336 Tasting Notes
Homemade Advent Calendar from Arby: Days 18 & 20
Day 18 – Zelda’s Lullaby (Tea Hippie): A very pleasant, chamomile-forward tisane with mild fruity notes. Tasty!
Day 20 – Rose Oolong (Victoria Tea Company): Hellooooo, rose! I didn’t pay a ton of attention to this one while drinking it, but yes. It was very rosy. :)
12 Teas of Christmas: Day 7
I steeped this one up not knowing what the flavor profile was intended to be and found myself puzzling over it! To me it’s mostly like a mild black breakfast tea with faint notes of something sweet and a bit grainy—and now I see it’s meant to be buttered toffee/caramel corn! I still think those flavors are verrry light, which I honestly don’t mind. I wanted something a bit more straightforward this morning anyway.
Flavors: Grain, Popcorn
12 Teas of Christmas: Day 6
So good! I thought I’d reviewed this one when it came in my subscription box initially, but I guess not! I was surprised and delighted to see it turn up in the advent box. The pineapple is just so fresh and juicy, and it pairs so well with the creamy vanilla notes. A banger of a tea that’s delicious hot or cold.
Flavors: Bright, Creamy, Juicy, Pineapple, Vanilla
I was so happy with how many votes this tea won during the poll. It was by far & away the biggest vote getter of all the teas that were on the poll, including black teas & Oolongs. That doesn’t happen – or at least, it’s never happened before. Usually, I get a very close race, but this time, this one HAD to be in the box. It made me smile!
Homemade Advent Calendar from Arby: Day 17
Had this one last night while finishing up my final paper for this semester… so close to being done! Then I’m on break from my internship AND taking PTO from work, so I’ll have about a week and a half of freedom while visiting family for the holidays. I can’t wait to lie around in my pajamas reading, drinking tea, and playing Sims 4 for far too many hours, then going for a nice long run and zoning out to a podcast.
Anyway, the tea! I’ve never really cared for root beer proper, but I tend to enjoy root beer-inspired tisanes. This one was a little odd to me, though — I swear I mostly tasted musty chamomile! The sarsaparilla was sadly muted, so it was more of a fennel and chamomile deal. I’m not going to rate it because I suspect I didn’t have the appropriate ratio of ingredients.
Flavors: Chamomile, Fennel, Licorice, Musty, Sarsaparilla
12 Teas of Christmas: Day 5
Oh, this is fantastic. I’m a total sucker for this kind of juicy, almost bubblegum-like pear flavor, and the slightly tart pomegranate notes are really lovely. I’m sipping it alongside a mid-morning snack of pecan pie bars I baked last night (gotta try ‘em before the holiday party!), and it’s doing a great job of cutting through the sweetness.
Smooth and crisp and bright and just delightful.
Flavors: Bright, Bubblegum, Crisp, Fruit Punch, Juicy, Pear, Pomegranate, Smooth
Homemade Advent Calendar from Arby: Day 16
Alas, this one doesn’t do it for me. It has that kind of musty “stale coffee” flavoring that I dislike in tea, and then the apple sweetness is weirdly cloying. The cardamom just feels discordant. :(
Flavors: Cardamom, Coffee, Musty, Stale, Sweet
12 Teas of Christmas: Day 3
I’m always trepidatious when faced with an Earl Grey, but I should trust a 52Teas variation! This was a lovely bright citrus-y EG layered beneath a faint but noticeable tangy cheesecake base. The creamy cheesecake came through just at the end, but in a really nice way.
Flavors: Bergamot, Bright, Cheesecake, Citrus, Tangy
I generally tend to go softer with bergamot than your typical EG because just about everyone has a typical EG. But not everyone has an Earl Grey Cheesecake or an Earl Grey Cupcake! :) I love Earl Grey teas, but I rarely see a point in trying to make something that somebody else makes that I personally adore. I have my favorite EG and I don’t feel like I can do one better than that. Instead, I focus on what I can do – which is create lovely variations of EG.
Makes perfect sense to me! This is indeed a lovely variation. :)
12 Teas of Christmas: Day 2
This is nice—the perfect counterpart to my nighttime snack plate. It’s leaning a bit more gingerbread cookie than gingerbread proper; I get a bakery cookie vibe but not a heavily bready vibe… it could be a bit fuller-bodied. The figginess comes in as a mild honey-like sweetness, and the ginger is very mild and gentle, not sharp at all.
Very yum.
Flavors: Cookie, Fig, Gingerbread, Honey, Mineral, Sweet
