the translation not exact and from companies that I have never heard of, so I decided against doing reviews.

And then I stumbled across a Sonnentor tea store in Salzburg- definitely a happy coincidence :) There I found mate, which I had been craving but unable to find. This mate is a pure green mate that tastes amazing and stands up to multiple steeps. Plus, with one ingredient, I didn’t have any specialty ingredients to attempt to translate, so finally a tea worth getting back on Steepster for!

As a verifiable DAVIDs addict, the Spring collection newsletter killed me, since they don’t ship to Europe and all. That is the one thing I can say I am looking forward to at the end of my exchange term in June- a DAVIDs shopping spree of epic proportions (the fact that I will have spent all of my money travelling is besides the point right?).

honestly, all I can taste is the licorice.

I don’t know what I think about this. I didn’t notice before making it that it has licorice in it, and my reason for feeling unsure about it might be because of that. Cocoa and licorice? Hmmm. This smells weird and tastes weird. In a way, it’s a good thing, but it also kind of tastes like someone went crazy with mixing spices into a weak chocolate milk, and to me, that’s not really an appetising thing. It might have been better with some ginger, as well. That’s just speculation, though (mostly based on the fact that I think ginger is one of those spices that can make a tea really fantastic.) I’ve never actually had ginger with cocoa. But my dad thinks it’s amazing, and he has good taste.

I wish I could be more descriptive about this but, not thinking, I had a strongly flavoured dinner before drinking this, and I’m having a hard time breaking down the elements of the taste, which is even more complicated because I added soy milk to it, diluting the essence of the flavour. I added it because I thought it went with the taste, but I had tasted it beforehand and there was nothing necessarily lacking, so maybe it wasn’t the best choice. I’ve got a whole box of this, so it’s not a disaster that I can’t be more descriptive about it at this point. From the slightly muddy, kind of mismatched flavour I’m getting from this now, I’d say this is one of those “just okay” teas. I got it because I like spices and haven’t had a spice and cocoa tea before (I don’t even really like cocoa or chocolate, so it was pretty much an experiment from the get-go [though the chocolate flavour isn’t what I haven’t liked about the tea]), and also, I’m auditioning teas without caffeine for drinking on these cold nights in Germany. When it first gets into your mouth and you get that combination of the spices and cocoa (when you take a sip, the cocoa and cinnamon are the most prominent tastes at the very beginning of the mouthful), it works very well, but some element is holding it back by dragging it down into a mess of overly herbal flavour. This is really annoying, because with the soy milk in it and that initial mixture of the cocoa and cinnamon flavour, this seems like an original and quite tasty tea. Then that gross thing pops its head around the corner and offers greetings while my tastebuds shrink away.

Basically, I don’t like the way this tea smells, and when I think of combining spices with chocolate, I think of a rich, flavourful result, which this s not. It’s not bad, and as someone who isn’t that into combining chocolate and spices, I find it drinkable, but I wouldn’t buy more packages of it.
Oh, also I had this tea with my dessert, which was a snack bar made out of dates, sultanas, coconut, and oats. It really went with the overarching coconut flavour of the bar, and I think it’s the spices that matched it. If you haven’t tried having chai (or other spiced teas) with a coconut-y dessert, or even with coconut milk in it, that might be something to consider in future. Chai’s pretty heavy with coconut milk in it, though. It might be a good idea to use the lower fat one.

I’m surprised that nobody has left any tasting notes for this tea yet. It is so good! My friend from germany sent me a box. I wish they sold it in New York. It’s minty and nice… I don’t even know what flavor it is because it says it in German…!!! :’( Sipping this right now :D