Tea Sparrow

“Teas I drink in a day Friday 12/22/23” 4
MUG: DT travel tumbler wintery theme, not sure how many ounces (12?) or what year this is from (2016 or 2017 I’m guessing?)
STYLE: cold brew pitcher
DRANK: on way home/home right from work
NOTES: Spearmint is my favorite mint so a mix with lavender as a cold brew is the perfect “rush and grab all my stuff to get out of work and to the bus stop/not miss my bus” tea.

Instagram post, pic 4 is mug & packaging and 6 is picture with teas 4&5, @teawithjann vlogmas playing, snacks from @dessertbydeb box that arrived that day, and one my kids (my kitten Sherbet!, one of my two girls ): https://www.instagram.com/tiffanydrinkstea/p/C1Mj4I1Odn7/?img_index=6

I use this tea when making traditional Masala Chai. It’s perfect. Nice robust flavour and can handle the chai spices.

Got this in a Tea Sparrow subscription box.
Holy crap. I don’t even like blueberries!! This tea is amazing. No artificial taste, very round blueberry flavour. Fantastic on it’s own, hot or cold.

I’ve been on a tea hunt ever since Majestea’s Buckingham Palace Garden Party was no longer available. I bought this a while ago to try since I love Tea Sparrow and only got around to tasting it now and WOW. It’s so flavourful. Definite bergamot and enough vanilla to emphasise the flavours. An easy favourite with milk and sugar that I always keeping reaching for.

For the June prompt “A tea that reminds you of your best friend.” Normally I’d choose houjicha, which is his favorite kind of tea, but I’ve been so gangbusters on sipdowns the last few years I’m all out of houjicha! So I picked this tea because he kindly gifted it to me. We both aren’t fans of 100g bags of tea, which was the only size this was available, so he split it with me so we’d both have a more manageable 50g.

He told me he bought it at a tea festival in 2019 because he was impressed with the cream flavor from the sample he drank at the booth. I’m certainly getting a strong vanilla/cream aroma off the top of the cup.

On sip, the bergamot is quite strong and brisk, which mellows out the vanilla to taste… but it is tasty bergamot. The vanilla has such a lovely aroma, and mixed with the bergamot I am reminded of an Earl Grey frosting, but it is hidden a bit by the dominant bergamot on the tongue; it pops up towards the end of the sip with a refreshing sweetness from time to time, and seems to be more evident as the cup cools. The base is lovely! Wirey, full leaf Assam, providing a lovely malty/bready backdrop that is nice and smooth. I don’t get any astringency from this tea, with the citrusy bergamot providing the only bit of bitey tang.

It’s a good cup of Earl Grey. Classic. Easy to drink plain on account of the base.

Sample from VariaTEA (i haven’t had time to write notes lately). This one had the potential to bee delicious but instead it’s just a lot of woody rooibos. Not a fan. There’s a bit of other flavour here but not enough to salvage this one.

this one from variaTEA was pretty middle of the road/boring.

Latte Sipdown (326)

I won a Tea Sparrow giveaway in December 2019 and this is one of the teas. The thing is I previously had a Tea Sparrow subscription and didn’t really like any of the teas that much. This is a chocolate almond rooibos and all of those can be finicky flavors so the idea of Tea Sparrow taking them all on together did not have me itching to try this. However, it is getting older and I have to give it a chance sooner or later so when I wanted a latte, this stood out to me.

Drinking it now, its not as bad as I expected. It’s not overly good either but its tolerable. I don’t get much chocolate beyond the chocolate drizzle I tossed on top. Instead I get woody rooibos and marzipan. I don’t like either of those much so while I can drink this, I don’t want it again. The last serving got tossed into my bag of teas for Sil since that was more readily accessible than my swap box.

Sipdown (309)

Not a fan of this tea plain. It just leans heavily into marzipan and not great coconut.

DIY Advent Calendar – Day 4

Made this one as an eggnog latte and I don’t love it. In fairness, I didn’t really expect to like it much given it boasts a coconut marzipan flavor. Coconut can be finicky and marzipan isn’t usually something I overly enjoy.

The marzipan is a strong flavor and its just not for me. The base is coming through a bit which is almost giving me a bit of a dirty marzipan vibe. And the coconut pops up but when it does, its not the freshest. Granted this is a year old so that could be my fault. Overall, not a fan.

Today’s #septembersipdown prompt on Instagram is to cold brew a tea you never have before. This is a bit of a cheat because I haven’t had this tea before at all so of course that includes never having it as a cold brew.

This is fine. It’s actually on the bland side. I get sort of cherry and sort of rose and sort of green tea but it’s all really subtle. I cold brewed this for over 12 hours so it should have more flavor but it just doesn’t.

