6444 Tasting Notes
DAVIDsTEA Matcha Advent Calendar – Day 15
This is my go-to matcha for my smoothies. So I have had it many, many times. Yet, I didn’t know what to do with this since I have never had it not in a smoothie. I followed Roswell Strange’s lead and had this plain and hot. In the evening…while listening to a review class.
Maybe it’s her suggestion as well or we both have sleepy brains but I am also getting marshmallow here. Also, something about it is a little like playdough. This is very odd. I think I will stick to adding it to my smoothies.
DIY Advent Calendar – Day 15
Tea Lemonade Sipdown (296)
I took a quick sip before adding the lemonade and while it had a citrus zing to it, it was heavy on the hibiscus flavor. The lemonade obviously helped turn the scales toward citrus though. It ended up being really refreshing and Orange Julius came to mind…despite never having tried an orange julius.
CuppaGeek Advent Calendar – Day 15
This was the first tea I made today. I saw “Lavender” and was really disappointed and honestly just wanted to get it out of the way. So I brewed it and then my brother-in-law’s mom and stepdad arrived. Because of Covid, we stayed socially distant from the house but my brother-in-law suggested we take the extra precaution of wearing masks. That sort of put a stop to my drinking plan so by the time I finally drank it, it was cold.
I didn’t have high hopes for it but honestly its not bad. The blackberry is the star and a really nice blackberry flavor. It’s sweet and distinct and juicy and reminds me of something I can’t quite place. The lavender peaks through at the end but is not overly perfume-y or offensive. It sort of bolsters the lavender so I am ok with it and am actually really enjoying this cold. I wonder if the balance of flavors is different when its hot?
CuppaGeek Advent Calendar – Day 14
I noticed I forgot to post about this last night when I drank this iced. It was a nice punch sort of flavor. Nothing too distinct and honestly reminiscent of cheap juice boxes with a generically fruity profile. It was a really pretty color though and at times tasted like watermelon.
Geek + Tea Advent Teas – Day 3
When I pulled this out and mentioned it was a Gryffindor tea, my family and I got into a bit of a discussion over what houses we belong to. I am the true Harry Potter fan in my house (curse you JK Rowling for writing an awesome story and then coming out with really transphobic comments!) but my brother-in-law and sister are both obviously familiar with the stories – mostly through the movies. From their perspectives, Gryffindor is THE house to be in so my brother-in-law was disappointed when I told him he was almost definitely a Hufflepuff. That led to us all taking a house sorting quiz (a la Buzzfeed since the Pottermore website required a login and we were all too lazy to do that. It can be found here: https://www.buzzfeed.com/eleanorbate/accurate-af-sorting-quiz). The results indicated I was predominantly Ravenclaw, he was mostly Hufflepuff and my sister was a balance of Gryffindor and Slytherin. No surprises there.
What was surprising is that this is a spiced apple green tea. I am with Roswell Strange since I definitely would not have thought of this flavor profile for a Gryffindor blend. I even double checked the website to make sure it wasn’t a Slytherin blend since that would be the house I would maybe associate this with, sheerly for color reasons. Oh and also because there is a slight smokiness from lapsang that also seems more connected to Slytherin…well some famous Slytherins…the death eaters that apparate in clouds of smoke. So in that sense, this tea really missed the mark for me.
Tastewise, this tea is not bad though. I didn’t know how much I would like it but I really do. I would call it campfire apple since its got a great crisp green apple flavor which is not waxy at all. And then it has the smokiness from the lapsang that takes this up a notch. I even get the fennel/anise Roswell Strange talked about and while that often veers too close to licorice for my enjoyment, it really works here. It’s a tasty tea for sure. It’s not a Gryffindor blend.
52 Teas 12 Teas of Christmas – Day 3
This smelled awesome. I used to love Wild Cherry Pepsi (the only Pepsi soda I ever preferred to Coca Cola sodas) when I was younger, and this definitely made me think of that. I think I recently (relatively so) tried that again though and actually did not like it anymore. When I took my first sip of this, I did not really like it either. Or so I thought. But I managed to guzzle it down while playing a game with my family. So, I definitely enjoyed it well enough but do not really remember it much. I am very happy I have more to try though.
Geek + Tea Advent Teas – Day 2
As a self-proclaimed Ravenclaw, I was pretty excited to pull this one out of the box. As someone who does not love white teas, my excitement dissipated a bit. Then a little more when I realized the white tea used was bai mu dan, which is my least favorite. With that said, as far as bai mu dan teas go, this isn’t bad. The blueberry flavor is awesome and balances well with the white tea so overall the tea is good. Alas, not one I would reach for often because at the end of the day it’s still a white tea and I tend to overlook those.
52 Teas 12 Teas of Christmas – Day 2
This one smelled so awesome. Thankfully, it transfers to the taste as well. There is a whole lot of orange here and it trends to orange creamsicle. I enjoy it a lot and think it would be awesome cold brewed or iced as well.
Kenneth Ave Advent Calendar – Day 14
This is Kenneth Ave’s cookie dough tea and while I can actually sort of see it, the base tea is piping up too much and drowning out the more baked goods flavor. It definitely has a vanilla dough sort of vibe to it at first but the briskness of the black tea that creeps up takes you out of the moment. That’s probably why they suggest adding a splash of milk (which isn’t my favourite thing to do. However, I did it with the last little bit in my cup. Did it help? Not really.
DAVIDsTEA Matcha Advent Calendar – Day 14
I was really excited to try this one. I decided to make it iced because that seems like the best way to go about making a citrus matcha. It’s good but it’s definitely matcha. The front end of the sip is like refreshing lemonade. Then that quickly turns into a strong matcha flavor so it leaves bitter grassiness on your tongue. I wish I liked matcha better than I do. I like flavoured matchas but mostly when the flavor hides the matcha. Here both base and flavor are equally present and while I really like the latter, the former makes me sad.
