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Kenneth Ave Advent Calendar – Day 9

Voluspa makes a Birthday Cake candle that I love the smell of. Not overly sweet but distinctly birthday cake. This smelled just like that and got me excited. I made it as an eggnog latte and was sure it was a tea I was going to enjoy. So I was pretty disappointed when I started drinking the latte and it was just a touch of sweet on otherwise mediocre black tea.

CuppaGeek Advent Calendar – Day 9

I was really excited about this one. It smelled awesome and sounded great. However, brewed it was too clove heavy I think. I like clove but the clove sort of muddled out a lot of the other ingredients. Perhaps it was just the balance in my sample but this wasn’t what I hoped it would be.

DAVIDsTEA Matcha Advent Calendar – Day 9

I made this as a latte and I agree with Cameron B that the matcha flavor is definitely coming through more in this matcha than it did with the others. For Cameron, that was good. For me, it’s bad. I just don’t love the taste of matcha. I like flavored matchas that hide the grass clippings/broccoli (in this case) flavor but still give me the perk up from caffeine (or maybe sugar?).

I will say the matcha flavor is growing on me a little, since I am not running to dump this down the drain. Plus I have enjoyed white chocolate matcha lattes in the past. And I think matcha and flavored matcha is fun to use for other things rather than a typical hot cup of tea.

However and with that said, vanilla broccoli isn’t my idea of a good time either. It’s not as terrible as that sounds but both the flavors are present in this latte and I am not loving it. I think the rest of this sample will be tossed into a smoothie.

ETA: The more I drink, the more the vanilla builds and drowns out the matcha.

DIY Advent Calendar – Day 9

Sipdown (257)…sort of

I tried to like this one and for a split second I thought I even got something creamy. That passed and it was all petrichor and that typical mate earthiness. It’s a nope from me but that’s just due to my immense dislike of mate. Into the swap box it goes.

I made this in my iced tea press today. I don’t actually have anything new to say about this tea that I haven’t said already but what I do want to say is something weird happened in the press. The longer it sat, the more the tea seemed to drain out of where it was supposed to be and creep up the sides between the outer and inner layer. So weird…

Sipdown (257)

Thank you Cameron B for the share a couple of years back. I didn’t love the first cup of this. This one is slightly better for whatever reason, but still doesn’t compare to teas like St. Petersburg. I think this is too citrus focused for me, which brings out the bergamot more than I would like. Not a bad tea but just not for me. I am bumping the rating slightly from 63.

Kenneth Ave Advent Calendar – Day 8

Where as yesterday’s Kenneth Ave advent tea reminded me of DAVIDsTEA’s Forever Nuts, today’s tea is channeling DAVIDsTEA’s Santa’s Secret. I had it as an eggnog latte and the two are very similar. With that said, Santa’s Secret edges this out a bit for being a bit smoother, while this had a touch more menthol to it. Nice drink but I already own the DAVIDsTEA version, which I like more.

CuppaGeek Advent Calendar – Day 8

It’s funny Sil said she expected apple because if I am being honest, I had to double check that there wasn’t apply in this because I was getting a lot of what I thought was a tart apple flavor. I guess the tart is the cranberry. I think something about the mix of spices and fruitiness read apple cider to me and tricked my brain a bit. It’s nice. It’s Fall. It’s maybe a bit middle of the road for me though.

DIY Advent Calendar – Day 8

Sipdown (257)

I think my brain is having an off day…which is so great this close to exams. I say this because in addition to the tasting note deleting that just happened, I also managed to dump the rest of the dry leaf of tea on my table and then knock the table which caused the liquid tea to splash out onto the dry leaf. So that last serving got tossed.

I was sad for the waste but having tried the tea now, its not much of a loss. This tea is oolong and mallow. I hoped the mallow would do more but ultimately this just tasted like a mediocre and rather bland oolong tea. Nothing offensive but nothing of any interest either. So not such a big loss after all.

Also, this is my 3rd Dollar Tea Club tea in my DIY advent for the first 8 days. My tea randomizer really likes Dollar Tea Club it seems.

DAVIDsTEA Matcha Advent Calendar – Day 8

I made this one as a latte and it was sooo good. I didn’t think I had this before, but now I am seeing its rated so I guess I did. But it definitely didn’t taste like it did today.

I used half the package and just tossed it directly into 8 oz of milk while it was being frothed/warmed. The end result was so decadent and dessert-like. It also was really familiar and if I am being honest I initially thought it reminded me of some kind of milkshake I have had in the past but then I placed it as the maple cream in the maple cookies that I used to love growing up. Sort of Canadian oreos, if you will. And this was the sweet and creamy and delicious centre. Yum!