Your Daily Tea Cup

I decided to give my tastebuds a little surprise this morning and instead of bagged builders tea, I made a tumbler of this little treat Martin sent a while back. (A fruity green tea for breakfast? said my tastebuds. What manner of mischief is this?)

It’s good mischief. It had been a while since I’d read the description, and it was 7 a.m., so at first, I couldn’t pick anything out except the rose. The remaining fruits blend together into a sweet, little-kid mishmash; no tartness. Remember the first two chews of Fruit Stripe gum before it lost its flavor? That.

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 23

Yay, caught up with the dates! Well, one day before last day. Ehem, not so good I suppose.

Jasmine pearls is something I certainly would not expect in Advent Calendar, but I really liked those. I have steeped them grandpa, and honestly they are quite good quality! The green tea is really fresh, no dry hay or buttery tea, instead it was grass seed and grassy itself. The jasmine level was just perfect too, not overpowering the tea, but still very distinctive. Sometimes it smells and tastes fake and awful, but this reminds me jasmine from Snow on Green by Teafamille — the greatest jasmine tea in my books. It isn’t just that honey-ish/nectar like that one. But as of floral notes — yay!

And tomorrow… heading to the two day tea festival. Prepare for bunch of tasting notes afterwards!

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 22

Kermis… means carnival apparently? No idea how much it is holiday-ish, but whatever.

Well, fruit tea with extra almond flavour; with black tea base. While not bad… it’s not anything to re-try.

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 21

Another hot day and I am supposed to drink hot and spicy tea? Oh well.

Well, it’s not that spicy as expected based on the little bag smell. That was full of ginger and cinnamon there. After steeping it was rather a green tea with mostly cinnamon and a little bit of ginger.
Not fiery, not much hot (in terms of spiciness), not spicy at all.

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 20

Gah, still one day behind. I may try catch up it today. Summer solstice. A bank holiday in Finland. And here, hottest day this year. At least some rain has come in the afternoon and it’s a bit better now in the evening!

Orange oolong (actually a typo in the list — oorlong sic!) sounds really tasty and refreshing.
Well, actually I got much more roasted oolong than in the picture. And in taste it was certainly quite roasty! Also quite mineral and sadly again, not much of the juicy orange. Like only orange peel being in and it wasn’t juicy at all. Thus not much refreshing either.

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 19
Flavoured rooibos. Usually a miss for me.

Sadly, no exception here. The rooibos is quite nice and flavourful, but finding the bergamot is like finding the needle in a haystack. You will find it eventually, but it’s not worth the work you spend on it. It’s again very weak here…

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 18
Pine needles. Not tea which looks like pine needles. But actual needles from pine trees. Yes, I had douglas fir tips tea and it was delicious.

But sadly, pine isn’t douglas fir. It is very weak. Maybe higher dose would be needed. Steeped for long, very long… yet I got light forest breeze in my face trying to notice any flavors and scents.
Taste-like — it tastes rather herbaceous and nothing more. If anything at all. That herbal note is very weak as well.

I will keep it without the rating I guess.

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 17
Well this sounds like an interesting flavour profile!

Okay, brewed with colder water; because green tea base. Steeped rather short, as suggested. Well… it’s green tea indeed. But finding a prickly pear or figs? That was so hard. Actually in last, lukewarm sip, there was a sweet and fig-like aftertaste. It’s shame, really!

At least the base tea wasn’t offending in any way and was nicely grassy.

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 16

Another plain tea, but putting yellow tea in Advent calendar is interesting for sure. I could not find it on YDTC website; they have only tea called Yellow Sun there, and it looks like this one but not sure, so I don’t want to mix it up.

I have prepared it as a green tea, so not boiling water, shorter steep; afterall both is written in the list. So, 80°C, 2.5 minutes steep and voilá:
I got a very tasty tea, which tastes a bit more like genmaicha, but with fruity (tropical fruits) note. Yes, it was a bit roasted, a bit sweet, a bit toast bread like. It has been turning a bit buttery when it was cooling down, but overall enjoyable cuppa.

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 15

A purple sweet potato? Interesting ingredient. Lots of sugar snow flakes. Pieces of hibiscus and rosehips.

Well, the potato was interesting when steeping. It was very distinctly pink and those were the most radiant pieces in fillable bag.

Sadly, the flavour itself was meh. Pretty common fruit tea, a little tart; and sweet because the sugar snowflakes. A first, real, dismal from YDTC.

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 14

Pure honeybush? Like really? There was lapacho, milky oolong, white snow buds, those were plain teas… But honeybush seems just like a filling.

I was wrong somehow? It was much different than I was expecting. It was woody, honey, nutty, and actually quite enjoyable? The mouthfeel was long and as well very nice. I assume it is quality issue.

Just on the other hand, I have been looking for flavoured tea today.

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 12

A lovely name does not make implication it will be great tea.

But that’s not true here. It’s quite lovely, rooibos based chai with ginger pretty prominent. Also kardamom is quite noticeable, and rose making it nicely floral too.

