Teapigs

Well I find myself in the Denver airport once again, my nemesis if I ever had one. I like people, just not this many people all at once and mostly disgruntled as flying sucks lately. Was there always a Capital One lounge here? I would have gotten their premium travel card sooner if I had known. Better than United lounge, but I am still in an airport all day. So I’m trying the tea. It’s in a plastic pyramid bag, ick. I over steeped the first brew and it was bitter, so not very forgiving for a distracted traveler. The second brew isn’t as bitter but still so astringent. I am tempted to try the ginger lemon Tea Pigs, but might rummage through my bag to find better tea.

Green tea sachets. The dry leaves look dark and broken, the tea smell of chestnut, grape, and light nori. This tastes too much like a longjing. Savory chestnut, nori, vegetal sweetness, but lacking floral orchid notes. Pretty good for tea bags, would buy again if I went on a business trip and saw this on the shelf. I bought mine from Sprouts for $6-ish? I’m listing the price from the official website.

sold for $9.99 / 15 bags

https://teapigs.com/products/mao-feng-green-tea

Is it possible to become desensitized to flavors that you drink regularly? It looks like I’m in the minority on this one, but I don’t find the chamomile in this tea overpowering. It’s certainly there in the floral scent and the mellow, vegetal sweetness, but the lemongrass and lemon balm dominate the flavor.

Well, that is A-OK with me! There’s something about a lemony herbal blend that puts me in a bedtime mood, like it’s the tea equivalent of crisp, clean sheets. This is a lovely wind-down herbal blend. I can see it becoming a standard in my cupboard.

I’ve missed you all dearly. I have a bunch of reviews saved that I want to post, so please excuse the spam.

I got this as a sampler from Well.ca and was delighted that they had a free sample I actually cared about. This is a wonderful peppermint. My teabag was called “Minty fresh” but it seems to only contain peppermint.

This is a fresh and strong peppermint with a lot of menthol. I brewed this sachet (single serve mesh sachet – but both the sachet and the wrapper are compostable/recyclable) in hot water (~90 C) for 5 minutes. I could smell the mint right away. Even as a dry leaf it smelled very potent. I’m impressed! It wouldn’t be my go-to just for cost reasons but this is one of the best straight peppermints I’ve had.

It’s not the cleanest, purest spearmint I’ve ever tasted, and it’s not quite sweet enough for my tastes (though I can tell it would be too sweet for many people’s preferences). There are lots of extra ingredients in here, and they make it a bit different and interesting, but aren’t necessarily an improvement on a classic mint tea. I still don’t mind this one as a change of pace, but I would choose a different mint tea in the future, especially considering the cost of this one.

It’s a nice, hearty, black tea.

Got this tea with breakfast in a café. It’s an enjoyable enough chai tea. I personally did not pick up on the chilli much, but there were tones of (ground) pepper to fortify the drink, possibly amplified by the hidden chilli? Has a slight sweetness to it, and is pretty mild on the tea front, not at all bitter or tannic.

I taste jammy red fruit and coconut. It’s mild, but pleasant together. It tastes lovely cold with sweetener to bring out the flavors. The flavoring in here doesn’t quite taste like ice cream, but maybe sort of like spray cream? It all goes really well together, and it stands out from other fruity teas. It’s definitely lighter and less tart, but it doesn’t feel too thin or anything. The resteep is pleasant too.

It’s a chai. Don’t really taste much of the chili?

I did add some agave and a tough of oat milk, how I typically drink my chai.

Grabbed a bag of this from the most recent TTB. Bleh, it just tastes like lotion to me. I get maybe a touch of ginger, but mostly lotion, so I feel okay pouring this one out. I have no idea when it was originally purchased, so it’s probably old coconut, unfortunately. That wasn’t a nice surprise.

One of my favorite cold brews! Refreshing without being too tart or overbearing. Rose is present, but not overly floral. My entire family loves this on its own or mixed with lemonade. My only complaint is that if I drink too much, the turmeric upsets my stomach. But that just means I shouldn’t drink more than 2 quarts in any given day.

A friend of mine said she wasn’t excited about this tea but wound up enjoying it a lot, so I was eager to try it despite not enjoying black licorice. The peppermint was the dominant smell. The mint is also evident while drinking, though the flavor certainly takes a back seat to the licorice. It felt like a lump of black licorice stuck in the back of my throat – and I mean stuck, because it lingered there for hours after I gave up on the cup.

teapigs advent, day 13

“Calm” and “energy” may be pet peeve tea names, but nothing raises my hackles as much as something labeled “cleanse”.

The scent reminds me of teas labeled “sleep”, which I can generally tolerate even if I don’t enjoy them. The lemongrass is prominent in scent and flavor, and I did feel like I was getting ginger in the beginning of the sip. The aftertaste is the worst part, because it feels like a coconut film on my tongue. I hate coconut (only moderately less than I hate the “cleanse” concept).

It’s probably better than celery juice (anyone else in love with Maintenance Phase?) as far as cleanses go, but as far as tea goes, this did not work for me.

teapigs advent, day 12

In college, the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf was a staple on campus – despite multiple Starbucks locations that were more convenient, because of course we had to go here to get the tea. A friend introduced me to the Jasmine Dragon Tea Latte, the very idea of which appalled me until I tasted it. Then I was hooked.

I have not figured out how to make a tea latte yet, but I’m always happy to see a jasmine tea, and this was no exception. This is one I’d buy to have a quick and easy bagged jasmine on hand.

teapigs advent, day 11

Tea names like “calm” or “energize” are a silly pet peeve of mine so I was already biased against this tea.

Chamomile is the main ingredient and it shows. I was hoping for a little more of the lemon but I’m not getting it at all. I wish I liked chamomile; I could use an easy tool to help me relax. I just don’t care for it.

teapigs advent, day 10

Makes an easy cup of black breakfast tea. I tend to prefer straight unsweetened black teas on ice, but this wasn’t bad hot with some honey. It’s something I’d buy to have on hand for my partner, even though I wouldn’t choose it – “I could definitely drink this everyday” was the strongest endorsement he’s given any of these flavors.

(If anyone has suggestions on how I can learn more about distinguishing different varieties of black teas or figuring out the subtler notes of teas, I’d love to hear them!)

teapigs advent, day 9 and day 24

This was a fun way to start the morning! A green tea with strong toasted rice flavor that lingers a while after each sip. I even liked it as it got cold. I was skeptical, but I could buy more of this.

teapigs advent, day 8

I enjoyed the simplicity of this tea after so many wild flavors recently. I notice cinnamon most, followed by ginger in both the smell and taste. It would be an easy one to add to my rotation for an everyday drink.

teapigs advent, day 7

A mild green tea with only a slight grassy flavor and none of the earthiness. It’s pleasant, but it doesn’t live up to the claims on the bag of a pale green color (definitely brown) or hints of fruit. I have been drinking all my advent teas hot, but I could see this as a pleasant iced tea.

teapigs advent, day 6

I was excited to see this cold brew flavor I hadn’t tried in the advent!

This isn’t how I cold brew my tea usually, but these bags are a great way to toss something with a little flavor into my glass water bottle and have tea all day. You don’t even have to fish the bag back out, which makes these extra nice for being out and about.

This particular flavor was a generic tart berry flavor – I wonder if maybe I just don’t know what a black currant tastes like and that’s why I can’t pinpoint it? But it’s berry, and it’s a decent iced tea flavor, and I’m into the whole concept honestly.

teapigs advent, day 5