Stash Tea

Pretty good with milk. I would order this to have on-hand.

Courtney sent me 3 tea bags of this festive tea; thank you!
I was a little hesitant brewing this while it’s still just November; but decided to give it a try as I wanted something simple (yep, tea bags were preferred), if possible mouth (throat) coating and had a tooth for something sweet.

Well, as I have a sore throat, I wanted to have it coated with a good tea and well this quite delivers it! It had all expected flavours. Hot chocolate, refreshing peppermint and floral lavender. Not much of vanilla in my cup; but maybe I wasn’t just focused enough. Definitely an easy-drinker and I liked it in the mug. I wasn’t a fan when I took it from the outer wrapping, the aromas were sooo strong.

Do your less-tea’d friends make assumptions about your tea preferences? Mine often jump to the conclusion that “You’re a tea person, so you must like chai.” So I’m usually overstocked on gifted chai versions I might not select for myself.

(That said, the thoughtfulness of a coworker who brought me this little box was a pleasant surprise during a week throughout which I have been feeling like a cranky dragon.)

This dragon breathes cinnamon, and lots of it. But as that is my favorite chai ingredient, no harm there. It’s a nice counterpoint to the rooibos, and with a little concentration, you can pick up the remaining spices. A little milk and sweetener would have improved my first cuppa, but it was pleasant and drinkable without.

It’s an ok chai, however i have had better holiday chai’s

Backlog

My friend who met me at the tea exchange recommended that I gave this one a try. It was the second cup for the afternoon and it was fairly good. I liked that there were gentle peppermint with chocolate notes. While my taste for Christmas-y teas has gone, I enjoyed this cup.

I was away for the weekend and tea options were limited so I opted for this one on Sunday morning.
It’s very mild, to the point that it’s really difficult to actually describe.
I added a little soy milk and sugar and it was good, smooth and agreeable.
Reminds me of something that would be a staple in someones cupboard who didn’t like a lot going on in their tea.
It’s just simple and pleasant (nothing fancy) and sometimes that’s the safest bet.

February 2024 Steepster Sipdown Challenge — Your cheapest tea

2/11/24 Sunday – I tend to not discriminate and buy all kinds of tea. After all, Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice is one of my boyfriend’s favorites.  Was trying to find some easy options for the weekend in my stash and found this unopened box. I’m always work at a hotel, but working the front desk on the weekend is not the same as my office job on the weekdays. Also, it was a nice play with the name of the tea with Chinese New Year this weekend.

I brewed three teabags in a large DT to go tumbler (using the hot water in the lobby!) and it was honestly very pleasant to sip on, enjoyed the spices (I’m a fan of ginger, and not sure if cinnamon and clove were distinct) and the fact the rooibos gave it a base as I was sipping it towards the end of my evening shift and didn’t want caffeine to keep me up.

I was ready to now love this tea bag, but it actually ended up being pretty solid. Mostly because of the peach notes because wow those were some intense and juicy peach notes! Like, juicy in the sense that it did taste a lot like I was drinking actual peach juice. The ginger added a soft earthiness, and a bit of back end heat. It was weird because I think I’d have enjoyed this tea just as much if it were solely peach but I did feel like the ginger did TECHNICALLY create more balance. Just the peach would have been very sweet and maybe a little cloying. The matcha dusting and green tea base weren’t entirely eclipsed but they definitely took the backseat here…

But yeah, peach loves don’t sleep on this one!

I just got back last night from World Tea Expo in Las Vegas. Though I decided for my own sanity to not try to attempt to track all the various samples of tea or tea infused cocktails that I tried on either the show room floor or restaurants, I still have a handful of tasting notes to log for more “proper” cups of tea that I snuck in throughout the four days…

I’m starting here because this is the tea that I drank on the flight from Montreal to Vegas. I brought a handful of teas with me (mostly bagged) because I knew they’d come in handy for flights and the hotel – and I ended up quite thankful for that. As the cups of hot water on planes are quite small this ended up being a very concentrated little cup of tea, but that juicy and tart punch of acai ended up being a great little second wind for myself for the last leg of the flight.

Had this last night and it was pretty good, but was it acai!? Definitely an intense berry flavour with a lot of top note tang and tartness from the hibiscus, but I don’t feel like it specifically said acai to me. More generic (though tasty) mixed berry. Maybe a blueberry and raspberry cross, if I had to name something?

I don’t really ever think of making iced tea with teabags, but this is maybe one teabag option that would be pretty good chilled…

Evening cuppa from a few night ago! I’m normally not really into chamomile, but I actually enjoyed this quite a lot. I think that’s largely because the cinnamon and apple flavours are both pretty potent and they mask the chamomile base almost entirely. That’s probably a con for some, but it’s a big pro in my books. I also like that the cinnamon and apple are fairly well balanced. I guess I’d say the cinnamon is stronger, but only by a hair.

