The NecessiTeas
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I had a delightful cup of this yesterday that I sipped on for hours. Today I’m resteeping those leaves and the cup isn’t as nice. There is a sharper edge to it that I dislike. Something that I bet cream would even out, but my preferred creamer has been out of stock for a while, so I’ll continue to mindlessly sip through this cup.
I like this tea enough that I tried to order more right after getting an email about a site restock, but two of the teas that were in my basket were sold out from under me while I shopped for an add on tea. I’m new to this company and a little put off that it seems so competitive to purchase her tea and that it appears to only be an in her spare time kind of business and not one that is being taken seriously. I worry about getting hooked on a company that is inconsistent and frustrating to order from. :/ Have others had similar experiences with Necessiteas?
Preparation
This tea smells great! I’ve read others mention it reminds them of Butiki’s 3 Friends, and I’d have to agree with that association. My first steeping of this was rough. The flavor was strong, but there was a hard edge almost like there was too much orange oil in the mix. A little creamer mellowed it out. The second steeping was much more mellow. There is still a little something distracting in the finish, but it’s a lot less noticeable. Both cups were steeped for 4 minutes. I feel like a bit of tweaking the steeping parameters could help deliver a better cup from the start. If/when I order this again, I need to make sure it is in a cooler time of year. It arrived to my house at the end of September during a touch of heat which started to melt the chocolate bits in the mix.
Preparation
I rather enjoyed this one yesterday, though to be fair to the tea it wasn’t erally white chocolate or pumpkin. It was just kind of “chai.” So not true to it’s name is my opinion, though i did like the tea. Maybe it’s the wetter, cooler days recently but i have just wanted to curl up with a book and some tea.
There is a lot of cardamom pods in this blend. Unfortunately, the chai mixture is a bit muddy so it’s mostly mediocre chai. I wish there was more white chocolate or pumpkin because I am not getting either in my latte.
I’m not sure what I was thinking when I bought this tea. I tend to dislike coconut in teas, and I really dislike the flavor of butterfly pea flowers. But, the color when brewed and the promise of creamy lavender swayed me, I guess. It tastes pretty much exactly as you would imagine. Coconut, lavender, and very strongly of butterfly pea flowers. Not a bad blend by any means, just not something I want to drink.
Dry leaf smell of this tea is smelling a little… not quite “funky” but I guess clearly aged. Less of a juicy pear aroma than it used to have, by a lot. Weirdly, though, I thought this was the nicest tasting steeped cup I’ve produced. Maybe that’s because it was less juicy. Less of that floral/ripe pear meant it felt a little less at odds with the cake-y chocolate notes that seemed to reject such a fresh fruit note. This was more mellow and soothing, with a restrained decadence. Actually I liked it a lot.
Yeeeaaahhh…
Unfortunately I think this tea is still a pretty big no for me. I don’t like the way the juicy floral pear notes and the more dutch chocolate/chocolate cake flavours come together and the weirdness of the pretty present grassy greener base doesn’t do anything to blend them more seamlessly. It was a drinkable cup, but it mostly just reinforced my first impression.
A free sample from my last order.
I struggle a lot with chocolate and pear together as a flavour “in real life” (ie. in things outside of tea) because my brain has a hard time marrying the idea of dewy, wet juicy pear with chocolates. The only time it really works for me is when we’re talking a baked or poached pear type of situation where a lot of the moisture has been removed and it’s caramelized a bit. It’s mostly just a texture thing…
So, combine the fact this is a green tea with the fact that the pear smells like very fresh, dewy floral and juicy pear and you can probably see why I was skeptical if I would enjoy this tea.
Steeped up, it does weird things to my brain. I mean, it tastes perfectly fine – rich and cake-y chocolate meet sweet and ripe pear. The flavours are well executed, both present, and not too sweet or too grassy from the base. However, as my brain can think about is the disconnect between actual chocolate and pear that I mentioned above. I want to enjoy this, but there’s a mental block that I’m struggling to get past. Perhaps this is something that I’ll get past with time/repeated cups of this tea – but right now…
I feel a little squicky!?