The more I drink, the more the green tea base builds and there is a little bitterness that is making me thing cough syrup with the hint of cherry. So maybe I’m not loving this so much.

tasty tea from this afternoon. Pulled this one out ‘cause i figured it would be up my alley and i was right. Cacao and cardamom…and vanilla. I’d entertain more of this in my cupboard as long as i wasn’t looking for it to replace hot chocolate or something like that :) As with most cacao it’s not thick enough heh

Earl greys are not my favorite, though sometimes I am in the mood for them. However, adding lavender is adding insult to injury since that is another flavor I don’t really enjoy. So I am not the target for this tea and ultimately I found it soapy and astringent. Perhaps if this is your thing, you’d enjoy it though.

Check out my full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2019/04/19/lavender-cream-tea-sparrow/

This smelled so good and really got my hopes up because it smelled distinctly like a really good chocolate treat I’ve had before (though I couldn’t quite place what exactly). My guess is a chocolate truffle or one of the gourmet chocolate bars I’ve had in my life. It just smelled rich, chocolate-y and sophisticated…as in not your average grocery store chocolate bar.

Of course this is like every other cacao tea and always disappointing for me, even as a latte. It’s better than most I have had but cacao teas always seem like they should taste like hot chocolate to me and they are never quite thick enough. This is very rich and maybe would have been better served with a touch of sweetener and a milk with more fat than 1%. I definitely get cardamom and I get cocoa but it falls bit flat without having a sweet point. I want milk chocolate and cardamom, not cocoa powder and cardamom.

Sipdown 2020! 3/365

(This sipdown count is very inaccurate. I’ve sipped down a good number of things, and just not logged a single one…)

This tea came to me from VariaTEA, who obviously knew of my love of lavender teas (and cream earl greys). The first cup I had of it was decent, though the base tea was perhaps a little strong, and I could have used more cream. This second cup though – I think I should have made an effort to avoid the tea dust, because dang it is strong, and that’s making it not particularly pleasant. I’ll probably have to dilute and/or add milk to it.

Not my favourite lavender cream earl grey, but I definitely appreciated getting to try it! Thanks VariaTEA!

Cold Brew Sipdown (724)!

Pretty sure this was a VariaTEA share, so thank you!

I’ve had a handful of these “cherry and rose” green teas this year, and I’m not entirely convinced they aren’t some type of catalogue blend coming from a big wholesaler, but this one kind of makes me question that theory. The reason for that is that all the ones I’ve tried have been far more rose heavy than cherry, but this is the first one where I feel like it actually has a stronger cherry note than the rose. It is floral, and mild – but that cherry is smooth and ultimately just really speaking my language!

Sipdown (235)

It’s funny because I shared this with Sil and Roswell Strange, both of whom tried this before me and had very different experiences. Sil was not a fan while RS quite enjoyed it. Seems like I am the tie-breaker and honestly I can see both points of view. This does really taste like a rose tea. Just a rose black tea with in-your-face rose flavor. So, if you are into that, you’d probably really enjoy this one. Personally I am not into the floral notes (except for my beloved Des Roses et Des Bonbons) so while this was palatable, I didn’t really enjoy it. Probably why I put off trying it for so long.

This was perfect. 5/5

Sipdown (272)

This isn’t even a year old but I am wondering if something has gone bad because its grassy and sour. This was nope in a cup. One sip and I was done. I maybe tasted some coconut…just not enough for me to want to drink more.

If I am being honest, I really don’t remember this. Even reading my blog post, it just seems fairly nondescript. Reminiscent of so many other fruit tea. Oh well.

Check out my full review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2018/10/20/organic-fruit-jam-from-tea-sparrow/

Sipdown (588)!

Made this one in my tea press yesterday at the end of the work day to drink on the bus ride home. Still a really nice sweet and jammy tasting blueberry note like I observed the last time that I drank this one, but at the same time I was also getting a distinct note that I missed last time or that simply wasn’t present: anise. It was kind of weird, because I actually have a blueberry/anise blend that I made for myself – and this was comparable to that (though not exact) which definitely gave me some strange flavour note deja vu.

Kind of sad to be finished this one; it was a pleasant blueberry black tea with a lot of flavour packed into each sip! However, since I just bought like 300g of Blueberry Jam from DT I think I’m probably pretty damn set for blueberry black teas for the foreseeable future…

A share from VariaTEA!

I actually was surprised by how much I enjoyed this one, given the mediocre amount of success I’ve had with Tea Sparrow’s blends. I do really love a good blueberry flavoured black tea though, and this delivered a rich and full bodied profile with sweet/jammy notes of the blueberry. The only complaint I have it that for some unknown reason the mouthfeel was really oily – but on the whole this was a phenomenal flavour.

Sipdown (345)

Nutella lattes. My most recent pinterest find. Nutella lattes. I had one yesterday with Golden Monkey by teabento and it was soooo good but also mostly tasted like a super rich nutella. So today I figured if I tried something a bit different, I could see if it was the nutella I was really liking or the combination of tea and nutella so today I used this tea. Still good but definitely not as good. The richness and depth of yesterday’s latte is stunted by the mint here. It’s very strong and therefore lessens the impact of the nutella as opposed to yesterday’s tea which complimented it. I think this tea would have been quite harsh if not prepped as a latte so I am glad I made it this way.