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Sipdown (209)

Thank you Evol Ving Ness for sharing. I am finishing this up and all the chocolate bits from the bottom of the package ended up in this mug so while it is fudgey, it is also a bit flat.

Downed my 10 oz cup in one gulp. It was bubble gum water. Then had to evacuate my building for a fire alarm. I am currently standing outside waiting for the all clear to go back….then waiting for the crowd of people to rush back in so I can finally go.

This tea was an experience before I ever even tried it. Why? Ribs. This tea has “ribs” as an ingredient and when you attempt to translate the list as a whole, everything translates except for ribs. So I was a bit concerned about that. Thankfully tea friends came to the rescue and informed me that ribs means currants.

Honestly, I could have just tried looking at the leaf…or trying the tea because currant is prominent in both the dry leaf and the steeped tea. Also the green tea is a bit more prominent here than the base teas of the other Copenhagen blends I have tried so far, which is fair since this is from a different tea shop (a souvenir shop instead of the tea store since my sister was worried she wouldn’t get a chance to go to the tea shop and wanted to make sure she had to bring me). It’s a nice tea but doesn’t deliver the flavors I anticipated in light of the ingredient list. I blame the currants.

Interestingly enough, this tea was already in the Steepster database and already had a tasting note.

This is another nice blend. I am actually surprised b/c normally I do not care for blends of different base types (i.e. black and green tea blends) but so far Østerlandsk Thehus has been delivering. In fact, most of the teas my sister got for me are blends of different types of tea mixed with fruit. I also noticed when adding the blends to my steepster cupboard that 2/8 teas she got me had quince. I found this interesting since quince doesn’t even appear to be an ingredient option here on steepster as it is not a particularly common flavor and yet my sister managed to grab multiple teas with that ingredient. Excited to give it a go.

When it comes to this tea, I would not have picked this for myself. In fact, most of the blends she got, I might not have chosen for myself but they all seem interesting. My sister actually picked them by what tins appealed to her b/c apparently the special house blends all had colorful custom tins. That’s one way to do it, I suppose.

This tea is fruity. Not the same generic mishmash of fruit flavors that so many other teas have. I wish I paid more attention and that my palate was better at picking out certain notes because I know they are there but if I am being honest, it is hard for me to pick up what is what. I think there is some creamy pear and papaya. Perhaps a nod to raspberry. I also I know there is citrus but there was not as much grapefruit as I anticipated. It is good, I just wish my note did it justice.

My sister just returned from a scandanavian cruise and ofc she came bearing gifts…ruby chocolate and tea. She knows me well.

Alas all the tea descriptions are in Danish so I have been at a loss as to what is in the teas…except I know this has mango because (1) that was the only thing I could read on the label and (2) I can taste it.

Along with mango, I also get citrus and something sweet, like berry. Plus originally I thought there was vanilla here because there is a nice creaminess but then I recalled seeing coconut bits in the dry leaf so it may be that. Overall the tea is very smooth and so flavorful. I am really liking it and I don’t know if its because it’s something new and different or if it is actually that good.

Also I google translated the tea description and this is the result: Black tea (Keemun) and green tea (Sencha) with quince, mango, rhubarb, coconut and strawberries. Lovely fruity blend that leads your mind on sunny summer days. So I wasn’t too off.

So I found a tea shop in London today but all the teas were soooo familiar. I genuinely think that all these local loose leaf stores all source from the same few wholesalers which means I keep finding the same teas again and again. With that said, while I bought this from a tea shop called The Tea Haus, I am pretty sure it is from the Metropolitan Tea Company which is why I am reviewing it here. Also, apparently I have had this before and was not really a fan since I rated it a 58 and said I would not recommend it.

Anyways, I steeped up this tea this evening mostly to take a break from reading about law stuff. That might have been a bad call because now I do not want to go back to reading law stuff hence why I am writing this review. I also steeped it on video for my 365 days of tea thing on instagram so that can be found here: https://www.instagram.com/p/B2iNz8WBjdB/

Taste-wise and smell-wise it actually has a lot of honey notes to it which I am really enjoying and that honey is topped by a lemon note. At times the lemon can be a bit harsh/bitter/cleaning supply-like but mostly it is a burst of lemon atop the softer honey which is best when sipped to really let the latter come through. There is also a touch of something drying which could be a mix of the lemon and flowers. However, it is not bad and certainly not worth the 58 I have rated it previously.

Sipdown (202)

This is chocolatey but age hasn’t done this well because the tea is a bit astringent/slightly bitter.

This is the only tea my mom owns. It is one if the first teas I tried and I hated it. For years I thought I hated tea because of this and Red Rose.

Well today I was supposed to get on a train back to London but I missed it and will now be taking a train tomorrow morning. As such, all of my stuff is packed and still in the back of the car, including my tea. That’s why I decided to revisit this.

Honestly, while it is much more palatable than it was when I was a child, it still isn’t my favorite. It is smoother than I recall (probably because I actually know how to brew tea and didn’t drastically oversteep it) but also much more boring. A slight bit of malt and a slight floral-ish quality but not much more.

This was much better in milk. It is still cinnamony and a bit creamy but cold steeped in milk really helped to bring out the “milkshake” element.

Thank you Roswell Strange for this weird, weird tea. It actually isn’t completely out there tastewise but I am finding two things weird: (1) the concept of a black bean tea is a bit strange and (2) someone said the leaves looked like strange coffee and for some reason I keep smelling coffee when I smell this. Is there coffee beans in this? Or is my brain somehow normalizing the idea of beans in tea by thinking coffee? And is that normal when I do not drink coffee?

Anyways, this tea is not bad, just different. Different but not totally unfamiliar. Like it tastes like parts of teas I have had before jumbled together in a new way. It is earthy. Leathery, almost. And a lot of bean. It is smooth. It is interesting. Do I like it? I genuinely don’t know. It is so unique and yet so easy to drink but do I want another mug full? Not anytime soon I don’t think. Yet I am also not throwing it into my swap box so make of that what you will. Thank you Roswell Strange for the experience.