Homemade Advent Calendar from Arby: Day 9

Catching up! This teabag was a victim of the Minor Lavender Sanitizer Spill of 2023, but happily it seems to have sustained no lasting damage.

As soon as I ripped open the bag, I could smell an ingredient/flavoring beyond the standard chai flavors — turns out there’s rum flavoring. It’s an interesting addition, and I’m not opposed!

I’m mostly getting cloves, allspice, and nutmeg in the brewed tea, with a bit of the rum flavoring at the back. The base is a bit weak. I bet it would be nice brewed with milk.

This black tea is a little plant-like, but not bad. It’s from a past TTB. It does decently with some sugar and milk. I expect an assam to be bolder, but maybe this batch is old.

I think I expected this to be a little more tart and juicy raspberry, but honestly for a tea bag cut it was still pretty flavourful and definitely evocative of its name. Nothing fancy/high quality, but nothing to turn your nose up at either – especially for the cost and convenience.

I like to believe that there’s a way to make every tea into something you can enjoy, no matter how unimpressed you are when you steep it as directed. Maybe that’s just because I can’t bear to throw away tea when I know that I’ve spent (mumbles) on the collection.

Anyway, I couldn’t get this to a point where I was enjoying it steeped in a mug, so I made the rest of the bags into a concentrated chai syrup with a little sugar. Delicious chai latte this morning! The dominant flavors are still cinnamon and clove, but the ginger did come through a little more clearly, and the milk helps balance those strong spice flavors.

I’m not much of a black tea lover, so most chais are all about the spices for me. And a good chai is such a treat, but this one isn’t quite there. I’ve tried it several ways (different number of tea bags, different amount of water, various temperatures, milk and no milk) but I just can’t seem to draw out more than clove and cinnamon from this one. There’s also not a lot of heat in the spice blend — maybe a little from the ginger, but I agree with the review that mentioned peppercorns: some black pepper would go a long way in this tea.

I’m a little bummed, because it’s not like I expect Stash to be top-shelf tea, but I do feel that I usually get a solid cup from them. I’m not sure I’ll finish this box. Ah well. Some nights were just meant for hot chocolate instead, right?

Okay, hear me out: this tea plus pineapple-flavored sparkling water over ice.

I steeped two bags in half a cup of water, then added it to large glass mug with a big handful of ice cubes and most of the can of sparkling water. It was fa-bu-lous. The pineapple flavor from the sparking water rounds out the tart finish of the tea itself by adding a little extra sweetness.

I know a lot of tea enthusiasts aren’t crazy about the hibiscus that’s in so many tart blends. If that’s you and you have some of this tea kicking around… I’m serious: pineapple sparkling water.

Does anyone else think the dry teabags smell exactly like Country Time instant lemonade powder? When I was a child, my parents’ church would have coffee and lemonade in the entryway after the service on Sunday mornings, and they used that mix for the lemonade. This took me right back.

You know, some teas give you exactly what they say they will. The citric acid and hibiscus make this a tart, almost mouth-puckering tea, but the lemongrass mellows it out a little and the lemon flavor is there. I’m not amazed by this tea, but I’ll get through the box happily enough.

TTB tea. This is my first time trying Stash’s loose leaf collection. I’m surprised by how much I’m enjoying this! The cherry and almond combine so smoothly. The black tea base doesn’t show up too much. It actually ends up being quite a light tasting tea, almost as if it didn’t have that black base at all. My partner found the cherry flavor to be too fake, but I didn’t mind.

Review from May 2022

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Yep, that’s a chai! It’s got all the typical spices and a good amount of flavour. As always, I drank this with some vanilla soy milk and a tiny bit of sugar (~1/2 tsp). Nice cinnamon and warm peppery spices but balanced out by the clove and cardamom. Nothing particularly exceptional about this blend, but it is an enjoyable cup. Best with milk to round out the CTC black base, which can be a bit overly tannic and tending towards bitter.

Due to overexposure as a kid on the farm, I have a long-standing aversion to raw cucumbers and canteloupe, simply because they stunk up everything else in the fridge. But thanks to a kind donor (I’m sorry, I don’t know which of you lovely folks shared this), I can at least slightly revise my melon aversion. I fridge-steeped this overnight. The green tea was a nice counterpoint to the authentic melon flavor. Cool and pleasant.

Teabag from a TTB. I taste some low quality cinnamon. It’s okay? It’s a pretty boring one-note chai. It was better warm. After going in the fridge, it became quite plain.

My lovely coworker had this tea and I thought why not? There was a strong fruity smell when I opened the wee foil which did translate to the taste. I was fully expecting astringency and/or bitter but the base turned out to be incredibly smooth.