Lebensbaum Advent Calendar: Days 1, 2, & 3
I was in a grocery store in Amsterdam, saw this German tea brand’s advent calendar, and couldn’t resist picking it up! It was only 5 euro and was small enough to fit in my carry-on, so c’mon… anyone would’ve done the same. Of course it’s not really a calendar, just a box with a bunch of individually wrapped tea bags in it, but whatever. It was cheap and I’m a sucker.
I don’t think I’m going to create individual notes for each tea offering, because then I’d have to create new listings for each tea, and that seems too time-consuming for some fairly generic bagged tea! Instead I’ll probably be reviewing them in batches of tasting notes, like this one.
Day 1: Wärmende Winterkräuter (Warming Winter Herbs): This is a winter spice blend layered on a rooibos base. There’s star anise, clove, and orange, but there’s also a surprising amount of sweetness from blackberry leaf, which I could’ve done without.
Day 2: Linde & Lagerfeuer (Linden & Bonfire): One might expect a “bonfire” tea to include lapsang souchong for smokiness, but no — this is a honeybush blend with a ton of flavors: chicory, apple, black pepper, star anise, ginger, cardamom, vanilla, blueberry, linden flower, and more blackberry leaf. It’s interesting! And pretty good, with a sweet, almost honey-ish flavor that overwhelms the spices. When I used Google Translate to read through the description, it mentioned something about linden blossoms inspiring warmth and good feelings, and it looks like linden trees are pretty common in Germany. So there’s probably a cultural resonance to these flavors that I can’t understand. But that’s OK! I’m glad I tried this one.
Day 3: Earl Grey: Well, this is a bagged Earl Grey. It is very bergamot-forward, which does nothing good for me because I don’t care for bergamot. Nothing more to say here. :)
