6444 Tasting Notes
Sipdown (280)
Finished this one off while being rather un-lazy and listening to my employment law lectures.
I was actually talking to Roswell Strange and Sil this morning about how even if I like a tea, it takes me forever to finish it off if its a green tea or a white tea. I don’t know why but I just don’t reach for them often.
This tea is an exception since I was so close to being done that it was an easy sipdown. I received the 16 grams sample of this one in my July My Tea Box subscription. I had it iced and got a nice pineapple flavor. Today, as a hot tea, it is all mango. Juicy and ripe mango with a pineapple tang lingering in the back of the sip. I don’t taste the green tea base at all really and that’s preferable for me. All in all, it’s a good tea and one I think I prefer hot to my surprise.
My theory is that it’s because green/white tea typically have more particular brewing parameters…
This makes sense but also I have a habit of heating the kettle to 160F while I pick my tea. So technically, it would be easier most of the time to steep a green or white since the kettle is sort of pre-heated to a lower temp vs. when I pick a black/herbal and then need to wait longer for it to heat even more to 200F.
Made this as a latte because that just makes sense for a hot chocolate-infused tea in my mind. Then, while making this as a latte, I think I broke my sister’s frother. THINK because all the pieces are present but the whisk disc component fell out of the whisk arm. It is held on by a magnet so it seems to just be demagnetized. However, I don’t know why.
As for the latte, it’s fine. Though maybe not worth breaking the frother. My issue with this one is that it definitely has a hot chocolate vibe but its a powdered hot chocolate that is not the smooth, silky chocolate you ever want when you want a hot chocolate. Perhaps it needs sugar but I always find myself wanting more. I guess I have been spoiled when it comes to proper sipping chocolate and now anything resembling the processed powdered stuff isn’t good enough. It also definitely has the chai spices which gives it more of a chocolate chai vibe than a hot chocolate with chai spices. I suppose that is what it actually is but I just find myself always wishing it was the latter of those two options.
Guess I was having a honey day while steepster was down yesterday because in addition to my smoothie with wild honey matcha, I broke the seal on my haskap honey kombucha. I think this was the flavor I was most excited for because I love honey/honey-flavoured things. It definitely has a honey quality to it. Also a tree sap quality which pairs well. Of course there is also the sourness from the fermentation but there is less of that here as it’s tempered by the sweeter ingredients. Alas, this one is seasonal because it’s up there with Peach Rosemary (which of course is also seasonal) as one of my favourites.
As I am sure we all know Steepster was once again having issues yesterday. If I didn’t invest the time in drafting over 5000 notes, I would give up on the site because every time it seems to improve, it goes right back to being messed up. Nevertheless, here I am, adding more notes now that I finally can.
I finished off one package of this when I drank it yesterday but have another in my freezer. I used it in the usual way – as an addition to my smoothie. I tried to change things up and added spinach to my smoothie. The recipe was one cup packed spinach, one cup frozen banana, just under a cup of milk, and the matcha – not sure how much because as per usual, I just dumped some in. However, the spinach was so mild that between the matcha and the banana, it was just too sweet. Overly sweet with a vegetal finish. It’s was an odd juxtaposition so I won’t be making this particular smoothie again.
I eat spinach all the time, but never dared trying spinach in a smoothie… but if you say it hides in the background, I might just have to try it.
I think with different fruit/matcha, it could have been better. I tasted it a little bit but I think a fruit with a stronger flavor would have been fine.
Cold Brew Sipdown (282)
I know milk and cookies are a thing but are milk and gingerbread cookies a thing? Because I cold brewed this in milk and it was 100% milk and gingerbread cookies. It was awesome. Christmas in a cup and it will be missed. Thank you Sil for giving me another cup!
I’ve never actually had coconut cream pie but it’s always been intriguing to me. However, I have had coconut milk and other coconut cream things and this chai is a nice take on that flavor. I had it as a latte today and while it doesn’t scream chai because of the spices, it makes for one good latte. I’m rethinking the “not getting more of this” part of my last note.
So here’s the thing – I don’t really love earl greys, though they’re growing on me, but I do love vanilla. When I was placing my Cup of Té order, not a lot of the teas appealed to me but I noticed they had both this tea and a cream of earl grey aka a vanilla earl grey. I was intrigued and thought since this had vanilla bean, perhaps it would lean more to vanilla. If it didn’t, I figured I could use it as a base for London Fogs which you add vanilla to anyways.
Roswell Strange got a sample of this tea in a TTB and mentioned it not being very vanilla-y which had me putting off trying it because the vanilla bean was the whole appeal of this tea to me. Then September Sipdown happened and one of the prompts was to do something unique with a tea you don’t like. I have a unique recipe that uses earl grey teas (the hot chocolate ive made several times before) so I figured I could drink this on that day for that prompt. However, I figured I should probably actually try the tea to determine I actually don’t like it.
So, needless to say, I didn’t expect to like this when I started drinking it and while it’s an okay enough earl grey, I’m not really a fan. It’s too much bergamot and not enough vanilla for me to drink this plain. It also has an astringent/metallic note which I think is from bergamot oil. This is pretty much what I expected following Ros’s tasting note and similar to her findings, there isn’t much vanilla here.
