The NecessiTeas

Cold brewed Unicorn Fluff vs. Lemonberry Whip by 52 Teas. Check out the tasting note for Lemonberry Whip here: https://steepster.com/rachel12610/posts/423884

If I’m being honest, Lemonberry Whip won but I finished it so this is moving on.

It’s cold brewed and alright but I find myself wanting more of the ginger burn I’m used to. Without the ginger to offset the marshmallow and fruit, this gets a bit flat and overly sweet. It’s not bad but the ginger is the best part of this. I think I may also prefer this hot but I’ll need to review my notes to be sure.

Round 1 of my mini tournament is this tea against Blueberry Buttermilk Short Stack Pancakes. Check out the tasting note for Blueberry Buttermilk Short Stack Pancakes here: https://steepster.com/teas/dessert-by-deb/96788-blueberry-buttermilk-short-stack-pancakes?post=422970

Both teas cooled slightly by the time I got to drinking them. Also, neither was as sweet as I expected. This one I know is typically sweeter but there was less sprinkles and marshmallows in the filter this time. That, or my tastebuds are slightly off. Could go either way.

Despite the lack of sweetness and this being a touch flat without it since there also isn’t a lot of ginger in this cup, I think this edged out Blueberry Buttermilk Short Stack Pancakes for the win. That tea has a briskness that I really don’t love. So I’ll take flat and fruity over brisk and fruity. And fruity this ism with citrus and kiwi notes today.

U is for…Unicorn Fluff

I decided to make this hot while I watch Bo Burnham’s Inside and avoiding the work I should be doing.

Hot, I find the citrus comes out more but there is a marshmallow sweetness/fluffiness lingering over top. The ginger is under the citrus as well and so the top and bottom layers sort of converge on the citrus. It seems muddied together a bit which mutes the flavours overall. Basically I don’t mind this but think I prefer it cold.

U is for…Unicorn Fluff

I guess technically I am late with this one since it is 2 am and thus my day of “U” teas is done. That said, it sat next to me the whole day while I studied and now that I am turning in, I gulped it down…so that counts, right? I forget the ginger in this and its a welcome ingredient for me.

I made this iced last night in a tea press. I drank about a mouthful before doing my mouthwash and then falling asleep. That mouthful was really good – delicious citrus ginger mix. I then woke up and carried this around with me until I finally thought to drink it. It was better last night and more balanced but today was still good. The ginger just overtook the bright orange flavor a bit more the longer it sat.

Made a latte with this today. I did it once before I recall it being a little disappointing. This latte is also a little disappointing. It smells so good and so I expect gingerbread and caramelized sugar and I am mostly getting flat ginger and milk. It smells like there should be more but there isn’t.

#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #18

Surprise sipdown evening of 1/16. Have a lot of milk need to drink up this week so trying to use teas laying around to make lattes. This a DT forever nuts type blend and I’m not fond of that flavor anymore so it was nice to have a hot latte yesterday and then one tonight with my dinner to use up the 2 oz bag.

#tiffanydrinkstea #tiffanys2021 #tiffanysfaves #tiffanyinthe614 #tiffanysteasipdown #sipdownchallenge

Last April, my 2 year old cat passed away very unexpectedly. She had congenital kidney disease that was undetected and deteriorated her kidneys extremely quickly. This was pretty heartbreaking and awful, and was just the cherry on top of the crap sundae that was 2020.
Over the last couple weeks, I’ve been fostering a perfectly healthy 8 week old kitten (Archie), and a 12 week old kitten (Melvin) that has an assortment of health problems that the vets have been trying to get to the cause of. Yesterday, they discovered that Melvin has degenerative congenital kidney disease, much like Remi had. The vet has given him 6-12 months to live. I was, of course, pretty devastated to find this out. I was supposed to have Melvin for 5 days, and then he was going to be posted for adoption. With this news, we can’t adopt him out. So, I had to decide whether or not I would foster him until the end of his life, or pass him off for someone else to do so. All the while, my partner and I had been considering adopting Archie, who we bonded with pretty deeply (even though I said I would never adopt more than 3 cats in my 2 bedroom apartment). We made the decision to keep them both. The thought of losing another cat in the same way we lost Remi is pretty unimaginable, but I know we’ll give him the best possible life. He and Archie also love each other and have become the best of friends.

On top of all that…I was rejected from an internal job I applied for because I was overqualified. Boo 2021. Boo to you.

Anyway- as for this tea. It’s more of a brown sugar/custard flavor, rather than the caramelized flavor of a creme brûlée that I was hoping for.

