TeaCoffeeMarket

2024 sipdown no. 19

Thank you Martin! The earl grey aspect of this tea is light to non-existent. I found it to have a “market spice” scent, but very light in flavour, with cardamom coming across, but not overpowering. It’s a nice enough cup of black tea — with an unassuming and non-astringent base.

2024 sipdown no. 2

Martin thoughtfully sent this my way since he knows me so well! Blackcurrant and cardamom? Delightful!

The blackcurrant is really lovely and there’s a sweetness here (more in scent than taste). The chokecherry adds a hint of tartness that is almost imperceptible, but still there. The cardamom falls toward the back and I have to concentrate to find it — interesting since there was a whole cardamom pod in the dry leaf. I do wish it was a bit more balanced, but a unique cup that I’m quite happy to have had the opportunity to try.

2023 sipdown no. 112

This one is quite lovely. The raspberry flavour is well done and comes across clearly. The linden is adding some softness to the background. Thanks Martin!

2023 sipdown no. 111

Thank you to Martin for this tea!

This leans into the clove flavour, which I often find both strong yet thin. Whenever clove is heavily included, it tastes like clove water. I would say that’s true here where it seems to lack some depth. The cinnamon is there too, but behind the clove. Unfortunately I don’t get any almond. Regardless, not a bad tea, but there are nicer winter spice teas out there.

A sipdown! (M: 4 Y: 76)
In a week, three sessions of this tea; steeped for 2 or so minutes, best before date 2024-12-30, so not past the date, but anyway quite old apparently… not mentioning I just need to reduce amount of teas in my cupboard.

So, yes, happy with sipdown with flavourful cuppa… mostly cloves and cinnamon, sadly absolutely no almon or mandarin anymore here.
It was also somehow flat tasting. Well that was probably because the age. But as I wrote, it’s a sipdown, so I am happy to have another tea down. Now, let’s focus on some other one. Which one?

What? I haven’t written a note for this tea yet?

Winter is coming! That’s quite expected pun, I guess. Anyway, indeed teas with spices are coming to my intended flavour profile more often than in summer. This tea have got strong tangerine note when opened, followed with almonds and spices.

When brewed, it reminds me rather a hot cocoa with almond notes. But when sipped, it’s back black tea base (which is pretty basic), with cloves and sweet citrusy note. Afteral it contains tangerine flavor and aroma. The cinnamon is sweet one in this blend and sometimes as well quite distinctive. Almonds could be stronger.

Does it say winter to me? Definitely yes. Would I drink it during winter? Definitely. Is it perfect? Sadly not. Just good and enjoyable… but I miss something in this blend. Maybe it is stronger almond note isntead the spices.

This is great summer-y blend. Loads of raspberries and juicy flavour of them; combined with robust, but not overpowering base tea. The linden leaf adds a little herbaceous note, which is pleasant.

It’s another candidate for cold brewing/iced tea.

A sipdown! (M: 2, Y: 78)

Well, well… prepared today in family French press and even though it needed much longer steeping compared to fillable tea bag and my mug; it delivered nice blackcurrant flavoured drink. Sadly, that one cardamom pod that was remaining in the pouch doesn’t delivered much of promised spicy flavour, but it was alright and great pairing to our dinner.

Considering a reorder of this tea one day.

This is an interesting flavour profile, which isn’t for everyone I think. Black currant and chokeberry makes quite tart flavour profile, but nice and good black tea compensates that well and cardamom adds that interesting twist, which isn’t that expected in this style of tea.

My cup today was faily weak in cardamom, but I see quite a lots of pods in the pouch. It was pretty much straightforward blackcurrant tea, with pleasant tartness. I will hope later steeps will be a bit more spicy.

As I wrote in first paragraph, black tea is good one, by my experience I don’t think it is pure Ceylon base, but I guess a little of malty Indian teas is in too. Not only by the taste of it, but also by the colour of the used leaf, which contained a few brighter leaves thank steeped brown Ceylon. It wasn’t the cornflower for sure.

A sipdown! (M: 11, Y: 73)

Probably the rest was too big, as it was actually quite bitter and I assume that lily flowers made quite strong peppery note like rose do sometimes. It couldn’t be cardamom, as there wasn’t any in my steeper today.

I had maybe a bit higher expectations… but for the cheap flavoured black tea with cheap shipping, it is a deal. Also hardly any bergamot today…

Because buying new tea IS addictive (don’t tell me it isn’t!) and I was browsing Etsy, when ad of this teashop appeared with some kind of interesting tea (it wasn’t this one), I have decided to give them a try. And as they are from neighboring country, shipping fee wasn’t high either. So in total I placed order with 4x 50 grams of tea blends.

An EG with cardamom (I have not noticed cinnamon until I saw the pouch) sounds so interesting, so I have decided for this one to brew right after I opened the box.

Honestly, the pouch is very cinnamon forward, the sweet kind of cinnamon, but also cardamom is noticeable pretty much well. I was ready for being hit in the nose by bergamot, but nope.

I have brewed it differently than on instruction (half teaspoon/cup + 1-2 minutes steeping time seems very short to me), so I used one full teaspoon, even heaped; and steeped for 3 minutes. It seems I haven’t made any mistake with this; as it was pretty nice.

This is actally pretty much floral-kind of EG. Bergamot is quite mild, and rather the cinnamon dominates in flavour. The cardamom complements it well with its unique taste along with that floral bergamot. Sadly it’s not zesty as I have hoped for.

In conclusion it’s certainly a nice tea, a good daily drinker; but hopes were higher. Maybe it will grow on me and when I will make a sipdown note, I will see it differently. Sometimes it just happens.