sTEAp Shoppe

Sipdown! On the 9th day of December, my tea advent calendar gave to me… the last serving of this tea!

It was ok, kind of a figgy dark chocolate flavour. Tasted much how I remembered it. Certainly an interesting tea, but not a favourite.

Was craving something different tonight, and opted for this tea, which means I only have a regular mug’s worth left (another pre-sipdown, yessss). Travel-mugged it since I was headed to handbell practice tonight, and it was COLD outside. And by cold, I mean -3C and I’m lame.

Anyhow, I apparently didn’t much care for this before, but I overleafed tonight (1 rounded tbsp tea for ~12 oz. water), gave it a nice long infusion (4-5 minutes?) and found it to be pretty satisfying. Dark chocolate, roasty base that tasted kind of like there was a touch of pu’erh mixed in there, and fairly smooth. Can’t really complain! Bumping the rating a bit because I did rather enjoy my mug of it tonight.

Well, this tea unfortunately kind of underwhelmed me. It was certainly dark-tasting, but I wasn’t really tasting much chocolate. There was a hint of the molasses taste as there was in the Milk Chocolate tea, but it was definitely less prominent. I’ll have to try a second cup with the recommended brewing parameters (I reduced the infusion time by a couple minutes) to see if I can coax a bit more flavour out of this one.

Sipdown! After 2oz of this tea, i’m happy to say it’s a fairly average vanilla black for me. It’s not bad, but it’s not my favourite. I would however, order more if i needed filler in my cart from the steapshoppe.

Very nearly a sipdown with this one. I have just a little left to do a taste comparison with 2 other vanilla blacks in my cupboard, possibly tomorrow. This was my morning tea. I’ve been trying to do myself a favour and make my travel mug teas and then make another cup of tea that i have to sit and drink at the table while not doing anything else, before i leave for work. Why? Because my days have been super long, and doing this guarantees that i take 5-20 mins every day for myself. to sit. to drink. to relax.

This tea is pretty average, but decent enough. I think after a full 2 oz of it, i’m about done with it, though i would possibly order it again in future on a rotational basis. it’s not astringent and the flavour is nice enough.

today has been a no good very bad day. Door into the face on the bus, elbow smashed on my head on the subway, spilled crap on myself, tripped up stairs, bad news on the work front.

So i drank some tea, wished for more…has a pumpkin scone for breakfast and 3 flavours of gelato for lunch. so there.

Another of my morning teas today, I really need to compare this to murchies vanilla that I picked up to see how it goes…as well as the vanilla from Silk Road. Still think angrboda has found the best vanilla tea so far, but part of the fun is continuing the quest!

had this a long time ago in a morning far away from this evening…

I had this today as well – not much to say about this one except that i don’t mind it. It’s an enjoyable enough tea and i’ll enjoy finishing off the rest of it, but i’m not sure i’ll ever repurchase it.

another morning tea…it was decent. it was a long time ago lol

I tried this one today and while i much prefer angrboda’s vanilla black, this one isn’t bad. It’s a middle of the road tea, nothing to write home about but certainly nothing to complain about either, so i’m satisfied :)

Sample sipdown! I really like this one. I think if I ever order some cinnamon swirl bread tea I’ll pick up some of this too. I’m digging the vanilla!

Thanks Tealizzy for letting me try this one! I’m getting a LOT of nice vanilla bean flavor here. The black tea and white tea together make for an interesting combo. I’m getting the floral delicateness of the white with the body of the black. Not getting much cocoa flavor but I’m enjoying it very much anyway! Like the other sTEAp shoppe offering I’ve sampled, the flavoring is very natural and well balanced. This makes me want to try more of their blends! :)

Sipdown! 278/365!

This had little flavour to begin with, and almost none by the time I finished it, even though I overleafed. Too bad, because it always seemed so promising.

Just ok, really. I like the concept, but it’s not flavourful enough, and if I recall correctly, it tasted a bit strange, too. The travel mug disguised some of that, though, so it was a pretty tasty cup of tea this week.

So, I’m not sure whether this is the same tea as “Milk Chocolate Caramel”, or if that one was discontinued and this one made available in its place… can anyone clear that up for me? The Steepster entries are confusing.

This is also a pretty tasty, and unique, tea. However, it tastes less like milk chocolate to me, and more like molasses. I wonder if the fenugreek is contributing to the flavour and causing that association? Anyhow, a 2-min infusion results in a pretty tasty cup, although I don’t think this is one I’d pick up again. I was hoping for a bit more of a milk chocolate flavour, and if anything, this leans towards dark chocolate. I have sTEAp’s dark chocolate (and white chocolate!) teas as well, so perhaps should have brewed them up alongside for comparison purposes. Maybe when I get back from grocery shopping…

ETA: Second infusion, same parameters, still has that molasses-y taste to me. Probably won’t resteep again, as I think it has now lost most of its flavour.

2022 Sipdown 122/365!

Mastress Alita’s Sipdown Challenge April 2022: Pu’erh tea

Farewell, unique tea! Haven’t had something like this since, though not that I’ve been looking. The pu’erh gave it such a unique flavour.

One cup of this left now… it hasn’t aged super well, or maybe the pu’erh is just coming out more – it was a bit too earthy for my tastes. Still a really inventive combo!

Still pretty tasty, though oddly sticky(?!) I assume due to sweeteners. Nice cinnamon and pastry flavours but I could do without the earthiness from the puerh. I’m sure it contributes to the illusion of cinnamon bread, though.

Welp. Now I see what all the hype is about. This is a pretty darn delicious tea! It certainly tastes like a delicious, sugary-sweet cinnamon roll complete with creamy frosting. Wow. When I brewed the tea up, I was getting a bit of a classic pu’erh aroma that I wasn’t too keen on, but it has dissipated and isn’t at all present in the flavour. It’s just really, really delicious tea. I used about 2 tsp of tea for an 8 oz. mug… I didn’t really pay attention to the directions.

Also, I have to say that sTEAp Shoppe’s sample sizes are great. Half an ounce of tea, so comparable to Della Terra, although the samples are a bit pricier. If there’s a sale at some point, I think I’d be likely to pick up more sample sizes, though! I have 5 other teas to try – hoping they work out as well as this one!

ETA: I definitely don’t care for the second infusion as much, although perhaps reducing the infusion time from 2 minutes to 1 minute would have helped. The pu’erh flavour makes a bit more of an appearance, and instead of the flavours blending well together, I get a heaping helping of strong cinnamon (like, from a cinnamon stick) plus the pu’erh, and that’s it. Not bad, but the first infusion was quite a bit better. Word is, this tea resteeps for many infusions, so I’ll keep it around and try a few more to see how they fare.

Revisiting this one today. I am almost out of it now…

I don’t crave cinnamon teas very often but this is an excellent option. Definitely cinnamon bread and NOT redhot cinnamon. Yums.

This is another great tea for the dead of winter. Very warming with the cinnamon and vanilla, and strongly caffeinated from the black tea and puerh to perk me up :)

I will hopefully enjoy re-steeping this one all day at work!

Just opened my FRESH package of this tea from a joint order with BrewTEAlly Sweet Could this be the perfect cinnamon tea? Perhaps…perhaps…