Yesyesyes I LOVE this one! Having only drank it once before this sample from VariaTEA (thank you!) got lost in amongst my stash until I went on the hunt for a blackberry tea and stumbled across it again. The scent of the dry leaf is absolutely intoxicating, and it only gets better as the tea brews. Huge chunks of waffle and whole blackberries make it visually stunning, too, and the whole experience is rounded out by the incredible flavour. Even after following the recommended steeping parameters of 5 minutes at almost boiling, there is very little astringency and the black base comes across as very smooth with a honey-like sweetness that really compliments the blackberry note which is strongest overall. The maple is noticeable throughout the sip too, and the fluffy golden waffle comes in at the end, which surprised me. I didn’t add any milk this time, as I was enjoying the bright juicy blackberry notes too much, but I did add a drop of maple syrup and it amped up the waffle comparison by a notch. I just about guzzled my entire mug down, and am about to go and resteep the leaves even though I had planned to move on to another tea next! I think this is the only tea I’ve tried from The NecessiTeas, and it was an excellent introduction. I’ve added it to my wishlist already, checked out The NecessiTeas website to make sure they ship to the UK (they do!) and might be eyeing up a few blends I want to try once this comes back into stock and I’ve got through a sufficient chunk of my current teas.
This gives me Butiki’s-little-sister vibes, which is very exciting.
ETA: The base doesn’t hold up to a second steep, but that’s okay. The blackberry has faded too so now it’s like eating a jam donut.
Preparation
Ooh, yum!(I may have posted this twice, but this sounds worthy of two yums.)
It is definitely yum yum worthy!
Blackberry tea which tastes like blackberries? Really it is possible?
The problem with Necessiteas is they usually have so many things out of stock.
@Martin – it’s true! Juicy and fresh (:
@tea sipper – ah no! ): fingers crossed this comes back into stock, because it is definitely going on the future purchase list!
you guys i’m so excited…i might get TEA today lol. My order might just arrive early today and that makes me happy as i have no black straight teas in my cupboard. haha. Had this one the other day as a treat to myself…contemplating going back to work early and am trying to decide if/when i want to haha adore this one..wish i had picked up more.
love.this. Seriously just need a kilo of this or something…i dunno. Once the borders open up again i may just need to see if i can get a vat of this blended for just MEEEEEEEEEE
I know that any time I’ve browsed the site, everything but maybe three items have been sold out, and I’ve heard likewise stories about Hunger Games wars to get items the second they release and them disappearing from order carts. I, for one, am not into that as a shopping experience and moved on from the thought/desire of ever trying them out.
I mean…. I’ll shank someone for a good cup of tea if I /have/ to, but it really doesn’t set the mood I’m looking for when enjoying a cup. Shanking is more of a whiskey mood thing IMHO. :P
I’m with you on the maybe it’s better to move on thing.
You are DEFINITELY not alone – VariaTEA, Sil, and I all had an incredibly frustrating experience trying to order during her last big restock. She didn’t add all the new teas at once, but rather staggered them as uploads to her website. We actually, as a group, noticed that they were being uploaded to the site BEFORE the announcement was made on IG/via email – but in the time waiting for the rest of what I wanted to order (waiting on two teas during the staggered launch) from when she started adding to the site, more than half my cart (about six teas) sold out! I was super pissed, and ended up just not ordering.
It was the last restock that I tried to make a purchase as well! I too didn’t buy anything and was upset about the issue. I was on the site within 20m of the email announcement too. It’s so disappointing that the business is being run this way. I’ve seen features that give you a certain amount of time to shop and a warning of when your time is up, which would have been nice. I don’t get why she isn’t blending bigger batches if she has this much demand. It leaves a lot of money on the table. Makes me want to blend my own tea to avoid the frustration.