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52teas 12 Teas of Christmas 2023 – Day 4

sniffs the bag "It’s kinda got that caramel thing. Maybe it’s vanilla. Welp, first of all, color’s not that appealing chuckles sniffs steam, repeatedly sips Um, hm. sips It tastes a little dirty also, like maybe it’s got the mushroom in it. sniffs When I smell it, I can feel it in the back of my throat. It’s got that vanilla or caramel, like it’s trying to cover up the armpit smell. It’s not like that one yesterday (Figgy Gingerbread Honeybush), but- sniffs it kinda smells like it has thyme in it or something. Mushroomy thyme. chuckles Aaaahhh. It’s, it’s okay. chuckles I’m trying to think of some nice things to say about it. Whadyu think about it? I thought maybe it at first it was the dittany, or dictamo, but you take a drink and you’re ready for it to fizz up. It doesn’t, it just goes flat. I think it’s either a dirty smell or it’s in my nose. chuckles Or maybe something in my nose is dirty. chuckles Almost like, you know, when you breathe in a little dust and it has a dog hair attached to it, and you get some of that dog sebum on the hair and you’re like what is that? And you figure it’s a dog hair. And they try to cover it with a lemony thing. I mean it’s not bad. It’s not as bad as yesterday’s. When you get more than one “Mhm”, then you know something’s wrong. This one didn’t get any "Mhm"s. Definitely dog hair. And then I tasted it again and went “Mhm”. Not several like yesterday, just one. Mmmm mhm. Not my favorite. Have you gotten any comments on it yet?

It’s called Candy Cane Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha. “It iiis? Oh, ok. I bet you picked it up right away didn’t you. You’re good with those marshmallow ones. Burnt marshmallow. Is that why it smells burnt?”

Do you know what genmaicha is? “No.” It’s green tea with toasted rice. “Oh, that’s the toasty flavor! burps Hm. Ok, so it’s like a toasted marshmallow in the fire. But I think it’s the flavor that throws me off, you know when they put the natural flavor… because it’s not so natural. If they could make it taste like a toasted marshmallow without putting natural flavor in, with like some kind of herb. Boy, it has no lemon in it but it’s got some kind of pee-pee color. That’s the green tea, I guess. Thank you. I like doing this every year, every Christmas.”

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I really enjoy this one. The toasted rice taste is there but could be more apparent. As it is, I love how gentle this tea is — cool and mildly pepperminty-creamy-sweet. The mellow, toasty and buttery green tea is a great base for these flavors. Good for last night and this rainy morning, when I wasn’t really wanting to drink or eat anything with strong flavors or heavy presence. On Kiki’s note about using some other ingredient to emulate the marshmallow flavor — I wonder if pandan would fit into this profile? Personally, I don’t think it needs it.