2201 Tasting Notes
I love this tea (#28). It really is nearly perfection. I’ve been effusive before about how much it reminds me of fresh passion fruit, so if you are really curious I refer you to those old notes. But in general if you love flavored green oolongs you can’t go wrong with Naivetea.
Preparation
It’s funny, because I bought this tea (#29) last year in Pittsburgh when I went up for a knitting expo. Well, last weekend I was in Pittsburgh for the same expo. This year it was a bit later so I am not at exactly a year (which would be awesome), but pretty close.
Anyway, as I’ve said before, this tea made me give MF a second chance. I may be a French tea addict, but I had always had so-so experiences with their teas until this one. It’s always tough when you have to commit to 100g right out of the gate, but I’ve been more willing to take that chance now. Their almond flavor is pretty good (not necessarily their other nuts, though; Trois Noix was a disaster for me), and I’ve had decent luck with the bases for the almond teas.
Preparation
I am un-skipping a few teas today. Like this one (#35)! I got this in my happy bag from last year and thought I would never drink it because I am not a fan of assams, but I do love Hong Kong Milk Tea, and a robust assam is great for that. You really need something to stand up to the milk. I’ve used this almost exclusively for milk teas, and I am actually almost out of this tea now!
This tea (#30) is definitely out of place, but I didn’t realize it until too late to put in order in my sip-through. It’s because I had an old stock of this, then restocked it (back with my last batch of DF teas). When I finally got through the old stock, I took it out of my cupboard and readded it so it would be closer to its actual place. I do wish we could edit the “date added” field so things could sort properly.
Anyway, it’s being drunk now. Love this blend, even though it is a black/green. All of the passion fruits and florals! I also secretly love this tea because every word in its name has an accent mark. :D
Preparation
I had been disappointed with this tea (#31) in the past. I think it’s because I was hoping it would be like YAY COOKIES with Earl Grey, when in fact is more like maybe you ate a cookie 10 minutes ago and now you are drinking a very bold cup of Earl. I used 2 tsp again this time and didn’t have any issues with it being weak, so I’m not sure what happened with my first cup of this. Overall, it was a tasty Earl, and I did get a hint of shortbread from it especially as it cooled. So yeah, I still wish it could have had more cookie flavor, but I’m still happy with it as is.
Preparation
Skipping yet another herbal tea (that I really need to sipdown anyway) brings us to this one (#32). This cup was made from my teensy little sample tin that I managed to snag from a Vente Privee sale back when they were a thing, but I could never manage to get a larger tin. But I did, in fact, grab a whole 100g of this tea in Berlin last fall, so now I don’t need to hoard it. Love this blend, it smells so jammy and delicious when brewed. My favorite variant on a red fruits blend.
Preparation
Ok, now I am skipping around a bit, because there are herbals and other “home teas” that I really just can’t drink in order because I never remember to do so. :P So we will skip to this one (#34). I actually drank it twice because I did one of those things where I drank it but then neglected to write a note. Then I drank it again today. It’s a pretty delicious tea. Very mango-y, nice green oolong base. Edging toward candy-ish, but not in a bad way. I enjoyed both cups.
Preparation
Whaaat an herbal tea at work?? Well I brought a sachet of this tea (#37) in because I really wanted to have it in sequence, and now’s the time. I’m not that tired this afternoon anyway. :) I couldn’t remember anything about this tea, and I couldn’t really figure it out from the flavor, so I cheated and looked. Yes, it does still taste like black currant and mallow. I think the other fruits make it hard to really pin down, though. It’s a decent herbal but not amazing.
Preparation
Another from this smallish order. I had to order this one (#38) when I found out it existed since mangosteen is such a rare flavor to find. There are pretty much no other mangosteen teas that I’ve found (I did try one blend once, but it wasn’t very good)! This one is pretty mangosteen-y. It comes across as a nice tropical blend. I bet it would be fantastic cold brewed.
Preparation
Another one of my faaaaavorites (#39). Why was this only rated 90? It deserves higher, in my estimation, so I bumped it up. I love the flavor combos here, even if they are a bit hard to pull apart. They work for me. Even though I don’t find any of these flavors (fruits, honey) particularly Christmasy, I do associate this yarn with the holidays since it was at that time that I first had it.