Teeccino

Lovely, perfume-y, full of umami and earthy. Warm. Satisfies my desire for a second cup of coffee without actually being coffee. No acidity and no caffeine. I rely on coffee for survival, but tea is truly the magical side of things.

Today is Ash Wednesday, so for us Catholics, that means it’s a day of fasting and abstention. Drinking this to warm myself up and boost my mood so that I can more fully embrace and embody the spirit of Lent.

I choose to live in the American Northeast, so I have zero right to complain about the winter weather, especially with the amount of cold weather-related suffering that’s occurring in the American Deep South, where they didn’t choose to deal with snow and ice (and indeed are not equipped for it), but… it’s just the truth that it’s bloody freezing out today and everything is coated with glare ice. The wind doesn’t help.

I donated to the Red Cross Disaster Relief efforts in the hopes that the money will go toward helping my fellow Americans in Texas and other impacted states. If any of my Steepster friends live in those areas, know that I am sending warm wishes, prayers, and happy thoughts your way!

Definitely need to watch this close and be careful not to oversteep it. The rose can become overpowering VERY quickly. But when it’s steeped right, it’s very tasty, especially with some milk. Does NOT need sweetener.
Notes: Perfumey, floral, sweet, roasted, nutty, and woodsy.
There are supposed to be a whole bunch of health benefits from consuming Lion’s Mane mushrooms, so there’s that, too.

Completely in love. Just like hot chocolate, without all the sugar. Delicious with a splash of 1% dairy milk. I don’t know how Teeccino does it, but they are magical.

I smell something faintly and pleasantly floral in the liquor. I’m thinking it’s the astragalus.
Dominant flavor notes in the sip are earth and roasted nuts/ barley.
It’s not too sweet, despite the figs and dates, which is fine with me.
I added a bit of milk to it.
I taste maple very slightly in the aftertaste.
It’s kind of a delicate cuppa, and not overly flavorful.
I don’t think I’d buy it again, but it’s definitely drinkable.

These are a little kooky, perhaps…. herbal/ mushroom tea that tastes like coffee?
When I tore open the packet, I inhaled the dry leaf and got a whiff of cinnamon, but there was an earthy, umami quality to it that reminded me of tomato sauce, almost. Is that weird?
It steeped a delicious orangey-red color, and I got notes of cinnamon, earth, and herbal bitters. It DOES taste a lot like cinnamon coffee, and it holds up to milk quite well. People who like pu-erh would enjoy this one as a caffeine-free option.

So if you really like coffee, this is a tea for you! That said, it may not taste like the best coffee — once I brewed mine up and added a bit of cream and sweetener, it tasted exactly like the cappuccinos from the cappuccino machine in my junior high cafeteria. That worked for me, but it may or may not work for you. Pulled this out of a Sipsby box.

Didn’t care for this one at all. It tasted like hot sweet spice water. I barely tasted the base.
This one and the Red Chai blend were my least favorites in the whole sampler pack.

In this sampler pack, this one was fair-to-middling. It’s good if you like coconut, and the coconut flavor works well with the roasted dandelion and chicory base, because toasted coconut is a thing. Not as good as the Caramel Nut and Dark Roast blends, and not something I’d be in the mood for every day… but again, as with the Mocha Mint blend, I’m not unhappy that I got to try it.

Meh.
Tastes like a standard rooibos chai. Nothing special. Drinkable, certainly, but not really memorable. Kind of reminds me of the Oregon Chai Rooibos blend.

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been two years since I discovered this one. Pandemic time has passed so strangely… like, the days and weeks drag, but then the years get swallowed up in a black hole.

I think I picked up the dandelion tea habit in order to reduce caffeine intake (and therefore decrease stress). Today, I’m just enjoying the delicious roasted flavor. Good with a splash of skim milk. Also good for the liver, good for the heart, good for the blood pressure… I’m not even 30 yet, but it’s never too soon to start thinking about these things, in my opinion.

Absolute perfection for anyone looking to reduce or eliminate coffee from their diet! Will definitely be purchasing a whole box of this flavor. The experience is a lot like having coffee. It smells like freshly-brewed drip coffee and has a similar mouthfeel. Has the roasted bean-y bite that you want in a cup of black coffee, but no caffeine and no acidity. I personally did not add any milk or sweetener to it, but you totally could if you want to and the brew would hold up to it like coffee.

Ever logged into your work computer on Monday morning and realized that you’re simply not emotionally ready to launch your interoffice IM app and email client? That me today. Wish me luck.

Caffeine will only increase my stress levels and further diminish my fool-tolerating threshold, so this is what’s on tap today. Good with a splash of milk. Good for the stomach. Good for the liver. Just good all around.

Discovering Teeccino has been one of the best parts of 2020 for me. Simple pleasures like a warm cuppa are sometimes what carries me through the week. I’ve raved about this particular blend/ flavor on here before, but I just wanted to add that this is an excellent autumn drink. I want to experiment with making it as a latte.

Easily my favorite from the dandelion blend sampler pack I got. Just so, so, so good. The sweetness/ burnt sugar notes from the caramel complements the burnt, roasted note from the dandelion root, and the extra nutty flavoring enhances everything as well. Smells heavenly and feels like having a second cup of coffee, but without the caffeine or the acid.

Pretty good! Perfect, barest hint of sweetness from the dates rounds it out a little and makes up for the fact that the roasted flavor of the dandelion root and chicory doesn’t pair perfectly with mint. Wouldn’t buy a full box of just this flavor, but definitely not unhappy about having it in the sampler pack.

From the TTB
Chicory is the main thing I taste here, not a whole lot of almonds or caramel. I may have let it steep too long. It wasn’t a bad or bitter taste, just a bit overwhelming. I did look into chicory a bit and it’s good for digestion. If I see this in a store I might be tempted to purchase a box.

Another sample from VariaTEA – didn’t get much tea in today for whatever reason but at least i got a couple of sipdowns in :)

I’m sort of off of “mint” these days. That being said, while i don’t love the aroma of this one – it’s far too minty, when you drink the tea it’s a lot less minty and much more dark chocolate with a bit of mint sort of taste. Thanks for the fun adventures in tea VariaTEA!

Final Count: 35

Sipdown (640)!

This was strange to me for a couple reasons. To start, it doesn’t taste bad at all. It is a really strong flavour though that distinctly tastes like three things. Thing one? Mint. Lots of it. Thing two? Very dark roast coffee. This is kind of where this tisane loses me; I don’t loathe coffee but I definitely don’t enjoy it and this is BOLD stuff. Thing three? Dark chocolate. This is where the tisane kind of wins me back; because I LOVE the pairing of a really, really strong mint and a dark, just slightly bitter chocolate taste. It felt like drinking the most decadent, indulgent cup of dark, roasty hot cocoa with a splash of peppermint schnapps. I could really get into that if it wasn’t for that weird coffee taste.

So close to loving this, but so far. I’m just going to call it delightfully ‘ok’. That sounds fitting. Anyway, thanks for sharing VariaTEA!

Kicking off some reviews of teas I got to try from the Travelling Tea Box! It doesn’t want to let me review the Adagio ones for some reason (that tea page insists I’m not logged in?) so we’ll start here.

Not coffee, but remarkably coffee-like; a bit more bitter and acidic than my usual evening non-coffee, DandyBlend, which is not a bad thing! Happy to have discovered this one

A few years ago I bought a bag of this one to brew coffee style and enjoyed it. This happened to be one of the flavors in the extensive teabag sampler I purchased from the website. I do still like this one but it is one of the more artificial tasting offerings from the company. I absolutely love their coffee alternatives and I was able to get two steeps out of this tea bag.