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 11

A morning tea. Well, blending white tea with currants and spices sounds nice in theory. But I got a mild white tea with creamy flavour, almost a vanilla like. Nothing I need to try again. Also, no currants in my bag of this.

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 10

An evening tea. It should taste like Groningen goodies. Never been to this Dutch city, and actually not in the Netherlands overall, so no idea how it should be like.
I saw lots of almonds and some star anise and well it is nice to see two regions of black tea too. It’s well done blend — because it tasted like some kind of baked candy with loads of almonds. And I like almonds. And star anise is perfect pairing for that.

A repurchase considered.

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 9

Last two days were quite busy. No tea, if I don’t count office tea on Friday. So, posting late, and drinking late too. All three I drank today, Day 11.

An afternoon tea. Maté, as a base for chai is an interesting twist. I had one whole cardamom pod and piece of ginger in my sachet. Well, actually it wasn’t bad, but a sadly too little spicy for me. I have been hoping for more spices; and maté is… maté. Not much to write about that. A bit like mineral green tea maybe? But I am buzzing with energy.

Also, please, can someone remove picture with, apparent black tea base. It’s one bad click and it stays here. Correct picture is more green. Thanks! Done

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 8

This tea smells wonderful. I would bet it’s apple strudel. Anis being very strong too, but it’s not a spice for strudel! Baked apples aroma too.
Amazingly smooth in taste. Very strong taste of apple must (sweet cider). Not much of spices, though. Lovely tea base, but yep, a bit hidden behind all the apple.
A tea I would likely re-purchase from YDTC one day.

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 7

My very first experience with loose leaf Lapacho. I had once bagged one, and it was so long ago, I don’t remember anything.

It’s a bark, right? Tastes like bark, right! The tree Handroanthus impetiginosus is beautiful when blooming.

But the tea, it says nothing to me. It was like sweet bark, somehow similar to brewing stick of cinnamon.

Steeped for long time as suggested (20 minutes). But I have been expecting something more I guess. No rating.

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 6

Using quinoa in a tea blend is interesting and not my first experience with it. I remember that some B&B blend had it before.

Anyway, I feel that green rooibos would suit this tea better than green tea base. It’s standard hay-like green tea and quite a lot hidden between quinoa, whichtastes a bit like genmai and I didn’t had enough of cocoa beans in; so it was pretty much genmaicha, IMO. With quinoa instead of rice.

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 5

Expectations: smoky tea, with some kind of spicy notes. Mulled wine? I am fine with that.

Reality: Mulled wine? Is Dutch mulled wine that different? Could be. But for me it was a mildly roasty tea with flavours of cookies and cookie dough. With spices and hazelnuts. Cinnamon mostly. Well, as a festive tea, I feel it is great. In this gray summer afternoon, it’s fine.

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 4

Ah well. A great daily drinking oolong. Very creamy, smooth and “green” flavours. A bit vegetal, a bit seaweedy, but overall just enjoyable. If I would like something smooth and easydrinking, this can be it. But compared to other loose leaf oolongs, it is subpar tea.

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 3

I had to do a little research about this tea. It seems it is not available anymore on YDTC website; but ingredients are listed on leaflet I got with the calendar (with preparation method for each tea). I found out that Timboektoe is Dutch spelling of city of Timbuktu, Mali. Mali, being african country, close to Morocco, means that it will be similar to Moroccan mint I suppose. There is a picture of Malian tea on Wiki, but with no details. Further search brought me results of minty green tea indeed.

But let’s see how it is. I did the research just afterwards, so when I was brewing it, I had no idea what to expect. Also, I checked the ingredients afterwards too.

Yes, it’s green tea which is mellow and grassy, with peppermint menthol flavour. It is pretty balanced, as I do notice both; but also it’s a little citrusy; and sweet. The aftertaste is very short though and overall it’s not much memorable tea.

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 2

A plain white tea. I reach them very rarely. Usually they are very plain to me and without much to enjoy. This one is as well a bit crushed, so it is not much wonderful as in the picture.

I used roughly 80°C water, and steeped it for 3 minutes or so.

Well, it’s like that. Hay/meadow flavors, pretty much easydrinking, little honeyish/spicy aftertaste. The last I expect it’s from contamination from other lovely, but “breathing” linen bags I got teas in.

Sipdown prompt: March 8 – International Women’s Day – drink a tea from a woman-owned company or named for a woman — working on it again! Having roughly 2 sessions left.

Rensina, owner of this shop, is (or was, not sure) a “colleague” of mine in tea bag wrapping collecting. Her blends are lovely too; as you could read in my notes. This note is just to write down that I am trying to fulfill the prompt. I will do my best doing that in March.

Martin’s birthday countdown AKA Your Daily Tea Cup Advent Calendar

Day 13

Another tea I had already. Well, I guess it has to happen.

Well, if is there something I really like on this tea, are those big flakes of coconut. But well, my Advent calendar sample, doesn’t had any cranberries and well that note was missing today. But it was still nicely nutty and I am still impressed how they made pistachio tea with those ingredients.