Sipdown 12-2022

This sucks. I don’t know why I rated it so high before. Tastes so similar to the Pumpkin Snickerdoodle, but with added pencil shavings. Sugary ginger pencil shavings.

Added Gingerbread Marshmallow maple syrup to this and it tastes like a frosted gingerbread cake. It’s obviously very sweet, but it works so well with the orange peel and ginger. Very festive. I’m looking forward to making it as a latte.

Sipdown 11-2022

Rediscovered my stash of Necessiteas blends and decided to start sipping through them.

Not a huge fan of this. Not particularly pumpkiny or snickerdoodley. More sugary ginger. Really sugary as there was a ton of brown sugar at the bottom of the bag.

This tea is quite odd tasting. I’m getting a carrot/dirt flavor, and some crystalized ginger. Not really what I would consider a snickerdoodle or pumpkin. I didn’t sweeten this at all because of all of the sweet ingredients in the blend (cane sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon drops), but I really think it needs an added sweetener.

Latte Sipdown (255)

I was surprised at how much the orange came through here. It’s a whole lot of cardamom and orange, which is pretty festive. Almond also makes an appearance, not as marzipan and not in an overly nutty way but it does round out the flavor. This is a lovely take on the classic Christmas tea profile, with the flavors all being nicely balanced. However, it doesn’t scream cookie to me and this isn’t a flavor profile I want often so I don’t think I would repurchase this one.

Sipping down the rest of this sample cold steeped. I like it better this way. The mint is very strong, bright, crisp and cooling with a bit of chocolate hidden behind it rounding it out with some depth. Also pretty good with a little cream and sugar, which mellows out the mint a touch.

Trying this again with half and half. It’s okay. I get mint and chocolate, but it isn’t as intense as I want. My mouth isn’t washed with the cool sensation of mint. I feel like the balance between the mint and chocolate is good, but they need to be turned up. I think I have two more servings of this. Maybe I’ll try it cold steeped. I remember really liking Teavana’s mint chocolate tea cold like that.

Got a sample of this from a friend. It’s nice to have local tea loving friends! She suggested I try this with cream, so I added a almond/coconut creamer that unfortunately added a slightly plasticy taste to my cup. BEFORE the creamer incident my cup was super minty with a strong undertone of chocolate, but there was an edge that was rough. Maybe a shorter steeping time would be better. The creamer did mellow the edge out a bit, but I’m not sure the expense was worth it. If I ignore the yuck part of the creamer, it’s a decent cup that I’m enjoying while working. I don’t think I like it enough to buy some though. My favorite chocolate mint tea was one by Teavana and this one is close, but not close enough to gain that spot in my tea heart.

Vanilla Oat Milk Latte and Plain Tea Sipdown (271)

A little while ago I asked my BIL to buy me Oat Milk so I could make a latte with Dessert by Deb’s Pumpkin Pie Tart. I was worried the apple in it would curdle the milk but Deb recommends it as a latte. However, after talking to Roswell Strange about it, she said I could probably get away with using my usual milk since the apple pieces weren’t acidified.

That left me with the vanilla oat milk. Since I haven’t had it before, I was worried about using up all of a tea on a latte with it in case I didn’t like the flavour of the oat milk and thus wasted a tea. Or if I did like it, I wouldn’t know if it was because of the milk or the tea. Sorry if that’s confusing.

Anyways, when I decided to make this tea today, I realized it I used the whole sample, I could make a small latte and also have a plain cup to use as a control in my vanilla oat milk latte experiment. So that’s that I did. I also tried the vanilla oat milk plain and if I’m being honest, I didn’t love it. When I froth almond milk, I find it gets a sort of cardboard taste to it and this oat milk had a touch of that right from the beginning. That also came through in the smell of the frothed milk. With that said, I was shocked at how well the oat milk frothed. It basically was all froth. That’s a point in it’s favour.

I started with the latte. It’s sweet, which I’m guessing is the brown sugar in the tea. And oat-y, which would be the milk. It kind of tastes like brown sugar oatmeal which is fine, but definitely not what I wanted from my latte. Personally, I don’t think I’m a fan of oat milk from this very limited experience.

I don’t think I’m a huge fan of this tea in general either. I tried the plain tea and it was more of that brown sugar sweetness. Not much beyond that though. Well, honey notes from the honeybush base and brown sugar. Maybe a touch of cinnamon but sweet cinnamon, which I don’t love. Definitely not saying snickerdoodle to me in either plain or latte form. Boo!

Sipdown (212)

My cold is almost gone which is good because I finished this package today. It shall be missed!